The First Order
Author: The Speaking Pork Trotter
Date: 2022-10-09T10:53:51.421000+00:00

Chapter 1: A sickness in the head

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

“Liuyuan, did anything happen?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

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

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

Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said, “No, everything is fine. Hmm, what exactly is this sickness you’re experiencing in your head? Even the town’s doctor can’t diagnose what’s wrong with you?”

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

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded, glum. “But what’s the point of studying in a wasteland like this…”

“It will be useful for you in the future,” Ren Xiaosu said in an irrefutable tone.

“I want to go out to hunt too.” Yan Liuyuan pouted.

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

During the night, it was a lawless land out there.

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Phew!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch in his heart because the large sparrow’s claws had punched several holes into his jacket.

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

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

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

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

Wait a minute. This time, it was different from the past. The black mist in his mind had dispersed and revealed a “palace” beyond it!

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes flew open, and he stood up. He looked at himself in disbelief. “I came to this quickly?”

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

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

The cauldron had turned into his umbrella.

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

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

“Damn!” The robber fell backwards. He had not expected Ren Xiaosu’s attack to be that swift! And it was so forceful too!

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

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

In most situations, shouldn’t there be some interaction between them? Just how many times had this young man encountered a similar situation to react so instinctively!?

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

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

Ren Xiaosu had not planned to return, but he distinctly heard a voice reverberate from the palace in his mind, “Quest: Gift your catch to someone else.”

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

The robber said in panic, “Let’s talk this over…. Hey, that’s not right, I’m the victim here….”

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

“You want this sparrow?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

The robber’s eyes lit up. “I do!”

“Here, take it.” Ren Xiaosu stuffed the sparrow into the man’s arms without explaining himself.

That unfamiliar yet neutral voice intoned again, “Quest complete. Awarded: Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. You may use it to learn another person’s skills.”

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

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

The robber hugged the large sparrow tightly in his arms and began to express his gratitude. “You’re a good person—”

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

The robber was confused.

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

Chapter 2: This world has never trusted tears

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

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

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

“Oh, looks like Ren Xiaosu got quite the harvest today!”

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

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

It wasn’t only the mining of coal. All the necessary dirty work the stronghold needed to be done would be performed by the refugees.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whispers came from the shack next to the road. “Ren Xiaosu has caught more game meat.”

“How does that count as game? It’s only a sparrow.”

“But it’s different from the sparrow that we saw in the ancient textbooks. I reckon that the eagles from before The Cataclysm were also around this size?”

“Don’t provoke him.” A voice ended the whispering from inside the shack. Someone seemed to know about Ren Xiaosu’s past.

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

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

“Why didn’t you light the kerosene lamp?” Ren Xiaosu asked while frowning.

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

“What if you become nearsighted?” Ren Xiaosu put the sparrow down.

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “The schoolteacher mentioned something called ‘spectacles’ that existed before The Cataclysm but can only be found in the stronghold now. If we have something like that, we won’t have to worry about being nearsighted anymore.”

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

“Oh…” Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, “Then why do you still insist on sending me to school?”

Ren Xiaosu choked on his words. “Why do you keep blabbering?”

“When can I go hunting with you?” Yan Liuyuan continued to ask.

“You’re only 14. Why would you want to go hunting? If you do well in school, you won’t have to go hunting.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Isn’t it much better to learn accounting, physics, or chemistry rather than hunting?”

“Aren’t you only 17?” Yan Liuyuan was unconvinced.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It fell silent in the shack. After a while, Ren Xiaosu ladled out the cooked organs of the sparrow from the pot and handed them to Yan Liuyuan. “Eat up.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes suddenly reddened. “I don’t want it. You should have it instead since you need to heal your wound.”

“I’ll just have some soup.” Ren Xiaosu said, “I still have some black bread that I can eat.”

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

Pah!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly slapped Yan Liuyuan across the face and said, “Remember this, you and I can never cry as long as we are living in this world. This world doesn’t trust tears.”

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

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

“Ahem, come over and help me dress the wound with a clean cloth after you’ve eaten,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“OK,” Yan Liuyuan responded.

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

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

“They want to go to Stronghold 112?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before frowning. “They’re even insisting on getting there via the Jing Mountains?”

“Do you think they’ll come looking for you? Everyone in town knows that you’re familiar with the lands outside.” Yan Liuyuan blinked and said, “I heard that they’re musicians and singers of a band in Stronghold 113 who have been invited to perform at Stronghold 112. I’ve never seen a singer before though.”

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

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

Ren Xiaosu was suddenly looking forward to finding out.

Chapter 3: A palace

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

Before sleeping, he instructed Yan Liuyuan again, “Stay away from those people if you see them. It can’t be that they don’t know how dangerous the Jing Mountains are. Most people would choose to avoid passing through there, yet they insist on taking that route. My instincts tell me that this isn’t a simple matter.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently. “Got it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At this moment, the rain stopped.

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

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

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

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

The woman smiled. “Liuyuan, you’re still awake? Where is Xiaosu? I heard that he got back.”

“He’s already asleep, Big Sister Xiaoyu.” Yan Liuyuan smiled. “If you have anything to say, just tell me.”

Xiaoyu’s face looked a little unnatural. “Did he get hurt when he went out this time?”

“His hand was nipped by a sparrow. But Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don’t have to be so concerned about my brother, do you? After all, you’re eight years older than him.” After Ren Xiaosu had fallen asleep, Yan Liuyuan adopted a maturity beyond his years when dealing with outsiders. No matter whether he knew the person or whatever they might say, he didn’t move the bone knife away from her neck.

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh.” Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, “Did you catch a cold?”

Xiaoyu was stunned. “Yes, does my voice sound a little hoarse?”

“No.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head and laughed. “I saw that the smoke was not coming out from one of your nostrils after you took a puff.”

Xiaoyu was speechless.

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

“Then I’ll head back first.” Xiaoyu said, “When your brother wakes up, tell him that I came over.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan smiled. “I’ll pass the message along.”

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

“Bro, she’s not decent.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Besides, she’s only sticking close to you because she knows you always succeed when hunting.”

“Who’s decent around here? Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “No decent person can survive in this world. Everyone’s hand is forced by their living conditions. We can only distance ourselves from her. Don’t make fun of her.”

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

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

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

“I was just thinking,” Ren Xiaosu said as a brief explanation.

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

In the circular palace, the walls were lined with old wooden cabinets, making it look like a huge showroom of sorts. However, he could not see what was on the display cabinets in the showroom as they were covered in black mist.

In the middle of the room, there was only one table with a brass typewriter on top of it. It was an obsolete typewriter that would make loud clacking sounds when typed on and hadn’t existed for a very long time since The Cataclysm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No way in hell!

At this moment, his consciousness was standing in the center of the vast palace as he looked at the “display cabinets” around him. It looked like items were floating within the display cabinets, but they were hidden by the darkness. That black mist didn’t allow Ren Xiaosu to see what was floating inside.

These display cabinets were connected to the dome of the palace, making it look like a huge museum. Ren Xiaosu walked up to one of the cabinets and tried touching the item floating in the black mist. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not penetrate the resistance of the black mist.

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

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

Chapter 4: : Luck is a type of skill too

“I might possess some kind of skill too,” Ren Xiaosu said.

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

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

Yan Liuyuan’s skill was luck.

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

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

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

Suddenly, a shooting star flashed across the sky. Yan Liuyuan subconsciously put his hands together to make a wish. However, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. “Don’t you go making any wishes. Something is going to happen to you if you do.”

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

The skinny Yan Liuyuan watched the shooting star vanished, lost in thought. “Why do shooting stars come and go so quickly? What if people can’t make a wish in time?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and answered, “They probably move so quickly because they don’t actually want to listen to anyone’s wishes.”

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

…

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

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

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

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

“I heard that the people living in the stronghold don’t shut their doors at night because no one will steal their things.” Yan Liuyuan was carrying a bedroll on his back while he looked at Ren Xiaosu holding the cauldron he carried wherever he went. These were almost all of their belongings.

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

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

“But you still shouldn’t be carrying that cauldron on your back everywhere you go,” Yan Liuyuan said.

“What do you know?” Ren Xiaosu explained, “It wasn’t easy for me to get my hands on this cauldron. I can cook meals and catch sparrows with it. If we lose it, how are we going to spend our days?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

As they approached the stronghold, the place began to look cleaner, tidier, and wealthier. The people living here were likely related to the people living in the stronghold. Perhaps they were good at flattery or had relatives living inside.

But no matter what, these refugees were all known as “contaminated” and were not allowed inside the stronghold.

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

The old man in the shop was over the moon when he saw Ren Xiaosu. “That looks like a rather large sparrow!”

Ren Xiaosu threw the sparrow onto the glass counter. “How much can I get for this?”

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

At this moment, the clawlike fingers of Old Wang’s wrinkled hands instinctively started making some calculations on an abacus. The abacus beads were pushed around, ticking and tacking. “The market rate today is 200 yuan 1 per 500 grams, so I’ll pay you 700 for this catch!”

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

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

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

“I’m going to check the price at Old Li’s grocery store,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Old Wang’s grasp tightened even further. Someone from the stronghold’s management had specifically given notice that they would be coming out to collect exotic animals today. This news wasn’t promulgated to him alone.

Old Wang smiled, his wrinkles appearing. “How much do you want to sell it for?”

Ren Xiaosu still wanted to leave. “We’ll talk again after I ask around.”

Old Wang smiled amiably. “Then won’t Liuyuan be late for school? Alright, 900 yuan it is!”

“What did you just say?” Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.

“Then wouldn’t Liuyuan be late—”

“The sentence before that.”

“How much do you want to sell it for?”

“1200.”

Old Wang was confused

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

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

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

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

Old Wang stuffed a stash of loose change into Ren Xiaosu’s hands unwillingly. Nobody knew what he was thinking when he lowered his voice and whispered, “Xiaosu, the next time you catch a sparrow, don’t kill it. Some aristocrats want them alive and will offer an even higher price to buy them in that state!”

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

“No.” Old Wang shook his head and said, “You don’t know, right? There are people who keep them as pets!”

Chapter 5: The school

“As pets? They’re not buying them to eat?” Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. “What a waste! All of the meat on this is great!”

“You won’t understand the world that the rich live in.” Old Wang laughed and said, “I heard that rich people used to keep eagles as pets a few hundred years ago. But haven’t the eagles gotten too big and dangerous now? So the next best thing is the sparrows. Just look at how menacing this sparrow looks. It’s exactly what the rich like.”

Ren Xiaosu thought about it for a while. So while there were still a lot of people who didn’t have enough to eat, some people had started keeping sparrows as pets.

“But I’ll have to sell it for a higher price if they want it alive.” Ren Xiaosu said, “When this bird is still alive, it can even kill people if you aren’t careful! It’s too dangerous!”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought that if the refugees outside the stronghold were contaminated, wouldn’t the sparrows be contaminated as well? Or did the people in the stronghold only need these refugees to work for them? And the walls, did they naturally divide them into a hierarchy?

“You can only get rich by taking risks.” Old Wang smiled and said, “Since you can wait an entire night hunting, you’re no ordinary person. If you make an effort to catch a live sparrow, you can probably afford to stop working for the next six months. Besides, haven’t you thought about making some money so that you can get a wife?”

“Get a wife? My ass!” Ren Xiaosu said petulantly.

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

“Based on what you said, wouldn’t it be better if I just sold this sparrow to Old Li directly? Would I still need your introduction then?” Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Yan Liuyuan and asked, “Is Old Li’s daughter your classmate?”

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan nodded. “She’s quite big.”

“Shoo, go play over there,” Old Wang snapped. “Pretend I didn’t say anything since you’re mistaking my kindness for ill intent!”

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

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

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

“How kind of you,” praised Ren Xiaosu nonchalantly. “I’ll buy one. Check and see what size Liuyuan should wear.”

“Bro, buy one for yourself too,” Yan Liuyuan quickly said.

“Don’t interrupt when adults are talking.” Ren Xiaosu frowned. “I’m not cold.”

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu glanced around the grocery store again, his gaze arresting at the counter behind Old Wang. “How much are you selling the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs for?”

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

“I’m asking you how much it is!” Ren Xiaosu said impatiently.

“210 yuan each.” Old Wang said, “Antibiotics must be taken for three days straight. I’ll sell you three pills for 620 yuan and give you an application of iodopovidone 1 for free. I only have 10 pills left in stock here.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, “How about rounding it down…”

“If by rounding down, you mean removing the zero, shut it,” Old Wang snapped.

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips and reluctantly looked away. “Forget it, I’m not buying them. Inflammation is uncommon during winter.”

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

Yan Liuyuan said as he chewed on the black bread, “Bro, why don’t you also pay for the tuition and come to school since you want to attend classes so much.”

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu feigned a slap upside Yan Liuyuan’s head. “How can we compare what people did in the past? You’re still young. The women you get into a relationship with now will end up becoming someone else’s wife in the future.” Ren Xiaosu marveled at the thought. “A relationship with someone else’s wife sounds quite exciting for some reason….”

“Bro, what are you talking about? Why can’t I understand?” said Yan Liuyuan while blinking.

“Get lost. Stop acting innocent with me,” Ren Xiaosu said peeved.

…

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

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

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

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

It was such a wonderful thing.

Generally speaking, Ren Xiaosu’s wishes had always been very “simple.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Alright!” Yan Liuyuan smiled happily.

Chapter 6: Walls and science

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

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

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

Yan Liuyuan was sometimes bewildered because Ren Xiaosu would often oppose Mr. Zhang Jinglin’s views, yet he still kept coming back to attend classes whenever he had free time.

During the afternoon class, Ren Xiaosu specially brought Yan Liuyuan out to celebrate. It wasn’t for any reason other than to celebrate the fact that he could start listening to the lessons from the yard in the future.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A cigarette costs 20 yuan per stick, extremely expensive.

Yan Liuyuan asked with suspicion, “Bro, why are you buying a cigarette?”

“Your teacher allowed me to listen to his lessons from the yard. Even if I don’t have to pay tuition, I should still show my gratitude.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I know that Mr. Zhang likes to smoke.”

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu thanked him. “Thank you for letting me into the yard to attend your lessons, sir.”

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

“That’s great.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Teacher, I have a question.”

“Speak.” Perhaps due to the fact that Zhang Jinglin rarely had the chance to have a smoke, he didn’t mind any questions that Ren Xiaosu had for him.

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

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

“But we should still have some information left, right? If we learn them, couldn’t we return to civilization quicker?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“It’s become lost through the generations,” Zhang Jinglin said in regret. “Let me ask you. If I gave you a set of instructions to construct an airplane, would you be able to make one?”

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

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

He had intended to save the remaining half of the cigarette to smoke at a later time. But if he put out the cigarette in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, wouldn’t it be a loss of face for him?

Ren Xiaosu was still doubtful. “How could no one have overcome the hardships and gotten into research and building up knowledge again in all those years?”

“Those who attempted all died from starvation,” Zhang Jinglin said.

“Could all of that knowledge really have become lost through the generations?” Ren Xiaosu could not accept it.

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

“That’s enough.” Zhang Jinglin stood up and said, “Don’t pursue this matter any further.. It’s time for class.”

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

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

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

In the “ring” where humanity was living in at Stronghold 113, the majority of the more ferocious animals had actually been isolated outside of it.

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

Meanwhile, Stronghold 113 was considered to be an “inland” area.

There were still many dangers lurking out in the wilderness though, like the wolf pack he had encountered before. However, it wasn’t impossible to overcome them. So then why were there still such towering walls built in a huge gathering place of humans like this one?

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

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

Zhang Jinglin continued, “They won’t topple the walls. Why would groups with a vested interest behind the walls give up a stronghold that gives them a natural class superiority?”

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

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

Yan Liuyuan’s respect for him deepened, but Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little unhappy. “So it’s alright for me to smell it then? It wasn’t like you asked me to stand further away from you just now, right?”

Zhang Jinglin thought for a long while. “Get lost.”

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

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

…

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

Zhang Jinglin had to knock on the blackboard several times before he could get the students’ attention. He said, “I’ll be teaching about survival for the afternoon class.”

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

However, Zhang Jinglin had always felt exasperated when teaching this lesson, because he wasn’t experienced with surviving in the wild.

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

Zhang Jinglin looked at the students in the classroom. “Pay attention and listen in class. Don’t think that danger is very far from you. For now, your parents are still protecting you. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to protect yourselves. For today’s lesson, we’ll be discussing what you should do if you encounter a pack of wolves.”

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

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

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before replying, “I’d try my best to find a slope surrounded by greenery, because that will be the most suitable place for an auspicious burial ground.”

Zhang Jinglin was surprised.

Chapter 7: Substitute teacher

Zhang Jinglin was left speechless by Ren Xiaosu’s answer. However, he wasn’t aware that Ren Xiaosu was also wondering about this right now. Didn’t he teach everyone what he knew? Why was the quest still not complete?

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

“Teacher.” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “You probably haven’t seen how huge the wolves in the wild are. Most of the people in town haven’t even seen or dealt with them before, but I did. Don’t mention a pack of wolves. Even if I were just encountering a lone wolf, the outcome would still be the same. Choose wherever you want to be buried.”

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

However, Zhang Jinglin thought for a long time before saying, “You can sit in the classroom for future lessons. You will also be teaching the survival lessons from now on.”

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

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

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As his strength surpassed that of the average male adult’s, this meant that his chance of survival in this wasteland increased by a large amount.

After school, Yan Liuyuan excitedly said, “Bro, now that you’ve become the substitute teacher, maybe you’ll replace Mr. Zhang as our town’s teacher in the future?”

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

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

“That might not be the case.” Ren Xiaosu thought and said, “I’m guessing it’s only because he hopes to get more cigarettes to smoke.”

Yan Liuyuan stared at Ren Xiaosu. “Bro, are you being serious?”

“Actually, it’s not a bad idea if I really do become the schoolteacher.” Ren Xiaosu said, “When I get the position, I’ll give it up to you. In that way, you’ll end up becoming the schoolteacher instead, right?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Coming!”

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

…

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

These people actually didn’t require guides with combat value. They only needed someone who knew the way.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“There’s no need to envy them. The grease on our faces acts as a protective layer for our skin,” Ren Xiaosu consoled without actually trying.

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

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

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

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

They could hear Old Wang saying loudly, “If y’all are going to the Jing Mountains, you must look for Ren Xiaosu. Without him, you definitely can’t pass through. Besides, there are also wolves out there in the wilderness. Might I suggest that you don’t take that route?”

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

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. So the wolves were actually afraid of gunshots? This was probably due to the natural instincts of such wild animals. As he had never seen a firearm before, he wasn’t sure if the other party was telling the truth. However, some doubts still remained.

Another member of the private army asked, “Who is Ren Xiaosu? We don’t care how skillful he is at combat as long as he knows the way.”

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

Having heard all this, Ren Xiaosu turned around and led Yan Liuyuan away. “Is Old Wang’s son in your class too? That fat kid?”

Yan Liuyuan gasped at him. “Bro, you shouldn’t involve his family members….”

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

Chapter 8: Something really is wrong with his head

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

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

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

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

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

The assailants who ended up alone this way would usually come to a bad end.

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

“Bro, how’s your injury?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“It’s fine,” Ren Xiaosu calmly said.

“I don’t believe you. Let me have a look,” Yan Liuyuan said as he tried to remove the bandage that Ren Xiaosu had just rewrapped.

“I said that I’m fine.” Ren Xiaosu pushed Yan Liuyuan away. “If it gets bad, I’ll go and buy medicine.”

“Don’t lie to me. You tried to endure it the previous time,” Yan Liuyuan said in agony.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Don’t worry. I won’t treat my life as a joke.”

In nature, predators didn’t usually go hunting on a whim because they understood one principle: If they got injured even slightly, it could spell death.

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

“Eh, bro, there are two potatoes hidden under the chair. Oh, there are even three pills here too. Aren’t these the anti-inflammatory pills that you wanted to buy today? They look just like the ones we saw at the store.” Yan Liuyuan was surprised. “Did you put them there?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head as he looked at the three pills. “These sure are anti-inflammatory pills.”

“Then Big Sister Xiaoyu must have been the one who put them there. She was the only one I told about your injury.” Yan Liuyuan grinned as he handed a potato to Ren Xiaosu. “Big Sister Xiaoyu is so good to you. Why don’t you marry her?”

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

“Hehe.” Yan Liuyuan chomped on the potato noisily. They usually wouldn’t get any dinner. Ren Xiaosu said that one had to eat a hearty breakfast and a full lunch, but eating at night was bad for the body.

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

“Bro.”

Ren Xiaosu turned around. He suddenly noticed that Yan Liuyuan had his head down and sounded a little sad. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

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

“Of course I remember. I’ve always been trying to find out who that person was,” Ren Xiaosu said.

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

Ren Xiaosu got lost in thought.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard footsteps coming from outside.

There were a lot of people.

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“By the way, Wang Fugui,” a person from the group said to the accompanying Old Wang, “What do you mean by ‘there’s something wrong with his head’?”

“It’s nothing. I was just saying.” Old Wang said with a grin as wrinkles appeared on his face, “It’s not a big deal. It’s not anything serious. Look, his place is right ahead.”

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

“Xiaosu, hurry out. You have VIPs,” Old Wang shouted with a laugh.

Suddenly, the shack’s curtain door was thrown aside.

Ren Xiaosu happily grasped Old Wang’s hands and said to him, “Congratulations! Father and child are both fine! The baby weighs 3.24 kilograms!”

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

A band member pointed at Ren Xiaosu and looked at Old Wang. “How can you call this alright when he’s so mentally ill?!”

Besides, what the hell did he mean by father and child are both fine? Wasn’t it supposed to be mother and child are both fine?!

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

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

No wonder the people in town said that there was something wrong with Ren Xiaosu’s head. There, didn’t what they say turn out to be true?

Chapter 9: Ask me if there's anything you don't understand

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu subconsciously activated and used his Skill Duplication Scroll. A voice intoned from the palace, “One of the target’s skills will be randomly copied.”

“Randomly copied?”

“Randomly copied target’s firearms skill. Do you want to learn it?”

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

“Learning successful. You’ve mastered the Advanced Firearms Proficiency.”

“Wait a minute, didn’t I get a basic scroll? How did I master Advanced Firearms Proficiency? Shouldn’t I learn a skill at the basic level at most?” Ren Xiaosu wondered in his mind.

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

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

“Yes, this information can be revealed if it’s a target you’ve learned from.”

“What is the level of her firearms skill proficiency? Master?”

“Perfect.”

…

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

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

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

A person like Ren Xiaosu, who needed to survive in the wilderness, would feel that an offensive superpower was more powerful. However, Yan Liuyuan’s skill depended on the element of luck, so he couldn’t partake in battles. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was insistent in his belief that there were only different types of superpowers; none was superior to another.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t imagine how amazing the master-level skill was, much less think about what he could do if he perfected the skill.

Someone like her was in a band?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yan Liuyuan wondered, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, why are you in the shack next door?”

Xiaoyu combed her hair and said with a smile, “I moved here and will be your neighbor from now on.”

“Where’s the family of three who were living here?” Yan Liuyuan asked, “Where’ve they gone?”

“I switched houses with them,” Xiaoyu explained.

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

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

“Bro, you’re still a virgin, right?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

Ren Xiaosu stared at Yan Liuyuan and said, “Liuyuan, since you’re not young anymore, I wish to educate you about this.”

Yan Liuyuan sat bolt upright and turned serious. “Alright, Bro, ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand—”

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, “The most important things about being human are to be honest and have a clear conscience. But if we ever feel a pang in our conscience, we must convince ourselves that it isn’t so.”

Yan Liuyuan was confused.

When Ren Xiaosu started speaking, Yan Liuyuan got ready to get lectured by him. But by the time Ren Xiaosu finished, Yan Liuyuan couldn’t be more dumbfounded.

Perhaps this was just how Ren Xiaosu was.

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

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

Chapter 10: Side quest

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

Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan looked at each other and frowned. They heard Xiaoyu say, “I don’t provide that kind of service anymore.”

“Haha!” It was as though that person with a rough voice had heard something funny. “If you don’t do that kind of thing anymore, how are you going to survive? Who will supply you with cigarettes in the future?”

“Let go of me!” Xiaoyu sounded angry. The two of them had apparently come to blows Something ripped. It sounded like someone’s clothes had been torn.

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

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

Right at this moment, the keys of the brass typewriter within Ren Xiaosu’s mind palace started typing words onto the leather parchment. The voice from the magnificent palace intoned at the same time, “Quest: Help—”

He sneered in his mind and interrupted the voice from the palace. “Even without this quest, I’ll still help her.”

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

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

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

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

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

However, in the next moment, his ridiculing laughter halted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He grabbed the man’s wrist and punched him hard with his other hand right in his axillary nerve 1 .

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

How could this be? Wasn’t his opponent young? This young man probably only stood as tall as his neck!

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu stood silently beside him and looked like he was thinking about something. The man panted for a while before begging for mercy. “I won’t bear a grudge. Please let me go. I’ll forget about today’s incident.”

Any smart person would know that their life was in the hands of Ren Xiaosu. So he shouldn’t hoot and holler rudely and unreasonably, but to leave it for later instead.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xiaoyu. “Who is he?”

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

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

Suddenly, the voice from the palace that had been silent for a while intoned again. “Quest: Set your foe free.”

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

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

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

“Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

“Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

“Due to the loss of your weapon, a special side quest has been activated….”

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

How the hell does this palace make judgments?!

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

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

“Bro, seeing how you’re still so ruthless, I can rest easy.”

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

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

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

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

Therefore, it seemed that the criteria for whether a quest was complete was not that strict? What the palace really cared about was…the attitude that Ren Xiaosu displayed?

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

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

It was unbelievable.

Someone muttered softly in one of the shacks, “See, I said not to provoke him.”

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

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

Ren Xiaosu bluntly asked, “Can you quit smoking?”

Xiaoyu nodded vigorously.

“Those things aren’t that addictive since they’ve only added a tiny amount of poppy pods to it. Old Wang mentioned that the proportion of added substance is very low, so it’s still possible to quit if you really want to,” Ren Xiaosu said as he walked to the door of Xiaoyu’s shack and crouched down. He thrust half of his white bone knife ruthlessly into the mud, leaving only a small portion of it above ground.

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

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

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Xiaoyu, “But there’s something I want to make clear. Although I’m very handsome, although I’m… It’s impossible between us….”

Xiaoyu looked stunned. “I’ve only seen you as a little brother.”

It was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. “Hahahaha, this is so awkward.”

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

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

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

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

A side quest? How interesting!

Chapter 11: Easily worth millions

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

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

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

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

However, Ren Xiaosu clearly heard what the voice from the palace had said at that time: “Due to the loss of your weapon, a special…”

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

In the long time that Ren Xiaosu had been going out into the wilderness, he understood well the importance of having a good weapon. Old Wang once bought a steel knife and wanted to resell it to Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu couldn’t afford it even after trying to earn and save money for half a year.

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

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

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

Yes, even rabbits were considered wild animals 1 now.

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

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

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

Collect gratitudes? And they had to be sincere too?

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

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

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

“Gratitude received from Li Xiaoyu, +1.”

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

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Yan Liuyuan. “Liuyuan, say thank you to me.”

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Bro, don’t be like this. You’re making me a little scared.”

“What are you scared of?” Ren Xiaosu snapped. “Hurry up and say it.”

Yan Liuyuan thought for a while and said, “Thank you for taking care of me all this while.”

“Gratitude received from Yan Liuyuan, +1.”

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. Is it this simple?

“C’mon, thank me a few more times,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly felt at a loss for words. “Er… thank you….”

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

“No, that’s not right. Your emotions are not correct, say it again.

“It’s still not right. You have to let your emotions build up. Come, come… yes, yes, yes, this is the expression.

“Try it again, sincerity can work wonders….

“Try again, put more emotion into the way you say it….”

Yan Liuyuan nearly collapsed. He said with a dry mouth, “Bro, this is your skill? It feels like your skill really takes a toll on the voice.”

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for quite a while. He wondered what its function was since this was the first time he saw it. He hadn’t come across something like it before in the outside world as no such thing existed in the current day.

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu took it out and had a look. The vial was only labeled with the word “drug.”

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

Yan Liuyuan was stunned at the sight. “Bro, are you performing magic?”

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

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

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

“I’ll go and buy medicine for you,” Yan Liuyuan stubbornly said.

“No need for that.” Ren Xiaosu picked up the vial and swabbed a little bit of the ointment in it with his index finger before applying it carefully onto his wound. This vial of ointment was not large and was even very shallow. It looked like it was probably just enough for three dosages.

After applying it, Ren Xiaosu felt a little regretful. The vial was only labeled with the word “drug,” but what if it turned out to be poisonous?

However, his worries did not come to pass. After applying the ointment onto the wound, Ren Xiaosu immediately felt the initial burning sensation in the wound disappear.

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

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

Chapter 12: A grateful heart, thankful to you

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

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

“Bro, I think that you can go out and perform some good deeds.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Wouldn’t that be the most direct method to gain other people’s sincere gratitude? For example, you can hand out food to hungry people or give out water to the thirsty.”

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

Yan Liuyuan said resentfully, “Then, bro, please don’t expect to get any sincere gratitude from anyone!”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu rejected Yan Liuyuan’s statement. “There must be other ways!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

And the “prosperous life” would mean opening a grocery store like Wang Fugui had done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “Bro, why don’t you talk to those people from the band again? You’re much more capable than that Old Liu. He always returns home empty-handed from his hunts. Besides, he’s never dared to venture too far out of town either.”

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

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

“What happened to the two of you?” Zhang Jinglin asked with some uncertainty.

Yan Liuyuan tried to explain. “My brother insisted on—”

However, before Yan Liuyuan could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu slapped him upside the head and cut him off. Ren Xiaosu then said, “It’s nothing, we just didn’t sleep well.”

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

“Yes, I have.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

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

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

When Ren Xiaosu walked up to the podium, the class monitor shouted, “All rise!”

Then, everyone said loudly, “Good afternoon, Teacher!”

To the students, Ren Xiaosu was a unique presence in class. He was their “classmate,” the oldest one among them, as well as a well-known person in town. So it was a really refreshing experience for them to have Ren Xiaosu teach their class.

It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Don’t you guys think that it’s tough for Mr. Zhang to teach us? We’re all allowed to sit down during the lessons, but Mr. Zhang has to stand all day.”

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

Then Ren Xiaosu said, “So shouldn’t we be showing our gratitude for Mr. Zhang?”

“Yes!” the students answered in unison.

Yan Liuyuan’s expression changed as he cheered madly in his mind. Here it comes!

Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. “Then from now on, there will be no need to say ‘good afternoon, Teacher.’ We will say ‘thank you, Teacher’ instead!”

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

“Alright, everyone, please sit down. Let’s give it a try!” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“All rise!”

“Thank you, Teacher!” the students said in unison again.

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

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

This wouldn’t do! He had to come up with another way now that his first attempt had failed!

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

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

What this means is that most of the time, life doesn’t go your way.

But even so, wouldn’t you still have to continue living? Of course!

Chapter 13: This is reality

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

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

The more one lacked something, the more one desired it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As it was late autumn, it started getting dark at 5 PM. The students stared blankly at him and thought to themselves, ‘This son of a bitch just keeps on fucking going.’

Even Zhang Jinglin couldn’t bear it anymore. He went out to the yard to chop up a cabbage and made dinner.

A student who could not stand it any longer, said, “Son of a… Teacher, if you’re not going to end class soon, it’ll be dark out, and it won’t be safe to be in town.”

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

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He thought, ‘Instead of showing your gratitude, you’re asking the teacher to end class?’ However, he understood that safety came first. So when Ren Xiaosu saw the sky darkening, he could only helplessly wave his hand and say, “Class dismissed.”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

The students started swarming out of class. When two of the students thanked Ren Xiaosu for saying “class dismissed,” they were truly thankful! If class still didn’t get dismissed, it would have become unbearable for them!

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

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

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

Yan Liuyuan said as he pulled a long face, “Can you stop making the lessons run late?”

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

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

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

Zhang Jinglin coughed, choking at Ren Xiaosu’s words. But when he saw Ren Xiaosu behaving like that, he did not bother to argue with him. “Alright then.”

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

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

…

On the way back, Yan Liuyuan was sulking and ignoring Ren Xiaosu. He had originally planned to stroll around town with Ren Xiaosu after school. But in the end, it wasn’t to be.

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

Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan a little bit closer. They could hear Xiaoyu saying to the shopkeeper, “My pair of earrings are very valuable. Can’t you give me a little more for them?”

The shopkeeper smiled flippantly at Xiaoyu. “Actually, you don’t have to pawn it. Why would you have to…”

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

It didn’t mean that just because this was a survival of the fittest era, everyone would naturally become more ferocious. In fact, every era would always have its fair share of weaklings and ruthless people. And most of the time, those who were ruthless would survive better.

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

The shopkeeper’s gaze became shifty as he pretended to drink some water. He wasn’t sure if Ren Xiaosu had overheard what he had just said.

Ren Xiaosu counted 620 yuan from his pocket and stuffed it into Xiaoyu’s hand. “You don’t have to sell your belongings. This is the money for the three anti-inflammatory pills that you gave me last night.”

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

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

Li Xiaoyu was stunned for a while. “What do you mean by that?”

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

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

Ren Xiaosu said to Xiaoyu in a serious tone, “Don’t worry. From now on, as long as there’s meat for me to eat, I’ll make sure there will be soup for you to drink!”

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “Bro, you’ve said it wrong. Shouldn’t all of us be eating meat together? Why, then, has it turned into you eating meat while the rest of us only get soup to drink? Besides, we don’t even have any meat at home….”

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

Yan Liuyuan was confused

“Pfft!” The shopkeeper who was taking a sip of water did a spit-take from nearby.

However, Li Xiaoyu did not mind. “Alright, I’ll wash the bowls and do the laundry for you two.”

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

The shopkeeper pouted as he looked at the three of them walk out. He turned around and said to his shop assistant, “Don’t ever provoke him, ya hear?”

Right when the trio stepped out of the shop, they heard someone shout, “Doctor, please save my husband! If he dies, our family won’t survive!”

They saw a middle-aged woman kneeling and kowtowing to the town’s only doctor in front of the clinic. However, the doctor sneered. “If you don’t have any money, what makes you think you can see the doctor?”

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

“My father’s benevolence was his business!”

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

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

He calmly said as he looked on, “Liuyuan, remember everything that you’ve just witnessed. This is reality.”

Chapter 14: Deception

Dark clouds loomed on the horizon before night fell.

“The acid rain is coming. Let’s hurry back home,” Ren Xiaosu said with an impassive expression. The woman was still crying and shouting, but no one cared about them.

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

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

Yan Liuyuan suddenly said as he sat on the bedroll, “Bro, you want the sincere gratitudes of other people, right? Being a doctor seems like it’s an easy way to gain more gratitude. In the past when the old doctor was still around, everyone was always very grateful to him. But I don’t suggest you become a doctor. First off, it’s very easy for a doctor to get stuck in a dilemma. Second, you don’t have any medical skills.”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Yan Liuyuan with an expressionless face. “Then what the hell are you blathering about!”

Wait a moment!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m going to be a doctor!” Ren Xiaosu said as his eyes shone with an unwavering determination.

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

Ren Xiaosu feigned a slap upside Yan Liuyuan’s head. “You always have so much to say. When have I ever initiated harm upon others?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Are you here to see the doctor? And did you bring any money?” the doctor asked.

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

Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, “I’m not here to see the doctor. Please carry on with whatever you were doing.”

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

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

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

“One of the target’s skills will be randomly copied.

“Randomly copied target’s bragging skill. Do you want to learn it?”

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

He had almost forgotten that the Skill Duplication Scroll could only randomly copy another person’s skill for him to learn. It wasn’t something that he had control over.

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

Ren Xiaosu gave the doctor a dirty stare and felt that the man was an awfully disgusting person. However, since he was here to steal his occupation, he couldn’t possibly be beating him up after trying to do so, right? That wouldn’t be cool.

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

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

As such, the young doctor was terrified.

“What are you trying to do?” the doctor asked meekly.

“Are you always bragging when you have nothing to do?” Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.

The young doctor was dumbfounded. “What the hell?”

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

Then he used the second Skill Duplication Scroll!

“One of the target’s skills will be randomly copied.

“Randomly copied target’s deception skill. Do you want to learn it?”

Learn, my ass! What the hell is this!

Ren Xiaosu glared at the young doctor. “You’ve got quite a lot of messed up skills for someone so young.”

The young doctor was on the verge of crying. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t mind me saying this, but do you like cheating people a lot?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Who’ve you cheated before? Why don’t you tell me about it?”

“Don’t you bullshit me. Who have I ever cheated?”

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

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

He asked in his mind, “What’s the level of that doctor’s medical skill?”

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

“He has no medical skill.”

What the fuck!

Motherfucker!

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

No wonder you’re so fucking good at deception. Dammit! So it turns out that you don’t have any medical skills at all and have been swindling people all this time?

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

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

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

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

Chapter 15: Promoting your own product

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

He had to become a doctor. Ren Xiaosu completely agreed with Yan Liuyuan’s point of view. The physician profession could very easily obtain the gratitude of others.

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

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

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

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

So that black ointment not only reduces inflammation, it can even quickly heal a wound?

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

Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu got an idea on how he could become a doctor. If that person at the clinic could become a doctor through deception and bragging, why couldn’t he also become a doctor? This was especially true as he had a miracle medicine on him now.

Wouldn’t it be fine if he just opened a clinic that specialized in knife wounds? He could just stitch up the patient and then apply some black ointment onto it and the job would be done!

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

The old doctor understood this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and asked, “What’s a suture?”

Zhang Jinglin was dumbfounded. “Then do you have anesthetics?”

“What’s an anesthetic?”

Zhang Jinglin was at a loss for words.

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

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

Zhang Jinglin continued, “There’s also a particular way to administer the anesthetic. If too little is administered, it will be painful for the patient. But if too much of it is administered, the patient will be susceptible to complications. As for the sutures, it’s even more difficult. Not only do you have to consider the tensile strength, you also have to consider if its coefficient of friction will allow it to penetrate the tissue of the human body.”

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

“Then what about the sterilization?” Zhang Jinglin asked in a startled manner.

“I have a secret formula for that!” Ren Xiaosu said.

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

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

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

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

After school, the students started walking out of the class. When Ren Xiaosu noticed that no one thanked him today, he could not help but take the initiative to ask, “Aren’t you guys going to thank your teachers?”

The students shuddered in fear as they collectively turned around and thanked their teachers.

However, Ren Xiaosu was utterly disappointed when he took a mental look at the palace. He did not gain even a single gratitude token coin.

Zhang Jinglin had already told him that it was quite normal for the students to not understand the teacher’s perspective. Ren Xiaosu felt that he still had a long way to go.

On their way back home that night, Ren Xiaosu could see that the lights were on in their shack from a distance away. He hurriedly went over and lifted the curtain door. When he stepped inside, he was surprised to see Xiaoyu sitting in their broken chair and sewing their clothes for them. There was even corn porridge and cooked wild vegetables next to her, which she had made for them.

They usually left their clothing in the shack since no one would steal them.

Even if someone stole the clothes, the thief would have to wear them out someday. Once they did that, they would get recognized. It would be a surprise if Ren Xiaosu did not beat the thief to death.

When Xiaoyu saw them return, she smiled and said, “Sorry that I came in without your permission. I saw that your clothes were ripped, so I decided to sew them up for you. Quick, eat dinner.”

Yan Liuyuan reached his hand out, wanting to scoop out some porridge. This meal was considered a luxury in town. Normally, they would only eat black bread or potatoes for their meals. However, Ren Xiaosu slapped Yan Liuyuan’s hand. “Have you thanked Big Sister Xiaoyu yet?”

Yan Liuyuan still behaved himself in front of Ren Xiaosu. “Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.”

Xiaoyu quickly said, “Stop hitting Liuyuan.”

“I can spoil him now, but no one will spoil him when he’s on his own,” Ren Xiaosu explained. Then he also said in a serious tone, “Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.”

“You’re welcome.” Xiaoyu smiled and said, “What do you two usually like having for dinner?”

Yan Liuyuan said, “We don’t usually eat dinner.”

“How can that do? You’re both still growing,” Xiaoyu said.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Xiaoyu should have been their sister all this while. No one would say such words to them in the past.

“Big Sister Xiaoyu,” Ren Xiaosu asked, “your sewing skills are great. Why don’t you come over and help us when our knife wound clinic opens for business?”

“A knife wound clinic?” Xiaoyu was stunned. “Why do you suddenly want to open a clinic that specializes in knife wounds?”

“Because I have a medicinal herb formula for treating knife wounds. It can reduce inflammation and help wounds heal quicker.” After Ren Xiaosu finished, he showed the wound on his hand to her. Xiaoyu took a look at it and noticed that Ren Xiaosu’s wound had already formed into a scab.

Xiaoyu thought for a moment and said, “But there are much fewer fights happening in town these days. In the past, more than ten people would get injured each day, but only one person gets injured every few days now.”

This was indeed true. Excluding the person killed by Ren Xiaosu and the man at the clinic entrance yesterday, it seemed that there were really no fights happening recently.

The cases of night break-ins weren’t counted because there wouldn’t be any survivors left most of the time.

Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. “Why don’t I go and chop some people up?” He quickly shook his head.

At the same time, Yan Liuyuan was shocked. “Bro, aren’t you being too ruthless? What is this? Promoting your own product?”

“No, no, we can’t do such things. We mustn’t get carried away by our own interests.”

Chapter 16: I ll make it cheaper for you

In the dead of the night, Ren Xiaosu checked his harvest thus far. Two days ago, Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the two students had each earned him a gratitude token. All in all, he had collected four gratitude token coins.

However, as he used up one of them, he only had three gratitude tokens left and a small bottle of ointment with two dosages remaining. Ren Xiaosu decided to name this ointment the “black medicine” as it was simple and easy to remember.

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, he could use one gratitude token in exchange for one bottle of black medicine, and each bottle of black medicine could be used to treat three people. In the long run, having one bottle that could get three gratitudes in exchange would surely guarantee him a profit.

By exchanging the gratitude tokens for the black medicine and selling them, it seemed that it would slow down his progress of unlocking the weapon. But the more black medicine he exchanged with his gratitude tokens, the more gratitude tokens he would get in return, right? This was an exponential growth, and it might even help to unlock the weapon faster!

Moreover, he could still make do with Yan Liuyuan’s bone knife. In the short term, he would not need to go out to hunt. Thus, bringing home the bacon became his utmost priority. He had to earn some money first!

Last night, Ren Xiaosu had a dream. He dreamed that he was standing in the wilderness with a black knife in his hands, the knife as dense and mysterious as the night.

…

Ren Xiaosu went out early the next morning. He did not carry his cauldron today, taking only Yan Liuyuan’s bone knife with him.

Now that Xiaoyu was staying home to look after the two shacks, it became very unlikely that they would lose their belongings during the daytime. And frankly, the people in town who harbored evil thoughts would only dare to bully the weak. Why would they resort to stealing from the ruthless Ren Xiaosu?

Not needing to carry the cauldron out with him felt amazing.

As a promising young man, Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t look good if he had to carry the cauldron out every day wherever he went.

Today, he went out to the wilderness not because he needed to hunt, but to pretend that he was gathering medicinal herbs.

Ren Xiaosu was a very cautious person. Since he claimed that he had a herb formula, he would have to gather the herbs. Only then would he not be suspected by others.

Although Ren Xiaosu did not hear about anyone being against “supernatural beings,” Ren Xiaosu understood the principle. If you wanted to ensure your survival among a group of chaotic people, you would have to blend in with them.

Tall poppies get cut short, the tallest tress get blown over first, don’t flaunt your wealth—these ancient sayings were warnings to everyone to not posture.

When he came back to town, it was still noon. When Ren Xiaosu carried a large bunch of medicinal herbs back, someone he knew asked, “Ren Xiaosu, why are you carrying all these weeds around?”

“Are these weeds?” Ren Xiaosu stared at him and said, “These are medicinal herbs!”

Medicinal herbs? The person asking was dumbfounded. As someone born and raised right here in town, wouldn’t he know what those plants were? No one had ever thought of them as medicinal herbs before.

Ren Xiaosu said conspiratorially, “As long as you add in different fractions, you can concoct a medicine that can be used to treat wounds. How do you think I recovered from my past injuries?”

The questioner thought for a long time. “Didn’t you pull through due to sheer willpower?”

“Get lost.” Ren Xiaosu did not stop in his tracks and headed straight back to his shack.

Xiaoyu was currently sewing Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan’s clothes. When she looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu walking in with a large bunch of medicinal herbs, she put the patchwork in her hands down. “What are all these?”

“These are the medicinal herbs used to concoct the secret formula,” Ren Xiaosu explained.

Ren Xiaosu set up the cauldron and started a fire. He added some water in and pretended to concoct the medicinal herb formula. In the process of concocting this formula, the costliest part was actually the water. Water was a much more valuable resource than the firewood used or the weeds that were put in.

He even purposely lifted the shack’s curtain door to let the people in town see what he was doing.

A lot of people saw Ren Xiaosu brewing a herb concoction but no one dared to approach him to ask what it was.

Ren Xiaosu was starting to feel unhappy about this. The reason he lifted the curtain door was so that people would come over to ask him what he was doing. When that happened, he would be able to promote his medicinal concoction.

After waiting for a long time, no one approached him to ask about it. Ren Xiaosu pulled a long face as he looked at a skinny man who was surreptitiously lurking outside the entrance. “You!”

The skinny man pointed at himself. “Me?”

“Yes, come over here.” Ren Xiaosu waited until the skinny man warily came closer. Then he said, “Ask me what I am doing already!”

The skinny man was speechless.

So was Xiaoyu.

“Go on, ask,” Ren Xiaosu urged him.

“Wh-What are you doing?” the skinny man asked.

With his motive achieved, Ren Xiaosu broke into a smile. He said with a kind look, “I’m brewing a herbal concoction.I usually brew this type of medicinal herb concoction when I get injured. It not only reduces inflammation and stops pain, it can also make the wound heal faster! In the past, I kept this medicine hidden from everyone. But now I’ve realized my mistake. So I’ve decided that I want to make the concoction and share it with everyone! From today onwards, I’ll open a clinic that specializes in treating wounds. Is anyone injured and in need of treatment?”

The people standing outside were stunned by the speech that Ren Xiaosu had just given. However, everyone just looked at one another before dispersing. No one believed him.

What a joke! Ren Xiaosu, you might be impressive, but to suddenly claim that you can treat people’s wounds is bullshit. Everyone in the entire neighborhood knows that you pulled through by enduring your injuries in the past.

But now you’re suddenly telling us that you have a medicinal herb concoction? Like we’d believe you!

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t very happy about this. He had to make everyone learn of the medicine’s effectiveness. It was very simple because he had personally tried it before. The moment he applied the medicine on the wound, the pain and burning sensation vanished and then scabbing formed the next day!

If only he could make everyone learn of its effectiveness. Business would boom, right?

Ren Xiaosu brought the small vial of ointment with him and went around town looking for patients. Which place had the most patients? The clinic, of course!

When Ren Xiaosu reached the clinic, he realized there was not a single patient there. In fact, the fees for the doctor’s consultation were so expensive that nobody could afford to come here!

Ren Xiaosu glared daggers at the young doctor before turning around and walking away. The young doctor who was leisurely sipping tea suddenly became a little nervous due to Ren Xiaosu’s intense glaring.

Left with no other choice, Ren Xiaosu went to find other opportunities in town. It wasn’t until every factory had ended work in the afternoon that Ren Xiaosu finally spotted a skinny man with a cut on his hand!

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. “Brother, did you injure your hand during work? I have a wonder drug here. Do you want to try some?”

The skinny man looked at him warily as he felt that Ren Xiaosu’s tone did not sound reputable. “No need.”

“Come, try it.” Ren Xiaosu went forward and held the skinny man down. To promote his black medicine, Ren Xiaosu even bent his most important principle. “I’ll make it cheaper for you!”

But the man was still unwilling. After all, the black stuff on Ren Xiaosu’s hand looked a little dubious.

Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and said, “For the sake of publicity, I’ll treat your wound for free this time!”

“Alright, alright, put away your knife first.”

When Ren Xiaosu came out looking for patients to treat, he had brought a bone knife with him.

Chapter 17: Totally unexpected

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan asked Ren Xiaosu, “Did you really treat someone for free this afternoon? That’s so unlike you!”

“Don’t ask. Kill yourself if you do,” Ren Xiaosu said bitterly.

Honestly speaking, he really wanted to promote the black medicine to everyone. He would largely have to depend on this method to gain the gratitude of others. Moreover, this medicine was also the core of his plan to make money in the short term.

So Ren Xiaosu convinced himself that the beginning was always the most challenging as a consolation. People with big goals should not be hindered by trivialities. He would have to be generous as a person!

Ren Xiaosu was not stingy for the sake of it. He knew well what he had to do at the appropriate times. However, he couldn’t help but feel the pinch.

Xiaoyu consoled with a smile, “Don’t worry, you’ll definitely succeed.”

After saying that, Xiaoyu returned to her shack and went to bed. In the past, she could not sleep all that well at night. But since moving here, she could always sleep soundly every day.

The next morning, the stronghold’s clock abruptly rang as though it were reminding everyone that it was time to go work at the factory.

Ren Xiaosu returned with the allocated amount of water that he was allowed to draw for the day. He estimated that it would take 12 hours for the wound to start scabbing over after the black medicine was applied, so he was not in a rush to see what the reactions of the people in town were.

Once everyone learned of the effectiveness of the medicine, people would naturally approach him with questions.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not expect that when he carried the bucket of water back, Wang Fugui would be there waiting at the entrance of the shack with a smile.

“Old Wang, what are you doing here so early? I haven’t been out to catch any sparrows lately,” Ren Xiaosu said unhurriedly as he put the bucket on the ground. He glanced into the shack. Quick-witted Yan Liuyuan had already raised his bone knife to guard against Old Wang. It was only after he saw Ren Xiaosu that he finally lowered the bone knife.

When Wang Fugui saw Ren Xiaosu, his eyes shimmered. “Oh, Xiaosu, you’re finally back! I came over this early in the morning just to look for you!”

“Why?” Ren Xiaosu felt that something was amiss. What could make Old Wang that happy? He examined Old Wang closely and said, “Have you been drinking?”

Wang Fugui immediately looked annoyed. “What do you mean by drinking? Don’t you know that alcohol is prohibited now? Who’d be brave enough to drink when everyone does not even have enough food to spare?”

“I remember smelling something particular on you the previous time…”

Wang Fugui’s expression became thunderous in reaction to Ren Xiaosu’s words He quickly interrupted him and said, “Don’t you spout nonsense!”

“Alright, alright, I won’t. Why are you looking for me?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Did you treat Iron Head’s wound yesterday? The one who lives on the east side of town?” Wang Fugui said as he winked at him.

“Oh, so he’s called Iron Head…. His head doesn’t feel that hard to me, so why does he have that name?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“Don’t interrupt me.” Wang Fugui said, “Just tell me if you did or not.”

“Yes, I did!” Ren Xiaosu was beginning to cheer in his mind. Wang Fugui was a person who would not look for someone without a reason. It must be the black medicine’s effectiveness that attracted him and made him see the profitability of it. Why else would he be so polite towards him?

This proved that the market for his black medicine was opening up!

Wang Fugui was elated when Ren Xiaosu admitted to it. “Do you… still have that medicine? You can give them with me. I’ll sell it for you!”

“You want to sell it for me? No way!” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I can’t have a middleman taking a cut of the profit. This town is so small already. Wouldn’t it be better for me to sell it myself? It’s not like I’m planning to sell my medicine at every stronghold out there. Besides, even if I had such a big business, you wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Wang Fugui was stunned at Ren Xiaosu’s words. Right, this town was tiny, so why would Ren Xiaosu let him sell the medicine for him?

But Wang Fugui said again, “It’s fine even if you sell a little bit of it to me.”

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Wang Fugui. “You don’t look injured, so why would you need this medicine?”

Wang Fugui smiled mysteriously and said, “You still don’t know, right? Yesterday, Iron Head got a little suspicious after returning home. He wanted to know what you applied to his wound. So he smelled it but couldn’t make out what it was. After that, he licked it, trying to taste what it was made with. Guess what happened as a result.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered what the hell was wrong with that guy. He’d even licked it.

There was nothing wrong with the black medicine’s effectiveness. When Iron Head inspected his wound that night, he knew that Ren Xiaosu did not lie to him. It was indeed a good medicine. Driven by curiosity, he was hoping to find out what it was made with.

Wang Fugui continued, “In the end, he and his wife went at it all night, all the way until this morning! That medicine of yours is way too effective!”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked!

Yan Liuyuan, who was in the shack, was also shocked by what he heard!

Ren Xiaosu had also wondered whether the black medicine could be taken orally and if there would be any side effects. He felt that maybe it could be taken orally, but he did not dare to try it out himself.

Now he found out that the medicine had such an effect when it was taken orally! To be able to do it from night until morning, just what kind of medicine was this?

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Then why are you buying this medicine?”

He had good reason to ask this. He knew Wang Fugui’s wife had passed away several years ago due to illness. So he wouldn’t have any reason for taking this medicine.

Wang Fugui said unhappily, “Can’t I have a second chance at love? It’s just that my body’s a little weak now.”

“Eh? You found another woman?” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

“Not yet,” Old Wang said, “but I’m thinking about it. No one would want to marry an impotent man, right? That’s why I want to be ready with your medicine.”

Ren Xiaosu laughed. “You’re funny, Wang Fugui. Old but energetic! What kind of wife are you looking for?”

Wang Fugui said modestly, “As long as she likes me, it’s good enough.”

Ren Xiaosu mulled it over. “That’s not an easy requirement.”

Wang Fugui was annoyed. “Are we close?” Wang Fugui said with a dark expression, “I’m one of the richest people in town anyway, so why wouldn’t a women take a liking to me?”

Ren Xiaosu sighed, a little melancholic. “One of the richest people in our town is a grocery store owner. Why does that sound a little shameful….”

“Who are you to criticize me? Cut the crap. Do you want to sell it or not?!”

“Yes!” Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before saying, “You get the special ‘acquaintance discount,’ 600 yuan!”

“Highway robbery!” Wang Fugui said angrily.

For now, the amount of black medicine that Ren Xiaosu had left was only enough for a one-time treatment of wounds. However, based on Old Wang’s description of the medicine being effective with just one lick, the remaining portion should still be enough for quite a few more licks.

However, the sought-after effects of this medicine when taken orally were not driven by necessity, so he could not sell it for too much.

“Do you want to buy it or not?” Ren Xiaosu snorted at Wang Fugui.

“Yes!” Wang Fugui then counted out 600 yuan and paid it to Ren Xiaosu. He did not even try to haggle over the price!

Ren Xiaosu could never have expected that the market for his black medicine would get opened in such a manner.

His initial plan was to become a doctor so that he could “practice medicine to help the people.” He never thought he would become an aphrodisiacs supplier instead.

Wang Fugui spun around and said to Ren Xiaosu, “Thank you for this!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless

He finally had four gratitude tokens again, although this gratitude token was earned a little differently from how Ren Xiaosu had expected.

Chapter 18: It’s quite simple

“Bro, this is actually not bad at all.” Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, “No matter what effects it has, we can still make money off it.”

Ren Xiaosu was unhappy about this. He whispered, “Is this a matter of making money? How many sincere gratitudes can I even get from this?”

Ren Xiaosu understood that if he relied on this effect of the medicine to sell it, then the chances of gaining the sincere gratitude of others would be much lower than through saving people’s lives. It was only people like Old Wang who desired to reinject some intimacy back into their private lives who would show their gratitude to him.

Besides, was his motive to make money? No, he still needed people’s gratitude more. Without it, he would not be able to get more black medicine.

Ren Xiaosu said in annoyance, “If I healed people and saved their lives, everyone in town would start treating me with respect whenever they see me. Just look at that fellow down at the clinic. Even though so many people have died in his care, no one does anything to him. Why? Because he’s the only doctor in town!”

“You’re right, Bro,” Yan Liuyuan agreed. In reality, it did not matter to him at all. All he knew was… they were going to get rich!

“And most importantly.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If I healed people and saved their lives, everyone would address me as Dr. Ren whenever they saw me. If I don’t heal people and save their lives, do you know what they’ll call me behind my back? ‘Hey, that drug dealer…’”

It was obvious that the social standing of the two were not the same!

Yan Liuyuan couldn’t hold it in any longer. He was convulsing with laughter in the shack as he said, “Bro, you have an overactive imagination.”

However, Ren Xiaosu was unaware that Old Wang did not use the medicine that he bought from him. After all, Old Wang had not found a lover yet.

The vial containing the black medicine was nothing unique. It was just a small, normal-looking porcelain bottle that could be found everywhere in town. The original vial that contained the black medicine was made of glass, and the craftsmanship was of an exceptional caliber. Ren Xiaosu was worried that people would get suspicious of the medicine again and learn where it came from. After all, no one sold this kind of vial in town.

Wang Fugui passed on the small porcelain bottle to one of the town administrators. He was also one of the few people who was sent out here from the stronghold.

Old Wang felt that Ren Xiaosu did not know the value of the medicine, but he did.

Which place needed this black medicine’s effect most when it was taken orally? Was it the men in town? Nope.

Although the men in town barely had enough food to eat, with some of them even skin and bones, everyone was still performing physical labor. Even if they were skinny, their health was actually great.

With enough exercise, maintaining the body’s metabolism and functions of organs would not be difficult. As such, the men in town did not really need this black medicine.

The people who needed the black medicine most were actually the “aristocracy” in the stronghold.

Wang Fugui furtively handed over the black medicine to the administrator who had been sent by the stronghold. The town administrators were people who had knowledge of all the ongoings in town. Their daily work was to gain insight into any unusual activities happening in town. Hence, this administrator also knew about the incident from last night when Iron Head licked the black medicine.

However, the administrator did not use it either. After he went back at night, he regifted it to his superior.

Nobody knew where the small porcelain bottle with the black medicine eventually ended up.

Ren Xiaosu had no knowledge of any of this. He used another gratitude token in exchange for another vial of black medicine. Then he had Xiaoyu buy a white linen cloth from town. Afterwards, he had her sew the word “clinic” onto it using black thread, as well as the words “kind doctor specializing in wounds” in a smaller size underneath.

With that, the clinic began operating.

While Xiaoyu was sewing, she asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted her to sew the words “magic hands restore spring.” Ren Xiaosu quickly turned her down as he was a little sensitive to the word “spring” 1 right now.

Ren Xiaosu’s life slowly got on track from here. Before dawn, he would go and gather herbs in the wilds. During the morning, he would stay in his shack to attend to patients. In the afternoon, he would go to the school to teach survival lessons. After that, he would use Yan Liuyuan’s notes to catch up on his homework.

Although there was no business at his clinic yet, he could not afford to be away from here. If a patient came to see the doctor, Xiaoyu could not handle it alone.

He would have liked to sit in the bright and spacious classroom like Yan Liuyuan and learn. But if he went to school to study, what would happen to Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu?

In this family, there had to be someone who was willing to sacrifice their aspirations.

The next day, Ren Xiaosu was sitting and resting in the shack with the curtain door lifted wide open. Xiaoyu was sewing and patching behind him. Sometimes, Xiaoyu would lament how these two brothers did not even patch up their clothes once in the past. How on earth did they accumulate so many holes in them?

At this moment, someone sprinted over from the other end of the dirt track with a bleeding arm.

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. “You might die if you don’t get your injuries treated.”

However, that man did not even look at Ren Xiaosu. Everyone would still subconsciously head to the clinic to treat their injuries since that place was the more authoritative one. Besides, everyone’s impression of Ren Xiaosu was still “that drug dealer” rather than “someone who treats knife wounds.”

Then the long-awaited voice intoned from the palace in his mind, “Quest: Successfully treat one patient.”

Ren Xiaosu stood up and said disconsolately, “I’m sorry.”

After that, Xiaoyu saw Ren Xiaosu dash out of the shack. Less than a minute later, she saw him carrying that man back.

Ren Xiaosu kindly said to the patient, “That doctor at the clinic is a quack. Do you know that by carrying you back here, I’m saving you?”

As the man had been bleeding for a long time, he did not have any more strength. The man nearly crumpled with Ren Xiaosu holding him down firmly.

At this moment, another two men ran over from the opposite side of the dirt track. Seeing their bodies stained with blood, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Did y’all get into a fight?”

When the man who was being held down heard that, he explained, “No, it’s the boiler at the factory. It exploded! The injuries that we sustained are light, so we could still run back here by ourselves. However, I’m afraid that some people died on the scene.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded in silence. In the present, no one would be so kindhearted as to bring you to get your injuries treated in the event of an accident at the factory. They couldn’t wish more than for you to die so that your belongings would go to them.

“Come, Big Sister Xiaoyu, sterilize the needle,” Ren Xiaosu said. Although he was not worried about the inflammation, he still had to put on an act for the patient, right? After he said that, he went outside again. This time, he brought back another two men.

Ren Xiaosu used both his hands and a leg to hold the three of them down. The three of them lost all will to resist. If not for their injuries, Ren Xiaosu would never have been able to hold them down.

In fact, they knew they could also get treated at Ren Xiaosu’s place. However, they were running towards the clinic out of sheer habit. Now that they had been pinned down, they might as well stop resisting altogether.

Then they saw Xiaoyu put down the patchwork in her hands. She took the needle that she had been using to sew the clothes and placed it over the fire. As this needle was a little longer, she did not get burned while holding the other end.

“Do I just stitch them up?” Xiaoyu asked timidly.

“Yes. Just stitch their wounds like you’re sewing clothes.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s quite simple.”

Xiaoyu mustered up her courage and proceeded to suture the wound on one of the patients. However, the skin sizzled, the smell of burning flesh accompanying it.

The man trembled as he asked, “I understand that you’re using fire to sterilize the needle, but could you at least wait for the needle to cool before you start stitching?”

Chapter 19: Why didn’t you run faster then?

“It was a mistake,” Ren Xiaosu explained with a smile. “This is the first day of work for our nurse, so she doesn’t know the exact procedures yet. Come, let’s continue suturing. Big Sister Xiaoyu, treat it as sewing clothes.”

Xiaoyu was not afraid of blood. Frankly, everyone in town was used to seeing people die all the time, so it wasn’t such a big deal when they had to face minor injuries like these. Besides, she really enjoyed her current job. It wasn’t that she liked seeing blood, but that she liked being a “useful” person.

It was common knowledge in town that everyone had to be useful in the current environment as it was full of hardship and difficulties. Useless people would get abandoned sooner or later. This was the simplest logic for deciding who to live around.

Xiaoyu was unsure if Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan would abandon her due to her uselessness, but she knew that she couldn’t just do nothing and leach off of them.

When she heard Ren Xiaosu tell her to stitch up the wound like she was sewing clothes, her confidence grew and her stitching motions became much more consistent.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was still holding down that man by his arm, so it made it easier for her to put her sewing skills to good use.

When the suturing was almost finished, Xiaoyu said to Ren Xiaosu, “There’s still some difference between stitching up a wound and sewing clothes. When sewing clothes, the thread should stay hidden in the clothes as far as possible so that it won’t be visible. But for the suturing of a wound, the thread should not be left inside and has to be reverse stitched. However, that makes it look quite ugly.”

The three patients became incredibly uncomfortable. The more Xiaoyu said, the more flustered they became.

When Xiaoyu finished suturing, Ren Xiaosu took out a small porcelain vial and applied the medicine onto the first patient’s wound. “My medicine is very precious, but I will not overcharge you for it. I’ll just charge you the same fee as the clinic does, 600 yuan. I believe all of you should be able to afford it.”

The price of a cotton-padded jacket was around 600 yuan. However, these workers’ salaries per month were probably at around 2200 to 2800 yuan. This made the price of the goods sold relatively expensive to their salaries earned. But all of this was due to a supply and demand issue. The aristocracy in the stronghold could not wish more for these people to earn as little as possible for the rest of their lives. In that way, they would have to keep working earnestly for the aristocrats.

Besides, these workers could not just drop everything and leave since they would not be able to survive in the wilderness. The aristocracy relied on this to exploit the refugees.

In the opinion of the aristocracy, it was already nice that they did not make the refugees pay protection money to them when they were living under the protection of the stronghold. But that was only because they felt that protection racketeering was below them.

The reason Ren Xiaosu could get by in the past without needing to go to work at the coal mine was because he only needed to hunt three sparrows a month to earn more than the majority of workers. Even if he did not manage to hunt three sparrows, he could scrimp and save and still be able to lead a normal life.

These were abnormal times, and people tried resisting it at the beginning. However, they all failed.

…

Ren Xiaosu was right that the three men could afford the fees. After the black medicine was applied to the wound of the first patient, his pain immediately stopped. He paid up very willingly as the fee would have been the same if he went to the clinic to treat his injury.

When the patient who had just been treated was about to leave, Ren Xiaosu said amiably, “Shouldn’t you be saying thanks now that you’ve been treated?”

The man shuddered and quickly turned his head back and said, “Thank you!”

Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. However, when he had a look in the palace, he was startled to find that he did not gain any additional gratitude tokens!

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘Are patient-doctor relationships these days all as tense as that?! I’ve treated your wound, yet you won’t even give me a sincere thank you?!’

Immediately, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace informing him that he had completed the quest. “Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

The quest to successfully treat one patient was finally complete. He did not expect the palace to award him with another 1.0 Strength increase. It was also one of the things that Ren Xiaosu desired most at this moment. After all, whoever had the bigger fist won.

The voice from the palace intoned again, “Quest: Successfully treat two patients.”

Eh, so this was a repeatable quest? When the first quest was completed, another quest of a higher difficulty would appear.

Weren’t there two patients in front of him right now?

Would he be awarded another 1.0 Strength increase after completing this quest? In that case, wouldn’t he end up looking like a beefcake?

Actually, that wouldn’t be good because he would be sacrificing his speed for more strength. With greater muscle mass, it would lower the speed at which he could put them to use.

The fastest runner should be someone with the most balanced muscular build, not a bodybuilder with the most chiseled physique.

As of now, Ren Xiaosu’s strength was much stronger than the average adult’s. He deliberately made an observation and realized that no one had noticed that his muscles had swelled up this time. As it was late autumn, the clothes that he wore concealed his build quite well.

But right at this moment, one of the patients took the opportunity to get up and run out of the clinic while Ren Xiaosu was distracted. Xiaoyu called out to him, “The patient is escaping.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s okay. He won’t get far since he’s still injured. I’ll go and bring him back.”

Xiaoyu and the remaining patient were speechless.

While Ren Xiaosu went out to catch the patient, Xiaoyu looked at the remaining patient and gently said, “Are you going to run away too? If you’re also thinking of doing so, I’ll suture you up afterwards.”

“No, I’m not gonna run away.” That patient closed his eyes and put a determined expression on his face. “Go ahead and stitch me up.”

When Ren Xiaosu carried the patient back again, he didn’t find it as strenuous as before and could carry him with just one hand. However, this made the patient despair.

The following treatments for the patients were much easier to do. Ren Xiaosu used one hand for each person and held them down so no one could move.

The two men who were being held down at this moment were rather astonished because they never expected to not be able to fight back against Ren Xiaosu. It was as though they were being dominated by him.

Just how much strength would he need to achieve this? Even if they were injured, they shouldn’t be that weak, right? They were still able to struggle a little a bit ago!

What was most important here was, would anyone still be able to escape from Ren Xiaosu if he ever decided that he wanted to treat their wounds in the future.

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.

“Quest: Successfully treat 10 patients.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this voice again, he froze, because he could feel his muscles that had swelled up earlier had now started to deflate by quite a bit.

Dexterity was a way to increase the strength of the muscle fibers. Upon reaching the same level of power, it would help to lower the muscle mass. In this way, Ren Xiaosu would not need to worry about looking like a beefcake.

If Ren Xiaosu’s muscle fibers in the past were as strong as a wooden staff, then the muscle fibers were now comparable to the strength of an iron rod.

Right, this was more logical. The correct way would be to increase the quality, not purely build on the quantity.

Moreover, his resistance to attacks would increase accordingly, right?

Ren Xiaosu looked at the patient who had just attempted to run away. “Do you understand now the benefits of the black medicine that I applied on you? It can stop your pain immediately, and the wound won’t get inflamed afterwards either. I can’t understand why you’d run away.”

The patient hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally saying, “I don’t have enough money…”

Ren Xiaosu was pained. He said resentfully, “Why didn’t you run faster then!”

Chapter 20: Wolf pack

When the patient heard Ren Xiaosu lamenting how he did not run faster, he couldn’t feel more aggrieved. “I was already running with everything I had. You were too crazy fast for me!”

Ren Xiaosu grimaced and said, “The others have already paid and left. Tell me, how are we going to settle this? We are a clinic, not some charity organization!”

“Then why don’t you tell me how I should settle it?” The man was about to cry. Seeing how he was no match for Ren Xiaosu and was unable to afford the treatment, he might just end up dying here today.

“Look here.” Ren Xiaosu said nicely, “Why don’t you try to recall whether you have any money hidden somewhere at home?”

“No. Who would dare to hide their money at home these days? Even your own wife is not trustworthy.” The man was nearly driven to despair.

Ren Xiaosu started getting a little impatient. “You’re a grown man, so don’t act like you’re being bullied. Just tell me how much money you have on you.”

“It’s almost the end of the month, so there’s only around five days until I get paid. We can’t save much money doing what we do….”

“I’m asking how much money you have on you!” Ren Xiaosu yelled.

“432 yuan,” the man sobbed.

He definitely could not allow him to write a promissory note. In the current day, if he let someone sign a promissory note today, who knew if that person might just end up dead the next day.

Ren Xiaosu was wondering whether this man had any other valuables on him.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of something. He said as his eyes lit up, “How about this? I don’t think it’s easy for you either, so why don’t I waive the remaining fee for you? You can just give me whatever money you have in your pocket. You can keep the 32 yuan for your meals…. Scratch that, you can keep 2 yuan for your next meal.”

When the man heard that, he teared up with emotion. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“Gratitude received from Dong Mingshuai, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was ecstatic. He had finally found a way to gain the gratitude of his patients!

First, he had to set a reasonable price. If the clinic charged 600 yuan, he would charge 600 yuan too. In this way, no one would feel that he was ripping them off. Secondly, he would have to put on an act. Even if it meant earning less money, he would earn their gratitude!

Making money wasn’t the priority; gaining gratitude was. Only by gaining gratitude could he earn money! Within a short period of one day, Ren Xiaosu had already made 1630 yuan. This was even faster than if he had gone to hunt for sparrows! Moreover, there wasn’t any danger involved.

For now, Ren Xiaosu’s number of gratitude tokens was back to four. It might look like there wasn’t an increase, but it was more important he had found a method to gain more of them through trial and error!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was happily thinking about buying a set of fall clothing for Yan Liuyuan. He turned around and glanced at Xiaoyu. And he could buy a cotton-padded jacket for Xiaoyu to wear through the winter as well!

Now that Xiaoyu had become their clinic’s nurse, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t let her work for nothing, right?

But there was no hurry. He could wait and see roughly how much they made in a month before deciding how much to pay Xiaoyu.

…

When news of the boiler explosion at the factory spread, many of the town’s women got very worried. They were all afraid that something happened to their husbands.

In the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu sat in his shack as he waited for the factory workers to return so that he could intercept and carry them to the clinic for treatment. But in the end, he didn’t see anyone else coming back.

The person who found it most unbearable would have to be that swindler at the town’s clinic. After he heard about the boiler explosion, he excitedly waited for the patients to come. However, no one came to him to seek treatment even as night fell!

As such, the young doctor went out and asked around. He’d clearly heard that three injured people ran back in the afternoon, but why didn’t any of them come to him to get bandaged?

However, after asking around, he felt blueballed when he found out that his business had been stolen away by someone!

He wondered who would be so brave as to stole away his business. After asking around again, he found out that it was Ren Xiaosu!

The young doctor deliberated over this before he finally clenched his teeth in anger. So what if it was Ren Xiaosu? Could he steal someone else’s occupation just because he was Ren Xiaosu?

However, the young doctor felt that something was amiss. How did Ren Xiaosu suddenly know how to treat wounds and save people? When he first heard about the black medicine, he only thought of it as something that Ren Xiaosu had randomly concocted. He had doubts about it at that time, but he had no choice but to believe it now.

He angrily went to look for Ren Xiaosu to demand an explanation. When he arrived at the door of Ren Xiaosu’s shack, Ren Xiaosu was paring a potato with a bone knife. Ren Xiaosu stabbed the potato with the bone knife, piercing right through it.

Ren Xiaosu asked nonchalantly, “You’re looking for me?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just wanted to ask if you’ve eaten yet.” The young doctor laughed dryly.

Ren Xiaosu looked at him and said, “Yu Tong, you aren’t young anymore. You’ve been depending on the old doctor’s reputation long enough. It’s running out. I advise you run home and flip through the old doctor’s medical books so that you don’t flounder in the future.”

“What are you talking about?” Yu Tong said diffidently. “I study the medical books every day.”

“That’s good then.” Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and continued paring the potatoes, ignoring him.

Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu and the others did not used to peel their potatoes. They ate the entire thing, skin and all. By peeling them, a substantial amount of the potato would go to waste. But it was different now. Ren Xiaosu had become rich, so he got a swelled head!

All of a sudden, over a dozen people ran into town and shouted, “This is bad! Something terrible has happened!”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. He pulled one of them over and asked, “What’s going on?”

“The scent of blood after the factory boiler explosion has attracted a pack of wolves.” That man said disconcertedly, “I don’t know where the wolves came from, but there are a lot of them!”

“How many is a lot?” Ren Xiaosu asked again.

“I’m afraid there are over a 100 of them, at least!”

This was indeed terrible. It looked like the fate of the workers remaining at the factory was grim.

The wolves hadn’t appeared in over a year. During this time, everyone had almost forgotten about their threat. No one knew where they had gone to during this yearlong disappearance, but now that they were back, their numbers had increased by several times.

However, the wolves did not dare to come and ravage the town because of the tall walls. And on top of these walls, there were firearms and explosives.

This was why the refugees had gathered outside of the walls and built a town around it.

“What are you looking at? Eat your food,” Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan.

After saying that, he sat down and continued eating his food. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan looked outside curiously as he ate his food and said, “Bro, how did you manage to survive back then? You’ve never talked about it before.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look but did not answer the question. Xiaoyu, who was beside them, also looked at Ren Xiaosu, although she did not ask him anything.

After Yan Liuyuan finished eating a potato, Ren Xiaosu handed him another one. “You should eat more so that you can grow better. Only then will you have a better chance of survival than others.”

“Bro, are you worried that the wolves will come into town?” Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu, who still had a frown on his face.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “They are much smarter than you guys can imagine, so they won’t risk it by coming here. If the boiler at the factory did not explode and cause those injuries and deaths, they wouldn’t even have gone there. They weren’t attracted to the smell of blood in the first place. It was the smell of death that made them go there.”

“Then what are you worrying about, Bro?” Yan Liuyuan wondered.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time. “What if the walls collapse one day?”

Xiaoyu was taken aback. “Will these walls collapse?”

“I don’t know.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head again. “But there’s nothing that ever stays the same in this world. Actually, I’ve encountered the wolf pack twice. The first time, I managed to run away after spotting them from afar. But I wasn’t that fortunate the second time around. However, it feels like… they’re getting much stronger than before!”

In fact, Ren Xiaosu was also wondering what would happen if the walls collapsed one day. What would happen to this society?

Chapter 21: Family standing

News of today’s unexpected incidents kept going around, alarming everyone in town. On this night, no one stayed in their homes. Everyone was out and about as they discussed the events.

Actually, a boiler explosion at the factory was not exactly a serious matter. After all, the factory’s boiler had blown up on more than one occasion due to years of poor maintenance.

It was different this time, however. In the past, the wolf pack wouldn’t have dared to attack a factory under the control of humans. Almost every factory had over a thousand workers working in them, and it would get especially rowdy on the streets outside of town after the workday ended.

Some of the workers would return to town to stay for the night while others would simply sleep overnight at the factories’ dorms. The factories operated around the clock with three shifts of workers.

The wolf pack was bold enough to venture into a small human settlement positioned right next to the stronghold? There was something very bizarre about this indeed.

As the soldiers accompanying the band said, Stronghold 113 was situated in a larger circular group of other strongholds, and being on the inside of this circular group, it made their stronghold safer compared to the other places. At the beginning, the stronghold was still sending troops to garrison the factory. But when everyone realized that there were no wild animal attacks on the factories, they withdrew the troops and only left behind some guns for the factory managers to use in case of emergency.

That night, the stronghold’s city gate was suddenly opened. A loud rumbling could be heard as the stronghold’s gate opened up. Then several hundred soldiers carrying loaded guns marched out.

These were the private troops of Stronghold 113. Or to more aptly put it, they were the private army controlled by the Qing Consortium, the group behind Stronghold 113.

The schoolteacher, Zhang Jinglin, once unwittingly mentioned that the consortium was the actual controller of the stronghold these days. They had power over the lives of humans and possessed weapons that could be used to fight off the dangers of the outside world. With money and weapons, they were firmly in control of the entire stronghold.

This was the first time Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had ever seen so many soldiers come out of the stronghold. Yan Liuyuan was hiding in the shack and secretly watching the private army as they marched out of town. He muttered, “Bro, are those guns they’re carrying on their backs?”

Those black guns looked brutal and menacing. However, Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that he could recognize all of those weapons.

Moreover, he had a feeling that… as long as he could get his hands on those firearms, he could use them to great effect immediately.

The private army was not marching in an orderly fashion. There was an off-road vehicle leading the way, but the formation of the soldiers following it was a mess and could even be called chaotic. Someone from the private army complained, “Isn’t it just some people dying at the factory? Why can’t we head there tomorrow morning? Why do we have to go there and kill the wolves tonight?”

“Shut up, the higher-ups ordered this mission.” Someone glared at him.

“What’s there to be afraid of? It’s not like those jackoffs-in-office can hear us anyway. They’re probably still sleeping with women right now,” that man grumbled. He then lit himself a thinly rolled cigarette.

Ren Xiaosu once again caught a whiff of that unusual smell of cigarettes. He frowned as he started increasingly distrust the stronghold’s private troops.

At this moment, the smoking soldier from the private army turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan looking at his automatic rifle. He scolded, “What are the two of you brats looking at? Do you know what this is? Quit staring. You wouldn’t know how to use it even if I gave it to you.”

Ren Xiaosu pulled the curtain door down, although he did not agree with the latter half of what the soldier said.

For some reason, he deduced that the soldier might not be good at marksmanship. His right shoulder pocket that was supposed to bear the recoil of the rifle did not show any signs of long-term training with firearms.

In reality, what Ren Xiaosu didn’t know was that firearms these days were also quite precious resources in the stronghold. Usually, the private army’s officers would not let the soldiers waste their ammunition. If they had that kind of budget, they would rather go drinking or look for women to fool around with.

Alcohol was prohibited outside the stronghold, but it was not the case on the inside.

Yan Liuyuan wondered, “Bro, why do I feel that you seem to know about their guns?”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look and said, “Don’t ask so much.”

Yan Liuyuan complained, “Do I still have any standing in this family?”

Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something else as he replied nonchalantly, “Don’t think too much about it. Your role in the family is just to stay alive.”

Yan Liuyuan was speechless

When the sound of the private army’s marching got further away, Ren Xiaosu shot to his feet and told Yan Liuyuan, “Go to Big Sister Xiaoyu’s shack tonight and stay there for a while. Come back only after I return.”

“Bro, where are you going?” Yan Liuyuan asked in a stunned manner.

By the time he finished asking, Ren Xiaosu had already quietly lifted the curtain door and gone out. A lot of people had gathered on the streets, so no one took any notice of Ren Xiaosu’s whereabouts.

Usually, no one would dare to come outside at night. But today, everyone had left their houses and come outside as though they were celebrating the new year.

Ren Xiaosu navigated his way through the darkness. After leaving the proximity of the town, he began to bolted forward. The moonlight was not very bright on this night, but as Ren Xiaosu had been going out of town almost every day for the past few years, he could essentially walk out here with his eyes closed!

The stronghold’s private army took the main road while Ren Xiaosu chose to go by a parallel path to avoid bumping into them.

He came out here not for anything else but to see if there was an opportunity. As for what kind of opportunity it was, he was not sure yet.

Guns!

It was the guns that enticed Ren Xiaosu to come out here!

Ren Xiaosu had acquired Advanced Firearms Proficiency, so he knew very well how important firearms were in today’s era. The private troops who were accompanying the band once said that they were carrying firearms with them and that any wolves would flee if they heard their gunshots.

Ren Xiaosu, who had encountered the wolf pack before, knew exactly how terrifying they were. But such terrifying creatures were afraid of gunshots?

Ren Xiaosu did not know what would happen to these private troops if they came face to face with the wolves. He was not thinking of getting their guns because his target was actually the factory. The people in town all knew that the factory managers were assigned firearms.

According to the people who returned after fleeing the factory, it was already over for those who remained behind. Ren Xiaosu had been wondering about it since the afternoon. Didn’t they say that wolves were afraid of the sound of gunshots? Then shouldn’t the managers be able to scare them away by just firing a few shots?

Perhaps they did not expect that the wolves would come, so it could have been too late for them to draw the guns. Or maybe the wolves carried out a sneak attack on the shooters. There could also be some other reasons, but the guns were probably still there at the factory.

Ren Xiaosu ran as fast as he could towards the factory. He was more familiar with this place than the private army was. And besides, the private army was marching there while he was running.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the darkness. Then a prolonged series of deafening gunshots rattled through the night. There was even the screaming of humans.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of the sound. Clearly, the private army had encountered the wolves, and many of them were still getting attacked after firing their guns. Didn’t they say the wolves were afraid of gunshots? Didn’t they say it was an animal’s instinct to avoid danger?

Today, Ren Xiaosu gained a new awareness of something: Although beasts had evolved to become stronger, they had never been able to overcome their animal instincts. Rabbits still ate grass, and wolves were still afraid of gunshots.

Unless everything had changed.

Chapter 22: Guns!

There was an intense battle in the wilderness as the private army had not expected to encounter wolves. The wolves were extremely fierce and cunning, and it seemed like they had been waiting in ambush.

At first, the troops thought that they could scare away the wolves by just firing their guns, but it turned out they were wrong. The wolves did not panic this time when they heard the gunshots!

By the time the wolves appeared in front of them, the private troops were shocked to discover that these wolves were even bigger than they had imagined. They were the size of bison!

Wait a minute! After these wolves attacked the factory, they waited in the only possible path that the private army would have to pass through. Why did it seem like they had been targeting these private troops from the very beginning?

However, the private troops were trained soldiers. Before the casualties started piling up, they fell in and began to defend. Comparing the firearms of humans with the sharp teeth and claws of an animal, firearms would still come out on top in the end!

The private army had dealt with the wolves on more than one occasion. In recent years, they had slowly started pulling back on their plans to encircle and keep the wolves suppressed after being instructed to do so by the people in charge. Of course, this also gave the wolves some respite.

For some reason, as Ren Xiaosu listened to the gunshots, he found the cracks to be so pleasant that his adrenaline started pumping. The gunshots excited him.

He didn’t go and take a closer peek at the battle. All he knew was that if the wolves and the private army were fighting now, it would be safe for him to go to the factory.

Ren Xiaosu ran like a cheetah through the wilderness. For the first time, he could get a complete sense of his newly obtained strength and dexterity.

His muscle fibers tensed up and relaxed over and over again. This sort of feeling could only be described as invigorating.

When Ren Xiaosu neared the factory, he finally slowed down. He hid in the darkness and approached it quietly. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see many of the refugees’ dead bodies lying around. It seemed like they had wanted to escape back to town but were caught by the wolves one after another.

Only a minority of them were lucky enough to escape at the expense of their companions.

Ren Xiaosu painstakingly examined their wounds. They looked like they had been bitten in the neck by the wolves and died immediately. However, the wolves did not feed on their corpses and seemingly left in a hurry.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. He did not enter through the main entrance, instead climbing his way up a pipe on the outside of the factory building. Each time he passed by a window, he would scrupulously check if there were still any survivors inside.

When Ren Xiaosu got to the top floor of the building, his heart sank. It didn’t look like any survivors remained in the factory. The wolves had already swept through the entire factory, sparing no one.

‘Where are the guns hidden?’ Ren Xiaosu wondered. The factory managers would definitely not place them where it would be easily accessible to others.

Ren Xiaosu broke the glass window on the top floor and jumped into the building. He looked around and saw that the hallway was full of bloodstains and corpses. The large factory felt like a purgatory.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized something was off. All of the corpses looked like they had been running in the same direction when they were alive, as though something was guiding them towards it.

What would attract people to run towards the same place at such a crucial time?

Ren Xiaosu came to a conclusion. That place would either be the location of the weapons storage or a hiding place.

He followed this path all the way until he ended up in the basement. Was this… the emergency shelter?

The more he walked forward, the more corpses there were. Ren Xiaosu could imagine what the scene looked like when everyone was trying to escape in panic from the wolves. They wanted to escape to a safe place, but they were not fast enough to outrun the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu arrived at an iron door. Indeed, everyone was escaping towards this place because they wanted to get in. No matter how much the wolves had evolved, they were still only flesh and blood. It would still be rather difficult to break through an iron door several inches thick.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if anyone was still behind the iron door. He hesitated for quite a while before he raised his fist and knocked on the blast door three times.

Someone behind the iron door shouted happily, “Is that the private army? You’ve finally come to rescue me. I’ll open the door right away!”

The rhythm of the knocking was obvious and could not have been made by a wild animal. As such, the person on the inside mistook Ren Xiaosu as a soldier from the private army that had been sent to rescue him.

With a loud grinding sound, the iron door burst open and revealed a middle-aged man on the inside. He had a leg wound, and his pants were stained red with blood. Even as he opened the door, he was standing on just one leg.

However, the moment the door opened, both parties took action. Ren Xiaosu bent low and prepared to rush him. When the middle-aged man saw that the person in front of him was not a soldier, his first reaction was to raise his pistol!

The atmosphere grew tense. Ren Xiaosu stopped in front of the middle-aged man because the black muzzle of the pistol was pointed right at his forehead.

“Hehe,” the middle-aged man laughed. “So it’s a little burglar who wants to take advantage of the situation, eh? I recognize you; you’re Ren Xiaosu from town.”

Ren Xiaosu also recognized him. The middle-aged man was the factory manager, Wang Dongyang.

“I recognize you too,” Ren Xiaosu said as he straightened up as though nothing had happened. “Why are you the only person in there? No… you were the first person who fled here, and you closed the door immediately while keeping everyone else outside!”

Ren Xiaosu felt a sudden chill pass through him. No wonder there were bloody handprints all over the outside of the iron dor. So it turned out that it was because of the refugees’ crazy thumping on it. When the iron door was closed from the inside, it was impossible to open it via normal means from the outside.

Wang Dongyang laughed and said, “You don’t need to bother yourself with such matters. If you carry me back to town now, I’ll spare your life.”

“And what if I refuse to carry you back?” Ren Xiaosu started laughing as well.

“Then I will just kill you with one shot. After that, I’ll lock the door again and continue to wait for the army to come and rescue me. I’m a resident of the stronghold, so they will definitely come and save me,” Wang Dongyang said.

“You must be afraid that I’ll tell everyone how you sold out everyone here and left them for dead, right?” Ren Xiaosu continued to laugh and say.

Wang Dongyang sneered at him. As the pistol gave him tremendous courage, he had no fear at all. “How do you know that?”

Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment. “The father knows his son the best.”

Wang Dongyang was confused. Then factory manager grew infuriated. “Do you think I won’t kill you?”

“I also know another thing,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

“What?” Wang Dongyang had a bad feeling about it.

“I know you didn’t disengage the safety on the gun, and it’s too late for you to do so now.”

Wang Dongyang’s pupils suddenly contracted. He had originally thought that it was the private army who came, so he didn’t really think too much of it. But when he saw that it was Ren Xiaosu, and Ren Xiaosu had rushed in so decisively, he did not have enough time to disengage the safety.

He had thought that he could easily frighten Ren Xiaosu because he felt that a refugee like him would not have seen a gun before or know how it worked. He thought that he would only feel fear with one pointed at him.

However, Ren Xiaosu knew more about guns than the majority of people in Stronghold 113!

Chapter 23: Boss Luo

The factory manager, Wang Dongyang, felt a sense of despair growing as it grasped at his heart like a creeper vine. He didn’t think he would get seen through by an unexpected development. He couldn’t understand why this youth facing him knew about guns.

A second later, he suddenly took a step back as he wanted to use this opportunity to disengage the safety. But Ren Xiaosu would never give him the chance to do so. He charged at Wang Dongyang like a cannonball, crushing Wang Dongyang’s ribs. Even his gun was sent flying out of his hand.

Wang Dongyang had nothing to rely on now. He laid on the ground, coughing up blood, and said, “Let me go. I’ll tell you where I kept all my belongings.”

“Tell me first and I’ll let you go,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Wang Dongyang actually knew this was just a futile attempt to be let off. How could this teen possibly let him go? If Ren Xiaosu allowed him to leave, could he still survive in the vicinity of Stronghold 113? And when Wang Dongyang first learned of the existence of Ren Xiaosu, he was even referred to as… Ruthless Ren Xiaosu.

“Your lungs have already been pierced by your broken ribs, so it’s too late for you even if you go back to town now.” Ren Xiaosu laughed. Although he was eager to get Wang Dongyang’s belongings, it was clear that he would not tell him where he kept them.

Ren Xiaosu wasted no time here. He did not know when the battle between the private army and the wolves would end. But if he dragged his feet around here any longer, it would not end well for him no matter which side arrived at the factory.

The sound of a sharp weapon cutting through leather tore the air. Ren Xiaosu used the bone knife to imitate a wolf’s claws slashing across Wang Dongyang’s chest, creating fake wounds. He waited until he was certain Wang Dongyang’s vital signs had stopped before he picked up the pistol and headed out. Ren Xiaosu also took the two magazines Wang Dongyang carried on him.

There were a total of 36 bullets.

By the time Ren Xiaosu left the factory, no one remained alive. Ren Xiaosu turned around and gazed at the building where a bloodbath had taken place. Behind him was the darkness of night. This was the world he lived in.

…

“Bro, are you alright?” Yan Liuyuan said eagerly when he saw Ren Xiaosu lift the curtain door and walk in. He circled around Ren Xiaosu to check if there were any bloodstains on him before he felt at ease.

“I’m fine.” While tying the bone knife back around his calf, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Did anything happen in town while I was away? Is the private army back yet?”

“Some of them have returned. They brought some wounded soldiers back with them, as well as the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers and carcasses of the wolves. I heard that the rest of the troops continued on to the factory,” Yan Liuyuan said.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t think that this was unusual. No matter how strong the wild wolves might be, it would be impossible for them to win when faced with a private army that was several times greater than them in number. Moreover, the soldiers were even carrying weapons with them.

“How many wolf carcasses did they bring back?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Over thirty of them.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, those wild wolves are enormous!”

When Yan Liuyuan had asked Ren Xiaosu what size the wolves were, Ren Xiaosu just described them as very big. As for what “very big” truly meant, Yan Liuyuan found out today.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. He was glad that he hadn’t stayed at the factory for too long. Otherwise, he would likely have run into the private army that arrived at the factory shortly after. It seemed that the wolves withdrew once they felt that their ambush had failed. So the battle with them did not delay the private army for too long.

It was no wonder he didn’t hear any gunshots in the wilderness when he came back via an alternate route.

However, the wolves were getting stronger and smarter. If they let them go this time, the people in town might have to face an even stronger attack from them the next time.

Suddenly, a commotion brewed outside. Ren Xiaosu lifted the curtain door and watched what was happening. It turned out that a group of ten soldiers from the private army had driven back in advance in an off-road vehicle.

An officer in the vehicle said, “Anyone who volunteers any information on those who went out of town tonight will be handsomely rewarded!”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback because he knew they were clearly looking for him!

They must have already gone to the factory and looked around the place. Ren Xiaosu had thought that it would be impossible for a normal person to discover the phoniness of Wang Dongyang’s wounds. However, there was still a crucial problem that could not be reconciled—Wang Dongyang’s pistol had gone missing!

If someone worked backwards upon discovering this problem, it would be easy to get clues on what had happened. This was something that Ren Xiaosu could not prevent.

“Bro.” Yan Liuyuan got worried as he looked at Ren Xiaosu.

“I’ll be fine.” Ren Xiaosu pushed Yan Liuyuan’s head back into the shack.

Ren Xiaosu carefully recalled that he did not take the main road when he left town. If he remembered it accurately, no one should have any idea that he had gone out other than Yan Liuyuan.

The soldiers were standing guard at the entrance of the town. Soon after, all of the other soldiers returned as well. The people in town watched. Right afterwards, the private troops began going door to door and rummaged through every household’s storage chests and cabinets.

They were… searching for that gun.

Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted, “I know who went out in the middle of the night.”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw that it was the clinic’s doctor, Yu Tong. He was looking at Ren Xiaosu with a smile on his face and standing very far away from him, as he was afraid that Ren Xiaosu would try to kill him.

The private army’s officer strolled over and asked, “Who?”

“It’s him, Ren Xiaosu. I saw him go out of town with my very own eyes,” Yu Tong said with an arrogant smile.

Ren Xiaosu did not deny this. He admitted, “At that time, the town’s common privy was occupied by He Zong, so I had to go outside to relieve myself.”

“Who is He Zong? Is he telling the truth?” the officer shouted.

He Zong, who was standing nearby, had a dumbfounded look on his face as he did not know how he suddenly got implicated in this. He said meekly, “Indeed, I had diarrhea tonight. Many people can testify….”

The officer turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu as he sneered, “Search.”

After he said that, Wang Fugui darted out before his soldiers could rush into the shack. “Wait a minute, he’s someone who has been singled out by one of the aristocrats in the stronghold to be taken care of. You can’t treat him like this.”

The officer was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“In the afternoon, Boss Luo Lan from the stronghold specially ordered for him to be taken care of. Even Ren Xiaosu himself doesn’t know about this yet! But as for why he is doing this, you’ll have to ask Boss Luo yourself. It’s not convenient for us to reveal it to you,” Wang Fugui explained quickly.

“Boss Luo?” The officer was a little surprised. Everyone could tell from his reaction that he clearly knew the boss who went by the name of Luo Lan. In fact, it even seemed like he was a big shot in the stronghold.

The officer thought for a moment and said, “Even if he is Boss Luo’s guy, we must still search him. This is a very serious matter. I’ll personally apologize and explain it to Boss Luo tonight.”

After saying that, the soldiers rushed into Ren Xiaosu’s shack and rummaged through their belongings. Another two soldiers carried out a body search on Ren Xiaosu.

Two minutes later, the soldiers were all shaking their heads when the search did not turn up anything.

The officer looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Bring me to the place where you took a dump.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he made his way out of town. He didn’t expect the officer to be so rigorous with the checks in order not to miss any details! Yan Liuyuan, who was behind him, was about to run over. However, Ren Xiaosu turned around and snapped, “Get back inside!”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes reddened.

Ren Xiaosu led the officer and soldiers out of town. He pointed to a pool of feces and said, “There, it’s still hot and fresh.”

The officer had a look at it and then ordered the soldiers to continue searching the other households. They did not bother with Ren Xiaosu anymore.

Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he was well-prepared. Before he left town, he observed the surroundings and thought of a reason before he came back. Not only did he bury the gun outside of town, he also laid the last of the situational evidence to cover his lie… by taking a dump right outside of town.

He turned his gaze to Yu Tong, who had been following them. Yu Tong pissed his pants when he saw the daggers in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes.

Chapter 24: Ren Xiaosu, the drug dealer

At first, Ren Xiaosu was unsure whether the clinic’s owner, Yu Tong, had really spotted him going out of town or if he was deliberately trying to frame him even though he did not see anything.

Later, he recalled that he had not seen Yu Tong at that time. Ren Xiaosu knew he would have to be wary of Yu Tong after stealing his business in case Yu Tong tried to take revenge on him. After all, it was always necessary to be cautious of scheming people in times like this. As such, if Ren Xiaosu did not have any impression of such “dangerous targets” appearing in his memory, it would surely mean that the other party had not witnessed him leaving town. Therefore, it was more than likely that Yu Tong was deliberately lying to frame Ren Xiaosu.

As for whether Yu Tong had considered the consequences of unsuccessfully framing him, Ren Xiaosu felt that he was not smart enough to have considered this scenario.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu could tolerate Yu Tong’s antics. As he had stolen some of his business away, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to thoroughly break his living. Thus, he exhorted Yu Tong to return to his medical books and study them well. In the end, not only did he not take his advice, he even plotted against him.

Ren Xiaosu sneered as he looked at Yu Tong, who had turned tail and fled back to town. There was also a puddle on the ground where he had been standing.

Next to him, Wang Fugui laughed and said, “Looks like my intervention was not needed after all. You were going to be alright anyway.”

Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Wang Fugui and thanked him earnestly. He would remember those who were willing to step forward and put in a good word for him in a situation like this.

“Hey, no need to be so polite.” Wang Fugui smiled brightly. “If not for Boss Luo’s appreciation of you, I would’ve been too scared to step forward and speak up for you. Boss Luo specifically sent someone to bring word to the town administrators to look out for you.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “Who’s Boss Luo? Does he know me?”

Wang Fugui winked at him and whispered, “That medicine of yours… Boss Luo likes it a lot!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Ren Xiaosu realized that the black medicine that Wang Fugui purchased from him had been sent into the stronghold.

“Boss Luo has given his word that as long as you hand over a fixed amount of the black medicine on time each month, he will ensure that you’ll be free from trouble here outside the stronghold,” Wang Fugui said with a smile. In reality, he had an ulterior motive for doing this. After all, he could ensure his own safety by acting as the intermediary for Ren Xiaosu’s black medicine that Boss Luo wanted.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu got an idea. “Is Boss Luo very influential and powerful in the stronghold?”

“You still don’t know, do you?” Wang Fugui declared proudly, “He is the Qing Consortium’s representative in Stronghold 113.”

“If he’s the representative of the Qing Consortium, why isn’t his surname Qing?” Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off here.

“Don’t go shooting your mouth off after I tell you.” Wang Fugui lowered his voice to a whisper. “It’s said that he’s the half-brother of some big shot within the Qing Consortium, an illegitimate son of the family.”

“Then can you ask Boss Luo to help get us into the stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu thought that if an influential person like Boss Luo, who had great authority in the stronghold helped them, it wouldn’t be too difficult to get them in, right?

“We’re all contaminated, so how can we be allowed inside the stronghold?” Wang Fugui said with a sad frown. “Besides, if you get into the stronghold, who’s going to pick the wild medicinal herbs for Boss Luo?”

Ren Xiaosu had a realization. The latter half of the sentence was actually the truth as to why he wasn’t going to be allowed into the stronghold, right? For Boss Luo, there was no reason at all to bring Ren Xiaosu and the others in. He could leave them outside the stronghold and have Ren Xiaosu continue supplying him with the black medicine.

That same night, Yan Liuyuan suddenly ran a high fever. Ren Xiaosu exchanged a bottle of black medicine and tried applying it on Yan Liuyuan’s forehead, but it did not make his fever go down.

Ren Xiaosu sat beside the bed and looked at the feeble Yan Liuyuan. He said with a sigh, “You didn’t have to make a wish for this. Don’t make any wishes without me asking you to do so in the future, understand? The fevers that you get as a result could end up killing you.”

Yan Liuyuan could barely open his eyes as he said weakly, “But what am I to do if something happens to you?”

Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and thought for a long time. “Don’t be stubborn. I will definitely ensure that we’ll lead a comfortable life together someday.”

“Mhm.”

…

The next morning, when Ren Xiaosu went to town to fetch water, he was surprised to hear a piece of news. Yu Tong had packed all of his belongings and money and run away in the night. He would rather face the dangers lurking in the wilderness than face Ren Xiaosu.

Someone said that Yu Tong had gone to Stronghold 114 because it was the closest to Stronghold 113 and was also in the opposite direction of where the wolves appeared. As long as he took the main road there, he should be fine.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Yu Tong had actually run away in fear…

However, something that surprised Ren Xiaosu even more happened. Chen Haidong, who was an administrator sent from the stronghold, came knocking on his door. He asked affably, “Ren Xiaosu, I heard that you know how to heal people and save their lives?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “I can only treat knife wounds and external injuries.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine.” Chen Haidong was smiling even more happily now. “That still makes you a doctor. Now that our town no longer has a doctor, do you think you’d be interested in becoming one?”

Yan Liuyuan, who was still lying down in the shack with a fever, opened his eyes in shock. This brother of his had only wanted to earn some gratitude tokens and money initially, so how did he suddenly become a real doctor? Furthermore, he was going to become the only doctor in town too? He didn’t even have to make a wish for that!

Was it because it was unnecessary to make that wish for Ren Xiaosu’s incident last night that it somehow changed his luck?

However, Ren Xiaosu understood that this was only happening because the administrator, Chen Haidong, was also trying to get into Boss Luo’s good books.

Authority made the people around you want to serve you meticulously.

Ren Xiaosu was not dumb. He agreed immediately and said, “About that house at the clinic, can I…”

“Yes, you can.” Chen Haidong said with a friendly smile, “You totally can! You can move in today since no one is living there.”

Chen Haidong then walked off, his hands behind his back, while humming a little ditty. Right after, Old Wang came back with a wooden box tucked under his armpit. After Old Wang arrived, some of the people, who were rumored to be members of the richest group in town and lived in brick houses, also dropped by.

Some of them operated small gambling dens, draper’s shops, and grain shops.

Old Wang said, “Congratulations, Ren Xiaosu! You get to live in a brick house just like that!” During the conversation, Old Wang handed a gift box to Ren Xiaosu. “I got a small present for you and Liuyuan. Since both of you are still growing, eating this will help strengthen your bodies!”

Curious, Ren Xiaosu opened it and was surprised to see a white lump. “What is this?”

“You don’t know what this is, right? I’ve kept this bird’s nest for many years,” Wang Fugui explained. “It’s really nourishing!”

Ren Xiaosu had only heard of this stuff. He had never seen it before. However, he had always had doubts about it. “Mr. Zhang Jinglin said that bird’s nest is made from a swiftlet’s saliva, but I don’t think that the viscosity of saliva can be that thick, so it’s probably made of… phlegm?”

Wang Fugui was annoyed. ‘Don’t make my gift sound so disgusting.’ He said unhappily, “Then what about blood bird’s nest 1 ? What is that made of?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. “Phlegm tainted by blood?”

Chapter 25: A banner

“Give it back to me if you don’t want it. You don’t have to make it sound so disgusting,” Wang Fugui said as he tried to snatch the bird’s nest back.

Ren Xiaosu happily covered up the bird’s nest box and threw it into the shack. “Come on, it was just a joke. I didn’t mean to make it sound disgusting.”

He looked at the people behind Old Wang. Frankly, if he were to address them as esquires, that would be an insult to the word “esquire.”

These people were all holding some gifts in their hands. Actually, everyone here was no stranger to Ren Xiaosu. Their main intention in coming over this time was to exchange civilities with Ren Xiaosu. What this meant was that they had accepted him into their circle, and they were all going to be friends from now on.

Ren Xiaosu did not stand on ceremony with them. Yan Liuyuan was still lying in bed and recuperating at this moment, so if there were tonics for them, why not?

“Ren Xiaosu.” Old Wang pulled him aside and said, “You should move into the clinic as soon as possible. There are two other houses attached behind the clinic, and it comes with a yard measuring over a dozen square meters. A lot of people are already eyeing the place!”

“Um, OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. He was still quite polite towards Wang Fugui.

“Furthermore, Boss Luo has gotten his people to send you some medical supplies from the stronghold. These are all worth quite a bit of money. I’ve already told them to send the supplies to the clinic. The most expensive ones are the anti-inflammatory pills and anesthetics. You had better keep an eye on them,” Wang Fugui whispered. “There are people who steal anesthetics as a substitute for their smoking addiction when they can’t get their hands on cigarettes. I’ve suffered losses from such cases.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He didn’t think that anesthetics had such an effect. However, it was still good to have someone give him things for free. Hoping for more, he asked, “Did he send anything else?”

“There’s a banner as well.”

…

In the morning, Ren Xiaosu and Xiaoyu threw their belongings together in a pack and headed to the clinic. Who would want to live in a shack when they could live in a brick house with bright windows and clean tables?

He had already planned for Yan Liuyuan and himself to live in one of the two rear houses, while Xiaoyu could live in the other.

Xiaoyu had initially lived in a brick house. After that, she moved into a shack for the sake of these two “younger brothers.” Now that Xiaoyu could live in a brick house again, one of Ren Xiaosu’s wishes could be considered fulfilled.

But when Ren Xiaosu walked into the clinic carrying Yan Liuyuan on his back, he was dumbfounded.

He saw a banner hanging in the middle of the clinic’s wall. It was emblazoned with the words “Magic hands restore spring—From Luo Lan.”

According to Wang Fugui, as long as the banner was hanging in the clinic, no one would dare to do anything to Ren Xiaosu. But of course, Ren Xiaosu would first have to not involve himself in anything that went against Luo Lan’s interests.

This would act as a talisman for them, even though it made Ren Xiaosu feel very uncomfortable. He did not know if Luo Lan had casually instructed his people to make the banner or if he was deliberately teasing him.

‘It’s probably the former, right?’ After all, in Luo Lan’s eyes, Ren Xiaosu was only a refugee who sold medicine outside of the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu helped Yan Liuyuan get settled in. Ren Xiaosu did not tell Xiaoyu about Yan Liuyuan’s condition last night because he was afraid to disturb her sleep. She only found out about it this morning, so she was feeling terrible.

Yan Liuyuan was thoroughly enjoying Xiaoyu’s meticulous care for him. Suddenly, he thought of how he always used to make fun of her, so he said weakly, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, I’m sorry for behaving the way I did in the past.”

Xiaoyu looked at him. “The two of you are imps, so there’s no need to apologize to your sister. But if you weren’t more mature than the other kids, you wouldn’t have survived until now.”

“That’s mainly because my brother is amazing.” Yan Liuyuan laughed.

“I wonder how much hardship that kid has had to suffer through the years.” Xiaoyu sighed.

“Countless hardships,” replied Yan Liuyuan calmly.

Ren Xiaosu was currently browsing through and checking the medicine that was left behind in the clinic, as well as the new medical supplies sent over on the orders of Luo Lan. Perhaps someone had informed Boss Luo that he specialized in treating wounds, as he had sent a lot more anesthetics and anti-inflammatory pills over.

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed when he saw that there were fever relievers and antidotes inside the crate of medicine. He brought the anti-inflammatory pills, fever relievers, and antidotes to Yan Liuyuan and made him take them. The main symptom of Yan Liuyuan’s illness was the inflammation of the tonsils caused by excessive internal heat 1 . It didn’t matter if this medicine was suitable for the symptoms. It would cure the illness.

There were also some medicinal herbs in the clinic. Some of the cabinets had the names of medicinal herbs written on them and the treatment suggestions for the different types of symptoms. Ren Xiaosu lamented how Yu Tong did not cherish his chances even though he had such a good father.

That same night, Yan Liuyuan’s fever finally subsided. Only then did Ren Xiaosu heave a sigh of relief. He said to Xiaoyu, “You can brew the tonics that those people brought over. You and Liuyuan can eat them.”

“Alright.” Xiaoyu nodded and went to make dinner.

Recently, the three of them were just like siblings and were at ease around each other. Sometimes, fate was a wonderful thing. These three who did not seem to fit together did just that.

When Xiaoyu returned with the dishes, she shouted for Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan to eat. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and said, “Xiaoyu, since you’ll be living next door from now on, you can use the place as your bridal chamber when you get married.”

Xiaoyu’s expression changed right as she was about to pass a bowl of rice to Ren Xiaosu. “You’re getting sick of me so soon? Do I eat a lot? Or do I waste money?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, that’s not what I meant….”

“Then what did you mean?” Xiaoyu took the bowl back and said spitefully, “Ren Xiaosu, you’re such a heartless person. You’re eating the food that I cooked and you still wish to kick me out? Even if I fed it to a dog, I wouldn’t let you eat it.”

Xiaoyu then shoved the bowl into Yan Liuyuan’s hands and said, “Finish the rice.”

Yan Liuyuan was confused.

After saying that, Xiaoyu was the first to break into laughter. Then Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan laughed along.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly felt that Xiaoyu looked tender and gentle when she was laughing. It was just a pity that… she was born in the wrong era.

“Xiaosu, what plans do you have for the future?” Xiaoyu asked as she ate.

“I’ve no plans at the moment. I’m just gonna take it one step at a time,” Ren Xiaosu said. He was still most concerned about the quest weapon that had yet to be unlocked.

Ren Xiaosu’s initial wish was to ensure that he and Yan Liuyuan could carry on living well. But when he realized that he had a superpower, he couldn’t help thinking that there was more that he desired now.

For now, the repeatable quest was not complete. He still had to successfully treat ten patients.

He didn’t know what the new quest would reward him with. As for the mysterious vending machine, would there be any other products besides the black medicine?

All these unknowns were awaiting discovery.

Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu with much anticipation. “Bro, what are we going to do tomorrow? Can I help you treat the patients?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “Why? Are you well again?”

“Yes,” Yan Liuyuan replied. Having finished dinner, he was in rather good spirits. “I’m feeling fine already.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Go to school if you’re fine then.”

“OK…”

Chapter 26: Save the mother or the baby?

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic’s door and observed the surroundings. This was probably the first time in many years that he found the morning air in town refreshing.

After The Cataclysm, the sky was covered with a strange haze most of the time. The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, said that a huge amount of dust particles were blasted into the sky during The Cataclysm. It not only blocked sunlight for photosynthesis, but the climate also became extremely cold, and acid rains were a frequent phenomenon as well.

The situation had gradually improved in recent decades, with the sun being visible for most of the year now.

Ren Xiaosu’s clinic was across from the grocery store. The moment he opened his door, he saw Wang Fugui coming out of his store with two freshly baked sweet potatoes in his hands. “Xiaosu, come, have some sweet potatoes!”

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t help but sigh. Before this, he found it difficult to even ask for a free needle to sew his clothes with from Old Wang. Even free thread for sewing clothes was impossible to get, let alone a needle.

But now this scrooge took the initiative to offer him sweet potatoes…

Ren Xiaosu looked at how cheerful Wang Fugui was. Since someone gave him a gift, he should probably give something back to reciprocate, right? He smacked his lips and said, “I don’t have much to give in return, but I’ve got plenty of anesthetics to go around. Why don’t I give you a free shot of it?”

“How can you offer to give me a shot of something like that?” Wang Fugui’s expression darkened. He asked, “Say, you haven’t been out to gather any medicinal herbs for the past few days. Would you happen to still have any of that medicine left?”

“Yes, I’ve got anti-inflammatory pills, anesthetics, and cough and mucus medicine,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“I mean, do you still have that black medicine available?” Wang Fugui was slightly embarrassed.

“Didn’t you just buy some not long ago?” Ren Xiaosu asked knowingly.

“That was for the big shots in the stronghold, so stop acting dumb. If I didn’t send the medicine in, do you think you would have taken over this clinic so easily?” Wang Fugui complained. “To tell you the truth, I was only planning to give it to Chen Haidong at the beginning. I don’t understand how it made its way into Boss Luo’s hands in the end….”

Wang Fugui did not really understand how the black medicine made its way up the ranks. He wondered how many more dosages were left by the time it got delivered into Boss Luo’s hands.

“Here.” Ren Xiaosu took out two small porcelain vials. Yesterday, he bought a small vial of black medicine to treat Yan Liuyuan’s fever. There were still two dosages left, so he separated them into different packaging a while ago. “1200 yuan, and not a single yuan less.”

“I’ll be sending one of these vials into the stronghold.” Wang Fugui stared. “Don’t you feel embarrassed about how much you’re charging me?”

“Take it or leave it.” Ren Xiaosu prepared to put the black medicine back into his pocket.

In the end, Wang Fugui did not hesitate. He decisively held Ren Xiaosu’s arm and completed the transaction with cash. After that, Wang Fugui even thanked him!

“Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!”

Eh? Ren Xiaosu felt that Wang Fugui was quite an interesting person. His two “thank yous” so far had earned Ren Xiaosu two gratitude tokens!

However, Ren Xiaosu found it a little pitiful to give away the medicine just like that. Also, why were his gratitude tokens dwindling? He only had four tokens left.

But he weighed the pros and cons. As he wanted Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu to have a better life in town, it was essential to foster ties with people in the stronghold.

Besides, the black medicine was not exactly given away for nothing, so why not?

Thinking this, Ren Xiaosu sighed. He would have to see if he could gain more gratitude from the people now that he had been appointed as the clinic’s doctor.

Ren Xiaosu’s top priority was to go out to gather more medicinal herbs. As he was a cautious person, he had to pull out all the stops. It would be bad if he aroused the suspicion of others.

Otherwise, when people talked about him in the future, they might just go, “So-and-so’s superpower is to make an iceberg appear out of thin air and drop it on a city, while so-and-so has a power that can cut through mountains.” Meanwhile, when they talked about Ren Xiaosu, they would say, “His superpower is to create that kind of medicine.” That would be too damn embarrassing.

After Ren Xiaosu reached the wilderness, he couldn’t help but look for where he buried the pistol. He had to be sure that no one else found it before he could feel at ease. The handgun was now the greatest reliance he had. He couldn’t let any of his plan go wrong.

Even though he possessed a Strength of 4.5 and Dexterity of 4.1 now, humans still couldn’t outrun or win against a gun.

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the clinic carrying a bamboo basket on his back, he saw Xiaoyu looking uncomfortable trying to help a couple who had come to the clinic for a consultation.

The moment she saw that Ren Xiaosu had returned, she turned her eyes to him, signaling for help. “Xiaosu, attend to the patients quickly.”

Ren Xiaosu placed the bamboo basket on the ground and asked, “What injuries do the two of you have? I’ll have you know you’ve come to the right place.”

“That’s great.” The man said, “We aren’t injured, but my wife, who’s four months pregnant, suddenly got some pain in her stomach this morning. I was afraid that something might have happened, so we came to see if you could treat her.”

Ren Xiaosu froze. Although he was a doctor, he had no idea how to treat something like this!

In these current times, there was no such thing as andrology and gynecology. The mindset of the refugees in town was to go to the clinic whenever they felt ill.

This put Ren Xiaosu in a difficult position. He had said those boastful words and was now faced with the expectations of the couple, so surely he could not disgrace himself, right?

Ren Xiaosu tried hard to remember the lessons that Mr. Zhang had taught in school and the books that he had read there to think of a way to deal with this problem he was facing. What would doctors commonly say to expectant mothers and their family members?

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. “Do you want to save the mother or the baby?”

The couple was confused.

The man grew furious. “You’re a quack, right? My wife is only experiencing some stomach pain and you asking me whether I want to save the mother or the baby? The problem is, my wife is only four months pregnant! Where would I put the baby if I chose to save it?!”

Ren Xiaosu thought it sounded quite logical.

This time he said with a sigh, “I’m really sorry to the two of you. I was in the wrong. To be honest, I don’t know a thing about gynecology. If I continued fooling you, that would be unforgivable. The previous doctor also wouldn’t know how to treat her since he really was a quack.”

It had to be said that Ren Xiaosu could easily kill someone without blinking his eyes if they deserved to die, but he couldn’t do something against his conscience like lying to an expectant mother.

Ren Xiaosu continued, “My suggestion is that you go to school and borrow some books from Mr. Zhang to read and let your wife eat and drink well most days. Then it will depend on fate for whether she gives birth smoothly or not. I won’t con any money from you two. On top of that, don’t go around buying random medicine from other people. I know that you shouldn’t take any medicine when you’re pregnant. There’s a high probability that it will lead to malformation of the child in the womb. If you don’t believe me, you can check with Mr. Zhang or borrow some books from him on how to prevent a miscarriage.”

The couple looked at each other as they did not expect Ren Xiaosu to say something like that. The man thought for a while. “I feel that you’re a little better than the previous doctor. The last time I got sick, he was so afraid that I wouldn’t buy his medicine. However, my health did not improve even after taking his medicine. I had to pull through and recover by myself.”

The pregnant woman stood up and said with a smile, “Thank you, doctor.”

“Gratitude received from Qin Jiajia, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He did almost nothing this time, but he still gained a gratitude out of the blue.

Chapter 27: Giving in to temptation

Ren Xiaosu felt a little puzzled. He was merely telling the truth, yet somehow, he still received the patient’s gratitude.

Both Yan Liuyuan and he had the mindset that people would only be grateful if they were given something for free.

Ren Xiaosu had attended one of Mr. Zhang Jinglin’s class where he described how great human civility used to be. This made him wonder why the graciousness that took several thousand years to build up had collapsed so quickly.

Today, this couple made Ren Xiaosu gain a vague understanding. However, he could not quite put a finger on what it was.

On the same day, Ren Xiaosu had Xiaoyu take down the sign that was hung outside the clinic to sew on the additional word “wounds” before the word “clinic.”

He’d lied, cheated, and stolen many times, but he only did them selectively.

Today, Ren Xiaosu made a decision. From now on, he would only treat illnesses that he could treat. If he couldn’t, then so be it.

In the end, none of the patients that came today suffered from any sort of wounds. Instead, all of them had aches and ailments that he did not know how to treat. To his surprise, when he told these patients that he honestly couldn’t do anything for them, he still managed to raise the number of gratitude tokens to ten at the end of the day, without even having to use any of the black medicine!

Ren Xiaosu sat in the clinic in a state of confusion. What the fuck was going on?

He didn’t know everyone had accumulated grievances with the previous doctor, Yu Tong, over a long period of time. Through Ren Xiaosu’s actions, those who had gone to seek treatment from him started publicizing him. “I think Ruthless Ren Xiaosu is a much better person than that previous bastard of a doctor, Yu Tong! If he doesn’t know how to treat your illness, he will never try to make money off you by prescribing medicine on a whim!”

When some busybodies heard about this, they thought, ‘Wow, there’s even something like that?’ Then they went to the clinic to check it out.

While they had their fun, Ren Xiaosu was feeling hard done by. The number of patients that consulted him exceeded the number of gratitude tokens he earned by at least ten times!

Some of them complained of headaches while others thought that their faces had suddenly swelled up. The fact that someone even came to him to get their fortune told left Ren Xiaosu speechless.

But once Ren Xiaosu made up his mind on something, he would make sure to do it. He advised the townspeople and sent them away like how he had explained things to the couple.

Afterwards, the townspeople realized that Ren Xiaosu really did not charge at a whim for his medical services.

Their initial impression of Ren Xiaosu was that he was a very ruthless person. This was because the young Ren Xiaosu had to take care of Yan Liuyuan and wanted to gain a foothold in this town. As such, he had to compete bravely and ruthlessly against others to have even a slim chance of survival.

Later, everyone’s impression of him changed to… drug dealer.

But right now, everyone was beginning to think that if they ever received a wound, they would immediately go to the clinic to get treated by Ren Xiaosu.

Such word of mouth had come from nowhere and puzzled Ren Xiaosu greatly.

At noon, Xiaoyu went to town with her basket to buy some groceries. During this recent period, they could afford the better things in life as their savings reached 3,400 yuan. As such, they could also get better raw ingredients from the town’s market.

Xiaoyu would even buy some fine salt and pigskin occasionally. The texture of fine salt in the mouth was quite different from that of coarse salt, while oil from the pigskin was extracted to be used for frying.

There were pig farms located outside of this town. Domesticated pigs had also evolved after The Cataclysm, but as long as they were neutered while they were young, they would grow up to be very docile animals.

Without a doubt, humans were the most adaptable species and were good at utilizing the environment around them. No other species came close.

Usually, the good meat from these pigs was shipped into the stronghold for consumption. Only a tiny quantity of the remainder would remain in town for sale.

In the past, Yan Liuyuan dreamed of getting into the stronghold as one of his biggest wishes was to eat meat.

Xiaoyu returned to the clinic with a basketful of vegetables. The moment she came in, she beamed and said, “My, oh, my, Xiaosu, do you know that the townspeople are praising you to the high heavens?”

Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Xiaoyu smiled and started cutting up the vegetables. “Our Xiaosu has become a doctor now, so your future wife will surely be the best possible candidate in town. When you get married and have children, I’ll help you take care of them.”

Ren Xiaosu grew uncomfortable. “I’ve never thought about that before.”

Xiaoyu got upset. “How old do you think you are? It’s time you started thinking about it. Oh, I also bought some peanuts today. I wonder where the townspeople dug them up from. I’ll cook some for both of you in a bit.”

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan came back from school. Nowadays, he could also eat lunch when he returned home at noon just like the other students. He used to bring two potatoes with him to school every morning and eat them for lunch.

After coming through the door, he spotted some peanuts in the basket and immediately picked one up. But before he could shell it, Xiaoyu slapped it out of his hand. “Don’t you eat that. There’s still dirt on it.”

Yan Liuyuan angrily banged on the table. “Why is a person as beautiful as you stopping me from having peanuts!”

Sister Xiaoyu broke into a smile again and said, “Alright, alright, you can eat them.”

While shelling the peanuts, Yan Liuyuan told Ren Xiaosu, “Bro, a lot of people gathered outside the school today. During our classes, Mr. Zhang wouldn’t allow any of them in. But as soon as classes finished, all of them rushed in. I don’t even know what happened. Do you want to go and have a look?”

“Ah?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Then an ominous feeling rose inside him.

A familiar figure angrily made his way in. It was the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin.

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. “Mr. Zhang, you’re here? Would you like to join us for lunch?”

“Lunch? My ass!” Zhang Jinglin said angrily, “If you can’t treat the illness, then don’t do it! Why did you have to direct everyone to go and look for me!”

Ren Xiaosu had said to the couple, “If you don’t believe me, you can check with Mr. Zhang or borrow some books from him on how to prevent a miscarriage.”

As Ren Xiaosu felt that this method was pretty useful, he gave the same advice to every patient who consulted him during the morning.

Zhang Jinglin said resentfully, “If they were just normal illnesses, I could have let it slide. But you even referred someone with athlete’s foot to me! You don’t know just how bad it smelled when that guy took off his shoes! Fortunately, I was able to escape in time!”

Ren Xiaosu was embarrassed. He smiled apologetically. “That’s only because I think you’re knowledgeable and learnèd.”

Zhang Jinglin was on the verge of a breakdown. “I’m just a teacher. If you can’t treat the illness, do you think I can treat it? If you push any more patients onto me in the future, I will make sure to give Yan Liuyuan endless homework to do!”

Yan Liuyuan was still shelling peanuts and was confused. ‘Why are you dragging me into your conflict!’

Ren Xiaosu grabbed some peanuts and stuffed them into Zhang Jinglin’s hands. “Don’t worry, I won’t do that anymore. I really won’t, I promise!”

Zhang Jinglin thought for a while before returning to the school while shelling and munching on the peanuts.

Chapter 28: Caught off guard

As night fell, Ren Xiaosu felt that his life was starting to get better. At this moment, he was staring at the ten gratitude tokens that he had accumulated inside the palace. He was thinking about how great it would be if he could unlock the weapon soon.

Yan Liuyuan was sleeping soundly next to him. During the afternoon class, the students wanted Ren Xiaosu to share more of his stories about the wolves due to the recent incident in town. For example, they wanted to know what they should do or how they could escape if they ever encountered a wolf pack.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not want to talk about this and continued sharing his knowledge of wilderness survival with the students. He felt that if there came a day that these children encountered wolves in the wilderness, they were more likely to perish than anything. The physical differences between humans and today’s beasts ensured such an outcome. That was not something that he could help with by teaching them.

Rather than teaching them how to hunt and kill wild animals, it was better to teach them how to find food and water to preserve their lives if they did not encounter the wolves.

Being killed by the wolves was a kind of helplessness. But if they starved to death, that would be too unworthy.

Most unforgivable was not that the contents of the lecture were not to the expectations of the students, but that Ren Xiaosu held the class behind to give the lesson. This led the students becoming aggravated with him. They even went home and complained to their parents.

But what the students did not know was that while they did not dare to provoke Ren Xiaosu, their parents were also afraid of doing so.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard an unusual noise coming from behind the yard’s wall. The person who made that sound seemed to be extremely cautious about something. However, someone like Ren Xiaosu, who had often survived out in the wilderness, had to be alert to any sound or movement. He might die if he wasn’t.

He immediately blew out the kerosene lamp in the room and quietly made his way into the yard.

Ren Xiaosu hid at the bottom of the wall and carefully listened to the movements on the other side.

He heard someone leap onto the wall from outside. That person grabbed the top of the wall with their hands and then pulled themselves up with both hands before finally leaping over the wall and into the yard.

While still in midair, the man looked down at the ground and happened to spot Ren Xiaosu, who was sizing him up with a curious look.

the next second, he saw Ren Xiaosu fall into a squat and draw his arms back. It was as though he was gathering up all of his strength before letting it burst!

He threw a punch that could split a mountain apart, aiming it straight at the crotch of the uninvited guest! The uninvited guest tried to dodge the attack. He was quite skillful and could easily counter the danger by putting his knees together and using them to strike Ren Xiaosu.

But Ren Xiaosu was much quicker than he expected

“Wait… ahhh!” The uninvited guest lost his balance and fell to the ground in pain. He clutched his privates and chuffed in agony.

At this moment, footfalls thudded from outside. It seemed like more than one person had come. Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at the person who was lying on the ground. He could not tell the identity of the person from his attire.

A second later, another two figures jumped in.

“Wait… ahhh!”

“Fuck!”

Another two people were left rolling on the ground.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. If he had to give an assessment of their skills, it was probably just average. But if he were blunt, these people would not even last one round against him.

Someone knocked on the front door. A familiar voice said, “Open up.”

Ren Xiaosu remembered this voice. It was the officer who had led the private army to search the entire town.

Suddenly, he realized that these people were from the stronghold’s private army. However, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why these people were so weak.

In reality, they weren’t weak. Although the stronghold’s private troops often neglected their training, normal people couldn’t deal with them so easily.

These private troops had heard from someone that Ren Xiaosu was well-known for being ruthless. But from their point of view, how strong could a refugee be?

Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan, who were sound asleep in the house, had been woken up. They put on their clothes and came out to see what the commotion was about. “What’s the matter?”

“Get back into the house.” Ren Xiaosu then went to open the door for the officer. He wondered why the private army’s troops would intrude on their property by climbing over the wall while dressed in civilian clothing.

It was quite obvious that they were trying to catch him off guard and had come back to check on the most suspicious person in the “missing gun” case. Perhaps these private troops were eager to answer to the higher-ups but were also afraid of offending Boss Luo.

It would be fine if they could find the evidence. Boss Luo was not the only person who called the shots in Stronghold 113. Besides, he might not necessarily think that highly of Ren Xiaosu. But if they could not find the gun, they might end up facing the wrath of Boss Luo.

Logically speaking, after getting searched the first time, and with Boss Luo’s influence in this matter, most people would not expect the private troops to return again and continue the search.

What if he had brought the gun back with him when he went out to gather medicinal herbs the previous time? Then he would have placed himself in great danger. According to Wang Fugui, the factory manager that he had killed was also from quite an influential family within the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. They were trespassing on his property tonight. Furthermore, this was the second time they were searching him. Based on the circumstances, he should be in the right. However, who could he possibly reason with here, outside of the stronghold?

Reasoning was determined by the size of one’s fist, but his fist was not big enough yet.

Ren Xiaosu had beaten up three of the soldiers in a single breath, so he felt that they would not let the matter slide so easily. After this incident, Ren Xiaosu knew that he would have to remind himself to be even more cautious and not underestimate anyone at all.

In fact, the officer who was standing at the door with about a dozen men was also enraged. He could not accept the fact that his soldiers could not even handle a simple refugee like Ren Xiaosu and that he had to come in to save them!

If this got out, his reputation would take a big hit! So there had to be a conclusion to this matter today.

Right when he was about to tell his men to kick the door open, the clinic’s door opened by itself.

The soldiers standing outside the door were confused. They saw Ren Xiaosu wrapped in a large banner that had the words “Magic hands restore spring—From Luo Lan” on it.

The officer fell silent for a while, then laughed in spite of himself. What was this? Using the banner to protect himself?!

Ren Xiaosu was on full alert as he scrutinized the officer’s expression. He was mainly worried that the officer would get impulsive and take revenge even though he saw the banner that was wrapped around his body.

However, the officer skirted around him and went straight in. “Search!”

Ren Xiaosu followed them and said, “Didn’t you already search me?”

The officer’s expression darkened when he saw his soldiers still rolling around in the yard. “Buncha good-for-nothings.”

He turned to Ren Xiaosu. “My name is Wang Congyang. If you want to get Boss Luo to stand up for you, you can tell him my name.”

“How can I?” Ren Xiaosu grinned sarcastically and said, “It’s not like you’ve done anything wrong.”

Wang Congyang sized up Ren Xiaosu. After several minutes of searching by his men, they came out and reported, “We couldn’t find anything.”

Wang Congyang immediately led his soldiers out. Before he left, he turned around and smiled ambiguously at Ren Xiaosu. “If only you were born in the stronghold. That would have been great. You make a much better soldier than this buncha wastes of space.”

Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The factory manager was named Wang Dongyang. Could it be that this Wang Congyang was related to him in some way?

No wonder this man did not give up on investigating him. It was because he was trying to track down the murderer.

Chapter 29: The sorrows of our era

When Ren Xiaosu found out that the officer’s name was Wang Congyang, he was shocked. He was very worried that this fellow would start relentlessly pursuing him.

At dawn, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic’s door and saw Wang Fugui sweeping the grocery store with a broom. When Wang Fugui saw him, he put the broom aside and walked over. He lowered his voice and asked, “What happened last night?”

“It was nothing.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “The stronghold’s private army still suspects me and conducted another search.”

Wang Fugui spat in anger. He said indignantly, “They always treat us refugees as thieves. Even after I told them that you had the backing of Boss Luo, they still dared to come and search a second time?”

“Alright, alright, you can stop putting on an act.” Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui in a speechless manner. “Why are you feeling so disgruntled for me?”

Wang Fugui started to laugh. “You can rest assured that you’ll be alright. I’ve sent a new batch of black medicine into the stronghold.”

Right at this moment, a man sprinted over with a bleeding arm. When the man was still a distance away from the clinic, he shouted, “Doctor! Please save me!”

The man was probably frightened because his arm was bleeding heavily. However, Ren Xiaosu knew at a glance that this man’s wound was nothing serious.

In town, nothing serious meant not having to die.

It had to be said that the refugees had quite a broad outlook on life. Other than matters concerning life and death, nothing was considered too serious.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Come in. You’re not that badly hurt, so you won’t die. How did you get injured?”

“I was on my way to work at the factory, but I realized that I had forgotten to bring something. I ended up going back home to get it, but I discovered that there was someone in my shack stealing my stuff. I tried to catch him, but he slashed me with his knife,” the man explained. “Doctor, will I really be alright? I’ve already lost so much blood.”

“You’ll be fine,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

When the man heard that he would not die, he calmed down a little. Ren Xiaosu took another look at his wound and wondered if he should use the anesthetics that he recently received and had yet to use.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the man and said, “We have anesthetics here. After the injection, you won’t feel any pain while we’re treating the wound.”

“Is that so?” The man was taken aback. “Do I have to pay for it?”

“Of course!” Ren Xiaosu snapped. “Would I give you such an expensive drug if I didn’t need you to pay? Look at the size of your wound. It’s at least ten centimeters long. You’re gonna die from the pain if I sew it up with a needle on a wound this long.”

Ren Xiaosu was actually telling the truth. As the wound was too large, he would have to be very careful when applying the black medicine on it. Otherwise, a single dosage would not even be enough.

So he was truly worried that this man would not be able to tolerate the pain.

At this moment, Xiaoyu came out holding a metallic tray with a syringe and a small bottle of anesthetics on it. The syringe was from the equipment that was left behind in the clinic.

Due to the state of medical treatment available, they did not have any disposable syringes and needles. Therefore, they had to properly disinfect the equipment each time they used them. Based on best practices, this was definitely the wrong way of doing it. But what could Ren Xiaosu do about that?

The best he could do was to disinfect the equipment properly, like sterilizing the needle over a flame for a little longer.

This time, Xiaoyu waited for the needle to cool down before she used it to suture the wound. But just as she was about to use it, she had a dilemma. “Xiaosu, should I administer the anesthetic inside or outside the wound?”

They had never used anesthetics before, so Xiaoyu was wondering whether the anesthetic would be more effective if it was administered into the wound.

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had also not thought about it before. “I’m not sure.”

The man beside them listened to their conversation and nearly pissed his pants. “So you’ve never used anesthetics before? Do you even know how to treat wounds in the first place?”

The man had heard before that Ren Xiaosu could treat wounds. Coupled with Ren Xiaosu’s good reputation in town, he immediately thought of coming here to get himself looked at.

However, it didn’t seem like that was the case!

“So where should I administer it, Xiaosu?” Xiaoyu asked.

Ren Xiaosu saw the patient’s expression and gave it some thought. “Why don’t you administer it on his leg instead? Prevent him from running away afterwards.”

The patient was surprised.

…

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.

“Quest: Successfully treat 20 patients.”

Even though Ren Xiaosu had completed the repeatable quest for the third time by successfully treating 10 patients throughout the day, his gratitude tokens fell from ten to eight. Many of the patients did not give him any gratitude even after they had been successfully treated.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that his life was extraordinarily enriching.

During the morning, he would attend to patients at the clinic. During the afternoon, he would take over his duties as the substitute teacher at school. At night, he would chat with Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan out in the yard. He had tilled the soil in the yard and planned to plant some vegetables. One of his greatest wishes from before was to have a yard he could plant scallions, garlic seedlings, and various vegetables.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu felt that his strength had almost doubled to that of a normal adult male, and his muscle had become denser.

Ren Xiaosu asked his mind palace, “What are my current Strength and Dexterity?”

The voice from the palace answered, “You have a Strength of 5.5 and a Dexterity of 4.1.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. It seemed that his attributes were relatively balanced for now, and it was unlikely that he would suddenly look like a beefcake.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, “Bro, why didn’t you treat all the patients? Every one of them represents money to be made.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “I don’t know how to treat them.”

“The previous doctor didn’t know how to treat them either, yet he still treated everyone who came to the clinic.” Yan Liuyuan thought about it and questioned him again.

“We can’t learn from him.” Ren Xiaosu explained, “Take a look at his current plight. Did anyone offer to help him when he was in trouble? As people, we need to have inviolable principles.”

“But if something happens to us, others may not help either,” Yan Liuyuan muttered with his head lowered. “Since they won’t help us, why should we be so kind to them? These days, there are a lot of people who can’t wait to see us fall.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan with a serious expression. He knew that Yan Liuyuan was still young and that his values were still in their formative stage. The environment Yan Liuyuan lived in had ensured he would suffer plenty of malice from the outside world.

Ren Xiaosu had to admit that Yan Liuyuan was right. In this era, everyone was selfish. Selfishness was such a natural thing that even the intention to harm others was seen as normal. But Ren Xiaosu had to make Yan Liuyuan understand that they should not be like the others just because it was the norm.

“Liuyuan, remember this.” Ren Xiaosu said seriously, “Don’t let the sorrows of our era become your sorrow as well.”

Yan Liuyuan fell deep into thought while Xiaoyu looked at the two brothers with glistening eyes. She suddenly felt that as long as Ren Xiaosu was with Yan Liuyuan, he would never take a wrong path in his life.

A hubbub burst from outside. Someone exclaimed, “The band is back! Didn’t they go to Stronghold 112? Why did they come back?”

“Right, and that guy who went as their guide isn’t among them anymore!”

Ren Xiaosu looked up and suddenly thought of the cap-wearing girl with Perfect Firearms Proficiency.

Chapter 30: Ren Xiaosu, that guy who’s sick in the head

The band was back? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled by this. It would have taken them at least two months to go back and forth from Stronghold 112 and here.

Calculating the time, it was probably only a week since the band left. So… they couldn’t have reached Stronghold 112 at all. In fact, they wouldn’t even have reached the foot of the Jing Mountains.

In theory, there shouldn’t be any danger along the way other than the wolves. But the appearance of the wolves here in town was staggered with the band’s timing. If the band had actually encountered the wolf pack, they probably wouldn’t have made it back alive.

After all, the wolves were no longer afraid of gunshots!

When he remembered the wolves, Ren Xiaosu got a little worried. When the subject of the wolves was brought up during a conversation with Wang Fugui yesterday, Wang Fugui revealed that he learned some news from one of the town administrators, Chen Haidong. He said that the wolves had suffered heavy casualties after ambushing the private troops, and the entire wolf pack had retreated in the direction of Stronghold 111 to hide in Mount Yang. They presumed that the wolves would not dare to come back here again.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not think so. The wolves had also gone away once before, but didn’t they still come back? And they were even more ferocious than ever!

What had caused these wolves to evolve again? Ren Xiaosu didn’t know.

Ren Xiaosu was watching the commotion through the clinic’s window. He saw the refugees in town coming out of their shacks as they watched silently. They were very curious about the band initially, but when they realized that something might have happened to them, they became even more curious.

When the band departed from here, they had with them four off-road vehicles. However, only one of those was left, and it was even moving slowly. The stronghold’s celebrity, Luo Xinyu, and three private soldiers sat in it while others followed behind on foot. Their outfits were all torn to pieces.

Yan Liuyuan wondered, “When they left, they were all prim and proper. Now that they’re back, why have they become like us?”

Although their current lives had improved, there was still a lack of water. The refugees were always treated equally when it came to the allocation of any water. The stronghold was very strict about this administration.

So if there was any excess water at home, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan would automatically let Xiaoyu use it to wash up. Meanwhile, they would brush their teeth with a little bit of the water.

What it really meant to brush teeth was to dip a willow twig into some coarse salt and scrape their teeth with it. After brushing for some time, they would then gargle water in their mouths to rinse.

When the dirty-looking Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan saw that the people in the band had also become like them, they felt a little happy on the inside.

The cap-wearing girl with Perfect Firearms Proficiency was also walking behind the off-road vehicle with holes all over her clothes. But when Ren Xiaosu examined her, he realized that although she looked pathetic just like everyone else in the band, her steps were still light and steady.

From this observation alone, the cap-wearing girl was much stronger than the accompanying private troops.

Of course, this was also what Ren Xiaosu had expected. After all, how could someone withPerfect Firearms Proficiency be outshone by those private troops?

The celebrity, Luo Xinyu, who was in the off-road vehicle, ordered, “Run along and report to the stronghold that we’re going in. Don’t let these refugees look at us like we’re monkeys.”

When the private troops received this order, they pointed the black muzzles of their automatic rifles at the refugees. One of them said ruthlessly, “Return to your respective pigsties.”

When the refugees saw the private troops getting ready to take action after being annoyed, the refugees hid back into their shacks.

“Another thing!” Luo Xinyu said coldly, “Go and find that Wang Fugui!”

The clamor of voices in town died away. Everyone only dared to talk in whispers within their own shacks. If they felt that chatting among the family was not enough, they could also chat with their next-door neighbors through the curtain doors. Those were not soundproof anyway.

Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were leaning on the windowsill as they looked outside. They saw that the band was divided into two groups. One group went to process the clearance for entry into the stronghold while another headed straight for Wang Fugui’s grocery store.

“Bro, why are they looking for Old Wang?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“They could be looking to settle the score with him. He was the one who recommended the guide, after all. That hunter who went as their guide didn’t come back with them, so who knows whether he was the one who led them into trouble and made them have to come back earlier in such a pathetic state.” Ren Xiaosu gave a rough assessment of the situation.

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips sympathetically. When the guide was leaving town, he had given Ren Xiaosu a pompous look. But who could have known it would turn out to be farewell for him.

Ren Xiaosu saw the group of people knocking on the door at Wang Fugui’s grocery store. Wang Fugui leisurely opened it from the inside and seemed to be quite calm.

Ren Xiaosu had been a little worried about Wang Fugui. However, when he saw him looking so calm, he thought that maybe there wasn’t a need to worry for him.

The people in the off-road vehicle got out as well. Luo Xinyu was dressed in white casual wear, or rather, it had been white at first. She stared at Wang Fugui and questioned, “What kind of guide did you recommend to us?”

Wang Fugui asked, “What’s the matter?”

He was truly a little curious. Since that person was supposedly an experienced hunter, it was unlikely that he would make any rookie mistakes. So why were these people so angry?

“You dare to ask what’s the matter?” Luo Xinyu said coldly, “Before we could even get near the Jing Mountains, he had taken us in the wrong direction. We couldn’t figure out our exact location even after trying for three days.”

A lot of people knew that it was possible to drive to the Jing Mountains because there was a gravel road in the canyon where there likely had been a riverbed. But for some reason, that river had dried up.

Of course, ordinary cars couldn’t go on this road. But it wasn’t difficult at all for off-road vehicles.

This showed that the guide was not even able to lead the band to that road.

“So, where is he now?” Old Wang asked startled.

“He died before he could find the way.” A private soldier said coldly, “As a hunter from around here, he didn’t even know that there was danger in the waters. When he went to wash up at the riverbank in the morning, his face got bitten to a bloody pulp by something. When we found him, he was already dead! What’s more, there were so many cruel monkeys on the route that he took us by. We almost didn’t make it back alive!”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. No, there was something very wrong here. He had never heard of any fish in the nearby rivers that bit people…. Was it really a fish?

Wang Fugui leaned against the doorframe of the grocery store and said, “Oh, so that’s what happened eh? But I probably won’t have time to find you a new guide. I have to get something done for Boss Luo Lan.”

In reality, Boss Luo hadn’t arranged any tasks for him. He was just trying to let them know that he was in the care of Boss Luo!

The private troops started frowning, and even Luo Xinyu was shocked to hear that. They didn’t expect the man they wanted to teach a lesson to be backed by Luo Lan.

Relaxed, Wang Fugui said, “I told you a long time ago that if you’re looking to get there, you have to find Ren Xiaosu.”

“That guy who’s sick in the head?” A private soldier frowned deeply. “That kid who fantasized about being a doctor?”

Wang Fugui suddenly felt a little awkward. He pointed at the window of the clinic across the way. “Perhaps, none of you expected it, but he has really become a doctor.”

Luo Xinyu and the private troops were surprised.

Everyone looked in the direction Wang Fugui was pointing. They saw two dirty-looking faces leaning on the windowsill of the clinic curiously looking back at them.

Honestly, Wang Fugui was also feeling a little emotional at this moment. He thought, ‘That’s right, just how did this kid suddenly end up becoming a doctor?’

Chapter 31: A new opportunity

“He’s… really a doctor?” someone from the band asked in a slightly doubtful and disbelieving tone.

“Could we have misunderstood him?!” Luo Xinyu was even more puzzled.

Wang Fugui thought, ‘There’s no misunderstanding at all. He only became a doctor two days ago.’

But he wasn’t going to tell them that since he wanted to entirely distance himself from the matter. “Y’all were saying that I recommended someone who was sick in the head to be your guide, but I didn’t. Just look, he really is a doctor.”

“That can’t be right. Let me try to remember.” A soldier from the private army thought for a while and said, “What did he say the last time we saw him?”

“Congratulations! Father and child are both doing fine! The baby weighs 3.24 kilograms!” someone answered.

“That’s right, who says something like ‘father and child are both doing fine!’” That soldier said angrily, “Someone like that can even become a doctor in this town?”

Seeing them recall word for word what Ren Xiaosu said, Wang Fugui explained, “Aren’t we living in conditions where medical treatment is not so good? But it’s absolutely true. He is indeed our town’s doctor. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the people around here.”

Wang Fugui then walked a few houses down. He knocked on a random door and asked, “Is Ren Xiaosu our town’s doctor?”

The person who answered the door was taken aback momentarily. “Yes, he is.”

“How are his medical skills?” Wang Fugui asked again.

That person gave him a thumbs up. “Who in town is not praising Ren Xiaosu these days!”

The band members were lost in thought again. They turned their heads back towards the clinic and saw that there was no one at the window anymore.

“You were saying that he’s the only person who can bring people through the Jing Mountains?” asked Luo Xinyu, having calmed down.

“Yes.” Wang Fugui gave it some thought and said with a smile, “Actually, I can’t guarantee that he’ll take you through. But if even he can’t do it, no one else in this town can get you there.”

“You’re almost praising him to the high heavens.” Luo Xinyu sneered, “Tell him that he has been recruited. We’ll set off again after we’ve rested and reorganized the group.”

“Don’t, there’s no use telling me about this.” Wang Fugui gave a sheepish smile and said, “If you want to recruit him, you’ll have to seek Boss Luo’s permission.”

“Boss Luo? How’s he related to Boss Luo?” Luo Xinyu was stunned.

“I don’t know the exact details, but you definitely can’t just recruit and use him as you please,” Wang Fugui stated.

Luo Xinyu snorted in disgust. At this moment, the soldiers who reported back to the stronghold returned with news that they could enter. Soldiers stationed atop the stronghold walls slowly raised the portcullis. Without another word, Luo Xinyu led her group back into the stronghold.

Wang Fugui patted his chest in relief. In fact, he had been afraid that they would try to settle the score with him. But fortunately for him, he had struck up a good relationship with Boss Luo because of the black medicine. If he did not throw this name out today, he would probably have gotten severely punished even if he would not have to die.

In reality, even Wang Fugui himself was unsure of how powerful Boss Luo was in the stronghold. But whenever he threw this name around, he could get a deep sense of how damn useful it was.

Wang Fugui went to knock on the clinic’s door as he wanted to discuss the matter with Ren Xiaosu. But even after knocking for a long time, no one answered him. Wang Fugui muttered, “Could they bear a grudge against me?”

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic on time and got ready for business. But as soon as he opened the door, he saw Wang Fugui standing outside with a smile on his face. Ren Xiaosu snapped, “What’s the matter?”

“You see, I recommended you to them back then with good intentions.” Wang Fugui said, “It’s a chance for you get into the stronghold. Do you know how many people out here want to get into the stronghold? Everyone wants that!”

“Why don’t you seize this good opportunity for yourself?” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “I’ll draw a map for you to lead them there. If you manage to bring them there, you’ll gain entry to the stronghold.”

“I can’t go.” Wang Fugui flinched. “I’m not as skilled as you. Besides, what will my son do if I end up getting into the stronghold? Since I’m so old, I can find a wife out here as long as I’m willing to spend some money. But there won’t be anyone who will be interested in me if I get into the stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “You may have a son, but I also have Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu. What will happen to them if I get into the stronghold? If you recommend me to them again, I’ll make Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu go to your place and leech off of you.”

“I’m only doing this for your good!” Wang Fugui was exasperated and said, “If I were 20 years younger, I would have gone!”

“For my own good?” Ren Xiaosu sneered. “I thank your whole family!”

Wang Fugui also got angry. “I thank your eight generations of ancestors!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was confused. He raged at the palace in his mind, “How can this also be fucking considered as a gratitude?! You’re even assessing it to be sincere? You must be fucking doing this on purpose!”

Ren Xiaosu could never have expected to gain his ninth gratitude token in this fashion. It was too easy!

However, even though Ren Xiaosu knew that Wang Fugui was thinking of getting friendly with the celebrity from the stronghold, he had indeed recommended him to them out of good intentions.

But the problem was that Ren Xiaosu did not really wish to get into the stronghold. But if Yan Liuyuan were allowed to go in instead, he would probably have already agreed to take on the task.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying earnestly, “Old Wang, I’m serious. I can’t abandon Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu to get into the stronghold myself. Stop suggesting that I be their guide.”

Wang Fugui was also starting to get fed up. “OK, OK, I understand. You can rest assured that as long as Boss Luo does not give his permission, they won’t be able to take you away. This journey will take over three months to complete. If you’re gone, who’s going to supply the medicine to Boss Luo, right?”

“OK, as long as you understand what I’m saying,” Ren Xiaosu said.

At this moment, a man came up to Ren Xiaosu from the road and said, “Doctor, I want a consultation.”

“Enough talking, I’ve got a patient to attend to.” Ren Xiaosu turned around and went back into the clinic.

Ren Xiaosu sat behind the table and said to the man, “Where’s your injury? Let me have a look.”

“I’m not injured; my balls ache,” the man said.

After he said that, the nurse, Xiaoyu, who was standing nearby blushed in embarrassment. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward as well, so he tried to be professional and asked, “Do you experience the pain after intercourse?”

The man was taken aback. “It hurts all the same whether I finish doing it or not!”

Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. ‘What the hell is going on with the newest patients who come for a consultation?!’

After he advised the man and sent him away, he reaped yet another gratitude token.

Alright, no matter what illnesses they might have, it was fine as long as they could earn him some gratitude tokens.

Now that Ren Xiaosu had earned ten gratitude tokens, it seemed like he wasn’t that far from unlocking his weapon.

One of the reasons why Ren Xiaosu did not want to be the group’s guide at this moment was that he felt that it would be more convenient to earn gratitude tokens while in town. If he were to go with the band and private army, would they show their gratitude for him?

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was consistently looking forward to getting the weapon and wanted to find out just what on earth it looked like.

Since sincere gratitudes were so hard to come by, the weapon would not be terrible, right?

Chapter 32: Dreams are always the opposite of reality

Perhaps the band was in a pathetic state, as it took them longer to reorganize. They did not come out til several days later.

According to what they had said, the band and the private army would have to make a trip to the Jing Mountains no matter what. It was only a matter of when they would get there.

What was there in the Jing Mountains? Ren Xiaosu always felt that these people’s desire to get to the Jing Mountains was far greater than responding to the invitation to perform at Stronghold 112.

The Jing Mountains spanned a vast area. Up until now, no one had really explored the hinterlands of the mountain range, so what kind of information did the stronghold’s overseers receive?

In the morning, Yan Liuyuan went to school happily with his new schoolbag that was recently sewn up by Xiaoyu.

When he arrived at school, he realized that something was off. Why were all of his classmates staring at him as soon as he entered the room?

Yan Liuyuan ignored them as he took his seat. However, all of the students crowded around him. A strapping girl, Li Youqian, who was the daughter of Old Li from the grocery store, said to Yan Liuyuan, “Liuyuan, can you go back and tell your brother to stop making the class stay late?”

“That’s right.” Wang Fugui’s idiot son also complained, “By making the class stay late every day, none of us have time to play anymore.”

Yan Liuyuan was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He said helplessly, “If what I say is useful, he would’ve already stopped making the class stay late.”

Everyone was unhappy to hear him say that. Li Youqian sneered, “It’s not like Mr. Zhang is paying your brother. I heard that your family doesn’t lack money these days, so why is he so serious with the teaching? What, does he intend to take over at the school already? He’s just a substitute teacher, but that doesn’t mean he can tell us what to do—ow!”

Li Youqian let out a cry of pain.

Yan Liuyuan got up and kicked Li Youqian in the hip. No one had expected Yan Liuyuan to get angry. They heard Yan Liuyuan sneer, “What my brother taught you is knowledge that can help save your life out there in the wilderness. If you don’t appreciate it, that’s fine. But why are you making things up about him behind his back? If anyone mentions this again, don’t blame me for being harsh on you.”

Yan Liuyuan turned 14 years old this year, but Li Youqian was already 16 years old. Although they were about the same height, Li Youqian was much stronger than Yan Liuyuan.

Back when Wang Fugui tried to introduce Li Youqian to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan had mentioned that she was a strapping girl. He was not lying at that time.

But when the other students saw Yan Liuyuan in this moment, it was as though they were watching a miniature version of Ren Xiaosu. The ferocity that exploded from both of them was exactly the same.

Even though Yan Liuyuan often spoke harshly to people, his appearance was much milder and gentler than Ren Xiaosu’s. But why did the mention of Ren Xiaosu make him react so strongly?

Only now did they realize that there was a wild side to Yan Liuyuan.

Li Youqian had wanted to get up to return the blow. But when she saw Yan Liuyuan’s expression, she reluctantly dropped the idea. “I didn’t make anything up about him. I was just telling the truth.”

Yan Liuyuan felt trapped. He was obviously the last person who wanted Ren Xiaosu to make the class stay late!

The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, came in from outside with his hands behind his back. “Why are all of you crowding around each other? Get back to your seats and prepare for class.”

All the students hurried back to their seats. Although Mr. Zhang looked quite kind and amiable after school, he was sterner than anyone else during lessons.

Wang Fugui’s idiot son, Wang Dalong, sat down beside Yan Liuyuan. He was Yan Liuyuan’s deskmate.

Wang Dalong stole a glance at Yan Liuyuan. When he saw Yan Liuyuan still sulking, he tried to change the subject to resolve the awkwardness. “I had a dream yesterday that my father found me a stepmother. She mistreated me badly.”

Yan Liuyuan glanced at him. “It’s alright. Dreams are always the opposite of reality.”

Wang Dalong beamed with joy at the words. “True that.”

Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment before saying, “I think he might have found you a stepfather instead.”

Wang Dalong was confused.

…

That evening, Ren Xiaosu and the others were having dinner. After dinner, he was planning to catch up on the lessons that Yan Liuyuan and his classmates had gone through at the school today. But at this moment, he saw an angry Wang Fugui leading a crying Wang Dalong into the clinic. “Ren Xiaosu, come out!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned, holding a bowl of rice in his hand. “What’s going on?”

“Ask Liuyuan what he said to my son. The moment he got home, he started crying nonstop.” Wang Fugui got even angrier when he recounted what his son had told him while crying.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting obediently in his chair, said. “I told him that Old Wang might have found him a stepfather.”

Ren Xiaosu was confused.

With a loud wail, Wang Dalong cried even harder.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. “You’re in the wrong this time, Liuyuan. How can you say something like that to someone?” He turned around and comforted Wang Dalong, “Don’t worry, your father will find you a stepmother. It’s impossible that he’ll find a stepfather for you.”

Wang Dalong was stunned. He didn’t want a stepmother either! He continued crying!

This made Wang Fugui so angry that he cursed, “I really have you to thank for explaining it for me!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. Although he felt that it was a strange way to gain a gratitude token, it was still a gratitude token!

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that a magical door was slowly opening for him.

His gratitude tokens had accumulated to 11 just like that!

Wang Fugui suddenly seemed to remember something that caused his anger to subside. He cautioned Ren Xiaosu, “Our town’s administrator, Chen Haidong, unintentionally let slip something yesterday. He said that something strange has been happening at the other strongholds and that the same thing also seems to be happening at Stronghold 113.”

“What is it?” Ren Xiaosu asked in a serious tone.

“He didn’t seem to know the details.” Wang Fugui said, “I’ll let you know if I have any news. Anyways, be extra careful. It’s usually not good when there are strange occurrences happening these days.”

After Wang Fugui left, Yan Liuyuan asked, “Why did Old Wang say that it’s usually not good when there are strange occurrences happening these days?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “Maybe it’s because our definition of what is good is too limited. We only call things that are advantageous to us good.”

“Are we wrong to think that?” Yan Liuyuan asked. To be honest, even though he went to school much more than Ren Xiaosu, he was not as hardworking as him.

Ren Xiaosu would always read the books that he borrowed from Mr. Zhang while Yan Liuyuan lazed around. Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan thought, ‘Since Ren Xiaosu is already so capable, why would I need to work so hard?’

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, “Remember this: It’s not wrong to think of it that way. Whatever is beneficial to us is good. There’s nothing wrong with being selfish. But I want you to have a line you won’t cross and to not be a doormat others walk over.”

Chapter 33: What are you waiting for?

Whenever Ren Xiaosu educated Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu would quietly watch them from nearby. All of a sudden, she felt a little envious of Yan Liuyuan. If someone had guided her in the past, she might not have taken so many wrong turns.

“Bro, can you teach me more about life lessons from now on?” Yan Liuyuan asked enthusiastically.

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “Don’t you always fall asleep whenever I teach you such things? How can I teach you? Through your dreams?”

“I won’t fall asleep next time.” Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu and laughed in embarrassment.

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the front door of the clinic.

Frowning, Ren Xiaosu turned around. There normally wouldn’t be someone coming to look for him when night fell because it was not safe in town.

What was going on today? Could it be that Wang Fugui had turned around and come back to the clinic? In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, Wang Fugui was likely the only one who would come to their place at such a time. After all, the two households were right next to each other.

Even if someone intended to use this opportunity to carry out a crime against Wang Fugui, he would have already reached the clinic before it could be carried out.

Ren Xiaosu said as he opened the door, “Old Wang, you really need to find a wife. Why do you knock on our door every day?”

But when the door opened, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. It was not Wang Fugui.

Ren Xiaosu recognized this person. It was a young man who often idled around town named Zhang Baogen. He did not work and lived off his parents who worked at the factory.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What is it?”

He examined him and saw that he had no injuries.

Why did this person come here so late at night? If he wanted to rob the clinic, then this guy had traveled quite the distance for that…

Ren Xiaosu now possessed a Strength of 5.5 and a Dexterity of 4.1 and had many years of experience in ruthless fighting against others. Not even ten versions of a young man like Zhang Baogen would be a match for Ren Xiaosu.

Zhang Baogen said rapidly, “Doctor, please take a look at my illness. But you must keep it a secret for me.”

Ren Xiaosu thought about it and stepped aside to let him in. He purely felt a little curious. “So tell me, what’s your illness? Don’t feel uncomfortable to share. I’ve seen much in life, so there isn’t any illness that I haven’t come across before.”

“Please wait a moment.” Zhang Baogen was still quite polite to Ren Xiaosu.

There were many young people in town who lived off their parents like Zhang Baogen who came together to steal, extort, and fornicate. No one in town was willing to provoke them without reason.

However, Zhang Baogen was not foolish either. He knew better than to offend Ren Xiaosu.

In fact, no one had dared to provoke Ren Xiaosu either. Although it seemed like Ren Xiaosu was similar to this batch of youngsters, the townspeople well knew that offending Zhang Baogen and the others simply meant having to put up with a slight retaliation from them. It wasn’t difficult to endure it, and it would be a trivial matter at most.

But if they had messed with Ren Xiaosu, they could end up dying…

Zhang Baogen closed the clinic’s door behind him before turning around to ask, “Doctor, something strange is happening to me.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “I can’t treat you if you’re impotent.”

“It’s not that.” Zhang Baogen said, “Let me demonstrate it to you. Don’t get surprised.”

Ren Xiaosu waited to see what would happen.

He saw Zhang Baogen open his mouth and blow a saliva bubble!

Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. ‘Is that it?!’

But the next instant, the bubble that floated out of Zhang Baogen’s mouth popped. Ren Xiaosu could feel a burst of power from it pushing him backwards.

It wasn’t very strong, but it was definitely not something that your ordinary saliva bubble could do!

“Doctor? Doctor, what are you doing?” Zhang Baogen looked at Ren Xiaosu uncertainly.

“I’m just checking to see if any of your saliva splashed onto me.” After tidying up his clothes, Ren Xiaosu asked, “When did you gain such a power? This is not an illness, so I can’t treat it.”

“But my parents said that I’m sick and that there’s something wrong with my head,” Zhang Baogen explained. “If I didn’t come to see you, they wouldn’t feel at ease. My parents are very fond of you….”

Ren Xiaosu felt that this sounded a little strange. But he thought for a while before saying, “What you have doesn’t seem like an illness to me. You might have heard of some people possessing strange powers these days.”

Ren Xiaosu was not lying. Once upon a time, someone in this world supposedly had a superpower that could pull a train out of thin air.

The townspeople used to share this story with excitement, describing it in vivid detail.

But when it happened to them, why did they end up labeling it as an illness?

When Zhang Baogen heard Ren Xiaosu tell him that he was not sick, he thanked him with joy. “Thank you, doctor. I’ll go back now and tell my parents about it.”

“Gratitude received from Zhang Baogen, +1!”

Then Zhang Baogen turned around and left. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this kid was still quite a polite person.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not like youngsters who were like Zhang Baogen. After all, if you did not work hard in this era, you couldn’t survive. The reason these young people had it so easy in life without doing anything was simply because their parents were still around.

All parents worry about their children. But some parents were willing to give up everything they had in life to ensure their children could lead a good life.

The next morning, Wang Fugui quietly walked into the clinic. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, “I have news! Chen Haidong just found out about what happened. It seems like someone in another stronghold suddenly attacked their stronghold’s overseer with a superpower. They’re now investigating the existence of supernatural beings in all of the other strongholds. So such people really do exist!”

“Is that so?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a look of shock, “Then could there also be supernatural beings around us?”

“Who knows?” Wang Fugui said with a laugh. “This doesn’t really have anything to do with us.”

“That’s true.” Ren Xiaosu laughed along with him. However, he was thinking about what happened the previous night. He wondered if Zhang Baogen had told anyone else about it.

It was a good thing to have someone as gossipy as Wang Fugui around. As this guy was close to the people from the stronghold, he was able to find out about any news faster than most people in town.

It was no wonder that Wang Fugui could lead a better life than most of the townspeople. To his credit, this was probably the best expertise that he had.

Suddenly, Wang Fugui gave a silly laugh and asked, “Xiaosu, if I had a superpower, would it be easier for me to find a wife?”

“You can forget about it.” Ren Xiaosu teased, “You’re still thinking about that when your fool of a son is crying so hard over it?”

“Bullshit, my son isn’t a fool,” Wang Fugui said unhappily. “He can’t poke his nose into my business. Besides, I was only bringing it up. Once I have a superpower too—”

“Wouldn’t you already have one if you had any? What are you waiting for?” Ren Xiaosu interrupted.

Wang Fugui could not come up with a reply.

Chapter 34: The misfortune of others

“Don’t mind me saying this, Old Wang, but why are you always thinking about finding another wife?” Ren Xiaosu could not understand. “There’s no shortage of women in our town, right? I’m sure many of them wouldn’t mind being with you as long as you can ensure they won’t go hungry.”

Such matters were a common sight to Ren Xiaosu. Even men were like this, much less women. In the past, several women threw themselves at Ren Xiaosu just so they could survive in these harsh times. Some men did so as well, which made Yan Liuyuan want to gag when he learned about it. This was why Yan Liuyuan was so wary of Xiaoyu at the beginning.

Sometimes, reality was stranger than the fiction found at Mr. Zhang’s school.

Wang Fugui shook his greasy, medium-length hair and said proudly, “Would I want those immoral women? With my status, I should at least be looking for a proper lady to marry, right?”

“Yes, yes, you’re the esquire of our town.” Ren Xiaosu gave him a backhanded compliment.

At this moment, two women walked past the clinic. Wang Fugui’s eyes lit up. “What do you think of those two?”

Ren Xiaosu examined them. “One of them looks really good, but her figure is a little lacking. The other one isn’t that pretty, but she has a good figure. So then if may I ask, what do those two girls have anything to do with you?”

These words made Wang Fugui choke with anger. He was so furious that he turned around and got ready to head back to his grocery store to attend to his customers. However, a surprising turn of events happened!

They saw the stronghold’s portcullis being raised slowly. The sound of steel, wood, and rope rubbing against each other left people cringing. The dense, thick portcullis was being raised bit by bit. The weight of it left people short of breath.

Chen Haidong came out of the stronghold with a group of soldiers. This time, the officer leading the private troops was not Wang Congyang, whom Ren Xiaosu had dealt with before. It was a fresh face that had never been seen in town before.

Where was Wang Congyang? Did he get punished by Boss Luo?

“What are they going to do now?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“I don’t know.” Wang Fugui had a blank look on his face. He brushed off Ren Xiaosu and headed towards Chen Haidong. Due to the distance, Ren Xiaosu could not hear what they were talking about.

Then they saw the private troops of Stronghold 113 running towards town. After a while, they returned holding a man captive. That man screamed hysterically, “Why are you arresting me? Let go of me!”

Ren Xiaosu watched silently. The man, who got arrested turned out to be Zhang Baogen, the person who came to look for him last night.

When Wang Fugui saw the private troops arresting people like that, he quickly stopped them. “My dear officers, what is going on here? Although this guy might be a little mischievous, he didn’t commit any major crimes, right?”

“Get lost.” The private army’s officer sneered.

Facing the dark and unfeeling firearms, Wang Fugui could only back off. Otherwise, they might just shoot at him!

Wang Fugui spoke to the town administrator, Chen Haidong, again for a long time. In the end, Zhang Baogen was still brought into the stronghold.

The screeching sound rang out again as the dense and heavy portcullis separated the two worlds once again.

Ren Xiaosu went up to Wang Fugui and asked, “What’s the situation?”

He had to clear it up because he knew that Zhang Baogen must have been arrested and brought into the stronghold due to his “superpower.” Moreover, both he and Yan Liuyuan possessed such a power too.

Wang Fugui sighed and said, “It’s over, that kid is done for.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Chen Haidong said that guy showed off his superpower to a scoundrel friend of his yesterday. That scoundrel sold him out as soon as possible. All of the strongholds are weeding out these supernatural beings right now. If there were no incidents of a supernatural being attacking a stronghold overseer, it might have been easier to handle. But now, they’ve become the people the overseers dread the most. What would you do if you were afraid of someone?”

“Kill them,” Ren Xiaosu answered calmly and firmly.

“See, that’s where the overseers of the stronghold are different from you.” Wang Fugui said with a frown, “The first thing they thought of when they realized the danger of this was not to kill them but to understand them better! Chen Haidong mentioned that a yard and building in the stronghold have been vacated for a psychiatric hospital to be temporarily set up. They’ve also sent a lot of medical devices over to that place.”

“Are they going to treat these supernatural beings?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.

“Treatment? My ass!” Wang Fugui said, “Chen Haidong said that those devices are not meant for treating people. They were previously used for scientific research inside the stronghold. In just one day, the stronghold has arrested three supernatural beings. Those three people are more or less done for now.”

Ren Xiaosu felt a chill pass through himself. He could not imagine what it would feel like to be stuck in a psychiatric hospital and be studied by someone.

“Old Wang, are you still keen on getting a superpower?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Wang Fugui thought for a while. “I don’t mind having one, but I won’t be so dumb as to let anyone know. The same goes for you, Xiaosu. If you and Liuyuan have any superpowers, don’t ever let anyone know.”

Ren Xiaosu put a strange expression on his face. “Um, okay.”

That same night, a major incident happened in town. Zhang Baogen’s father found his way into that scoundrel’s shack in the middle of the night, a place that was only a few square meters in size, and killed all four members of their family. In the end, he also died due to severe blood loss.

Meanwhile, Zhang Baogen’s mother hanged herself on the dead, wilted tree at the intersection in the town.

Zhang Baogen was the only child in their family and was pampered all his life by his parents. He didn’t even have to work as his parents would take care of him. Now that he was gone, his parents had no reason to live anymore.

In town, some people sympathized with them while others secretly mocked, “What a showoff. So what if you have a superpower? And that Zhang Baogen’s father, if he really had the courage, he would have charged straight into the stronghold instead.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu remembered the look on Zhang Baogen’s face when he was blowing the saliva bubble. “What a fucking awful era!”

The high and mighty aristocrats in the stronghold seemed to have the power to control the life and death of people, but Ren Xiaosu felt that this would change someday.

The only thing was, nobody knew when this day would come.

A group of people gathered together in town, gazing at the dead, wilted tree where Zhang Baogen’s mother had hanged herself. Ren Xiaosu saw that Mr. Zhang from school was also around.

Zhang Jinglin looked at some of the people next to him who had gathered around and said, “Did I teach y’all to be rubberneckers at school? Don’t gloat over the misfortunes of others, lest theirs be yours.”

When he said that, several young and strong men beside Zhang Jinglin looked down in shame. Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, “Help bury the couple together in the same place.”

“Teacher, we have to go to work at the factory now,” a few of the strong young men said hesitantly.

Wang Fugui said, “You won’t be working for nothing. I’ll fork out 800 yuan for their burial.”

“Aye,” the strong young men answered, “we’ll get to it immediately.”

Chapter 35: Maxing out on gratitude tokens!

The mood in town turned heavy due to the issues surrounding Zhang Baogen. Even though everyone was accustomed to living under the rule of the stronghold, when they realized that their right to life was not within their control, they grew gloomy.

Ren Xiaosu had something on his mind all day. Based on what Wang Fugui had told him, Zhang Baogen was more or less done for the moment he got captured and sent to the psychiatric hospital.

After the people from the stronghold finished conducting thorough research on him, he would surely have suffered terribly even if he did not die. Most importantly, Zhang Baogen had lost his freedom from this day onwards.

As for Ren Xiaosu himself, his secret was much bigger than Zhang Baogen’s.

He had unlocked many features of his mind palace, but there were still many other features left waiting for Ren Xiaosu to explore. Even Ren Xiaosu himself did not know how deep the palace interior went and what level it would elevate him to eventually.

If his secret were revealed, it wouldn’t be surprising if he got taken away by the people from the stronghold and had his brains taken out and sliced apart.

Ren Xiaosu had gone to school earlier and found Yan Liuyuan. He somberly instructed him to not reveal his secret to anyone and told him that this concerned their life and death.

The two brothers did not have the ability to take on the stronghold yet.

Inside and outside of the stronghold, thick and continuous trails of white smoke were spewing out through the factory chimneys into the sky. The clock in the stronghold was still ringing on time. It was as though nothing had happened.

Today, Mr. Zhang seemed a little downtrodden. Sometimes, his mind would wander as he delivered his lessons. Whenever his students reminded him that he was losing his focus, he would bow and apologize to them.

Finally, Mr. Zhang said, “Students, I’m sorry. I can’t teach well today due to some personal issues. Class, study by yourselves. We won’t be having any more lessons today.”

Ren Xiaosu did not go back straight to the clinic. He wanted to calm himself down at a “quiet” place like the school and think about the future of Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and him.

When Ren Xiaosu took over the lessons in the afternoon, he did not teach anything new either. Frankly, his mind was not present at all today.

By the time school ended, Ren Xiaosu surprisingly did not make the class stay late. He was only concerned with getting Yan Liuyuan home early.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Class dismissed. I won’t be teaching y’all about other things today.”

“All rise!” the class monitor said.

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!

“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!

“Gratitude received from…”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned by this. There were only 24 fucking students in the entire class, but he managed to gain 23 gratitude token coins when he dismissed the class?

Yan Liuyuan was the only one he didn’t earn a gratitude token from. Yan Liuyuan had also noticed that Ren Xiaosu was a little absent-minded today, so he was more concerned about what was happening with his brother rather than thinking about going out to play after school.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the little bastards as they ran away and disappeared without a trace. So they didn’t like his lessons after all?

‘Y’all better fucking watch out! What is so bad with my teaching!’

It was a very fascinating day. Ren Xiaosu had worked very hard for nearly a fortnight just to earn 12 gratitude tokens. But in just one day today, he managed to gain 23 gratitude tokens.

The total amount of his gratitude tokens had reached 35. It seemed that he was another step closer to unlocking the weapon.

After Ren Xiaosu carefully weighed the pros and cons, he decided that if they did not like his lecture, then so be it. It was good enough as long as they let him earn those gratitude tokens.

For the following day’s lessons, Ren Xiaosu went straight to school instead of attending to patients at the clinic. He understood what he needed to do. What was his reason for opening the clinic? Was it to make money? That was definitely not the case!

Now that he had found a method to quickly earn gratitude tokens, how could he miss out?

The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was not even finished with his lesson when he saw Ren Xiaosu already standing outside the classroom. The students followed Zhang Jinglin’s gaze to Ren Xiaosu. For some reason, when they saw him, a shiver ran down their spines.

Today, Ren Xiaosu did not teach his usual wilderness survival lessons. Instead, he taught them about where to deal a fatal blow to another person during a fight or how to make an opponent instantly lose control of their motor functions.

Ren Xiaosu himself had not actually received any related training in this field, and there were no places in town where he could learn something like this either. Therefore, everything he was teaching was accumulated from his years of experience in being involved in ruthless fights with others.

Zhang Jinglin frowned when he heard Ren Xiaosu teaching them how to fight other people. He did not like to teach such things to the students and usually taught them about how to combat nature.

There would be a psychological suggestion that humans were the enemies if you taught the students how to fight against other humans. Similarly, if you taught them how to take on wolves, they would regard wolves as their enemy as well.

At heart, Zhang Jinglin never hoped for his students to become violent extremists. But for some reason, when he thought about Zhang Baogen’s incident, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. In the end, he did not interfere with what Ren Xiaosu was teaching.

Ren Xiaosu said to the students from the lectern, “Which are the most vulnerable parts of a human? If I have to list them, I’d list them in order of importance. Let’s start with the one that most people know… the neck.

“In fact, this area is not particularly easy to aim for when you are fighting someone. That’s because a person will subconsciously protect it the most. The entire neck and trachea are made up of bone and nearly 20 fragile rings of cartilage. By crushing any one of them with an attack, you can instantly cause your opponent to lose their will to fight. The fragmented bones will quickly block the delivery of oxygen, which will then lead to them suffocating to death.”

The classroom was silent. Ren Xiaosu looked over everyone. “Are there any questions?”

Wang Dalong asked meekly, “How do you know that there are nearly 20 fragile rings of cartilage in the neck….”

There were no relevant books in school, and no one in town specialized in this subject either. If Ren Xiaosu had not counted them himself before, how could he possibly know something like that?

But how did Ren Xiaosu count them? Whose cartilage did he count? Thinking of this, everyone felt a little nervous.

Ren Xiaosu did not answer this question. He looked out at the sky as the stronghold’s clock rang to signal that it was 4 PM. Ren Xiaosu said cheerfully to everyone, “Class dismissed.”

“All rise!”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!

“Gratitude received from…”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly frowned when he realized that the number of gratitudes was incorrect. Shouldn’t he be seeing an increase of more than 20 gratitude tokens? Why were there only nine tokens?

These little bastards had gotten used to him not making the class stay late this quickly? They didn’t even give him any sincere gratitude now?

‘I’m afraid that y’all haven’t faced the harsh realities of society yet!’

Just as the students were about to rush out of class, they heard the sinister voice of Ren Xiaosu reverberate from behind them, “Everyone, get back here right now! Today, I’m gonna teach y’all how I came to learn how many rings of cartilage there are…”

Wang Dalong and Li Youqian were speechless.

So was the entire class.

Chapter 36: Parents watching their children die

Since Ren Xiaosu had explicitly told them to come back, would the students dare to disobey him?

The students had gone home and complained about Ren Xiaosu’s misdeeds to their parents, but their parents’ reactions were all identical. “It’s good that the teacher is teaching you more things. You should be grateful for it rather than complain, understand? You mustn’t complain, especially not to your substitute teacher.”

The students could not understand this. In the past, the parents would side with them. But this time, they were all siding with Ren Xiaosu?

Furthermore, why did their parents’ tone sound a little strange?

The students felt that there was something wrong with their parents’ tone, so they kept at it and continued complaining. Li Youqian’s father, Li Facai, said in a heartfelt manner to her, “Stop asking, dearie, and concentrate on your studies. You mustn’t trouble your teacher, Ren Xiaosu, anymore, understand? Dad doesn’t want you to leave this world before he does.”

The strapping girl, Li Youqian, was shocked when she heard that. What did her father mean by “Dad doesn’t want you to leave this world before he does”?!

Hence, the students now behaved exceptionally well in front of Ren Xiaosu. The moment he called them back, the students all rushed back to their seats like scared fledglings.

Once he started teaching again, he lectured until it turned dark.

As the sky darkened, the students stared blankly at Ren Xiaosu as he got more and more enthusiastic with his teaching. Finally, Li Youqian could no longer stand it. She said meekly, “Teacher, it’s getting dark. It won’t be safe for us if we don’t go home now.”

When the students previously said something similar, Ren Xiaosu would dismiss the class immediately. As such, when Li Youqian finished saying that, all the students looked at Ren Xiaosu in anticipation.

However, Ren Xiaosu said kindly, “Don’t worry, y’all’ll be fine.”

On this day, Ren Xiaosu lectured all the way until 8 PM before he finally dismissed the class. Night had fallen by this point. Ren Xiaosu did not receive any gratitude tokens at the end of the lesson, but he did not mind.

The “Stockholm Syndrome effect” said that if there was no cruelty, how could there be gratitude?

“Let’s go, Teacher will send all of you home,” Ren Xiaosu said even more kindly.

The students looked at one another. They suddenly felt that the substitute teacher, Ren Xiaosu, seemed to possess some kind of remarkable skill.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu would definitely let the students return home before the sky darkened because it wouldn’t be safe if they went back home any later than that.

But this time, Ren Xiaosu didn’t find it much of an issue to waste a bit of time, as long as the students could learn something useful! They had to understand how cruel society could be!

Although it might be a little unsafe for ordinary people to lead a large group of children, it was not so for Ren Xiaosu. He was nearly twice as strong as the average adult in town, so the issue of safety was negligible.

As long as someone didn’t have a gun, Ren Xiaosu had nothing to be afraid of.

Ren Xiaosu personally handed the students over to their parents one by one in order of the distance they lived from school. When some of the neighbors saw Ren Xiaosu sparing no effort to impart knowledge to the students and even sending them home personally for their safety, they felt that he was a great teacher!

The parents did not know why Ren Xiaosu was doing this and simply considered him a kind and generous person. Thus, just this act of sending the students home had earned Ren Xiaosu six gratitudes from the parents.

Ren Xiaosu felt that he had not fully taken the initiative before. After working so hard to heal people and save their lives, he had only received 12 gratitude tokens. But ever since changing his mindset and way of doing things, his gratitude tokens shot up to 50.

And the only price to pay was that Yan Liuyuan refused to talk to him for the entire night…

To be honest, the total duration of the daytime classes was only about five hours. Before Ren Xiaosu took over as the substitute teacher, the students could never have expected that the survival lesson would last for a full five hours!

The next day, Ren Xiaosu could not wait to go to school. However, the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was the first to voice his opinion. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and said, “In the future, you mustn’t dismiss the class so late. There should be a proper balance between work and rest when it comes to learning, and it has to be done gradually as well. Even if you want to impart unto them all your knowledge, you still have to do it slowly!”

Ren Xiaosu humbly accepted Zhang Jinglin’s suggestion. “Teacher, you can rest assured that I will definitely not make the class stay late today.”

Yan Liuyuan was indifferent when he heard the conversation between the two of them. Of course he knew that Ren Xiaosu would not make the class stay behind today. His purpose for doing so yesterday was just so that he could harvest a wave of gratitudes from the students today!

Yan Liuyuan knew Ren Xiaosu too well!

As Yan Liuyuan predicted, the moment the stronghold’s clock rang to signal 4 PM in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu smiled and said amiably, “Shall we end the class here, everyone?”

Everyone in the classroom was silent. No one knew why Ren Xiaosu would ask such a question. If they answered yes, wouldn’t it mean that Ren Xiaosu was bad at teaching? But if they answered no, they were afraid that Ren Xiaosu would grant their wish of not wanting to end the class.

So they simply kept their mouths shut.

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “There should be a proper balance between work and rest when it comes to learning. I imparted so much knowledge to everyone yesterday, so I’ll not make y’all stay late today. On one hand, this is so that everyone can process the knowledge you’ve learned. On the other hand, it’s so that everyone can relax a little and have some fun today.”

The students were so touched that they nearly cried.

“Class dismissed!” Ren Xiaosu said.

“All rise!”

“Thank you, Teacher!”

“Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!

“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong…

“Gratitude received from…”

Like the day before yesterday, Ren Xiaosu reaped another 23 gratitude tokens, with the exception of Yan Liuyuan’s. In just three days, he was close to maxing out on the 100 gratitude tokens that he needed!

Now with 73 tokens, he was super close to unlocking the weapon!

Through the open classroom door, Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Fugui trotting towards the school.

“Old Wang, what are you doing here?” Ren Xiaosu asked. He wondered if something had happened to Xiaoyu at the clinic. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu was about to hurry home with Yan Liuyuan.

However, Wang Fugui said, “Please get ready. The band will be coming out of the stronghold again. Someone just delivered a letter to me from Boss Luo, and I don’t know how they did it, but he actually gave his permission for you to be their guide!”

Ren Xiaosu froze. His first reaction was one of relief when he knew that Xiaoyu wasn’t in trouble. But right after, he got worried because he realized that the band must have had a more obscure and important purpose in venturing into the mountains. How else could they have successfully persuaded Boss Luo into allowing him to go with them?

Was it because they had given Boss Luo enough kickbacks? Or could it be that Boss Luo was involved in the band’s plan to venture into the Jing Mountains?

Either way, it seemed like Ren Xiaosu would have to make this trip.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked to the school’s backyard. Wang Fugui asked anxiously, “Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna look for Mr. Zhang to discuss rooming Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu at the school or at least living here until I get back,” Ren Xiaosu said firmly.

Only then would Ren Xiaosu not have any worries.

However, it would be a huge mistake if this group of people thought that Ren Xiaosu could be easily pushed around once they reached the wilderness.

Chapter 37: The outside world

“Mr. Zhang,” Ren Xiaosu said politely to Zhang Jinglin, “I hope that you can let Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu live on the school premises during my period of absence.”

Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Has it already been confirmed that you must go?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “I’m afraid there’s no way to reject them anymore. You saw the plight of Zhang Baogen. Your life and mine are in the hands of those people from the stronghold. If I take the initiative to go and face the dangers now, I might be able to avoid dying. I could even sacrifice the others to save myself when I’m out there. But if I continue to stay here and reject them, I’m afraid that they’ll start using underhand methods to deal with us.”

“Is there no better option?” Zhang Jinglin asked.

“I’m afraid not.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “But, Mr. Zhang, don’t worry. Even if they get wiped out, I’ll be fine.”

In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not want to get involved in this initially. With his current fitness and experience in field survival, he was not worried that he would not make it back alive.

However, the reward that was offered to him was unsatisfactory. It would have been better if he, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu could all get into the stronghold. Otherwise, it would all be meaningless to him.

He was very eager to get into the stronghold, but he could not leave Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu behind and go in by himself.

What Ren Xiaosu didn’t tell Yan Liuyuan was that after he had gained his power, he would, on certain nights, toss and turn in bed in his desire to see the bigger world.

This town was so small that he could see the other end of it in a single glance from a high place. It was so small that he could hear the voice of a widow scolding some young punks in the west from the east of town.

He had also thought of heading out to see the world.

In fact, the only thing that Ren Xiaosu was worried about was who would ensure the safety of Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan if he left.

If Zhang Jinglin refused to allow Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan to stay, Ren Xiaosu would not leave with the band no matter what.

“It looks like you know what you’re doing. Tell Xiaoyu and Liuyuan to move over this evening. I’ll clean up the house for them in the meantime,” Zhang Jinglin said with a nod. Zhang Jinglin felt that no one in town would be more experienced than Ren Xiaosu when it came to surviving in the wilderness. As such, seeing how confident Ren Xiaosu was from his point of view as a teacher, he did not say anything more.

Ren Xiaosu was relieved when Zhang Jinglin agreed to his request. “Teacher, I’ve recently managed to save up 5,000 yuan, so please accept it as a boarding fee for Big Sister Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan.”

“Take it back.” Zhang Jinglin shook his head and said, “I’m a schoolteacher, so I only accept payment for tuition.”

“Please don’t reject it, Teacher. You can use the money to buy some cigarettes to smoke,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Zhang Jinglin hesitated for a moment before coughing. “I’ll accept 1,000 yuan as the rent.”

Ren Xiaosu did not haggle with him any further. He counted out 1,000 yuan and handed it to Zhang Jinglin. He was usually a stingy person, but he would never mull over something so important. Ren Xiaosu would never hesitate to spend money on Yan Liuyuan.

For the remaining 4,000 yuan, Ren Xiaosu’s intention was to hand it over to Xiaoyu.

This money must not be handed over to Yan Liuyuan in case Xiaoyu got any ideas for the money. At most, she could take all of the money and leave, but Yan Liuyuan would not come to any harm as a result.

If the money was given to Yan Liuyuan instead, his safety would be threatened.

Even now, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts about Xiaoyu. He might be wrong in thinking this way and Xiaoyu would feel let down if she knew about it, but this was probably the best choice to minimize any pain or regrets.

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu still felt that their time spent with Xiaoyu was too short. It was not that he doubted Xiaoyu to have any motives. It was just that he had been struggling for so long in this wasteland, fighting for each day of survival with his own hands and leaving a trail of blood every step of the way. Having led such a life, how could he so easily leave their fate to someone they had known for such a short time?

Ren Xiaosu returned to the clinic with Yan Liuyuan to pack their belongings. He did not expect that their recently acquired “new home” would be vacated again. Wang Fugui said, “Don’t worry, I’ll look after the yard for you and will absolutely not let anyone else move in.”

“OK, much appreciated,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Actually, you don’t have to insist on letting them move into the school. With me around, what’s there to be afraid of?” Wang Fugui laughed.

“Aren’t I also guarding against you?” Ren Xiaosu mercilessly rejected Wang Fugui’s suggestion. In this town, the school was the safest.

Wang Fugui was not angry. He knew what kind of person Ren Xiaosu was, so he expected Ren Xiaosu to guard against him as well.

Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan did not talk at all throughout this, merely looking down and packing their stuff. Only when they finally packed everything did Yan Liuyuan ask in a whisper, “Do you have to go?”

“I’ll come back. It won’t be dangerous as long as we take the correct route. If it really gets dangerous, I’ll leave them behind and run back here myself,” Ren Xiaosu said. Instead of answering Yan Liuyuan’s question, he just stuffed the money into Xiaoyu’s hands. “Anyways, I won’t be able to spend any money when I’m out in the wilderness, so keep this money safe with you.”

“OK,” Xiaoyu agreed. “You should bring more dried food with you. It’s too much hard work to depend on luck when you’re looking for food in the wilderness.”

“There’s no need for that.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “Not taking into consideration the taste and my tolerance for it, it’ll still be very easy to find food once we get dozens of kilometers away from the stronghold.”

But Xiaoyu’s words reminded Ren Xiaosu of something. Since he could place the medicine vial into his mind palace at any time he wanted, could he do the same with other items?

Since the medicine vial was a real object with mass, it meant the palace was in a peculiar dimension.

If that were the case, Ren Xiaosu would also like to secretly bring along the town’s well with him on this trip. After all, the water outside town was not exactly safe for consumption.

This was probably what “being uprooted” 1 meant.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu took a cornbread bun 1 next him and secretly tried to store it away into the palace. Then something strange happened. The cornbread was still in his hands.

The voice from the palace intoned, “Storage rights have not been obtained.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So he really could store things into the palace, but he wasn’t qualified to do so yet!

He asked in his mind, “How do I obtain the rights to access the storage?”

“Unauthorized to answer.” The palace went silent and did not answer Ren Xiaosu’s question.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the palace did not seem to have its own consciousness. It was just assigning specific quests to Ren Xiaosu based on a certain logic. Its role… seemed only to provide guidance to Ren Xiaosu on how to act.

…

After Ren Xiaosu lodged both Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan at the school, he turned around and left without hesitation. Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan stood at the school’s entrance and looked at Ren Xiaosu’s receding figure as he walked off into the darkness. Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, you know why he handed all the money to you, right?”

“Mhm,” Xiaoyu acknowledged quietly.

“Will you blame him?” Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu.

“No.” Sister Xiaoyu started smiling.

Ren Xiaosu walked far away before finally looking back in the direction of the school. He could also see the vast galaxy spreading out across the sky overhead, a sea of stars.

He turned around and marched with conviction to the clinic to welcome the arriving guests.

A lot of the time, when people looked back on their lives, they might remember a minor decision that they made at a certain point in time. However, that decision could very well turn out to be the crossroads where they experienced a great change in their life.

Going left or right took a momentary thought, and once they made that decision, they would have to leap into the unknown without hesitation.

But at that moment in time, they would only think of it as a normal day in their lives.

Chapter 38: Negotiating the terms

Ren Xiaosu was resting in the backyard of the clinic as he waited for the band to arrive. But it wasn’t until early in the morning that he heard the stronghold’s portcullis being raised slowly.

It sucked that he couldn’t harvest the vegetables that had just been planted in the yard, those scallions, garlic seedlings, bok choy, and so on.

What had to come would eventually come. Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and walked towards the consultation room at the front. He sat upright with decorum in the seat and waited.

Knock, knock, knock. Three raps sounded on the door.

“Please come in, the door’s open,” Ren Xiaosu said. He did not even raise his head, looking like he was busy filling out a medical record.

When the door opened, the morning sun shone onto Ren Xiaosu’s face. He looked up and was surprised to see a well-dressed woman standing at the door. Ren Xiaosu had never seen someone wear this kind of outfit in town before.

Ren Xiaosu had seen her before when he was leaning on the windowsill. This woman was the famous singer from the stronghold, Luo Xinyu.

“How fanciful,” Ren Xiaosu mumbled to himself. Then he looked behind Luo Xinyu at where the band members and private troops were standing. This time, the private army had actually sent out 12 soldiers, even more than the previous expedition.

But Ren Xiaosu’s attention was still on the girl with the cap, the owner of the Perfect Firearms Proficiency.

The girl was dressed in dark blue sportswear and still wearing her cap very low. She seemed to have noticed that Ren Xiaosu was staring at her, so she raised her face slightly.

Ren Xiaosu saw her delicate chin but still could not see her eyes that were shrouded by the shadow of the cap.

Behind this group of people, a large group of students had gathered.

In fact, the band members were also a little confused. Why had these children suddenly gathered here? Li Facai’s strapping daughter whispered from behind to the girl with the cap, “Are y’all taking Ren Xiaosu away?”

No one answered Li Youqian. It seemed that the girl with the cap didn’t like to say much.

But suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace in his mind say, “Quest: Reject going with them to the Jing Mountains.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why was the palace also involving itself in this matter? Typically, the palace would do things for his good, but why was it not allowing him to go to the Jing Mountains? What could possibly be there?

Obviously, Ren Xiaosu had been to the Jing Mountains before. Although that place was definitely a little more dangerous than staying in town, it shouldn’t be so dangerous that the palace had to remind him not to go.

Unless something had changed?

Thinking of this, the thought of backing out started to grow in Ren Xiaosu’s mind. He wanted was to see the vast world, not how dangerous it was.

Luo Xinyu sat down across from Ren Xiaosu. She smiled and said, “You’re Ren Xiaosu, aren’t you?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Xinyu and started to wonder aloud, “My father’s father is called grandpa, my father’s mother is called grandma…”

Luo Xinyu was confused. ‘Are you seriously mental?’

Then an officer from the private army walked in. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and laughed. “Stop pretending, we’ve met before.”

When Ren Xiaosu looked up and saw the person approaching, he didn’t feel so good anymore. Wasn’t this Wang Congyang? The man who had searched him twice already!

He couldn’t keep pretending. Not only that, but Ren Xiaosu also knew he had to go on this expedition no matter what now.

He slumped out of his upright posture, leaning against the back of the chair. His entire body suddenly turned indolent. “I’m not going!”

“Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. You may use it to learn another person’s skills.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. The quest was complete!

Indeed, the criteria for whether a quest was complete as judged by the palace was not based on the established facts but the attitude displayed by Ren Xiaosu!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu got a bold idea.

Wang Congyang, who was standing by the side, said, “How can you not go—”

“I’ll go,” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.

Wang Congyang was confused.

However, to Ren Xiaosu’s great disappointment, the palace did not give him another new quest. Come to think of it, he could only complete the quest to gift the sparrow to someone once. How could Ren Xiaosu possibly be allowed to keep spamming quests like this?

At this moment, Luo Xinyu laughed. “If you’re willing to go, that would be for the best. I trust that the letter from Boss Luo has already been delivered to you. If you don’t go, you won’t have any standing in this town.”

“I can go,” Ren Xiaosu said, “but I have a few conditions.”

Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu with a smile. She felt that their conversation was finally getting somewhere. “Speak.”

“I want 30,000 yuan as remuneration.”

“No, you’ll only get 10,000 yuan.”

“Alright then, I’ll want an additional 10 bags of salt, 10 cartons of cigarettes, 100 kilograms of rice, and…” Ren Xiaosu started counting on his fingers.

Luo Xinyu said calmly, “Let me stop you right there. I’ll pay you the 30,000 yuan.”

“Alright, but I still have another condition,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Can’t you say everything in one go?” Luo Xinyu said impatiently.

“You were the one who cut me off just now.” Ren Xiaosu said, “I can go, but Wang Congyang can’t.”

Wang Congyang was obviously a relative of the dead factory manager, Wang Dongyang. He had already abused his authority by searching him twice. If they set off on the expedition together, there might just be some trouble along the way.

As such, Ren Xiaosu was reluctant to have a time bomb like him going with him.

Eh, wait a moment! Could it be possible that Wang Congyang was expelled because he searched Ren Xiaosu twice and offended Boss Luo in the process?

This was a very strong possibility. Which ordinary soldier would be willing to go out into the wilderness? Did they get sick of enjoying their life in the stronghold?

Hence, if Wang Congyang were expelled, his unhappiness towards Ren Xiaosu would be even greater. In that case, all the more he should not go on the expedition together with him!

It was said that the most worrying thing in this wasteland were the beasts that had grown increasingly strong, but Ren Xiaosu disagreed, as he had encountered and killed some of those before. To him, most worrying in this wasteland were not the beasts but the humans.

Luo Xinyu turned to look at Wang Congyang. She didn’t expect that these two would have a grudge with each other.

Luo Xinyu turned around and glanced at the girl with the cap who gave a veiled nod at her. Luo Xinyu said, “Alright, Wang Congyang, you can return to the stronghold.”

Wang Congyang looked at Ren Xiaosu. With a chuckle, Ren Xiaosu said to him, “You don’t really want to go either, right?”

The corners of Wang Congyang’s mouth curled up. “You’re interesting.”

Wang Congyang then turned around and left.

After he was gone, Ren Xiaosu said, “Actually, I still have another condition.”

But Luo Xinyu had already stood up, and her smile had turned into a stern look. “Lad, my patience has run out.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered why the people from this stronghold had such frequent mood swings. She was smiling at him a moment ago, so why did her attitude change all of a sudden?

Chapter 39: Yang Xiaojin

For the time being, the group was unable to set off because they were waiting for the replacement officer from the stronghold’s private army.

A spontaneous decision like replacing an officer, even if it was just a low-ranking one, was enough to show what kind of influence Luo Xinyu had in the stronghold. It was just that Ren Xiaosu had also noticed the girl with the cap surreptitiously nodding at Luo Xinyu.

Just who was this cap-wearing girl?

Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “We’re going to be a team, but I still don’t know what your names are.”

A band member sneered, “We’re no teammates with a refugee. You’re only a guide, so don’t act like you’re close with us.”

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized this band member as he was seriously considering whether there would be a suitable place to kill him along the way.

There was a clear contrast between the refugees in town and the residents of the stronghold. Compared to the fair and refined people in the stronghold, the dirtiness and barbaric behavior of the townspeople were quite evident. But there was an even more essential difference between the two.

Their attitude towards life.

How did Ren Xiaosu survive all this while? And how did these people live their life in comfort in the stronghold? The environment would greatly influence the development of a person: their thinking, their character, etc.

At this moment, an officer came out of the stronghold and headed straight to the clinic. When he appeared in front of everyone, he spoke, “I’m Second Lieutenant Xu Xianchu of the Field Service Division.”

It was not until this moment that everyone started introducing themselves. However, Ren Xiaosu did not bother remembering any of their names as he continued staring at the band member who’d mocked him.

He heard the band member introducing himself as, “I’m Ms. Luo Xinyu’s agent. My name is Liu Bu.”

Ren Xiaosu took note of Liu Bu’s name and jotted it into his memory.

Suddenly, the cap-wearing girl said, “I’m Yang Xiaojin 1 .”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. So this girl was named Yang Xiaojin. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that this name sounded very pleasant.

Importantly, the town’s refugees and the people from the stronghold also had another difference, their names.

Look at the names of the people from the stronghold. Xu Xianchu, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, Wang Congyang, Yang Xiaojin, etc.

And then look at the names of the refugees in town. Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Li Facai, Li Youqian, etc.

The names of the townspeople sounded way too crude 1 !

But with this, Ren Xiaosu got an understanding of what the duties of those in the team were. As Luo Xinyu’s agent, Liu Bu was the person who was in charge of the band’s overall affairs. Things like the distribution of daily necessities and other administrative matters were all in his care.

Five off-road vehicles and a pickup truck were dispatched this time, and the trunks were filled with all of their daily essentials.

Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was responsible for the management of the convoy and ensuring the safety of the group.

Ren Xiaosu had thought that Yang Xiaojin would have some responsibilities as well. However, after listening to all of the introductions, he realized that she was apparently detached from the team, with no responsibilities to oversee.

According to Luo Xinyu’s introduction to Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin was a friend of hers, and she was only following them to Stronghold 112 for an excursion.

At that moment, Ren Xiaosu was tempted to say, “Like hell I’d believe that!”

After the introductions finished up, everyone boarded their assigned vehicles. There were a total of 20 people going on this expedition, including Ren Xiaosu.

But when Ren Xiaosu was about to get into the vehicle, Liu Bu suddenly said, “Don’t sit in the vehicle since you’re so dirty. Go sit in the bed of the pickup.”

Ren Xiaosu did not argue with him. After all, was it necessary to take it up with someone who was essentially dead?

Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed of the pickup and listened to the loud droning of the vehicle’s engine as the town slowly disappeared from his view.

At the moment of departure, Ren Xiaosu still had some unwillingness in his heart. No matter how dirty and crappy this town was, he still called the place home all these years.

Just as Ren Xiaosu was getting a little emotional, he heard cheering erupt. “Ren Xiaosu is leaving at last!”

“We’re free now!”

“Hahaha, our days of suffering are finally over!”

Ren Xiaosu turned around speechlessly and looked. He was surprised to see Li Youqian and Wang Dalong leading a group of students from the school in celebration as they high fived each other.

The other townspeople did not feel much. While Ren Xiaosu was the only doctor in town, it wouldn’t really make a difference in their lives even after he left.

But it was different for the students. They knew that their lives would definitely get better after today!

In this moment, they forgot the fear of being dominated by Ren Xiaosu.

A middle-aged man dashed out of the crowd. It was Li Youqian’s father, Li Facai.

Li Facai dragged his strapping daughter back home. “Do you not want to live anymore?”

Li Youqian wondered, “What are you afraid of, Dad? Ren Xiaosu is already gone!”

Li Facai griped, “But he’ll be back!”

“What if he doesn’t make it back?” Li Youqian argued, “Don’t they all say it’s very dangerous in the wilderness?”

“What do you know?” Li Facai’s grip tightened even further as he squeezed her hand. “Even if all of the others perish, he would still make it back alive! And don’t you be wishing death unto other people in the future, ya hear?”

By saying that Ren Xiaosu might not make it back, Li Youqian was implying that he would die in the wilderness.

In reality, the townspeople were numb to such life and death events. It was quite normal for them to experience death in their daily lives.

But if such a menacing seed of thought were planted in a child, no one would know what sort of fruit it would bear in the future.

Luo Xinyu and the others who were in the off-road vehicles also heard the cheering. They rolled down their windows and looked back to see what was going on. Although they did not know what hatred those people had for Ren Xiaosu, they knew that they were celebrating his departure from town.

Liu Bu was sitting in the front passenger seat and muttered, “How unpopular does he have to be for them to celebrate his departure….”

In the backseats, Luo Xinyu laughed and said, “When we get back, we should make a proper inquiry into this guy. I want to know exactly what he’s done in this town.”

“Why would you want to find out more about him, Xinyu?” Liu Bu scorned. “He’s just a punk kid from the hamlet. If we weren’t looking for a guide, would he have any chance of interacting with people like us? This is a blessing that he earned through his previous life, but he doesn’t cherish it.”

Only Yang Xiaojin remained silent as she sat in the vehicle. She seemed to be thinking about something.

…

At the school gate, Xiaoyu was holding onto the bars of the fence as she looked at the end of the road leading out of town. She watched Ren Xiaosu and those vehicles turn into tiny black dots in the distance.

She turned around and went into the backyard of the school to wet a towel with some water. Then she walked into the school and wiped Yan Liuyuan’s forehead with it. He had become unconscious after coming down with a sudden fever.

Mr. Zhang went to Old Wang’s grocery store to buy some anti-fever medication while Xiaoyu stayed by Yan Liuyuan’s side to take care of him.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was groaning, and it seemed like he was having a bad dream. Xiaoyu gently put her hand on Yan Liuyuan’s forehead and whispered, “Don’t worry, Liuyuan, he’ll definitely make it back.”

Chapter 40: I want to be with my crackers!

The route to the Jing Mountains was difficult to travel on as it was mostly made up of dirt roads.

While sitting in the pickup truck bed, Ren Xiaosu occasionally saw some concrete surfaces on the road. But for whatever reason, those roads had crumbled a long time ago and were in a state of decay.

Ren Xiaosu had once heard from the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, that the concrete roads were left behind from the time before The Cataclysm. The structure of the roads had degraded after so many years, and most of them were now covered by layers of dirt.

This was the case with most of the “major” roads linking the strongholds together. However, these dirt roads had a slightly more even surface due to more vehicles traveling on them.

In reality, not many vehicles traveled between the strongholds. Back at their own town, Ren Xiaosu and the others would only see nonlocal vehicles coming to Stronghold 113 about a dozen times a year. Even that was considered quite a lot.

The wilderness was not all desolate. On the contrary, it took only dozens of kilometers after leaving town before they were greeted with lush greenery everywhere. Over the years, the vegetation got even lusher.

However, Ren Xiaosu didn’t feel that this was a bad thing. Back in town, food was usually considered a scarcity. Since he could not have meat, he would eat more vegetables. He had also noticed that the cabbages planted by Zhang Jinglin were getting larger than before.

Ren Xiaosu even specifically asked Zhang Jinglin whether he had used any fertilizers to grow them, but he denied it.

This was a good thing. Perhaps one day a single potato might even be enough to feed a family of three.

When Liu Bu made Ren Xiaosu sit in the bed of the pickup, he never could have expected that Ren Xiaosu would do something.

The cargo bed was filled with food and water provisions they brought with them from the stronghold. There was no need to lock such items up, so they were simply covered with tarps.

While Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed, he lifted the tarp out of curiosity. He had a look under it and immediately saw the word “cracker.” Then he lifted another tarp and saw bottled water.

Because of the bumpy road, the vehicles did not go fast. In reality, the band did not fear wild animal encounters. After all, they had 12 soldiers from the private army who were carrying loaded weapons with them. As such, they did not have to worry too much about any beasts.

Although a wolf attack had taken place earlier, the wolves were long gone and hiding in the mountains several hundred kilometers away from here. There was absolutely no need to worry that they would suddenly return.

According to past experience at the stronghold, it would take at least a year of recuperation for them to come back and be active in the area again.

So what worried the convoy the most at the moment was what would happen if the vehicles broke down.

Half of these soldiers from the private army were trained in automobile repair, but they couldn’t possibly bring a full set of spare parts for the expedition with them.

While this made the journey slower, it was better than having to walk there.

In between, Ren Xiaosu insisted on getting out to relieve himself. As a result, the entire convoy had to stop and wait for him. This made them even more displeased with him, but Ren Xiaosu was not bothered by it. He faced everyone’s complaints as if it were nothing.

The convoy continued moving until noon. When they came to a stop, Liu Bu jumped out of the vehicle first. He laughed happily and said, “I’ve stayed in the stronghold for too long. It’s such a great feeling to come out here and see the sweeping vistas.”

A soldier laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s right. I’ve gotten terribly bored from staying inside the stronghold all the time.”

In fact, everyone had such thoughts from the moment they set off on this expedition. They were all in the mood to enjoy the scenery, chat, and laugh. However, this would likely not be the case in a few days.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu also thought that it was rather lovely when he first came out to the wilderness to hunt.

Liu Bu beckoned for everyone to get out of their vehicles. He said, “Let’s get out here and eat something. After we finish, we’ll continue on our journey and try to get to the Yun Range before it gets dark. We were there the previous time, and there’s a clearing that’s suitable for setting up camp.”[1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yun_Range]

Everyone was chatting and laughing as they got out of the off-road vehicles. Several of the soldiers gathered to smoke together. Their faces were full of happiness when they started puffing away.

Liu Bu called for the band to go over to the pickup truck. He did not have the authority to order the soldiers around. It was neither down to his nor Luo Xinyu’s influence that they were able to hire 12 soldiers from the private army to come with them on this trip. In actual fact, their band was here to act as a cover for the private troops to carry out their mission!

In such circumstances, others might think that Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu were very influential. But they knew better.

As Liu Bu walked towards the pickup truck, he said to a band member next to him, “We’ll distribute the cigarettes that we brought along to the soldiers in a bit.”

“Alright, how many should we give out to them?” the band member asked.

“Bring out one carton first. Didn’t we take ten cartons along with us? There’s no need to be so anxious. We can hand them out slowly.” Liu Bu smiled and said, “We have a fresh group of soldiers joining us, so everyone will start getting along once we get familiar with one another.”

When Liu Bu came to the back of the pickup truck, he received a shock as he turned around and had a look inside. “Holy shit! Ren Xiaosu, what have you done?!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu and said, “Why do you look so shocked? I didn’t do anything at all!” He burped. As he had a little too much to eat, he couldn’t help burping. Ren Xiaosu stood up to stretch himself, then brushed off the cracker crumbs on his body…

Liu Bu leaned over into the cargo bed and looked around. His heart ached. “Are you a pig? How can you eat so much? You ate five packets of crackers all by yourself in one morning?!”

Quite frankly, it had been a long time since Ren Xiaosu had eaten so much. In their poorest days, he would leave his food for Yan Liuyuan to eat. They only became rich recently, so he hadn’t had the chance to be extravagant yet.

Besides, the crackers they brought along were delicious. There were both sweet and salty ones.

Importantly, salt and sugar were luxury goods in town. Most of the time, they would just have plain boiled potatoes or some similar food to eat. Where would they get the chance to eat such delicious food like crackers? There was even a lot of potable water available in the vehicle.

“Look how bloated your belly is!” Liu Bu roared. “You must be four months pregnant, right? Don’t you feel uncomfortable stuffing yourself with so much food?”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “It’s only because you let me sit here in the bed that this happened! But now that you mention it, it does feel a little uncomfortable.” Ren Xiaosu got out of the pickup and started running into the distance. “Y’all can eat first. I need to take a dump.”

While Ren Xiaosu ran far away, Liu Bu and the others felt frustrated in the wilderness.

A band member hesitated before saying, “Why don’t we just let him sit inside the vehicle?”

Liu Bu stared at him. “Why should we let him sit in the vehicle? Is a refugee like him qualified to sit together with us, huh?”

The band member did not sound so confident at his suggestion anymore, but he still muttered, “If we continue to let him sit in the bed of the pickup for two more days, I’m afraid that our provisions will not last until Stronghold 112….”

At the words, Liu Bu made a rough estimation of Ren Xiaosu’s appetite. Then he sighed and said, “Indeed, we won’t be able to last until then.”

In the end, everyone unanimously decided to let Ren Xiaosu sit in the vehicle.

When Ren Xiaosu came back, he was unhappy to find out that he had to sit in the vehicle. “I don’t want to sit in the vehicle. I’m not qualified to sit together with y’all. I’m just a refugee!

“Let me go, let me be with my crackers!

“Are you people human!”

Eventually, things were solved after everyone worked together to cram him into the vehicle.

Chapter 41: Resolve it by yourself

There was a reason why the band members were unhappy with Ren Xiaosu. Even though they were “important people” from the stronghold, he had actually made excuses to reject them when they came looking for a guide in town. It was as though being their guide was an embarrassing thing for him.

In their opinion, shouldn’t you, Ren Xiaosu, take the initiative and volunteer like the first guide had done?!

How many people were hoping to strike up a closer relationship with those from the stronghold? Wang Fugui was indeed right to say that whoever the important people from the stronghold picked to do their bidding would lead to said people having a prosperous life.

Yet Ren Xiaosu’s reaction was to simply avoid them.

As a result, everyone’s impression of Ren Xiaosu worsened after the cracker incident. Especially Liu Bu. He was now even trying to persuade Luo Xinyu to head back to town to find another guide.

“Xinyu, we’ve only set off for half a day.” Liu Bu said, “It’s still not too late if we return to town. We’ll only be wasting a day of travel time.”

“But that’s still a waste of time,” Luo Xinyu said as she looked out of the window.

“But have you thought about it?” Liu Bu continued, “This kid seems really unreliable. If he gets even more unreliable, we won’t just be wasting a day’s time. I’ve heard before that the refugees in town don’t have much class, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad!”

Luo Xinyu shook her head and said, “Wang Fugui said that if even he can’t lead us through the mountains, no one else can do it.”

“I don’t believe that.” Liu Bu said in scorn, “The town is so big, so how can there not be someone who can lead us through the mountains? We only asked around the town, but there are actually a lot more people in the vicinity where there are seven large factories. Quite a few of them live at the factories, so if we went there to ask around, we might just discover something new.”

“There are only six factories now,” Luo Xinyu corrected.

One of the factories had just been destroyed by the wolves’ attack. As such, there were only six left.

“Then we can go and check out the other factories,” Liu Bu said in embarrassment.

“Enough, there will be no more discussion on this matter.” Luo Xinyu rejected him and said, “It wasn’t easy for us to get 12 soldiers from the private army to escort us this time, so don’t complicate things any further.”

Liu Bu did not keep arguing. Outsiders might think that Luo Xinyu was still young and most of the decisions would be made by him, the agent. But Liu Bu knew best that Luo Xinyu was a highly independent girl, and he was just the executor of her decisions.

Nowadays, there were celebrities like Luo Xinyu in every large stronghold. They were commonly known as “protags.”

But these protagonists would generally only have supporters within their own strongholds, and it was very difficult for them to make it at the other strongholds.

After all, the roads in the outside world were not as well-developed as before The Cataclysm happened. Furthermore, it was difficult to predict what people liked, so there were certainly some risks to bear if they wanted to expand their influence out of their own strongholds.

Once, a celebrity in Stronghold 89 wanted to cross over to the other strongholds to expand his influence. As a result, he went missing after leaving his stronghold. His agent and accompanying bodyguards were also nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until two months later that a body suspected to be his was found in the wilderness. There was a bullet embedded in his skeletal remains that clearly suggested he died from a gunshot wound. Further, he was even shot from behind.

This made everyone else even warier.

But Luo Xinyu was never satisfied with only being prominent in one stronghold. She was willing to take risks even though she knew it was dangerous to do so. For a girl, this required a lot of courage.

Luo Xinyu looked at Liu Bu, who kept silent. “You can pick on him, but don’t let it affect our journey. We just need him to properly guide us to our destination. Once we get back from Stronghold 112, you can do whatever you want with him.”

“OK,” Liu Bu responded.

It was a bumpy ride in the vehicles, with the soldiers from the private army driving. They were already driving the vehicles as safely as possible to avoid any irreversible damage to the suspensions, chassis, tires, and other parts of the vehicles. However, the road was too bumpy. There was hardly anything they could do about that.

Ren Xiaosu sat in the backseat of the point vehicle and gave directions to the driver from time to time. But as Liu Bu did not trust Ren Xiaosu, he’d specifically assigned two band members to sit beside him and keep an eye on him. This led to the point vehicle carrying five passengers in total.

The two band members sitting in the back had standoffish looks on their faces. They used to have plenty of room to spare in the backseats. But with Ren Xiaosu joining them, everyone felt uncomfortable.

This group that was planning to pass through the Jing Mountains suddenly looked like they were a special task force established to escort Ren Xiaosu to Stronghold 112…

But Ren Xiaosu felt that Liu Bu was a little naïve. With only one soldier from the private army driving the vehicle, the remaining three were all members of the band.

If he really wanted to cause trouble, he could probably kill everyone else in the vehicle in a mere three seconds, leaving him the only person alive inside.

The stronghold’s people did not understand a thing about the living conditions of the refugees. They only knew that it was full of hardships and was very dirty. That was basically all the knowledge they had.

The band member sitting next to Ren Xiaosu glanced at him and said haughtily, “You’d better behave yourself and not cause any unnecessary trouble.”

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “I only ate a little of your crackers. Is this really necessary?”

The band member raised his voice. “You call that a little? Let me tell you, you had no say over your own life from the moment you joined us, do you understand? Don’t overestimate yourself!”

The band member sitting in the front seat laughed and said, “Kid, do you know what’ll break when you throw an egg at a rock?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “The heart.”

That band member was taken aback. “Whose heart?”

Ren Xiaosu answered, “The hen’s heart will be broken.”

Ren Xiaosu was quite happy with his reply as he managed to show a trace of humanity amid the witty response.

That evening, the convoy successfully crossed through a mountain pass in the Yun Range. From here, the terrain opened up, and a large forest could be seen beyond the Yun Range. Ren Xiaosu was gazing out the window, spellbound. A picturesque gully cutting through the vast, lively, and flat land had sprung from the extraordinary craftsmanship of nature.

The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had said that this unique landform was formed by the tectonic movement of the Earth’s plates. Ren Xiaosu sometimes felt that humans were miniscule in the presence of such majesty.

The trees here were flourishing. Only a few muddy paths proved that humanity had been here before. This was also where the band had lost their way during the first expedition. Ren Xiaosu had heard from Mr. Zhang that trees in the tropical rainforest were so dense that it was almost impossible to pass through. However, the forest north of here was still relatively sparse. Only the grass seemed to be growing a little taller than usual.

In the evening, the convoy finally arrived at the clearing that Liu Bu had talked about. Liu Bu jumped out of the vehicle and laughed loudly. “Let’s set up camp here for today. Everyone, get some rest and eat something.”

The moment he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu walked towards the pickup truck. But Liu Bu immediately stopped him. Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “What?”

Liu Bu sneered. “We didn’t bring your share of the food and water, so resolve it by yourself.”

Chapter 42: Losing one’s home

It looked like Liu Bu had been pissed off by Ren Xiaosu eating the crackers.

But in reality, Ren Xiaosu knew that even if he had not eaten the crackers, Liu Bu would still have treated him with the same bad attitude. Ren Xiaosu had already expected to not be given any of the convoy’s food. However, he was surprised at how upfront they were about it.

It was better this way, honestly. Ren Xiaosu was quite relaxed about it. This way, he would not have anything to worry about. And he had been prepared for the current situation.

He turned around and walked to the forest, but Liu Bu asked in panic, “Where are you going? If you run away now, you’ll never be able to return to the town at Stronghold 113!”

If Ren Xiaosu were to leave, they would have wasted their time again today. Without a guide, it would be impossible for them to pass through this forest and find their way to the Jing Mountains.

It had to be said that Ren Xiaosu was fairly impressed by these people. It took another five days to get to the Jing Mountains from here. Last time, they were fortunate to have lost their way early on and eventually found their way out of the forest. If they had walked for another few days and gone deeper, they would probably not have been able to get out.

It would not just be a waste of a day if that happened. These important people who were used to living comfortably in the stronghold had not yet realized whose territory they were in…

Of course, Ren Xiaosu understood that people were suspect to cognitive inertia. It was not as though the important people in the stronghold had only just started despising the refugees. As such, it should be expected for them to be unable to change their mindset so soon into the expedition.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and grinned. “I’m just going to look for something to eat. What are you panicking for?”

“I wasn’t panicking.” Liu Bu explained in embarrassment, “I just wanted to remind you that the previous guide died around this area. Don’t follow in his footsteps by somehow dying in this place and wasting our time.”

The previous guide had brought them here and then led them the wrong way forward. In the end, when everyone felt that they had been going in the wrong direction after walking for several days, they decided to return back to the Yun Range. However, that guide suffered an unfortunate end in the morning when he went to the river to wash his face.

As they were talking, a band member exclaimed, “There’s some animal tracks on your side of the ground!”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. What wild animals could be here? Very few wild animals would live at the edge of the forest. Besides, when humans started constructing the strongholds, the larger beasts were shut out on the outside of the stronghold’s perimeter. Very few large beasts could get through the defenses on the outside of the stronghold perimeter and get into the zone around Stronghold 113.

Like the wolves that had attacked the factory, such examples were rare.

Everyone went over to see what the animal tracks on the ground looked like. The soldiers were unconcerned. What was there to be afraid of when they had guns with them?

But when they saw the tracks, they were all stunned. The animal tracks continued all the way into the forest, and each footprint looked about half the size of a person’s head.

When the soldiers saw this, all of them immediately raised their guns and nervously aimed into the depths of the forest. For some reason, the troops of the private army suddenly felt unsafe even with their guns.

“We didn’t see these tracks when we were here last time, right?” someone said in a trembling voice.

“No.” Someone shook their head.

When Ren Xiaosu observed the tracks, he knew exactly what kind of animal it was and felt relieved.

Then he gazed at the clearing where the band was going to set up camp. He immediately noticed some garbage that was left behind by the group the previous time they were here. There were a lot of food scraps still lying around on the ground. He said in a serious tone, “It’s a bear. It was attracted to the food scraps that y’all left behind the last time.”

Liu Bu said with a doubt, “Nonsense! Do you think I’ve not seen what a bear’s paws look like?”

Ren Xiaosu followed the tracks into the forest. He was not kind enough to tell everything that he knew to the band and private troops. “Ahem, it could also be a boar too….”

The group behind Ren Xiaosu could only watch helplessly as he went into the forest. He seemed fearless of the tracks and the dangers lurking inside the forest.

“That kid is too bold.” Liu Bu gasped. “Does he not want to live?”

The soldiers lowered their guns. If there were any terrifying beasts in the forest, it would not be too late for them to raise their guns if they heard Ren Xiaosu scream.

These soldiers looked completely unafraid, but the trembling voice from earlier had revealed that they were just putting on a brave front.

Ren Xiaosu was moving around in the forest. In reality, he could tell from a glance that these were the hoofprints of a deer.

He followed the deer tracks because it was usually possible to find a source of water or river by following the tracks of large animals in the forest. Like humans, they needed to rehydrate at certain intervals.

Besides, he also intended to go to the river to understand why that guide died.

According to Liu Bu’s account of the incident, the guide was washing his face in the river when he got chewed to pieces by something. As a result, he died on the spot.

Ren Xiaosu muttered, “What an idiot.” Even though it was well-known that animals were evolving, it was common knowledge that herbivores still ate grass and carnivores still ate meat.

This guide was probably like many of the others in town who thought that fish only survived by feeding on aquatic plants. However, Ren Xiaosu had read from a perfectly preserved book at school that freshwater fishes like the northern snakehead and catfish were carnivores, while the remaining ones were mostly omnivores. However, there were basically none that were herbivores.

Would any fish refuse such a large piece of meat like your face when it gets placed right in front of its mouth?

Ren Xiaosu was glad that he understood the power of knowledge and that he had also been learning all this time. Otherwise, he might have ended up dying by trapping himself as that guide had done.

He followed the tracks and kept walking. As deer were one of the gentler creatures in the forest, nothing would typically happen if you did not provoke them.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed a trail of sawdust-like matter on a tree. This was obviously left behind by termites after they had gnawed on the wood. He looked at the base of the tree, and, indeed, there was an abnormal dirt mound wrapped around the tree roots.

Ren Xiaosu trampled on the dirt mound and destroyed it with very little effort, exposing the brown termites on the inside. The termites were crawling around rapidly within the nest and looked to be about the size of a pinky finger pad. Although these termites were not tasty, they were full of nutrients.

Importantly, many of the townspeople had been suffering from malnutrition for years. Usually, they would use termites and termite eggs to supplement their diets, and some people would be so happy at finding a termite’s nest that it would keep them smiling for days.

But these termites could not be eaten raw in fear that they might secrete formic acid out of their bodies. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not so desperate that he needed to eat these termites in order to survive.

After the nest was destroyed, the termites scrambled around at a loss. Before they could figure out why their nest had collapsed, Ren Xiaosu tore off a large leaf off the branches of the tree and used it to wrap up a small piece of the termite nest, on which some termites were still crawling.

He broke off a tree branch and trimmed it slightly with his bone knife, turning it into a simple spear. With that, he was ready to catch some fish.

Before walking far away, Ren Xiaosu turned around and came back again. He poked around at the termite nest with his bone knife for a while until he located the plump termite queen. He took her along with him as well.

The termites had suffered complete disaster. Ignoring bioethics, this could simply be described as “losing both one’s home and mother.”

Chapter 43: First time in his life

Of course, Ren Xiaosu had not dug up the termite nest because he wanted to eat them. He continued following the deer tracks and heard the sound of running water after just a few minutes.

The closer Ren Xiaosu got to the river, the warier he became. Although it was past the evening period when living creatures gathered to drink at the riverside, he still needed to be careful. If any of the wild animals arrived here late due to matters at home, Ren Xiaosu might just bump into them.

But to his relief, he was not that unlucky.

Ren Xiaosu unwrapped the leaf containing the piece of the termite nest and threw it into the river. As the current was not rapid at this time, he did not have to think of how to build a stone weir 1 in the river.

Right after, he used his bone knife to cut open the palm-sized termite queen and threw her into the river as well. Then he began to wait patiently while holding the sharpened branch.

The moonlight tonight was particularly bright. Otherwise, Ren Xiaosu would not have seen what was in the river.

As the termite queen and her nest drifted slowly downstream with the current, Ren Xiaosu followed it from the riverbank. All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared and swam under the floating termite nest. The surface of the water roiled, and a large fish appeared with its mouth wide open as it tried to swallow the termite queen and nest in one gulp.

But as it opened its mouth, Ren Xiaosu’s sharpened branch struck it!

Ren Xiaosu had previously used this method to catch fish as well. As his speed and strength were much worse at the time, it took him many tries before he succeeded in catching one.

However, that was the past. His movements used to be slower than a fish’s, but he had gotten much faster than them by now.

Ren Xiaosu retracted the branch with lightning speed, the large, black fish struggling nonstop on it to no avail. Ren Xiaosu cautiously moved away from the riverbank. It seemed that the blood of the black fish had attracted something bad. Below the river’s surface, a dense mass of silhouettes swarmed together.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. ‘Are these the silhouettes of fish?’ He immediately cut open the large, black fish on the shore and threw all of its internal organs back into the river. He could not bring the fish back to the campsite and slice it open there because that would leave a bloody scent around the campsite.

If cracker crumbs could attract a huge deer, who knew what the scent of blood could attract? Although there shouldn’t be any bears or the likes in the vicinity, there was no harm in being cautious. Moreover, the roasted fish meat and bones that were left over from a meal would have to be dumped as far away as possible.

A second later, a frenzy erupted in the river. Countless fish scrambled to feed on the bloody organs, and they were even biting one another.

Once a fish got bitten, it would immediately end up as food for the other fish.

What a brutal river. What would happen if a person had fallen in?

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu was stunned, because he noticed that all the fish had swam away in a hurry. Ren Xiaosu turned around and left without any hesitation. Anything that could frighten away such vicious fish was probably something that he should not mess with.

On the way back to the campsite, Ren Xiaosu kept thinking about what kinds of changes the current wilderness had gone through.

Why were the wild animals evolving, yet there didn’t seem to be any changes in humans?

No, there were some changes!

For example, there was Zhang Baogen, who had demonstrated his superpower to him. Or Yan Liuyuan and himself? Weren’t they all different from before?

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the campsite, the band and the soldiers were eating porridge and canned food.

When everyone saw the fish that Ren Xiaosu was holding, they were stunned. In the afternoon, they had thought they would see Ren Xiaosu make a fool of himself. This was because Ren Xiaosu was only wearing a loose jacket, and they knew at a glance that he had not brought along any dried food with him.

So when Liu Bu told Ren Xiaosu to handle his meals by himself, everyone gloated at him. They were all quite annoyed with Ren Xiaosu, this refugee kid who constantly gave them an inexplicable feeling of unease. However, they could not tell what it was that made them feel so.

But now, while they had to make do with canned luncheon meat in the wilderness, the smell of Ren Xiaosu’s roasted fish drifted over.

Ren Xiaosu had brought along a metal cup, a bone knife, and a box of matches with him for this journey. These necessities were part of his survival kit whenever he went into the wilderness. Of course, he could’ve left the matches behind since he knew other techniques for starting a fire. But if he could save some trouble by bringing matches along with him, why would he want to make it more difficult for himself? The matchbox didn’t take up a lot of space anyway.

Liu Bu wrinkled his nose when he smelled the roasted fish. “Hur hur, no big deal, it’s only a fish.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace say, “Quest: Good things should be shared with others.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for some time. He picked up the branch that the fish was skewered on and walked to Liu Bu.

Liu Bu’s eyes lit up as he said in a reserved tone, “What, are you going to invite us to eat the fish? Well, I guess we can—”

“What are you thinking?” Ren Xiaosu said, “I was only showing it to you to share my happiness.”

Liu Bu was confused.

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.”

‘Alright!’ Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. There were many ways of sharing after all!

Liu Bu flew into a rage from shame. “Ren Xiaosu, do you really think that I would have any of your fish?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the fish that was about half a meter long and felt that a person would not be able to finish this on their own. So he looked at Liu Bu and said, “I’ll trade half of the fish for three bottles of water.”

Liu Bu said without hesitation, “Deal!”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to trade his food for some water because it was really troublesome for him to find water. Initially, he had planned to go to the river to get his water but gave up on the idea after being frightened by what he saw there. He could also look for pine needles as his water source, but it would be too slow to squeeze the water out of them bit by bit. So he might as well make it more convenient for himself by using something that he did not require in exchange for some water from the other party.

With three bottles of water, he could drink one bottle tonight and leave the other two bottles for the journey.

“Come, come, everyone, come and have some fish.” Liu Bu took out a pot they had brought along and laid half of the fish that Ren Xiaosu had given to them in it. But what Liu Bu had not expected was that the group of soldiers had already distributed the fish among themselves before Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin, and he could even get to eat it!

“Um…” Liu Bu looked at Luo Xinyu in embarrassment. He could never have expected the soldiers to be such selfish people!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was sitting alone beside his personal fire pit while the others congregated around the larger campfire. Both sides drew a distinct line between themselves as though they were people from two different worlds.

Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin got up and went over to sit down across from Ren Xiaosu. She calmly said, “Fish.”

Ren Xiaosu was so surprised to find her tone unusually calm that he could not come up with a reason to reject her.

The light of the campfire was flickering against the figure of the girl. Ren Xiaosu started wondering if the girls from the stronghold were all as beautiful like her. ‘But, lady, can you move the gun away from me first? You have Perfect Firearms Proficiency and you’re pointing a gun at me, so I can’t help but feel a tad nervous!’

Ren Xiaosu had never robbed anyone before, but he hadn’t been robbed before either. This was the first time he’d experiencing something like this in his life!

“I’ll let you have two bites, just two bites!” Ren Xiaosu said firmly.

Chapter 44: Just two bites

The glow cast by the campfire was flickering and swaying. The woods rustled as the wind blew through it. It was the wonderful melody of leaves brushing against one another.

The black fish was a little too big, in fact. It was so big that Ren Xiaosu didn’t think he could finish eating half of it.

But even if he could not finish eating it, it did not mean that he should get robbed at gunpoint by someone for it.

He saw Yang Xiaojin take out a small salt shaker from her tracksuit’s shirt pocket and sprinkled it over the fish while holding a black pistol in her other hand. She was not being courteous with Ren Xiaosu at all.

Ren Xiaosu had tried guessing what kind of person Yang Xiaojin was. This reticent girl always looked calm and composed.

Ren Xiaosu guessed that the girl had a cold and callous personality, but he did not expect her to be so temperamental.

From the moment she sat down, Yang Xiaojin had only said one word: fish. Her temper was like a turbulent current hidden under the calm surface of a sea, frightening others.

When Ren Xiaosu saw that Yang Xiaojin had already sprinkled the salt evenly all over the fish, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, “Do you have any cumin?”

Yang Xiaojin looked up at him. “No.”

Now, Ren Xiaosu took a careful look at the gun in Yang Xiaojin’s hand. It was an M9, a simple and durable handgun. Of the knowledge covered by his Advanced Firearms Proficiency, it seemed like the M9 was still the pistol he was most familiar with.

Did that mean that Yang Xiaojin used the M9 the most?

Yang Xiaojin hands were not big, but she was able to hold the gun tightly in her hand without any signs of trembling. As such, there was something special about her when she was gripping the M9. The net weight of this gun fully loaded was only 1.2 kilograms, and it was made entirely out of an aluminum alloy. Perhaps that was the reason Yang Xiaojin chose to carry this gun.

After Yang Xiaojin finished sprinkling the salt, she turned to Luo Xinyu and said, “Come and eat the fish.”

Ren Xiaosu was confused. ‘I was only going to let you have two bites. Why would you invite someone else to have some?’

While they were conversing, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu had gotten up happily and walked over to them. However, Yang Xiaojin pointed her gun at Liu Bu. “Go back, the owner of this fish does not welcome you.”

Liu Bu stood awkwardly in place as he did not know whether to sit down or continue standing. He had not expected Yang Xiaojin to say something like that!

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. At this point, he could not tell what Yang Xiaojin’s way of doing things was. She seemed a little interesting.

Yang Xiaojin turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. “We’ll just have two bites each, nothing more.”

Luo Xinyu sat down and curiously sized up Ren Xiaosu. The atmosphere seemed to have livened up a bit. She laughed and said, “I won’t eat your food for nothing either. Here, I’ll let you have two bites of this chocolate in return.”

Luo Xinyu then took out a large piece of chocolate from her pocket and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. She looked to be making a trade.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before taking the chocolate from her. This was his first time seeing the real thing. He had only ever heard Mr. Zhang talking about the high calorie food that could quickly replenish one’s physical strength.

However, Old Wang’s grocery store in town only sold ordinary white sugar, and it was extremely expensive too. There was no such thing as chocolate in his store.

It was as though “two bites” had become a tacit agreement between everyone. No one was allowed to eat any more than that.

Ren Xiaosu took the chocolate and removed the wrapper from it. Then he opened his mouth as wide as possible and stuffed all of the chocolate into his mouth in one shot.

Luo Xinyu was dumbfounded. Even Yang Xiaojin was giving Ren Xiaosu a blank stare.

After Ren Xiaosu finished slowly chewing on the chocolate, he thought for a moment, then said to Luo Xinyu, “You still owe me another bite.”

Luo Xinyu was surprised. Yang Xiaojin was speechless.

The chocolate was delicious. Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘Even the food in the stronghold is different from what we have in town.’

The crackers were so sweet and tasty, and the chocolate had a exotic taste with a bitterness before the sweetness set in.

Ren Xiaosu felt that he had to find a way to trade for more of such food with Luo Xinyu and the others during the journey. When he returned to town, he could let Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu eat whatever he brought back with him.

Luo Xinyu had wanted to get a little closer to Ren Xiaosu as she felt that he had a unique survival skill. If anything were to happen along the way, he could take care of her. People like Luo Xinyu were always smooth operators, tactful in their dealings. How else could they coax the genuine “big shots” in the stronghold into flocking to them?

But Luo Xinyu did not expect Ren Xiaosu to be so difficult to get along with. Rather, she always felt that there might really be something wrong with Ren Xiaosu’s head.

Luo Xinyu took two small bites of the fish and returned back to her campfire. She took another piece of chocolate from the vehicle and gave it to Ren Xiaosu. He did not eat it, instead stuffing it into his pocket.

At this time, Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Yang Xiaojin. He saw her opening her mouth as wide as possible and chomp down on the fish, biting off almost a quarter of the remaining portion in one bite! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ‘As a girl, can’t you be a little more reserved? Even Li Youqian, the strapping girl from town, does not eat with such manners, alright!’

Ren Xiaosu had had half a fish left after exchanging half of it for water. Now that Yang Xiaojin had taken two bites from it, there was only a quarter of it left. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin wasn’t putting on airs. Everything that she did was straightforward. It was so much better than how the celebrity, Luo Xinyu, acted.

However, when Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin turning to look at him, he quickly licked the fish in his hands. “Want some more?”

Yang Xiaojin walked away with an expressionless face. “Don’t carry the chocolate around on your person. It’ll melt.”

That night, everyone set up their tents and encamped. These people had brought along brightly colored tents in the vehicles’ trunks. It was just enough for two people to share a tent. Only Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had personal tents.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was focusing on dumping all of the fish bones and scraps at least a 100 meters away before returning to set up his own temporary bed.

The others sat in their tents as they curiously watched Ren Xiaosu, who was fussing around the campsite. They thought, ‘So these are wilderness survival techniques? It does look like he is extremely skilled at them.’

They saw Ren Xiaosu shift the original campfire and build another one with a lot of pine twigs and logs of hardwoods that tended to burn longer. Ren Xiaosu had already extinguished and cleaned up the original campfire, and he’d covered the hot ground with plenty of pine needles.

These pine needles were readily available in the woods and could be found in the thick foliage all around.

“That kid even made himself a bed!” Liu Bu said as he watched Ren Xiaosu lying comfortably on the pine needles. As it was late fall, it must have been warm and comfortable on the extinguished campfire. Moreover, another campfire was burning beside him.

It looked really cozy.

In contrast, the soldiers’ tents were set up tightly around the campfire, so the band members were forced to endure the cold with their tents situated further away from the campfire. Fortunately, though, they had blankets to cover themselves with. Otherwise, they didn’t know how they would have gotten through the night.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin had set up her tent beside Ren Xiaosu’s campfire. She wasn’t courteous to him at all.

Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and looked over at Yang Xiaojin’s tent. He saw that the flap of her tent was not closed. In this way, it would be convenient for her to observe any movements in the surroundings, and the gun in her hand was still pointed in Ren Xiaosu’s direction.. No, it wasn’t only that. There was another gun in her other hand as well, and it was pointed in the direction of the soldiers’ tents!

Chapter 45: What kind of doctor are you?

Compared to Yang Xiaojin, the others in the team were far less cautious based on Ren Xiaosu’s observations. With 12 soldiers here, not even one of them were willing to be the night watchman.

It was obvious that everyone was in deep sleep as there was loud snoring coming from the tents. Although the larger beasts had been kept outside the stronghold perimeter, these people were still too careless.

However, Yang Xiaojin’s breathing was even and light. It was obvious that she had not entered deep sleep.

Ren Xiaosu felt that it was normal for him to be cautious because he had seen a lot of people getting stabbed to death in their sleep at night. But what kind of environment did Yang Xiaojin live in for her to develop a similar habit?

He felt that a person’s past experiences would determine their current thoughts and habits. Yang Xiaojin must have gone through some very dangerous situations in the past.

At dawn, Ren Xiaosu went to check on the place where he had dumped the fish bones before everyone else woke up. He had specially set aside some scraps last night to see if any wild animals would get attracted by it.

A lot of people feared wild animals because they felt that they were not afraid of humans due to their ferocity. However, wild animals were not that reckless. In fact, most of them were exceedingly cautious. Usually, a solitary animal would leave when they spotted so many tents set up in an area. But as the fish scraps and bones were dumped far away from the campsite, it should attract some wild animals and make them leave behind some tracks.

Ren Xiaosu carefully approached the area where he dumped the fish scraps and bones. He kept an eye on his surroundings for any signs of beasts that could have been there before him but saw nothing suspicious.

But upon reaching the spot, he realized that all of the fish scraps and bones on the ground had disappeared and that there were no signs of any animal tracks around it!

Ren Xiaosu immediately took his bone knife out of his sleeves and kept a watchful eye on the surroundings. He kept his guard up as he stepped back cautiously. Was it ants that carried away the fish scraps and bones? This was quite a possibility since ants nowadays had grown to become as large as a human’s finger pads. If an ant nest were nearby, it would be quite normal for them to carry it away in just one night.

But Ren Xiaosu still held some doubt. When he returned to the campsite, everyone was already packing up and getting ready to set off. They were all folding their tents and stuffing them back into the trunks of the off-road vehicles.

by the vehicles, Liu Bu was still complaining to Luo Xinyu, “Xinyu, you shouldn’t have traded the chocolate with him. Does a refugee deserve to eat something like that?”

Luo Xinyu ignored him. She also had not expected that she would end up giving two bars of chocolate away!

The convoy set off. They finally started venturing deep into the woods with the directions that Ren Xiaosu had plotted for them. Sunrays shone through the canopy of the trees, beautifying the entire woods.

By this point, everyone had long forgotten about the fear from yesterday night that was brought on by the discovery of the large hoofprints of a deer. Ren Xiaosu could even hear singing coming from the vehicles behind him. A group of soldiers were laughing loudly as they cracked dirty jokes.

It felt as though everyone were here on a picnic.

There was a short stretch where they had to travel quite close to the riverbank. Ren Xiaosu said to the driver, “Keep as far away from the river as possible.”

He did not exactly know what dangers lurked in the river, but last night’s events had left an intense impression on him.

However, the driver thought otherwise. “There’s quite a distance between us and the riverbank. Besides, aren’t there only some fish in the river? Don’t tell me that they can leap ashore and bite you on the face? You’ll be fine as long as you don’t go swimming.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything else. He made the decision that if there were any danger, he would shake off these fools and make a quick escape by himself.

At this moment, the point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu was in braked hard. The driver from the private army said in apprehension, “Look!”

Ren Xiaosu turned to look and was surprised to see a large red deer.

Red deer were huge in size and were the second largest in the family of deer after the moose. They liked living in groups and mainly ruminated on grass, leaves, twigs, tree bark, and fruit for their diet while also enjoying licking mineral salts.

The red deer in front of him was probably over two meters tall. It was standing quietly on the road and looking at the convoy.

The convoy was on edge. These soldiers picked up their automatic rifles and pulled back the charging handles. Suddenly, the woods rustled as two smaller deer came out. From the looks of it, they were probably the first deer’s fawns.

Xu Xianchu’s voice crackled from the mobile transceiver. “Don’t shoot it!”

The red deer did not look aggressive. It was just looking at the convoy and was probably wondering, “What the hell is this?” in its mind before getting ready to leave again. Everyone in the team heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down.

A soldier laughed and said, “It’s just a herbivore. Look at how scared you guys are. There aren’t any large carnivores around here.”

Everyone started teasing each other again. It was as though they had not gotten nervous just now.

Right at this moment, however, the red deer charged at the convoy. It dropped its head low, its huge antlers coming straight for the point vehicle!

The driver of the point vehicle swore as he stomped on the gas and turned into the woods to avoid the deer. He no longer cared if he would hit a tree or roll the vehicle.

Fortunately, the point vehicle managed to turn away in time and narrowly avoided the antlers of the huge deer as it went for them. However, the trailing vehicle was not so lucky. The antlers were so tough that they stabbed into the hood of the vehicle like the forks of a forklift truck. Then it tossed its head and flung the entire vehicle away!

Right after, the huge deer ran into the woods with its two fawns before the soldiers could get out of the other vehicles. It felt like they had escaped after pulling off a big one against the convoy!

Some of the soldiers fired frantically at the huge deer that was fleeing, but they didn’t hit it. Their marksmanship was surprisingly bad.

The point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu and the others were in crashed into a tree next to the dirt road at high speed, deforming the hood. A great amount of white smoke started fuming beneath it!

Then someone shouted from the direction of the convoy, “Hurry, someone come and save him!”

Liu Bu’s voice rang out. “Isn’t that refugee a doctor in town? Quick, get him to come over and save him!”

Ren Xiaosu got out of the vehicle and walked towards the convoy. But when he got there, he realized that the driver of the second vehicle only had a scrape on his arm. What was the big deal?

Death had always lingered around the refugees since childhood. They treated it like it was a trifling part of life. Suffering a scrape like this was nothing at all.

Ren Xiaosu frowned because he had absolutely no intention of treating the soldier. He did not want to waste his black medicine on someone like that. He was more surprised by the huge deer displaying such aggressiveness at them and wondered why.

Liu Bu shoved Ren Xiaosu and shouted, “Aren’t you a doctor? Hurry up and save him!”

“Uh-huh.” Ren Xiaosu acknowledged him before he began chanting at the driver’s wound, “Get well soon, get well soon, get well soon…”

Liu Bu was dumbfounded. “Who treats a wound like that? What kind of doctor are you?!”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before venturing, “A witch doctor?”

Chapter 46: A mysterious death

These people hadn’t even believed that Ren Xiaosu was the only doctor in town because they had a preconceived notion of him. When they first met him, he was still living in a shack, so how did he become a doctor just a few days later?

Why weren’t you practicing medicine if you had actual skill?

But right now, everyone just felt desperate. There’s an old saying that can perfectly sum up the current situation: “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

However, Ren Xiaosu’s answer shocked them. What the hell is a witch doctor?

“Get up.” Liu Bu brushed Ren Xiaosu aside. He then went to the injured driver and asked in concern, “Are you alright? Does it hurt?”

Ren Xiaosu looked around. They had started with five off-road vehicles and a pickup truck in the convoy, but only four vehicles remained.

From the look of things, it would be quite difficult to fix the two damaged vehicles. But as Ren Xiaosu did not have any knowledge of automobiles, he would have to wait and see what the private troops had to say about it.

Second Lieutenant Xu Xianchu led some of his men over to inspect the vehicles. They found that it would be impossible to repair the vehicle that had been thrown upside down by the huge deer as there were several holes in the engine.

But the huge deer did not get away completely unscathed either. Ren Xiaosu saw a small segment of its antler on the ground. It looked like it had been broken off by the recent impact.

Liu Bu went up to Xu Xianchu and asked, “Can they be repaired?”

“We’ll have to take a look at the flipped vehicle first.” After checking the vehicle, Xu Xianchu said, “This vehicle is definitely beyond repair. But the damage on that one isn’t too serious since it didn’t hit the tree that fast. The only thing we can do now is salvage parts from the flipped vehicle to fix this one.”

“Only one of them can be repaired?!” Liu Bu was taken aback. “What should we do then? There are so many of us here!”

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “There’s still some space in the pickup truck bed….”

Ren Xiaosu raised his hand. “I’ll go!”

“Go to hell!” Liu Bu said angrily.

This time, Liu Bu would rather sit in the bed of the pickup himself than let Ren Xiaosu sit there!

Xu Xianchu quickly had his men grab some tools to repair the vehicles. While they were carrying out the repair works, he ordered the soldiers under him with a frown on his face, “Stay alert to your surroundings, everyone. If any unknown creatures approach us, shoot to kill.”

Perhaps there was a deeper sense of bureaucratic order among the troops as everyone was focused on carrying out repairs. However, Xu Xianchu didn’t seem like he was an idiot either. If he didn’t remind everyone to stay alert at a time like this, it might be too late if any large creatures approached them while they were repairing the vehicle. That could very well result in many deaths for them.

Ren Xiaosu was squatting beside the vehicle and watching the private troops make repairs to it. He wanted to understand how a vehicle worked as he has always been very eager to learn about more things. In his eyes, “large machinery” like off-road vehicles held a unique charm.

All of these details represented the essence of humanity’s knowledge in the rebuilding of civilization.

Beside him, Liu Bu folded his arms and sneered, “Do you even understand what they’re doing?”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked him, “I don’t, but do you?”

Liu Bu was taken aback. In fact, he did not understand either.

“Look here, you and I both don’t understand what they’re doing,” Ren Xiaosu said slowly. “So what are you jabbering about?”

Ren Xiaosu ignored him. The repairs on the vehicle went on from morning til afternoon. In the meantime, Liu Bu and the others discussed how to divvy up the seating arrangements and the defense strategy they would adopt from here on out.

Someone said that if they encountered such creatures again later on, they should just shoot them. But someone else asked about what would happen if the gunshot startled the creatures instead. Judging by the sheer size of that huge deer, bullets might not even pierce its skull unless someone could shoot it in the eyes. But who here had such good marksmanship?

That required a score of nine and above for a standard moving target, right?

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘Seems like these people don’t know that Yang Xiaojin has Perfect Firearms Proficiency. No one could achieve it other than her.’ Ren Xiaosu was currently 60% confident that he could successfully shoot the huge deer through its eyes with a pistol from 50 meters away. As such, he felt that Yang Xiaojin would have at least a 90% chance of doing so, perhaps even a 100% chance!

Ren Xiaosu furtively observed Yang Xiaojin’s reaction. But while the others were discussing how to deal with these beasts, she kept quiet throughout as though it were none of her business.

However, everyone also felt a little relieved at the fact that the huge deer was just a herbivore. If it had been looking for food, there probably would’ve been three or four deaths in the team.

Xu Xianchu said, “It’s mostly just large herbivores living in the woods. Otherwise, they would’ve been identified and eliminated as key targets when the stronghold perimeter was first established. We should stay vigilant when we encounter this kind of creature again and try not to alarm them. But if we encounter a carnivore, shoot to kill. Alright, the repairs are finished. Let’s get ready to set off.”

Liu Bu followed up with, “Now that we’ve lost a vehicle, we need to reshuffle the seating arrangements.” He said to a band member, “Xu Xia, you and Cheng Donghang will sit in the bed of the pickup. Please bear with it for the time being.”

The two band members, Xu Xia and Cheng Donghang, looked at Ren Xiaosu, hurt. They could have made Ren Xiaosu sit in the pickup truck bed by himself, but Liu Bu had to worry about Ren Xiaosu eating all the crackers and food. As such, he had to make his own people watch over them.

Xu Xia and Cheng Donghang grumbled as they climbed into the pickup truck bed. Suddenly, Xu Xia let out a piercing scream and fell out of the pickup truck bed. On hearing Xu Xia’s scream, Ren Xiaosu turned around in shock and saw him holding his neck while wailing.

Xu Xia’s face had already reddened and swelled up. It was as if he were experiencing tremendous pain that he had never experienced before in his life. In just ten seconds, he was already lying motionless on the ground before anyone could react. He was foaming at the mouth, and his face was turning black and blue.

Xu Xianchu cautiously approached him with his gun ready. After finding no anomalies nearby, he put a hand under Xu Xia’s nose to check for breathing. He turned around and said solemnly, “He’s not breathing anymore.”

Everyone stood expressionless in their spots. How could a person die just like that?

Liu Bu trembled as he asked Cheng Donghang, “What happened to him?”

Cheng Donghang leaned against the cargo bed and said in horror, “I don’t know. When we hopped on together, he suddenly shrieked, scaring me. I didn’t notice anything strange either.”

The rustling in the woods started to sound a little eerie. The trees were still the same, but everyone’s mood had changed.

This was the first time that one of their people had died on this expedition. Liu Bu shouted at Ren Xiaosu, “What route are you taking us on? Why didn’t we encounter a situation like this last time? Is there something wrong with the route that you’re taking us on?”

“There’s no problem with the route that I took.” Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Liu Bu. “Although you people live in the stronghold, you should know about how the wilderness has been getting stranger. I don’t know why exactly you want to go to the Jing Mountains, but my advice is to turn back immediately and return to Stronghold 113.”

“No.” Xu Xianchu said coldly, “It’s an order from the higher-ups that we can’t defy this time. We can’t go back until the mission has been completed. And that includes all of you as well!”

Ren Xiaosu felt that something was amiss. There was no way Xu Xianchu would risk his life just to complete a mission. There must be some other reason!

Chapter 47: Eerie woods

Once Liu Bu realized that it was not possible to head back, he said to Ren Xiaosu, “You’ll sit alone in the pickup truck bed while Cheng Donghang will sit in the vehicle.” He sneered, “Since you claim that you didn’t take us on the wrong road, we’ll leave you to face the danger yourself.”

He couldn’t care less about Ren Xiaosu eating the crackers. Obviously, surviving was more important than him eating some crackers. After all, none of them wanted to die out here.

Ren Xiaosu ignored him and went over to check on Xu Xia’s injury. He took Xu Xia’s hand away from his neck and was surprised to see a long stinger in his neck. Ren Xiaosu immediately recognized what it was… a hornet!

He quietly pulled out the stinger with his back facing those standing behind him. He didn’t want the others to know how Xu Xia had died. The atmosphere in the team was becoming stranger and stranger. As the “guide,” it would be more advantageous for him if the group learned to be fearful of the wilderness at times. Ren Xiaosu had never regarded himself as a good person, nor was he obliged to tell others about everything. His own survival was more important than anything else.

However, Ren Xiaosu also heaved a sigh of relief. As long as it was not some mysterious species that attacked humans, it was all good. In fact, he was also startled by what had happened just now.

Ren Xiaosu deduced that a hornet might have flown into the pickup truck bed and remained in there. When Xu Xia climbed into the vehicle, his movements alarmed the hornet, so it stung him.

But he had not expected that a hornet’s sting would be so lethal. Was it the swollen neck that caused asphyxiation? No, no, no, that couldn’t be. If he had suffocated, it would at least take some time for him to die, certainly not just ten seconds. It seemed that the source of the problem was the venom itself.

When Ren Xiaosu was young, he had also been stung by a hornet before. But only half of his face swelled up for several days, and he did not die from the sting.

This wilderness was getting more and more dangerous.

Sometimes Ren Xiaosu would have contradictory thoughts. On one hand, he was attracted by the mysterious wilderness and wanted to learn its secrets. On the other hand, he well knew that his curiosity could kill him.

There were many different dimensions of a human being, and their thoughts were always complicated. This was a defining factor of humanity.

The shadow of death enveloped the entire convoy, whereas Ren Xiaosu had now become the calmest person in the convoy. Xu Xianchu came to check on the wound but could only see a red dot on his neck. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was observing everyone’s reaction. He saw Yang Xiaojin frowning as well after she pretended to inadvertently check on Xu Xia’s wound.

Only Ren Xiaosu knew that Xu Xia had actually been stung by a hornet that had evolved in the wilderness.

Someone said, “What should we do with Xu Xia’s body? We can’t possibly abandon him in the wilderness, right?”

“What else can we do?” Liu Bu frowned. He had planned to dump Xu Xia here as burying him would take them some time. He didn’t want to stay a moment longer in this godforsaken place.

Luo Xinyu said, “Put him in the bed of the pickup. Let’s get out of here first before we find a suitable spot to bury him.”

As the leader of the band, what would the others think of her if she dumped Xu Xia here? Her reputation would be tainted if word of what happened got out.

When Liu Bu heard her, he immediately made a decision. “Ren Xiaosu, carry Xu Xia into the bed of the pickup and sit in there with him!”

Ren Xiaosu did not mind this at all. Since he hadn’t eaten any of the crackers since a day ago, he rather missed them.

He was even less stressed with sitting with the corpse. He had also not been frightened by the number of corpses left behind by the wolves when they attacked the factory.

People in the stronghold were awed by death, but Ren Xiaosu only had reverence for life. He did not fear death at all.

As the convoy set off again, Ren Xiaosu sat in the back of the pickup truck bed, eating crackers and drinking bottled water while muttering to Xu Xia, “Why did y’all have to come out here for no reason? See, you’re dead now, aren’t you?

“Hey, what exactly does the inside of the stronghold look like? Many of us on the outside are on the verge of starving to death, yet y’all’re still in the mood to listen to music and support celebrities?

“Even the pork gets shipped into the stronghold for y’all to enjoy while we can’t even get to eat it.”

Ren Xiaosu was bored and had nothing to do, but the two buddies in the driver and co-driver seats did not think that way. Along the way, they heard Ren Xiaosu’s faint voice. The driver felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. He asked his co-driver, “Who is he talking to?”

“I… I don’t know. He’s probably just talking to himself….”

“Do you think there’s something wrong with his head?”

That evening, the convoy failed to find a suitable place to set up camp and was forced to settle for a small clearing. Everyone was quiet as they were in no mood to chat and brag after all that had happened today.

Early the next morning, Ren Xiaosu got up and stretched. He did not go out to find food last night. After all, he had gorged himself on crackers.

The chocolates had also been placed in the pickup truck bed. However, Liu Bu had shrewdly carried them into his vehicle. As there was no space for the box of chocolate in the vehicle, Liu Bu had to hold onto it for the entire afternoon.

Ren Xiaosu had already planned ahead for the day. He did not have to eat in the morning since he could eat whatever he wanted in the cargo bed after the convoy set off and continued journeying.

Right at this moment, however, he heard a scream. He whipped his head in the direction of the pickup. A soldier shouted, “Where is Xu Xia’s corpse? Did any of you see his body?”

All of them were stunned. “Isn’t it in the pickup?”

“His body has gone missing!”

This time, Ren Xiaosu felt a tingling on his scalp!

What was going on? The corpse had been placed properly in the cargo bed, so how could it just disappear?

The typical adult male weighed between 70 and 90 kilograms. So it would be exhausting for a human to carry off the body without making any noise.

How could no one have heard any noise when there were so many people around? Who had carried Xu Xia’s corpse away?

Ren Xiaosu suddenly recalled the fish scraps and bones that he had thrown away earlier. It seemed that those had disappeared in the same manner. Without any clues, there was absolutely no way to tell what could have done this.

At that time, he had guessed that ants did it. But it couldn’t possibly be them this time. No matter how much ants had evolved, they couldn’t carry away such a large corpse overnight.

This time, Ren Xiaosu was overwhelmed with doubt. He frowned and wondered, ‘What on earth could have done this?’

Liu Bu was trembling all over as he looked at Xu Xianchu. “Sir, why don’t we all head back to the stronghold? This is getting eerie.”

Xu Xianchu was holding his gun and warily pointing it at the surroundings. “I’m just as afraid as you are, but we absolutely can’t go back until we’ve accomplished our mission. From now on, we must act like we’re refugees. If we can’t go back, you guys can’t go back either.”

“But these woods are way too strange!” Liu Bu was almost crying.

“Everyone, get into the vehicles and let’s get the hell out of this place!” Xu Xianchu roared.

From this moment onward, Ren Xiaosu held his bone knife in his hand at all times. His mind sharpened, and he would always be on guard against any danger that might approach him.

Chapter 48: All human behavior and motivation stems from the fear of death

Why did Xu Xia’s corpse disappear? And where did it go? These two questions lingered in everyone’s minds.

Ren Xiaosu kept wondering about something. If the entity could make something as large as a corpse disappear without a trace, why didn’t it do the same to those who were alive?

Judging by what the entity was capable of, it could easily inflict heavy casualties on the entire campsite during the dead of the night.

Something was amiss!

Everyone was sitting in the vehicles except for Ren Xiaosu, who was in the bed of the pickup truck. When they first came here, all of them were chatting, laughing, and even singing with the windows down!

But now, all of the windows were shut tight. They were afraid that something paranormal would suddenly get into the vehicles and kill everyone.

Everyone felt that the additional layer of a window between them and the wilderness would make them safer.

As Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed, the woods slowly disappeared from his sight. The shadows of the swaying leaves seemed to hide a killing intent. Even Ren Xiaosu got a little frightened by it.

But what could he do? So he started eating the crackers to calm his nerves.

Whenever Ren Xiaosu thought of a conjecture that frightened him, he would eat a cracker to calm down.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu felt that sitting in either the pickup or the off-road vehicles were both just as unsafe. Now that his physical fitness had become better, and with a relatively broad view of the surroundings, he could immediately find a way out or make a plan in the event of any danger.

Nobody in the entire convoy could outrun him other than maybe Yang Xiaojin, whose stamina was unknown.

Ren Xiaosu had never considered saving the others if danger descended upon them. After all, he was not an idiot!

As their guide, not only did they not provide him with food, they even made him sit in the bed of the pickup. They were already fortunate that Ren Xiaosu did not take revenge on them!

Everyone was fleeing like there was a monster chasing after them. Liu Bu was still persuading Xu Xianchu when they got into the vehicle, “Sir, let’s turn around and give an explanation to those back at the stronghold. Surely your superior won’t be so heartless as to drive you out, right?”

But Xu Xianchu did not answer him. If it were anyone other than him, his superior might not be as heartless. However, it was a different case for him.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu noticed a long time ago that Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu, both of whom were officers in the private army, had likely offended their superiors before.

When a plight arose in the wilderness during the middle of the night, the first person they sent out was Wang Congyang. After Ren Xiaosu and Luo Xinyu requested for him to be replaced, Xu Xianchu became the next in line to be sent out by the stronghold.

The successful officers would be enjoying themselves in the stronghold. Only those who were unpopular would get ostracized and be made to perform missions in the wilderness. Why else would anyone be willing to leave home and head into battle in the middle of the night?

There was a sense of honor among soldiers before The Cataclysm happened. But Ren Xiaosu felt that these soldiers from the private army were nothing like that.

In fact, Xu Xianchu and Wang Congyang were both in awkward positions within the ranks of the private army. Their superiors were already looking to suppress them, so with a valid reason like them failing their mission this time, they would probably not be allowed to go back.

However, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts. He glanced beside him and finally asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, “Are these troops really reliable? The stronghold’s defense is dependent on them, but it feels like they’ll start behaving like a disorderly mob the moment they encounter any danger.”

Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a look and said something that sounded confusing to him. “The Consortium’s troops are the Consortium’s troops. The stronghold’s troops are the stronghold’s troops. The Consortium does not wish for the stronghold to control a powerful military.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a long time. What were the Consortium’s troops like? Xu Xianchu was obviously shrewder and tougher than the other soldiers. Ren Xiaosu had never seen him smoking or slacking off on their journey thus far, and he always carried himself with dignity.

Who were the ostracized officers? Ren Xiaosu knew at least two of them. One was Wang Congyang; the other was Xu Xianchu. Without mentioning Xu Xianchu, Wang Congyang had displayed his meticulousness when he searched Ren Xiaosu back in town. He was completely different from these private troops and even showed his contempt for them in front of Ren Xiaosu.

So were Xu Xianchu and Wang Congyang both ostracized because they were unwilling to wallow in the mire with them?

By his worst reckonings, Ren Xiaosu thought that even the cigarettes might have been supplied by the Consortium. Had the Consortium been carefully scheming all these years and finally managed to completely cripple the stronghold’s military force? Ren Xiaosu was unable to ascertain this. But as Mr. Zhang had said before, a minority possessed science and technology now, so wouldn’t it also be natural for the military to fall under the control of a minority as well?

But he still had doubts about Xu Xia. Was it true that people who were alive would not get attacked? If not, why didn’t anything happen to them?

Why was the stronghold so interested in the Pre-Cataclysm ruins hidden in the Jing Mountains? Could the dangers that they’d faced today have originated at the site of these ruins?

Xu Xianchu said sternly, “I’m taking over the wartime management of everyone. As for any future plans, none of you have any rights to question me about them.”

Liu Bu opened his mouth but stopped short of saying anything. He realized that Xu Xianchu had turned serious.

At noon, the convoy took a short break at a place called the Rainbow Cliffs. The formation of the Rainbow Cliffs was related to plate tectonics as well. They were cliffs formed by the compression of the Earth’s plates and were made up of many colorful rock layers. The private army’s troops named it as such when they went out into the woods many years ago to clear out the wild animals from the area.

Liu Bu was wiping his sweat as he supported himself against the cliffs. He said, “It’s almost winter, but why is it getting warmer the further we walk north?”

Ren Xiaosu sat nearby and belched while saying, “There are several volcanoes up ahead in the Jing Mountains. They aren’t extinct yet, so there’s a lot of volcanic activity.”

Many of the people on the team were surprised to hear that as they had never been to this place before. They always thought that volcanoes were something that was distant from them and never expected several of them in the Jing Mountains.

But Xu Xianchu was not surprised as he had already familiarized himself with the terrain around the Jing Mountains based on the private army’s briefing for the mission. The private army’s troops had also been here before, so it was natural they knew about these volcanoes as well.

But Xu Xianchu wondered how unprofessional his predecessors in the private army were. After clearing out and eliminating the wild animals in the Jing Mountains, they did not even bother to map out the area?

As of now, none of the various major strongholds had even come up with an accurate map of the area!

Liu Bu walked over to the pickup to get some food to distribute to everyone. When he saw that many of the crackers had gone missing again, he nearly passed out. His voice was trembling as he asked Ren Xiaosu, “Why would you eat so many crackers!”

Ren Xiaosu burped and patted his chest. “What’s wrong with me eating some of your crackers to calm my nerves? I was sitting all alone by myself in the bed of the pickup!”

Suddenly, a howl came from the north. It sounded so eerie that all of the soldiers raised their guns and pointed them northwards at the main road. They heard Ren Xiaosu say, “Quick, help me up. Let me have another cracker to calm my nerves.”

Liu Bu was speechless.

Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu. “You must know what sound that is.”

Xu Xianchu pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu. “Don’t hide anything from us!”

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and said, “That sound comes from the Howling Canyon. We’re not far from the large canyon pass that will lead us into the Jing Mountains. When a strong gust of wind passes through the canyon, it makes a sound like that. It’s nothing to be scared by.”

Only now did everyone realize that it was still very useful to have an experienced guide on the team. It wasn’t until this time when they were all fearful that they began to recognize Ren Xiaosu’s value. At the very least, they didn’t feel so afraid anymore when they heard the howling.

Their original plan was to arrive at the canyon in three to five days, but the power of fear had accelerated their progress some. If nothing unexpected happened, they could reach the Howling Canyon by this evening!

The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had once mentioned in his lectures that all human behavior and motivation stemmed from the fear of death.

They ate because they didn’t want to die; they struggled just so they could stay alive.

But now, they were all caught in a mountain range where death could occur at any time. The possibility of death was like a shot of adrenaline that made everyone even more clearheaded and eager to get out of this place alive.

Chapter 49: Stop here, ye who live

For now, the convoy was traveling at a rapid pace. On one hand, this stretch of road was a little smoother to travel on. On the other hand, everyone felt that as long as they drove fast enough, they could leave the danger behind them.

As the setting sun cast rays from the sky heading into evening, the convoy finally emerged out of the woods and saw the towering cliffs and canyon ahead of them.

The cliffs were like giant stairs that had been yanked out of the ground. When they got out of their vehicles, they had to crane their heads so far back their necks felt strained before they could see the top of the cliffs. But when they gazed to the left and right, they couldn’t see the end.

These were nature’s stairs. It was like you could climb into heaven by taking this staircase.

The Howling Canyon looked like a thin black line as it stretched out into the distance. But when they approached it, they realized that the canyon was so wide that five or six cars could pass through it side by side.

A howl and whistle was produced when the strong mountain winds blew through the canyon. If someone were standing at the mouth of the canyon, they would hardly be able to stay upright and would almost certainly get knocked over by the wind.

The magic and magnificence of nature were given full expression with this display.

Suddenly, Liu Bu shouted, “Everyone, come look at this.”

Liu Bu stood next to entrance of the Howling Canyon and pointed at a section on the cliff wall while shouting, “There’s something written on here!”

Everyone went over and saw that someone had carved the words “Stop here, ye who live” as large as a person’s head on the cliff wall.

Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Who carved this into the cliff?”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I didn’t see these five words when I was here last year.”

“Why did you come here?” Liu Bu shrieked. “Do you know how far from town this is? You shouldn’t have ventured out this far even if you were out hunting. Who the hell are you, really? You must have kept your identity from us!”

Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “Yes, there’s something that I haven’t told y’all yet. I’m actually… the heir of the dragon.”

Liu Bu, Xu Xianchu, and Luo Xinyu were speechless.

“There are too many doubts about you right now.” Xu Xianchu pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu and said, “You must explain exactly why you came out here last year. This area is off the beaten track. Stronghold 113 has not sent anyone to this place in many years, and even though this is the only route linking Stronghold 112 to Stronghold 113, no one from Stronghold 112 has been to our side this past year either. You’re likely the only person who’s been here this year, so did you carve these words into the cliff?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “The words are carved in a very high place. I can’t reach it without moving a rock over to stand on with how short I am. Besides, I’m just as surprised as y’all are about these five words. I’m also incredibly puzzled about who did this.”

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t lying about this. He truly did not carve these words.

“You haven’t given us an explanation of why you came to this place!” Liu Bu roared. “Do you know how far from town we are?”

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. Although they had driven at a slower pace than jogging, they still covered a pretty long distance in three days. There was no reason for Ren Xiaosu to come to this place.

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Last year, I encountered a pack of wolves when I was at the Yuns. They pursued me until I reached this place.”

This was also the truth.

“You’re bullshitting.” Liu Bu retorted, “How could a kid like you survive an encounter with the wolves? Tell me, why did the wolves let you go?”

“I wasn’t their target at the time. I just happened to be there. I ran into the woods in a hurry, thinking they would ignore me. I didn’t expect them to chase me. As for how I survived… after I entered the Howling Canyon, they stopped chasing me. I hid in there for two days and only came out after they left. I don’t know my way around the inside of the canyon since I haven’t gone that far in myself.”

Everyone was stunned. Even the wolves stopped chasing when they reached this place? Could something terrible really lurk beyond this canyon?

Perhaps some kind person had gone in and discovered the secret of the Jing Mountains, so they left behind a mess on the canyon’s cliff wall to warn others not to proceed further.

Everyone believed Ren Xiaosu’s explanation, but he wasn’t telling the full truth this time. Back then, he had indeed been pursued by the wolves, but the truth was that they continued chasing him instead of stopping here.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu also wasn’t sure how he had survived. He had lost his consciousness shortly after the wolves caught up to him. When he woke up, he was injured all over but the wolves were nowhere to be seen.

He was at death’s door when he finally struggled back into town. It was only at that time that he realized the horror of the wolves. But it was also after this encounter with the wolves that the black mist started appearing in his mind.

Ren Xiaosu had spent the entire year thinking about whether there was any link between the black mist in his mind and him losing consciousness at that time. What exactly had happened while he was unconscious?

Someone suddenly said, “Do you guys know anything about those supernatural beings? Maybe the writing was left behind by one of them. It’s not surprising since they can walk around freely in the wilderness. Some of these supernatural beings have long surpassed the realm of normal human beings.”

The person who spoke was a soldier. However, Xu Xianchu looked at him in fury. “That’s a military secret.”

“Why are you still pretending? Didn’t the whole lot of us get sent here because we’re all ostracized? How much longer do you think you can stay an officer?” The soldier sneered and said, “Even if we can complete the mission, do you really think that Ma Xin will let you off when you return?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The chain of command of the private army was such a mess that the enlisted confronted the officers as they wished? Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu’s impression of the private army worsened. The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had described that the armies from before The Cataclysm were well-disciplined, which in turn made them into a unified, strong unit.

Xu Xianchu looked at that soldier. “Even if he doesn’t let me off, I’ll make sure you get cast out before I do. You’d better shut your trap now. Otherwise, I’m going to treat you as a deserter and punish you accordingly.”

The soldier fell silent, but Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu started to get curious. “We heard that three supernatural beings were arrested in our stronghold by the private army some time ago. What happened to them?”

Xu Xianchu deliberated before saying, “It’s none of your business. We were just carrying out our superiors’ orders.”

“Then are we still heading in?” Liu Bu pleaded, “Sir, why don’t we turn back? It’s too dangerous in there!”

Xu Xianchu finally showed signs of wavering. He looked at the sky and said with a sigh, “Since it’s getting late, let’s set up camp here for the night. We’ll discuss whether to stay or go, then make a decision. How about that?”

Liu Bu and the others agreed. As long as they were not going forward, they were fine with any decision.

Ren Xiaosu gazed deep into the canyon. The straight canyon walls on either side looked like they joined with the sky. A small ray of light shone in from a crevice at the top, but this ray of light faded as it made its way down into the canyon. The deeper he looked into it, the darker it became.

Chapter 50: The horror in the canyon

Ren Xiaosu did not have to go out to look for food anymore. Driven by the fear of death, Liu Bu’s mind was no longer on Ren Xiaosu taking their food. Everyone was now thinking about how to survive the night. Or rather, they were thinking of how to make it out alive from this place instead of worrying about what there was to eat at night.

That same night, some of them did not even want to set up their tents to sleep in as they were afraid it would hinder their escape route. However, Xu Xianchu did not allow them to do so. “Get all of your tents set up. It’s already late autumn. If you don’t have a tent to protect yourselves from the wind, you won’t be able to make it out of the Jing Mountains once you fall sick!”

The group built a bonfire and sat quietly around it. Although they did not dare to go far or venture into the woods again while collecting firewood, they still managed to collect quite a bit of it with their combined efforts. It seemed that the larger the campfire was, the more of a sense of security they felt.

This time, Ren Xiaosu did not start a campfire by himself because Xu Xianchu requested for him to join their discussion.

“What gives him the right to sit here?” Liu Bu said displeased, “How can we sit together with a refugee? Ren Xiaosu, go and sit a little further back.”

No one rebuked Liu Bu because there was no reason in offending people like him over a refugee.

Everyone had been sitting together in a circle. However, after Liu Bu forced Ren Xiaosu to sit further out by himself, it suddenly looked like he was just listening in on their conversation.

They really needed Ren Xiaosu to give them some suggestions, but in Liu Bu’s opinion, Ren Xiaosu could just answer whatever questions they had from the back.

However, Xu Xianchu was much more rational than Liu Bu. “Quit discussing irrelevant matters. We have to seriously discuss the issue of whether we’re continuing ahead or returning to town.”

Xu Xianchu had previously insisted on heading to the Jing Mountains because he had to consider his future and situation in the stronghold. However, he had also become disheartened with the current circumstances. Even if he were expelled from the stronghold and became a refugee, it would still be better than dying out here.

The soldiers trusted the cold and emotionless guns in their hands. But when they realized that even guns might not be able to solve their problems, a great fear started growing in the soldiers. Their greatest reliance could no longer provide them with a sense of security.

When Xu Xianchu saw that everyone had calmed down, he said, “We’re faced with a dilemma. On one hand, we can walk through the canyon where unknown dangers lurk, but there could also be the existence of some creatures that even supernatural beings can’t cope with. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to explain why someone would come all the way here by themselves and leave behind a warning saying ‘Stop here, ye who live.’”

Xu Xianchu continued, “But on the other hand, there are hidden dangers in the woods as well. The mysterious death of Xu Xia and the disappearance of his body are unsolved mysteries. So we’re also unsure of what we’ll encounter on our way back.”

Luo Xinyu suddenly said, “Although we did face some dangers in the wods, our forces have not been wiped out. After all, so many of us are still alive after getting here, but it’s very difficult to say what danger lies beyond the canyon. I still think it’s better to face the dangers in the woods.”

After passing through the woods, only one person on the team had died. Even if another person died on their way back, they might not be that unfortunate one. Therefore, turning back was probably the best choice for them.

But Xu Xianchu was still in a predicament. Should he really return? If he did, how would his superiors at the stronghold make things difficult for him?

Everyone fell silent again. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and noticed she still looked calm and composed. It was as if she didn’t care about whether they were going back or staying here.

Wait a minute, could Yang Xiaojin be that legendary supernatural being?

Ren Xiaosu could not confirm it. But for some reason, he suddenly felt that Yang Xiaojin seemed to have a different purpose from everyone else in coming here. When they were eating the fish, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin had come along to protect Luo Xinyu as they were friends.

But the problem was that Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin did not look like they had a particularly close friendship. Their relationship was just like that of employer and employee.

Ren Xiaosu rather yearned to see the supernatural beings that Xu Xianchu and the others mentioned. However, he did not feel envious of them because he was one of the “supernatural beings” himself. It was just that he had not grown that strong yet.

Luo Xinyu observed Xu Xianchu’s expression and said, “Sir, are you worried about the situation you’ll be caught in if we return to the stronghold? You don’t have to worry about that. Once we get back, I can find someone to transfer you out of the private army, even if it means arranging for you to do clerical work.”

Xu Xianchu was taken aback. “Are you serious?”

Luo Xinyu said earnestly, “Of course, I still have quite a bit of influence in the stronghold.”

Her words seemed to be quite effective as Xu Xianchu finally made up his mind. “Alright, let’s set off early tomorrow morning and return to the stronghold!”

At this moment, the wind in the canyon stopped blowing. When the loud howling ceased, the entire woods fell silent.

In this moment of silence, everyone’s hairs stood on end when they suddenly heard the sound of chewing coming from the pickup. Liu Bu trembled and said, “What’s that sound?”

“I think it’s coming from the bed of the pickup!”

Everyone looked over in horror. They couldn’t figure out why there were sounds coming from the bed of the pickup when it was only their daily necessities in there. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was also out here with them, so what was making that sound?

Xu Xianchu’s expression turned black after getting frightened. “I don’t believe there’s something that isn’t afraid of bullets!” He then signaled for the private troops to move slowly toward the pickup.

The chewing had been going on for a while now, but they could not hear it over the loud wind blowing in the canyon.

Ren Xiaosu also stood up. It seemed that after his physical fitness had gotten stronger. He did not feel cold even though he was only wearing a thin jacket in late fall.

He had held his bone knife in his hand the entire time. When he turned around and looked at Yang Xiaojin, she also had her hand on the pistol she carried with her.

Xu Xianchu and the others slowly approached the pickup. All of a sudden, a shadowy figure jumped out of the pickup truck’s cargo bed and frightened everyone. They immediately started shooting before they could even process what had happened.

The dark figure encountered a fierce barrage of gunfire while in midair and was sent flying backwards after getting hit by several bullets. At this moment, they heard another sound coming from the pickup’s cargo bed. Without pausing to think, Xu Xianchu and the others started shooting mercilessly at the bed of the pickup.

Click, click!

The empty guns made clicking noises. These soldiers had finished firing all their rounds in the magazines and the pickup was now in a terrible condition. It was full of holes and the fuel tank had started leaking. Someone actually fired at the fuel tank and left a bullet hole in it.

However, Ren Xiaosu was not worried that the pickup would explode. This was because he had the relevant knowledge with his Advanced Firearms Proficiency: Unless firebombs are used, it is very difficult to blow up a fuel tank by shooting at it with guns.

Xu Xianchu slowly approached the pickup as he got ready to check out the shadowy figure that had jumped out. But after he saw it, he was somewhat frustrated. What frightened them turned out to be just a rat stealing their food!

“How did that rat grow to become so big?” Liu Bu was still in a state of shock. “It’s almost the size of two human heads.”

Xu Xianchu cast aside his fear and looked into the pickup. There was another rat in there that had already been riddled with bullets.

It turned out to be just a false alarm. Everyone was becoming too nervous and would get suspicious of any slight movements around them.

It was time to return to the stronghold. No one could withstand this tremendous mental pressure if they remained here.

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu spun around and looked at the route they’d come from. He saw a silver wolf standing on the top of a cliff not far away looking right at them. It was the Wolf King!

‘This is bad! Why have they come back so quickly!’

Chapter 51: It’s only reasonable

The silver Wolf King shone brightly under the moonlight that reflected off it and made it look like it was glowing. Up on the cliff, the Wolf King’s silver fur was fluttering in the wind like a fine work of art.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any intention of appreciating it. He only wanted to run away!

Didn’t they say that the wolves had already left the vicinity of Stronghold 113 and headed into the mountain range that was several hundred kilometers away? Why had they suddenly reappeared here?

The cliff was not far, and it would only take around ten minutes for the wolves to get here. However, Ren Xiaosu was most worried about the whereabouts of the other wolves. What if they were nearby?

Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Hurry into the canyon!”

Liu Bu was stunned. “Get into the canyon? Are you crazy? If we enter the canyon, wouldn’t we be digging our own graves?!”

“If we don’t get into the canyon now, we’ll all die!” Ren Xiaosu rushed over to the side of the pickup and grabbed the large and rather intact rat carcass before running towards the canyon. He had the most experience with the wolves, so he knew best the terrifying opponents they would face if they did not make their escape now.

The natural predators of wolves might have been eliminated by the stronghold when they were assigned to clear out the wilderness, leaving them with the freedom to move about fearlessly in the wilderness.

Ren Xiaosu looked behind him and was surprised to see that the others were still in the mood to retrieve their belongings by the campfire and load them back into their vehicles! It was as though the wolves were still very far away. No one was particularly anxious about the situation.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu mentioned earlier that these wolves did not dare enter the canyon. That also gave these people a boost of confidence. As long as they could enter the canyon that was about ten meters away, they would be safe.

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘These people are really not afraid of dying. Why are they still packing their clothes at a time like this? Shouldn’t they at least grab food and water first?’

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized that Yang Xiaojin, Xu Xianchu, and him had the most awareness within the team.

Xu Xianchu immediately went to his vehicle to retrieve his gun and ammunition while Yang Xiaojin threatened a driver with a gun to get him into the vehicle to drive.

But what could Ren Xiaosu do now? Surely he could not perish together with them here. As he ran into the canyon, he observed the cliffs on both sides. Although it looked precipitous, it did have some handholds to hold on to if he had to climb it.

Ren Xiaosu was examining this because he knew that he had told the others that the wolves would not enter the canyon just so that he could hide the truth of how he survived. But he knew that the wolves had not hesitated at all when they chased him into the canyon that time.

So the wolves would definitely chase after them, and it would be a major problem on how to escape at that time.

The off-road vehicles were a great form of transportation. But it was difficult to say whether they could even outrun the wolves on flat ground, let alone on this rocky road in the canyon.

A few days ago, the private troops skirmished with the wolves. Although there were several hundred soldiers with loaded guns, several dozen of them were still bitten to death by the wolves. With just under twenty of them, it was nowhere near enough.

There was an appropriate saying for these events: “You don’t have to outrun wolves as long as you outrun everyone else.” But a dozen-odd people could not possibly slow the wolves’ pace. If anything, all of them would perish.

That was why Ren Xiaosu did not get into the vehicles immediately but ran towards the canyon instead. It was not because he made the choice in panic, but that he knew right from the start that he wouldn’t be able to escape even if he got into a vehicle. He had to find another way.

If he were left no other choice, he would have to climb the cliff. No matter how strong the wolves were, they couldn’t possibly climb walls, right?

Ren Xiaosu was not sure if he had enough strength to climb to the top, but that was the only way to survive.

At this moment, someone started a vehicle and gunned it for the canyon. There were not enough vehicles for everyone now because the pickup had been totaled.

Everyone was terrified after they spotted the wolves appearing at the edge of the forest. Those wolves were probably as tall as buffalo, and they seemed to be in no hurry as they moved slowly towards the humans.

Liu Bu kept screaming in horror, and many of the soldiers blanched.

Those who were determined to pack their belongings now realized just how foolish they had been. If they hadn’t gone to take their stuff, they would probably have already reached the inside of canyon by now!

“Wait, don’t close the door!” Someone shouted, “Squeeze in a little, we all can fit!”

But before the person saying that could squeeze into the vehicle, he was kicked out of the vehicle by Liu Bu. After that, the vehicle door was slammed shut!

“Start driving! Hurry up!” someone yelled.

Ren Xiaosu was extremely calm at this moment. There was no right or wrong in the wilderness. Surviving was right, while dying was wrong. All he could do now was survive and became the last survivor. That was all.

The four vehicles that were still working drove straight into the canyon. This was at the cost of leaving behind two people who did not manage to get in on time. Suddenly, they heard two screams from outside the canyon. Ren Xiaosu trembled as he realized that the wolves were faster than he had imagined.

When the vehicles were passing by Ren Xiaosu, one of them actually stopped for him. He could see Yang Xiaojin pointing a gun at the driver’s head from the backseat of the vehicle. She turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Get in!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He didn’t expect that Yang Xiaojin would threaten the driver with a gun to stop the vehicle. Besides, he had no intention of getting into the vehicle! Could a vehicle outrun the wolves in this godforsaken place?

Yang Xiaojin seemed to realize that Ren Xiaosu was not budging. She pulled out a black pistol, an M9, with her other hand and pointed it at Ren Xiaosu. “Get into the vehicle!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He turned around to look out of the canyon and was surprised by what he saw. Yang Xiaojin followed his gaze and looked back as well. She saw that the wolves had come to a stop outside the canyon. Several dozen huge wolves were quietly peering into the entrance of the canyon. Their fur was stained with blood.

Liu Bu watched the wolves from his vehicle and said in a startled manner, “So they really won’t enter the canyon. We’re safe!”

Everyone felt like they had survived a disaster after getting away from the wolves!

Someone even started crying. “We’ve been saved!”

Liu Bu muttered, “I never expected the refugee kid was telling the truth.”

But Ren Xiaosu wasn’t at ease one bit, because he had lied to these people and did not expect the wolves to actually stop chasing them.

What did this mean?

It showed that some changes had really occurred in the Jing Mountains during the past year. This must have been the reason why the wolves had stopped in their tracks at this place.

It also meant that it must have gotten much more dangerous in the Jing Mountains lying beyond the canyon than imagined. Those five words on the cliff that said, “Stop here, ye who live,” was absolutely not a lie.

What should they do?

Someone got out of the vehicle and looked at the wolves that were standing outside the canyon. “Why don’t we set up camp here and wait for the wolves to leave before we head back the way we came?”

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘I’ve never heard a dumber suggestion.’ He said, “If y’all want to head back, carry on. I’ll never go back the same way.”

Xu Xianchu nodded and said gravely, “That’s right, there’s no way we can turn back.”

In this sort of situation, the forest was essentially the wolves’ home field. If you wanted to wait for them to leave, where would you expect them to go to? It would take three days to get back to the stronghold from here. In the space of three days, these wolves might even have enough time to turn into werewolves and give you a good thrashing while holding you up.

Of course, the wolves couldn’t possibly turn into werewolves. That was just an analogy.

No one responded to Xu Xianchu because everyone knew they would die no matter when they decided to head back. The only way that they could continue living was to head to Stronghold 112!

There was no way back anymore!

Liu Bu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Why are you carrying that rat?”

“To eat, of course!” Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly. “What else would I do with it?”

Liu Bu nearly puked. “You’re going to eat that?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “All of the food is in the pickup, and the pickup’s gone now. If I don’t eat this, what should I eat? Also, it’s only reasonable to eat them since they ate my crackers.”

Liu Bu was speechless.

That did sound rather reasonable!

In actual fact, Ren Xiaosu knew that the biggest problems this group would face were the food and water supplies.

Although Ren Xiaosu had grossed Liu Bu out, he did not really intend to eat the rat.

Chapter 52: Face bugs

To Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and the others who lived in the stronghold, a rat was synonymous with dirtiness. Traditionally, they were creatures that scuttled around in the sewers and represented plague, disease, miasma, and so on.

Although Ren Xiaosu also did not eat rats, it was only because he had seen them feeding on carrion before. It left a terrible impression on him. But to the other refugees in town, their natural mindset was that rats in the wilderness were food all the same. These rats stole food from humans and even preyed on other living creatures, so there was no difference between them and any other wild animals.

Since there was a shortage of food in town, they would even turn to eating termites, not to mention rats. This rat would look just like a walking piece of meat to them.

Compared to those in the stronghold, the refugees’ perception of food was different. The refugees felt that anything could be eaten as long as it didn’t kill them.

The pickup was now destroyed, and the provisions had been shot to smithereens by the soldiers. Even if there were still food left, no one would dare retrieve it at the risk of being attacked by the wolves. As such, they would have to bear with the hunger and starvation that was to come.

However, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid. Anyone but him could starve in this wilderness.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was looking at Yang Xiaojin. Earlier, he thought that she wanted to save him when she pointed a gun at the driver. But when she pointed the gun at him as well, he realized she only needed a guide who was familiar with the environment.

Or maybe Yang Xiaojin had realized it would get more difficult to find food from now on, while Ren Xiaosu had displayed skill in this aspect. That was why she had to bring along someone who could find food for her.

As persons specialized in different professions, being skilled with firearms did not necessarily mean that they would be skilled at wilderness survival as well. But as it happened, Ren Xiaosu was also skilled at wilderness survival.

Ren Xiaosu wondered what his wilderness survival proficiency would be if it were classified as a skill.

He asked in his mind, “What’s the proficiency of my wilderness survival?”

“It can be evaluated. You’re at master level,” the voice from the palace crisply answered.

Ren Xiaosu was momentarily stunned as he did not expect that it could be assessed. He had never thought that his wilderness survival skill would be at master level. It felt amazing.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was getting suspicious of Yang Xiaojin’s identity. As someone living in the stronghold, she acted too decisively and never did anything sloppily.

It was still the middle of the night, so everyone was extremely tired. Since the wolves did not dare to enter the canyon, they stopped to rest after walking several kilometers in.

They stopped because they had to discuss the countermeasures to adopt. On top of that, they were afraid of what was beyond the canyon. They wanted to delay walking through the canyon for as long as they could.

“We can only keep going forward,” Xu Xianchu said as he stood in the canyon. “This canyon is called the Howling Canyon. It looks calm now, but all of you have seen how strong the wind can get around here. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s been blown out of this canyon before.”

“But there doesn’t seem to be any wind here at night,” Liu Bu wondered. “From the evening until now, there hasn’t been much wind. By parking the vehicles side by side to act as a shield, the wind shouldn’t be much of a problem for us.”

“That won’t do. We can rest here for now but we have to leave before dawn,” Xu Xianchu refuted. “And we don’t have any food left. Our top priority is to make it out of the canyon so that we can look for food. It doesn’t seem like there’s any food in this canyon.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m getting a little hungry,” Liu Bu murmured.

During the night, everyone sat around the campfire that was set up. Because of their fear, they did not have much appetite. But it was five to six hours past dinnertime, and everyone had expended a great deal of stamina and energy while making their escape, so they were all a little hungry.

“If I had known, I would have gone to get the food supplies first,” someone complained. “Although the pickup was shot beyond recognition, the food was still edible.”

“What can we do now? We still have almost a fortnight’s journey ahead of us. What can we eat and drink?” Liu Bu asked.

With this question, everyone turned their eyes to Ren Xiaosu. In everyone’s opinion, Ren Xiaosu was amazing at surviving in the wilderness. Didn’t Ren Xiaosu catch a large fish?

However, Ren Xiaosu pointed to the rat at his feet. “Do y’all want to eat this?”

Everyone fell silent, but they knew they would definitely eat the rat if they were at their wits’ end. This was the reality of things.

In fact, everyone in the convoy knew that Ren Xiaosu would definitely be unwilling to help them look for food. After all, the convoy did not provide Ren Xiaosu with any food before this. Not only did they ostracize him, they also deliberately made fun of him and constantly put him in difficult positions. As such, how could they expect that he’d help them find food?

Some people suddenly started to grumble in their heads about Liu Bu. ‘What was wrong with giving Ren Xiaosu some food when there was plenty of provisions in the pickup? Look at how things have turned out.’

They had also never thought they would end up in this situation. Although they did not say anything at the time, they were all laughing when Liu Bu refused to provide Ren Xiaosu with any food.

Ren Xiaosu sneered in his mind at the time. ‘It’s every man for himself out here.’

“Let’s take a break for now. At dawn, we’ll pass straight through the canyon,” Xu Xianchu decided. “Once we get out of here, we’ll all have to be careful. Let’s be sure that there’s no more danger before we talk about food. One or two days isn’t enough to make us die of hunger.”

When there was a shortage of food in town, Ren Xiaosu saw someone eating tree bark and roots. After that, they even ate soil before eventually dying.

Ren Xiaosu knew exactly what would happen to people when they got hungry. Right now, they would not eat the rat. But in another two days, they would get so desperate they would even eat soil.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin went over to Ren Xiaosu and handed him a dagger. Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “Are you giving that to me?”

“I’m just lending it to you,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“Conditions?” Ren Xiaosu asked. These two people conducted themselves in a very straightforward manner. Love and hate didn’t exist for no reason in this world, so there must be a reason why Yang Xiaojin was lending her dagger to Ren Xiaosu.

“Food,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“Then it’s not enough to just lend it to me.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “You’ll have to give it to me.”

“Sure.” Yang Xiaojin turned around and left.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. In fact, Yang Xiaojin had already planned to use the dagger as a trading condition right from the start. When she said that she would lend it to him, it was only to leave some room for negotiation.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. He felt that he must be more careful when dealing with Yang Xiaojin in the future.

He inspected the dagger and could tell it was of much better quality than all of the metal weapons he had ever seen in Old Wang’s grocery store. He figured this even though he did not understand much about knives.

Ren Xiaosu put the dagger back into its sheath and hid it up his sleeve. All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu looked horrified. He looked above the cliff, and everyone followed his gaze. “What’s that up there?”

Right as he finished speaking, the rattle of hard shells grinding against each other could be heard inside the canyon. Xu Xianchu shone a bright flashlight over his head and saw an uncountable black swarm of insects crawling down the cliff walls.

No one here had seen these bugs before. The patterns on the back of the black bug’s shells resembled the human face. Their mandibles were opening and closing as they wildly rushed down at the group of people at the bottom of the cliff wall. It was as though they were following some sort of command, as some of them leaped from a height onto Ren Xiaosu and the others.

Ren Xiaosu pulled out his dagger and sliced apart a huge bug that had lunged for him. Then he shouted, “Run!”

“What the hell is that?!” Liu Bu was scared to death.

Chapter 53: A clear conscience

Although Ren Xiaosu had been venturing into the wilderness for many years, he had not heard of face bugs before, let alone seen them.

Ren Xiaosu was still calm and composed when he faced ants and termites. That was because if he did not have any bloody scent on him, the large ants nowadays would not show any special interest in him.

But these face bugs were terrifying. It was obvious they wanted to eat people!

As the canyon was really windy most of the time, nobody knew where these face bugs usually hid. Now that they’d spotted their prey, they were turning out in full force.

Was this what the wolves were afraid of? If Ren Xiaosu had known that there were so many of these face bugs in the canyon, he would not have come in no matter what. This time, he didn’t even bother taking the rat.

He had thought of climbing the cliff, but he was really glad that he didn’t move faster earlier on. Otherwise, he would have died if he encountered these things midway up the climb!

“Get into the vehicles!” Xu Xianchu shouted to everyone.

Ren Xiaosu slashed at two of the face bugs in succession. The two face bugs already had their mandibles open in midair as they lunged at him. Although their claws were not sharp, their mandibles were like hooks that could easily take a person’s life.

Ren Xiaosu did not run for it this time because he knew it would be safest to stay inside a vehicle. While everyone was still panicking, he got into one. Not only that, he even hoisted a driver in with him.

As Ren Xiaosu did not know how to drive, he could not escape if he did not drag a driver around with him.

He threw the driver into the driver’s seat and shouted, “Drive, hurry up and drive!”

The driver looked at him innocently. “This is not the vehicle I was driving. I don’t have the key for it.”

Damn… Ren Xiaosu felt that he was in a really disadvantageous position for not having driven a vehicle before. He did not even have the common sense they had in the stronghold to know that each vehicle needed separate keys to operate!

But without any hesitation, he dragged the driver out of the vehicle. Ren Xiaosu bellowed, “Which one did you drive?”

The driver was in a state of confusion from being dragged around by Ren Xiaosu. Amid the chaotic group of people, he pointed at a vehicle and said, “That one!”

Ren Xiaosu dragged the driver over to that vehicle. At this moment, all the others were running madly for their lives. Some of them fled to the vehicles, some of them ran further into the canyon without getting into the vehicles, and some of them even ran towards the wolves.

At this critical moment of life and death, the band members who were untrained and had never experienced such a situation before had lost their ability to think properly.

It was at this time that the voice from the palace in Ren Xiaosu’s mind intoned, “Quest: Help at least ten people escape from the canyon.”

‘Help? Your sister!’ Ren Xiaosu continued running to the vehicle while dragging the driver by his arm. Since he wouldn’t be punished for not completing the quest, he couldn’t care less about it. His own life was the priority!

All of a sudden, he realized that someone was following him.

When he turned around to look, he was surprised to see the Perfect Firearms Proficiency marksman, Yang Xiaojin, following him. She looked like she was holding something in her hand, but Ren Xiaosu was too busy to see what it was.

This girl must have been unwavering in her determination to escape with Ren Xiaosu. It looked like she felt that only by following Ren Xiaosu would she have a chance of survival!

Ren Xiaosu didn’t care. When he came to the vehicle and opened its door, he found a soldier inside shivering in fright in the driver’s seat. Ren Xiaosu pulled him out in anger. ‘What are you doing here if you don’t have the key?! Are you waiting to die?’

At this moment, two face bugs attempted to crawl into Ren Xiaosu’s pants. However, they were blasted to pieces by Yang Xiaojin with two shots as soon as they approached Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu jumped into the backseats of the off-road vehicle with Yang Xiaojin following him. Ren Xiaosu shouted at the driver who was in a daze, “Start driving! What are you waiting for!”

The driver had fallen into a stupor and was behaving mechanically. When Ren Xiaosu shouted at him, he hurriedly inserted the key and turned over the engine. He stepped on the gas but the vehicle did not move forward. When the driver realized that the hand brake was still on, he hurriedly released it and drove forward.

Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. Although the vehicles could not outrun the wolves, it could outrun the face bugs. There were already two vehicles driving in the distance ahead of them, and several people had been overwhelmed by the face bugs behind them. The swarm of black bugs engulfed their victims’ bodies as they struggled in vain to break free by twisting and turning their bodies.

Chewing sounds came from the black swarm of bugs as they gnawed on the blood and flesh, turning it into minced meat with their sharp mandibles.

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. So this was the real wilderness?

This was the world that humans would have to face in the future?!

The strange face bugs got attracted by the scent of flesh and blood and no longer went after the vehicles. Ren Xiaosu slumped in his seat and panted. As he had expended a lot of energy just now, he was a little exhausted.

Even for him, it wasn’t easy to drag an adult around while running around.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and saw her sitting calmly in the vehicle. She said, “You’ve got quite the strength.”

Ren Xiaosu ignored her and looked at the driver. He asked, “There aren’t any more bugs chasing us, right?”

“No more,” the driver said as he slowly recovered from surviving disaster. He snapped out of his stupor and regained some awareness. He kept muttering in the driver’s seat, “Thank you, I might not have lived if it weren’t for you.”

“Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu thought about how his gratitude tokens had finally reached 74 and how he had not dragged a person around for nothing. He gave it some thought and said, “Don’t be so grateful to me. I only needed you to drive the vehicle.”

“It’s alright. Whatever the reason, I still have to thank you. I’m sorry for what we did. You can rest assured that I’ll repay you,” Sun Junzheng said.

“Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was startled for a moment. He could actually receive more than one gratitude token for a single event? This was probably due to it being a life-saving grace, and Sun Junzheng was still in a state of shock. So all of his thanks were sincere.

Ren Xiaosu tested him by saying, “Let me hear you thank me another time.”

Sun Junzheng was speechless for some time as his emotions turned unstable!

Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a strange look. This young man was too calm as they were not clear of the danger yet.

After waiting for a long time, his 76th gratitude token still did not come. He felt that he might have gotten a little too enthusiastic about this.

If he had remained patient for a little longer, he might have gotten a few more of them. But one shouldn’t be too greedy, so that would be the end of it.

Ren Xiaosu noticed the puzzled expression on Yang Xiaojin’s face. He cleared his throat and said, “I was just kidding. Let’s get out of the canyon quickly and meet up with the others ahead of us before those face bugs catch up to us.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of the quest that was assigned by the palace. He didn’t feel bad about it at all. Under such circumstances, he would never have given up his own life to save the others.

Just as he had said to Yan Liuyuan before, “If we ever feel a pang in our conscience, we must convince ourselves that it isn’t so!”

Furthermore, his conscience was clear on this matter.

But then, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from his mind palace say, “Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

What was with this? Did it mean that as long as he had acted to save those people and as long as ten or more people in the team survived, the quest would be considered complete?

This palace’s judgment was way too random.

Chapter 54: The escape

Ren Xiaosu was astounded to learn he had actually completed the quest, because he had no intention of completing it right from the start. It seemed that the palace only wanted him to get stronger. How else could Wang Fugui’s “I thank your eight generations of ancestors” count as sincere thanks?!

Ren Xiaosu’s current Strength was 6.5 and had officially exceeded twice the level of a normal adult. Of course, this was only a comparison of the average rating of a human being. Individuals who had undergone intensive training would not be considered average.

The convoy quickly passed through the canyon and drove on. Those who had fled in the direction of the wolves in their panic ended up getting bitten to death by them. The pursuing face bugs were acting strangely as well. They were unwilling to step out of the canyon by even an inch, retreating slowly when they reached the edge of the canyon pass.

The wolves and face bugs were like two species in the wilderness that did not intrude into each others’ territories and coexisted in a unique way.

The wolves looked to their Wolf King as it turned around and trod back slowly towards the woods. It seemed that once it was sure that the prey had run off, it would depart without any hesitation.

The driver, Sun Junzheng, said as he drove, “I wonder how many of us survived this time?”

“It’s enough that we survived,” Ren Xiaosu answered. Others surviving wasn’t in his scope of considerations.

In reality, it was better to have a larger group of people in the wilderness. After all, the more people they had, the greater their strength. Besides, they could all take care of each other if something were to happen.

But now that Ren Xiaosu witnessed how these soldiers and band members reacted, it proved to him that these people were definitely not dependable. Not only they were not dependable, but he might even get killed through their actions if he was not careful enough.

“Look, there are so many skeletons around here!” Sun Junzheng suddenly shouted.

As the vehicle passed through the canyon, they saw several dozen human skeletons scattered in grotesque fashion throughout the canyon.

“I’m afraid that these might be left by the face bugs,” Ren Xiaosu calmly said.

Now that he thought about it, Ren Xiaosu, who remained the calmest at the time, had been able to observe the face bugs while he was retreating back to the vehicle.

He remembered that not every face bug had a human face on the back of their shells. Was it because they were not fully grown yet? Or was it because the faces would only appear after they ate a human?

In a strange place like this, Ren Xiaosu assumed the most horrifying possibilities.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt a shiver running down his spine. Why did it feel like these face bugs had swallowed the souls of their victims? The victims’ souls were then hideously displayed on the back of the face bugs’ shells.

The convoy originally had six vehicles, but they only possessed three now. It took them more than ten minutes to pass through the entirety of the canyon. The moment the vehicle drove out of the canyon, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Sun Junzheng were stunned by what they saw.

As it was still late at night, the canyon was dark and cryptic. The only light came from the vehicles’ headlights.

But outside the canyon, stars hung in a picturesque scene in the sky overhead. It felt like it was right in front of them. Furthermore, the vegetation on the ground was oddly dense with many fireflies among the trees. The surrounding mountains seemed to have deliberately marked out this huge garden as an immortal paradise.

They slowly got out of the vehicle and took in everything the night could offer. Sun Junzheng couldn’t help himself and walked towards the woods with a look of longing on his face.

However, Ren Xiaosu slapped his face. “You still want to go into that strange a forest?”

Those living in the stronghold were attracted to “beauty.” But for Ren Xiaosu, the beauty that existed in nature was inherently full of dangers.

To survive in the wilderness, they had to understand that the more beautiful a snake looked, the more dangerous was. The prettier the mushrooms looked, the more poisonous they were. The more gorgeous spiders looked, the deadlier they were.

So Ren Xiaosu naturally had some resistance towards beautiful things. He categorized the beauty of this wilderness as alluringly dangerous.

Everyone had already gotten out of their vehicles. Ren Xiaosu looked around and found that Xu Xianchu had indeed survived, as he was the first to react. But to his surprise, Liu Bu survived as well.

Ren Xiaosu did not hope Liu Bu would die, but he was a little puzzled. How did a timid person like him manage to survive when he all could do was shout and scream after getting scared?

Luo Xinyu also managed to survive. Ren Xiaosu remembered that Luo Xinyu had immediately gone to Xu Xianchu after the face bugs appeared. It was probably under Xu Xianchu’s lead that she was fortunate enough to escape.

Xu Xianchu looked solemn as he counted the number of people. “We only have 11 people left.”

When they came here, there was a total of 20 people. But now, only 11 of them remained, and they had not even reached the Jing Mountains yet. From here on out, they might face even more danger. It was difficult to say how many people could make it out of the Jing Mountains.

“I said that we should all head back, but you people still insisted on entering the canyon. That supernatural being cautioned us, so why couldn’t you just heed the warning?” Liu Bu grumbled.

“Shut up,” Luo Xinyu said coldly.

Liu Bu seemed to have regained his courage at this time and even mocked his boss, Luo Xinyu. “I told you not to risk our lives by venturing outside the stronghold. Why didn’t you listen to me? Are you satisfied now?”

Luo Xinyu was livid. “You were the one who readily agreed when I brought it up!”

“Would I dare disagree with you?” Liu Bu rebuked.

Xu Xianchu frowned as he looked at Liu Bu and said, “What’s the use of saying all this now? Do you want to go back and find the wolves? We were also forced to enter inside the canyon. Everyone is lucky to have survived, so stop arguing already. The most important thing for us now is to work together to overcome this difficult situation!”

Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu both kept quiet. Ren Xiaosu felt that he had to find another way out as he realized the team was falling apart. Any mention of “working together” now was empty talk.

They could not keep driving. No one had expected the vegetation here to get as dense as a subtropical rain forest, which made driving through impossible.

“Let’s get some rest first,” Xu Xianchu said wearily. They had yet to sleep soundly this entire evening as danger after danger kept coming at them. Everyone was on the verge of collapse at this point.

Ren Xiaosu pretended to be thoroughly exhausted as he sat on the ground far away from the woods. Not only did everyone have no food at this moment, but they also had no tents and blankets.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly regretted that he had forgotten to bring the rat carcass with him. He wondered if a face bug would turn into a ratface bug if it ate the rat carcass.

It did not seem so bad once he thought of it that way. In fact, he was even looking forward to finding out if that would really happen.

“Sir.” Luo Xinyu looked at Xu Xianchu and asked, “What exactly is the mission that requires you to go into the Jing Mountains?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. This was also a question he had.

Xu Xianchu hesitated for a moment but still did not tell them what he knew. However, Ren Xiaosu realized that Xu Xianchu had something on his mind.

Chapter 55: A temporary alliance

Right from the beginning, Xu Xianchu had not told them what their mission was. Meanwhile, the band members, such as Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, obviously did not know. Otherwise, they would not have asked Xu Xianchu in such a manner.

Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this. Was there any relationship between their mission objective and the changes that had been happening in the Jing Mountains?

Xu Xianchu suddenly said, “Actually, we didn’t expect there to be such great changes out here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have only been the 12 of us coming on this mission. What I can tell you is that we do not know what is going on around here at all.”

“It’s still uncertain if all of us can get out of here alive, so why can’t you share your secret with us?” Liu Bu was on the verge of a breakdown. He just wanted to know what kind of situation he was in, so he was unwilling to give up on any possible leads. He clenched his teeth and said to Xu Xianchu, “We’re all in the same boat. If you don’t tell us, the secret could end up getting buried with us!”

Liu Bu’s face was almost touching Xu Xianchu’s face and his spittle was flying around.

Xu Xianchu pushed Liu Bu aside and said, “You still dare to blame us when you were the ones who approached us in the first place? I heard that you’ve always wanted to go to the other strongholds, so it’s not like you won’t be heading there even without this mission. To be denying everything at this time, you’re putting it like we’re sending you to your deaths!”

Ren Xiaosu was watching the argument. All he lacked were some peanuts to munch on. All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin said from beside him, “I’m hungry.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback and thought, ‘Why are you telling me that you are hungry for?’

Yang Xiaojin said, “The dagger.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Ren Xiaosu nodded immediately. “Sit still, I’ll get you something to eat right away! Is there anything that you don’t eat?”

“No,” Yang Xiaojin said while sitting on the ground. Luo Xinyu had laid a piece of clothing on the ground before sitting down, but Yang Xiaojin was not particular about it.

However, Ren Xiaosu was a little despondent because he had lost the rat he had been holding onto. He had to drag the driver around with one hand and hold his dagger in the other at the time, so he couldn’t carry the rat around any longer. As such, it became a little difficult for him to find food now.

Besides, the dense forest up ahead was way too strange. It was impossible to see what was happening inside during the night. He would have to wait until the daytime to examine the forest before he would dare to go in and find food.

As a result, when Yang Xiaojin saw him looking somewhat stumped, she said, “I threw the rat into the trunk earlier.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He vaguely recalled that Yang Xiaojin was holding something in her hands amid the recent chaos. But he was in such a hurry that he didn’t get a careful look at it. So the thing she was carrying turned out to be the large rat.

It had to be said that Yang Xiaojin’s proactiveness had saved Ren Xiaosu a lot of trouble. In the past, he was always alone in the wilderness with no one to help him. Hence, he needed to face the dangers and difficulties all by himself.

Actually, some people in town had approached Ren Xiaosu to go hunting together, but he rejected them all.

It was not that they were not competent enough, rather he could not trust them. As it was very easy to get exhausted in the wilderness, he found it was better to be in the company of wild animals rather than humans.

Ren Xiaosu had previously thought about training Yan Liuyuan so that a huge burden could be lifted off his shoulders. But after some thought, he dismissed the idea entirely. He did not want to place Yan Liuyuan in any danger.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu was feeling for the first time what it meant to have his own “helper.”

However, Ren Xiaosu immediately banished the idea. This was purely a relationship for mutual benefit. They had formed a temporary alliance in the wilderness because they trusted each other’s skills and resources. The alliance was a silent agreement, but they did not actually trust each other and just took what they needed from the partnership.

Ren Xiaosu went to the vehicle and took the large rat out of the trunk. At this moment, even though the others were extremely hungry, they were not that desperate yet that they’d eat a rat. So when they saw Ren Xiaosu holding the rat, they felt a little nauseated at the thought of him eating it.

While the others were busy discussing what to do, Yang Xiaojin collected some firewood and came back to start a fire. Ren Xiaosu reminded her softly, “When you come out of the forest, make your retreat facing it.”

Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows and asked, “Why?”

“Because the big cats get tempted to make a sneak attack due to their instincts. It’s something that I feel they don’t even have any control over. It’s just what cats do,” Ren Xiaosu explained. “There are actually many wild felines in the wilderness. Mr. Zhang once mentioned that the wild felines could have descended from the domesticated cats that existed before The Cataclysm. Without their owners, they could only go live in the wilderness. Gradually, their behavior turned feral as a result of living in the wild. Furthermore, the wild felines are getting larger and larger, and they’re getting incredibly lethal as well.”

“Are they that dangerous?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Yes, very dangerous. But they might not attack you when you’re facing them, so don’t ever turn your back on the forest. No one knows what’s hiding in it,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Ren Xiaosu shared a few more things with Yang Xiaojin because he was thinking of maintaining this short-term alliance a little longer to improve his chances of survival.

Ren Xiaosu started cutting open the rat with the dagger. Honestly, he had planned to use the rat meat to catch centipedes. Compared to the rat meat, Ren Xiaosu thought that roasted centipedes tasted better.

But he had no other choice now. After the interaction with the face bugs, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried that he might end up catching something even stranger…

He quickly cut off the thick and muscular hind legs of the rat and handed them to Yang Xiaojin to roast over the fire. It didn’t take ten seconds before the aroma of the meat drifted a dozen meters away.

Prior to this, Liu Bu and the others were having a heated discussion. But when they smelled the aroma of the meat, all of them swallowed hard. Whatever they were discussing was forgotten.

Everyone quietly turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, they saw him throwing the rest of the rat into the forest with just a swing of his hand at this moment. Ren Xiaosu currently felt like he had infinite strength, and that meat vanished from sight with just a simple throw.

Liu Bu said anxiously, “Why did you throw the meat away?”

“Since y’all don’t want to eat it, why would I keep it here to attract the wild animals?” Ren Xiaosu glanced at them unhappily. “If you want to eat it, go and pick it up by yourself.”

Liu Bu was stunned for a while. He then said with a sneer, “I will not eat something that disgusting.”

Ren Xiaosu calmly said, “That’s because you haven’t eaten something even more disgusting yet…”

Eh, no, these people had clearly eaten something even more disgusting before. In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, these people in the stronghold could even eat something like bird’s nest, so what was the big deal with some rat meat?

Ren Xiaosu had heard from Mr. Zhang that many of the aristocrats in the stronghold liked eating bird’s nest. He wondered how the swallows had so much phlegm to make them. Perhaps all of those birds had suffered from tuberculosis? No wonder there was an idiom that went ” forced to go separate ways 1 .” So that was what it meant.

However, he didn’t care much about these people. The plump rat meat that had been skinned was quickly roasted to a light brown color over the fire. Liu Bu and the others had already ended their conversation as they couldn’t stop swallowing their saliva.

Everyone had been kept busy for the entire night. Due to their fear, they had no appetite during dinner. Now that they had spent the entire evening running for their lives, their stamina had almost been depleted. Everyone was so hungry that their stomachs were rumbling.

Someone thought of going into the forest to pick up the remaining rat meat, but the problem was that Ren Xiaosu had thrown it too far away!

Chapter 56: A new skill

Ren Xiaosu had thrown away the remaining rat meat with a swing of his hand. It seemed that he had no intention of sharing it with the others, nor did he feel that it was wasteful to throw it away.

Liu Bu thought to himself, ‘Even if you don’t want the others to have it, shouldn’t you keep the rest for tomorrow?’

However, Ren Xiaosu had a different thought. He would rather search for food again tomorrow or even go hungry than leave this strong scent of blood lingering on him.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was quietly looking at the roasted rat meat with a small salt shaker in her hand. Just by looking at her, it was unimaginable that she would be a firearms master who could point a gun at others without warning.

Eh? Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that the palace had rewarded him with a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll when he completed the quest in which he had to reject going with them to the Jing Mountains. That scroll had remained unused until now!

There weren’t any targets in town he could learn a skill from. But wasn’t there a target sitting right beside him that he could learn a skill from?

However, the scroll was just a basic one, so it could no longer help him improve his firearms skill. However, someone like Yang Xiaojin would possess other great skills, right?

A basic scroll did not seem that hard to get. Ren Xiaosu felt that he could easily learn a few more lifesaving skills from Yang Xiaojin.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked in his mind, “Can you list all of Yang Xiaojin’s skills to me?”

He wanted to know what other worthy skills Yang Xiaojin had before making his final decision.

“Unauthorized to reveal,” the voice from the palace answered firmly.

“Eh, didn’t I already learn a skill from her?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.

“Unauthorized to reveal,” the voice from the palace answered firmly again.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and phrased his question in another way. “What’s her combat skill level?”

“Advanced,” the voice from the palace said.

Ren Xiaosu now understood that he could only ask the palace leading questions about certain skills. For example, the palace would only answer him if he asked specifically whether the target had combat skills, medical skills, etc.

But if he wanted the palace to list all of the target’s skills, the palace would ignore him. So this was all about guessing.

“Then what’s the level of my combat skill?” Ren Xiaosu asked again.

“Intermediate,” the voice from the palace said.

The combat skill he was referring to was actually just his experience of being in ruthless fights with others over the years, not something that he had carefully formed a doctrine around. For him, he knew exactly where on an opponents’ body he could deal a fatal blow to. But compared to Yang Xiaojin, what he knew about combat was not “scientific” or “concrete.” He only fought based on his intuition.

Hence, Yang Xiaojin was at an advanced level while he was only at an intermediate level.

But if they really fought each other, it would still depend on their physicality. If Yang Xiaojin’s strength and dexterity were not as good as Ren Xiaosu’s, or if their difference was too great, it would be useless even if she had a higher level of combat than him.

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Yang Xiaojin and realized that she was not muscular at all. So she shouldn’t be stronger than him, right?

Ren Xiaosu was very tempted by the advanced combat skill because he understood how important this skill was.

With Advanced Combat Proficiency, not only would he be more confident in taking on others in a fight, but he would also be able to use the Master Skill Duplication Scroll if he met someone with a master-level combat skill. Only by mastering an advanced skill could he use the key that was the Master Skill Duplication Scroll.

Without the key, he would not be able to learn the target’s master-level skill even if they had one.

“Use the Skill Duplication Scroll!” Ren Xiaosu waited quietly after he finished speaking to the palace in his mind. He kept praying in his head, ‘Let it be the advanced combat skill! Let it be the advanced combat skill!’

A second later, the voice from the palace said, “Randomly copied target’s advanced jump rope. skill. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was confused.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at Yang Xiaojin. He had not expected that a fine woman like her with Perfect Firearms Proficiency would have a skill like jumping rope.

Fucking jump rope! Why the hell had he copied a skill like that?!

Yang Xiaojin seemed to have noticed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze. She calmly turned around and asked, “When will the meat be done roasting?”

Ren Xiaosu felt outraged right now. When will it be done roasting?! Like I give a dog’s bollocks about that! Could the Skill Duplication Scroll be any more unreliable than this? Never mind the previous incident with the deception and bragging skills, he gained another lousy skill like jumping rope? Besides, why would a skill like this even have a level!

What does an advanced jump rope skill involve? Can I do a backflip while jumping rope at the same time?!

Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, “When we eat something in the wilderness, we must roast it a little longer; the same goes for the water. Water must be boiled for longer than ten minutes before drinking it.”

Then Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin raise her arm, revealing a watch on her wrist. Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He had seen watches before, but he also knew that only the important people in the stronghold wore them.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll fall sick from eating something from the wilderness?”

Yang Xiaojin calmly said, “There’s only a chance to fall sick if I’m still alive.”

She then picked up the small salt shaker and sprinkled it over the rat meat. Nearby, Liu Bu and the others were drooling from the sight.

When they were having a conversation earlier, everyone didn’t feel particularly hungry. But now that the aroma of food kept drifting towards them, Liu Bu and the others felt as though there was a vacuum in their deflated stomachs!

“Did anyone bring along any food?” Xu Xianchu asked.

“No.” Everyone shook their heads.

Close by, Ren Xiaosu was amused to hear that. He had clearly seen some of them taking some food, but those who did so were now tacitly denying it.

It seemed that everyone here knew that the food they were hiding could very well save their lives!

How could something that could save their lives be shared with others?

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that many of these soldiers from the private army did not have their guns with them anymore. Did they really throw away something that could protect their lives during the chaos just so they could run faster?

How stupid were they?

The stronghold’s celebrity, Luo Xinyu, said unhappily, “How can we survive without food? Why didn’t you all take any of the food with you?”

A soldier sneered and said, “Didn’t you also not take any?”

Luo Xinyu took a subconscious step back. She realized some of the men around her had an indescribable malice in their eyes.

As a celebrity in the stronghold, Luo Xinyu was not only beautiful in appearance, she also had a great figure. She loved wearing short skirts that exposed her thighs openly during summer in the stronghold.

And those people in the stronghold could do nothing but look at her from afar because they were still civilized in there.

But she was in the wilderness now. Many of those in the team had fallen into some kind of despair and wondered if they could walk out of here alive.

Under such circumstances, the evil within them started to amplify.

There was no civility, no law, and no morality here. Perhaps no one would learn about what happened here either.

Luo Xinyu subconsciously inched closer to Ren Xiaosu’s side. She had not expected that she would choose to trust the “refugee” who looked most like a wild animal over her own team members.

Chapter 57: Supernatural being!

Seeing that the atmosphere in the team was getting stranger, Xu Xianchu said coldly, “Look at your behaviors. The most important thing for us now is to find food and then get out of here. Unless you all wish to die here?”

Liu Bu laughed loudly and said, “That’s right, we should focus on working together now.”

Just a moment ago, a wicked thought entered Liu Bu’s mind. But he realized that he didn’t have many teammates left on his side. If anything shameful happened here, and all of them somehow made it out of this place alive, these soldiers would definitely silence those who were not with the private army.

“Where are we going to look for food?” Someone complained, “Do you guys still wanna enter this forest? I’m not going in!”

Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Since you’re the most knowledgeable in wilderness survival, you can help us look for food.”

All of a sudden, the voice from the palace in Ren Xiaosu’s mind said, “Quest: Help the team look for food.”

Look for food?

Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before pointing at a soldier next to Xu Xianchu and said, “I saw him taking food from the pickup before we entered the canyon. There should be some food in his backpack.”

That soldier was dumbfounded. ‘You were told to look for food from the wilderness. What’s with pointing out that I have food on me?!’

“Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

Ren Xiaosu was amused. After all, the palace had only said to help the team look for food. It did not say where he had to look for it. Even if the food was someone else’s, it was still considered food!

He was really beginning to like the way the palace passed its judgment.

Xu Xianchu looked at the soldier next to him. “Take the food out.”

“Why should I take my food out?” The soldier turned hostile and said, “What were all of you doing when I went to get the food? Some of you went to take your clothes, tents, and that celebrity even went to get her makeup bag. Why should I share the food with you?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “That sounds pretty reasonable.”

Everyone turned to look at him in silence.

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu supported this person’s argument. On one hand, he felt that the others had not behaved properly during the chaos. None of them rushed to grab any of the provisions, yet they wanted him to share his food with everyone else? This was moral coercion. But on the other hand, Ren Xiaosu was having so much fun watching this that he didn’t see the need to take a side. He was not a good person to begin with anyway.

At this moment, everyone ignored Ren Xiaosu. When Luo Xinyu went to sit down next to Ren Xiaosu, he pushed her away.

So Luo Xinyu went to sit beside Yang Xiaojin. But Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu’s relationship seemed to be only that of an employer and employee. In this moment, Yang Xiaojin no longer cared to put on an act and ate the rat meat, ignoring Luo Xinyu.

She was still holding the handgun but acted as though it had nothing to do with her.

Xu Xianchu looked at the soldier who had kept his food hidden and said, “Hand the food over. Since we’re working together to get through these difficult times, we can’t be so selfish. When day breaks, we’ll naturally be able to find food. You won’t starve to death.”

“Who knows if we’ll still be alive tomorrow?” The soldier said, “Besides, I was not the only person that went to grab provisions. Li Maoxian and Jiang Yang also took some as well. Why should I be the only one to contribute my share of the food?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard the name Li Maoxian. So there were people with such crude names living in the stronghold as well!?

But more importantly, the atmosphere within the group had reached a freezing point. It was surprising that the teammates who had just survived a calamity together would immediately start quarreling over a little bit of food.

Xu Xianchu tactfully advised, “I’m doing this for the good of the whole team.”

The soldier next to him sneered and said, “Are you still trying to assert your authority? You have a gun, but so do I!”

After he said that, he tried to pull his gun from his waist, but Xu Xianchu suddenly raised his leg and made his move. He kicked the soldier in his chest and sent him flying several meters.

No one had expected that Xu Xianchu would suddenly get physical and almost cripple someone with a single kick!

Ren Xiaosu roughly gauged that he should be able to do the same as well with his current physical fitness. In fact, he might even have greater strength than Xu Xianchu. Thinking of this, he felt a little more at ease.

The soldier who got kicked could end up not being able to walk out of the forest alive. Xu Xianchu’s kick was so heavy that it must have inflicted an internal injury to him.

Starting from now, he would have to carry this internal injury while moving around in the forest. Eventually, he would start getting more and more fatigued before he finally collapsed in the forest.

It looked like Xu Xianchu intended to use him as a warning to the others. Even if the team were to lose another member, he would not hesitate to do it.

But before Xu Xianchu could withdraw his leg, a soldier behind him launched an attack. The soldier pulled out a bayonet from his waist and stabbed it towards Xu Xianchu. It seemed that he intended to stab Xu Xianchu to death while he was dealing with the others!

This time, even Yang Xiaojin stopped chewing her food. If this stab went in successfully, Xu Xianchu would die for sure.

Wait!

Ren Xiaosu was suddenly surprised to see an identical “shadow” separating from Xu Xianchu’s body. That gray shadow was just like a duplicate of Xu Xianchu.

At first, Ren Xiaosu thought that he was just seeing things, but he then understood. A supernatural being!

Xu Xianchu turned out to be a supernatural being!

It was no wonder Xu Xianchu insisted on advancing even after he witnessed those strange occurrences. So it was because he had something to rely on!

Ren Xiaosu had long felt that something was amiss. No matter how badly Xu Xianchu wanted to complete the mission, and how worried he was about getting expelled from the stronghold, surely he couldn’t have such disregard for his life, right?

So it was not because Xu Xianchu was unafraid of dying; it was because he had a secret.

When faced with the sneak attack by the bayonet, the gray shadow spun around. It behaved just like a real person as it firmly grabbed the incoming bayonet. This gray shadow was even faster and more powerful than Xu Xianchu!

Moreover, it seemed that the gray shadow was unafraid of sharp weapons since it grabbed hold of the bayonet with its bare hands. In the blink of an eye, the soldier holding the bayonet was left in a state of confusion. He did not expect that he would be confronted with a supernatural being, nor did he expect that the opponent would dare to grab hold of the bayonet with its bare hands!

While the soldier was distracted, the gray shadow grabbed the bayonet from him and ruthlessly stabbed it into his abdomen.

Everyone at the campsite fell silent. Only the sound of their nervous panting could be heard. The soldier slowly fell to the ground, and the blood that appeared purple in the moonlight seeped into the soil, turning it black.

But the soldier did not die on the spot from his injury. He was still breathing as he lay on the ground.

The soldier who had been kicked to the ground earlier struggled to pull out his pistol before raising it and shooting. However, a shocking scene happened. That gray shadow actually stood in front of Xu Xianchu and completely shielded him from the bullets!

There was a rippling effect on the gray shadow as the bullets it blocked fell onto the ground one by one.

Some of them had wanted to accuse Xu Xianchu of killing their compatriots, but they no longer dared to speak out now!

Everyone looked at Xu Xianchu in shock. Was his power to create an identical shadow of himself? But the shadow was obviously a little stronger than Xu Xianchu himself.

Moreover, even gunfire could not penetrate the gray shadow!

So this was what a real supernatural being was like?

While Ren Xiaosu was pondering things, he realized Xu Xianchu’s face had turned a little pale. Did this mean that there was an effect on the wielder’s body when the gray shadow shielded him against the bullets?

The two instances of Xu Xianchu then looked around and surveyed the situation. Afterwards, the gray shadow slowly moved towards the original Xu Xianchu and merged right back into him from behind.

Chapter 58: I brought money!

Throughout the journey, Ren Xiaosu had speculated that if anyone on the team were a supernatural being, then Yang Xiaojin would most likely be the one.

But to his surprise, it turned out to be Xu Xianchu, the most inconspicuous person in the team.

Regarding Yang Xiaojin, Ren Xiaosu had at least already learned some information about her and knew that she was dangerous. But Ren Xiaosu had never thought much of Xu Xianchu at all.

However, this was also because Xu Xianchu’s power was easy to hide. Although the gray shadow was extremely strong, Xu Xianchu was just an ordinary soldier. This left Ren Xiaosu unable to assess him.

What a pity! If only he had a Master Skill Duplication Scroll! He could immediately use it on Xu Xianchu!

If he were lucky enough to copy Xu Xianchu’s skill, Ren Xiaosu would have even more trump cards for the journey.

However, Ren Xiaosu had never seen a Master Skill Duplication Scroll since the palace was activated. He believed that it must be very rare for it to appear.

At this moment, Xu Xianchu let out a sigh and said, “I just wanted to bring everyone out of here. I wasn’t intending to hurt anyone.”

Ren Xiaosu observed from the side but could not tell whether Xu Xianchu was being sincere.

In fact, he did not have a bad impression of Xu Xianchu. Previously, when Liu Bu and the rest of the others ostracized him, Xu Xianchu did not join in in doing so. But of course, Ren Xiaosu did not have a good impression of him either.

If that contentious soldier had not pulled out his pistol just now, Xu Xianchu might not have made a move.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Yang Xiaojin. He saw that Yang Xiaojin had reverted to her previously calm state. It was as though she was not interested in supernatural beings at all.

“Aren’t you curious?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I am,” Yang Xiaojin said calmly.

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. This curiosity she had was too perfunctory.

Suddenly, Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Aren’t you a doctor? Can you take a look at their injuries? Before joining the group, Wang Congyang told me about you, so you don’t have to pretend.”

“Uh-huh.” Ren Xiaosu simply stood up and went to the soldier who got stabbed and squatted down beside him. Then he turned to Xu Xianchu and said, “He’s quite badly hurt but there are no medical supplies in the wilderness.”

At this moment, the soldier asked with a pale face, “How long can I still live for?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Ten…”

“10 minutes?” The soldier was stunned.

Ren Xiaosu looked at him seriously and said, “Nine… eight… seven…”

The soldier got scared.

“I avoided kicking him in vulnerable spots and internal organs, so don’t scare him like this.” Xu Xianchu said, “I heard from Wang Congyang that you have an extremely effective medicine that is used to specially treat wounds. I don’t believe that you didn’t bring it out with you to the wilderness.”

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “My medicine is very expensive. Are you gonna pay for it? I’m only the guide, not your accompanying doctor. But if you want me to be that, you’ll have to pay me more.”

Needless to say, Ren Xiaosu really did have two vials of the black medicine with him.

Xu Xianchu was taken aback. “I lost my money along the way.”

He turned his gaze to the others and thought of telling everyone to pool their money together to save their teammate’s life. In reality, Xu Xianchu didn’t wish to kill anyone. He was only hoping to deter the others from doing anything wrong.

However, the others turned to look away as they were unwilling to help. Especially Luo Xinyu. This wounded soldier had kept looking at her with wicked intentions.

Seeing that no one was willing to fork out any money, Ren Xiaosu was about to tell them to forget it. However, a weak voice came from the ground beside Ren Xiaosu. “I brought money…”

Ren Xiaosu thought about how strong this person’s will to live was.

He asked, “Where did you keep the money? Is it in the left pocket or the right pocket? I have to tell you, I don’t know how to suture a wound, so it’ll entirely depend on fate if the wound heals after applying the medicine.”

The others were stunned. Would it work if you only applied the medicine but not suture the wound? Luo Xinyu said, “I have a sewing kit here, but I’ll faint at the sight of blood.”

“Let me do the sewing then,” Xu Xianchu said.

Ren Xiaosu had already taken out a stack of money from the soldier’s pocket. “I won’t overcharge you, so I’ll just take 1200 yuan.”

“Okay.” The soldier’s mood became much better when he realized that he did not have to die. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Wang Lei, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up as his gratitude tokens went up again. After Wang Lei’s thanks, his tokens finally reached 77. He was another step closer to unlocking the weapon.

The tension at the campsite eased up a little. Ren Xiaosu’s antics had made the atmosphere less tense, and everyone also realized that even though Xu Xianchu had injured someone decisively, he was actually not a ruthless and cruel person.

If Xu Xianchu were brutal, everyone would have to be careful of him. After all, it was very dangerous to have a supernatural being like him around them.

While suturing the wound for the soldier, Xu Xianchu said, “I don’t have to hide anything from you guys anymore. The people in the stronghold only found out that the ruins of a Pre-Cataclysm civilization existed in the Jing Mountains. They’re only sending our private troops out here to draw up a map and chart out routes to facilitate the exploration by the main troops later on. Actually, we didn’t even know what had happened out here before we came to this place.

“After I got here, I found that there was something wrong going on in the Jing Mountains. I was thinking that if the secret of the Jing Mountains could make the wild animals evolve, would it also prove to be useful to humans and help supernatural beings like us too? That’s why I insisted on us advancing.”

“Didn’t you say before that you already gave up on the mission?” Liu Bu asked.

“At the time, I felt that it was getting too dangerous. I decided to give up to not expose my identity as a supernatural being. I can just follow the main troops from the stronghold and come back here again later since that would be much safer,” Xu Xianchu answered.

Ren Xiaosu knew that Xu Xianchu had really thought about giving up on the mission.

After he said that, Xu Xianchu paused for a while before continuing, “But I can’t return to the stronghold anymore. You’ve all seen the stronghold’s treatment of the supernatural beings. If I were to go back, I would be more or less done for. So I’ll head into the depths of the Jing Mountains to explore it. If you want to go to Stronghold 112, we’ll split up here. I won’t stop you either.”

The depths of the Jing Mountains and Stronghold 112 were in two different directions. One was to the northeast while the other was to the northwest. Everyone was faced with two choices. One was to let Xu Xianchu depart from the team, while the other was to follow him.

No one at the campsite spoke. It was as though they were all waiting for the others to make a decision first.

“I’ll follow you.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “It’s too dangerous here. The surest way of getting out alive is by following a supernatural being like you.”

Ren Xiaosu went through his memory and realized this was the most that Yang Xiaojin had spoken throughout their journey.

But he felt that Yang Xiaojin was lying. Her original goal should be to get to the depths of the Jing Mountains as well!

Ren Xiaosu was getting more and more suspicious of Yang Xiaojin. He felt that she might also be a supernatural being.

Chapter 59: A boar runs into a tree

Yang Xiaojin’s decision to follow Xu Xianchu to the Jing mountains surprised everyone. Nobody expected that the first person to voice their opinion would be a girl.

But what Yang Xiaojin said was very reasonable. Too many dangers lurked around here. With a supernatural being around, he would make everyone feel more at ease.

If they were without the protection of a supernatural being, even if they did not venture into the depths of the Jing Mountains, they might not be able to reach Stronghold 112 safely either.

After a brief silence, someone else said, “I’ll follow too.”

“I’m going too.”

Suddenly, everyone decided to follow Xu Xianchu to the Jing Mountains. It looked like all of them were not dumb.

Just then, Luo Xinyu whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “Are you going too?”

Ren Xiaosu was clearly taken aback. “Why are you asking me?”

“I’ll go if you’re going,” Luo Xinyu said.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ‘Sis, we’re not that familiar with each other, so why are you trying to make it seem like we’re super close?’

He ignored Luo Xinyu. Instead, he turned to Xu Xianchu and said, “I’ll go with you too.”

A bright light suddenly appeared in the sky in the distance. Xu Xianchu looked at the sky and said, “Let’s quickly get some rest. Since all of you have decided to follow me, we’ll set off once it’s bright. Now remember, the entire team has to listen to my instructions. If anyone still goes against me, I won’t hesitate to go hard on you.”

He then led the soldiers to pick up some branches and lashed them into a stretcher. The soldier who got kicked could still walk on his own, but the one who was stabbed couldn’t.

Xu Xianchu was actually thinking of taking the wounded with them. All of them had to abandon their vehicles now that a dense forest had suddenly appeared. If they were to carry one more person, it would be a great burden for them.

There was probably no one in the team that would be willing to carry the stretcher as a normal adult man was really heavy. Even some adult women would be heavy, much less a man.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Was Xu Xianchu someone who was full of positive energy or was he deliberately trying to win them over?

The injured Wang Lei was almost moved to tears as he kept saying “thank you, sir” to Xu Xianchu.

When Ren Xiaosu heard his thanks, he got a bold idea.

After the stretcher was constructed, Xu Xianchu asked, “Who’s willing to carry him with me?”

“Let me carry him!” Ren Xiaosu stepped forward of his own initiative.

Everyone around him was confused by this. ‘Ren Xiaosu, are you that nice?’

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “Since you’re the most familiar with the wilderness, you should lead the way from the front. Besides, you’re still young, so I’m afraid that you won’t be able to carry the weight of an adult man.”

Ren Xiaosu was starting to get anxious. “No, I have to carry him today no matter what! I’ll cut anyone that tries to vie with me to death!”

Everyone else was speechless. Everyone was dumbfounded. ‘Do you even have to resort to threatening words to do a good deed these days?’

…

Half an hour later, Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu were carrying the stretcher together. But Ren Xiaosu did not find it heavy at all. After all, he was extraordinarily strong now.

After Ren Xiaosu applied the medicine on Wang Lei, Wang Lei thanked Ren Xiaosu. “Gratitude token +1.” When they carried Wang Lei, Wang Lei thanked Ren Xiaosu. “Gratitude token +1.” Along the way, Ren Xiaosu showed a lot of concern to Wang Lei and kept checking with him if he was hungry or thirsty. With that, Wang Lei thanked him again. “Gratitude token +1.”

Ren Xiaosu really did not expect to find a “divine weapon” he could spam increase his gratitude tokens with!

In just half an hour, Ren Xiaosu’s gratitude tokens reached 82!

Xu Xianchu found it a little strange. In his eyes, Ren Xiaosu was obviously the type of person who would not care about anyone other than himself. Why did he suddenly become such a good person then?!

He didn’t believe it!

But Xu Xianchu kept thinking about this along the way. If Ren Xiaosu had an ulterior motive, what would he be after?

However, he could not figure it out no matter how hard he thought.

The dense forest was not easy to walk through. Ren Xiaosu had never come across such a thick forest before.

He was last here just a year ago. But when he looked at the forest before him, it felt like it had been decades since he came here. This place had changed far too much.

Ren Xiaosu was chatting on and off with Wang Lei, but his eyes were observing the surroundings at all times. As they were walked, Ren Xiaosu deliberately gazed at the place where he had thrown the rat. However, the rat’s remains had already become a pile of bones after only a few hours.

This showed that there must be some scavenger insects like ants nearby.

In the process of advancing, Luo Xinyu stuck close to Xu Xianchu as though she had developed a great interest in him.

Ren Xiaosu saw that Luo Xinyu had almost glued her entire body onto Xu Xianchu several times. However, Xu Xianchu always kept a certain distance from her.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a familiar air around Luo Xinyu as it reminded him of some of the women in town. So women from the stronghold would also subconsciously seek a supporting figure in a dangerous environment.

Ren Xiaosu looked over to Yang Xiaojin again, but he only saw her holding her two guns and pointing them at the others at all times.

Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin were polar opposites.

At noon, Xu Xianchu asked Ren Xiaosu, “Can you find some food for everyone here?”

Ren Xiaosu said with his mind elsewhere, “I’m not a god. Do you think I can just find food whenever I want to? If I say that a boar will run into a tree, would a boar really run into a tree?”

Just as he finished speaking, they heard a loud noise crash several hundred meters in front of them. Right after, the breaking of tree branches rang out. It was as though something had really run into a tree!

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu strangely while Xu Xianchu led them and approached cautiously. When they saw it, they were surprised to find that a boar had really run into a tall tree. At this moment, the boar was struggling to get up as it laid beside the tree. However, it was so dazed after running into the tree that it could not get up at all.

The gray shadow separated from Xu Xianchu and jumped several meters into the air. When it came back down again, it ruthlessly landed a punch on the boar’s head that caused it to collapse to the ground!

But nobody cared about the gray shadow. Instead, they were staring at Ren Xiaosu dumbfoundedly.

Liu Bu laughed and said, “We can have some game meat for lunch. Ren Xiaosu, well done! What you said has really come true!”

Everyone was smiling. It was always good to have something to eat, but only Ren Xiaosu did not smile. He turned around and looked in the direction of the town as he got worried for Yan Liuyuan.

Only Ren Xiaosu knew that Yan Liuyuan must have made a wish for him again. He must have been suffering the pain brought on by the side effects right now. He could only hope that Big Sister Xiaoyu and Zhang Jinglin would take good care of him.

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He decided to try his best to avoid saying such speculative words in the future. Otherwise, the luckier he got, the more dangerous it would be for Yan Liuyuan.

Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh in his head. ‘How stubborn!’

Right now, Ren Xiaosu had an unprecedented desire to return to town. He wanted to know if Yan Liuyuan was alright.

Chapter 60: I like you

No one dared to enter the dense forest last night as it felt extremely eerie in there. But after walking all morning, the group had yet to encounter anything dangerous.

The only thing that could possibly pose a threat to them was the boar, but it had rammed itself straight into a tree.

Ren Xiaosu was looking out for any traces of large animals’ feces during the journey, but he saw nothing.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not lower his guard as he still couldn’t figure out why the fish scraps and bones had disappeared, as well as why Xu Xia’s body had vanished.

They found a small clearing in the forest and started collecting a lot of firewood as they planned to set up camp here. As everyone did not get any sleep last night, they wanted to turn in early today. Otherwise, no one could bear it for much longer!

Xu Xianchu dissected the boar with a bayonet. Soon, the scent of blood filled the entire clearing. Ren Xiaosu reminded him, “Don’t think you can leave any unfinished food for tomorrow. A lot of the dangers in the wilderness are created by the scent of blood.”

Ren Xiaosu then pointed to the ground. A swarm of black ants had already gathered here. Each of them was about the size of a finger pad, and they looked exceptionally terrifying. “They won’t attack you when you’re moving about during the day since they’re just looking for the food source through the scent of blood. But by nighttime, you’ll end up becoming their food if you sleep in an area filled with a bloody scent. The formic acid secreted by the ants after a bite is enough to make you feel like dying.”

Xu Xianchu nodded. “Understood, thank you for the reminder.”

“Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It seemed like Xu Xianchu was quite a sincere person after all.

At noon, everyone gorged themselves on the roasted pork as they were starving. While Ren Xiaosu was eating the meat, Luo Xinyu unexpectedly took a seat beside him.

Luo Xinyu said innocently, “I feel that it’s possible to lead an interesting life in the wilderness. It feels really romantic.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “This is about survival. There’s nothing romantic about it.”

In the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu had never heard of the word “romantic” before. Besides, anything that occurred in the wilderness could never be associated with the word “romantic” at all.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was a huge gulf between his mindset as a refugee and those from the stronghold.

Luo Xinyu ignored Ren Xiaosu’s rebuttal and said to him, “Do you know that you’re very charming?”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. Did she come and find him after hitting a roadblock with Xu Xianchu?

He pretended not to have heard her, but Luo Xinyu stayed beside him and did not leave.

In fact, Luo Xinyu had her own plans. By following Ren Xiaosu, she would at least not go hungry in this place.

The others might not have noticed, but Luo Xinyu had realized that Ren Xiaosu was definitely not an ordinary person. How could an ordinary young man drag an adult man around while making an escape? Even Xu Xianchu would probably not be able to do this.

As such, Luo Xinyu felt that men were most likely to behave impulsively during their adolescence. It was probably the same in the town as in the stronghold. All she needed to do was to be more friendly towards this young man, and he would be willing to go through all kinds of hardships for her. In fact, she would not even mind letting Ren Xiaosu take advantage of her for real.

Did such incidents rarely happen in the stronghold? Hardly so.

To put it bluntly, she felt insecure and wanted to look for someone she could use.

In reality, Luo Xinyu could also express her interest to Xu Xianchu. Before the expedition started, Luo Xinyu had approached Xu Xianchu more than once to chat, but she was rebuffed by him every time.

In Luo Xinyu’s eyes, Xu Xianchu was a relatively headstrong adult who knew what he wanted. If there were danger, it could be very possible that Xu Xianchu would abandon her at once.

As for Liu Bu, needless to say, he was just a good-for-nothing….

In her opinion, how could a refugee like Ren Xiaosu who had not seen the world yet possibly resist her charms?

In fact, Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu had a certain air to them when they faced the refugees. They regarded the refugees as inferior to those from the stronghold. They were not people, just goods or accessories.

Ren Xiaosu controlled his tone and said to Luo Xinyu, “Lady, please stay away from me.”

Annoyed, Luo Xinyu decided she had to be more direct. She smiled and said, “Could there have been a misunderstanding between us? Actually, I…”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What’s with you?”

Luo Xinyu leaned in closer to Ren Xiaosu as though she were whispering something secretive to him. She got so close that her body was nearly touching his arm. As she spoke, her breath smelled like flowers. “I like you.”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression turned to one of fury. “You better watch your words!”

Luo Xinyu was surprised.

Pfft! Yang Xiaojin, who was drinking from a water bottle beside them, spat out everything at once. Apparently realizing she shouldn’t have reacted this way, she quickly pretended not to have heard anything.

Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu never thought that Ren Xiaosu would react to her in such a way! Was this how a normal person would react? Who should be watching their words?!

‘He must be sick in the head, right?!’

At this moment, Luo Xinyu started to wonder if she had made the wrong decision.

What Luo Xinyu didn’t know was that Ren Xiaosu had seen too many of such “seduction” cases during his time in town. Since the time he learned how to hunt, a lot of women threw themselves at him. That was why Yan Liuyuan was so wary of Xiaoyu at the beginning.

Luo Xinyu still had the impression that he was quite inexperienced. But in actual fact, Ren Xiaosu had seen so much that it would likely scare her if she knew all about it.

Ren Xiaosu sneered in his head. He wouldn’t want a woman like Luo Xinyu even if she gave herself to him. It would be a waste of his food if he had to feed her!

In the past, he thought that the people in the stronghold would all be smart. After all, Mr. Zhang had mentioned that most of the books were kept in the stronghold. Hence, Ren Xiaosu thought that the more that people read, the smarter they should be.

However, both Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu were shaking up his understanding of this.

Of course, there were also smart people in the stronghold such as the two officers, Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu.

Luo Xinyu calmed down and said, “If you help me get out of here alive, I’ll fight for three spots in the stronghold for you when we get back to Stronghold 113.”

Ren Xiaosu got up to leave. “Who are you trying to bluff? You’re making it sound like you call the shots in the stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu was not foolish. He felt that if he used the Skill Duplication Scroll on Luo Xinyu, he might just end up copying her advanced bragging skill.

Chapter 61: Attitude changes faster than flipping through a book!

How difficult was it for the refugees to get into the stronghold? According to Wang Fugui, he had only seen four people get into the stronghold successfully in his forty years of being alive. All of them were the “distant relatives” of certain important people in the stronghold.

Many of these people came to the stronghold to seek refuge with their relatives but were turned away by the stronghold. So they had to settle down in town and slowly wait for an opportunity to come.

If it was already so difficult for the relatives of important people to get into the stronghold, would Luo Xinyu’s claims of giving away three spots even be possible? If you were really that influential, you wouldn’t have had to make a deal with the soldiers to go to Stronghold 112. Shouldn’t you have gotten them to escort you there directly?

Stupid people think others are stupid.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu was going through too much trouble to achieve her objective. Even though he was a refugee, he did not lack judgment. If someone else were the guide, they might just believe her claims. However, Ren Xiaosu did not.

If Ren Xiaosu accepted her terms, how would he find Luo Xinyu once she got back to the stronghold? What would prevent her from jumping ship?

Besides, honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu did not have a good impression of Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu at all.

Everyone was parched after having pork for lunch. However, all of their bottled water and food had been left behind in the pickup, or rather, most of their bottled water and food had been destroyed when Xu Xianchu and the others mercilessly shot at the provisions.

Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “How can we find a source of water out here?”

At this moment, the palace assigned a quest. “Quest: Teach everyone how to locate a source of water.”

“You can only search for a river or collect dew from leaves.” Ren Xiaosu did not hide information from them. “But I don’t recommend you go to the riverbank. Based on my estimates, the nearest river is still quite a distance away. Just bear with it for now. You won’t die of thirst yet. We’ll collect dew tomorrow morning.”

Xu Xianchu nodded and said, “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu waited for quite a while before asking in his mind, “Where’s my reward?”

However, the palace ignored him. Ren Xiaosu wondered what was going on.

It was as though this was the first time the palace had witnessed Ren Xiaosu completing a quest without resorting to unconventional methods. Thus, the palace had some trouble making a decision on the outcome!

After a long time, the voice from the palace in Ren Xiaosu’s mind finally said, “Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Although the quest had been completed, it was not what he had expected. Why was he given additional strength again?

Ren Xiaosu had been wondering if the palace would increase his Strength and Dexterity attributes in an even manner. But in the end, his Dexterity still remained at 4.1 while his Strength had already reached 7.5.

With a few more quests, Ren Xiaosu’s Strength would probably hit three times that of what a normal adult had.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu still had the two bottles of water he had traded half a fish for. It was not possible to hide them. After all, his jacket’s pockets were only so big.

Suddenly, Liu Bu came to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Sell me a bottle for 1,000 yuan.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “I’m not selling.”

“2,000 yuan!” Liu Bu said eagerly, “Will you sell it to me for 2,000 yuan? I’m really thirsty!”

Ren Xiaosu felt that Liu Bu was seriously a little dumb. He looked at Liu Bu and said, “Money is of no use in a place like this. The value of food and water is priceless. If you want to drink water, go get it from the riverbank yourself.”

Liu Bu wanted to vent his anger at Ren Xiaosu. But he couldn’t as he no longer had the bluster he had at the beginning. He also knew that Ren Xiaosu’s role had become increasingly more important than his during the journey. Based on Xu Xianchu’s character, if there were any disputes or irreconcilable differences between the two of them, he would definitely choose to abandon Liu Bu instead of Ren Xiaosu.

When he first came out of the stronghold, Liu Bu thought that the refugees were simply there to serve the stronghold, and those from stronghold like them would always be regarded as high and mighty. But now he was sobering up to the fact that it was not that way.

Ren Xiaosu wiped his hands clean with some leaves picked from a tree. Then he went to look for Wang Lei and showered him with concern again to obtain more gratitude tokens.

But how could there be an unlimited amount of gratitude tokens that he could gain from him? After receiving Ren Xiaosu’s warm and passionate care, Wang Lei realized that something was off with how Ren Xiaosu was treating him. As a result, Ren Xiaosu did not get any more gratitude tokens from Wang Lei’s thanks.

When Ren Xiaosu recognized that he was not receiving any more gratitude tokens from Wang Lei, he decisively gave up on him. By now, his gratitude tokens were at 84.

In the afternoon, Xu Xianchu looked up at the sky and said, “This place is not suitable for setting up camp. We must find a place that is not as open to prevent wild animals from attacking us. Everyone, let’s endure and keep going.”

Ren Xiaosu agreed with Xu Xianchu’s suggestion. This place had become too dangerous after a boar was killed and barbecued. It might seem like nothing was happening right now, but as the venomous snakes, bugs, and ants got more active at night, it could spell disaster for everyone when night fell.

Didn’t the rat that was dumped earlier become just a skeleton?

Xu Xianchu went to the stretcher and said to Ren Xiaosu, “Come, let’s carry him together.”

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Why would I carry him?”

Xu Xianchu and Wang Lei were confused.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu and said, “Go and carry the stretcher. If you don’t carry it, I’ll chop you up.”

Liu Bu nearly broke down. Had he gone crazy?!

The others at the campsite were shocked at this development. They thought, ‘Are you a schizo or what? Why has your attitude changed so quickly? Didn’t you say that you would chop whoever tried to vie with you to carry the stretcher this morning?’

Xu Xianchu did not want to waste any more time. He said, “Everyone will take turns carrying the wounded except for the ladies. Some of you might also get hurt at some point. If you don’t want to be left for dead when that happens, you should help out now.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Xu Xianchu was quite a rational person. No matter what went on with the team, he would try his best to get everyone back on track.

Along the way, some misbehaving soldiers started getting closer to Luo Xinyu again. They would even pretend to casually brush their arms against Luo Xinyu when they passed her. But Luo Xinyu would keep anticipating it and try to avoid their advances. After which, some of the soldiers would laugh pervertedly.

Logically speaking, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu should have a good relationship, but Liu Bu didn’t even dare to speak out when he saw this. How could he offend the soldiers?

After hitting a roadblock with Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu, Luo Xinyu seemed to be somewhat at a loss. She did not know what to do and could only passively avoid them.

Moreover, the soldiers were starting to reveal their bestial sides as they found themselves stuck in this seemingly dangerous situation in which they might not even survive until tomorrow.

But Ren Xiaosu did not want to intervene. As the team moved forward, he remembered he had gained another Skill Duplication Scroll. He wondered if he could copy Yang Xiaojin’s advanced combat skill this time.

However, when Ren Xiaosu raised his head to look for Yang Xiaojin, he saw her pointing a gun at a soldier’s head. Yang Xiaojin turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, “His gun belongs to you now.”

Chapter 62: Preserve your dignity

The soldier Yang Xiaojin was pointing her gun at happened to be the one who harassed Luo Xinyu the most. Hence, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was finally going to help Luo Xinyu.

Previously, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was also someone who didn’t care about anyone other than herself. However, he never expected that she could not tolerate seeing Luo Xinyu being harassed by the soldiers. Perhaps that was the bottom line for women.

The people at the front looked back at this commotion and wondered if a violent clash would occur between Yang Xiaojin and the soldiers.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu and saw that he had frowned but was not about to step in. It looked like Xu Xianchu also felt that these soldiers had gone too far.

Meanwhile, none of the other soldiers dared to step forward or speak up for the soldier. It was clear at a glance their team was not united.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to act politely with them. He walked right next to the soldier and pulled out his gun from the holster. When these soldiers were escaping, they felt that their firearms were too heavy to lug around, so they threw away their rifles, only keeping their sidearms.

The soldier said coldly, “Do you know how serious of a crime it is to seize a gun from a soldier?”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “If you threaten me again, you just might die.”

Ren Xiaosu almost applauded when he heard that. She really was a decisive girl…

When he pulled the soldier’s gun out from the holster, the soldier used his right hand to clasp it tightly against his waist. He was attempting to quietly stop Ren Xiaosu from taking his gun. However, Ren Xiaosu’s current strength was so great that it was unimaginable. He forcefully pried each of the soldier’s fingers away. If this soldier hadn’t given in midway, Ren Xiaosu would have broken his fingers on purpose.

This was a gun! Ren Xiaosu could finally hold a gun openly. Ever since he acquired the Advanced Firearms Proficiency, he never had the opportunity to handle a gun so openly!

The soldier who had his gun seized looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Haven’t you already taken the gun from me? Why are you still touching me?”

“Where’s the magazine?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

The soldier was speechless. “It’s on the left side of the uniform.”

As he let Ren Xiaosu continue searching his person, he sneered at Yang Xiaojin and said, “Even if you give him the gun, does he know how to use it? He’s only a refugee.”

The others also felt that the soldier’s words were not wrong. Only Yang Xiaojin was slightly doubtful of that when she saw the way Ren Xiaosu held the gun.

Yang Xiaojin was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable on firearms of all the people here. Otherwise, the palace would not have evaluated her skill as perfect.

So when the others thought that Ren Xiaosu would not know how to use a gun even if he were to carry one, she had already noticed that his stance of holding the gun was very natural and proficient. Even with his arm was lowered, it was still placed at the most suitable angle to raise the gun in an instant!

This was not a skill a refugee should have. The others could not tell, but Yang Xiaojin definitely could!

But she didn’t dwell on this for too long. She just said to the soldier, “Get lost.”

Being stripped of their firearms was probably one of the greatest humiliations a soldier could experience. That soldier looked ghastly pale as he stood aside. When Xu Xianchu saw that the matter had been resolved, he said, “Let’s keep moving forward. We need to find a suitable campsite before sunset.”

Xu Xianchu did not want to get involved in the mess that was going on in the team. He had nothing else on his mind other than getting to the Jing Mountains.

Along the way, the soldiers drew a clear boundary between themselves and Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu. Both sides were keeping their distance from each other.

However, Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something. If Yang Xiaojin insisted on helping Luo Xinyu, or even offered to help her get out of this place together, he would probably have no choice but to abandon their temporary alliance.

At this moment, Luo Xinyu said to Yang Xiaojin, “Thank you for helping me. I hope that we can work together to get out of the Jing Mountains over the coming days.”

But Ren Xiaosu clearly noticed a moment of hesitation from Yang Xiaojin. Then Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, “I’m not helping you for nothing. Give me back the money that I paid you first.”

Luo Xinyu was speechless for a moment. She took out 10,000 yuan from her bag and handed it to Yang Xiaojin. “Back then, you paid me 5,000 yuan. But I’ll return 10,000 yuan to you. Take this as my gratitude to you.”

Yang Xiaojin evenly acknowledged her and pocketed the 10,000 yuan without standing on ceremony.

Luo Xinyu smiled when she saw Yang Xiaojin accept the money. “Then you’ll help me on this journey, right?”

“Let me correct that.” Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, “I’ve never thought about helping you get out of the Jing Mountains. I can only ensure that you’ll get to preserve your dignity when you die.”

Luo Xinyu was speechless.

Listening to their conversation, Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. She would only ensure that Luo Xinyu would not get violated by these soldiers. As for whether she would survive, she didn’t care much about that.

In reality, Luo Xinyu was also rather pitiable. Although she was the one who initiated their trip out from the stronghold, she couldn’t trust a single person anymore.

A fork appeared in the road. These were two mountain roads leading in two different directions.

The canopy here was so tall it covered almost the entire sky. They could not even tell the position of the sun and which direction led to the Jing Mountains.

Xu Xianchu turned around and asked Ren Xiaosu, “Which way do we go?”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace intone, “Quest: Give directions.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, “Go left.”

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.”

Ren Xiaosu could feel that his muscle density getting firmer again. He could finally confirm something. ‘Strength and Dexterity combined are what makes up true muscle density. It’s not good enough to just increase Strength or Dexterity.’

At this moment, the soldier who had his gun seized said coldly, “Didn’t you say that you haven’t been out this far before? I remember you mentioning that you hid in the canyon for a few days before coming out. So how do you know which way to go?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I don’t.”

Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were speechless.

Everyone was left speechless. ‘If you don’t know the way, why did you tell us to go left?’

However, Ren Xiaosu was not under any pressure. He was only asked to give them directions for the palace’s quest. It did not say where he had to direct them. Whether or not he knew the correct way, all he had to do was point a way forward.

He did not know the correct path, but the quest had to be completed!

Xu Xianchu hesitated for a while and said, “Then why did you point to the left?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Although I don’t know which way to go, I know that the Jing Mountains are on the left ahead of us.”

“OK.” Xu Xianchu nodded. “Then we’ll go left. You can tell me when you spot a suitable place to set up camp.”

When Xu Xianchu made a decision in the wilderness, he would habitually turn to Ren Xiaosu for his opinion. And as the facts had shown, his opinions were generally correct.

Ren Xiaosu would climb up any pine trees they came across along the way to pluck some pine cones and plump pine needles. The others had some misgivings. They could understand why he plucked the pine cones since those things were edible. But why did he pluck the pine needles? They saw Ren Xiaosu squeeze out a light green substance from the pine needles one by one and then lick it all up. He said to the others, “If you guys don’t wanna die of thirst, you can learn from me.”

Some of them hesitated as they did not know whether they should learn from him or not. In the end, only Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu climbed up the pine tree without any hesitation.

Chapter 63: All of them have disappeared

Speaking of survival instincts, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were the two least pretentious people in the team other than Ren Xiaosu.

When Ren Xiaosu said that the substance extracted from the pine needles was drinkable, the two of them did not hesitate and climbed up the tree to search for suitable pine needles to extract. They even plucked a whole lot of pine cones as well.

In fact, only someone like Ren Xiaosu who had been surviving out in the wilderness would know that nature was generous. It doesn’t care who gains from it. So long as you put in the effort, you can depend on nature to survive.

Someone lamented, “It’s better off being an animal if I have to do this. How I wish that I can be reborn as an animal in my next life.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Animals do not lead as carefree a life as you think. I’ve heard that giraffes, which are the tallest land animals around, can defend against their predators due to them being bigger in size. However, its mating process can get very complicated. That’s why the male giraffe needs to drink the urine of the female to determine whether she’s in heat before he starts courting her. If it doesn’t turn out as he expects, the male giraffe will have drunk the urine for nothing….”

The rest of the team suspected that Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to gross them out.

No, this refugee kid was definitely trying to gross them out!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu’s confidence was boosted since he possessed a gun now. There were only 11 people and 7 guns within the entire group, with 3 of the guns already in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had the advanced firearms skill and perfect firearms skill respectively. Unless they clashed head-on with Xu Xianchu, their simple alliance would definitely ensure them a complete victory over whoever they came up against.

While waiting for everyone to pluck the pine needles and pine cones, Ren Xiaosu had nothing much to do. He then remembered his still unused Skill Duplication Scroll. He glanced at Yang Xiaojin and said decisively in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.”

“Randomly copied target’s advanced skill: Bomb making.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He immediately learned the skill but was a little puzzled. What kind of training did Yang Xiaojin receive in the past? Why were all her skills so violent?

Besides, the combination of her firearms, bomb making, and jumping rope skills were so mismatched. Were these skills really from the same person?

Ren Xiaosu got curious. He asked in his mind, “Does the target have an assassination skill?”

“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. She has an advanced assassination skill.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and asked, “Does the target have Nursery Rhymes Singing?”

“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. She has Advanced Nursery Rhymes Singing.”

Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. What a bunch of messed up skills…

He felt like he must have been really crazy to ask those questions, but he never expected her to really have those skills, and they were even advanced skills too.

By this time, the whole lot of them had finally finished plucking pine cones and pine needles. Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “Can’t y’all pluck them from different trees? By taking everything from the same tree, it’s nearly been stripped bare by y’all!”

When everyone heard this, they looked up. Sure enough, the tree was nearly stripped bare.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “Shouldn’t y’all be thanking me for teaching you how to survive in the wilderness?”

The others were taken aback. Then several people thanked Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu discovered that only Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were sincere in thanking him.

With his gratitude tokens at 86, Ren Xiaosu became even more eager to unlock the weapon. So he shifted his attention to the others around him.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized that Luo Xinyu’s hands were still empty. Even Liu Bu was holding several pine cones.

When Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu was staring at her, she said in embarrassment, “I can’t climb up….”

Since when had Luo Xinyu, a celebrity from the stronghold, ever climbed a tall tree like that? Hence, she was the only one who was empty-handed. When does someone feel the loneliest? When everyone has something, but not you.

For example, everyone has money, but not you.

For example, everyone has pine cones, but not Luo Xinyu.

Luo Xinyu hesitated for a bit before saying to Ren Xiaosu, “I’ll pay you 10,000 yuan, so can you help me pluck some?”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. He immediately stuffed all of the pine cones and pine needles that he had wrapped in his clothes into Luo Xinyu’s arms. “You’re my bro from now on!”

Luo Xinyu was surprised. “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Luo Xinyu, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu had not sold his water earlier because bottled water was too precious. It was clean and convenient to carry around. But the pine cones and pine needles were different as they were readily available.

Furthermore, Luo Xinyu offered a lot of money! What could he do with 10,000 yuan? He could use it to live the good life in town for up to two years. There wouldn’t be a need to worry about food and clothing!

In fact, you would never know whether you would become Ren Xiaosu’s brother before giving money to him. This was also known as Schrödinger’s brother 1 !

Luo Xinyu took the pine cones and pine needles from him. However, she realized that Ren Xiaosu did not go and pluck any more. She asked curiously, “Aren’t you going to pluck some more pine cones? What are you going to eat at night?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I’ll eat the chocolate.”

Luo Xinyu was speechless.

Ren Xiaosu still had the chocolate with him that he had traded with Luo Xinyu for. It happened that the chocolate had melted a little while he was carrying it on his person for the past few days. Although it was late fall, his body still transmitted heat through his pockets.

At the beginning, he did not believe Yang Xiaojin when she said the chocolate would melt. After all, he had never eaten chocolate before. He had planned on bringing it back for Yan Liuyuan to try, but it seemed that he could not bring it back.

In an instant, Luo Xinyu’s gratitude vanished. That chocolate was the one he had scammed from her!

…

Before evening fell, Ren Xiaosu found a huge hollow that was suitable for setting up camp. A rock protruded out of a cliff, creating a huge overhang that formed a natural, semi-open shelter like a cave.

Ren Xiaosu noticed some cirrocumulus clouds in the sky when he passed through a clearing. Although he did not understand the principle behind it, he knew it was a sign of rain.

Now they could rest better as they found a cliff face that would shelter them from the wind and rain.

While they settled down beneath this rocky overhang, the rain began to pour. Xu Xianchu turned to Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Can we drink the rainwater?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “Even though it’s not so acidic anymore, you can still die from drinking acid rain.”

Ren Xiaosu was still unsure of how acid rain formed and what criteria classified it as acid rain, so he could only use “acidity” to roughly describe the hazard level of acid rain.

Suddenly, some strange sounds came from the forest outside the hollow. But it traveled far away in an instant, not giving Ren Xiaosu and company time to react.

Right at this moment, the person deepest in the hollow said, “Look, someone etched some words over here.”

Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu went to the wall and were surprised to see two lines of crooked writing etched by someone at the top of the hollow: “We saw some strange shadows moving in the forest. They’ve disappeared, all of them have disappeared.”

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When everyone saw the two lines of writing, the atmosphere in the hollow plummeted to a freezing point.

Since entering the forest today, the group did encounter any more dangers. Other than exhaustion from a sleepless night, no other strange occurrences took place.

This gave everyone the wrong impression that this place was safer than the canyon and the other places they had been to earlier in the journey. They’d nearly even forgotten about the warning that was written outside the canyon.

But it was all coming back to them at this moment.

The missing corpse of Xu Xia, the horrible face bugs, and those words carved on the cliff wall that warned: “Stop here, ye who live.”

“Has anyone gone missing so far?” Xu Xianchu’s first reaction was to count the number of people in their group. However, he found that no one was missing.

“Could someone be playing a trick on us by etching those words here?” Liu Bu wondered. “There are no signs of any struggle in this hollow, and we didn’t even see any skeletal remains of humans or wild animals along the way.”

‘Wait a minute!’ Liu Bu’s words startled Ren Xiaosu. Actually, that was the strangest thing that had been happening. Some skeletal remains would usually be scattered throughout the forest. Be it birds, snakes, or any larger wild animals, their skeletal remains should be commonly seen.

But the strangest thing about this forest was that Ren Xiaosu had yet to come across any skeletal remains even once, other than the one belonging to the rat he had thrown away.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to turn back to confirm if the rat skeleton had disappeared as well. After all, it hadn’t been thrown away for too long, and some bones still remained when he had gone to check on it in the morning. But by now, the bones might have disappeared.

It was the same for Xu Xia’s body and the fish scraps and bones.

There was something creepy about this huge forest. A soldier asked, “It seems like some people have been here within the past year, and it was even quite a large group too. But almost no one from Stronghold 113 have come out here to the Jing Mountains during this past year.”

“It might’ve been the people from Stronghold 112 who were traveling to our stronghold, but something unexpected happened to them.” Xu Xianchu searched his memory. “But since we’re the lowest ranking troops in the private army, we can’t possibly know who’s been here.”

Xu Xianchu was right about that. They were the most insignificant people within the private army, so why would the higher-ups tell them all the information they knew?

Someone said, “Could it be that we were sent here because something happened to the team that came out here? And when the higher-ups in the stronghold found out about it, they sent us in to investigate? If that team had carried a satellite phone, they should’ve been able to transmit information back to the stronghold, right?”

This was the first time that Ren Xiaosu heard of the term “satellite phone.” It had not even been mentioned before by Mr. Zhang at school.

He had wondered about this several times as well and believed that there should be some form of communication between the various strongholds. And it seemed that their communications were made through this satellite phone they were talking about?

Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, “What’s a satellite phone? I’ve heard from Mr. Zhang that there’s something called a telephone in the stronghold, but what’s a satellite phone?”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, “Mankind has taken control of several satellites from before The Cataclysm, so we can maintain communication between the various strongholds.”

Someone said indignantly, “If the higher-ups knew they’d gone missing, it’s obvious they intend to send us to our deaths by sending us out here. Were they thinking of using human lives to confirm whether the news was true? If we die out here as well, it would mean that this place is really dangerous. It’s no wonder that we weren’t even given any satellite phones this time. It seems like they’re trying to minimize their losses, right? Could our lives be worth less than a satellite phone?”

Xu Xianchu glanced at him and said, “Don’t go making wild guesses when you have so little information. Also, your speculation isn’t logical either.”

In reality, the soldier was too frightened at the moment and could not speak sensibly. As such, Xu Xianchu did not agree with his assumptions. However, Ren Xiaosu took a closer look at the two lines of words and said, “What was used to etch these words in the wall? I think it might’ve been something like a bayonet. It’s not possible to carve such deep marks into the rock surface using everyday items that normal people carry around.”

Xu Xianchu nodded. “It should be the soldiers from Stronghold 112.” He turned to everyone and said, “Sleep tight tonight. If anyone wants to head out of the hollow at night to relieve yourself, make sure to go together in groups of three.”

This arrangement was made to prevent inexplicable disappearances from happening again. Even if they got into danger, it was unlikely that three people could not scream for help.

Xu Xianchu continued, “And tonight, everyone has to take turns to keep watch. How about this? I’ll take the first shift before the others take over. The ladies don’t need to keep watch.”

Ren Xiaosu accepted the arrangement but thought there wasn’t really any point in keeping a night watch. Not only did they have to guard against external dangers, they also needed to guard against internal dangers from the team.

After all, Yang Xiaojin and he had just seized a gun from a soldier, so it was quite likely that the soldier would try to sneak attack him in the middle of the night.

But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, “You keep watch for the first half of the night while I’ll take over for the second half.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Their temporary alliance had another basic foundation: They did not have any reason to harm the other.

“I’m going outside for a while,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘Aren’t you afraid that something will happen to you?’ He asked her, “Do you need me to go with you?”

Yang Xiaojin paused for a while before saying in a low voice, “There’s no need.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Isn’t this girl a little too brave? Just what kind of skill is she hiding?

Beside them, Luo Xinyu stood up and said, “Let me accompany you.” She then turned to Ren Xiaosu and gave him a look. “You’re really ignorant.”

Ren Xiaosu felt his face burning with embarrassment. He just realized what was going on!

The two girls braved the rain and went outside. Xu Xianchu saw them but did not say anything.

A soldier whispered mockingly, “It would be such a pity if those two girls went missing.”

But less than five minutes later, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu returned to the hollow as though nothing had happened.

Had something changed? Could it be that the team was not targeted by the “strange shadows” in the forest?

When two soldiers saw that they had come back, they stood up and said, “We’ll also go outside to relieve ourselves. Can’t hold it in any longer.”

The two men had actually let the two girls go ahead to scout out the route before they dared to head outside themselves. Furthermore, the both of them nearly even pissed their pants out of fear. They really couldn’t hold it in any longer.

In fact, they had planned to relieve themselves in the hollow. But didn’t Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu come back just fine? So they had to muster up their courage and head outside.

Xu Xianchu nodded and said, “Come back quickly. Don’t waste time smoking out there.”

“Don’t worry ’bout it.” The two soldiers put on their clothes and went out.

Ren Xiaosu was eating the chocolate and watching Yang Xiaojin, who was drying herself in the hollow. Curious, he asked, “Didn’t anything happen to you two out there?”

“No,” Yang Xiaojin replied simply.

Someone in the hollow started a fire. After everyone threw the pine cones into the fire, they started squeezing the liquid substance from the pine needles and licked it to quench their thirst.

The pine cones crackled as they roasted in the fire. Everyone was warmed by it. They felt like they were getting brought back to life.

Right then, Xu Xianchu looked out of the hollow. “Those two… why haven’t they returned?!”

Chapter 64: Satellites

When everyone saw the two lines of writing, the atmosphere in the hollow plummeted to a freezing point.

Since entering the forest today, the group did encounter any more dangers. Other than exhaustion from a sleepless night, no other strange occurrences took place.

This gave everyone the wrong impression that this place was safer than the canyon and the other places they had been to earlier in the journey. They’d nearly even forgotten about the warning that was written outside the canyon.

But it was all coming back to them at this moment.

The missing corpse of Xu Xia, the horrible face bugs, and those words carved on the cliff wall that warned: “Stop here, ye who live.”

“Has anyone gone missing so far?” Xu Xianchu’s first reaction was to count the number of people in their group. However, he found that no one was missing.

“Could someone be playing a trick on us by etching those words here?” Liu Bu wondered. “There are no signs of any struggle in this hollow, and we didn’t even see any skeletal remains of humans or wild animals along the way.”

‘Wait a minute!’ Liu Bu’s words startled Ren Xiaosu. Actually, that was the strangest thing that had been happening. Some skeletal remains would usually be scattered throughout the forest. Be it birds, snakes, or any larger wild animals, their skeletal remains should be commonly seen.

But the strangest thing about this forest was that Ren Xiaosu had yet to come across any skeletal remains even once, other than the one belonging to the rat he had thrown away.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to turn back to confirm if the rat skeleton had disappeared as well. After all, it hadn’t been thrown away for too long, and some bones still remained when he had gone to check on it in the morning. But by now, the bones might have disappeared.

It was the same for Xu Xia’s body and the fish scraps and bones.

There was something creepy about this huge forest. A soldier asked, “It seems like some people have been here within the past year, and it was even quite a large group too. But almost no one from Stronghold 113 have come out here to the Jing Mountains during this past year.”

“It might’ve been the people from Stronghold 112 who were traveling to our stronghold, but something unexpected happened to them.” Xu Xianchu searched his memory. “But since we’re the lowest ranking troops in the private army, we can’t possibly know who’s been here.”

Xu Xianchu was right about that. They were the most insignificant people within the private army, so why would the higher-ups tell them all the information they knew?

Someone said, “Could it be that we were sent here because something happened to the team that came out here? And when the higher-ups in the stronghold found out about it, they sent us in to investigate? If that team had carried a satellite phone, they should’ve been able to transmit information back to the stronghold, right?”

This was the first time that Ren Xiaosu heard of the term “satellite phone.” It had not even been mentioned before by Mr. Zhang at school.

He had wondered about this several times as well and believed that there should be some form of communication between the various strongholds. And it seemed that their communications were made through this satellite phone they were talking about?

Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, “What’s a satellite phone? I’ve heard from Mr. Zhang that there’s something called a telephone in the stronghold, but what’s a satellite phone?”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, “Mankind has taken control of several satellites from before The Cataclysm, so we can maintain communication between the various strongholds.”

Someone said indignantly, “If the higher-ups knew they’d gone missing, it’s obvious they intend to send us to our deaths by sending us out here. Were they thinking of using human lives to confirm whether the news was true? If we die out here as well, it would mean that this place is really dangerous. It’s no wonder that we weren’t even given any satellite phones this time. It seems like they’re trying to minimize their losses, right? Could our lives be worth less than a satellite phone?”

Xu Xianchu glanced at him and said, “Don’t go making wild guesses when you have so little information. Also, your speculation isn’t logical either.”

In reality, the soldier was too frightened at the moment and could not speak sensibly. As such, Xu Xianchu did not agree with his assumptions. However, Ren Xiaosu took a closer look at the two lines of words and said, “What was used to etch these words in the wall? I think it might’ve been something like a bayonet. It’s not possible to carve such deep marks into the rock surface using everyday items that normal people carry around.”

Xu Xianchu nodded. “It should be the soldiers from Stronghold 112.” He turned to everyone and said, “Sleep tight tonight. If anyone wants to head out of the hollow at night to relieve yourself, make sure to go together in groups of three.”

This arrangement was made to prevent inexplicable disappearances from happening again. Even if they got into danger, it was unlikely that three people could not scream for help.

Xu Xianchu continued, “And tonight, everyone has to take turns to keep watch. How about this? I’ll take the first shift before the others take over. The ladies don’t need to keep watch.”

Ren Xiaosu accepted the arrangement but thought there wasn’t really any point in keeping a night watch. Not only did they have to guard against external dangers, they also needed to guard against internal dangers from the team.

After all, Yang Xiaojin and he had just seized a gun from a soldier, so it was quite likely that the soldier would try to sneak attack him in the middle of the night.

But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, “You keep watch for the first half of the night while I’ll take over for the second half.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Their temporary alliance had another basic foundation: They did not have any reason to harm the other.

“I’m going outside for a while,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘Aren’t you afraid that something will happen to you?’ He asked her, “Do you need me to go with you?”

Yang Xiaojin paused for a while before saying in a low voice, “There’s no need.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Isn’t this girl a little too brave? Just what kind of skill is she hiding?

Beside them, Luo Xinyu stood up and said, “Let me accompany you.” She then turned to Ren Xiaosu and gave him a look. “You’re really ignorant.”

Ren Xiaosu felt his face burning with embarrassment. He just realized what was going on!

The two girls braved the rain and went outside. Xu Xianchu saw them but did not say anything.

A soldier whispered mockingly, “It would be such a pity if those two girls went missing.”

But less than five minutes later, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu returned to the hollow as though nothing had happened.

Had something changed? Could it be that the team was not targeted by the “strange shadows” in the forest?

When two soldiers saw that they had come back, they stood up and said, “We’ll also go outside to relieve ourselves. Can’t hold it in any longer.”

The two men had actually let the two girls go ahead to scout out the route before they dared to head outside themselves. Furthermore, the both of them nearly even pissed their pants out of fear. They really couldn’t hold it in any longer.

In fact, they had planned to relieve themselves in the hollow. But didn’t Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu come back just fine? So they had to muster up their courage and head outside.

Xu Xianchu nodded and said, “Come back quickly. Don’t waste time smoking out there.”

“Don’t worry ’bout it.” The two soldiers put on their clothes and went out.

Ren Xiaosu was eating the chocolate and watching Yang Xiaojin, who was drying herself in the hollow. Curious, he asked, “Didn’t anything happen to you two out there?”

“No,” Yang Xiaojin replied simply.

Someone in the hollow started a fire. After everyone threw the pine cones into the fire, they started squeezing the liquid substance from the pine needles and licked it to quench their thirst.

The pine cones crackled as they roasted in the fire. Everyone was warmed by it. They felt like they were getting brought back to life.

Right then, Xu Xianchu looked out of the hollow. “Those two… why haven’t they returned?!”

Chapter 65: Withdrawal symptoms

The two soldiers who had not returned yet had only dared to venture out when they saw nothing had happened to Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu. By going outside together, they took the necessary precautions.

But now that almost ten minutes had passed, the two of them were still not back.

Xu Xianchu stood at the edge of the hollow and peered out into the forest. Although it was only evening, the sky had already turned black due to the rain.

“Could something have happened to them?” someone asked.

“But there wasn’t any noise,” someone said, curled up in the corner of the hollow. “Surely they couldn’t have been attacked at the same time and made no sound, right?”

Logically speaking, that should have been the case. But wasn’t this exactly what made it even more frightening? Xu Xianchu had instructed everyone to go out in groups, but even so, something still happened.

Xu Xianchu said, “Don’t think too hard. They might’ve been delayed just a little. It’s only been ten minutes, after all.”

Everyone in the hollow became quiet. Although Xu Xianchu comforted everyone by saying that, those two soldiers didn’t reappear as time slowly ticked by.

Xu Xianchu said, “Who’s willing to go and look for them with me?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Xu Xianchu was even willing to risk the unknown danger and acid rain to go into the forest and search for his subordinates.

But no one in the hollow volunteered. Who would be willing to go out and seek death at a time like this? Some of the soldiers even urinated at the innermost part of the hollow and filled the entire hollow with the smell of urine. As a result, Ren Xiaosu and the others were forced to sit near the outer part of the hollow where there was ventilation. Although it was a little cold there, at least they didn’t have to smell it.

Xu Xianchu sighed and said, “If you all don’t help the others, don’t blame others for not helping when the same happens to you.”

Ren Xiaosu was not worried about that since he did not expect anyone to save him. Even Yang Xiaojin, who was his ally, would probably abandon everyone in the event of any danger.

As they were not related to one another, it was already great that they did not sabotage each other.

The sound of rain pouring over the forest came from outside. Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, “I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night. You go and get some rest. The forest ground will become very difficult to walk through after the rain. It’ll use up a lot of your stamina. Be careful of those soldiers too. They’re up to no good.”

Ren Xiaosu had known ever since the two of them seized the gun that the soldiers would cluster together from time to time. This spelled potential trouble for them, but Ren Xiaosu had not figured out how to handle it yet.

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. Then she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall to get some rest. But even so, Yang Xiaojin’s gun was still pointing at everyone, including Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and did not mind it. If it were him, he would have done the same.

A team of 11 people had inexplicably turned into nine. Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining soldiers in the hollow and saw some of them sitting and smoking. The cigarette smoke was still laced with a smell that nauseated Ren Xiaosu.

He found it hard to imagine just how vulnerable the defenses of the stronghold was when even the soldiers of the stronghold were using such psychoactive drugs to stimulate themselves.

Was this only happening in Stronghold 113 or were most of the soldiers from the other strongholds also the same?

These soldiers had brought quite a lot of cigarettes along, and Liu Bu had also prepared ten packs for them. However, they lost most of them while they were making their escape. Right now, they only had around half a pack or a full pack left on each of them, while some of them did not even have any left at all.

The group of people sitting there were smoking together, filling the entire hollow with smoke. Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu were all sitting at the outer edge of the hollow, so they were not that greatly affected.

They heard one soldier saying to the others, “Lend me a cig. I’ve run out.”

“I’ve run out too. This is the last cig I have.” The soldier beside him moved a little to the other side. Actually, he still had more than half a pack left in his pocket, but the days ahead of them were still so long. Who the hell knew how long it’d be before they could finally get out of this place? He did not even have enough to spare for himself.

The soldier who wanted to bum a cigarette looked to the others and said, “Lend me a cig. I’ll return a pack to you when we get back to the stronghold.”

By this time, his “withdrawals” had kicked in. He didn’t hesitate making a promise like that just so he could smoke a cigarette. And cigarettes were not cheap in the stronghold.

“Who knows if we can even get back to the stronghold alive?” someone scoffed. “What are you going to pay with at that time, your life?”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. These soldiers were really like a disorderly mob. While two of their comrades’ lives were still at stake, they fell into infighting over some cigarettes.

The soldier whose withdrawal symptoms were starting to kick in could only sit inside the hollow when he failed to get any cigarettes. Ren Xiaosu observed him as he started shivering while beads of sweat began forming on his forehead.

Although these soldiers smoked a better quality of cigarettes than the town’s workers, their withdrawal symptoms were more intense.

If they encountered danger at this moment, this addict would probably not even able to stand up, let alone resist.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Xinyu, who was still awake, and said, “What on earth is it like… inside the stronghold you’re from?”

This was actually one question that Ren Xiaosu was most curious about as he had always yearned to live in the stronghold, because all of the best quality daily necessities produced in town would get selected and transported into the stronghold. The people inside did not have to eat cornbread, could wash their faces every day, and it was said they had electricity as well.

Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan used to think that the place was heaven, but now it seemed that it was not as beautiful as they had imagined.

Luo Xinyu was delighted when Ren Xiaosu took the initiative to talk to her. She still needed to rely on him plenty during the journey. She explained in a whisper, “Actually, there’s people who made them like this on purpose. A mutiny by the private army in one of the strongholds happened, and the overseers of the other strongholds slowly began bearing ill will for the soldiers. While the big shots hoped that there would be people to protect them, they wanted their soldiers to stay loyal and have no ambition. So these cigarettes are the best tool to make them lose their ambition.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Is smoking too much of this stuff OK?”

“Of course not.” Luo Xinyu said, “Some veterans in the stronghold behave like zombies…. And some of their wives even ran off with others as a result.”

“It’s such a mess in the stronghold.” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

“That’s nothing.” Luo Xinyu said, “I’ve seen a 60-year-old woman with a dozen gigolos she’s paying to support. You could say she’s robbing the cradle!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “A 60 year old? I don’t think robbing the cradle properly describes that.”

Luo Xinyu was startled. “Then what would?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, “Having children in old age!”

Luo Xinyu was speechless. Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu’s brain was truly wired a little differently from others. It was no wonder the townspeople all said he was sick in the head! He was clearly a normal person, yet he exhibited signs of mental illness. Just how did his mind work?!

At this moment, someone in the cave exclaimed, “What is this?! It’s so wet!”

After he said that, the group ran out of the cave as though they received a great shock. Ren Xiaosu looked into the hollow but was puzzled. There was nothing inside.

Chapter 66: A businessman

Ren Xiaosu didn’t believe in ghosts and the likes, so he analyzed the situation when he saw nothing in the hollow. Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on.

He saw water droplets dripping from the hollow’s ceiling onto the ground.

It was probably wet due to the rainwater that had seeped through the hollow’s ceiling and dripped down bit by bit. The soldier who got alarmed was merely too tense and fell into a state of panic. As a result, he thought the water droplets were caused by some imaginary enemy, like a drooling monster.

But when Ren Xiaosu saw this, he found a treasure. He said to the others, “Y’all can get water straight from here. The hollow’s ceiling is a natural filter that makes the water a little cleaner than well water. Of course, if you’re still worried, you can also boil it before you drink it.”

Xu Xianchu asked seriously, “Are you sure this water is drinkable?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s probably one of the cleanest sources of water you can find in the wilderness. Sometimes, not even spring water is safer than this.”

When Xu Xianchu heard that, he grabbed his military issue canteen to top up his water supply. Although the pine needles could replenish some water loss from the body, it was far too little.

Those could only ensure that everyone would not die of thirst.

Xu Xianchu did not horde the water source for too long. After hanging his military issue canteen over the campfire, he said to the others, “You guys should drink up too.”

The others were not like Xu Xianchu who still had his military issue canteen to hold the water and boil it with. They could only collect the water with their mouths, let alone boil it.

The crowd was pushing and shoving under the water source. It was alright for the soldiers as each of them took turns to drink from it for a while. But Liu Bu couldn’t be in a more pathetic state since no one would let him have a taste of the water.

After a while, a soldier said, fuming, “How is it enough for anyone to drink water one drop at a time? Ren Xiaosu still has two bottles of water in his pockets. He’s making us lick the rock wall and the pine needles while he drinks from the bottle himself. Who knows if there’s problems with the water?”

Several soldiers got angry. However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin each had a gun in their hands, so they did not dare to say anything in front of them.

When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he wondered how great it would be if he could store his items in the palace. He could secretly put the bottled water into the palace tomorrow and claim to the others that he had accidentally lost it. That way, no one would target him anymore.

Otherwise, if these people went crazy for the water, someone might even take the risk to attack him.

Currently, the two bottles of water were in each side of his jacket pockets. He put his hands into the pockets and held the water bottles as he attempted to store them in the palace again.

But the voice from the palace intoned, “Storage rights have not been obtained.”

Ren Xiaosu was upset and sullen when he heard the voice. ‘You should at least tell me how to obtain the rights, right? Why can I freely store the black medicine in the palace but not the bottled water? Why? Why can’t the bottled water be stored?!’

As Ren Xiaosu retreated to one side, Luo Xinyu looked at him. “Why aren’t you going over to drink the water?”

Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Xinyu’s skeptical look. It was obvious she did not believe he would be so generous.

Ren Xiaosu grinned. “I’m gonna drink the bottled water.”

Luo Xinyu was speechless. In this moment, Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu was really talented at annoying people at any time.

However, she did not know that Ren Xiaosu had actually given it careful consideration before deciding to leave the water source for the others. First of all, everyone was parched, and the water source that was dripping bit by bit would definitely be insufficient. As a supernatural being, Xu Xianchu could horde the water source for as long as he wanted, and no one would dare to say a thing. But Ren Xiaosu “wasn’t” one.

Some people were already jealous of the fact that he still had two bottles of water on him. As such, he didn’t need to hoard them.

One of the principles of survival in the wilderness was to not be too greedy. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had to made Xu Xianchu understand that if he wanted to survive in the wilderness, the most indispensable person in the team was him, Ren Xiaosu. If Ren Xiaosu could get the support of a supernatural being like Xu Xianchu, wouldn’t that be better?

Also, the smell in the hallow was simply too pungent.

In such a tense atmosphere, Luo Xinyu was initially terrified. As such, she chatted with Ren Xiaosu so she could alleviate the fear she was feeling. After all, it was always better to have someone to talk to.

In fact, this method was extremely effective. When Ren Xiaosu spoke about “having children in old age,” Luo Xinyu didn’t feel afraid anymore. There was only a string of ellipses on her mind.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Do you know where the cigarettes that the soldiers smoke come from? I don’t think there’s any suitable places near Stronghold 113 to grow something like that, right?”

“You don’t know?” Luo Xinyu asked, feeling puzzled. “Wang Fugui said that you had the backing of Luo Lan, so how can you possibly not know anything about it?”

“What does Luo Lan have anything to do with it?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Although he had received a banner from Luo Lan, he and Boss Luo did not have any other dealings.

“Boss Luo is the representative of the Qing Consortium in Stronghold 113,” Luo Xinyu explained.

“What is his job title in the stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu asked. Although he heard Wang Fugui mention Boss Luo’s name every day, Ren Xiaosu realized that he actually didn’t know much about Boss Luo.

“Boss Luo doesn’t have a job title.” Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. “Alright, it looks like you really don’t know anything. He only controls some factories that deal with metallurgy, water production, and chemical plants. If you have to ask what his title is… then he’s strictly considered a businessman.”

“How does a businessman get to call the shots in the stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu said after thinking for a moment. He had thought that Boss Luo was just a stronghold overseer.

“It’s unnecessary for them to hold a job title.” Luo Xinyu said helplessly, “They are like the sky above the stronghold overseers. When nothing happens, everyone lives peacefully together. But when something crops up, that businessman will definitely be the decision maker of the stronghold.”

“Does he have an army around him?” Ren Xiaosu asked after some thought.

Luo Xinyu glanced at him and said, “Yes, he has an army that is many times stronger than these private troops. The combat brigade that’s stationed in Stronghold 113 is way beyond your imagination. They’re nothing like these private troops you’re watching.”

It meant that there were two different types of troops stationed at the stronghold. Although the stronghold had nominal overseers, their authority existed in name only. If they did not resist, the consortium would allow them to enjoy a life of luxury as their puppets.

“But there’s something I still don’t understand.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why don’t they just take control of the stronghold and become the overseers themselves? Isn’t it unnecessary to support puppets?”

“Because the Qing Consortium is not the only organization in this world,” Luo Xinyu said.

Hearing this, Ren Xiaosu gained an understanding. The control of the hundred-odd strongholds was in the hands of just a few organizations. Although they worked together to take control of the strongholds, there was a delicate balance of power between them. By using some strange methods of cooperation, they would seize resources for themselves.

“So the Qing Consortium was the one who supplied those cigarettes to Stronghold 113?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Chapter 67: It’s not like you have nothing left

“All the cigarettes supplied to the private army were delivered from other locations by the Qing Consortium. You’ve seen the fleet of trucks before, right? The supplies they delivered were none other than cigarettes.” Luo Xinyu said, “Actually, the same thing’s happening in the other strongholds. Although the various strongholds’ overseers know they’re puppets, there are always a few who try to break free of their strings.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. It looked like he could not measure the consortium’s power based on the private army’s strength. Ren Xiaosu had learned enough from Luo Xinyu for the day and had to digest all of this information.

“I’ll ask one final question.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why did you choose a person like Liu Bu as your manager?”

Luo Xinyu was not exactly stupid either, so why did she choose Liu Bu?

Luo Xinyu explained, “He’s the younger brother of a unit chief in the stronghold’s Logistics Division.”

Ren Xiaosu could more or less understand some of the reasons behind this, but he didn’t exactly know what kind of authority a unit chief in the Logistics Division had.

Luo Xinyu felt her relationship with Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu had become a little closer. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Can you help me make it out of this place alive? I have nothing left out here in the wilderness and can only depend on the two of you.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “It’s not like you have nothing left.”

Luo Xinyu was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“You still have the cheek to ask me to get you out of here alive.” Having said that, Ren Xiaosu ignored Luo Xinyu.

Luo Xinyu was left confused by Ren Xiaosu on this dark and rainy night. She still had something left? She still had the cheek to ask him for something?

What fucking language proficiency is this? Are we even speaking the same language?

It was at this time that Luo Xinyu realized that her “close relationship” was only an illusion.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu found Luo Xinyu to be quite pitiable. She was all alone in the wilderness with no one to trust and had no one who was willing to help her. She was even surrounded by these ruffian soldiers who kept trying to take advantage of her.

But who wasn’t pitiable? Yan Liuyuan, who was suffering in town from the pain brought on by the side effects of his wish, wasn’t he pitiable?

If Ren Xiaosu promised to help get someone out of this place, that would be irresponsible towards Yan Liuyuan.

As long as Ren Xiaosu relied on his luck, Yan Liuyuan was bound to suffer even more from the side effects.

Although Yan Liuyuan would usually only get a headache or fever after making a wish, the problem was that if Ren Xiaosu used his luck to avoid death, Yan Liuyuan would not only be suffering simple side effects like a headache or fever!

This was a power governed by the law of conservation. If one party got luckier, the other would become unluckier.

The moment Yan Liuyuan made a wish for Ren Xiaosu, he had placed his life in Ren Xiaosu’s hands.

Therefore, for Yan Liuyuan’s sake, Ren Xiaosu could not promise anyone that he would help them get out of here alive.

The other people’s lives were not as valuable as Yan Liuyuan’s.

When Yang Xiaojin woke up in the middle of the night, she looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “It’s your turn to sleep.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep. He had not gotten any rest for nearly 30 hours. Even that was too much for him to bear in his current shape.

Ren Xiaosu kept thinking about a couple questions while in a semiconscious state. ‘What exactly is Yang Xiaojin’s identity? Does she belong to the so-called combat brigade of the Qing Consortium?’

No, that couldn’t be right. If she were from the combat brigade, she wouldn’t have to hide her identity to join the team, right? Besides, she even had to pay Luo Xinyu to join them.

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, if the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade stationed at Stronghold 113 were to send someone to join them for the mission, wouldn’t the soldiers from the private army revere her like a god?

After all, that was the authority that really had the power to control life and death in the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu could not figure out Yang Xiaojin’s motive, so he could only remain suspicious of her identity.

The hollow was completely quiet in the early morning. Yang Xiaojin was feeling energetic again after waking up. As she had received relevant training in this field, the way she slept was beyond most people’s imagination. She was actually able to stay alert while sleeping.

This was something that normal people could not understand, just like how normal people in the current day still could not understand supernatural beings.

The rain outside came to a stop. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, the forest ground became quagmire of mud after the rain. Some people would probably fall behind during tomorrow’s journey.

Some of the soldiers in the hollow were still not asleep and were whispering about something. Meanwhile, Liu Bu was catching the dripping water with his mouth open. It was finally his turn to drink now that everyone else had enough.

Yang Xiaojin was opening the pine cones left over from the evening. She took out the pine nuts from within and put them into her mouth one by one to replenish the nutrients she needed.

Yang Xiaojin, who was sitting across from Ren Xiaosu, was looking at him sleeping as she ate her pine nuts. Was he really asleep or was he in a semiconscious state?

However, Yang Xiaojin heard Ren Xiaosu start snoring. She wasn’t the only one who heard it; the entire hollow heard it as well! The snoring was way too loud!

At this moment, two soldiers got up and said to Xu Xianchu, “We’ll take over the watch from you. You should get some rest now.”

Xu Xianchu nodded. “Be on your toes, don’t lower your guard.”

“Don’t worry,” one of the soldiers replied.

The two soldiers slowly walked to the entrance of the hollow, as though they were going to keep watch there.

Yang Xiaojin lowered her head and hid her gaze under her cap. When she saw the two ruffian soldiers, the corners of her mouth curled up a tad. This was because she noticed that Ren Xiaosu’s snoring had… stopped.

But the two soldiers did not seem to have noticed anything. One of them remarked, “I wonder if we can get back to the stronghold alive.”

“Who knows?” the other replied.

It seemed like the two men were having a normal conversation. But when they passed Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu, they sprang into action. As the rain had stopped, the hollow was completely silent.

The two soldiers, standing on the left and right side, whipped out their bayonets. They were actually thinking of sneak attacking both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin!

Which would react faster within three steps? A person or a gun? This question had been discussed by many people before, and everyone felt that a person could probably react faster in the space of three steps. But right now, the two assailants were only one step away from Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Within such a short distance, it would be almost impossible for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin to pull out their guns.

They were not foolish. Therefore, they waited until the wee hours of the morning when Ren Xiaosu had just fallen asleep and Yang Xiaojin was just waking up to carry out their plan. A person tended to have stiff muscles when they were just waking up from sleep. This was not due to being in bad shape, rather, the body’s mobility has not fully kicked in yet.

They had probably decided to launch a sneak attack on Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu for their guns, or their water, or for Luo Xinyu. However, they did not know what kind of opponents they were about to face!

Bang!

With a gunshot, the ruffian soldier standing before Yang Xiaojin looked at the bleeding wound in his abdomen in disbelief. He clearly saw that Yang Xiaojin had been peeling pine nuts, and her gun was not out. So how did Yang Xiaojin manage to react so much quicker than him?

Meanwhile, the assailant on the other side let out a pained cry. Just as he was about to use the bayonet in his hand, Ren Xiaosu sprang up and grabbed him by his neck in an instant, quick as lightning.

The assailant wanted to stab Ren Xiaosu with the bayonet in his hand, but he realized that Ren Xiaosu had already grabbed his arm. He could not move a muscle.

Ren Xiaosu lifted the adult man weighing 85 kilograms up by his neck with one hand. Then the assailant felt a great pain radiate from his back. In the blink of an eye, Ren Xiaosu had slammed him up against the stone wall with one hand!

The bayonet fell to the ground as the assailant could no longer grip it.

Chapter 68: Master Skill Duplication Scroll

All of the others who were sleeping were awoken by the outbreak of a sudden fight. As the thunderous gunshot echoed through the hollow, everyone felt like an explosive had gone off beside them.

While these people who had just been awoken were still clueless about what was going on, Xu Xianchu’s gray shadow clone appeared and stayed put by his side.

The temperature at Yang Xiaojin’s gun barrel rapidly cooled as her opponent’s body quickly turned cold. This was actually the first time Yang Xiaojin had fired her gun during the expedition. It seemed no one had expected that she would be so firm and decisive in her actions.

Moreover, she looked exceedingly calm while killing someone. It looked as normal as drinking a glass of water.

But actually, what left the deepest impression on the others was not Yang Xiaojin’s actions, but Ren Xiaosu’s.

It only took a moment for the gun to go off and the bullet to enter the soldier’s body. The huge kinetic energy of the rotating bullet then tore through the muscles and organs inside of him and only came to a stop after the kinetic energy was fully expended. But neither anyone on the outside nor the victim himself could see the internal effects.

But it was different for Ren Xiaosu’s side. The sight of an adult man being forcefully lifted up with one hand was too violent.

Ren Xiaosu was only 1.78 meters tall, and his body was still not fully developed at the age of 17. So whether it was Xu Xianchu, Liu Bu, or Yang Xiaojin, they had never thought about Ren Xiaosu’s “combat prowess” before.

They thought, ‘How much strength could a malnourished young refugee from town have?’ At most, he would have some survival skills that he honed from living in the wilderness.

Ren Xiaosu had never revealed his true power, and Yang Xiaojin had not fired her gun before this, so it led everyone to have only a very vague idea of their combat strength. This was the why the assailants dared to attack them.

However, no one could have expected that this vague idea they had turned out to be extremely wrong.

Ren Xiaosu’s fingers were locked around the assailant’s neck like a pair of pincers. The assailant could immediately feel the blood flow to his brain stopping. In fact, he could have kicked at Ren Xiaosu’s vital regions with his legs, but his mind had already turned blank while his hands and feet convulsed in spasms.

Yang Xiaojin did not look at the soldier who had fallen in front of her but looked quietly at Ren Xiaosu instead. She was already holding up two guns and pointing them at everyone else in the hollow.

However, she was also a little puzzled. Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was clearly asleep. He could have faked his snoring, but it was impossible to disguise the movement of his eyelids.

She had even been trained to judge whether someone was sleeping for real. A person could pretend to be asleep, but the mind would subconsciously cause the eyelids to move. A person who was not fast asleep would find it impossible to control their eyelid movements for an extended duration.

So she knew that Ren Xiaosu had really fallen asleep just now. But the moment the assailants got up, Ren Xiaosu’s snoring stopped, which proved that he was awake at that point.

How could a person in deep sleep constantly remain alert like he had? A refugee like Ren Xiaosu couldn’t possibly have received the same kind of training she had!

Back in town, Yan Liuyuan was actually the happiest when he could keep watch during the night for Ren Xiaosu. It made him feel like Ren Xiaosu needed him the most at such a time and he was able to do something for him.

Although he couldn’t go hunting with Ren Xiaosu as a result of having to keep watch at night, he still felt that being a “night watchman” was extremely meaningful.

But what Yan Liuyuan didn’t know was that Ren Xiaosu actually didn’t need anyone to keep watch at night for him ever since the palace came into existence.

And at this moment, the Ren Xiaosu in Yang Xiaojin’s eyes was displaying a supernatural strength. How could a thin young man like him possess a strength like that? Even Yang Xiaojin couldn’t have expected this.

The soldier, who was soaking in a pool of his own blood on the ground, struggled to spit out, “Sun Junzheng, get them!”

But the soldier named Sun Junzheng was currently curled up inside the hollow. He was so afraid that he didn’t dare say a thing.

Xu Xianchu frowned and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Ren Xiaosu ignored him and continued to glare at the assailant. He had found those pine cones and pine needles for these people and even let them have the water source in the hollow. Although his motivation was to get their gratitude tokens, the overall outcome was still a good one.

Ren Xiaosu had realized long ago that these people were plotting something. He initially thought that these people would have a bottom line or at least show a little restraint.

He didn’t even try to ask the assailants what they were after. Water? Guns? Luo Xinyu? Ren Xiaosu thought that there wasn’t a need to ask them like he was being betrayed and feeling anguished since he did not need an answer from them.

Without any trust in the first place, there was naturally no sense of betrayal. In Ren Xiaosu’s eyes, there was no difference between these teammates and the wild beasts.

Ren Xiaosu did not immediately snap the assailant’s neck only because he wanted to see how Xu Xianchu would react.

But at this moment, the voice from his palace said, “Quest: Give the enemy a swift death.”

Ren Xiaosu was really stunned this time. Wasn’t this a palace that advocated doing good? Why did it suddenly become so straightforward and decisive then?

In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always try to take the easy way out to complete his quests by taking advantage of any loopholes. But this time, it was so direct that he couldn’t get used to it.

Or perhaps to the palace, not torturing the enemy was considered a good deed? ‘Damn, aren’t you bending your principles a little too quickly?’ But Ren Xiaosu knew that the palace did not have a mind of its own. It must have its own judgment mechanisms for it to assign a quest like this.

With a muffled crack, Ren Xiaosu snapped the assailant’s neck. When Sun Junzheng, who was in the hollow, heard the sound, he trembled. “It’s got nothing to do with me…. I didn’t even tell them that you had great strength!”

Bang!

Yang Xiaojin shot Sun Junzheng right between his eyes before he could finish speaking.

Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Yang Xiaojin. Yang Xiaojin calmly said, “Hiding a crime is the same as committing one.”

Ren Xiaosu sucked in a breath. Yang Xiaojin was implying that even though Sun Junzheng did not tell Ren Xiaosu’s strength to the assailants, he did not give any prior warning about their intention to attack them either. Therefore, to rid themselves of any further threats, Sun Junzheng had to die as well.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though he had repeatedly updated his understanding of Yang Xiaojin, her ruthlessness and decisiveness still exceeded his expectations.

But he did not feel that she was wrong.

A team that originally consisted of 11 people was now left with six people in the matter of a night. Only Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, Wang Lei, and Yang Xiaojin were left.

“Quest complete. Awarded Master Skill Duplication Scroll.”

Without pausing to think, Ren Xiaosu used the Master Skill Duplication Scroll on Xu Xianchu. Using Yang Xiaojin’s firearms skill as a comparison, there wasn’t much significance in upgrading his Advanced Firearms Proficiency to the master level. So at this moment, he needed Xu Xianchu’s power more!

“About to copy the target’s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it. The target does not have a master-level skill. Randomly copied target’s superpower, ‘Shadow Clone.’ Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. So if the target had no master-level skills, he could directly copy their superpowers?

He had thought the chances would be very slim!

“Yes!”

“You have learned ‘Shadow Clone.’”

Ren Xiaosu could feel the new power in him that he had just copied and learned. He was surprised to discover a shadow clone of himself standing quietly within the palace.

But what left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised was that, while Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was gray in color, his was black. ‘What’s with this? Is it darker because I don’t wash my face?’

Chapter 69: Got what they deserved

The atmosphere in the hollow reached freezing. Everyone felt glum and downtrodden after two of their teammates disappeared in the night without any explanation. And now, to everyone’s surprise, another internal conflict happened between those who were left?

The four of Xu Xianchu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei roughly knew that the soldiers had planned on attacking Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. However, that was handled by the two of them in an instant.

The duration of this fight was so quick that it was unimaginable, and the conflict also made Xu Xianchu seriously reassess these two people standing in front of him.

He sighed and said, “They probably got what they deserved.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. After thinking about it, he understood that Xu Xianchu had no motive to cause this assault.

If it were for the guns, Xu Xianchu still had his rifle and pistol on him. If it were to possess Luo Xinyu, Xu Xianchu got the opportunity long ago. After all, Luo Xinyu had even thrown herself at him, yet he never reacted positively to her advances. If it were for the water, Xu Xianchu had already collected a bottle in the evening. He didn’t have any reason to set his sights on Ren Xiaosu’s two bottles of water.

Ren Xiaosu was worried that Xu Xianchu would take action to maintain order in the team, but as it turned out, he did not want to get involved in this conflict at all.

Xu Xianchu’s overarching objective was to explore the mystery of the Jing Mountains and the evolution of the creatures that lived there. He was not concerned about getting the others out of this place alive.

“But surely Sun Junzheng’s crime should not amount to his death, right?” Xu Xianchu sighed again. “Forget it, no one can truly be faulted out in this wilderness.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that Xu Xianchu already understood the principles of wilderness survival. There was no right or wrong. Survival was the only gospel truth.

He also did not want to say that Yang Xiaojin was right to do so, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with ridding themselves of any threats!

Ren Xiaosu carried the three corpses and threw them outside the hollow. Then he said to Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin, “I could never figure out how Xu Xia’s corpse disappeared, so why don’t we closely observe what happens this time?”

He told Yang Xiaojin, “Shout me awake if anything strange happens.” He then sat down against the stone wall and went back to sleep.

The others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. Why could he go straight back to sleep like nothing had happened when he obviously just killed someone? Were you not the one who killed that person just now?

In reality, Ren Xiaosu was not asleep. He was just taking a mental look at the palace because a black shadow clone had appeared in it. This made Ren Xiaosu lose his sleepiness as his interest was piqued!

Crucially, he had been very envious of Xu Xianchu and was even a little envious of Zhang Baogen’s power of blowing the explosive saliva bubbles.

Although the saliva bubbles looked very weak, Ren Xiaosu suspected there was still room for improvement in its power.

Did the supernatural beings have any room for improvement? He felt that there certainly must be.

As for him, even though he had a palace that looked quite intimidating, the problem was that he had mostly been raising his Strength and Dexterity attributes thus far. It made him feel like he was not really a supernatural being. After all, some people could also reach his current state of strength after a long period of training.

As such, before he learned the Shadow Clone power he copied from Xu Xianchu, he could not be truly regarded as a supernatural being. At the very least, he could not be considered as one in terms of combat strength.

Ren Xiaosu had long coveted Xu Xianchu’s Shadow Cone that was capable of blocking bullets. In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, weapons such as firearms and explosives were terrifying. The initial velocity at which a bullet was fired at could reach Mach speed or several times Mach. Normal people would have no chance of fighting back against weapons like firearms.

Therefore, to Ren Xiaosu, the qualifier that separated a normal person from a supernatural being would be the fear of firearms and explosives.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also not fearless of firearms and explosives. He would still die if someone carried out a sneak attack on him with those weapons.

At this moment, the black shadow clone stood quietly and motionlessly beside the brass typewriter in the palace. Ren Xiaosu scrutinized it and saw that the silhouette of the shadow clone was clearly his own. It looked just like a blurred version of him.

Why was Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone gray in color while his was black? He had clearly copied the power straight from him, so could there be other differences?

Ren Xiaosu started to nimbly manipulate the shadow clone by moving it around within the palace. Then he realized that… the strength of the shadow clone seemed to be closely related to that of his own strength. Even without any testing, Ren Xiaosu knew that this was a kind of connection on the mental level. It seemed like the shadow clone was formed straight from his mental willpower.

The strength, speed, and even “density” of this shadow clone were twice of what Ren Xiaosu had. It was no wonder it could even block bullets. A normal person could also block bullets, but they would die, while the shadow clone wouldn’t.

Through Ren Xiaosu’s personal experimentation, he found the usage of the shadow clone was determined by the willpower he had. As long as he was full of vigor, he could continue using it.

But Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about how something as vague as willpower could be calculated.

He tried asking the palace, “What’s the level of my willpower?”

The voice from the palace answered, “Unauthorized to answer.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Since his master-level Wilderness Survival Proficiency could be determined, and his Strength and Dexterity attributes could also be determined, then why couldn’t the palace determine the level of his willpower?

Was there no criterion for determining one’s willpower or was there some other reason for it?

Since he could not get an answer for the time being, Ren Xiaosu did not dwell any further on it and went to sleep!

But Ren Xiaosu had sort of figured out why Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was gray while his was black. His own body was stronger than Xu Xianchu’s, so his shadow clone was denser!

…

When the sunshine shone on Ren Xiaosu’s face in the morning, the first thing he did when he woke up was to look at the spot where he dumped the corpses. It surprised him that nothing had occurred with the three corpses. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin did not wake him up in the middle of the night to say something. So it turned out that nothing unusual had happened.

It was good that nothing had happened. He couldn’t constantly hope that something dangerous would happen to them, right?

Then he turned his gaze back into the hollow and happened to meet Liu Bu’s eyes. However, Liu Bu did not wear the arrogance he had from long ago when he first came out of the stronghold. He was starting to avoid looking at Ren Xiaosu.

Liu Bu did not rest well last night. He was someone who only knew how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When he learned that Ren Xiaosu was actually powerful, he started to panic a little.

He could not help but feel anxious. He, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were all shocked to discover that even with so few people left on the team, everyone else were monsters, unlike the three of them.

Xu Xianchu was already standing outside the hollow. He was thinking about something as he looked at the forest before him.

When Ren Xiaosu walked beside Wang Lei, who was lying on the stretcher, Wang Lei flinched away from him. But how could he be faster than Ren Xiaosu?

Ren Xiaosu lifted up his shirt and took a look at Wang Lei’s stab wound created by Xu Xianchu. He said, “Alright, you can get up now and walk on your own. The wound’s already healed.”

All of a sudden, Wang Lei realized that his wound did not hurt anymore. Could Ren Xiaosu’s black medicine really be that effective?!

Chapter 70: Storage rights

When Xu Xianchu returned to the hollow, he saw Wang Lei inspecting his wound. He asked Ren Xiaosu, “Do you still have any of that medicine?”

With Wang Lei acting as the guinea pig, Xu Xianchu knew well how important that black medicine was. If he sustained any injuries in the wilderness, his survival chances would greatly increase as long as he had the black medicine with him!

“No,” Ren Xiaosu instinctively replied.

“I’ll pay you for it…” Xu Xianchu said.

“In that case, I still have a little,” Ren Xiaosu replied. If it were for something else, he would probably not be willing to exchange it for money. After all, there was no use for money in the wilderness. However, the black medicine was different.

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a problem. “Haven’t you run out of money?”

Xu Xianchu said, “There was money on those three that you two killed, so I took it from them.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt such a heart-wrenching pain that he couldn’t breathe. He was too inexperienced! How could he not have searched the bodies?! How could he have made such an amateur mistake?!

So it turned out that Xu Xianchu had gone outside to search the corpses just now. This guy was too good at waiting. He was afraid it would be dangerous during the night, so he waited until dawn before going outside.

Ren Xiaosu said resentfully, “That isn’t your money! It’s clearly my money! You have to at least share half of it with me!”

Xu Xianchu gave it some thought and said, “Money is of no use for me here. As long as you give me the black medicine, I’ll give all of the 8,000-plus yuan on me to you.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that those three had more than 8,000 yuan with them, the pain in his heart grew even greater.

However, Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up Xu Xianchu. ‘This guy really isn’t greedy for money?’ He took out the bottle of black medicine, which was now half-used after it had been applied on Wang Lei, and handed it to Xu Xianchu. “Money, please.”

“Here.” Xu Xianchu took all the money out and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. He even purposely turned his pants’ pockets inside out to prove that he had no money left on him.

Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. Although he did not know Xu Xianchu well, it felt like he was rather sincere through his actions on the journey thus far.

And when Ren Xiaosu took the money from Xu Xianchu, the voice from his palace said, “It has been detected that the host is carrying 20,000 yuan in cash. Basic storage rights have been unlocked for purchase.”

When Ren Xiaosu treated Wang Lei’s wound, Wang Lei paid him 1,200 yuan. Then Luo Xinyu handed 10,000 yuan to him for his help. And now, he received a further 8,900 yuan from Xu Xianchu. Added together, Ren Xiaosu’s cash on hand reached 20,100 yuan.

But Ren Xiaosu was astounded this time. Before this, he had been very anxious to unlock the palace’s storage function, but the palace never once told him how to gain access to it.

He had guessed that he might have to complete a certain quest or side quest that was similar to unlocking the weapon.

But never could he have imagined he would have to spend his own money to unlock the storage! ‘As a virtual palace, why would you need money?!’

Ren Xiaosu had never saved more than 10,000 yuan in his entire life before. But now that he had received close to 10,000 yuan from Xu Xianchu, he was going to have to spend it all again. This really felt like going back to square one.

He had no choice but to spend the money! Ren Xiaosu knew very well how important it was to have a storage space in the wilderness. He clenched his teeth and said to his mind palace, “Purchase it!”

“Purchase successful. You’ve unlocked basic storage rights.”

At this moment, another door appeared in the palace and slowly opened. Then Ren Xiaosu saw a space measuring one cubic meter embedded in the middle of a wall behind it.

‘What a scam! 20,000 yuan bought me such a small space? What did the palace say just now? Oh right, the basic storage rights have been unlocked.’

That meant he could still buy the intermediate, advanced, and so on and so forth grades of storage in the future? The space behind this door would probably get larger after more purchases and maybe even turn into an actual house?

But how much money would he have to spend for that? Ren Xiaosu did not even know if he could make that much money in this lifetime!

Ren Xiaosu had thought it impressive to earn 20,000 yuan!

Ren Xiaosu felt it was bittersweet. Honestly, his harvest today was far greater than the previous days of the expedition combined. He went outside and broke a tree branch off, then peeled off the bark and used the white stem inside to scrape his teeth clean. Although he could do without washing his face, he needed to keep his teeth feeling clean and fresh.

To be able to live freely in this wilderness, you had to have good oral hygiene.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu discovered that Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu were also “brushing” their teeth with the snapped off branches like he did. These two people had a very positive attitude regarding survival. They were learning from nearly everything Ren Xiaosu did.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly grabbed a handful of leaves and stuffed them into his pocket. As a result, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin also plucked a handful of leaves from the same type of tree and stuffed them into their pockets.

As the saying goes: “There will always be someone to learn from in a group of people.” When Xu Xianchu and the others realized that Ren Xiaosu had far more experience in wilderness survival than them, their first thoughts were to learn from him. Only by learning from Ren Xiaosu could they survive a little more comfortably in this wilderness.

But Xu Xianchu was a little curious. “What use do these leaves have?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he took the leaves out and threw them away. “They have no use. I only wanted to see if the two of you would copy what I did.”

Xu Xianchu was surprised. He looked at Ren Xiaosu for a long time without saying anything. He stubbornly kept the leaves in his pocket and did not throw them away. He plucked the leaves because he wanted to pluck them and definitely not because he was copying Ren Xiaosu’s actions!

But Yang Xiaojin was different. She acted like no one was around and grabbed another handful of leaves and stuffed them into her pocket.

The mental fortitude of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu was obviously better than Luo Xinyu’s and the others’. After witnessing so many deaths last night, the three of them could still face their circumstances with calm. It was as though they did not take these matters to heart.

But Luo Xinyu and the others could not do it. When Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu went out of the hollow to brush their teeth, Luo Xinyu and the others did not dare go out because they were scared of the three corpses lying outside.

Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei had to calm themselves for half an hour before they finally dared to come out of the cave. They just couldn’t understand why the others could still laugh after all that had happened.

“Let’s get ready to set off.” Xu Xianchu said, “Although we don’t know what dangers we might encounter later on, we can’t stay here. Before it gets dark again, we have to find a suitable place to set up camp for the night. I hope that no one is thinking of going around on their own anymore. After all, you’ve all seen what happened to those who went by themselves.”

They were now on the periphery of the Jing Mountains, and Ren Xiaosu could even see the black smoke spewing from the active volcanoes in the range. The further they went in, the more dangerous it would get.

“Can y’all say what exactly exists in the Jing Mountains?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “It could be the mystery of the wild animals’ evolution that’s hidden within or perhaps the origination of a new taxonomic order.”

“When you came out of the stronghold, did they tell you what the site that possibly existed there might be?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Xu Xianchu stopped hiding the information. “A mysterious city.”

Chapter 71: Ren Xiaosu’s perfect skill

When Ren Xiaosu listened in on Zhang Jinglin’s lessons on top of the school walls, he had once heard Zhang Jinglin sharing some strange stories, including some that talked about “disappearing cities.”

Sometimes, when Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Jinglin, he would feel that he wasn’t always a serious person. Whenever this teacher got tired of teaching, he would simply take a chair to the podium and sit down to share some interesting stories to fill the class time.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that this was quite normal. After all, being the only teacher in town, it would be quite difficult for Zhang Jinglin to only talk about lessons all day.

In the past, Mr. Zhang had told of an ancient city in the wilderness during one of his story sessions. The ancient city had been prosperous for some time but suddenly started declining for some reason. Zhang Jinglin said that it seemed like demons started appearing after the decline of the ancient city.

At the time, Ren Xiaosu was tempted to say, “Like hell I’d believe that!” If he didn’t want to teach the lesson, so be it. Why did he have to make up topics like demons and the such? How could there really be demons in this world?

But Ren Xiaosu was a little convinced now.

In fact, Zhang Jinglin should not be too old and was probably only in his thirties. Ren Xiaosu had heard from Wang Fugui before that Zhang Jinglin came from a different place a long time ago. As for how long ago that was, no one could remember.

Ren Xiaosu would sometimes question whether Zhang Jinglin was a resident of the stronghold before he became a refugee. How else could he know so many things? Even though some of the things that he said could have been made up…

Now, when Xu Xianchu said that there was a mysterious city hidden within the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu remembered what Zhang Jinglin had said. Then did that mean there were demons in the Jing Mountains?

Ren Xiaosu asked Xu Xianchu, “Did they talk about any other things?”

Xu Xianchu thought it over carefully and said, “I think Wang Congyang also found out from his sources right before we set off that this information about the Jing Mountains was not only exclusive to Stronghold 113. It seems that other teams are also on their way there.”

Ren Xiaosu thought that Xu Xianchu was going to reveal some secrets, but it turned out to only be this.

“Actually, be it the stronghold overseers or the corporations, they’re all very interested in the evolution of these supernatural beings.” Xu Xianchu said, “You all should also know about the newly built psychiatric hospital in the stronghold, right? The supernatural beings are being studied not only because the overseers want to learn how to defend against them, but also because they intend to make use of them.”

“Can you talk more about these supernatural beings?” Ren Xiaosu said, “As a supernatural being, you should be very concerned about this issue, right?”

“Supernatural beings…” Xu Xianchu pondered it before saying, “Actually, supernatural beings existed since a long time ago. It was just that everyone regarded them as legends in the past. There’s increased attention on them again these days because the supernatural beings have started appearing more frequently. There’s even an extremely secretive organization of supernatural beings that has appeared in some places.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “They even have an organization now?”

The existence of such an organization would mean that the number of supernatural beings was not small.

“You guys might’ve already heard about the event where a supernatural being tried to assassinate a stronghold overseer sometime back, right?” Xu Xianchu said, “Wang Congyang told me that the supernatural being was from an organization called the ‘Saboteurs,’ or at least that’s what that supernatural being claimed.”

“Did he get caught?” Ren Xiaosu was curious.

“No.” Xu Xianchu shook his head. “He’s far more powerful than you can imagine. Nowadays, every major stronghold is targeting the supernatural beings. It seems that they’re still assessing the danger ratings of these people, but I’m not sure how they’re being evaluated.”

Ren Xiaosu muttered, “Why do they have to fight to the death? Can’t they just get along with one another?”

He said so because he could sympathize with the situation. As Ren Xiaosu was also a supernatural being, and having to suddenly face those large organizations, he felt a little uncomfortable. Yang Xiaojin glanced at him but did not say anything.

Xu Xianchu sighed and said, “I can’t return to the stronghold anymore. If the people in the stronghold learn that I’m a supernatural being, it’ll end tragically for me.”

Beside him, Liu Bu piped up, “Don’t worry, we won’t reveal your secret!”

Honestly speaking, Liu Bu was a little worried that he would get silenced by Xu Xianchu. As such, he hurriedly expressed his stance on the matter.

Xu Xianchu glanced at Liu Bu without saying a word. It could be seen that he still held to his principles and would not do something like silencing someone.

But who would believe Liu Bu’s assurance? It would be beyond idiotic to trust him.

Xu Xianchu gave Liu Bu the rare rebuttal. “Of everyone here, you’re the one who worries me the most!”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Then you can go back if Liu Bu dies in an accident, right?”

Liu Bu was stunned. How could he curse him like that? Liu Bu wanted to scold Ren Xiaosu but did not have the guts to do so!

Xu Xianchu, who was standing off to the side, said with a sigh, “You’re also a supernatural being, right?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Huh?”

Ren Xiaosu wondered whether he had given himself away somehow and that had Yang Xiaojin noticed that something was up.

Then Xu Xianchu said, “You must have awakened your powers to annoy people.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. But, Ren Xiaosu got a sudden inspiration. He said to the palace in his mind, “Palace, do I have a skill to annoy people? What’s my level of proficiency?”

The voice from the palace calmly answered, “Perfect.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

It was actually perfect!

Ren Xiaosu had gasped in admiration at Yang Xiaojin when he found out that she had a perfect skill. But he did not expect himself to have one as well! But comparing his perfect skill with hers, what he had was bullshit! ‘Palace, are you serious?!’

When Ren Xiaosu thought of himself also having a perfect skill, his balls ached. But it was nonetheless a perfect skill, so he was still kind of happy.

Some people talked about how it wasn’t easy to perfect a skill in life… but who could have expected that he would accomplish it so early in life?

Xu Xianchu cast a glance at the three corpses outside the hollow and finally said, “Let’s go. Whatever it is that lies in the Jing Mountains, I’ll go and have a look at it myself.”

This was what supernatural beings desired. Everyone used to think that what was said in the legends were unrealistic, but once they started closing in on the legends themselves, they would develop a desire for the world at large.

It was the same for Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu too.

Xu Xianchu said, “I don’t know if you guys have ever read a book called Journey to the West. I’ve seen it in a library at the stronghold. When I read in the book that someone could lift a cudgel weighing 13,500 catties, I found it unbelievable. But these days, I kinda wonder if the characters in the book could possibly exist in this world. The book said the cudgel was so powerful it could crush mountains.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered it and said, “I’ve never come across the book you just mentioned as the school in town doesn’t carry it. But I have an issue with it if you say that a cudgel weighing 13,500 catties can crush mountains. That works out to only be around six tons. The tractors at the factory outside town can already bear a load of ten tons. Even if they went over the limit by a little and carried two of those cudgels, it wouldn’t be an issue at all.”

Xu Xianchu took a deep breath before he turned around and walked towards the forest. He was about to head into the unknown Jing Mountains.

Chapter 72: Ghost

After they went into the forest, Ren Xiaosu paid close attention to any signs of a struggle, as the mystery of the two missing soldiers from last night remained unsolved. Ren Xiaosu wanted to know what exactly happened to them.

The heavy rain had washed away both of their footprints, which made it very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to locate their tracks.

Without any footprints, he could only examine the leaves and branches in the surroundings.

As the forest was extremely dense, thick bushes could be found everywhere under the huge canopies. If the two of them had passed through the forest, they would definitely break some branches along the way. This was something that would not get washed away by the rain.

Ren Xiaosu followed the path of some slightly broken branches, but the trail only lasted a few dozen meters before vanishing.

When Xu Xianchu realized that Ren Xiaosu was looking for something, he asked, “Found anything yet?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “They didn’t go any further than this. Their tracks abruptly stopped over here.”

The two of them must have been terrified, so they shouldn’t have ventured too far away from the hollow. However, something here did not make any sense. The two of them were just barely more than ten meters out from the hollow at the time. If an accident had happened here, those of us in the hollow should have heard it.

Even if there the sound of the rain was muffling it at the time!

So the most probable reason was that, when they came here to relieve themselves, they encountered something that caught them so off guard that they didn’t even have the chance to make a sound!

When Ren Xiaosu looked at the trees in the surrounding area, he found that not a single tree had bark torn off the tree trunks. There were no traces of fighting or struggle, nothing at all.

What was truly scary here was the fear of the unknown.

“Let’s go.” Xu Xianchu said, “In such circumstances, we need to find an even safer place to set up camp. We have to do that even if we have to end the day’s journey earlier than scheduled.”

Ren Xiaosu agreed with Xu Xianchu’s point of view. “It’s best if we can find a cave similar to the hollow from last night. Although we don’t know what happened, we were safe in the hollow. So I think it’s better to find a similar cave to set up camp tonight.”

The sky had not cleared up yet after the rain, so it could still rain again afterwards. As the saying went, “A cold spell comes after the autumn rain.” The rain had also staved off the sweltering heat caused by the volcanic activity.

The group of people walked through the forest with extreme difficulty. Ren Xiaosu suggested to Xu Xianchu to try his best to take a path where there were no puddles. In the current era where ants could grow to as large as a human finger pad, and face bugs were even a freaking thing, encountering something like leeches now might just get someone killed.

The clothes they were wearing could not protect them from a leech’s bite.

“I wonder how the bugs grew to such a large size?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Just what are those face bugs, really?”

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “Whatever they are, those face bugs shouldn’t be able to surpass the limitations of being an insect, right? Their body structure ensures that they can’t grow to a large size like mammals since the supply of oxygen just wouldn’t allow for something like that to happen. That’s why I suspect the proportion of oxygen in the air here is very high, which has allowed them to grow to the size they are. Have you guys noticed it yet? Even though we’re fatigued physically, our minds are in fine shape, and we can still think clearly. This definitely has something to do with the increased amount of oxygen we’re breathing.”

As Ren Xiaosu listened to Xu Xianchu’s analysis, he found that it sounded quite reasonable. It was not only due to the lifeforms here evolving, there was also some scientific reasoning involved.

“Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu was surprised. “Is it because the plant life here is also mutating and evolving that it increased the oxygen levels? The vegetation near the stronghold has also started thriving a little. In that case, will there also be incidents of insect infestations in the future?”

“That’s very possible,” Xu Xianchu said.

Everyone’s difference in stamina became obvious as they continued to advance. It was a cakewalk for Ren Xiaosu. With his current stamina, he could easily trek through the forest without losing strength and not feel tired at all.

Although Xu Xianchu was a supernatural being, his physical fitness did not seem to have improved much. Xu Xianchu himself also admitted that his physical fitness had only started to enhance after becoming a supernatural being.

But it seemed like this was a slow process. As such, Xu Xianchu’s physical fitness was not so good that it could be on par with Ren Xiaosu’s.

Xu Xianchu said, “Ever since my power awakened and I became a supernatural being, I realized that every time I push my body to its limits in training, my physical fitness gets raised further.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered if that was really true. Could he also try that out in the future? But he would have to wait until he got back to the town for that. Pushing himself to his limits out here would probably spell an earlier end for him.

Meanwhile, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were all in miserable states as their clothes were getting a little ragged. When they came out of the stronghold, they were all prim and proper. But now, their faces had become almost as dirty as Ren Xiaosu’s.

But they did not dare to fall behind since they were afraid that Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin would not wait for them. If that happened, there would only be death waiting for them.

The person that surprised Ren Xiaosu the most was Yang Xiaojin. He realized that she also looked a little tired now, but her endurance was still much better than Xu Xianchu’s.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a shadow clone emerge from Xu Xianchu’s body. Ren Xiaosu thought that Xu Xianchu was reacting to some kind of danger, so he immediately went alert.

However, he saw Xu Xianchu climb onto the back of his shadow clone like no one was watching. He intended to take a piggyback ride on it!

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ‘Hey, that’s fucking cheating!’

Ever since Xu Xianchu exposed himself as a supernatural being, he was getting more and more fond of using his power openly. As he was used to keeping it hidden, there were even times when he could not remember that he could use its power.

The physical fitness of this shadow clone was twice of Xu Xianchu’s own physical fitness. It could walk in the forest like it was walking on flat ground. If not for Ren Xiaosu’s reluctance to expose the fact he had copied Xu Xianchu’s Shadow Clone, he would have used it to carry him as well!

Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were almost driven to despair. It was really frustrating to be drawn into comparisons with other people. Why couldn’t they also have their own powers awakened so that they could become supernatural beings as well?!

Suddenly, Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone stopped in front of them. This time, Ren Xiaosu got really nervous because he noticed Xu Xianchu’s muscles tensing up just like a puffed up cat would!

They saw Xu Xianchu slowly get off from the back of the shadow clone to prevent himself from slowing it down. Then he whispered, “Everyone, look ahead.”

Ren Xiaosu looked into the obscure and gloomy forest in front of him. Through the dense foliage of the forest, it seemed like there was something white lingering in front of them.

“W-What is that?” Liu Bu asked, trembling. While he asked that question, he subconsciously moved behind Luo Xinyu and Wang Lei, hiding all the way at the back of the team.

Xu Xianchu scrutinized it. He hesitated for a while before saying, “Look, doesn’t that white figure look like a woman in white scratching a tree?”

As the sight was so eerie, Ren Xiaosu’s hair stood on end!

Chapter 73: A Pre-Cataclysm civilization

In the gloomy forest, the rustling leaves seemed to suggest that there were some horrible creatures shuttling through the canopies. Everyone held their breaths as they kept their eyes on that strange, white figure in front of them. It was as though they were afraid that their “aura” would provoke it into attacking them.

Why was there a woman scratching a tree with her back facing them in a place like this? Nobody could understand it.

But the more they couldn’t explain it, the greater their fears.

Next to him, Ren Xiaosu found that Yang Xiaojin looked very nervous for the first time. He could see her pursing her lips while her knuckles turned white from gripping the gun so tightly.

Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was standing right in front of him. It seemed that it was guarding against the woman in white in case she suddenly pounced at him. But in reality, that woman was still dozens of meters away from them.

“Should we take a detour?” Ren Xiaosu whispered, “She might not follow us.”

Just as he finished speaking, a strong wind gusted through the forest, and the woman in white seemed to float up.

Xu Xianchu clenched his teeth and said, “We can’t avoid it. If something like a ghost can stop us here in our tracks, how do you expect to get to the Jing Mountains?!”

Xu Xianchu then commanded his shadow clone to move towards the woman in white as he followed closely. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin gave each other a look. They did not expect Xu Xianchu to be so brave in this situation.

Some people tended to make outrageous claims in normal times but would get timid, nervous, or scared in the face of something serious. Others were different. The more dangerous a situation, the calmer they would be. There was a kind of ferocity embedded in their bones!

“Let’s catch up,” Ren Xiaosu said.

A second later, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin tacitly followed Xu Xianchu. As they were all in the same boat now, they couldn’t let Xu Xianchu take on the risks by himself.

Liu Bu was trembling as he said, “What should we do? Should we follow them?”

“But what if something else like that also appears beside us?” Luo Xinyu said in fear. After that, she caught up to them with Wang Lei following close behind.

Seeing that he was all alone, Liu Bu got even more frightened. He whispered, “Wait for me!”

Ren Xiaosu said to Xu Xianchu from behind, “Once you find that you’re no match for her, restrict her movements with your shadow clone and buy us some time so that we can concentrate our firepower on her.”

Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were all carrying guns. On the surface, this was the strongest direct form of attack they had. If this woman in white turned out to be unafraid of bullets, there was nothing more they could do!

Xu Xianchu answered softly, “OK… watch my back, and pay close attention to the surroundings.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Perhaps the people in the stronghold had not experienced life like those who lived in town, so they were more trusting of others than the refugees.

Living in town, there was even a need for someone to keep watch at night while they slept. People who grew up in such an environment would never ask someone they barely knew to watch their backs.

Was that the difference between the town and the stronghold?

The three of them cautiously approached the woman in white. However, a strange feeling grew inside them the closer they approached.

Ren Xiaosu was initially crouching because this posture was the easiest for him to make a move. In the end, he slowly straightened up as he stood and said, “What the hell is this?”

Xu Xianchu was also confused. He commanded his shadow clone as it swayed towards the “woman in white” and “plucked” her down from the tree.

It was a… tattered, plastic, female doll, the type that looked inflatable.

“Uh…” Ren Xiaosu walked beside Xu Xianchu and looked at it for some time. “What is this thing?”

“I don’t know,” Xu Xianchu said, shaking his head. As they had never seen this thing before, they all expressed their lack of knowledge. “But it looks to be in terrible condition.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Is this not something from the stronghold?”

“I’ve never seen it before in the stronghold,” Xu Xianchu denied again.

Everyone did not know whether to laugh or cry as they wondered what this doll was. They were just frightened by something as crappy as it! It wasn’t until they got close to it that they realized something was off!

“Wait a minute, there’s something else under the tree.” Ren Xiaosu happened to spot a metallic box that was caught within the knotted tree roots.

Ren Xiaosu took his dagger and poked the rusty box. As a result, the metallic box, which was already badly corroded, crumbled the moment the dagger touched it slightly.

The metallic box contained several light-red pieces of paper. When the metallic box crumbled, the pieces of paper also turned into powder along with it. In the blink of an eye, only one item was left from inside the metallic box.

It was a piece of green plastic. Rather, it was a piece of green paper wrapped between two plastic sheets. The green paper had mysterious twisting and turning patterns, not unlike tadpoles, printed on it.

“This…” Xu Xianchu was stunned as he looked at the “plastic sheet” in Ren Xiaosu’s hand. “Could this be something that was left behind by human civilization from before The Cataclysm? And that plastic doll too? It takes several hundred years for plastics to fully decompose, even if they’re buried underground. So while everything else has already decomposed, this thing was preserved.”

“But what’s this strange pattern on it? Is it hiding some kind of a secret?” Yang Xiaojin frowned and wondered about it.

“Don’t you all think it looks like a map?” At this moment, Liu Bu and the two who had rushed over said, “These symbols contained within the square grid are turning in all sorts of different directions. It looks just like a maze!”

Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. “Could this be a map of that mysterious city in the Jing Mountains?!”

“Eh?” Luo Xinyu said, “Look, there are some words on it.”

Due to the decomposition, the plastic sheet had discolored and yellowed. But after Luo Xinyu’s observation, they took notice and saw a small line of words below the mysterious pattern.

Ren Xiaosu carefully read aloud, “Please scan the QR code for payment?”

The group was confused. “What’s a QR code? Who do we pay it to?”

“What? We still have to pay to get through the maze?”

Because knowledge of civilization had become lost through the generations, nobody knew how some things worked during the Pre-Cataclysm times. Some of these practices had been abandoned by humans because they had no use for them, while others were forgotten during the Dark Age of Survival.

No one had seen these things in the stronghold or town before, so its function had become a mystery.

In any case, it was not a map of a maze.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. “Are you sure there’s a mysterious city in that place? Can the mystery of the evolution really be found there?”

“If not, how do you explain the current changes occurring in the Jing Mountains?” Xu Xianchu asked.

“Indeed…” Ren Xiaosu said, “The mountains are always full of secrets, but I keep getting the feeling that the city might not be that mysterious….”

“Let’s go, we’ll only find out after we see it for ourselves.” Xu Xianchu carefully placed the QR code into his breast pocket as though he was afraid of damaging it.

“Should we take this tattered doll with us?” Liu Bu asked.

“Just bring it along, I guess. Who knows if it’ll be useful or not?” Xu Xianchu said.

Chapter 74: Pyro

Of course, Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were not willing to carry the tattered doll with them. And since the question of whether to take the doll along with them was brought up by Liu Bu, he was automatically tasked with the responsibility of carrying it.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu and company didn’t think the doll would be of any use to them. Although no one knew what usage it served before The Cataclysm, they were not dumb either.

But since they didn’t have to carry the doll themselves, it wouldn’t trouble them to bring it along.

As such, Liu Bu felt miserable the entire way. Even though he was exhausted, he still had to carry that tattered doll around with care.

The worst thing was that all of them had not eaten yet today.

Xu Xianchu suddenly stopped walking. Xu Xianchu could barely take it for much longer, let alone Liu BU, Luo XInyu, and Wang Lei. He turned around and said, “Everyone, let’s find some pine trees to pluck pine cones from. We’ll eat something first before we continue on our journey.”

Based on Xu Xianchu and the others’ wilderness survival lessons thus far, they had only learned the extent of plucking pine cones to fill their stomachs. In reality, these pine cones were incredibly difficult to peel and had very few nuts in them.

The pine nuts they could retrieve from a large pine tree wouldn’t even be enough to fill their stomachs, but what else could they have if they did not eat this? They could only look at Ren Xiaosu, who did not seem to care about them at all.

They saw him take his dagger and cut into an unidentified tree next to him. Then a white, milky sap started flowing out of the incision he made. Xu Xianchu’s eyes lit up. “Can you drink that?”

The others also looked over in surprise. However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “The majority of the milky saps that can be found in the forest are undrinkable because there’s a high chance of getting poisoned if you do.”

Xu Xianchu wondered, “Then why did you make an incision to get the sap?”

“I’m applying it onto my dagger,” Ren Xiaosu said, as though it were a matter of course.

The others immediately wondered what kind of person he was. He actually thought of applying poison onto his dagger? What a treacherous person!

But they did not dare to despise Ren Xiaosu’s treachery. After all, they had been depending on him too much for the entire journey. If any of them were to get injured, they could only rely on him to suture their wounds together and apply the black medicine for them.

Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei still had some money left on them in case of any emergencies that would require Ren Xiaosu to save them.

They had already realized that having money might mean keeping their lives with Ren Xiaosu around.

If they offended Ren Xiaosu at this time, he would probably still be willing to treat their wounds if they paid him money. But who knew if Ren Xiaosu might end up having an extra kidney in his hand after suturing up their wounds? If that happened, what could they do?

While Liu Bu was plucking pine cones, he accidentally fell out of the tree. But luckily for him, it did not hurt as the ground was covered with soft pine needles that cushioned his fall.

He got so emotional that he nearly broke down. “This is all the wolves’ fault. Didn’t they say in the stronghold that the wolves had run off to another mountain range? Why did they suddenly reappear here?! If not for those wolves, we might’ve already gotten back to the stronghold! It’s just as the proverb says, ‘ The Wolf and the Bei make mischief. 1 ‘ Wolves were never good to start off with!”

However, Ren Xiaosu disagreed this time. “I’ve also heard that proverb before, but have you seen an actual bei before?”

The others were stunned. “Isn’t the bei an animal that clings onto a wolf’s behind? This proverb says that the wolves and bei work together to catch livestock by using their forelegs and hind legs respectively. It means that they collude 1 with each other to do bad things.”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “That’s what Mr. Zhang said in school, but my question remains, has anyone ever seen a bei before?”

Liu Bu was stunned. He muttered, “How could we see one if we live in the stronghold?”

“I’ve seen one before.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It was among the wolf pack that chased us into the canyon. When I encountered them last year, I saw a bei with them.”

“What does a bei look like?” someone asked with curiosity.

“The bei is actually a wolf as well.” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “It’s just that its forelegs could no longer move after it got caught in a hunter’s trap. So the other wolves carried it around on their backs and helped it continue living.”

Xu Xianchu and the others were startled. They had learned the proverb “the Wolf and the Bei make mischief” during their school days in the stronghold. The teacher told them then that the wolves and bei were both evil. They were even taught which insects were beneficial and which were pests.

But Ren Xiaosu, who had ventured into the wilderness, did not think that way. He heard from Zhang Jinglin that the nomads of the grasslands used to worship wolves. Back then, he wasn’t allowed to attend lessons in the school, so he asked Yan Liuyuan to help him ask a question. “Aren’t wolves harmful to livestock? Why did the nomads worship wolves?”

Mr. Zhang replied with a question. “Are the wolves at fault?”

True, wolves eat sheep and sheep eat grass. Neither was in the wrong. This is the order of the food chain and this is what they were born to be.

Although wolves were harmful to humans, they would never abandon their disabled counterparts. Would a human do that? Just how many people had died due to the disregard shown by their companions during this expedition to the Jing Mountains?

It was not that they were in the wrong, but Ren Xiaosu sometimes envied the wolves. At least when something happened, they would not get left behind mercilessly.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t care what the rest of them thought. He started digging up the soil at the roots of the pine tree with his dagger and said, “Don’t clear the piles of leaves with your bare hands in the wilderness because there might be scorpions, centipedes, or poisonous snakes hidden in them. If you disturb them, it’ll lead to your death.”

When Ren Xiaosu did not find any scorpions or the like, he was a little disappointed. After all, roasted scorpions tasted rather good. Ren Xiaosu wondered if he should deliberately try to catch some scorpions and centipedes to eat for dinner.

As he was thinking about it, he dug out some of the pine tree’s roots. “If y’all feel that the pine cones are not filling enough, you can cook the pine roots to eat for dinner.”

The others looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. It seemed like everything was edible in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. It still wasn’t too bad when they were told to eat the pine nuts. But now, he was even telling them they could eat the pine roots?

‘Is this even food? This is more like building materials, alright?!’

But Ren Xiaosu did not mind. He had eaten so many things in the wilderness over the years that other people thought were inedible.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu thought of a question. “Are there any similar places like the Jing Mountains near the other strongholds? I’m talking about those places that experienced a sudden mutation and evolution of their lifeforms.”

Xu Xianchu was silent for a moment before saying, “Yes, but it’s already under the control of the Pyro Company.”

“The Pyro Company?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Why haven’t I heard of it before? Which of the organizations does it fall under?”

“None, it’s an independent corporation with more than 20 strongholds under its control.” Xu Xianchu said, “But they’re quite far away from our Stronghold 113, so it’s normal that you haven’t heard of them before.”

“What’s the place controlled by the Pyro Company like?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Xu Xianchu looked embarrassed. That seemed to be the extent of his knowledge. Instead, it was Yang Xiaojin who spoke up. “That place the Pyro Company controls are very mysterious. Someone mentioned that they’d seen huge prehistoric birds flying over the skies there, but the Pyro Company has such a powerful military that it managed to gain control of that place. Perhaps only the core personnel of the Pyro Company know what really happened there.”

Chapter 75: Prehistoric birds

When Ren Xiaosu heard Yang Xiaojin talking about the Pyro Company, he quickly processed what she said. That was because a lot of information was contained within that short passage of words.

Xu Xianchu obviously did not know this information about the Pyro Company. That was to say, Yang Xiaojin had far surpassed Xu Xianchu, who was a soldier of the private army, in terms of gathering intelligence.

Moreover, Yang Xiaojin had mentioned, “Perhaps only the core personnel of the Pyro Company know what really happened there.” Why was she so sure that only the core personnel knew about it rather than the entire Pyro Company? Yang Xiaojin must have sought out information from some of the Pyro Company’s members before but to no avail.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin couldn’t have managed that alone. It was just like how he didn’t know how many strongholds had been built by humans until now, with the highest number that he had ever heard of being Stronghold 178.

He did not know about the Pyro Company, nor how many organizations were out there. To be able to understand the overall situation of the world in this era where communications infrastructure was underdeveloped, she had to have an organization behind her!

Therefore, Yang Xiaojin must belong to an organization. As for which organization she belonged to, nobody knew.

Ren Xiaosu was someone who liked learning and contemplation a lot. At this moment, Yang Xiaojin stopped talking when she noticed that Ren Xiaosu was deep in thought. Yang Xiaojin was not stupid. She realized that Ren Xiaosu was analyzing the information she had just said.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Are these the only two known locations with mysterious activities happening?”

Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. “There will be more and more of such places.”

In the afternoon, everyone was showing signs of fatigue except for Ren Xiaosu. As Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were only normal people, their soles had already started blistering. However, they did not dare to fall behind or ask if they could take a rest.

Ren Xiaosu finished a bottle of water and then refilled it in a shallow stream. As the other three did not have any containers with them, they had to find some large leaves to hold the water.

In front, Xu Xianchu had a canteen while Yang Xiaojin had a bottle of water hidden on her too. As for Ren Xiaosu, needless to say, he not only had a water bottle, there was even the metal cup he’d brought from home.

However, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei did not have any containers. As such, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu were strolling ahead of them with their hands swinging about. Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei each held a leaf in their hands as they followed them and looked pretty pathetic.

When they were getting water, Ren Xiaosu expressly instructed, “Y’all can’t go near the deep end. Just get water from the streams. Once you get it, leave A-SAP.”

When Xu Xianchu mentioned the prehistoric birds had appeared in the place controlled by the Pyro Company, he remembered the dark shadow in the river he encountered when he was catching fish!

It was a creature that even other fishes in the water were afraid of. Ren Xiaosu even regretted that he didn’t catch a glimpse of what it really was.

At dusk, they finally found a new cave to settle in, but it was tiny this time. It was a little crowded with six people sitting inside, but they had no choice. The forest was too scary at night.

When they huddled together to keep themselves warm over a fire, everyone felt a rare sense of security. Perhaps humans would only realize the importance of companionship during moments like this.

Ren Xiaosu carefully checked the inside of the cave to look for any traces left behind by humans, such as inscriptions like the ones left in the hollow last night. Unfortunately, he could not find any traces of that here.

Xu Xianchu instructed, “If anyone wants to relieve themselves, it will be best not to head into the forest in case of accidents. If the ladies want to relieve themselves, we’ll just turn our heads the other way. The two of you can take turns to watch over us to make sure we’re not peeking. This is also for the sake of everyone’s safety.”

As the group chewed on the cooked pine roots, Liu Bu remembered the aroma of the roasted boar from before and joked to Ren Xiaosu, “Why don’t you make another wish? Wouldn’t it be great if another animal ran into a tree?”

Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, “Why don’t you wish for it yourself then?”

He wouldn’t sacrifice Yan Liuyuan’s health in exchange for food for himself. This pine root tasted just like celery anyway and was not too difficult to swallow either.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu was paying great attention to what he said since he was afraid of causing harm to Yan Liuyuan at home.

After getting rebuked by Ren Xiaosu, Liu Bu felt a little embarrassed. “Come on, it was just a joke. I would have wished for it a long time ago if it were effective. If I wished for a wild animal to get presented to us, do you really think that a wild animal would really get presented to us?”

But at this moment, they heard a strange sound coming from the forest outside the cave. It sounded like there was a lot of movement.

Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu instinctively picked up their guns upon hearing the sounds. The next second, three boars, two wildcats, two snakes, and seven monkeys scattered out of the forest.

The wildcats already looked the size of the leopards found in the schoolbooks, not to mention the size of the boars! The monkeys were nearly as tall as humans, and if they stood upright, they would probably be 1.6 meters tall!

Ren Xiaosu was quite sure this was not caused by Yan Liuyuan’s luck from making a wish. With all of these animals put together, they would probably be more than enough to kill the six of them. This should not fucking be considered good luck!

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the wild animals and said, “Liu Bu, is your mouth fucking jinxed?!”

Liu Bu was nearly in tears. “I was just saying…”

The wild animals and humans were caught in a deadlock. It seemed that the wild animals had not expected anyone to be in here either. Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and whispered, “Liu Bu, go tell them that we’re vegetarians today so they can leave.”

Liu Bu burst into tears. He looked at the pack of wild animals outside the cave and said, “Would my words be effective? Hey, you all there, please leave!”

Ren Xiaosu was just kidding. But after Liu Bu said “please leave,” those wild animals actually turned around and ran in another direction.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu felt that he could defeat them. Although pistols would barely cause any substantial harm to these animals, he still had a “shadow clone” as his greatest trump card.

But Ren Xiaosu did not want to get exposed. As soon as his shadow clone appeared, Xu Xianchu and the others would know that he could copy other people’s powers. It would be difficult to say what kind of consequences there would be.

Moreover, the Shadow Clone he copied turned out to be even stronger than Xu Xianchu’s, so that wouldn’t make him look good either!

Ren Xiaosu looked back at Liu Bu in surprise. ‘Did this guy awaken his skill of luck just like Yan Liuyuan had?! That’s not it!’

Ren Xiaosu looked back to the forest and said, “What drove those wild animals out here to where we are?! Wild animals shouldn’t get along this well. They neither attacked each other nor attacked us. That means something even more terrifying is oppressing them inside the forest. They intended to take refuge in this cave!”

“It seems like that’s really it.” Xu Xianchu nodded and said, “But because we’ve already occupied the cave, they have no choice but to go elsewhere.”

“Do y’all remember? Some strange commotions came from the forest yesterday evening as well, but whatever made that noise went away before it showed itself. I assumed that whatever made that sound was the source of the danger. But now that I think about it, it might’ve been animals searching for a cave to seek refuge in,” Ren Xiaosu recalled. “Just what’s in this forest that made these ‘natives’ stay away from their own territory and cause the different species to get along with each other?”

Chapter 76: Chains

They had all been relieved when they found a cave to settle in for the night. However, no one thought something unexpected would soon happen.

“Should we hide elsewhere?” Someone whispered, “What if something dashes out of the forest?”

“There’s no need to go elsewhere.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “The animals obviously wanted to hide in here but we already occupied the spot. Just this point alone proves that the cave we’re in should be safe enough.”

“Just what could they be avoiding?” Liu Bu wondered.

Xu Xianchu looked at the forest outside the cave. “They might be trying to avoid the forest. Or more specifically, the forest at night.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “I think so too. Animals are far more alert to danger than humans because of their instincts. Do y’all remember? When we passed through the canyon, we saw some human skeletons lying there. But since we entered the forest, we did not see any skeletons of animals. That’s unusual.”

“As long as it’s a living creature, it will live and die. How is it possible that we didn’t even see the skeletal remains of an animal?” Ren Xiaosu continued, “I had dumped some fish scraps and bones in the forest south of the canyon. But when I went to check on it the next morning, I found that they’d already disappeared. There were no traces of it being moved away in the surrounding area. It just disappeared in the same way as Xu Xia’s corpse had. There’s one thing in common about these missing skeletal remains and the corpse, which is that they were in the forest at the time.”

“Yes.” Xu Xianchu nodded. “Besides, these creatures show that they’re really afraid of the forest, so it’s clear that it’s fishy.”

A forest that eats living creatures…

The others gazed into the forest and started wondering if the botanical life had also started evolving after the animals had evolved.

Xu Xianchu comforted, “But actually, this is a good thing. Now that we’ve identified a pattern, we can take precautions.”

When an unknown fear becomes known, and when you can even understand the logic behind it, that fearful feeling will lessen.

That’s right, as long as no one entered the forest at night, everything should be fine.

Thinking of this, their fear from earlier dispersed a little. Wang Lei smiled and said, “Then we must find a place far away from the forest to set up camp before nightfall.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “We need to be careful not only at night but also during the day. We don’t know whether these animals and plants have evolved to the stage where they might even eat people during the day.”

“Then we’ll just walk along the sparser areas of the mountain ridges!” Xu Xianchu made the final decision.

Everyone went back to chewing on the pine roots before someone asked, “Ren Xiaosu, how did you discover that pine roots are edible?”

“I didn’t discover it myself. Someone in town mentioned it before,” Ren Xiaosu said as he calmly added more firewood to the campfire.

Liu Bu was looking to ease his relationship with Ren Xiaosu, so he quickly praised, “You townspeople know so much about the wilderness. This is truly humanity’s wisdom!”

Liu Bu did not know how he should praise him, so he came up with something random for the sake of praise.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not quite agree with his statement. He looked at him and said, “That’s not wisdom. Who would be willing to eat pine roots if they had proper food to eat? The townspeople have long said pine roots are edible. When I first heard it, I imagined just how many people died of hunger in the past.”

In an era where refugees might not even be able to survive until the next day, everything they did would be related to their survival.

Liu Bu had only wanted to pepper him with some good words, but he ended up falling into an even more embarrassing situation.

Luo Xinyu eased the tension. “Why are the wild animals getting larger in size but not humans? Instead, we’re evolving into supernatural beings like Xu Xianchu.”

“Maybe it’s because humans evolve in a different way.” Xu Xianchu said, “From the ancient times to the present day, humans have always been evolving their brainpower.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “I’ve heard another explanation. Last year, I had some doubts after I escaped from the wolves, so I asked Mr. Zhang from the school about it. He said to me, ‘Some living creatures in nature can develop strong muscles without the need for much exercise. There used to be a species of animal called the chimpanzee that was caged by humans in the past. Even if they just ate and slept every day, they would still develop greater muscle mass than humans. But if humans only ate and slept every day, their muscles would end up shrinking.’”

Yang Xiaojin spoke, “That Mr. Zhang from your school is no normal person.”

Ren Xiaosu did not know how Yang Xiaojin passed that judgment. He did not know if Zhang Jinglin was a normal person, but he knew he was a good person.

He continued, “Mr. Zhang mentioned that there’s a gene in the human body that restricts muscle development, and that gene has been evolving as humans get smarter and smarter. He said that it’s the price to pay for wisdom.”

Everyone got lost in thought as though that were really the case. People among them from the upper class liked exercising to lose weight, and it even became a trend among them. This activity was especially popular two years ago.

Even Liu Bu participated in such activities by joining the trend to fit in with the upper class, but he later realized how difficult it was to gain any muscles through exercising.

But suddenly, Yang Xiaojin poured cold water on Ren Xiaosu. “I’ve seen a supernatural being with an evolved build before, so how do you explain that?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He pondered it before saying, “Could his ancestors have had an illicit relationship with a wild animal?”

Yang Xiaojin was speechless. Xu Xianchu was speechless. Liu Bu was speechless.

Everyone was speechless as they looked at Ren Xiaosu. This turned into a fucking insult!

Luo Xinyu suddenly became interested in this topic. “That Mr. Zhang from your school seems outstanding. He must be very knowledgeable, right?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and answered, “He’s quite knowledgeable, but when he encounters a subject he doesn’t understand during class, he just bluffs his way through.”

“Does he usually read books to brush up on his knowledge when he has free time? There are also such people in the stronghold.” Luo Xinyu said, “Those people are all very smart.”

“Nope.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “He just plants vegetables in the school yard when he has free time.”

Luo Xinyu was speechless for a while. Why were the majority of things in town so different from what she expected?

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was quite good in this way. He studied hard but not overzealously. Even though he was very knowledgeable, he would still do manual labor like hoeing.

All of sudden, everyone heard the rattling of chains being dragged on the ground coming from the forest.

When the chains collided with the ground, a sharp rattle could be heard. The creator of the sound seemed to be crawling the forest grounds and patrolling its territory.

Ren Xiaosu and the others felt chills running up their spines. How could there still be a living creature walking through the forest at this time of night? Could their previous assessment of the situation be wrong?

Were those animals not trying to avoid the forest?!

Chapter 77: The Qing Consortium

Earlier, everyone was chatting happily because they thought that they had discovered the secret of the forest: As long as they stayed away from it, they would be safe at night.

But what was going on now? The rattling of the chains being dragged was getting closer and closer. What creature would move around while dragging chains? Had it been chained up but broken free somehow?

Just what sort of a place was the Jing Mountains? Why was there such weird happenings here?

That rattling of the chains being dragged seemed to be attracted by the light in the cave. It slowly came towards the edge of the forest.

Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu each disengaged the safety on their guns and were prepared to shoot in the direction of the sound.

Almost instantaneously, Yang Xiaojin realized that Ren Xiaosu’s handling of the gun was too professional and even looked a little familiar!

This familiarity was somewhat baffling, but it made her feel extraordinarily comfortable. It was like how patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders felt after finally properly placing blocks of wood in front of themselves.

But right now, she did not have time to think about that. This was because the owner of the chains had crawled to the edge of the forest.

The people in the cave were straining to see what it was, but the other party kept itself hidden in the darkness and never showed itself.

When Ren Xiaosu heard a dripping sound from the forest, he felt nauseous as he realized it was the other party’s saliva that was dripping onto the leaves on the forest floor!

“The moment it shows up, shoot it.” Xu Xianchu said, “Our firepower will be quick enough to cover all of the directions that it can rush into the cave from. Then I’ll command my shadow clone to subdue it.”

“OK,” Ren Xiaosu answered softly. He thought, ‘If the creature turns out to be too strong, I won’t care about hiding my shadow clone anymore.’

Nobody knew where those cheetah-sized wildcats and the boars built like miniature mountains had escaped to, but Ren Xiaosu knew that only a stronger and more unstoppable force could send those ferocious animals running from the forest.

As Ren Xiaosu took longer breaths, his emotions calmed down. He no longer paid attention to his heartbeat and breathing, but listened attentively for any sounds or movements coming from the forest.

The secret of the forest might just reveal its true face at the very next moment.

But what they didn’t expect was that when the rattling chains rang out again from the forest, it was of the chains’ owner moving further away.

“What’s happened?” Xu Xianchu frowned as he said, “Could it be afraid to come out of the forest?”

The three of them were still holding their aim as they were afraid the other party was trying to pull a fast one on them. Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “It’s very possible that the other party isn’t willing to walk out of the forest. Otherwise, the wild animals from earlier wouldn’t have regarded this cave to be their refuge when it’s only about ten meters away from the forest.”

The rattling of the chains being dragged on the ground sounded further and further away. Ren Xiaosu and the two of them could finally relax a little. “It seems that we’re still too optimistic. We can’t explore the secret of the Jing Mountains with just our guesswork.”

“Something is definitely fishy about the forest, or there could be some other forms of terror in it.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain the disappearance of Xu Xia’s body without any clues.”

“Everyone, get some rest.” Xu Xianchu said, “I’ll take the first shift tonight. You guys can take over from me after midnight.”

But despite the words, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin still tacitly stuck to their own two-shift rotation, with one keeping watch for the first half of the night and the other taking the second half.

Seeing this, Xu Xianchu gave a wry smile in his mind. It seemed that he was still an untrustworthy person to them.

Nothing else happened through the night. When the first rays of sunlight shone down in the morning, Ren Xiaosu could hear the shuffle of wild animals returning to the forest in the distance. From the looks of it, these animals were accustomed to taking refuge during the night and returning into the forest during the day. Could the wild animal with the chains from last night be a creature that slept during the day?

Ren Xiaosu stood up to stretch. But before he could even stretch his back, he heard a loud explosion come from the depths of the Jing Mountains.

The sound was so abrupt that Ren Xiaosu jumped in fright.

The people in the cave came out one after another. “What’s going on? What happened?!”

Someone asked, “Could a volcano in the Jing Mountains have erupted?”

“It doesn’t sound like a volcano.” Xu Xianchu shook his head. “It sounded more like the explosives that we humans use.”

If Xu Xianchu couldn’t confirm it, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin could. Ren Xiaosu had copied the Advanced Bomb-making skill from Yang Xiaojin, together with an indeterminate number of experimental blasts she had carried out.

From that sound, Ren Xiaosu was sure it was the directional blast of a shaped charge 1 .

This sort of shaped charge would be similar to that of an armor-piercing projectile, which usually used violent blasts to create holes in a hard ground. It used the Munroe effect 1 to orient the wave of the blast to create huge holes in the ground.

The sound of this explosive was clearly different from that of a “satchel charge” and “mine-clearing line charge.”

” Satchel charges 1 ” were packed explosives with powerful shockwaves used for demolishing bunkers and other types of buildings.

“Mine-clearing line charges” were demolition devices like the Bangalore 1 .

Ren Xiaosu knew that if he could recognize the sound, Yang Xiaojin could definitely recognize it as well. Someone was excavating the depths of the mountains!

Why were they excavating? Could there really be some sort of huge secret buried beneath the Jing Mountains?

“Earlier, you said that there were also other squads that came to the Jing Mountains?” Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Xu Xianchu.

“Yes, they were likely from the Qing Consortium as well.” Xu Xianchu said, “After all, Stronghold 112 is also controlled by the Qing Consortium, so it would be very hard for any other organization to get past them to enter the Jing Mountains.”

Ren Xiaosu flicked a glance at Yang Xiaojin. So her purpose for coming here under that guise was also because of the secret in the Jing Mountains?

Ren Xiaosu did not know what Yang Xiaojin’s trump card was even now. Other than her Perfect Firearms Proficiency, this cap-wearing girl must have had something else she could rely on.

“Let’s go, we have to hurry.” Xu Xianchu was not about to be left out of whatever was happening. “Based on this explosion we heard, the Qing Consortium might’ve sent out a massive military force from Stronghold 112. We have to rush there before they get to the secret.”

“Do you have a death wish?” Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu in a speechless manner. “Knowing the Qing Consortium has already sent reinforcements, you still dare to rush in there?”

After a long silence, Xu Xianchu said, “But we’re already here.”

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. For some reason, those words had a magical charm.

“Besides, do we have anywhere else to retreat to?” Xu Xianchu asked, “Since we can’t fall back, we can only go forward. If we don’t get an opportunity when we’re there, we’ll just go around the Qing Consortium and leave the mountains in the direction they came from. I believe the path they took here will be much safer than us turning back here.”

That was true. They knew even explosives had been used, so the Qing Consortium had probably cleared out an entire path to Stronghold 112.

Chapter 78: No retreat

If they could not retreat, they had to go forward.

It seemed like Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin were the most interested in the secret of the Jing Mountains. Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei were different. They only hoped to quickly join up with those from the Qing Consortium!

Regardless of the secret, they would only have a chance of survival if they headed somewhere with a lot of people!

They had seen the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade in Stronghold 113 before, and the private troops definitely paled in comparison. So they believed they would be safe once they joined up with them.

And besides, both Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu could say that they were on good terms with the Qing Consortium. Although they were not particularly close, they had met Boss Luo on several occasions.

Therefore, if they brought up Boss Luo’s name and made known their identities when the time came, they would immediately get returned to “human civilization.”

To them, the wilderness was a world that belonged to the beasts.

There was also another point. As they almost had an encounter with the mysterious monster of the forest last night, they wanted to quickly get out of this place before it got dark again.

Worried about the monster, Ren Xiaosu tried his best to travel in the open areas of the mountains instead of going through the forest.

Who knew if that monster would be active during the day? It was not as though it had personally informed them that it wouldn’t venture out in the day! What if it just liked being a night owl and was actually not afraid of daylight? What if its daily routine had been messed up today?

No one knew for sure!

Their cave was about several dozen kilometers away from the sound of the explosion in the Jing Mountains. If they hurried up, they could reach the range by evening.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also afraid of any potential accidents. He held a discussion with Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin. “We can’t only consider the straight line distance of the route in the mountains. We have to account for the winding paths that we might need to take. We may need to walk for several more days based on the distance that we worked out before we can get there.”

“What do you mean?” Xu Xianchu asked.

“If we can’t get there by today, we must not take the risk of traveling through the night.” Ren Xiaosu said firmly, “If y’all insist on it, I’ll find a place by myself and wait until dawn.”

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “I agree. We won’t travel through the night.”

Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu looked over to Yang Xiaojin, and she said, “I agree.”

“Let’s hope the journey won’t be too difficult,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Nobody knew where Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu found their strength from for today’s march. They had just burst the blisters on their feet last night by picking at them. But with the intensity of walking to be done today, the skin on their soles would probably be torn off by the time they were finished.

Seeing this, Ren Xiaosu teased them by suggesting that they could rest for the day. However, Liu Bu stated matter-of-factly that he was fine with carrying on.

As Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were just normal people, it was obvious they had unleashed their greatest potential due to their desire to survive.

Suddenly, Xu Xianchu said, “There’s a human body up front.”

Ren Xiaosu looked up and spotted a human body lying quietly in the middle of the valley of the mountain pass. But what surprised him was that there were scattered pieces of clothing lying next to the nearly skeletal remains of the body. The blood had dried into a dark purple patch on the rocky ground.

Ren Xiaosu said in bewilderment, “Since there’s still flesh and blood and no decomposition, it means that this person died not too long ago!” ‘Wait a minute, why would a relatively fresh human corpse appear here?’ “Could it be someone from the Qing Consortium?”

“No.” Xu Xianchu shook his head and said, “Look at what he was wearing. That’s the uniform of the private army. The uniform of the private army is dark blue while the Qing Consortium’s uniform is black.”

“The private army? Which private army? Does Stronghold 112’s private army also wear the same uniform?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

They warily approached it and had an ominous feeling. Xu Xianchu saw a small dog tag that was supposed to be hanging around the neck of the corpse. In this way, everyone would know the identity of the deceased.

But he was stunned when he picked up the dog tag. “Xu Xia? How could this be Xu Xia?”

Ren Xiaosu felt a chill in his heart. “Are you sure this is Xu Xia?”

“Look at this. The name on the dog tag wouldn’t be wrong,” Xu Xianchu said. As he spoke, he had his automatic rifle up in the fear that something terrible would charge from next to him.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the dog tag. “It’s really Xu Xia. Why would his corpse be here?”

Xu Xia’s corpse had gone missing before they entered the canyon. As they had walked almost a 100 kilometers over the past two days, how could Xu Xia’s corpse suddenly appear here by itself?

What could have brought Xu Xia’s corpse here?

While Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu raised their guns in response to this discovery, Ren Xiaosu squatted down and inspected the corpse. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu were sickened by this sight from the start and after vomiting for a while, Luo Xinyu asked, “Aren’t you afraid?”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression did not change at all. “I’ve seen worse…. Wait, there’s something off about the wounds on this corpse. Although that monster ate his organs, look at the wounds on the edge of the abdomen. What could create such neat bite marks? I’ve never come across any animal with a set of teeth like this.”

Even Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu couldn’t help but look over when Ren Xiaosu said that. They understood just how much Ren Xiaosu knew about the wilderness. If Ren Xiaosu said that he hadn’t seen it before, it would have to be an unusual animal.

But when Xu Xianchu saw it, he frowned. “Fuck, these are the bite marks of a human!”

It seemed that Xu Xianchu had even started spouting obscenities due to a deep kind of fear. But not just Xu Xianchu. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were also getting the chills. Ren Xiaosu looked up and asked, “Are you sure?”

“I’m very sure.” Xu Xianchu said, “I was bitten on the arm by my first love when I broke up with her in school.”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “Why the hell are you telling us that when we were scared to death?”

Ren Xiaosu was truly afraid now!

Xu Xianchu also felt a little scared. “Why are there human bite marks on the corpse?”

“I wonder.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Could it be possible that the one dragging the chains last night… was a human?”

“Let’s get out of here.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Set up a three-man tactical formation in case something attacks us! If that thing can silently take the corpse away, it can silently sneak up on us as well!”

Ren Xiaosu asked nervously, “What’s a tactical formation?”

He was not fooling around as he really did not know!

“You stand on my left!” Yang Xiaojin did not explain too much. “Each of us will take care of whatever comes into our field of view. If any strange creatures approach us, shoot them down.”

All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin had taken command of the team. However, neither Ren Xiaosu nor Xu Xianchu said anything.

At this moment, everyone understood that they were walking a tightrope. If they were not careful, they would be doomed.

Everyone wanted to survive, especially Ren Xiaosu.

Chapter 79: Not a single snowflake in an avalanche is innocent

Perhaps due to it being daytime, Ren Xiaosu and the others did not really encounter any further danger that threatened their lives. Along the way, they encountered a wildcat that was coming at them from the opposite direction. However, it did not attack them and ran away.

When Ren Xiaosu and the group got closer to where the Qing Consortium was, they became even more cautious.

“Based on the usual strategies that a combat brigade uses, scouts set up observation posts 1 around the area while they conduct demolition and reconnaissance.” Xu Xianchu said, “So we must be as careful as possible when approaching them.”

“Are they that professional? There are even observation posts?” Ren Xiaosu said, “But it’s not like there are only observation posts, right? They’ve probably cleared the entire surrounding area with their military force. You saw how frightened that wildcat was just now, didn’t you?”

Ren Xiaosu understood animal behavior very well. Cats had become extremely calm and cautious animals again after they went feral. They seldom panicked in the way the wildcat did just now.

Sure enough, they could vaguely hear the intense sound of gunfire as they slowly started approaching again.

Ren Xiaosu thought that the armed forces of the consortium were truly much stronger than the private army. The private troops seemed to have been sent here to die while the consortium could give the beasts of the Jing Mountains a good thrashing.

He suddenly recalled what Zhang Jinglin had said before: “The firearms and explosives humans possess are far more powerful than you all can imagine.”

With the advanced firearms skill, Ren Xiaosu could now deeply understand how true Zhang Jinglin’s statement was.

At this moment, a wounded boar ran towards Ren Xiaosu and the team. Xu Xianchu whispered, “Don’t shoot, let it go!”

The boar was a little larger than the ones they had seen. However, its head and abdomen were bleeding profusely, making it very aggressive as well.

Xu Xianchu and the others quickly moved away to avoid the path of the boar. It was not that they couldn’t kill the boar… but since they could hear the gunshots of the consortium’s combat troops, the consortium could hear them as well.

Furthermore, what worried them the most was that they would get discovered in advance by the consortium.

Liu Bu looked at the boar and said, “Since we haven’t eaten for almost a day now, it’d be great if we could stop it and roast it!”

Ren Xiaosu lamented how such a group of people could actually exist in this world. Their existence merely served as a foil to make others look better? He said to Liu Bu, “I’m so envious of you. Even though you’ve evolved into something with intelligence, you don’t use it. You look super carefree….”

Liu Bu choked on his words and did not say anything more. Xu Xianchu explained, “By setting up a naked flame here, aren’t you telling the Qing Consortium that you’re here?”

Seeing the boar pass them by, Wang Lei wondered, “Shouldn’t we quickly make contact with those from the Qing Consortium? Since we’re all humans, why should we be worried about getting discovered by them?”

Wang Lei, Liu Bu, and Luo Xinyu were hoping that the Qing Consortium would come and rescue them immediately!

Yang Xiaojin replied, “Many organizations have sent out their military forces to carry out investigations at the mysterious place controlled by the Pyro Company, but all of them have been silenced. Do you think that if the Qing Consortium also finds you here, they would treat you nicely and keep you well-fed, then send you back to the stronghold? This is also the reason why the private troops dispatched by Stronghold 113 had to travel under the guise of being part of a band, even if it was pretty obvious they were not.”

To the consortium, the secrets here were more valuable than human lives.

“You guys actually think that something like a corporation would save you?” Xu Xianchu sighed.

When Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei, who had originally planned on seeking help from the consortium, heard this, they looked bereaved. Frankly, they did not have much contact with the world at large and would be considered relatively inexperienced by the consortium’s standards. As such, they did not understand how an organization worked nor knew how cruel this world was because they had lived a sheltered life all this while.

They were only required to do well in their everyday jobs in the stronghold to ensure there would be food and drink without having to worry about other things like wild animals or hunger.

The consortium told them the outside world was very safe and that the wild animals had already been cleared out of the stronghold perimeter. As such, they all fell for the false show of peace and prosperity that was put up in the stronghold.

“Why are we still headed there then?” When Liu Bu realized he would be silenced if he were found, he lost the pillar of support that kept him going for the day. His desire to seek help from the Qing Consortium had almost become his last lifeline.

Liu Bu sat on the ground, dejected. “You all can go ahead. I’m not going to walk any further.”

Ren Xiaosu and the others continued moving forward without paying attention to Liu Bu. To them, it didn’t really matter whether Liu Bu died or not. Honestly, Ren Xiaosu preferred that Liu Bu stayed here.

Listening to the subtle sound of the wind in the trees around him, Liu Bu got even more frightened. Before the others could walk out of sight, he got up again and said, “Wait for me!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked, “What should we do if we encounter the Qing Consortium’s troops?”

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “We should be making retreating our main priority. Their main mission must be the excavation of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization, not hunting us down.”

“You all have underestimated the consortium’s determination to lock down the news.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, “They’re definitely not going to let the matter rest once they discover our presence. Moreover, they have wireless comms in their helmets. If they discover they can’t kill us off immediately, they’ll definitely call for backup. When that time comes, you’ll find that you’d rather spend time with the face bugs.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Was this Qing Consortium really that fearsome? He asked, “You seem to know a lot about the troops of these consortiums?”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him but did not answer the question. “We must kill all visible targets once we encounter them. Do not show mercy to them because they will not show mercy to us either.”

“But the consortium’s soldiers also have children and mothers.” Wang Lei said hesitantly, “Wouldn’t that be too cruel?”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “Not one snowflake in an avalanche is innocent. Be it voluntary or forced, anyone in war is a tragic figure, while also inflicting tragedies onto others.”

“Let’s go.” Xu Xianchu looked at the forest up ahead.

The secret of the Jing Mountains was calling out to them. If the consortium had given up on this place, they would probably have lost interest as well. But if this secret were so precious to the consortium, there must be something valuable about it.

They would die if they turned back, so the only way to survive was to march forward.

Xu Xianchu and the others carefully identified the direction of the gunshots, as they tried their best to avoid a head-on encounter with the consortium’s combat troops. Ren Xiaosu estimated they would probably find out what was hidden in the Jing Mountains in an hour’s time.

Chapter 80: Experimentals

The intense gunshots in the forest ahead came to a stop. It sounded like the Qing Consortium had completed its sweep of the outer perimeter. All of the wild animals that could pose a threat to them had been eliminated.

Xu Xianchu whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “This is when the Qing Consortium will set up the observation posts around the perimeter. Even with their manpower, they won’t be able to lock down such a large area with just several hundred people.”

“About how many people are there in a Qing Consortium combat brigade?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Xu Xianchu hesitated before saying, “Approximately 4,000 to 5,000, but it’s impossible they would mobilize all of them. After all, they still have to consider keeping order in the stronghold.”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “I don’t think there’s a big problem in the stronghold. Will the people in a stronghold dare to rebel in just a few days? That’s impossible. So we have to be prepared that they have turned out in full force with at least a few thousand people.”

“Alright.” Xu Xianchu understood his argument but was hoping they would be lucky. He analyzed the situation before saying, “But actually, they will not mobilize their full force. The supplies of the various strongholds are not enough to provision a few thousand-strong expedition into the Jing Mountains for such a long period of time. It’s not that there aren’t enough supplies, but that the transportation, logistics, manpower issues, etc., all have to be considered. As their soldiers brought a lot of firearms and explosives with them, I believe the advanced party that arrived at the Jing Mountains should number around a thousand men or so after taking into account a comprehensive mix of factors.”

Ren Xiaosu thought it over. Xu Xianchu probably had a more expert opinion on military operations. He said, “I trust your judgment. But I’ll still say the same thing. If the observation posts make the perimeter too secure, I’ll take a detour out of the mountains in the direction of Stronghold 112 without hesitation.”

“OK.” Xu Xianchu nodded. He knew that Ren Xiaosu’s decision was right. After all, if he, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were to face the pursuit of over a thousand people, it would surely lead to a very bad end. Xu Xianchu put on a face of determination. “If we need to resort to guerrilla warfare, we’ll have to abandon the other three since they won’t be able to keep with our pace—wait a minute! ”

As he spoke, Xu Xianchu was stunned. He looked around and asked, “Where’s Yang Xiaojin?”

Ren Xiaosu was also shocked. After looking around, he asked Liu Bu, who was at the rear of the team, “Have you seen Yang Xiaojin?”

“No, I wasn’t paying attention,” Liu Bu answered blankly.

Everyone realized that no one knew when Yang Xiaojin had disappeared during their journey!

If it were Liu Bu who went missing, Ren Xiaosu would think that he might have been taken away by something. But for Yang Xiaojin, that would definitely not be the case!

Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu had thought that Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei would be their burden, but they suddenly got a feeling that Yang Xiaojin thought that all five of them were her burden.

But what exactly was Yang Xiaojin’s purpose in coming here? Ren Xiaosu realized that she might not be after the secret of the Jing Mountains at all!

Yang Xiaojin carried an even greater secret!

Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu looked at each other as though they came to a decision at the same time.

“So…” Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “Yang Xiaojin might have fallen behind. As teammates, we should split up to look for her. It’ll be too dangerous if she’s found by herself.”

Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu then walked separately in two different directions. Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei looked back at the way they came and wondered how Yang Xiaojin could have disappeared so quietly. Liu Bu asked, “Do you feel that Yang Xiaojin has been behaving very strangely? She paid us to join the team, but it’s clear that she has her own purpose in coming here….”

Liu Bu turned to look in the directions of where Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu went. However… both of them had also gone missing!

What the fuck?!

What did you mean by splitting up to look for her? You two were obviously making your escape!

Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin had respectively made their decisions to drop their burdens once they got near the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains.

After all, they knew how powerful the Qing Consortium’s troops were. Whether they were to sneak in or take a detour and leave, they couldn’t afford to bring Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei along with them.

Anyway, they were not related nor owed them anything, so there was really no stress when it came to making the decision to abandon them.

But Ren Xiaosu found it quite unfortunate as he had been constantly trying to find ways to gain the gratitude of these people during the past few days. After putting in much effort and gaining 93 gratitude tokens from them, it would not be easy to earn more of them now that he had to go solo.

Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei panicked on the spot. They had wanted to seek help from the Qing Consortium but found out that they might get killed instead. Thus, they thought that it would also be a good idea to leave with Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin. But to their surprise, the three of them ran off one after the other!

But while they were in a state of confusion, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei suddenly heard the rattling of chains being dragged on the ground!

They felt a tingling sensation on their scalps. Didn’t they say the monster wouldn’t be active during the day? Why did it keep following the team then?!

They remembered Xu Xia’s ravaged corpse and the wild animals that had fled from the forest the previous night. Liu Bu could even remember the sound of the monster’s saliva dripping onto the leaves.

A second later, Liu Bu turned around and ran away. He didn’t care anymore whether the Qing Consortium would kill him or not. He just didn’t want to die!

When Liu Bu started to run, the other two followed him. However, Liu Bu suddenly discovered that he could not run as fast as Wang Lei and Luo Xinyu.

Although Wang Lei was wounded before this, he had already fully recovered in slightly over two days due to the magical effects of the black medicine. He was terrified of the mysterious monster behind him, but right as he passed Liu Bu, Wang Lei suddenly saw that Liu Bu had unexpectedly stretched out his foot to trip him!

With a loud thud, Wang Lei fell heavily onto the ground. Liu Bu could only apologize in his head. Someone had to be sacrificed in order for others to live!

Liu Bu ran away as fast as he could. But before he could get far, he heard Wang Lei’s scream and the disturbing sound of chewing flesh!

Wang Lei’s scream tore into Liu Bu like a fearsome ghost. However, this scream did not last long before it stopped.

The rattling of the chains could be heard again, and the monster chased after them once more!

Liu Bu was in despair. When he thought of pulling Luo Xinyu down this time, he found that she had already gotten far away from him.

“Who is it?” Someone was talking up ahead in the forest. Liu Bu focused his vision over there and realized that the person was wearing a pure black uniform and holding a gun in his hands.

Liu Bu shouted, “A monster! There’s a monster behind me!”

He saw the consortium’s soldier making several tactical hand signals, followed by more than 20 soldiers appearing out from the forest beside him as they slowly made their way towards Liu Bu. It was a full platoon of soldiers!

The person leading the platoon ordered, “Kneel down and put your hands behind your head!”

Liu Bu immediately knelt down on the ground. He knew that if he did not follow his instructions, these combat troops would open fire and kill him. All he could do now was to leave his life in the hands of fate!

The rattling of the chains grew closer. When the owner of the chains showed up, the soldier shouted through the wireless communications equipment in his helmet, “Please send reinforcements! We’ve spotted an escaping Experimental! Fire!”

Gunfire thundered!

Chapter 81: A ruined civilization

A complete platoon consisted of 30 people in a corporation’s order of battle 1 . When they encountered any danger, they could immediately use all their firepower to carry out a full coverage attack. This was also the reason why the wild animals could only flee in haste when facing them.

However, even with such a powerful platoon, they did not hesitate to call for reinforcements when they came into contact with the “Experimental.” This showed that they did not have the confidence to defeat it with their current strength!

Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu knelt on the ground as they listened to the sound of gunfire bursting out around them. A soldier slung his rifle over his shoulder and tied Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu’s thumbs on both hands together with some plastic strips 1 . It was tied so tightly that they were in pain.

Furthermore, the soldier completed a body search on Liu Bu in just two seconds and ensured that this man and woman in front of him would not be of any threat.

The soldier did not ask them anything. He just left them to rejoin his team and continued with the battle.

All the other soldiers ignored Liu Bu. It was as though he did not exist. Each of them had their own responsibilities and were working like gears in a well-oiled machine. They took every step with steady precision.

Someone muttered, “What is that plastic doll he’s carrying on his back?”

Someone on the communications channel shouted, “The Experimental has fled to our 9 o’clock. Take notice, formations over there. The Experimental has fled to our 9 o’clock!”

The Experimental also did not seem like it wanted to confront these platoons with such heavy firepower. It chose to avoid them for now.

At this moment, Liu Bu felt that comparing the combat strength of the consortium’s troops to the private army was simply a matter of heaven and earth. With these sights, the private army was like a pig farm compared to the consortium!

Liu Bu had been worried the consortium would immediately kill him. After all, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had described them as demons. By the looks of it, that was not the case. The consortium tied him up together with Luo Xinyu but did not do anything to them.

With that, Liu Bu was finally relieved. At least, he would not have to die, right?

However, a moment later, Liu Bu heard the screams of the troops up front. It sounded like they had suffered some casualties!

…

Ren Xiaosu was hiding in the shadows of the forest and was very well-hidden within the bushes. A centipede was crawling quickly towards him, but Ren Xiaosu stabbed it down into the soil with his dagger. Ren Xiaosu had changed into Sun Junzheng’s private army uniform. He didn’t put on a dead person’s clothes because he was that poor but because the camouflage patterns would help him to stay well-hidden in the forest.

Soon after, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from in front. As he had not gone far, he could hear the consortium’s platoon calling for backup from their comrades.

For Ren Xiaosu, this was probably the best chance to sneak past the perimeter that was set up by the consortium. If they needed reinforcements on this side, the consortium’s line of fire would gradually be concentrated here. At that time, openings would start appearing in the perimeter of defense!

When he and Xu Xianchu parted ways, there was no mention of where they would meet up again. At this point, they had tacitly chosen to act alone as they believed that their individual skills surpassed the strength of the group.

But that alone was not enough to give them a reason to act solo. More importantly, they still did not trust each other.

Everyone still had some scruples about the team when Yang Xiaojin was around. The three people kept each other in check and formed a temporary, stable alliance. But now that Yang Xiaojin had suddenly disappeared, it led to the immediate breakup of the group.

Ren Xiaosu held his breath and waited for the oncoming platoon to pass him. It was obvious that the Qing Consortium was more informed than Xu Xianchu. They even knew what the chain dragging monster was.

Experimentals? People were conducting experiments in the depths of the mountains?

Ren Xiaosu had some doubts, but he did not waste too much time thinking about this. After a supporting platoon passed him by, he headed towards the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains at a shockingly fast pace. During this time, Ren Xiaosu almost encountered another two platoons that responded to the call for reinforcements. Fortunately, he managed to avoid them in time.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a little puzzled. They could not even kill one monster with so many people? Or… could it be that monster was too powerful?

He did not care too much about that since he had to sneak past the inner perimeter first. Whether he was planning to escape from the Jing Mountains or explore its secrets, this was the best opportunity.

As Ren Xiaosu galloped through the forest, the knotty roots and pitfalls in the ground were not an obstacle to his advancement. His travel speed in the forest had never been slowed by such obstacles before.

Gradually, Ren Xiaosu could hear the sound of heavy machinery operating ahead of him. It seemed an ongoing excavation was being carried out at a huge site ahead.

There was a hill in front of him. When Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed up to have a look at the other side, he was stunned. Frankly, he had not expected there would be such a lively place in the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains.

He was surprised to see a dozen excavators digging up the soil about 500 meters behind the slope of the hill he was on. Then Ren Xiaosu saw something. It was not these dozen or so excavators that caught his interest but the magnificent sight of a city behind this slope!

However, the city had been reduced to ruins. The dozen or so excavators were doing some digging near a pit that looked like it had just been blown up by the Qing Consortium with their shaped charges. It looked like they were searching for something.

In reality, the city in front of him was not considered a complete one. In fact, it was far from that. At the furthest point that was visible to him, the skyline of the city abruptly came to an end with the rest of it buried underneath mountains and earth.

The jagged city from before The Cataclysm was like a giant maze that got destroyed.

Even though Ren Xiaosu could only see a part of it, he could already imagine how magnificent the city was in the past!

He saw a relatively well-preserved metal sign hanging on a building with the characters ” xiao long kan 1 ” on it.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What sort of a name was “xiao long kan”? Was it the idea of a carp turning into a dragon after jumping over a waterfall 1 ? What a mysterious sounding place.

But before Ren Xiaosu could figure it out, the sign crumbled into pieces when the excavator touched it. Eons had passed, so everything was in a state of decay.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was really looking forward to seeing this place. The tectonic movements that occurred had buried much of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization deep underground, but these plate tectonics were also responsible for the formation of the volcanoes in the Jing Mountains.

Somehow, a huge city was preserved in this location. Although the buildings were all broken and in pieces, the main structure still existed!

When Ren Xiaosu looked into the distance from the hilltop, he saw that some areas spaced several kilometers apart had already been excavated. However, some of the excavation sites had stopped halfway.

It looked like… they were searching for something. Once they found the excavated site was not what they were searching for, they would immediately stop work and identify a different location.

Ren Xiaosu could sense that whatever the Qing Consortium was searching for, it must be very important to them. Furthermore, they knew exactly what they were searching for.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu spotted a place heavily guarded by soldiers in the distance. Some cargo containers were stacked over there. Next to it, soldiers were injecting drugs into some unconscious animals before loading them into the containers one by one.

Were these wild animals captured by the Qing Consortium? Perhaps even these evolved beasts would find it difficult to escape the fate of being studied.

“Should I leave?” Ren Xiaosu wondered as he felt he might not even have a chance to get near the “target” the Qing Consortium was searching for.

After all, he had already witnessed the might of the Qing Consortium, so he knew it would be impossible for him to snatch the “secret” away from them.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man in a white suit standing on the roof of a building overlooking the city.

In the wilderness, that white suit was so spotless it would amaze anyone.

A sight like this was just like a clash of violence and civility that would make it unforgettable to whoever witnessed it.

Chapter 82: Tobacco and liquor

As the important people had to pass through town whenever they came out of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu had seen them sitting in their cars in their suits from afar. Back then, Ren Xiaosu thought those important people had an imposing air about them.

But if someone wore a suit out into the wilderness, and a white suit at that, Ren Xiaosu would definitely cuss that person under his breath, “Dumbass!”

Wearing a suit would be too much of an impediment in a fight as it would restrict the wearer from raising their arms and legs. If someone encountered a wild animal they could not beat, they probably couldn’t even run away.

But when Ren Xiaosu saw that young man standing atop the building, he did not find his clothing to be unsuitable or incongruous with the wilderness. That was because this person was not required to fight.

He was probably the leader of the Qing Consortium for this operation. Ren Xiaosu felt that this consortium’s VIP really looked quite different from the others.

He kept his head low as he was afraid that he would get discovered by the Qing Consortium’s troops. Over a thousand troops had been mobilized just to handle the security in the vicinity of the excavation site. Ren Xiaosu felt that both he and Xu Xianchu had underestimated the Qing Consortium’s determination to lock down the area.

Ren Xiaosu looked around his surroundings with curiosity and wondered where Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding.

Although he could not see them, Ren Xiaosu knew that they must be around here somewhere.

“Time to get out of here,” Ren Xiaosu told himself, not caring what the others would do. When he learned he could not get his hands on the secret of the Jing Mountains, the thought of making a retreat grew in his mind.

If not, it would be quite pointless for him to stay here. As for the secret of the Jing Mountains, Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu probably had a greater interest in that.

Ren Xiaosu felt there wasn’t a need to risk his life for this secret. If someone else here had all kinds of advanced skills, and Ren Xiaosu had dozens of Basic or Master Skill Duplication Scrolls on hand, he might be willing to give it a try. Someone like that would be a real treasure trove for him.

In reality, the most important thing was that Ren Xiaosu was seeing more and more of those buildings that had been excavated belowground. Some of them even collapsed at the lightest touch from the excavators. They had still been standing upright but that was only because no one had “touched” them.

He could still vaguely recognize some of the buildings exposed aboveground based on their relatively intact store signs. For example, there were beauty salons, blind massage, and so on.

Ren Xiaosu did not believe there would be anything too valuable here. And that was the main reason why he wanted to get out of here.

When Ren Xiaosu saw those signs, he felt that his trust had been betrayed and his intelligence insulted. Upon recalling those things like the QR code, “xiao long kan,” and the plastic doll, it was obvious they were not particularly rare things at all!

He wondered what Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin would think if they saw these sights. Anyway, Ren Xiaosu had had enough of it. ‘After running all this way out here and experiencing so much danger, it was all for the sake of showing me this?’

Ren Xiaosu kept his head low as he quietly headed towards the side of the mountain. At present, he could still hear gunshots going off in the forest behind him. This meant the Qing Consortium’s troops had not successfully taken care of that monster yet. The gunshots were at least an assurance for Ren Xiaosu that the Qing Consortium would definitely not have the time to deal with him at this moment.

Although more soldiers were patrolling at the foot of the mountain, the problem was that these people were focusing on the excavation site nearby. The abandoned sites seemed to have already lost their value, and the soldiers did not even bother looking at them.

However, Ren Xiaosu could make use of the sites abandoned by the consortium as an opening to sneak past the perimeter.

The Qing Consortium had cut down so many trees along the way that it was enough to pave the entire length of the road back to Stronghold 112. Ren Xiaosu had to admit he was impressed with what an organization was capable of.

In a place like the wilderness, they could open up a path as they liked, and there was no need to consult with the wild animals living in the mountains.

This led Ren Xiaosu to reevaluate the capabilities of an organization. Importantly, this was only the combat troops of one stronghold. According to Yang Xiaojin, an organization might control 10 to 20 strongholds in total!

So if Ren Xiaosu escaped in the direction of Stronghold 112, whatever wild animals or the like along the way would have already been scared away.

Although it would be a little more difficult to return to Stronghold 113 and required him to take a longer detour if he went this way, he had no other options since this was his best choice.

As Ren Xiaosu quietly walked towards the other areas of this “city,” the natural ravines and ruined buildings exposed aboveground became his best cover.

He saw the ruins of a tall building that had collapsed and was broken into two sections. Ren Xiaosu had no doubt that there used to be people who could totally stand atop this tall building and get a bird’s eye view of the entire city before The Cataclysm.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu would often fantasize about what it would be like to stay in the stronghold with Yan Liuyuan when they were living in the town. But it seemed that, although the stronghold was bigger than this city in terms of area, the level of grandeur and prosperity in there was incomparable to this place.

Of course, the grandeur and prosperity were things of the past. Now, only ruins and desolation were left here.

Ren Xiaosu slid down the hill’s slope under the cover of the shadowy forest and saw some signs covered in dust scattered around the ruins. He muttered, “Why are there so many reflexology spa signs in this city? Did the past people enjoy washing their feet this much?”

While walking between the abandoned city and the mountainside, Ren Xiaosu carefully avoided being caught in the line of sight of anyone. He was only about 500 meters away from the Qing Consortium’s combat troops at this moment. As long as he carefully made use of the blind corners and buildings, he wouldn’t get discovered by them.

But as he proceeded, Ren Xiaosu started feeling like he could hardly walk anymore. He was surprised to see a well-preserved tobacco and liquor store on his left-hand side.

Although a majority of the buildings had been crushed to dust during the earthquakes caused by tectonic shift, 30% of the buildings in the city still remained.

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes gleamed when he saw the tobacco and liquor store.

Tobacco and liquor were scarce goods in town. Why else would a teacher like Zhang Jinglin not have cigarettes to smoke every day?

The stock in this tobacco and liquor store was probably more than what Old Wang and Old Li had in their stores combined. If he could bring it all back, he could easily become the richest person in town!

Ren Xiaosu stole a glance at the Qing Consortium’s people. When he was sure no one was looking in his vicinity, he rushed into the store excitedly.

He reached for the cigarettes on the counter. As there was a transparent plastic wrapper around the cigarette pack, Ren Xiaosu thought it would still be in a good condition since it was protected by an outer layer of plastic.

But the moment he touched it, the cigarette pack disintegrated into powder along with it.

Ren Xiaosu felt a pain in his heart. Just how long had these things been kept here?

In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not know that cigarettes also had a shelf life. Although the tobacco factories never stated how long their cigarettes could be kept for, they would generally turn bad after more than three years of storage.

After all, the packaging of the plastic seal could not be more simply done.

Chapter 83: A peculiar child

Ren Xiaosu looked at the disintegrated packs of cigarettes and felt a pain in his heart. Based on the selling price of 20 yuan per cigarette at Wang Fugui’s store, how much would the cigarettes in this shop be worth?

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had estimated there to be at least five tobacco and liquor stores on this street.

Ren Xiaosu converted the prices and felt that humans from before The Cataclysm were really rich.

In his haste, Ren Xiaosu did not realize that tobacco was actually not a scarce commodity before The Cataclysm. He turned around and looked at the bottles of liquor that were placed on the shelves against the wall. As they were not sealed in plastic packaging, the liquor was gone. All the bottles here were empty.

It seemed that some of the liquor bottles had been scattered onto the ground and were in pieces, probably due to earthquakes, while some were still standing on the shelves. But when Ren Xiaosu opened one of the bottles, he found that the liquor in it had disappeared.

He wondered how long it had been since The Cataclysm happened. The liquor in the bottle had completely vaporized.

Ren Xiaosu grumbled, “Didn’t the wineries in the past know how to seal bottles better?!”

He refused to believe this as he took another well-preserved bottle and shook it. However, the liquor in the bottle was also gone without an exception.

In fact, this kind of liquor needed to be processed with a specialized technology if it were to be preserved, such as sealing the bottle with wax. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be uncommon for only half a bottle of liquor to be left after 50 years of storage.

These days, the most expensive things in town were cigarettes, liquor, and medicine. Especially alcohol, which was banned. The townspeople were even more attracted to it. The more something was prohibited, the more valuable it became.

When Ren Xiaosu saw these shops initially, he thought that he had found a huge treasure trove. But now, he realized that his thoughts were pure fantasy.

The Cataclysm was like a gigantic sword that cut between the old and new civilizations. Ren Xiaosu thought that if both the tobacco and liquor products he found were already like this, there would be even less of a need to mention the medicine.

Earlier, he was thinking of checking out a pharmacy if he saw one. But now, it seemed like there was no need for that anymore.

Ren Xiaosu started thinking seriously as he walked out onto the street. Was there anything that did not have a shelf life? Or rather, something that could last for over a hundred years?

He suddenly saw the name of a shop next to him called “Family Planning & Healthcare,” but he did not go in. After all, in his opinion, it should just be a shop selling healthcare products. But what healthcare products could be kept that long?

He felt reassured when he saw that the Qing Consortium’s people had not shifted their attention over to his side yet. Ren Xiaosu could still hear gunshots coming from the outer perimeter. He wondered if that Experimental was really that powerful.

But all of a sudden, he thought of something. ‘Aren’t metals able to last hundreds of years without decomposing?’

Ren Xiaosu whipped his head around. He had heard from Wang Fugui before that there were jewelry shops inside the stronghold. In that case, there must also be jewelry shops in a city as large as this!

Ren Xiaosu, a little downtrodden before this, had his morale lifted again!

Gold was still a hard currency even in these times. Ren Xiaosu had asked Zhang Jinglin why gold was still needed as a hard currency after the Qing Consortium’s bank had issued its own currency.

Zhang Jinglin smiled and answered, “Because it’s not only the Qing Consortium that has issued their own currency. Perhaps that currency is usable within the Qing Consortium’s territories, but it’ll be useless once you go to another stronghold that’s not controlled by them. At that time, there’s a need for something that can be conveniently measured and valued to replace your paper money.”

In fact, the corporations used currency as a method to control the various strongholds. They allowed people to get used to the convenience of using paper money, but they had the final say in how much currency was issued.

This was the real lifeline of the economy and one of the fundamentals of a corporation.

However, Zhang Jinglin explained, “Because of the currency circulation problem, several consortiums have come together to form the Monetary Management Committee. Everyone has strict regulations on the issuance of money so that there will be no chaos in the world. They are all on friendly terms at the moment, but who can guarantee that it’ll remain the same?”

When Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Jinglin’s words, the more he felt that Zhang Jinglin was no ordinary person. No one knew where the school teacher came from, and he had lived in the town outside of Stronghold 113 for many years.

Ren Xiaosu decided he would carefully watch Zhang Jinglin after he got back to town.

He started exploring further up in front away from the Qing Consortium’s people as he tried to find the existence of any jewelry shops or the like. If there were any jewelry shops still standing, wouldn’t he become rich?

…

In the backyard of the school in town, Zhang Jinglin had just returned after a day of lessons. He saw Yan Liuyuan, who had already stepped out of his room and was basking in the sun. He smiled and said, “Have you fully recovered?”

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan nodded as he smiled and said, “Teacher, Big Sister Xiaoyu, thank you for taking care of me in this period of time.”

Yan Liuyuan was in a fantastic mood at this moment. It was not because of recovering from illness, but that he knew why it had not deteriorated. This meant Ren Xiaosu did not need to depend on much of Yan Liuyuan’s “luck” so far. In other words, Ren Xiaosu had not encountered any real danger.

At this moment, Xiaoyu came in from outside the school, holding a basket. When she saw Yan Liuyuan, she said in surprise, “Liuyuan, have you fully recovered already? Go into your room. Don’t catch a cold.”

Yan Liuyuan looked adorably cute as he smiled and said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, I’m fine. You can rest easy now. What are we having for dinner?”

“I’ll fry some eggs and vegetables for you two.” Xiaoyu smiled and said, “I went to town earlier and bought some fatty meat. I can use it as an oil substitute for frying the dishes so that you two can have a taste of meat.”

“Alright,” Yan Liuyuan responded. But as he walked out of the yard, he said, “I’m going out for a while and will be back before sunset!”

Xiaoyu was about to stop him, but when she turned around, Yan Liuyuan had already disappeared.

As she waited in worry at the gated entrance to the school, Zhang Jinglin thought to himself, ‘Weren’t you getting ready to cook just now? How much longer are you going to wait there?’ However, he was too embarrassed to say anything.

To Zhang Jinglin, the two brothers were not people who would easily end up on the losing side. When they were out on the streets, it should be other people who had to worry.

Just a moment ago, Zhang Jinglin clearly saw Yan Liuyuan taking a kitchen knife and hiding it within his bosom. Whose child would bring a kitchen knife with them when they went out? Would this be the behavior of a decent kid?

But Yan Liuyuan really did return before dark. Both Zhang Jinglin and Xiaoyu did not know where he had gone. When they asked him, he did not say anything and smiled before changing the subject.

There were three rooms in the backyard of the school, but one of them was used as the kitchen. Of the remaining two, one was Zhang Jinglin’s room while the other was occupied by Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.

In the evening, Xiaoyu would make the bed for Yan Liuyuan while she laid on the bedroll and slept on the floor. As it was almost winter now, the floor was freezing. However, Xiaoyu never said anything about it.

After turning off the kerosene lamp, Xiaoyu suddenly asked Yan Liuyuan, “Do you think your brother is safe?”

Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, “Don’t worry, he’s definitely safe.”

Xiaoyu was stunned. She did not understand why Yan Liuyuan was so confident.

Chapter 84: Gunshots at midnight

“Liuyuan, don’t you go running out by yourself again these days.” Xiaoyu said in the pitch-black room, “How am I going to answer to your brother if something happens to you?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do it again,” Yan Liuyuan promised. Recently, he had gotten increasingly trustful of Xiaoyu because she continued caring for him even though she had the opportunity to leave him behind.

As he was running a high fever several days ago, Xiaoyu could have just taken the money and left, but she did not do that.

While he was sleeping, there would always be a fresh and cool towel wiping his face and armpits to keep his temperature down. Yan Liuyuan even heard a gentle singing voice that felt like a warm ocean and reminded him of a child being held in its mother’s arms.

Yan Liuyuan had never experienced any of these feelings before. Even though Ren Xiaosu also provided him with a lot of warmth and care, it felt like he was always chasing after his elder brother. It did not feel like an embrace.

“OK.” Xiaoyu felt reassured after hearing Yan Liuyuan’s promise. She thought of something and said, “Since you’ve recovered from your illness, you have to attend class tomorrow to catch up.”

Yan Liuyuan paled at the mention. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, surely that’s unnecessary. My brother isn’t around anyway!”

“That won’t do.” Xiaoyu said, “It’ll be my fault if Xiaosu comes back and finds out that you’ve fallen behind on your homework. He told me before he left.”

“When did he tell you that?!” Yan Liuyuan wailed, “I never heard him mentioning anything about it at all!”

Xiaoyu giggled while lying on the bedroll. “Anyway, I don’t care. You must be obedient.”

Yan Liuyuan lost the will to argue as he stared at the ceiling, but there was a slight smile on his lips. At this moment, he heard someone jump into the courtyard, and it was not just one person!

Xiaoyu also heard the sound. But the usually gentle and timid Xiaoyu took out a bone knife from under her pillow. She clenched her teeth and said, “Stay still!”

In the dimly lit room, Yan Liuyuan could see Xiaoyu trembling a little. They both knew that someone leaping over the yard’s wall at such a late time must have come with evil purposes. But as Ren Xiaosu was not around, Xiaoyu felt that she should bear the responsibility of protecting Yan Liuyuan.

A second later, three burly men kicked open the door to their room. Two of them tried to hold Xiaoyu against the ground while the other man stabbed at Yan Liuyuan, who was lying in bed with a bone knife.

Although Xiaoyu was also holding a bone knife, her strength as a woman was a lot weaker compared to that of an adult man.

When one of the burly men jumped her, he let out a groan like he had been stabbed by her bone knife. However, the other man kicked it out of her hand!

Yan Liuyuan looked at them with the aid of the moonlight. In that instant, he recognized that these three men were some of the idlers in town. He had never unexpected they would target the school!

Perhaps they thought Ren Xiaosu had earned some money after opening the clinic some time ago. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not in town at the moment, so they started getting ideas to commit a crime.

Xiaoyu was very cautious whenever she spent any money during this period. Every time she bought her groceries from the market, she would haggle over the price for a long time. She would even resort to picking wild vegetables so she could pretend she was broke.

However, Yan Liuyuan needed nutrition when he was ill. In the end, she still bought some meat, and that attracted the attention of others.

This was what was scary about a home without a man. Although Yan Liuyuan was also a man, he was too young to be intimidating to others.

As Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu likely had a lot of money with them now, not even the thought of this being a school could hinder the robbers from targeting them.

At the same time, Yan Liuyuan heard the door beside their room being kicked open. It seemed like someone else was attempting to kill Zhang Jinglin! These people were so reckless they even dared to touch the schoolteacher. They wanted to silence everyone so no one would know who the culprits were.

However, right at this moment, a gunshot rang through the night. The idler who had rushed at Yan Liuyuan stared disbelievingly at the black muzzle of the pistol before him. Then he looked down at his bleeding abdomen. He couldn’t understand why Yan Liuyuan had a gun in his hand!

If they knew that Yan Liuyuan had a gun, they would definitely not have taken the risk to rob them. In fact, guns were prohibited in town. Some people had built their own guns before, but they were all confiscated by the stronghold.

Everyone in the room looked at Yan Liuyuan in surprise. Even Xiaoyu had not expected it.

In an instant, six gunshots were fired off. After Yan Liuyuan killed one person, he did not get frightened. Instead, he shot the two idlers who had rushed Xiaoyu and killed them as well.

Every time Yan Liuyuan fired a shot, he felt like a darkness in his heart was pulling him slowly into the abyss. In this world, if you want to live, you must know how to kill!

He jumped out of bed and ran out of the door. The two idlers who had just barged into Zhang Jinglin’s room next door ran out when they heard the gunshots, but it was already too late!

Another two gunshots rang out. Yan Liuyuan had opened fire and killed five people in the space of one minute! The sound of the gunshots cracked through the air and spread outwards like a howling roar!

Mr. Zhang walked out of the room next door and gazed at Yan Liuyuan, who was standing next to him, as though he was getting to know this young man again.

Zhang Jinglin knew that Ren Xiaosu was a ruthless person and even knew that Yan Liuyuan had been deeply influenced by Ren Xiaosu over the years. Although Yan Liuyuan belonged to the youngest batch of students in the school, the older children did not dare provoke him and were even afraid of him.

But whose 13-year-old child would know how to shoot and kill?

He stood there panting in a pool of blood outside the room. As his expression was always calm, you would only realize he was actually afraid if you saw his hands trembling slightly.

Xiaoyu came out of their room as well. She hugged Yan Liuyuan and said, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”

It was obvious that Yan Liuyuan had stepped up to save everyone. But for some reason, Yan Liuyuan felt relieved when Xiaoyu embraced him. Her warm touch dispersed the coldness throughout his body.

The loud and crisp gunshots had jolted the entire town awake. Everyone came out and looked in the direction of the school, but they still did not know what had happened.

It was clear that the stronghold’s residents had already returned into the stronghold. So why were there gunshots? Based on the refugees’ knowledge, only the important people of the stronghold could possess firearms.

Zhang Jinglin looked at the gun in Yan Liuyuan’s hand and said with a sigh, “Did Ren Xiaosu leave that gun for you? You went out in the afternoon because you wanted to retrieve it?”

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I’ll leave town with Big Sister Xiaoyu right away. We won’t burden you.”

When Ren Xiaosu left town, he broke away from the team for a while to go to the place where the gun was buried. But instead of taking it away, he marked the spot where it was buried and left it to Yan Liuyuan.

Before he departed, he quietly told Yan Liuyuan to retrieve the gun after he went away. If he encountered any danger that he could not fight against, he should use the gun and then escape into the wilderness. He had prepared a secret cave somewhere in the wilderness for Yan Liuyuan to take refuge in.

When Ren Xiaosu was finished with his business, he would go and look for him.

Chapter 85: Mr. Zhang

When Ren Xiaosu left, made it crystal clear to Yan Liuyuan that if Big Sister Xiaoyu was still taking care of him at that time, he would have to bring her along with him as well. If Xiaoyu had already taken the money and left, then Yan Liuyuan should go there and hide by himself.

Don’t hope to get lucky, and leave immediately at the sign of any trouble!

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, nothing was more important in this world than staying alive. It was better to have a gun for self-defense than having nothing at all.

Ren Xiaosu also wished that he could bring the gun with him into the Jing Mountains. But compared to his own safety, he felt that it was better to leave the gun for Yan Liuyuan.

It was just that Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu could not have expected something would happen so soon after Yan Liuyuan had retrieved the gun.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was actually not worried for himself. This was because he believed the place Ren Xiaosu had prepared for him would be safe and sound. He also believed that Ren Xiaosu would be back for him.

What he was worried about was Ren Xiaosu.

Ever since Yan Liuyuan gained his power of affecting luck, he suffered the side effects of making a wish several times. Therefore, he knew well that those side effects… were not simply a sickness.

Yan Liuyuan looked in the direction of the Jing Mountains with a frown. He knew that Ren Xiaosu must’ve encountered danger, and it was definitely something extremely dangerous too.

This was his inexorable destiny, and this was the cause and effect of him making a wish!

“Ren Xiaosu…” There was a pent-up feeling in Yan Liuyuan’s heart. In times of danger, these two brothers would always be worrying about each other’s safety instead of their own.

“Big Sister Xiaoyu, come with me.” Yan Liuyuan turned around and went into the house to pick up some clothes before getting ready to head out of the school. Xiaoyu did not even ask where they were going. She just took the money out from between the bricks on the ground and followed him.

But Zhang Jinglin caught his arm and stopped him. Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, “It’s not safe out there in the wilderness. You don’t have to escape. Let me handle it for you.”

“Let you handle it?” Yan Liuyuan didn’t understand what Zhang Jinglin meant. While they were talking, he even thought of breaking free from Zhang Jinglin grasp. However, he discovered that Zhang Jinglin was much stronger than he had thought and couldn’t break free from him.

Zhang Jinglin said, “The wolf pack has already returned. The place Ren Xiaosu prepared for you is very well-hidden, but it won’t escape the wolves’ noses. I’m afraid that Ren Xiaosu probably did not expect the wolf pack to return so soon either.”

Yan Liuyuan had some doubts. Why did Zhang Jinglin know the wolves were back? There was clearly no one in town who had sighted the wolf pack or heard any news about it.

Meanwhile, the stronghold’s gate was being raised. Soon after, Zhang Jinglin and the others could hear the sound of footsteps. It looked like the gunshots had also alarmed those in the stronghold, and the private army’s troops had come out to check!

The town started stirring, and the nocturnal commotion made all the refugees crawl out of bed. Everyone came out onto the street and looked in the direction of the school where there were some movements. Some of the more daring ones even headed over to the school to check out what was happening.

Zhang Jinglin waited silently. Not long after, someone kicked open the front door of the school. Wang Congyang led a squad of troops and walked in. He observed the surroundings and had a look at the five corpses lying on the ground, then looked over at Zhang Jinglin. At this moment, the gun was in Zhang Jinglin’s hand.

Wang Congyang smiled and said, “The pistol was indeed taken by that kid, Ren Xiaosu. I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time. There isn’t anyone else in town who has the balls to go and get their hands on a gun. Only he would dare to do something like that.”

Zhang Jinglin and the others did not say anything. Xiaoyu looked anxiously at Zhang Jinglin as though she was worried he couldn’t handle the situation before him.

From outside, Wang Fugui came running in with his clothes all haphazard. He smiled and said in a servile manner to Wang Congyang, “Sir, there must be a mistake somewhere!”

“There isn’t any mistake.” Wang Congyang shook his head. “I’m quite certain Wang Dongyang was killed by Ren Xiaosu.”

Wang Fugui took a stack of money out of his pocket at the words and tried to push it onto Wang Congyang. “You’re not really on good terms with Wang Dongyang anyway, so whether or not he was really killed by Ren Xiaosu, maybe we should give this matter some further thought.”

“Hahaha,” Wang Congyang laughed and shoved Wang Fugui aside. “Do you think I’m like the others from the stronghold who only have eyes for money? Round them all up! I’ll wait for Ren Xiaosu to come back and see how he explains himself!”

Though pushed aside, Wang Fugui came up to him again. As a result, Wang Congyang pulled his pistol out of its holster and pointed it right at Wang Fugui’s temple. “Stay away, understand?”

Then Wang Congyang was taken aback, because he saw Zhang Jinglin take some papers out of his pocket. Zhang Jinglin said, “Bring this into the stronghold and let Fatty Luo come and see me.”

Wang Congyang looked at Zhang Jinglin with suspicion. This was because Zhang Jinglin’s tone was too calm for this situation. In the vicinity of Stronghold 113, Zhang Jinglin was probably the only person Wang Congyang had met in his life who dared to call Boss Luo Fatty Luo.

Zhang Jinglin did not explain what the papers were. In the past, Wang Congyang had taken notice of Zhang Jinglin. He felt that Zhang Jinglin was no ordinary person, but he did not delve any deeper into it. Honestly, it did not matter to him whether Zhang Jinglin was normal or not.

But it was different now. He realized he had been embroiled into the mystery of Zhang Jinglin’s identity now.

As such, Wang Congyang was even a little afraid to take the red documentation from Zhang Jinglin. It looked a little aged, and the outside covering was slightly damaged.

Zhang Jinglin handed his documentation to Wang Congyang. “Here you go, bring it to him and he’ll understand. This isn’t something that you can handle anymore.”

“Watch them,” Wang Congyang told the private troops beside him. It wouldn’t do to get others to run this errand. He would need to head back to the stronghold personally and look for Boss Luo himself.

And yet he was afraid he had been fooled. Based on Wang Congyang’s meticulous nature, it was absolutely necessary to keep the soldiers behind to watch over Zhang Jinglin and Yan Liuyuan.

Xiaoyu looked over at Zhang Jinglin in worry. “Mr. Zhang, will it be alright?”

Zhang Jinglin waved it off. “Don’t worry, nothing will happen. They wouldn’t dare to do anything to me yet.”

Yan Liuyuan whispered from next to him, “Sorry, Teacher.”

If he had not fired the gun, Zhang Jinglin wouldn’t have had to expose his identity.

Zhang Jinglin gave him a glance and sighed. “You were not in the wrong. It’s this world’s fault. Besides, I still have to thank you. You only did it because you wanted to save me.”

In Zhang Jinglin’s opinion, he did not think that Yan Liuyuan had done anything wrong. If he hadn’t fired the gun, it would have ended tragically for both Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, as well as himself. This was because Zhang Jinglin was simply a normal teacher now.

Did Yan Liuyuan show off his fortune? No.

Did Yan Liuyuan kill the wrong people? No.

Zhang Jinglin suddenly felt that Yan Liuyuan was quite similar to Ren Xiaosu in some ways. He was ruthless like Ren Xiaosu, he was cold to his enemies like Ren Xiaosu, and he always had precaution for this world like Ren Xiaosu did.

In the past, Zhang Jinglin felt that it wasn’t good for Ren Xiaosu to be this way. But for some reason, he started thinking Ren Xiaosu was much more human than most people after interacting with him for some time.

This might sound a little wrong, but it was what Zhang Jinglin thought.

Chapter 86: Northern Frontier

The other refugees in town were still unaware of what was going on. The outer wall of the school was not high. It was just an earthen wall measuring about 1.7 meters tall. So some people could see into the school by standing on their tiptoes and looking over the wall. What they saw gave them a fright. There were two bodies lying in the backyard of the school, while blood was still flowing out of the house.

It had been many years, and this was the first time someone had been killed at the school!

Of course, it was also because this event was so odd that it made Yan Liuyuan worry even more about Ren Xiaosu.

Wang Congyang ran back into the stronghold. Along the way, he pored over the documentation for himself. He saw the words “Stronghold 178, Zhang Jinglin” written on the inside.

Wang Congyang gasped. He had never come across any identification like this before. Shouldn’t such papers only indicate one’s identity and the jobs they did? It might also include the date of birth, a photo, and any other relevant details to easily verify someone’s identity.

But this identification was different. Anyone who saw it would immediately know who it belonged to. And at this moment, when Wang Congyang thought about the person from Stronghold 178 who had been rumored to be missing for over a decade, he picked up the pace.

However, Wang Congyang wasn’t high-ranking enough, so he wasn’t sure if his guess was correct.

Wang Congyang did not go to the stronghold’s overseers but drove straight to Luo Lan’s residence. In truth, everyone knew that Luo Lan was just a businessman. But whenever something major happened in the stronghold, they would all go and look for him. The overseers of the stronghold had already accepted this as fact.

Luo Lan’s residence was located in the dead center of the stronghold. From the time Wang Congyang entered the stronghold, he drove nearly an hour before he reached it, and this was even in the dead of the night when there were no pedestrians or traffic on the roads.

He arrived outside Luo Lan’s residence, or rather, a large military base.

At the entrance of the base stood a stone monument, red words carved on it: Military Zone.

The consortium’s combat brigade, dressed in black uniforms, handled the security at the entrance. Every one of them was issued with live ammunition and was ready to fight at any time. Before Wang Congyang’s vehicle could get close, he could already see spotlights shining down on him from the military base’s tall walls.

Wang Congyang flashed his identification at the entrance and said, “I’m Wang Congyang from the private army. There’s something I have urgently need Boss Luo for. It’s a matter regarding Stronghold 178.”

At this moment, Wang Congyang could feel no less than 10 rifles pointing at him. Someone from the consortium’s military walked over and said indifferently, “Identification!”

In the face of the consortium’s military, the private army’s troops were inferior. Therefore, even though Wang Congyang was being aimed at with rifles, he did not dare to say anything about it.

Wang Congyang handed both his and Zhang Jinglin’s identification papers over. The soldier responsible for checking them returned inside and came out again after more than ten minutes. “Your identity has been verified. You’re free to enter.”

The main entrance of the military base was finally opened to Wang Congyang.

The Qing Consortium’s military might had always been considered the best, and they were also very disciplined and had an extremely strong combat capability. However, martial law wasn’t implemented in the past. It was only after the appearance of a supernatural being who tried to kill a stronghold overseer that the various corporations raised the level of martial law around the strongholds.

In the end, the entire military base illuminated not long after Wang Congyang came in. The sound of sharp marching could be clearly heard, and the stronghold residents living near the base woke up in alarm. They still did not know what had happened at the military base, but the sound of the marching was clearly from the assembly of the combat brigade.

A black off-road vehicle sped out from the stronghold, and it was even followed by three military trucks. The trucks were carrying three squads.

“Are they going to war?” someone said when they saw this scene from their house’s window.

“Who is the Qing Consortium going to war with? But if they’re really going to war, surely they can’t just be mobilizing such a small force, right?” someone said in doubt. “I think it was Boss Luo sitting in the off-road vehicle just now? That guy hasn’t left the base in two years, so what could’ve alarmed him this time?”

But the person most shocked was still Wang Congyang. This was because he saw Luo Lan jump in panic when he received Zhang Jinglin’s identification from him.

Shortly after, the entire military base seemingly entered a wartime state as sophisticated machines of war were deployed in an instant.

It was at this moment that Wang Congyang could confirm that Zhang Jinglin might be the person he guessed he was!

If he really was that person, what made him appear in this place?!

The Qing Consortium’s convoy headed straight for the stronghold gate. Yan Liuyuan and the others were still waiting in the schoolyard. He suddenly turned his head to Zhang Jinglin and asked, “Teacher, what did you do before you became a teacher?”

Yan Liuyuan also understood that Mr. Zhang’s identity was scarily important.

Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “I was a soldier.”

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. It didn’t occur to him that Mr. Zhang Jinglin would be any kind of soldier he knew. Curious, Yan Liuyuan asked, “Then why didn’t you continue being a soldier?”

Zhang Jinglin went silent for a long while at the question. He was apparently perplexed as well. Zhang Jinglin finally answered after thinking about it for a long time, “Because war will not save humanity.”

“Are you leaving?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“That’s right.” Zhang Jinglin nodded. “There are still people waiting for me in the Northern Frontier.”

All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan realized Zhang Jinglin had chosen Ren Xiaosu to be the substitute teacher as he had really wanted him to become the school’s new teacher, because Zhang Jinglin had planned on leaving. Even without tonight’s incident, Zhang Jinglin would probably not have stayed much longer.

“Why do you want to go back to the Northern Frontier?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“Because this world… is starting to get a little different. I need to be with those who are waiting for me,” Zhang Jinglin explained.

“What’s in the Northern Frontier?” Yan Liuyuan kept asking questions. He and Ren Xiaosu had never been to the place before, and it was said to be far off in the northwest.

Yan Liuyuan recalled the time Mr. Zhang got distracted in class. On that day, Mr. Zhang was looking out of the window at the sky and saying, “The spring snow and ice in the Northern Frontier has yet to melt, so there isn’t any greenery, only sandstorms and yellow earth. The snow in the Northern Frontier is vast and white, and humanity is very lonely.”

At that time, although Mr. Zhang had described the Northern Frontier as a bleak and desolate place, Yan Liuyuan could sense his yearning and nostalgia for it. It was only upon recalling this that Yan Liuyuan understood those feelings. So it was because Zhang Jinglin came from there.

“What’s in the Northern Frontier? There’s cigarettes to smoke?” Zhang Jinglin said with a smile. “Don’t be afraid. They wouldn’t dare do anything to me. They won’t be able to try anything funny and will only send me back to Stronghold 178 in the end.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded. He thought to himself how Ren Xiaosu would not be able to nag him to do his homework in the future. The town wouldn’t even have a teacher anymore.

However, Yan Liuyuan didn’t feel as happy as before when he thought about not having to do any more homework in the future.

Chapter 87: Living specimen

Meanwhile, Luo Lan was panting as he sat in the backseat of the off-road vehicle. He was making a call on a satellite phone. “Hey, Zhang Jinglin has appeared!”

The person on the other end of the call fell silent for a moment. “Has it been verified?”

“It’s not verified yet, but if it’s true, should I kill him?” Luo Lan seemed to be seeking the other person’s opinion. “Why does this old boy have to hide in my territory of all places?”

From his tone, it sounded like Luo Lan considered Zhang Jinglin a hot potato of sorts.

Everyone usually felt that Luo Lan was always smiling and easy to approach, but the smart ones all knew that Luo Lan wasn’t that different from his crazy younger brother. They were both thick-skinned and black-hearted murderers.

If Yan Liuyuan heard what Luo Lan asked, he would be extremely worried for Zhang Jinglin. However, the person on the other end of the satellite call asked, “Kill him?”

“That’s right,” Fatty Luo said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“A lot of people have now heard he’s still alive, right?” The person on the other end said, “Don’t you think that, if you kill him now, that damned group from Stronghold 178 might even abandon their stronghold and come over to kill you?”

Luo Lan actually shivered at the words. “I can get it done without causing a scene.”

“There’s no such thing as an impervious wall in this world.” The other person said, “Send him back to Stronghold 178. Isn’t someone guarding the Northern Frontier for us better? Even if he has to die… it cannot be to the hands of our Qing Consortium, much less by your hand.”

“But what if one day, he…” Luo Lan hesitated.

“It won’t be too late to kill him at that time. For now, we’ll let others get a headache over this.” The person on the other end sounded unquestionably firm. He then seemed to think of something. “By the way, I’m at the Jing Mountains. Is there a refugee from your place named Ren Xiaosu?”

Luo Lan froze: “The one who sells medicine?!”

This time, it was the person on the other end who was surprised. “What about selling medicine? Who’s selling medicine?”

“It’s nothing,” Luo Lan said with some diffidence. “Did you discover anything in the Jing Mountains? I only found out two days ago that Old Liu from our Stronghold 113 secretly sent a squad of private troops to the Jing Mountains. They were even traveling under the pretense of being a band. How childish. I actually quite liked the female singer. It’s such a waste that she’s probably going to die in the Jing Mountains.”

“Oh, the female singer you’re talking about, she’s not dead yet,” the person on the other end said with a laugh. “So Ren Xiaosu is the one who sells medicine and Luo Xinyu is the singer, but who is Yang Xiaojin?”

“Yang Xiaojin? I’ve never even heard of that name before,” Luo Lan muttered. “Discover anything in the Jing Mountains?”

“I’m close to locating the research lab from before The Cataclysm.” The person on the other end said, “But, Bro, you can take a back seat in Stronghold 113. You shouldn’t be questioning me on such matters.”

“Oh.” Luo Lan fell silent for a moment. In a normal family, the elder brother would usually have more say over things. However, Boss Luo had absolutely no authority before his younger brother.

“One more question.” The person on the other end asked, “How long has it been since Luo Xinyu became a singer at your stronghold?”

“About two years?” Luo Lan replied.

“Then does that Ren Xiaosu have any friends or relatives?” the person on the other end asked.

“I think he has a younger brother,” Luo Lan said. Then he turned to Wang Congyang, who was beside him, and asked, “Does that Ren Xiaosu have any friends or relatives?”

Wang Congyang froze. “This Zhang Jinglin is his friend….”

Luo Lan was taken aback. “How coincidental.”

“Then don’t touch his brother. They’re just refugees.” The person on the other end sounded less hostile. “While you’re sending Zhang Jinglin back to the Northern Frontier, ship Old Liu off from your Stronghold 113 as well. He has no place over there anymore.”

Luo Lan muttered, “Why don’t we just kill him? It’s so much more trouble sending him away.”

“Just do as I say.” With a click, the other person hung up.

Wang Congyang, who was sitting next to Luo Lan, did not say a word. He had not expected these two brothers could decide the fate of a stronghold overseer with just a call. So this was what an organization could do.

…

At this time, it had also turned dark in the Jing Mountains. The Qing Consortium troops had erected huge spotlights around the excavation sites, with one shining in each of the four cardinal directions, illuminating the entire city in the valley.

The consortium was very experienced at combat operations, so they were used to treating every mission as a real battle. The only difference was that some battles were more major than others.

And the most important factors in a battle were: intelligence and reconnaissance.

After the young man dressed in a white suit hung up, he looked at Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, who were in front of him, with a smile. It had been several hours since the battle between the combat troops and the Experimental ended. Only afterwards were Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu taken to this ruined city.

“I forgot to introduce myself earlier.” The young man in the white suit said with a smile, “I am Qing Zhen of the Qing Consortium, also known as Luo Lan’s younger brother. I’m very happy to meet you two, my guests, Mr. Liu Bu and Ms. Luo Xinyu.”

Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu’s hands had been secured behind their backs with plastic ties. This did not make them feel like they were guests at all. Liu Bu suddenly said, “Everything that I said just now is true. I didn’t hide anything. Xu Xianchu is a supernatural being, and Yang Xiaojin is also very likely one. But the person you have to be wariest of is that Ren Xiaosu. I suggest you kill him on the spot if you encounter him! Their motives in coming to the Jing Mountains definitely aren’t innocent. I’m sure they’re trying to infringe on the interests of the Qing Consortium. I’m very familiar with Boss Luo, so you mustn’t kill me!”

Qing Zhen thought for a moment before asking, “Have you two heard about that schoolteacher from town, Zhang Jinglin?”

Liu Bu was startled. “I’ve heard Ren Xiaosu mention him a few times before. But why are you asking about this? Is it Zhang Jinglin who has a problem? That Ren Xiaosu seems to be very close to Zhang Jinglin, so there has to be a problem with him!”

Liu Bu was getting flustered and panicky. He was answering almost every question posed to him. Usually, the members of the consortium were gentlemanly and refined, and there was always a very graceful demeanor about them when they attended galas or parties.

But right now, they were surrounded by countless troops. These soldiers were all standing as still as statues, yet keeping an eye on all that was going on around them.

The gentleman revealed his fangs and muscularity all of a sudden, as his malicious nature that was usually hidden under his elegant exterior reared its head!

Liu Bu had only heard of Qing Zhen because of Boss Luo. Many of Stronghold 113’s residents had secretly talked about this pair of strange brothers. However, Qing Zhen’s reputation was not good because he was always the one handling the Qing Consortium’s assassinations in recent years.

According to what many people say, Qing Zhen was a demon who skinned his dead victims.

Chapter 88: Shadow, Qing Zhen

Members of the Qing Consortium were divided into several different groups. One of them was the Dependables. They were responsible for running the organizational machine. They did the honorable work and garnered respect and influence for the consortium.

Another group was the Bums, with people such as Luo Lan, who just needed to be kept alive and be well-fed in a stronghold. They were not expected to excel and just stayed around until they died.

Yet another type were the Shadows. Like Qing Zhen, who did all the dirty work yet had hardly anything to do with the inheritance of the consortium. He tended to earn the most money. Normally, an illegitimate child like Luo Lan would not be qualified to take control of a stronghold, yet Qing Zhen was able to help him do so.

Or maybe Luo Lan’s competitors did not dare to vie with him for control of the stronghold as they either feared Qing Zhen or relied on him for certain things. It was the first time the Qing Consortium had placed an illegitimate child in the controlling position of a stronghold, which demonstrated Qing Zhen’s standing within the consortium.

Qing Zhen looked at Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu and said, “Tell me about those three people. I’m talking about Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu…. Eh? Is Ren Xiaosu related to Yang Xiaojin in any way? It sounds like they’re pretty compatible based on their names.”

“No, they’re not related.” Liu Bu shook his head. “Ren Xiaosu is just a refugee from outside the stronghold. We forced him to be the guide for our expedition. He has great strength, so I suspect he might also be a supernatural being.”

Qing Zhen shook his head. “So it’s just his strength that’s a little greater?”

“Isn’t that enough? He’s capable of lifting up a full-grown man single-handed.” Liu Bu said anxiously, “And that Xu Xianchu, even though his stamina and strength are quite normal, his power is to create a shadow clone of himself. That shadow clone can even shield him from bullets!”

Qing Zhen got interested. He ordered someone next to him, “Take notes. Xu Xianchu, supernatural being who hasn’t reached his full potential; Danger Rating: C. Ren Xiaosu, suspected Strength-type supernatural being; Danger Rating: F.”

There were not only combat troops surrounding Qing Zhen, but also many researchers in hazmat suits. One of them was even responsible for making note of the decisions Qing Zhen make.

All of a sudden, Liu Bu realized that Qing Zhen was actually more interested in Xu Xianchu. It seemed like he didn’t really care about Ren Xiaosu.

“So Ren Xiaosu is also considered a supernatural being? Then you should hurry up and capture him,” Liu Bu said. All this while, Luo Xinyu, who was beside him, hadn’t said a word.

Qing Zhen laughed. “We’ll definitely capture him. I believe they must be in the city right now. But there’s nothing rare about Strength-type supernatural beings.”

At this moment, be it Liu Bu or Luo Xinyu, they both realized that Qing Consortium’s understanding of supernatural beings was definitely not on a superficial level.

It seemed that the Qing Consortium had gained a very deep understanding of these supernatural beings. But upon some thought, it wasn’t that surprising. The world was under the control of the organizations, so it was also quite normal they would have an advanced understanding of such secrets. They had many more resources, as well as the power of information.

But it felt like even the Qing Consortium was unable to fully define the level of powers that a supernatural being had. They could only use danger ratings to rank them.

This danger rating was probably assessed based on what could threaten the consortium, right?

So, for example, Xu Xianchu, who could summon a shadow clone to battle on his behalf, was assessed to be a C-class danger due to the bullet blocking ability it had, while Ren Xiaosu, who only had greater strength than normal, was ignored. No matter how strong one was, could they possibly overcome firearms and explosives?

Fists and kicks were ultimately no match for guns and cannons. In the eyes of the organizations, if someone’s strength didn’t surpass the power of a firearm, then the supernatural being’s destructive powers would be limited.

This was because the vast majority of firearms were still controlled by the organizations.

Qing Zhen was now sure that Ren Xiaosu was a refugee from the town outside of the stronghold, Xu Xianchu was an officer of the private army, while Yang Xiaojin’s origins remained unknown. Of course, even though Luo Lan had told him about them personally, he still might not believe his words. He was always the type who liked to verify the truth for himself.

Liu Bu could not really understand. Compared to Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu, Qing Zhen was clearly more interested in Yang Xiaojin. According to Liu Bu, Yang Xiaojin was very well-informed about the Pyro Company and other organizations. Therefore, this made Yang Xiaojin’s identity far more complicated than Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu.

Qing Zhen was currently standing in the ruins of the city. With a destroyed civilization and tough combatants of the consortium around him, his white suit remained spotlessly clean. He asked with great interest, “Has Yang Xiaojin shown herself to have any types of special skills?”

“Yang Xiaojin doesn’t have any special skills.” Liu Bu thought about it carefully for a long time. It felt like other than being decisive and ruthless, Yang Xiaojin was just a girl who didn’t exhibit any trace of special skills.

If Ren Xiaosu were here, he would have none of it. Those advanced jump rope and Advanced Nursery Rhymes Singing skills were both very impressive skills! Surely that was special enough, right?

But of course, Ren Xiaosu wasn’t here right now. By this point, he had located the jewelry shop he was longing to find!

Qing Zhen did not get the answer he desired, so he looked at Liu Bu seriously and said, “Think harder.”

For some reason, Liu Bu suddenly felt an oppressive force come over him. He clenched his teeth and said, “Yang Xiaojin really doesn’t have any special skills. Instead, I think you should raise your guard against Ren Xiaosu.”

“Oh?” Qing Zhen nodded. He turned to look at Luo Xinyu. “Just what is so special about this Ren Xiaosu that Liu Bu cannot take his mind off him? Could it be that he has some special skills other than his strength?”

Luo Xinyu froze. Ren Xiaosu’s special skill?

She gave it some thought before venturing, “Maybe he’s quite skilled at annoying people?”

Luo Xinyu was not making this up. In fact, she felt deeply about this!

But when Qing Zhen heard this, he laughed. He said to the person beside him, “Xu Man, bring a team and seek these three people out. Get back here before 12 midnight.”

“Affirmative.” The soldier named Xu Man led six platoons off, using 180 men to deal with three people. This was probably the highest form of “treatment” even within the Qing Consortium.

As Qing Zhen’s trusted aide, Xu Man understood the secret of the Jing Mountains must not be leaked. Everyone who was an outsider today would not be allowed to walk away from here.

Qing Zhen stood still and started humming a song. He had apparently relaxed. However, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu did not feel the same way. Luo Xinyu couldn’t resist testing Qing Zhen by saying, “Do the changes in the Jing Mountains also have something to do with this research lab?”

“No, no, no.” Qing Zhen said with a smile, “The changes in the Jing Mountains were beyond our expectations as well. We normally call this place… the Holy Land. Due to the changes in a certain person, there was a change to the entire mountain range. Because we discovered the change in the Jing Mountains too late, we were unable to identify who that person is.”

Liu Bu said nervously, “This matter has nothing to do with us!”

Qing Zhen paused. “I know it has nothing to do with you two. If it did, I would be the nervous one.”

“Then what are you planning to do with us?”

However, Qing Zhen did not seem to hear him. He was just waiting for Xu Man to bring Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin to him.

At this moment, the troops returned from the forest. It looked like they were carrying something back with them. Qing Zhen smiled and said to Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, “Don’t get too alarmed later.”

Chapter 89: A product of genetic modification

Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu looked at them in surprise. When they were brought back here earlier, the Qing Consortium’s combat troops were still dealing with the Experimental. So was this commotion related to the troops bringing back the Experimental? Honestly speaking, both of them were curious. Just what were those Experimentals?

But a moment later, they were stunned. They saw a multilayered, reinforced steel cage get carried over. Lying inside of it was a gray… person!

Liu Bu suspiciously checked out the person inside the cage. That person was riddled with bullets, but there wasn’t much bleeding. It was as though it could control its skin and muscles to close up its wounds the instant the bullet entered its body.

This would be pretty unimaginable to the average person because no one could control their bodies like that.

In addition, this gray figure was chained up by its arms and legs!

The chains had been meant to imprison the person somewhere, but it had somehow managed to break them off. Did the sound that Liu Bu and the others hear the other night come from this person?

At this moment, Liu Bu remembered the ravaged corpse of Xu Xia and the human teeth marks on it. He vomited on the spot at the thought. When Xu Xianchu and the others said that it was a human who bit Xu Xia’s corpse, he did not believe them. But now, there was no reason not to believe it.

Feelings of terror and disgust were gripping Liu Bu’s stomach like they were squeezing everything out of it.

He had no food inside him, so he could only vomit out a pale-green mixture of gastric juices and bile.

Qing Zhen looked at Liu Bu with great interest. “It looks like you also have some understanding of this thing here. Have you seen it chewing on a corpse too?”

Luo Xinyu’s reaction was tougher than Liu Bu. She forced herself to calm down and asked, “Just what is this thing?”

“Since it’s called an Experimental, then of course it’s something that’s used for performing experiments on.” Qing Zhen said, “But don’t misunderstand, this thing’s got nothing to do with our Qing Consortium. They are a product from the Pre-Cataclysm times. We also found out about their existence just recently.”

“It was from before The Cataclysm?” Luo Xinyu said, rather shocked. “How many years has it already been since The Cataclysm happened? Can they live for so long? Wait, when you said ‘they’…”

It was at this time that Luo Xinyu realized there wasn’t just one of these things around!

Qing Zhen carefully sized up the “person” in the cage. He said, “They seem to have just escaped from the research laboratory. Even I’m very curious about how they managed to live until now. This is basically a living specimen.”

Liu Bu shivered. This Qing Zhen was treating a living person as a specimen, even if that person was neither human nor demon.

Luo Xinyu suddenly realized what the Qing Consortium had come to the Jing Mountains for. They had even mobilized a large number of industrial machinery and spared no manpower or logistics, all so they could locate the research laboratory where these freaks were previously imprisoned!

When they realized that there wasn’t just one of these Experimentals around, they finally understood why the combat troops had called for support at first contact with the Experimental. It was because they were worried there would be more of them in the area!

“How many Experimentals did you all encounter, and how many people were injured or killed in the capture of this Experimental?” Qing Zhen asked.

Nearby, someone answered, “We only encountered this one. We mobilized five platoons, and three people died while another 13 were injured.”

Qing Zhen shook his head. “It’s enough to capture one of these Experimentals. For future encounters, it doesn’t matter whether they live or die. Just destroy them all. Don’t add to the number of casualties on our side.”

“Roger,” an officer of the consortium’s combat troops answered.

The Experimental in the cage was clearly not dead yet. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu could tell because they could see it was still breathing from the rising and falling of its chest.

However, Luo Xinyu was a little skeptical. “It should’ve been centuries years since The Cataclysm happened, right? How are they still alive?”

This was the most puzzling thing. The average human’s lifespan was only several decades long, or at most, a little over a hundred years. But if these Experimentals were really from the time before The Cataclysm, how did they manage to survive til now in the underground lab? This didn’t make sense.

Even if their lifespan could be extended, what did these Experimentals eat in the underground lab?

Qing Zhen stood before the cage and laughed. “Did I not capture them to find out their secret? For example, multicellular organisms like humans use cell division to perform growth and reproduction. Logically, cell division should be an infinite process, since if it could be divided once, then it could be divided again for a second time or more. But what’s strange is that human cells can only divide an average of 50 times before they stop dividing 1 . After that, they will head into an irreversible decline.”

This is the reason why humans grow old and die. After human cells divide themselves about 50 times, the cells enter a senescence phase. Then the organs start to fail until death occurs.

Qing Zhen looked at the person in the cage and continued, “I suspect this lab has discovered a way to make the cells divide indefinitely. By doing so, the human body’s metabolic rate and lifespan increases. However, they did not consider the consequences of doing something like that.”

Qing Zhen labeled this creature in the cage as a Fiend, but it was neither human nor demon. To him, these Fiends had lost their human minds, and their intelligence had degraded to the point of being not that much different from a beast.

But in contrast to their intelligence, these Fiends had physical strength and agility that surpassed the average human’s to the point that not even wild animals were a match.

Moreover, wild animals obeyed an order. Just like Ren Xiaosu had said, the different species still had taxonomic orders 1 .

But these Experimentals were different. They did not belong in an order.

Right at this moment, the Experimental that had been shot four or five times started coming around. It curled its body and slammed itself against the steel cage, as if it wanted to use brute strength to break the cage apart!

However, it seemed that this cage had been specially built by the Qing Consortium. It got slightly deformed but did not break apart from the Experimental slamming itself against it.

Eventually, the Experimental stopped trying. It just glared daggers at Qing Zhen, who was in front of it. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu discovered that Qing Zhen remained unusually calm no matter how aggressively the Experimental was struggling. There was no point in time that he took a step back due to fear.

Qing Zhen removed the magazine from a pistol and threw the pistol into the cage. The Experimental bit into the steel pistol and crushed it with its jaws!

Qing Zhen and the Experimental looked at each other. Suddenly, he said, “Note this down. Subject’s teeth have evolved to become harder, its pupils are narrow, and it has a habit of crawling to move around. This thing can no longer be categorized as human, and it’s suspected that they are a product of genetic modification. The lab is suspected as a possible secret testing site for the Pyro Company from before The Cataclysm.”

From nearby, someone took out pen and paper to take complete notes on Qing Zhen’s observations. Compared to Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu’s startled looks, everyone else looked like they had gotten used to Qing Zhen’s calm demeanor.

Chapter 90: Rounding up Ren Xiaosu

For some reason, Luo Xinyu suddenly felt that the calm-looking Qing Zhen standing outside of the cage was even more vicious than the Experimental inside of it.

And… what did this have anything to do with the Pyro Company?

“Shine a bright light at it,” said Qing Zhen.

Someone shone the spotlight onto the Experimental’s face. The Experimental feared the light so much it instinctively tried to block its eyes with its arms.

Qing Zhen wondered, “They are clearly afraid of light, so why were they active during the day today? Have they evolved even further… or was it because there was something special that attracted them and made them want to come out even in the light!”

Someone beside him said calmly, “There are two possibilities why they’re afraid of the light. One would be that their former human personalities can’t face their current selves, and the other would be that their DNA was inserted with animal behavior like nocturnality.”

“This isn’t urgent.” Qing Zhen nodded and said, “Ask Xu Man over the radio whether he’s located those three people yet. I’m guessing they must’ve sneaked into our area of operations during the time you all were busy capturing the Experimental.”

Qing Zhen had managed to guess when Ren Xiaosu and the others had sneaked past the perimeter they had locked down. Qing Zhen was very eager to find the trio because he wanted to know if the Experimentals had suddenly come out in the daytime because one of the three had attracted them.

…

Ren Xiaosu was wandering around a huge shopping mall. Perhaps due to the incredible construction quality of the building, this huge mall did not collapse from earthquakes.

But even so, while the façade of the building was still intact, the interior furnishings were damaged beyond recognition. Many of the dropped ceiling tiles had crashed to the floor, and the messy counters below were gray and dusty. The layer of dust that had gathered on them looked like it was at least ten centimeters thick. The items that could not stand the passage of time had all deteriorated and been damaged.

And it was in this shopping mall that Ren Xiaosu finally saw a jewelry shop.

The jewelry had oxidized, and the silver ornaments on the counter had all tarnished black. Only by snapping them apart could a trace of its original silvery color be seen in the break lines.

As for gold jewelry, they would oxidize as well. The gold in this shopping mall had apparently come in contact for a long time with some iron that was contained in the collapsed dropped ceilings, resulting in red spots forming on the surface. But of course, that wouldn’t affect the intrinsic value of the gold itself.

He definitely did not want the items made of silver. Silver was not particularly valuable in these times.

Ren Xiaosu could only take a limited amount of items with him by himself. He had to go for the items that were the highest in value.

It was at this time that the benefit of the storage space was amplified. How much gold could be loaded into a space of one cubic meter? Ren Xiaosu had been worried about how he could continue upgrading his storage space. But now there wasn’t a need to worry. The gold that was here would probably be enough for him, Yan Liuyuan, and Sister Xiaoyu to live comfortably for many decades to come!

Most of the gold in the shopping mall was in the form of jewelry. So to save space, Ren Xiaosu squeezed the gold bracelets and gold necklaces into a clump before storing them in the palace. After all, he could do anything he wanted with his strong hands.

But even so, there was still a lot of empty space in the storage area after he had stuffed it full with the gold, which Ren Xiaosu felt was tragic.

In the end, he took off his jacket and used it to wrap some of the gold up.

Ren Xiaosu even saw diamonds in the shopping mall, but diamonds were no longer considered valuable in these times. Mr. Zhang from the school had once said that a long time ago, diamonds were extremely expensive, even though there was a large quantity of them in the world. It was only priced highly because supply was controlled and prices were inflated.

As such, in the current day, no one was advocating owning diamonds anymore. Or perhaps, in times when everyone was more willing to purchase food and not diamonds, the value of diamonds would naturally depreciate.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of footsteps neatly marching outside the shopping mall. He frowned when he realized the Qing Consortium’s people had arrived.

Ren Xiaosu knew well that the Qing Consortium would find out about the existence of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and him. Since Liu Bu had been captured, he would surely tell the Qing Consortium about them.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was in the shopping mall carrying gold inside his jacket as the storage space in his palace was full.

He didn’t care if Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin had achieved their purpose for the expedition. He had everything he needed.

Perhaps Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were here to find out about the secret of the supernatural beings and the evolution that was happening in the world, but Ren Xiaosu was not interested in that at all. If there were a reflexology spa still operating in this city, he might be interested in that….

Ren Xiaosu was just thinking of making off with the gold he had gotten his hands on.

But just as he was about to leave the place, he heard the neat marching of the Qing Consortium’s troops as they arrived outside the mall. Ren Xiaosu frowned and stepped back into the jewelry shop.

It looked like Liu Bu had already revealed their existence after getting captured by the Qing Consortium. However, Ren Xiaosu was not panicking yet. This shopping mall was gigantic, so Ren Xiaosu did not think the troops would easily find him even if they came in and searched.

Moreover, this ruined city was colossal, and there were a lot of buildings too. Even if the Qing Consortium had thousands of troops, and they were all mobilized to conduct a search of the entire city, it would still take them at least ten days to a fortnight to sweep through it.

The Qing Consortium’s Xu Man was leading the platoons through the dusty streets. They were ready to engage in combat at any time, because based on Liu Bu’s description, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were both relatively dangerous people. This was especially so for Xu Xianchu since he had a danger rating of C.

As for someone like Ren Xiaosu, everyone’s judgment of him was more or less the same: A typical refugee who had slightly greater than normal strength and knew how to kill people but was otherwise not considered much of a threat. It wasn’t because Xu Man and Qing Zhen were blindly arrogant, but because Liu Bu didn’t know what Ren Xiaosu’s ace in the hole was.

Xu Man was a professional soldier with an abundance of combat experience. He also understood that if Ren Xiaosu only had greater strength than normal, he wouldn’t stand a chance against their firearms.

Ren Xiaosu hid behind a dilapidated steel shelf in the shopping mall. He made sure he was completely hidden in the shadows so he would not be discovered by anyone who happened to pass by outside.

When he saw a platoon of soldiers being led by Xu Man slowly passing by in front of the broken entrance, Ren Xiaosu felt a slight relief.

When Xu Man led the platoon past the next building’s corner, he halted in his tracks. He turned around and said to the soldier behind him, “I don’t remember some of the things in that building being placed that way. Someone’s been here, and he could still be inside!”

Ren Xiaosu had probably not expected there would be such a fearsome combatant within the ranks of the Qing Consortium. He was very detailed about things and had an amazing memory too.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not really touch the items on the counters facing the outside. At most, he had handled one or two of them. But even so, that did not escape Xu Man’s eyes.

Chapter 91: Fighting alone

Xu Man was very cautious. He first pretended not to have found anything and walked past the shopping mall. When he confirmed that he was far away from it, he immediately called for support to try to surround the mall.

The platoon carefully made their way back, while the other five platoons were closing in as well. The wireless communications equipment they had in their helmets was far more convenient than they could imagine.

Xu Man slowly led the soldiers towards the main entrance as though they had come back after a normal patrol of the area and there was nothing unusual about their movements. Their combat boots were hard bottomed, so it was impossible for them to stay completely silent while walking on the concrete surfaces. So it was better to pretend they were on a normal patrol.

However, when Ren Xiaosu heard these footsteps again, he let out a sigh in his head. He knew that anyone in this world who depended on luck would not live for long. If he were still thinking the other party hadn’t discovered him yet, that would be too stupid of him.

For the Qing Consortium’s troops to suddenly return, it didn’t matter how unconcerned they were trying to act. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood there must be a reason for it. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache. He slowly laid down the jacket he had used to wrap up the gold with onto the floor. He decided to abandon it.

Now that he had to run for his life, he couldn’t risk his life for the gold.

Even if he had great strength, carrying a bundle of gold would affect his speed, or worse, his sense of balance.

Ren Xiaosu had always treated money as just a tool. He liked it, but he would never indulge in it. It had always been so for him.

Not only was he abandoning the gold, Ren Xiaosu was even planning on discarding the jacket. If he slowly took out the gold jewelry from inside the jacket, it would make too much noise.

He turned around and ran lightly into the depths of the shopping mall. This mall was huge and spanned several stories as well.

The outside of the building was probably surrounded already. Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t use his life to test whether anyone standing behind the doors. What if a hail of gunfire swept over him the moment he opened one? That would be the end for him. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to run upstairs.

From his memory, there was another building next to this shopping mall that was similar in height. This mall had been located in the most prosperous business center of the city, so it wasn’t the only building around the area.

Ren Xiaosu was not a reckless person. Xu Man might pick up that someone was hiding in the mall from his keen observation, but Ren Xiaosu had similarly picked out his getaway route beforehand.

The gap between the two buildings was around 20 meters, and Ren Xiaosu was confident that he could leap over based on his current strength and dexterity.

Xu Man slowly led the troops into the mall. They had their tactical flashlights on as they slowly infiltrated into the darkness within.

But not long after entering the building, Xu Man noticed the jacket and gold Ren Xiaosu had abandoned on the ground.

He said on the communications channel, “We’ve got confirmation on the target’s trail. The target has noticed we’re after him and is currently on the run in another direction! Target is extremely cautious!”

Qing Zhen’s voice sounded on the communications channel. “Have you discovered who it is yet?”

Xu Man hesitated for a moment before saying, “It might be that refugee, Ren Xiaosu. I’ve not set eyes on the target yet, so I can’t confirm.”

“How did you guess it’s Ren Xiaosu without seeing him?” Qing Zhen asked, “Did you find some clues?”

Xu Man hesitated and said, “We discovered a stash of gold here…. I’m guessing only that kid would be so interested in gold.”

Qing Zhen started laughing. He agreed with Xu Man’s judgment. Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were obviously after the secret of the Jing Mountains. The two of them would definitely not be interested in something like gold. At least, it wouldn’t be their immediate goal.

Who would run this far out here and experience so much danger and terror all for the sake of making off with a bag of gold?

If Ren Xiaosu were to hear this, he would be the first to object. Gold was so adorable, so why couldn’t he hope to make off with some?!

Luo Lan and Liu Bu had mentioned that Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, but Qing Zhen did not entirely believe them.

He was a suspicious person, so even if everyone said Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, he would still not underestimate Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could have been pretending all this while and might not have been the ordinary refugee they claimed he was.

Everyone who appeared here could possibly be here for the secret of the Jing Mountains. They could all have another identity.

However, Qing Zhen laughed. He suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu really might not be interested in the secret of the Jing Mountains. At least to him, gold ranked above the secret of this place.

Qing Zhen said, “This Ren Xiaosu is pretty interesting. Capture and bring him to me.”

“Roger.”

A moment later, the Qing Consortium’s troops stormed into the shopping mall like black vipers!

“Target is escaping to the second floor.”

“Target is escaping to the third floor.”

Xu Man was listening in on the comms to receive updates on the operations. By this time, the troops had discovered Ren Xiaosu’s footprints. Inside the building, the floor was covered with layers of dust accumulated over the years, and anyone who stepped on it would leave behind their footprints.

It was a good thing to have discovered Ren Xiaosu’s whereabouts. But Xu Man was considering something. This building had six floors, and the total height was probably between 30 and 40 meters. If Ren Xiaosu kept escaping upwards, he might end up having nowhere to go once he reached the top!

Was Ren Xiaosu an idiot? Why would he escape up to a dead end?

As Xu Man led the combat troops up, he recalled the details of his encounter with Ren Xiaosu. When this young man discovered he and the soldiers had returned to this building, he gave up on the gold without any hesitation and even started fleeing as quickly as possible.

This person loved money, but he was not greedy. When he realized he was in danger, he did not take any chances and abandoned the gold.

Based on the logic of most people, they might bring the gold along with them as they made their escape for a while. They would only make the decision to discard the gold when they realized it was a hindrance to their escape. This was human nature.

However, Ren Xiaosu wasn’t like this. The way he had abandoned the gold was decisive.

Xu Man understood this young man he encountered was not simple. The target had a very strong survival instinct, as well as a no-nonsense and sober reasoning process.

Besides, even if their target of capture were really an idiot, he would still treat that person as the smartest person around. This was the kind of mindset to approach any combat situation!

So since Ren Xiaosu was escaping upstairs, did that mean there was a route of escape up there?

This was clearly a separate building by itself, so where could Ren Xiaosu run to?

That wasn’t right!

Xu Man suddenly remembered there was a building beside the mall, and it was just over a dozen meters away and slightly shorter than the one they were in. Could Ren Xiaosu escape by jumping over?!

Xu Man did not think of this before because he had believed Ren Xiaosu could not leap across to the nearby building since he himself couldn’t do so.

The misconception here was that humans tended to judge other people based on their own abilities. If they could not do something, they would think others couldn’t do it either.

But while Xu Man could not do it, that did not mean Ren Xiaosu couldn’t do it either!

Xu Man said loudly in the comms channel, “Outside platoons, go and lock down the adjacent building!”

Chapter 92: Intentions revealed! A midnight assassination!

Surrounding the adjacent building now might already be too late.

But what Xu Man couldn’t understand was, if Ren Xiaosu could really leap across the building, then just what kind of strength and speed did he have?

Xu Man said to the other soldiers of the platoon he was leading, “You guys keep chasing him upstairs!”

He then turned around and headed downstairs, running straight for the adjacent building. Xu Man firmly believed that Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t wait to get caught on the roof. That young man would definitely jump to the next building!

Just several moments after he rushed out of the building he was in, he looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu flying overhead. The young man’s speed in the air was shockingly fast, and his body was comfortably outstretched to the extreme. Then he lightly landed on the roof of the building across the lane! In that instant, Xu Man thought he saw a bird flying.

Xu Man drew in a deep breath. He ran towards the adjacent building while saying on the comms channel, “Target Ren Xiaosu will need to have his powers reassessed! I repeat! Target’s powers will need to be reassessed!”

This young man was far from what they had imagined him! This was absolutely not a level of strength that their commonly designated F-class threats could reach!

Xu Man rushed into the building and ran like mad up the stairs to the roof. But everyone who was in this ruined city heard a loud sound come from out of the blue. The sound reverberated through the city and out into the distance, as though a death knell had suddenly sounded.

Xu Man stood in the dark building and looked around. He was puzzled. What was that sound? It sounded like it came from somewhere nearby!

…

A few moments ago, while Ren Xiaosu was in midair after leaping across to the next building, he saw someone standing atop a fractured skyscraper in the distance before him.

He had intended to head to that fractured skyscraper in the first place, so he wasn’t really that far from it at this point.

A moment later, he landed on the roof and stood there as he looked at the breach of the skyscraper. The broken and twisted rebar made the skyscraper look like it was a demon’s tentacles piercing the sky.

On top of that fracture, a cap-wearing girl plucked a large sniper rifle out of thin air. Then she placed a foot onto the edge of the crumbled wall and used both her hands to lift the large rifle onto her raised leg for support!

Locked and loaded, she took aim!

Ren Xiaosu did not know how Yang Xiaojin had conjured the sniper rifle. He looked in the direction Yang Xiaojin was aiming and saw Qing Zhen, who was wearing his white suit and standing in the spotlight!

Ren Xiaosu was standing in the middle between Yang Xiaojin and Qing Zhen, so he could just barely make out the situation at Qing Zhen’s location.

So… Yang Xiaojin wasn’t here for anything else. She wasn’t here to visit her relatives, nor was she here for the secret of the Jing Mountains. Right from the beginning, her purpose was to kill this young man wearing the white suit!

Ren Xiaosu had given it deep thought before and deduced there must have been an organization backing Yang Xiaojin. Moreover, the organization would also have its own intelligence agency. So this could explain why Yang Xiaojin knew about Qing Zhen’s whereabouts and that he would appear here.

Right now in the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains, this cap-wearing girl had finally revealed her intentions and was about to create her greatest assassination attempt!

Ren Xiaosu’s Advanced Firearms Proficiency made him suddenly think at this moment. He looked in the direction of the suit-wearing young man and considered the many factors affecting a long-distance shot on a target. The distance between Yang Xiaojin and the suit-wearing young man was at the point where the shooter would have to consider compensating for the Earth’s rotation. If there wasn’t any point of reference, how should the shot be carried out?

At this moment, Luo Xinyu, who wasn’t far away from the suit-wearing young man, had her head lowered. Her long hair was draped in front of her and blowing in the light breeze. When the wind stopped blowing, Luo Xinyu’s hair would also stop moving. Ren Xiaosu realized that the moment was now!

At some point in time, Luo Xinyu had freed herself from the shackles on her hands. She pulled out a black dagger from her dense hair and thrust it at the bodyguard beside Qing Zhen. But the bodyguard did not back down. Instead, a white light started glowing in his hands as he conjured two fan-like objects and aimed it at Luo Xinyu with killing intent.

Beside them, Liu Bu was dumbfounded with shock. He could never have expected the Luo Xinyu he knew to suddenly become like she was someone else. Where did that delicate and fragile Luo Xinyu go?! Was this someone else impersonating her?!

The dagger Luo Xinyu was holding looked like a work of art. But in her slender hand, the dagger somehow seemed to be imbued with so much power.

When the combat troops around them saw this development, they raised their guns and took aim at Luo Xinyu. If Qing Zhen’s bodyguard could not stand up to her, they would fire their weapons in Luo Xinyu’s path to prevent her from assassinating Qing Zhen!

But Luo Xinyu was not going to kill anyone. She had apparently done this to give Yang Xiaojin an opening. Be it Qing Zhen’s bodyguard or those troops, none of them were expecting the assasination attempt to come from the top of a far away skyscraper.

Luo Xinyu only feinted an attack before making her retreat. Almost instantly, she stepped back into a shroud of shadow in the building behind her and disappeared. It was as though the door she opened in the shroud of shadow allowed her to cross spacetime!

It was Luo Xinyu’s power. Perhaps even Ren Xiaosu did not expect another supernatural being to be hidden on their team. Furthermore, it was even the person whose acting was the best.

This turn of events overwhelmed everyone. But at this time, Qing Zhen spun and looked at the top of the skyscraper. He could feel a sharp pain in his temples!

With a pull of the trigger, the muzzle flash from Yang Xiaojin’s sniper rifle was like a fire-breathing dragon in the dark of night that suddenly brought on the bloodshed!

That bodyguard noticed the muzzle flash in his peripheral vision and immediately gave up on chasing after Luo Xinyu to return back to Qing Zhen’s side.

The duty of a bodyguard was to protect rather than to kill enemies. That bodyguard roared with rage, “Sniper!”

The distance between Yang Xiaojin and Qing Zhen allowed the bodyguard to react in time. Even though a bullet was fast, it was all relative. With the distance extended, a bullet meant for killing would still have to travel across the dense air of the night sky!

The bodyguard threw his own body in front of Qing Zhen to shield him, with those two glowing hand fans made of white light held out in front of his chest. He could have tried to push Qing Zhen aside, but Qing Zhen was just a normal person, so that would have been too slow.

Time stilled.

A sniper rifle’s bullet that was the length of a hand tore through the air of this world. The energy from its rotation distorted the air all around it as it penetrated through the night sky!

The spotlight illuminated the area around Qing Zhen like a stage. Meanwhile, that bullet seemingly penetrated through the gaps of the light beams as it arrived onstage after traveling a 1,000 meters.

With a loud impact, the rotating bullet slammed into the glowing white fans with great force. The white fans started crumbling apart bit by bit.

At one point, the bodyguard even felt like he could see the patterning on the silver hand-length bullet.

Right after, the bullet spun through his muscles and heart. It continued to pass through him as it exited the wound with a splatter of blood. This bullet that had traveled over 1,000 meters had the extraordinary capability to pierce through this supernatural being’s power and body before it finally fell to the ground.

Those two white fans were extremely tough, but they were still unable to stop death.

The blood flew through the air and splattered onto Qing Zhen’s white suit, staining it red. The spots of blood on the white suit made it look just like plum blossoms that had just bloomed in the winter forest.

But even at this moment, Qing Zhen was still looking as calm as ever. It was as though the bullet was not coming for him in the first place.

“What a pity,” Qing Zhen said and sighed. The people beside him could not tell what he meant. Was he talking about the supernatural being who was his bodyguard who had just died? Or was he referring to his white suit?

Chapter 93: What a scam!

A normal 7.62 mm bullet had 2,600 joules of kinetic energy upon firing, while a 12.7 mm bullet could reach 15,000 joules of kinetic energy.

But actually, even with such simplified data available, it would still be very difficult for people to imagine how powerful a bullet from a sniper rifle was when it hit and passed through someone.

Qing Zhen’s bodyguard was a supernatural being. But what was very shocking was that at a time when the various organizations were arresting these supernatural beings, Qing Zhen had started using them for his own purposes.

At this moment, this silent tiger of the Qing Consortium with a notorious reputation even among the other organizations was standing in the limelight as though this were his stage. He bent over to pick up the bullet off the ground and said with a smile, “The Saboteurs have finally set their sights on me?”

The people around Qing Zhen were taken aback. So it was the Saboteurs who did this? That obscure legend of a group that was being discussed by the organizations?

Qing Zhen turned to look at Liu Bu. He said with a smile, “As her agent, you didn’t even know your client is a supernatural being. You’re pretty stupid then. Rest in peace. There is no place for a useless person… in this era.”

Qing Zhen grabbed Liu Bu by his hair and stabbed the hand-length bullet into Liu Bu’s eye with his bare hands. Liu Bu could only let out a short cry of pain before he stopped moving.

Both of Qing Zhen’s hands were bloody.

…

Right now, Ren Xiaosu was standing atop the roof as he dumbfoundedly watched Yang Xiaojin dismount her gun and stand up without any delay. It was as though she already knew it would be very difficult to make another attempt on Qing Zhen’s life even if she were to keep shooting at him.

A second later, the sniper rifle’s muzzle swung over. It was aimed straight at Ren Xiaosu, who was on the roof. Ren Xiaosu sensed a trace of the girl’s mischief behind the scope.

Ren Xiaosu panicked. ‘Shouldn’t you fucking be taking another shot after failing to complete your mission? Why are you aiming at me?!’

But Yang Xiaojin appeared to be very calm. She had failed, so whatever happened wasn’t worth looking back on.

The rifle was fired with a cracking sound. But this time, there wasn’t anything spectacular about the gunshot. This was because Ren Xiaosu stood there without moving, and the bullet didn’t hit him either.

As Ren Xiaosu knew all about Yang Xiaojin’s firearms proficiency, he knew she hadn’t fired this shot to kill him. It was to draw a clear line between them in front of the Qing Consortium?

If it were really that, then wasn’t this done too hastily?! Or could it be that she was just doing this out of spite for Luo Xinyu’s sake?!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Xinyu, who had just disappeared, appear on top of the skyscraper. She waved at Ren Xiaosu like she was greeting him before taking Yang Xiaojin’s hand and bringing her into the shadow with her.

Ren Xiaosu was absolutely stunned by what he had seen this time. He looked at the top of the skyscraper that was now empty, then looked over at the numerous Qing Consortium’s combat troops coming for him. ‘You guys are just gonna leave like that? Aren’t you gonna bring me along too?!’

Seeing the large force of the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade approaching, Ren Xiaosu wanted to cry. ‘You two may escape with your superpowers after attracting such firepower, but have you considered that you might be inconveniencing for others?!’

What a scam!

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could never have imagined that Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin were in on it together. Even Yang Xiaojin’s assassination attempt on Qing Zhen didn’t leave him so surprised.

At this time, Ren Xiaosu remembered the first time he met Luo Xinyu and how he had requested to switch Wang Congyang with someone else for the expedition. Back then, Luo Xinyu had secretly given Yang Xiaojin a look no one but Ren Xiaosu had noticed.

Later on, when they were eating fish together, Yang Xiaojin called Luo Xinyu over to have some as well. When someone harassed Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin stood up for her just in time.

At the time, Ren Xiaosu had thought Yang Xiaojin was only doing this because they were both women. He never expected these two people already knew each other, and they even put on such a great act in front of everyone!

They did not exactly cover all details with their acting, but it was still enough to fool Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Liu Bu.

Luo Xinyu was only a girl. So many soldiers of the private army had died, but Luo Xinyu survived until the very end. This in and of itself should have aroused Ren Xiaosu’s suspicions.

Before he learned of this outcome, those shreds of evidence were hidden in plain sight, but he didn’t pick up on them. But after what happened here, and upon remembering, the details popped into his mind.

Ren Xiaosu watched with a pained heart as the dense, dark group of troops neared. He had been too careless!

The saying was indeed true: The prettier the animal, the deadlier it was. So this rule was not only true for the wilderness!

And these two girls had been keeping Liu Bu around because he helped to lessen the suspicion on Luo Xinyu. In the end, Luo Xinyu helped Yang Xiaojin determine Qing Zhen’s location and even helped her gain an extra moment of time.

The only surprise was that they had not expected Qing Zhen to have a supernatural being who would protect him even at the expense of the being’s own life.

What was so extraordinary about Qing Zhen that a supernatural being would follow him?!

Right at this time, the rusty iron door on the roof was shattered by someone ramming into it. Ren Xiaosu raised his gun and opened fire in that person’s path, blocking his route. He looked around him and let out a curse. “Fuck!”

Not a second later, Xu Man arrived through the shattered door onto the rooftop. When he saw Ren sprinting for the side of the roof, he attempted to shoot at him to stop him. In the end, he couldn’t match Ren Xiaosu’s speed as he tried to take aim at him!

In the ruined city, the troops in their black uniforms were making their way towards him like snakes hunting prey. Ren Xiaosu could no longer wait. He had to get out of here before they surrounded him!

Back when Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu penetrated into the city perimeter, he thought he would be the fastest person to get away from here in the event they had to escape.

However, that wasn’t the case at all. Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had a trick up their sleeves!

Ren Xiaosu leaped off the rooftop. The rooftop on the adjacent building was a drop of several dozen meters from the one he was on. However, Ren Xiaosu was confident he would be fine!

Xu Man rushed to the edge of the roof in the hope that he could fire another shot at Ren Xiaosu. But by the time he reached the edge, he could only see Ren Xiaosu’s receding figure running off into the distance towards the edge of the city. Xu Man shouted on the comms channel, “Target is escaping at my ten o’clock! Shrink the perimeter and lock it down!”

In the forest outside of the city, the Qing Consortium’s perimeter lockdown was still in effect. Over there were countless troops waiting for any signs of unknown danger that approached. But to everyone’s surprise, that danger turned out to be a refugee escaping towards them.

Before this, almost no one regarded this refugee to be any danger at all.

Ren Xiaosu was making a mad dash through the city streets and alleys. Ever since he jumped off the rooftop, he was trying his best not to head for higher ground. This was because he didn’t want to end up becoming a live target for the troops.

As he ran, he kept thinking about how Xu Xianchu didn’t seem to have made any moves. It would have been good if there were someone else sharing a load of this firepower at this time!

This ruined city was a huge chessboard, and Ren Xiaosu was a small chess piece running around on it. On this chessboard, the other white chess pieces on his team were gone. Meanwhile, those heavily armed black pieces were all looking to hunt him down and kill him.

Chapter 94: Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!

Ren Xiaosu scampered towards the forest at the edge of the city. He was heading north to Stronghold 112, also where the active volcanoes were.

He knew combat troops would for sure be waiting for him up front. The net they had set would slowly open as he arrived.

But Ren Xiaosu had no other choice. Only by getting there would he have a chance of survival!

But all of a sudden, a violent rumble came from the depths of the Jing Mountains hinterlands. Ren Xiaosu raised his head at the mountains in the distance and saw a fiery light erupting from within the mountain range!

‘Wait a minute, the volcano is about to erupt!’

Should he keep running forward, or should he turn around?

Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth. At this time, why should he worry about the volcano? Only by staying alive could he consider other matters!

Behind him, Xu Man also froze for a moment when he saw what was happening at the volcano. Heading within range of the volcano during an eruption was extremely dangerous. Much less going further, they wouldn’t even be able to turn around and escape if the volcano really erupted.

A lot of people thought that only the living creatures around the main mountain would be affected during a volcanic eruption, but that was only because they underestimated the true power of one!

Perhaps the entire area spanning tens to hundreds of kilometers around would go up in a fiery sea!

However, Xu Man only hesitated for a moment before saying on the comms channel, “Keep advancing!”

Having fled to the edge of the city, Ren Xiaosu turned around and glanced at the city behind him. The black ironsand-like torrent of Qing Consortium troops was almost reaching him. Without further hesitation, Ren Xiaosu turned and went straight into the forest in the north!

As the scattered Qing Consortium troops stationed in the forest started narrowing down the perimeter lockdown, their tactical movements had an unusual sense of depth.

Their movements seemed to have been practiced hundreds to thousands of times, with the platoons knowing exactly who would be advancing and who would be providing cover from behind.

The platoons in the northern forest had already received orders to round up and capture Ren Xiaosu. Even though the sound of an eruption was currently coming from the volcano behind them, it did not affect them from carrying out their orders.

At this moment, Xu Man’s voice came on through the comms channel. “Target’s 100-meter sprint time is 3.92 seconds, and he has an unknown strength. All units, kill on sight.”

Perhaps even Ren Xiaosu could not imagine the kind of technology the Qing Consortium had in their hands. Within the ranks of their troops, there was someone who specialized in evaluating the power and speed of their targets from afar.

However, Ren Xiaosu had still not revealed his true strength and capabilities yet, so this didn’t allow the troops to fully assess him for now.

Qing Zhen had been quite interested in Ren Xiaosu. Moreover, there was also his relationship with Zhang Jinglin to consider, so Qing Zhen was actually thinking of keeping Ren Xiaosu for other purposes.

But right now, he did not want to wait anymore.

There was only a thin line between capturing him and killing him on sight.

The seven platoons in the forest pulled back their charging handles at almost the same time and pointed their muzzles downwards, ready to raise their rifles and shoot at any moment.

In addition, these seven platoons had switched their communications channel to a different frequency. This was to prevent any outside communications from interfering with their operations. At this moment, these 210 soldiers formed an independent ORBAT 1 that could act first and report later.

This had always been the practice of the combat troops under Qing Zhen’s command. Qing Zhen’s opinion was that if an independent ORBAT was not even allowed to make their own decisions, then the war machine would not truly have any combat effectiveness.

Many people within the Qing Consortium ranks had criticized his military command before, but Qing Zhen had never accepted their point of view. He did not accept it in the past, and he would not accept it in the future either.

However, what many of the important figures in the Qing Consortium did not know was that this form of command made many of the soldiers willing to work for Qing Zhen. He would often make them feel like they were trusted.

At this time, Qing Zhen was looking at Liu Bu, who was lying in a puddle of blood. Some of the troops were carrying out another detailed search on Liu Bu’s corpse. In the end, someone found a folded figure of a tattered doll and said, “This was the thing that he was carrying around.”

Qing Zhen frowned and said, “What the hell is this?!”

It seemed that not even someone like Qing Zhen had ever seen such a thing before…

…

The troops in the forest were slowly shrinking the perimeter lockdown and had switched on their tactical flashlights.

Based on the information Xu Man had gathered from Liu Bu, Ren Xiaosu should have a gun on him. Other than that, he also seized three magazines of ammo from the private troops.

But the Qing Consortium’s troops were not afraid of being live targets by switching on their flashlights. After all, Ren Xiaosu, who was alone, definitely could not kill all 30 of them in one fell swoop. If he dared to fire at them, their comrades would instantly open fire at Ren Xiaosu and turn him into Swiss cheese!

In the forest, the seven platoons were gradually moving closer to the city. Meanwhile, Xu Man was leading six platoons towards the forest in an attempt to corner their target. To catch one person, they had mobilized several hundred soldiers. Ren Xiaosu was getting an unprecedented kind of treatment.

However, they still underestimated Ren Xiaosu’s capabilities in the wilderness.

The reason why Ren Xiaosu had agreed to be the expedition’s guide was also due to his self-confidence.

Although the Qing Consortium’s troops were fearsome, they still lacked far too much experience in the wilderness as compared to Ren Xiaosu!

When the six platoons that Xu Man was leading got closer to the seven platoons coming from the forest, a black shadow suddenly crashed into them.

That black shadow was thick as ink, but its movements were demonically fast and nimble. It was as if the trees in the forest were not an obstacle for it at all.

The platoons on the northern side did not hesitate and fired straight at it. But the black shadow was prepared for it and simply sidestepped to the right, making the bullets miss.

The black shadow did not stop after it sidestepped, and it leaned forward. Taking a stride, it pushed off and rushed into the crowd of the most frontline platoon!

What could be done when the enemy had the most powerful firearms and explosives? This was a question Ren Xiaosu had asked Zhang Jinglin before. At that time, Zhang Jinglin said, “You should, of course, run right into their midst, because they won’t shoot indiscriminately at you. Their comrades are all around them, while everyone else is an enemy for you!”

Ren Xiaosu was unsure if Zhang Jinglin’s advice was a joke or what, but it seemed like it would work in his current situation.

He saw every one of the troops unsheathing their combat knives as a result. As the black shadow was moving too fast, they were indeed worried about friendly fire.

But to Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone, these normal human beings were too slow, as well as too weak!

The black shadow was completely fearless of being sliced by the knives. It only needed one punch to end a life. Suddenly, the black shadow raised its leg and kicked one of the troops in the chest. That soldier was sent flying five meters away just like a kite cut from its line!

The other troops were frightened by this. The power in that kick was overwhelming!

Xu Man, who had arrived just in time, saw a blur of this black shadow from afar. When he finally managed to get a clearer view of it, he was a little puzzled. Weren’t they chasing after Ren Xiaosu? Why didn’t anyone mention that Ren Xiaosu had such a power?

Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu roared, “Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!”

Chapter 95: Dead ends everywhere

Ren Xiaosu had given it careful consideration before he resorted to using the shadow clone. It wasn’t because he was afraid that he would reveal himself as a supernatural being, since why would he care about that if he was close to death?

He was only afraid that he would reveal his power that could copy other people’s powers. Ren Xiaosu only pretended to be Xu Xianchu because he knew that Xu Xianchu had not been captured yet, while he was sure that the Qing Consortium had already found out about Xu Xianchu’s powers from Liu Bu.

Ren Xiaosu had already come across several supernatural beings. Yang Xiaojin could pull an unparalleled sniper rifle out of thin air, Xu Xianchu could create a shadow clone of himself, Luo Xinyu could travel through the shadows, and Qing Zhen’s bodyguard could materialize white fans in his hands.

Ren Xiaosu got a false sense that supernatural beings were a dime a dozen.

But his superpower was different. A superpower that could copy other people’s superpowers, just how would that be rated? Ren Xiaosu did not know.

If the Qing Consortium discovered he could copy other people’s powers and took an interest in him, who knew what they might do to him.

When Ren Xiaosu was escaping, he was wondering about how many supernatural beings existed in this world. Was it a lot?

But upon careful consideration, it didn’t seem to be so. It was probably the Jing Mountains and Qing Zhen that attracted all of them over here.

When Xu Xianchu heard Ren Xiaosu’s roar, his doubts from earlier were all answered. He immediately updated everyone through the comms channel, “The intel earlier was wrong. Target isn’t Ren Xiaosu, it’s Xu Xianchu!”

In reality, they had determined Ren Xiaosu to be Ren Xiaosu simply because they thought that as a refugee, he would be more interested in the gold. However, there wasn’t any direct evidence to prove that his identity was Ren Xiaosu. First of all, they had never seen what Ren Xiaosu looked like. Second, even if they had seen Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu before, Ren Xiaosu’s face was dirty beyond recognition. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was wearing Sun Junzheng’s uniform, so he was actually dressed in the same outfit as Xu Xianchu.

According to the intel the Qing Consortium had gained, Xu Xianchu was known to be able to create a shadow clone of himself to fight in battles. Furthermore, its combat strength was extremely strong, and it could even block bullets.

Although this shadow clone of Ren Xiaosu’s was black in color and different from Liu Bu’s description, Xu Man felt that this could be due to the lighting. Perhaps, this shadow clone would turn gray in the daytime.

When the troops of the Qing Consortium heard Ren Xiaosu courageous declaration of “Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!”, they thought their target wanted to challenge them to a fight to the death. However, their target turned around and fled!

Several shots had brushed past Ren Xiaosu, but he remained unharmed so far.

He knew that it wasn’t because he could duck well, nor that the Qing Consortium’s troops were bad at aiming. It was because Yan Liuyuan’s wish… was taking effect.

Ren Xiaosu frowned in worry as he wondered how Liuyuan was doing. He had to quickly get away from the Qing Consortium and stop risking things here.

Only when he ran out to about a 100 meters away did he finally recall his shadow clone!

The shadow clone was running rampant in the crowd, and Ren Xiaosu was not even controlling it to aim at the vital points of the enemies anymore. Instead, he made it use its body to ram them into a pulp.

Remember, Ren Xiaosu’s strength was nearly equivalent to three adult men’s, and the shadow’s attributes were double that!

So there wasn’t a need to aim for the vital points. Whoever the shadow clone ran into, it would give that person broken bones all over his body.

In the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up, the shadow was fighting by itself like a lone sampan. The soldiers felt like it would start waning away at any moment, but the shadow clone surprisingly battled on like it could go on forever no matter how much it got beaten up or how many injuries it received.

There were many troops standing between Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone. When Ren Xiaosu recalled it, the shadow clone smashed into everyone in the crowd like a train on tracks!

With the shadow clone recalled, Ren Xiaosu would have to merge with it. Likewise, when Ren Xiaosu wanted it to be released, it would only be able to come out from behind him.

When the shadow clone came back to Ren Xiaosu’s side, there were a lot of injuries and scars on its body. Ren Xiaosu could feel the injuries it suffered like they were his own, and the pain was unbearable. While the shadow clone was making its escape, it was also shot at by the troops a few times. The pain nearly made Ren Xiaosu cough up blood!

Large beads of sweat were rolling down his face and back as Ren Xiaosu endured the pain while continuing to make his escape.

It was no wonder Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone made him look all pale after it shielded him from the bullets. So there was actually a “side effect” from using the shadow clone as well.

But what Ren Xiaosu didn’t know was that if Xu Xianchu saw this, he would be incredibly surprised.

Xu Xianchu had tried it out for himself once before. After the shadow clone experienced a high intensity workout, it would lead to the main body feeling mentally exhausted. When that happened, the main body would experience nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, and the user would feel that they might be better off dying!

But Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone was utterly different from his.

Ren Xiaosu had once asked the palace whether his mental strength could be assessed. In the end, the answer he got was: “Unauthorized to answer.”

…

Ren Xiaosu continued making his escape in the forest, and the pain brought on by remerging with the shadow clone did not fade away even after a long time. It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu realized he should not use the shadow clone without good reason. If he intended to let the shadow clone take his place in death, then he would have to be prepared for the pain it would bring him.

If the shadow clone died once, he would have to “die” once as well.

Ren Xiaosu was violently gasping. He had been injured before, but this pain was much more intense than how a real wound felt.

But Ren Xiaosu was comforted in the fact that the shadow clone did not dissipate even after all the injuries, so he still had an ally in battle.

The Qing Consortium’s troops behind him were like a pack of black hunting dogs that continued hounding him. If Ren Xiaosu were not advancing at a faster speed than them, he would already be in a lot of trouble. Ren Xiaosu did not run in a straight line. Instead, he was trying to slowly shake off the dogs that were chasing after him. Soon, the Qing Consortium’s troops began to wonder which direction Ren Xiaosu was.

It was only at this point that Ren Xiaosu was able to breathe a sigh of relief. After all, it was way too stressful to be chased by several hundred people. He was prepared to hide in the forest for a while to catch his breath.

But it was at this moment that he suddenly heard the rattling of chains up ahead.

Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks and clutched his chest as he let out a sad laugh. ‘What the fuck…’

He lamented, “Dead ends are everywhere in life.”

Ren Xiaosu had seen the Experimental that Qing Zhen had locked up in a cage from afar. However, he did not hear what Qing Zhen had said at that time, so he didn’t know there was more than one of these Experimentals.

Ren Xiaosu thought that the greatest obstacle in his path as he escaped northwards would be the volcano, but how could he have guessed it would turn out to be these Experimentals?

Based on the source of the sounds, Ren Xiaosu instantly knew that the enemy was coming from three directions. In that sense, it meant he had encountered at least three of these Experimentals!

The rattling of chains was getting closer and closer. Ren Xiaosu could once again hear the sound of the Experimentals’ saliva dripping onto the decomposing leaves on the forest floor.

The shadow clone stood side-by-side with him. Ren Xiaosu made a rough estimation in his mind and thought that the shadow clone might be able to take on two of those Experimentals. However, he did not know whether he could go up against the remaining one all by himself.

There were three Experimentals ahead and several hundred people behind. All of them were looking to do Ren Xiaosu in.

Chapter 96: I want to thank myself seven times

Although Ren Xiaosu had a gun with him, his location would immediately be identified if he fired a shot. In that case, the Qing Consortium’s people behind him would all get attracted, and it would really be over for him once he got caught in between them and the Experimentals. Moreover, if the Experimentals attacked from a close distance, a gun would be of less use than a dagger.

He instinctively moved his hand to the dagger Yang Xiaojin had traded him for food. However, this action shocked Ren Xiaosu a great deal. The dagger was no longer there!

Ren Xiaosu started thinking back. When Yang Xiaojin split up with them, she had pretended to accidentally bump into him. The dagger was probably stolen away by her at that time.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. This girl was really not one to accept being on the losing end. She had clearly said that she’d trade the dagger for his food, yet she actually stole it back?! Where did the trust between fellow human beings go?

How heartless of her…

Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin’s skill at stealing must also be very high, as no one in town had ever managed to steal Ren Xiaosu’s stuff without him knowing.

He gave a mental sigh. What should he do now that he didn’t have the dagger?

What Ren Xiaosu didn’t know was it would be very difficult to cut through the skin of these Experimentals using an ordinary blade. Even a bullet fired at it would instantly be stopped by the muscles under the surface of their skin.

Direct headshots wouldn’t work either since the toughest bones in the body are part of the skull. These Experimentals had always been unafraid of the threat of bullets, unless they were shot in the eye.

However, the speed of these Experimentals was far different from Ren Xiaosu’s. There was almost a zero percent chance that he could hit them in the eye with a shot.

His firearms proficiency was only at the advanced stage, not the perfect stage.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a brush of wind behind him. He reflexively bent over as a noxious gust of wind went over his head.

Once Ren Xiaosu stabilized his footing and looked to see what it was, he was shocked to discover that an Experimental had somehow gotten close to him, but there were no chains on this Experimental’s arms.

It had become his mindset that the Experimentals would have chains on their arms, and it would be possible to know of their presence once they got close. However, Ren Xiaosu had not expected that not all Experimentals would have chains on them. Furthermore, an Experimental without chains could even travel in a forest without making a sound. Just this fact alone made it terrifying!

When Ren Xiaosu felt around on his back, he frowned. He had still gotten scratched a moment earlier, and there were five lines of blood.

He started reminiscing about town. Although it was also rather dangerous there, people would only take advantage of you if you showed your weakness to them.

But it was different here. Everywhere there were people looking to end you!

Ren Xiaosu tried to retreat. But with each step back, those four Experimentals took two steps forward. At some point, Ren Xiaosu realized the appearance of these Experimentals here was not a coincidence. They were coming for him!

Those four Experimentals were all crawling on their hands and legs, while the unchained Experimental had silently crawled into a tree looking just like a large spider.

Ren Xiaosu could not understand something. Just what kind of a place could turn a living human being into something like that?

At this moment, a platoon passed by just several hundred meters behind Ren Xiaosu. However, it seemed like they had lost track of Ren Xiaosu’s whereabouts. So they were unaware of the situation Ren Xiaosu was in even though they were only a few hundred meters apart.

Ren Xiaosu was observing the reactions of these four Experimentals. When the platoon passed by, the Experimentals all stopped in their tracks. It was as though they also didn’t wish to be disturbed by the troops during their hunt!

Ren Xiaosu got a strange feeling about this, but he didn’t have the time to explore it. While the Experimentals were distracted by the combat troops, Ren Xiaosu decided to order his shadow clone to attack them.

Ren Xiaosu decided he would strike first!

He was hoping he could lure these Experimentals over to where the Qing Consortium’s troops were. However, he was more worried those few hundred people would annihilate all of the living creatures in their line of fire.

Compared to the few hundred Qing Consortium troops, Ren Xiaosu was more willing to face these four Experimentals!

When his shadow clone rushed at the three Experimentals on the ground, the Experimental in the tree leaped down at Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu took a small step backwards. The muscles in his left leg tensed up the moment it landed on the ground, and all of the strength in his body was raging. When the Experimental got in front of him, Ren Xiaosu threw his fist out at his opponent and punched as hard as a cannon shot.

But he had underestimated the dexterity of the Experimentals. His opponent twisted its body in midair and forcibly avoided Ren Xiaosu’s punch. It even managed to stretch its hand out and grab hold of Ren Xiaosu’s arm!

Ren Xiaosu was startled before pulling back his punch and taking another small step backwards. At the same time, he raised his leg and kicked the Experimental several meters away. The Experimental laid on the ground and twitched a little before getting on its feet again to jump at Ren Xiaosu!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a burst of pain throughout his body. The tearing feeling going through his bones made him break out into a sweat as his muscles started trembling.

He saw his shadow clone tussling with the three Experimentals as they ripped and snatched at the crouched shadow clone’s body. One of the Experimentals was even biting on the shadow clone’s waist!

The shadow clone had enough strength to lift up an Experimental with a single hand. It picked one of them up and slammed it ruthlessly onto the ground. However, this Experimental was even hardier than Ren Xiaosu imagined. It didn’t even look like it was hurt after being slammed like that!

This was the disadvantage of not having a weapon. Ren Xiaosu couldn’t kill off these Experimentals, so it would be difficult to say who might end up dying.

Ren Xiaosu wanted to get home, even if the path back was filled with blood and thorns.

Because there were no sharp objects to kill the Experimentals with, the shadow clone’s strength eventually ebbed away due to the fact that it was facing the three terrifying monsters of the Experimentals at once.

These monsters were biting onto the shadow clone and not letting go. Ren Xiaosu felt like every bite was bitten on his own body.

The unbearable pain was being transmitted to his central nervous system from various parts of his “body” and was generating a complex array of signals that ran wild through his neural network. This in turn affected the normal function of his willpower.

Raising his hand became slow, and his hands were trembling as well. The Experimental in front of him had many of its attacks blocked by Ren Xiaosu, but it gradually realized its enemy’s actions were starting to slow down and become weaker.

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes had reddened. He endured the severe pain and was nearly in tears.

In all his years, Ren Xiaosu had never cried before. He never even shed a single tear. He grabbed a tree branch next to him for support and caught his breath. Everyone here was hellbent on killing him.

The Experimentals wanted him dead.

The Qing Consortium also wanted him dead.

But importantly, he didn’t want to die.

The shadow clone was not omnipotent. Or perhaps, no superpowers in this world were omnipotent.

Ren Xiaosu needed a weapon, even if his gratitude tokens only stood at 93.

He said to the palace, “Give me the weapon.”

The voice from the palace said calmly, “You have 93 gratitude tokens at the moment. Unauthorized to unlock the weapon.”

“Hey… I said give me the weapon.” Ren Xiaosu’s voice sounded like it was sinking into the ocean. “I’m telling you now that I’m dying, so give me the weapon.”

At this moment, time seemed to have frozen. Ren Xiaosu saw the Experimental that was leaping at him slow down, moving so slow that it looked like it was stationary.

The voice from the palace finally said, “Detecting the smell of death. Do you want to activate the seal?”

Ren Xiaosu said in confusion, “Activate what seal?”

“Unknown.”

“Then what is the price for activating this seal?”

“Loss?”

“Lose what?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “You have to at least tell me what I’ll lose, right? Only then can I decide whether I want to activate the seal or not.”

“Everything.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly sneered at the palace. ‘How much blood have I bled in the wilderness in all my years of survival? How many tree roots and wild vegetables have I eaten? Yet you’re telling me now that I will have to lose everything? Why do I have to listen to you! Based on what! And besides, do you know what everything represents? Gold, money, the gun I have, Yan Liuyuan, Sister Xiaoyu, and even these clothes I’m wearing! You’re just a lousy palace. Why would you need my clothes?!’

The palace did not speak anymore. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward. Shouldn’t it at least haggle?

Ren Xiaosu looked at the forest in the night, then looked at that intent to kill that was getting ever closer. The frozen “time” was gradually beginning to thaw while the speed of the Experimental that was leaping at him was becoming faster.

That Experimental opened its mouth to reveal a set of vicious teeth as it tried to devour Ren Xiaosu’s organs and even suck all of his blood and marrow dry.

‘Am I really on the verge of death?’ Ren Xiaosu thought as he stared at it.

But he still hadn’t lived yet!

The next moment, a wan smile appeared on Ren Xiaosu’s face. ‘Isn’t it just seven thanks?’

He said calmly in his mind: “I want to thank myself seven times.

“First, I want to thank myself for never shying away from an opportunity.

“Second, I want to thank myself for not being afraid when facing danger.

“Third, I want to thank myself for not compromising in the face of adversity.

“Fourth, I want to thank myself for being principled in the face of temptation.”

Ren Xiaosu’s mental voice was getting louder and louder, to the point of being thunderous as it shook the entire palace.

“Fifth, I want to thank myself for never being hypocritical.”

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu heard his own heartbeat beating loud as a drum.

“Sixth, I want to thank myself for always staying clear-headed and never hesitating.”

He heard the sound of the wind again as it brushed against his skin. The researchers in the city who were inside the research lab suddenly raised their heads. They detected a huge energy surge in the north that felt like the rising sun!

Ren Xiaosu said calmly and determinedly, “Seventh, I want to thank myself for always keeping my head up and taking on whatever the quagmire of life throws at me!”

The voice from the palace stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Gratitude received from Ren Xiaosu, +7!”

“You’ve received rights to unlock the weapon. Confirm unlock?”

“Unlock!” Ren Xiaosu roared.

Suddenly, it was as though the “lock” on time melted away. Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as the Experimental before him came leaping at him. He stuck out his hand and grabbed at nothing, as though he had gained some sort of inexplicable power.

The next moment, a black saber appeared in Ren Xiaosu’s hand. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu grit his teeth and swung it horizontally with all his power. The muscles in his body were pumping hard to the extreme, and the veins on his forehead were pulsating nonstop!

With a slash, the tearing sound of leather and skin reverberated through the forest. That originally ferocious Experimental was split in two by the black saber!

Ren Xiaosu was enraged. Life and death, that was basically the essence of everything in this world!

The look in the Experimental’s eyes was one of confusion. It seemed like it couldn’t understand where the saber in Ren Xiaosu’s hand had come from, nor could it understand why one slash was all it took to end it.

Pale yellow blood trailed down the black saber and dripped onto the ground of decomposing leaves. Ren Xiaosu held the saber up and looked at the battlefield.

For some reason, when Ren Xiaosu held this saber that had appeared out of thin air in his hands, another saber also appeared in his shadow clone’s hand.

That black saber and his black shadow clone seemed to merge perfectly into one entity.

The second the shadow clone’s saber appeared, the three Experimentals engaging it wanted to give up attacking. But it was already too late for them.

The shadow clone swung its saber down and split the Experimental in front of it in half. It did not stop, taking a quick step forward and holding down another Experimental by its neck. That Experimental was being pressed ruthlessly against the ground and could not move.

The Experimentals had great strength, but when one was held down by the shadow clone, it was as though it was a helpless beast on the verge of death. The shadow clone chopped off the Experimental’s head.

The last remaining Experimental escaped into the forest, but Ren Xiaosu knew it wouldn’t get all that far.

Ren Xiaosu stood in place and stared into the darkness of the night before him. The pain he had suffered earlier was still stimulating his nerves, but this was the first time he experienced the joy of the battle!

So this was what it meant to be a supernatural being.

At this moment, the voice from the palace said, “Side Quest #2 has been activated: Collect 1000 gratitude tokens to unlock the intermediate form of the weapon.”

Chapter 97: Reevaluating the level of danger!

The battle between Ren Xiaosu and the Experimentals was still going to attract the Qing Consortium’s people over. After all, there would be noise made in any intense battle. Although the Qing Consortium’s combat troops had lost track of Ren Xiaosu’s position, they had been keeping up with their search all this while in the forest.

When someone heard the sound of the fighting, the first thing they did was to send a command over the communications channel for everyone to gather.

Like black ironsand that was attracted to a magnet, the Xu Man-led Qing Consortium combat troops quickly moved towards the point of the incident. But they were disappointed the target was already gone by the time they arrived at the scene of the battle.

Let alone mistaking Xu Xianchu as Ren Xiaosu at the beginning, they had even lost track of Xu Xianchu now. This made Xu Man feel extremely depressed.

It had been some years, but this was the first time Xu Man had encountered this many unexpected things while carrying out his mission.

Xu Man advanced forward with great difficulty inside the forest. They trampled on the decomposing leaves and twigs, making a lot of noise. Xu Man pulled down his protective goggles and took a look around, then suddenly gasped.

He saw the corpses of several Experimentals up ahead that had been dismembered by some sharp object. The pale yellow blood of these Experimentals splattered on the ground was actually not obvious, but the broken bodies shocked everyone a lot.

Xu Man said, “Gather the body parts and put them together to see how many Experimentals fought in the battle.”

Based on Xu Man’s guess, Xu Xianchu must have encountered these Experimentals soon after his retreat. After that, the battle occurred.

By this time, the troops had picked up the pieces of the Experimentals’ corpses and put them together.

“Four Experimentals.” Someone said, “One of the Experimentals’ arms couldn’t be found, but it should be around here somewhere.”

“There’s only a single set of shoeprints here. The Experimentals were naked, so we suspect the number of humans who participated in the battle should be just Xu Xianchu,” someone analyzed.

Xu Man nodded. He spoke on the open comms channel, “Boss, we might have to reevaluate Xu Xianchu’s power. He killed off four Experimentals by himself.” Xu Man looked at the ground at a leaf and continued, “But Xu Xianchu is also hurt. There are traces of his blood here.”

Qing Zhen stood outside of the spotlight’s focus. The place was bright as day, and he thought for a long time before saying, “Being able to take on four Experimentals and kill them all is really quite shocking. Upgrade Xu Xianchu’s danger rating to B. Remember to bring back a sample of Xu Xianchu’s blood to place it into the records.”

“Roger.” Xu Man arranged for the people around him to get samples of the blood for safekeeping from the leaf on the ground.

In this era, the DNA contained in blood was extremely vital.

Qing Zhen had folded his hands behind his back. He stood in place and wondered, “Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin have both appeared. Luo Xinyu has also revealed herself to be part of the Saboteurs Syndicate. But what about Ren Xiaosu? Has anyone of you seen Ren Xiaosu!?”

They did not know Ren Xiaosu had successfully made Xu Xianchu the scapegoat. The supernatural being they recognized to be a B-class threat was actually Ren Xiaosu.

What was the concept of being a B-class threat? All of the supernatural beings who had been marked as a B-class threat were considered extremely dangerous people.

Xu Man answered on the comms channel, “We didn’t see Ren Xiaosu. It might be possible that he didn’t even come into the perimeter we set up.”

“That could be possible.” Qing Zhen nodded. If they were to go back to their initial assessment of the targets, Ren Xiaosu would just be an unimportant F-class threat. In that case, it would be quite normal that he had chosen to retreat after finding the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up.

Liu Bu had also mentioned that Ren Xiaosu had always insisted on avoiding the Qing Consortium.

Qing Zhen smiled. If only they had caught Ren Xiaosu; that would have been great. He might have become a bargaining chip they could use against Zhang Jinglin in the future.

It was a well-known fact throughout the entire Northern Frontier that Zhang Jinglin placed a lot of importance on friendship.

But it wasn’t a big deal even though they hadn’t caught him. Be it Stronghold 112 or Stronghold 113, they were both controlled by the Qing Consortium. Once Ren Xiaosu got back, their Qing Consortium would still be able to get their hands on him at any time.

Xu Man looked up ahead in the forest. Ren Xiaosu’s footprints showed that he was heading straight in the direction of the volcano. It seemed that he had already escaped north.

He did not keep pursuing. From the looks of the bloodstains at the battle site, “Xu Xianchu” must’ve not been badly hurt. Even if they continued after him, it would be too late.

However, Xu Man was rather shocked by this. During the day when so many of the troops took on just one Experimental, three of their soldiers had died while another thirteen were injured. But now, there was someone who could kill four Experimentals single-handedly!

Moreover, the wounds on these Experimentals were all very similar. They had tested it out before and found that even an extremely sharp combat knife would have to be wielded with great strength to tear through the skin of the Experimentals.

The secret of this “Xu Xianchu” ran far deeper than anyone could imagine. Xu Man had already decided to hold the upper management of Stronghold 113’s private army accountable for this matter. How could they not know there was such a terrifying supernatural being in their own ranks?

At this time, Xu Xianchu was still in the dark about the consequences he would be facing. Unlike Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, he was actually the one who didn’t break into the perimeter of Qing Consortium’s operations.

Xu Xianchu did want to find out about what was happening in the Jing Mountains. But after not managing to break into the perimeter at the beginning, he thought about how he might not be able to get out once he got in. In the end, he decided to just go around the perimeter and head towards Stronghold 112.

He had his shadow clone carry him the entire way as he hurried to his destination. By the time Ren Xiaosu retrieved the gold, Xu Xianchu had already gone around the city and arrived at the rear of the Qing Consortium. So Xu Xianchu knew nothing of what was happening in the city. He also did not know he had been put on the Qing Consortium’s threat list, nor that he was really high up on it as well.

If he knew about this, he might just have turned back to fight Ren Xiaosu to the death.

Xu Xianchu, who was being carried by his shadow clone, had a niggling feeling that something was wrong, but he didn’t know what it was….

“Let’s fall back.” Xu Man said, “Set up the defensive line. It’s almost time for the Experimentals to start getting active. We still don’t know where their hideout is.”

Xu Man seemed to understand that even with these four Experimentals dead, that did not signify it was the end of them. The number of Experimentals was far more than anyone could imagine.

But right at this moment, Xu Man suddenly heard the sound of rapid footsteps from some hundreds of meters up ahead. It sounded like someone was running in a great hurry!

He flicked the beam of his tactical flashlight over and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu being piggybacked on his shadow clone and fleeing.

Xu Xianchu was stunned. What was with this? Why was this “Xu Xianchu” running back here? Didn’t he already escape?

When Ren Xiaosu saw Xu Man and the soldiers from afar, he started deviating from his original path. He had intended to go around on the left side of the platoons to bypass the Qing Consortium’s soldiers.

But Xu Man did not hesitate. He immediately pulled the charging handle of his gun back and prepared to shoot.

But when Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of guns being cocked, he immediately said, “Why the hell are you shooting at me? Look at what’s behind me!”

Xu Man suspiciously looked at what was behind Ren Xiaosu. He saw dark shadows moving in the forest as he heard the loud dissonance of chains being dragged around.

Xu Man immediately knew that this was bad. Did you fucking go and poke the Experimentals’ nest?!

Chapter 98: Recreational activities of the Experimentals

The countless Experimentals scuttled through the shadows in the forest like a large, dense group of spiders. Faced with this sight, even a highly experienced soldier like Xu Man paled.

For someone like Xu Man who could grasp the situation, he knew immediately that “Xu Xianchu” had accidentally walked into the current hideout of the Experimentals. That was why he attracted all of them.

Those who didn’t would fucking think that Ren Xiaosu had called for backup and come back to seek revenge!

But because of this, Xu Man could confirm “Xu Xianchu’s” identity even further. After all, as Liu Bu had said, Xu Xianchu once used his shadow clone to carry himself as they walked. It was just that easy and relaxing.

Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu himself also had not expected that Liu Bu would somehow end up helping him to conceal his identity and even end up selflessly paying the price with his life.

Those Experimentals were chasing after Ren Xiaosu in a frenzy. Their saliva was flying all over the place as they scampered across the ground.

When Xu Man saw this, the first thing he did was to call out on the comms channel, “Attention, everyone in the vicinity of the city, set up a defensive line!”

There were a lot of Qing Consortium troops in the forest, with up to several hundred of them. But it seemed like there were even more Experimentals than them!

But at this time, Xu Man had notified those in the city to set up a defensive line instead of issuing the command for those who were here to evacuate?

Xu Man said on the comms channel, “All units onsite, stay in your assigned positions as per your platoon orders to defend and fire. We have to buy some time for those who are still in the urban area!”

As Ren Xiaosu ran like mad, he watched the Qing Consortium troops stop in their tracks and kneel down to adopt a shooting stance. Without any other defensive fortifications, they started using their own bodies as shields.

Ren Xiaosu’s speed while his shadow clone piggybacked him was much faster than the Experimentals could travel. Thus, he was able to successfully veer off his initial trajectory when the Qing Consortium troops opened fire and avoided being caught in their line of fire.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt rather shocked at heart. So this was the difference between an organization’s combat troops and soldiers from a private army? The combat troops of an organization would actually sacrifice their own lives and safety in order to gain more time for their brothers in arms! What was it about that suit-wearing young man that he could lead a force like that?

In reality, Ren Xiaosu had thought too highly of an organization’s combat troops, or rather, the soldiers under Qing Zhen’s command had given Ren Xiaosu a false impression that soldiers belonging to an organization were very united and fearsome. The truth was, these soldiers serving under Qing Zhen were in fact also considered the best of the best within all of the organizations’ militaries.

Xu Man was a very combat-oriented warrior, but that didn’t mean that he was unafraid of dying.

One of the most important qualities in combat was an understanding of the overall situation so that a correct decision could be made.

He understood this. If he stayed to buy time for those in the city, he would very likely end up dead. But if he were to retreat, his comrades in the city would not have enough time to prepare for the situation and even more people would die as a result.

Qing Zhen had already ordered the troops to fortify the defenses, such as building simple bunkers and enclosures that were all necessary.

But Xu Man knew well that they had incorrectly estimated the number of Experimentals here in the Jing Mountains. According to their information, there should only be about a hundred or so Experimentals here.

The records of the Pyro Company’s research laboratory only showed 87 living specimens back then!

Could it be that the Pyro Company had purposely leaked this false information to lure the Qing Consortium into a trap after they were unable to get ahead of them to restart this research lab? Importantly, Qing Zhen had killed many of the Pyro Company’s people over the past two years.

Of course, Qing Zhen was not a fool either. He had brought several times more people out here than was originally planned. Qing Zhen wasn’t going to die in such a place.

What Xu Man was worried about was not Qing Zhen’s safety, but the heavy losses that Stronghold 112’s combat brigade might suffer.

At the moment, Xu Man’s open communications channel was live. As such, he could hear Qing Zhen’s calm voice speaking in his helmet, “Go and save them, then slowly retreat to the edge of the city. I was prepared for this.”

Xu Man heaved a sigh of relief. He said on the tactical communications channel, “Hold the line! Reinforcements will be here soon!”

If they could defend long enough, they wouldn’t die. Or at least, most of them wouldn’t.

If it had been another big shot of the organization, their first response would probably be to abandon the lone fighting force out here.

Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the chaos to bypass the perimeter the Qing Consortium’s troops were defending, and his shadow clone made a mad dash south. Ren Xiaosu had initially thought that it would be safer for him to go north, but who could have guessed that it would be even more dangerous.

When the Qing Consortium came into the Jing Mountains, they had deliberately avoided the volcanic area because the poisonous gases there could not be warded off. So this volcanic area became the only place where the Qing Consortium had not conducted a sweep. Who would have thought that those Experimentals were hiding in the vicinity of the volcanoes?

However, these Experimentals were not lured out by Ren Xiaosu. He had only encountered them along the way while he was heading north. These several hundred Experimentals were clearly looking to attack all humans who were in the Jing Mountains at this time!

Ren Xiaosu did not know what attracted them out, or if they were awoken when they realized the volcanoes were about to erupt. Ren Xiaosu didn’t care. Even if he had to face the face bugs or the wolf pack, it was still a better option than facing the Qing Consortium or the Experimentals!

He could handle four of them, but taking on several hundred Experimentals was way out of his league! If he didn’t have his shadow clone to carry him as he made his escape, Ren Xiaosu might have laid down on the ground and pretended that he was an Experimental too. These Experimentals might just fall for it since their intelligence had lowered to such a point.

Ren Xiaosu wondered why there were so many of these Experimentals. It was quite obvious that Xu Man did not expect there to be so many of them either, so could it be that they had been breeding all these years? Were those Experimentals unchained at their limbs the ones born later?

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t being overly imaginative. He just didn’t understand why. These Experimentals didn’t have many recreational activities to do deep in the mountains and forests anyway, so other than reproducing, what else could they do?

After he killed those four Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu felt like he couldn’t be more invincible. But just half an hour later, that sense of superiority was crushed by reality.

Ren Xiaosu: I am invincible!

Reality: No, you’re not.

The rest of the Qing Consortium’s troops headed north to save Xu Man and his men.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu made use of this gap to escape south, which would bring him back on his original route to Stronghold 113.

Yang Xiaojin’s and Luo Xinyu’s whereabouts were unknown, while Xu Xianchu was leisurely taking another route as he left the Jing Mountains.

This adventure had ended up more like a farce. However, it did reveal the true nature of the world to Ren Xiaosu.

He only knew about the Pyro Company and Qing Consortium for now, but there were many more organizations and strongholds out there. This world was much bigger than he had thought it to be.

While Ren Xiaosu was making his escape, he suddenly heard another loud rumble from the volcano behind him. This time, the ground even started shaking.

He saw the volcano erupting as lava spewed out of the crater into the air. Clumps of magma cooled rapidly after reacting with the cold air and solidified into hot rocks. Shortly after, a hail of meteorite showers started pouring down, and the forest turned into a sea of fire!

Chapter 99: Going home!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu could only count himself fortunate to have escaped quickly enough and was even glad to have encountered those Experimentals along the way. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to avoid the volcanic eruption zone.

The built-up pressure in the volcano finally erupted. Qing Zhen watched the sights from the ruined city and said with a sigh, “What a pity.”

No one knew what he was feeling pity for this time.

Someone beside Qing Zhen asked, “Boss, what do we do now?”

But just as the question was asked, an earthshaking roar of a creature came from the crater of the volcano. The sound of that roar seemed to travel dozens of kilometers in an instant!

Ren Xiaosu looked back in surprise. At the peak of the volcano, he suddenly saw a huge claw grabbing onto the edge of the volcano’s crater. It looked like it was something trying to climb out!

There was actually a creature hidden inside that volcano? What kind of creature could possibly live in magma? Something that terrifying had even appeared now? Then what kind of terrifying existence could that creature he had encountered at the river but not seen with his own eyes be?

Qing Zhen sighed and said, “Such a thing actually exists? Let’s temporarily pull out of the Jing Mountains from the west. The mission is a failure.”

Qing Zhen’s trusted aide who was standing next to him said in shock, “Just what the hell is that….”

“Yan Tao, call that useless brother of mine,” Qing Zhen said as he kept his gaze on the volcano. “If that thing crawls out, or a large number of Experimentals get forced south because of the eruption, Stronghold 113 will be in danger.”

The trusted aide whose name was Yan Tao wondered if Qing Zhen really thought the stronghold would fall. He instinctively went to retrieve the satellite phone but discovered that the usually working satellite phone couldn’t make any calls.

The heatwave caused by the volcanic eruption began to sweep through the entire mountain range. Keep in mind that there wasn’t only one volcano in the Jing Mountains. Seeing this, Qing Zhen said, “Let’s leave this place first!”

This sea of fire looked like it was about to bury the secret of the Jing Mountains.

Xu Man and the others who received their orders to retreat continued firing in an orderly manner as they did so. They did not start panicking because of the volcanic eruption. Caught in this dangerous situation, they became even calmer.

When they finally came out of the forest and arrived at the edge of the city, someone who was with Qing Zhen triggered a remote in their hand. In an instant, a line of fire was lit as the dividing line between the city, and the forest started burning.

The explosives the Qing Consortium had buried here beforehand were detonated all at once and completely contained the Experimentals to the north of the forest. Even for creatures as strong and tough as the Experimentals, half of them were still killed or wounded by the explosives detonating. As for the remaining wave of Experimentals that had not been affected by the explosion, they could only watch from behind the wall of fire as the Qing Consortium’s personnel made their retreat.

The Experimentals did not linger here for long. Instead, they went back into the forest, seemingly to look for another route to bypass this area.

Panting, Xu Xianchu returned and came up to Qing Zhen. He lowered his head and said, “Sorry, I didn’t manage to bring Xu Xianchu back.”

“It’s OK.” Qing Zhen shook his head. “Get in the car, we’ll head west. There should be another route there that can bring us back to Stronghold 112.” Qing Zhen then turned around and left. The sound of his leather shoes tapping on the ground gave an aura of calm to his footsteps.

A large convoy of military transport trucks and off-road vehicles, as well as many other heavy machines, were parked at the edge of the city.

Xu Man did not move. Qing Zhen turned around and looked at him. “You want to ask me why I got our people to save you? Don’t feel too touched by that. It’s just business between us. I only got our people to save you because I still have use for you.”

Xu Man stammered as though he was going to say something.

In the end, Qing Zhen laughed and said, “Save your words of loyalty. I’ve never believed in that.”

But at this time, a soldier up ahead shouted, “This is bad! Our vehicles can’t be driven anymore. Come over and take a look at what’s happened to the tires…”

Xu Man was startled. “What happened? Are the tires punctured? We brought along tire jacks and machinery to patch up tires and fill them with air.”

The soldier said with a bitter expression, “It’s not a puncture. Our vehicles’ tires have been slashed….”

Xu Man and Qing Zhen were confused.

The smile on the previously calm Qing Zhen stiffened. “…Xu Xianchu, this is the first time I’ve been so keen on killing someone. Xu Man, bring me my uniform….”

Qing Zhen and Xu Man knew that “Xu Xianchu” had escaped south, but they really hadn’t expected something like this to happen.

In Xu Man’s opinion, it should have been enough to just puncture the tires. But rather than that, their opponent had chosen to slash the tires?!

By slashing the tires, it would mean that everyone from the Qing Consortium would have to leave the Jing Mountains on foot. It wasn’t really that dangerous, but it would definitely make them look pathetic, especially if they were wearing a white suit.

Xu Man whispered in a soft voice behind Qing Zhen, “This mission failure might make the consortium punish you.”

Qing Zhen did not mind that. “It’s fine, those old fogies will still need someone to do their work for them. I’ll just treat it as taking a vacation for some time.”

“How are we going to handle that Ren Xiaosu?” Xu Man asked.

“If he doesn’t die in the Jing Mountains, he’ll definitely find a way to get back to Stronghold 113.” Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, “When the satellite phone works again, tell Luo Lan to keep a watch out for now. As for how to handle him, I still haven’t thought of it yet. Also, get him to quickly send Zhang Jinglin away. That person must not die under our watch. It’s quite possible that someone has already been sent out to assassinate him.”

…

Ren Xiaosu was indeed the person who slashed the tires of the Qing Consortium’s vehicles. At that time, the Qing Consortium’s people were still busy fighting the Experimentals, so he decided he might as well do it.

Besides, Ren Xiaosu had been running from the Qing Consortium’s pursuit for some time, so he couldn’t vent his anger if he didn’t get his revenge!

The volcano behind him was still erupting. The moon in the sky was already covered by the plumes of ash and smoke in the air. Moreover, the volcano’s eruption seemed like it was getting more and more violent.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What was that roaring creature in the volcano’s crater? Even at the end, he did not see it fully emerge out of the crater.

As he left the city, he watched the Qing Consortium detonate explosives at the edge of the city. Ren Xiaosu once again witnessed how terrifying explosive weapons were in the possession of humans.

Ren Xiaosu kept heading back south via the original route he had taken here. He suspected there could still be a few sporadic Experimentals along the way, just not as many as the entire nest he had stumbled upon. In fact, Ren Xiaosu was no longer as scared.

With his shadow clone’s super strength and dexterity wielding the black saber, his destructive power was incalculable.

With the two skills stacked, it became a much more powerful combination. Somehow, this seemed like the path forward for Ren Xiaosu. However, this path might be littered with many more twists and bends.

On the way back to Stronghold 113, it wasn’t the Experimentals that would be the most dangerous to encounter, but those face bugs and the wolf pack.

Ren Xiaosu recharged himself while being carried on his shadow clone’s back. Meanwhile, the shadow clone was going so fast that it felt like it was floating in the air. It even looked like its legs were casting an afterimage behind it as it ran.

Although this made Ren Xiaosu look like he was disabled and needed to depend on someone to carry him, he did not care…

In between, he even went back to the cave they had spent a night in. There, he discovered that a line of elegantly written words had appeared at the top of the cave: “It’s right behind you.”

These words were not here before, and they looked like they were still fresh in the rock. In Ren Xiaosu’s memory, he remembered that Yang Xiaojin had fallen behind on the day they set off from here. For some reason, he suddenly felt that this line of elegant writing must have been made by Yang Xiaojin to scare people for fun.

“How mischievous, eh?” Ren Xiaosu continued on his way back south after having a look here.

An hour later, the forest fire caused by the volcanic eruption spread southwards. The entire Jing Mountain range had become a sea of fire. Ren Xiaosu could vaguely hear the sound of wild animals running behind him. It sounded like they were escaping to the canyon. However, this didn’t really bother Ren Xiaosu.

It had taken them a long time to get here, but it felt much faster when he was going back. It only took half a day before Ren Xiaosu reached the canyon again. He looked into the canyon and that shimmer of light above the towering cliff walls. Ren Xiaosu did not hesitate any further.

As long as he was fast enough, the face bugs, wolf pack, or even loneliness could not catch him to him!

The shadow clone carrying Ren Xiaosu ran through the canyon like a gust of wind. The face bugs atop the towering cliff walls sensed the aura of a human and swarmed out. But as soon as they came out, Ren Xiaosu had already made it out of the canyon!

The face bugs were left silent on the cliff for a long while. All of them were communicating with their feelers with one another. “Did a person pass by here just now?”

“The fuck can that be a person?!”

The moment he passed through the canyon, dawn broke. In the sky, golden rays of light penetrated through the cloud cover. When Ren Xiaosu saw this sight, he felt a little more spirited. He had gained a lot in his trip to the Jing Mountains this time, even though he didn’t stay for long.

But when he got back to the canyon again, it suddenly felt like it had been a long time since he was here. It felt like a century had passed.

He wondered how Yan Liuyuan and Sister Xiaoyu were doing at home. Ren Xiaosu was really anxious to return home.

Ren Xiaosu could dimly sense some movements coming from the forest. He was startled before realizing that the wolf pack had stayed around the entrance of the canyon all this while, as though they were waiting for him to come back!

Soon after, the slowly approaching wolves watched as Ren Xiaosu, who was laying on his shadow clone’s back, ran through the gaps in their pack. They didn’t even have time to react!

The wolf pack stopped in their tracks and quietly watched Ren Xiaosu’s receding figure as he left. He was even faster than they were….

The Wolf King also fell silent. Had they been waiting here for nothing all these days?!

Chapter 100: Image down the drain

“Liuyuan, see what I brought you.” Wang Fugui’s voice rang out from afar before he could be seen in the school.

When Yan Liuyuan opened his eyes under the blanket, he refused to get out of bed.

Xiaoyu was folding clothes and saying, “It’s time to get up, Liuyuan.”

“I don’t wanna! Let me sleep for a while more!” Yan Liuyuan murmured.

Xiaoyu laughed and said, “If you get up 15 minutes earlier each day, you’d have gained an additional 90 hours a year that you could use to do something you like doing. Think about it, what do you like doing the most?”

Yan Liuyuan pondered for a long time before saying with uncertainty, “I like sleeping the most….”

“Get up already!” Xiaoyu frowned and said, “You’re even more annoying than your brother!” Xiaoyu lifted Yan Liuyuan’s blanket. The warm air inside escaped all at once, and Yan Liuyuan unwillingly got out of bed.

It was winter now, and the winter temperatures in this era were extremely cold. In Yan Liuyuan’s memory, there would always be people freezing to death in the streets or in their shacks during winter each year.

The shacks were only built out of tree branches or metal frames, while the four walls were wrapped with broken rags and cloth. This construct was completely unable to shield anyone on the inside from the wind.

During those years, he and Ren Xiaosu were always shivering in their shacks from the cold. Ren Xiaosu even took all of their summer and winter clothing out to wrap it around Yan Liuyuan. But even so, it was still very cold.

But whenever he thought of those times, Yan Liuyuan would always feel overjoyed.

He recalled what Ren Xiaosu said to him at that time: “The happiness of humans does not stem from enjoyment but the suffering we go through. When you’re going through the worst moments of suffering and taste sweetness, you would desperately want to keep living no matter what. That sweet taste of things might not be much to other people, but it is the greatest happiness that you know at that moment.”

Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan felt that if Ren Xiaosu were born inside the stronghold, he would probably be a philosopher like Mr. Zhang had described in class before.

Wang Fugui walked in with two sweet potatoes and greeted them. “Xiaoyu, I brought one for each of you. Eat them while they’re hot.”

“Uncle Fugui,” Yan Liuyuan took the sweet potato from him and asked, “Why do you like eating sweet potatoes so much? You roast them every day.”

Wang Fugui said with a wide smile, “When I was still a child in the town outside of Stronghold 107, there was a famine, so my father and I escaped all the way here to seek help from our relatives. Back then, it still wasn’t so dangerous on the outside. Once, we dug up two sweet potatoes in the wilderness and my father roasted them for me to eat. At that time, I felt that sweet potatoes were the most delicious thing in the world.”

Ever since Wang Fugui came running over to the school wearing his jacket and trying to bribe Wang Congyang over the gun firing at midnight, the way Yan Liuyuan addressed Wang Fugui had changed.

Wang Fugui also realized this change and was secretly delighted.

He had taken a great liking to these two brothers. Compared to that silly son of his, they were so much better. Witnessing how Ren Xiaosu protected Yan Liuyuan in their struggle to stay alive over the years, he felt that the two of them really did not have it easy.

Wang Fugui watched Li Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan as they ate the sweet potatoes. Suddenly, he looked around the school and said with a sigh, “With Mr. Zhang gone, our town won’t have a teacher anymore.”

Yan Liuyuan said unbothered, “What’s so bad about that? When my brother gets back, he’ll take over as the teacher.”

Zhang Jinglin had already been sent away by Luo Lan for being the hot potato that he was. The day he was sent away was probably the most sensational day the town’s refugees had ever seen.

Quite a few military transport trucks and off-road vehicles stopped outside the school’s entrance and that big shot from the stronghold whose name was Luo Lan bowed politely to Zhang Jinglin.

The refugees couldn’t have expected that their town’s Mr. Zhang would be someone so important. If they had known, they wouldn’t have scrimped on tuition and also sent their children to attend classes at the school.

Who knew if they might have built some kind of connection?

Thinking of this, many of the refugees decided they would send their children to school. The logic they had was this simple: They wanted to send their children to school not for knowledge, but for building connections.

But before they could fantasize any further, Luo Lan sent Zhang Jinglin away that same day.

Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, who were living at the school, were utterly ignored by everyone. Even after Zhang Jinglin left, Wang Congyang did not come to give them any further trouble.

But even so, a lot of unfamiliar refugees started appearing at the school’s entrance, peddling fruits or vegetables. Wang Fugui had seen some of them before and knew they usually worked at the factory. However, they were all pretending not to know one another here.

It was at this time that Wang Fugui realized the stronghold’s control over the town wasn’t as simple as he thought it was. Some of the refugees had been bought as eyes for those in the stronghold.

In normal times, these people were just ordinary refugees. But once some among the refugees wanted to start a rebellion or organize a strike, they would immediately inform those in the stronghold and turn over the names of those troublemakers.

It was no wonder the two previous strikes had been suppressed so quickly by the private army from the stronghold. It was because they had eyes here.

Wang Fugui remembered the faces of these people and took note not to offend them, nor ever tell them what he was really thinking.

It was not only those refugees watching at the entrance. There were also a few people who clearly looked tougher and more ruthless than the private troops of the stronghold. Wang Fugui speculated they might very well be people from the Qing Consortium.

Speaking of Ren Xiaosu, Wang Fugui frowned. “There’s someone up ahead who works in a factory near the Jing Mountains who just got back. He said that there seems to be something going on over there and that a volcano in the mountains erupted. The entire sky above the Jing Mountains is filled with dark clouds now.”

However, Yan Liuyuan said in a very relaxed tone, “My brother will be fine for sure.”

That was because the wish he made was to use his own life to ensure that Ren Xiaosu would return safely.

Since he wasn’t dead yet, it meant Ren Xiaosu was fine.

If he told Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu about this, they would probably not believe him. But neither would Yan Liuyuan spill his own secrets.

Wang Fugui thought for a moment before saying, “True, a kid like Ren Xiaosu would definitely live on to be a scourge for a millennium.”

But right at this time, Wang Fugui felt the hairs on his back of his neck stand on end. Wang Fugui calmed himself and stifled his doubts, then whispered Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, “You two better be careful. If you wish to leave town, let me know. I’ll help you to think of a way. I don’t think that these people out here are here for you two. They should be targeting Ren Xiaosu instead.”

Wang Fugui was very smart. He thought about it over and over again before deducing that those people outside the school entrance were just like a net waiting for someone to get caught in it.

Zhang Jinglin had been sent away, so who else could this net be for if not Ren Xiaosu?

“They want to arrest Ren Xiaosu? Why?” Xiaoyu nearly exclaimed.

Wang Fugui considered it for a long time before saying, “Could Ren Xiaosu have caused trouble for those in the stronghold in the Jing Mountains?! That’s quite a possibility!”

However, the truth still exceeded Wang Fugui’s imagination. Not only did Ren Xiaosu cause trouble for those people in the band, he even caused trouble for the Qing Consortium.

At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing on one of the mountain slopes with a helpless expression. “Just how fucking long do we have to continue walking until we get back to Stronghold 112?!”

Xu Man sighed and said, “Boss, even you’ve started to curse and swear.”

Disconsolate, Qing Zhen said, “My image has gone down the drain!”

Chapter 101: Leaving Stronghold 113

While Wang Fugui was talking to them, they suddenly heard a commotion come from town. Wang Fugui curiously walked out of the school and said, “What’s the uproar this time?”

All of a sudden, he felt that something was wrong. Then he saw the sky was turning gloomy.

That gray smog in the air did not change from light to dark. It turned into a strange dull yellow instead, and the wind was getting stronger as well.

All of the refugees in town were carrying their valuables and running out onto the streets. Some of them were even holding onto their shacks and trying to stabilize them in case the wind blew them down.

At this moment, someone from outside the town ran in shouting, “I think a volcano in the Jing Mountains has erupted. The entire sky above the Jing Mountains is filled with smoke!”

The town administrator stared at him and said, “What are you panicking for? What has the volcano in the Jing Mountains got anything to do with us? We’re so far away from it! Where did you come back from?”

“I just came back from the coal mine.” That person said, “The factory manager made me come back to report to the stronghold about what is happening at the Jing Mountains. I’m a safety officer at the mine.”

“Alright, go and do what you need to do,” the town administrator snapped. “Everyone else, be careful and pay attention. Get back into your shacks after the earthquake is over.”

Only Yan Liuyuan thought there was something wrong with those words. That was because the birds in the sky were all flying south, and the bugs in the ground had all crawled out as well. Could a volcano so far away have so much power? Yan Liuyuan felt something even more terrifying would happen after this.

There was a river running through Stronghold 113, but no one had ever delved into where this river’s source was and where it ended.

The important people in the stronghold had set up several iron fences at the river to prevent any refugees from sneaking into the stronghold. In fact, refugees did so in the past.

But at this moment, the people in the stronghold were also panicking due to the earthquake. As a result, no one noticed that the fences at the river had been knocked down by something in the river. That strange thing kept swimming towards the city, and the fish in the river were all alarmed as they swam in the opposite direction of it. It was as though they were exhibiting an instinctive fear.

At this time, many people from outside of town came running back. Everyone was wondering, “Weren’t y’all working at the coal mine? Why did y’all come back?”

The people who came back shouted, “The entrance to the mine has collapsed. There are also many strange bugs running from the Jing Mountains with faces of people on their back shells. They even eat people!”

Everyone was stunned. There was once a bug epidemic that happened in this world, but that was put to a stop very quickly by humans. But for the people of this era, they had only heard of the bug epidemic but did not see it for themselves.

Was history going to repeat itself?

Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan heard someone jump into the yard behind them. He turned around and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu signaled for them not to speak and whispered, “Quick, pack up our belongings!”

Although Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu did not know what was going on, they did as they were told by Ren Xiaosu.

Yan Liuyuan decided that something must’ve happened that made Ren Xiaosu come back here to bring them out of Stronghold 113.

After living here for so many years, were they finally going to leave this place? However, Yan Liuyuan was not really bothered by this. Wherever Ren Xiaosu was, that was home for him.

It was just that Ren Xiaosu had returned too suddenly, so he felt undecided between joy and urgency.

When Wang Fugui came back into the school, he saw Ren Xiaosu holding a gun in his hand that was pointed at him. Ren Xiaosu said, “Old Wang, stay here until we leave, I’m sorry.”

Wang Fugui gave a bitter smile and said, “Are y’all leaving? There’s a lot of people outside keeping watch over this yard. Perhaps you could walk out without any trouble, but what about Yan Liuyuan and Li Xiaoyu?”

“They won’t be able to stop me,” Ren Xiaosu said.

After returning to the town, he did not rush over to the school immediately. Instead, he went to check on the spot where he had buried the gun. When he found that it was gone, he went to check on the cave he had prepared for Yan Liuyuan. When he realized that Yan Liuyuan had not gone there, he finally returned to town.

But before he could make it to the school, he discovered people outside the school keeping watch. Moreover, several of them gave him a familiar feeling. They were from the Qing Consortium’s combat troops!

It was very easy to tell the difference between the stronghold’s private troops and the consortium’s combat troops. The soldiers from the private army were like ruffians without any proper bearing. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the combat troops under the Qing Consortium were always standing with their backs straight. It clearly showed they had gone through a lot of training.

Because of these people keeping watch, Ren Xiaosu chose to sneak into the school. Now that it was getting chaotic in town, it was the best opportunity for him to bring Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu away.

Wang Fugui said curiously, “Actually, with Mr. Zhang around, the Qing Consortium wouldn’t dare do anything to you, right?”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. “Mr. Zhang?” At this time, Ren Xiaosu realized Zhang Jinglin wasn’t around the school anymore. He still didn’t know what had happened at the school.

But there wasn’t any time to talk about this now. Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m not leaving because of the Qing Consortium. It’s just that demons and monsters have started appearing in the Jing Mountains, and they’re heading here now!”

When Ren Xiaosu was passing through the canyon, he heard the sound of the wild animals running behind him. The wild animals, Experimentals, and face bugs were all probably being forced southwards by that sea of fire.

At that time, it wouldn’t be him alone who would be in danger. Everyone in town would end up in danger as well.

But Ren Xiaosu didn’t have any time to explain. He said to Wang Fugui, “You heard them talking about those bugs, right? The number of bugs is terrifying, but they’re just a small part of the danger.”

Wang Fugui said in surprise, “Just what did y’all encounter in the Jing Mountains…No, Ren Xiaosu, you have to let me go. I have to go back and get my son. We’ll leave together with you!”

“Leave with us?” Ren Xiaosu said doubtfully, “Your family business is here, but you want to leave with me?”

He never considered the possibility of bringing Wang Fugui with them. Normally, even if Ren Xiaosu were to try and persuade Wang Fugui to leave together, he should be unwilling to believe Ren Xiaosu’s words.

But as it turned out, it was the complete opposite. Ren Xiaosu didn’t even have to persuade Wang Fugui and he made the decision instantly.

Wang Fugui thought about it and said, “I don’t know about other things, but I know that we can survive as long as we follow you!”

When Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin came out of the stronghold for the first time, Wang Fugui had said to them that no one but Ren Xiaosu would make a good guide for their expedition into the Jing Mountains.

Of course, this did not mean that Old Wang believed Ren Xiaosu was really good at what he did, but that he felt Ren Xiaosu was tough enough.

A child who survived an attack by a pack of wolves and also brought another child with him to grow up and survive together, that was not something a normal person could do.

Right now, there was something Wang Fugui understood: Only Ren Xiaosu knew what had happened in the Jing Mountains. He was someone who had witnessed the changes in the Jing Mountains personally. If he did not believe him, who else could he believe?

Chapter 102: A love gone dead

If Ren Xiaosu went out into the town now and shouted, “The wolves are coming, the Experimentals are coming, the face bugs are coming, and maybe even that monster in the volcano is coming too!” probably half of the people in town would stare at him dumbfoundedly like they were looking at a fool, while the remaining half might be skeptical of what he had just said.

But Wang Fugui was different. He felt that if he didn’t believe someone who had personally experienced what had happened, then who else could he believe?

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui seriously for a moment. He suddenly understood why Old Wang had managed to live safely up til now.

Wang Fugui was neither a capable person, nor was he ruthless enough. All he knew was how to act in front of those important people from the stronghold by behaving slickly, but that shouldn’t have been enough to keep him alive for so long.

In the past, some esquires enjoyed a good relationship with the important people in the stronghold too, but didn’t they also get harmed or killed all the same?

It had to be said, Wang Fugui possibly had a peculiar survival instinct that allowed him to make the most correct of choices in the face of danger.

Wang Fugui reiterated, “Perhaps no one else believes you, but I do. I’m going with you.”

To tell the truth, Ren Xiaosu was also thinking about it. Most people would be a burden to Ren Xiaosu if escaping. But Wang Fugui was different. Old Wang was still a businessman at heart, but he had shown enough goodwill to Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.

Being the shrewd businessman he was, Wang Fugui noticed Ren Xiaosu’s hesitation. He said, “I won’t go with you and add nothing. First of all, I have money and medicine. Second, I’m better at dealing with people than y’all are, so I’m not going to be a drag.”

At this critical juncture, Wang Fugui made his value known. Only by having value would someone else want to bring you along with them. He did not pin his hopes on depending on their previous friendship to convince Ren Xiaosu because he didn’t think that friendship was worth much in times like this.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before saying, “I don’t care about your money. Go and come back quickly!”

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t a devout person. If it had been someone else, he definitely wouldn’t allow that person to leave at such a time. What if that person reported his presence to the Qing Consortium?

But the goodwill Wang Fugui had shown to Ren Xiaosu made him trust Wang Fugui this one time. Moreover, the Qing Consortium was probably too busy to do anything about Ren Xiaosu. The people keeping watch outside were nowhere near enough to take him on.

Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu quickly packed their belongings. Yan Liuyuan handed a copper coin to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Mr. Zhang said that if we have no place left to go, we can head to the Northern Frontier to look for him. But if we still have a chance of survival somewhere else, don’t go there. He says that the Northern Frontier is a very tough place to live.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the coin and asked, “What happened here?”

Yan Liuyuan proceeded to relate the events of that night, including Luo Lan’s attitude towards Zhang Jinglin and also some of the things Zhang Jinglin said.

He concluded, “Uncle Fugui was also the only one who stood up for us that night.”

“OK, I understand.” Ren Xiaosu asked again, “Did Mr. Zhang mention what his identity was?”

“No.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head. “I don’t know what his identity is, and he didn’t answer me either when I asked. But one thing’s for sure; he’s definitely an important person in Stronghold 178.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If we really have no place to turn to, we’ll go look for him at the Northern Frontier.”

Xiaoyu said, “Our belongings are packed. There isn’t actually a lot to bring.”

Ren Xiaosu took a look and saw that Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan had basically only brought along foodstuffs. Even the cabbage that was planted by Zhang Jinglin in the school’s backyard had been picked. They were quite similar to him, very practical.

“Bring the buns and cornbread.” Ren Xiaosu said, “But the cabbage is unnecessary. We can always pick wild vegetables along the way while we’re escaping. Eh, what’s in that bag?”

“Smoked meat.” Sister Xiaoyu said, “You didn’t bring any dried food with you the last time you departed, so I thought I’d make some smoked meat to store away for whenever you needed to go out again.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a bit. “Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu. This has really come in handy.”

“Bro.” Yan Liuyuan looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Is it really dangerous this time?”

“The people in the stronghold can depend on the walls to keep them safe, but the townspeople can’t defend themselves against those creatures. There won’t even be a place for them to hide.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Actually, the best thing to do now should be to open the stronghold to everyone so they can go in. But I doubt that those who’re in the stronghold will allow that to happen.”

“Then let’s wait for Uncle Fugui to come back before we leave. We can head southwest to where Stronghold 109 is,” Yan Liuyuan said.

Ren Xiaosu sized up Yan Liuyuan and said with a laugh, “You look pretty handsome with your face cleaned up. It’s like you’re one of them in the stronghold.”

“Hehe.” Yan Liuyuan smirked.

These two brothers’ faces had always been dirty. But ever since Yan Liuyuan went down with a fever for some time, Xiaoyu helped him wipe his face clean.

Suddenly, the town broke into an uproar. But this time, it wasn’t the sound of people watching a commotion but the sound of cries for help by many.

The entire town had descended into chaos!

Ren Xiaosu strode out of the school’s entrance. The soldiers keeping watch immediately reached for their guns when they saw Ren Xiaosu. They had been distracted by the events in town, so they didn’t expect to see Ren Xiaosu walk out from the inside.

But before they could even draw their guns, Ren Xiaosu made the first move. He started shooting as he made his way outside. None of those who had been keeping watch managed to run away, and they all ended up dying to his pistol.

At this moment, Wang Fugui ran over to the school with his silly son, Wang Dalong. When he saw Ren Xiaosu finishing off around seven people without any hesitation, he felt quite shocked. Although Ren Xiaosu was known to be ruthless, he never expected he would be this ruthless. It was as if Ren Xiaosu had changed after his trip into the Jing Mountains.

When Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Wang Fugui, Wang Fugui nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the coldness in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. However, Ren Xiaosu lowered his gun when he saw that it was Wang Fugui who had come. “Let’s go, we’ll head over to Stronghold 109.”

“Wait.” Wang Dalong suddenly said, “Can we bring Li Youqian along?”

Ren Xiaosu seriously pondered this question. “…Who is Li Youqian?”

“She’s Old Li’s strapping daughter,” Yan Liuyuan provided.

“I won’t bring her along with us,” Ren Xiaosu said and shook his head.

Wang Dalong got ticked off. “You’re the school’s substitute teacher. How can you abandon your students without a care? If Mr. Zhang were here, he definitely wouldn’t just leave her here.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui and sighed with emotion. “Seeing how anxious your son is, it feels just like love…. Actually, they’re quite compatible.”

Wang Fugui was astonished. “Why would you say something like that at this time?!”

Then Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Wang Dalong and said, “Too bad I’m not Mr. Zhang.”

When Wang Dalong heard this, his heart broke. He didn’t expect his relationship to end just like that.

Chapter 103: The walls collapse
the north of town were already in a state of disarray. Before the group left with Wang Fugui, Ren Xiaosu jumped atop a roof and looked north. He was shocked to see a dense, dark cloud of bugs were currently overwhelming the town.

That sight made it look like the town had suddenly been dyed black with an inkpot. The originally colorful town was getting taken over by the invading swarm of insects.

The wild animals were further out and running over. Ren Xiaosu did not spot the wolf pack or the Experimentals, so the face bugs were probably the first wave of creatures to reach the town. But he thought that it wouldn’t take too long before an even greater danger arrived.

The refugees were all fleeing to the stronghold’s gate and crying as they begged outside the walls for those in the stronghold to save them.

“Open the gate, quick!”

“Please, open the gate and save us! Don’t you all see those bugs?!”

“Please, just let my child in!”

The refugees outside the walls were all begging on their knees, but the private troops guarding the walls only gave some token fire with their automatic rifles at the dense cloud of bugs. At no time did they ever think of opening the gate to let the refugees through.

Besides, their action of firing at the bugs was no different from trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water.

Seeing that the bugs were about to arrive and the gate was still firmly shut, some of the refugees started cursing. But before they could swear much, they were forced to leave. Otherwise, the bugs would be here!

Ren Xiaosu had never had expectations of anyone, so his initial reaction was not to go to the stronghold to bargain but to leave immediately.

He didn’t care if other people lived or died. All he wanted was to take care of Yan Liuyuan and the others first.

At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was worried that Wang Fugui would bring along many cumbersome items. But then he discovered that Wang Fugui and Wang Dalong were only carrying one backpack each. Although Wang Dalong looked a little stupid, he was very strong. He did not look careless at all carrying his belongings.

There was even a moment when Ren Xiaosu wondered if Wang Dalong was a supernatural being himself. Ren Xiaosu opened Wang Dalong’s backpack and took a look inside. He found it was filled with hardtack that had circulated from the stronghold, while Wang Fugui’s backpack was filled with medicinal supplies.

The medicinal supplies had been taken out of their packaging and stored into plastic bottles according to their function to make them easy to carry around.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked Wang Fugui as he led everyone in their escape to the southwest, “I thought you would bring gold or something similar.”

“I would have liked to, but I don’t have the strength to carry them. If my stamina doesn’t last, I’ll end up dead,” Wang Fugui said with a bitter expression. “But I did bring quite a bit of money with me. However, they’re all issued by the Qing Consortium. When we get to Stronghold 109 and exchange them for the Li Consortium’s currency, they’re probably going to be devalued by half.”

Wang Fugui was panting as he ran. As he usually didn’t exercise, he ended up being the most tired as they were making their escape.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Quit complaining. The medicine you’ve brought with you is valuable stuff. Those thousands of anti-inflammatory pills you have are worth 200 yuan each.”

There was also another thing. Now that they were escaping, money was useless when compared to medicine.

Zhang Jinglin had once said that gold was a hard currency. However, he didn’t mention another hard currency, medicine.

In fact, Wang Fugui had made the smartest decision this time.

…

Not every refugee in town was foolish enough to cry for help at the stronghold walls. Some also understood the important people in the stronghold did not care about the lives of the refugees. As such, they decided to escape straight into the wilderness.

When Ren Xiaosu and company left, they could still hear the cries of the refugees who stayed behind and gunshots fired from the top of the walls. Soon after, an even more thunderous sound rang out. Ren Xiaosu turned back to look and saw that the private troops atop the wall had started throwing grenades and bombs down!

There were still a lot of alive people below the walls!

Some of the smarter refugees were running frantically for the wilderness. When some of them tripped, they just rolled over and got up again in one swift motion. No one dared lay on the ground for even one second.

It wasn’t only Ren Xiaosu and company who were escaping southwest. Several hundred others were doing the same as well.

As Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were unable to run as fast, Ren Xiaosu had to run together in a group with those few hundred others.

Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu was able to carry all of their luggage by himself, so that made it easier for Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.

After running for a while, everyone started to slow down when they realized the face bugs did not come chasing after them. Everyone other than Ren Xiaosu was exhausted from the running.

Some of them turned around to have a look and saw that the town had now become a purgatory of sorts. Their shacks were all burning up in flames.

“Our home is gone,” someone muttered.

Some of those who had just lost their families couldn’t hold it in any longer and started crying. Ren Xiaosu witnessed earlier that some of these people had even abandoned their young children so they could run a little faster.

But there were also others who held onto their children protectively before eventually getting killed by the swarm of face bugs. The back shells of those face bugs seemed to become clearer, and the sound of their mandibles chewing on their victims was a nightmare many would find hard to forget.

By this time, their group had reached a relatively safe zone having left the town earlier. The face bugs seemed like they were more interested in the stronghold, so they did not bother to catch up to the humans who had escaped into the wilderness.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling that the stronghold would help attract attention from the humans who were escaping. After all, those wild animals and face bugs would go to wherever there was more “food.”

At that time, when the Qing Consortium’s combat troops joined the battle with their firearms and heavy weapons, they shouldn’t have a problem holding off the wild animals and monsters with the help of the stronghold.

If it weren’t for the fact that he needed to avoid the Qing Consortium, Ren Xiaosu might just have waited for a while here in the wilderness until the Qing Consortium finished off those monsters. Then he would bring Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu back to the stronghold’s town.

But right now, he needed to steer clear of any Qing Consortium-controlled areas.

But it was at this time that Ren Xiaosu started frowning as he looked out into the area. Everyone could feel it as well. “It’s another earthquake!”

This earthquake was even more violent than the previous one, and some people who were unprepared for it fell to the ground!

“Look, what’s that!” someone said as they pointed north.

They saw a giant, dark line quickly approaching southwards from the direction of the Jing Mountains, which then went straight into the stronghold like a knife!

The grand and curved wall made a loud crackling sound like an iceberg breaking off. There were even thin cracks appearing from the bottom and going up on the sturdy walls.

Ren Xiaosu was so absolutely stunned by this scene that he could not speak. The giant fissure did not form a trench but broke the entire stronghold up into two semicircles. In addition, the ground on the west side was suddenly raised by over ten meters!

It was as if someone had suddenly pulled up an entire piece of the plain to form a stair!

It was here that two tectonic plates converged, and it only took an instant to break the stronghold’s walls into two halves!

The walls had collapsed!

Chapter 104: A real disaster

Ren Xiaosu once posed a question while chatting with Yan Liuyuan. What would happen if the walls that protected the humans collapsed?

At the time, Ren Xiaosu didn’t really pay much attention even though he was the one who raised the question. After all, they would just rebuild the walls if they collapsed. The important people in the stronghold would still be important, and the refugees in town would still remain refugees.

But it was different this time. The walls could collapse at any other time but now. There were wolves waiting outside of the walls; wild animals and poisonous insects were also escaping out of the Jing Mountain range. There were face bugs and the Experimentals!

The tectonic plate movement that caused the earthquake was like a black swan 1 that flapped its wings and brought a disaster upon the stronghold.

This stronghold seemed like it was situated right on two fault lines. With the violent movement of the plates, they tore it apart.

But that was not the only disaster brought on by the earthquake. The houses in the stronghold also crumbled, and countless people were buried alive under the buildings!

Ren Xiaosu was watching all this unfold from a faraway hilltop. The walls that had protected the residents of the stronghold for decades, or even over a century, was crumbling piece by piece like a melting glacier. In the end, the entire place was reduced to ruins.

This was perhaps the most shocking and insane sight Ren Xiaosu had ever witnessed in his life. The private troops atop the walls did not even have time to withdraw and fell to the ground along with the walls. Their bodies were all crushed!

These walls were at least 50 meters tall. A normal person who fell off would die for sure.

The wave of face bugs that couldn’t get past the walls started swarming into the city within the stronghold. Those “important people” in the city who were unable to recover in time from their panic caused by the collapsed buildings were eaten by the face bugs.

Wang Fugui and the others also stopped in their tracks and turned around to watch this sight with deep fear in their eyes.

“Xiaosu, will the people in the city survive?” Xiaoyu asked under her breath.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and continued heading in the direction of Stronghold 109. “It’s enough that we survive.”

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, there would still be a portion of the stronghold’s residents who could make it out alive. With a population of several hundred thousand, it was impossible that there weren’t any smart people in the stronghold’s city. Moreover, the Qing Consortium’s combat troops were still in there.

But all of that didn’t have anything to do with him. In this era, if it was of no concern to you, you didn’t have to care about it. In the past, none of the important people ever cared about the life and death of the refugees. As such, no one would care about their lives now.

Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could do anything about this disaster.

Suddenly, someone said, “Look, there seems to be some kind of strange light in the stronghold.”

The next moment, Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see a gigantic bubble drifting towards the face bugs. Shortly after, the bubble burst, and it forcibly pushed the swarm of bugs back by dozens of meters. Furthermore, the bugs closest to the front looked like they had been killed by the blast.

The others might not know what that was, but Ren Xiaosu immediately thought of the person who had been caught and sent into the stronghold, Zhang Baogen.

This bubble was also larger than the one he had seen, but its appearance and effect were exactly the same.

Ren Xiaosu was uncertain. It looked like Zhang Baogen wasn’t dead yet. In fact, his power had grown even stronger.

“It’s a supernatural being!” Someone exclaimed, “A supernatural being in the stronghold has made their move!”

“What the hell is that bubble?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the surprised people and thought, “If I say that it’s a saliva bubble blown by Zhang Baogen, none of you will believe me….’

Wang Fugui’s son, Wang Dalong, muttered, “How I wish I were also a supernatural being.”

When the stronghold arrested the supernatural beings, everyone distanced themselves at the mention of the words “supernatural being.” They were all afraid they would get implicated due to these two words.

But if they were honest with themselves, who wouldn’t want to have extraordinary superpowers? Even someone who had already entered middle age, Wang Fugui, had also fantasized about it.

This was the ultimate desire human beings wanted from this world.

However, supernatural beings were rare. From the looks of it, there were probably only a dozen or so among several hundred thousand people. Ren Xiaosu knew there must still be other hidden supernatural beings in the stronghold, but their number would definitely not be too high.

“How does one become a supernatural being?” Wang Dalong asked his father.

Wang Fugui said in a speechless manner, “I don’t know either.”

Yan Liuyuan remarked, “There are probably some conditions, like luck or bloodline, things like that?”

Wang Dalong became dejected. “Well, my dad is no supernatural being either.”

Yan Liuyuan consoled, “Don’t despair, maybe he’s not your biological father?”

Wang Dalong was confused. While he was making his escape, Wang Dalong did not even cry over his lost love. But with this, he started wailing.

“Ren Xiaosu, you and your brother have such potty mouths.” Wang Fugui was nearly cursing. “That Zhang Baogen is a supernatural being, but does his father look like he has any supernatural bloodline in him?”

By this time, Zhang Baogen had spat out about five saliva bubbles and forced the bugs back, helping quite a few people finally get a chance to catch a breather. They immediately made use of this window to escape out of the stronghold. They were heading for exactly where Ren Xiaosu and the others were.

The walls of the stronghold that had crumbled formed large obstacles on the path that made it difficult for the people on the inside to get out. But luckily for them, there was an opening large enough to let several people through at once in the direction of Ren Xiaosu.

In times of distress, people would tend to blindly follow others. The people who had been caught in this disaster had lost their ability to think normally and could only run to wherever the others ran to.

When one person ran towards this opening, the other lucky survivors followed. The number of escaping survivors started to snowball.

Wang Fugui could only make a rough estimation of the numbers. There were probably at least upwards of several thousand people making their escape right now, and it was only going to get higher.

They couldn’t wait anymore. The face bugs were probably not going to give up on so much food, and neither would those wolves.

The sound of sporadic gunfire was getting weaker and weaker. Ren Xiaosu had thought the Qing Consortium’s combat troops would be very effective here. But surprisingly, he didn’t even see the combat brigade joining the battle.

Could it be that the military base was too far away?

Eventually, some people from the stronghold tried escaping into the river to avoid the face bugs. Normally, bugs were afraid of water.

But just as some people jumped into the river, something in the murky water suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed them. Right after, a dense trail of blood appeared under the murky waters.

The entire stronghold city was filled with smoke and the scent of blood. Ren Xiaosu had never seen such a savage sight before. Even he felt that this was too cruel.

He frowned and said, “Let’s get out of here. Those people who escaped from the stronghold might attract danger.”

Many of the refugees around them were so tired they didn’t want to move anymore. When they were felling from the town, they didn’t feel it. But now that they had stopped, they could feel all the muscles in their bodies aching.

Much more physical energy is consumed when running at full speed compared to jogging.

Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu were all not as physically fit as Ren Xiaosu. But when Ren Xiaosu called for them to continue, none of them said a word in protest.

They would only survive if they listened to Ren Xiaosu.

Xiaoyu and the others clenched their teeth and caught up with Ren Xiaosu’s pace. Ren Xiaosu said softly, “A lot of lactic acid will accumulate in the body after an intense workout. You must keep going, or else you’ll aching even more if you rest any longer.”

When the other refugees saw Ren and company leaving, some of them followed. But others thought that since the face bugs hadn’t noticed them here, there was no hurry for them to leave. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to go, but that they wanted to rest for a few more minutes.

No matter the situation, there were always people who counted on their luck too much.

Suddenly, Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan realized that of all those who were here, Ren Xiaosu looked the most relaxed. It was as though he didn’t feel tired at all.

Chapter 105: The wolves are coming

Some people thought they had gotten lucky and that the face bugs would not come after them anymore. However, Ren Xiaosu knew the true danger in this disaster might not be the face bugs.

Be it the Experimentals or that terrifying monster in the volcano, they were all creatures Ren Xiaosu wanted to run away from.

Around 400 people, all of whom were refugees from town, continued escaping towards Stronghold 109. Ren Xiaosu led Xiaoyu and company to join the crowd but did not have any interactions with other people.

Many of the people could recognize Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others, but everyone was too busy fleeing to care about it.

Someone suddenly thought of something. “Say, shouldn’t there be a factory along the route to Stronghold 109?”

A buff young man said, “That’s right, there’s a sand factory over there. I’ve worked there before.”

“How many people work at that factory?”

“Around 200 people. It’s mostly the machines digging for sand in the sand fields, so there isn’t a need for too many people. But they do have a vegetable farm, so maybe we can look for something to eat over there?” Having escaped a short while ago, everyone was starting to feel a little hungry.

“Now that the stronghold is no longer standing, does it mean we can detour back to the pig farm and kill some pigs for pork?” A man said, “There won’t be anyone there to stop us anyway.”

“I wonder if the women in the stronghold are all pretty.” Someone remarked, “I’ve seen that Luo Xinyu before, and she’s particularly good-looking. Now that the people from the stronghold are in trouble…”

Ren Xiaosu sized them up. Perhaps these people thought they were no longer in danger, so they also became more relaxed.

These people weren’t really affected by those who died.

The majority of the town’s refugees were unfeeling and antisocial. On most days, it was enough if no one made things difficult for others. As such, none of them really felt sad about it when the others died.

In addition, they were even more unaffected if it were those important people in the stronghold who had died. In fact, they were probably cheering for this at heart.

Only a minority of those who had lost their families appeared to be in very low spirits at this time.

Of the 400 or so people here, slightly less than half were female. They were warily watching the men around them. Some of their husbands had just died, so they all knew what kind of danger they were in this time.

“Xiaosu, are we going to the sand plant to rest for a while?” Xiaoyu asked in worry.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “We must stay away from them when we rest at night. When danger approaches, it will surely get attracted to the largest group of people first. On top of that, these people could also become a new source of danger.”

Xiaoyu was relieved to hear that. “Mhm, we brought some food, so you don’t have to worry about the food. I know these people from town too well. They’re capable of anything.”

“OK. Of course, there’s no need to get too worried. They’re just a mob.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he looked to Yan Liuyuan and said, “Hide the gun.”

When Ren Xiaosu killed the people who were watching them, he had fired the gun. Even if it was very chaotic in town at that time, a lot of people would still have noticed.

He wasn’t worried that this mob would dare get any ideas about them. But it was still necessary to be careful in case they tried any tricks.

“The people at the sand plant might not know what happened in town. They probably felt the strong earthquake, but they won’t know that the stronghold has already fallen,” Ren Xiaosu said.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Jing Mountains, with the seismic waves spreading out several hundreds of kilometers. Ren Xiaosu was wondering if Stronghold 112 would also have collapsed since Stronghold 113 had been shaken so badly.

After all, Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 were about the same distance from the Jing Mountains.

The fleeing group of people arrived at the sand plant in the afternoon. In the end, they saw that the factory building and the workers’ dormitories had all collapsed. A large group of the sand plant workers were busy driving excavators around to clear the ruins of the factory building.

When the sand plant workers saw such a large group of people arriving, they were confused. In the end, when they heard that the stronghold was in ruins, they did not know how to react.

If the stronghold had fallen, what was the point of rebuilding the sand plant?

Most of the escapees sat on the ground. They really could not walk anymore and were planning to rest for the night here at the sand factory. At least there was food here.

Some of the people wanted to leave with Ren Xiaosu, but when they saw the majority staying behind, they stopped following him. After all, wouldn’t it be safer if everyone stayed together?

With the addition of these workers from the sand plant, the crowd had grown to around 600 people.

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t bothered by this. Instead, he had a look at the sky and continued leading Yan Liuyuan and the others forward. There was probably only two or three hours before it turned dark, but it was enough time for them to get further.

Wang Dalong was grumbling along the way, “Can’t we rest for even a bit?”

But before Ren Xiaosu could even say anything, Wang Fugui had already slapped his son upside the head. “Keep going if you’re told to! Stop complaining!”

Wang Fugui gave Ren Xiaosu a smile and said, “He’s just a kid, don’t mind him.”

“It’s fine.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. He definitely needed to remember Wang Fugui’s friendship with Yan Liuyuan and him. As such, he didn’t take Wang Dalong’s grumblings to heart.

Even if Wang Dalong kept speaking rudely, Ren Xiaosu would still get Wang Dalong to Stronghold 109.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a bit more before adding, “Let’s keep going for a little more before we find a place to rest. But each of you will have to properly rub down your muscles before fully resting. Otherwise, none of you are gonna be able to go on tomorrow. You won’t be able to get away if there’s any danger.”

This was based on Ren Xiaosu’s many years of wilderness survival experience.

At this moment, the people who were making their escape together with Ren Xiaosu sat on the ground and watched them continue off into the distance. Someone laughed and said, “Isn’t that Ren Xiaosu afraid that he’ll tire the people with him to death?”

“Wang Fugui looks pretty smart himself and has always enjoyed his status in town. But why has he decided to follow a few brats?” Someone scorned, “When I saw him leaving so anxiously at the beginning, I caught up thinking that there was still danger lurking behind us. But there isn’t even anything catching up to us!”

“Wang Fugui must’ve brought quite a bit of money with him.” A shady man whispered, “He’s been running a grocery store for so many years, so he must have taken all of his family belongings with him when he escaped.”

“And that Li Xiaoyu…”

“Don’t even think about it.” Someone said with a sneer, “Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan both have guns with them. Surely, you know that?”

“What are you afraid of? We have so many people.” Someone said unconvinced, “Why would so many of us be afraid of a gun? How many bullets can he have?”

“Oh, then are you going to attack first?”

With that, no one else made another sound. Although Ren Xiaosu had a limited amount of bullets, they only had a life each. Whoever attacked first would die.

Ren Xiaosu’s assessment of them was not wrong at all: They were just a mob.

Someone waved it off. “Don’t talk about these useless things. Let’s rest here for the night and set off again tomorrow.”

But as night fell, they suddenly heard the howling of wolves in the distance. Everyone who was resting immediately stood up and looked in the direction of the howling in fear.

They knew how scary the wolf pack was, but they never expected them to be here as well!

Based on the howls, the wolf pack was at most three to five kilometers away!

“Hurry and run! I didn’t really think that there would be danger!”

“We should have followed Ren Xiaosu and left together, fuck!”

This group of people now regretted it. But when they stood up and got ready to make their escape again, they discovered their legs had become as heavy as lead! They were aching all over their bodies!

Chapter 106: Roaring engines

Before the wolves arrived, almost everyone felt that Ren Xiaosu was being too cautious. The danger had already passed, so why did he still insist on continuing on?

But when the wolves arrived, they finally understood how Ren Xiaosu managed to survive all those years in the wilderness.

“Run, quick!”

“Those who don’t want to die, hurry and run. Don’t fall behind!”

The majority of the people picked themselves up and ran in the direction of where Ren Xiaosu had gone. They finally recalled the fear they felt when they first saw the face bugs!

It had been less than a month since the wolf pack destroyed the factory and the stronghold’s overseers had issued an order for the refugees to go and bury the dead there. Many of these refugees puked when they saw the bloody scenes at the factory.

Even these refugees, who were used to seeing death, couldn’t stand the sights at the factory. Of the bodies that were cleared out from the factory that day, none of them were intact. Every single one had been torn apart by the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu was away from town at the time, so he didn’t know this happened. But for the refugee, they got a fear of wolves.

But the faster these refugees wanted to run at this moment, the more they found it difficult to do so.

Far away, Ren Xiaosu was sitting beside a campfire and adding firewood to it. As they were too distant, they did not hear the howls of the wolves.

There was steam emitting from a small pot hanging over the campfire. Ren Xiaosu had cut off two pieces of the smoked meat Xiaoyu had prepared, and thrown it into the pot. The instant he did so, the aroma of the meat drifted out from the clear porridge that was being cooked while Wang Dalong looked at it hungrily.

Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone else and said, “Don’t just sit there and wait. Use this time to massage your muscles. We still have to run tomorrow.”

“Smells good.” Yan Liuyuan sniffed the food.

“I even saw some wild coriander along the road. Let’s crush it later and throw it into the porridge to make it even better,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

The coriander found in town were usually just saplings. However, coriander could grow up to half the height of a human being. In fact, a lot of people wouldn’t even recognize it once it grew beyond the sapling stage.

“Coriander?” Wang Dalong squirmed and pouted, “I don’t eat coriander!”

“You don’t eat coriander?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “But it’s such a fragrant herb. Why don’t you eat it?”

“Don’t you find that coriander has a bedbug-like smell? It makes me want to vomit whenever I smell it.” Wang Dalong said, “How can you guys even eat it?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the coriander in his hand and mused, “Maybe because I’ve never eaten bedbugs before?”

Wang Dalong was confused. ‘I’ve also never freaking eaten it before, alright!’

Wang Fugui was peeved as he ladled out a tiny bowl of porridge for his son. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, “If you want to put in coriander, just put it in. But can you not gross out my dear son?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled at that. However, he realized Wang Fugui had taken too little porridge for Wang Dalong. He purposely didn’t take a single piece of smoked meat for him and left it for everyone else.

“Old Wang,” Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “I’m very grateful that you stood up for Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu that night. Also, you were always great to me whenever I sold my catch in town. I remember all of that, so you don’t have to be so polite since we’re all trying to escape together.” Ren Xiaosu took Wang Dalong’s small metal bowl and ladled out some more porridge for him. He also added a piece of smoked meat for him.

Xiaoyu had brought several metal bowls along. In the early winter, every one of them was holding the metal bowls as they waited for the porridge to cool down while it warmed their hands.

Ren Xiaosu often sold his sparrow catches to Old Wang and often mentioned he could also sell it to Old Li’s grocery store as an excuse to raise Old Wang’s offers. But in fact, Ren Xiaosu had been to Old Li’s shop before and knew that he only bought sparrows for 900 yuan. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui sometimes paid him up to 1200 yuan.

Whenever winter arrived, Wang Fugui’s offer to buy the sparrows would go up by a few hundred yuan, and those few hundred yuan was often enough to afford a new coat.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt that even in such difficult times like now, there were still some people who glowed with kindness. It was like a charcoal fire burning in snowy weather.

Wang Fugui looked at the smoked meat in Wang Dalong’s bowl and said with a sigh, “I’m glad I didn’t misjudge the two of you brothers.”

Although Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan could be very annoying, Wang Fugui knew well that these two brothers were both very sentimental.

“Uncle Fugui, don’t worry.” Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, “Once we get to Stronghold 109, we’ll help you rebuild the grocery store!”

“We’re in such a desperate state. There’s no need to talk about the past.” Wang Fugui waved it off with a smile.

Actually, Wang Fugui was more open-minded than Ren Xiaosu imagined. It was as though he wasn’t particularly attached to the family business he operated at Stronghold 113.

But right at this time, Ren Xiaosu and the others heard footsteps in the distance. There seemed to be several hundred people running here towards them. Ren Xiaosu drew his gun and looked at the others. “Hurry up and finish your porridge.”

Yan Liuyuan and the others did not care about how hot it was anymore. They gulped down the porridge in one go per Ren Xiaosu’s instructions. It was fortunate that it had already cooled down a little, or else everyone would have scalded their tongues.

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he watched the crowd of several hundred people running over. “Something’s wrong. These people are fleeing for their lives. We’ve got to hurry and leave too!”

At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was quite curious as to why this mob was suddenly on the move again. Didn’t they say they were going to rest at the sand farm for the night? But he immediately figured it out. The only thing that could get these people moving again was danger!

Ren Xiaosu and the others were also decisively quick. Before this crowd of people could get close to them, they had already continued to escape.

The mob behind them were all achy and hungry, while Ren Xiaosu and company had massaged themselves for some time and even ate hot porridge. Although everyone was trying to escape, the circumstances of their situations were entirely different.

And in times of real danger, Ren Xiaosu could carry the luggage of everyone, so his group had it easier.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the top of a hill in the distance. The silvery Wolf King he had seen before was currently overlooking the escaping crowd in the wilderness. It was quietly watching its prey.

Wolves usually followed behind their prey and waited until they get exhausted before launching their final attack on them.

If the mob kept running away in fear, soon they would probably lose all strength to keep escaping. When that happened, it would be time for the wolf pack to capture their prey.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “We have to get as far away from those people as we can. Although it may sound bad if I say they’re our shield, we don’t have a choice here.”

Wang Fugui hurriedly said, “It’s not too bad to use others as our shield….”

But just as he finished his sentence, Ren Xiaosu heard the roaring of engines and was stunned. Why were there vehicles out here?

The sound of the engines was very abrupt in the wilderness. It sounded like the roar of a wild animal.

Before long, Ren Xiaosu realized what had happened. It was the sound of the people who had escaped from the stronghold!

From the looks of it, their escape route was also in this direction. However, he didn’t know just how many people had managed to make it out of the stronghold.

Chapter 107: The grace of dripping water

When the off-road vehicles and military transport trucks of the Qing Consortium appeared on the horizon, Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought that this might also be why the wolf pack was not in a hurry to carry out their hunt.

Ren Xiaosu was quite familiar with the logo of the Qing Consortium on those vehicles, having just seen it in the past few days.

The logo of a white ginkgo leaf was visible on the vehicles. According to Mr. Zhang, this world had already gone through hundreds of millions of years of change. However, only the ginkgo tree of all the plants in the world retained its original appearance since the Quaternary glaciation.

This was one of the world’s oldest genus of tree, as well as the species with the most powerful “genetics.”

When Ren Xiaosu first saw the Qing Consortium’s logo in the Jing Mountains, he wondered if they had chosen to use the white ginkgo leaf as their logo because they hoped to stay around forever.

The vehicles were roaring as they arrived. But when they approached, Ren Xiaosu felt there were too few of them. They were so few in number there wasn’t a need to count them—there were just three off-road vehicles and two military transport trucks.

Didn’t Xu Xianchu say that the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade had a strength of 4,500 soldiers? Why did so few people make it out then? A single truck could take up to 50 people at least, right? Then did it mean that only about a hundred of them managed to escape from the stronghold?

What exactly happened?

In reality, Ren Xiaosu had underestimated the horror of this disaster. As there were much fewer brick and mortar structures in town, Ren Xiaosu did not consider the consequences of them or even the high-rise buildings collapsing. Most of the structures in the stronghold were made of brick and mortar.

You could say that Ren Xiaosu’s imagination had been limited by his poverty.

This earthquake had even caused the land to crack open, splitting the stronghold into two as it forcibly turned the river into a waterfall.

This was the power of nature, and humanity could do nothing about it.

After the brick and mortar structures in the stronghold collapsed, a large number of humans were crushed to death under the buildings. Countless people had died, including those who were from the Qing Consortium.

What was most unfortunate was that the military base was situated right across the fault line, as it got split in half.

Luo Lan was panting in the off-road vehicle. The most embarrassing fact was that he was only dressed in a pair of flowery boxers. When the earthquake occurred, he was still fast asleep. It was fortunate that the barracks he was living in was hardy and strong, and the structure was low to the ground, letting him survive.

As it was winter now, there was heating in the barracks and inside the off-road vehicle. However, there wasn’t any in the wilderness.

Right now, Luo Lan was most worried about what would happen if the vehicle ran out of gas before they could reach Stronghold 109. At that time, he might have to get out and hoof it as they made their way towards Stronghold 109!

Thinking of this, Luo Lan said, “How much gas does the car still have?”

The soldier in the driver’s seat said, “There’s still a third left. We can keep driving for about 130 kilometers.”

“Can we make it to Stronghold 109?” Luo Lan asked.

The soldier said awkwardly, “We’re still 210 kilometers away from Stronghold 109. There’s definitely not enough gas, but we can actually have the people in the off-road vehicle behind us get out while we siphon the gas from their vehicle….”

“Eh?” Luo Lan’s eyes lit up before he sighed. “Forget it, the people in that off-road vehicle are all injured, and so are those in the transport trucks.”

The soldier was silent for a moment before saying, “Sir, both you and Mr. Qing Zhen treat us very well, unlike the other big shots of the consortium. We don’t mind if we have to suffer a little.”

“Enough, don’t bring it up anymore.” Luo Lan waved his hand irritably. “You’re speaking like I’m a good person. I’m not. Don’t you know that the good die young?”

“Sir, there’s a group of people up ahead running,” the soldier said when he saw the fleeing refugees.

Luo Lan disdained, “There was also a group behind us just now. What’s the big deal? Pass them and make them eat our dust!”

When the refugees saw the convoy of vehicles passing them, they got rather jealous. How great it would be if they also had such vehicles to ride in.

There were actually vehicles at the sand plant as well, but as they were deployed to transport the sand, only the excavators remained at the plant. They couldn’t go fast and were gas guzzlers!

At this time, someone from the group of refugees suddenly ran out. “Boss Luo, I’m the manager of the sand factory, Wang Yiheng. Please bring me along with you! I’ve met you before!”

Luo Lan’s driver asked, “Should we bring him with us?”

“I don’t even have enough space for the injured. Why would I bring him?” Luo Lan scolded, “Ignore him.”

When Wang Yiheng saw the convoy getting further and further away, he got so angry that he almost wanted to shoot that Fatty Luo dead with the gun in his hand. But on the one hand, he did not have the balls to do so, so he could only think about it. On the other hand, he couldn’t catch up to them.

…

Ren Xiaosu watched the convoy as it approached from afar. He told Wang Fugui and the others, “I believe that there’ll be quite a lot of people from the stronghold making their way here. Don’t worry too much. There’ll be enough people to attract the attention of the wild animals on our behalf. If there are still wild animals that might attack us, leave them to me.”

Wang Fugui was a very smart man and could sense the confidence in Ren Xiaosu’s claims.

Ren Xiaosu should know all about the kinds of danger following them, but he wasn’t afraid at all. Wang Fugui thought about it and wondered if Ren Xiaosu could also be… a supernatural being?

How else could he be the only one to return when so many people went on the expedition to the Jing Mountains? Moreover, could Ren Xiaosu also have killed people in the Jing Mountains? If not, why was Ren Xiaosu able to kill those people keeping watch at the entrance of the school without batting an eye?

“Um, Xiaosu, I’m not sure if I should ask this?” Wang Fugui said with some hesitation, “But what on earth happened in the Jing Mountains? Where did the others go?”

“20 of us went on the expedition.” Ren Xiaosu thought about it as he said, “But there should only be only four of us who made it out alive.”

These four were Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Xinyu, and Ren Xiaosu himself.

“As for what happened in the Jing Mountains, I’m not sure either. There are bugs that eat humans and humanoid Experimentals whose intelligence has been dumbed down.” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “But actually, those aren’t the scariest things out there.”

The monster whose claws came out of the crater was like a bad memory for Ren Xiaosu. The monster was simply too enormous, and it even lived in magma.

At this time, the Qing Consortium’s convoy of vehicles passed Ren Xiaosu and company. Ren Xiaosu saw Fatty Luo through the windows and wondered if this was the legendary Boss Luo who gifted him that banner with the words “Magic hands restore spring.”

“No matter what, we’re fortunate to have you with us.” Wang Fugui said with a sigh, “If you didn’t bring us out with you in time, Dalong and I might not have made it out at all. I don’t even know how to thank you.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui seriously and said, “The grace of dripping water should be reciprocated by a gushing spring…”

Wang Fugui was confused. ‘Shouldn’t we be a little more polite with one another?!’

However, Ren Xiaosu didn’t say anything else. He found a high vantage point to look into the distance and saw that there were still many others who escaped from the stronghold.

“We’ll find a place downwind and get ready to rest.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It seems like there are several thousand people in the group that’s to the rear of us. so we’re safe for now. Besides, I think y’all are gonna collapse if we still don’t get any rest.”

At present, the moon was hanging high in the night sky. Everyone had been fleeing since the morning and were on the verge of collapse. Ren Xiaosu felt that they had to reintegrate with the larger group of people again and use them as their shield.

If it were a group of several hundred people, they might get attacked by the wolves. But with a several thousand-strong crowd, even the wolves should have second thoughts about attacking, right?

And if they encountered any danger, all he would have to do was have Yan Liuyuan and the others escape faster than the crowd of several thousand.

It might sound a little cruel, but the others were probably thinking likewise.

Moreover, if they followed the crowd to Stronghold 109, would there be any possibility that they could pretend they were residents of Stronghold 113 and sneak into Stronghold 109?

Ren Xiaosu wondered if Stronghold 109 would agree to let them in.

Chapter 108: Sneaking into the stronghold

It was getting darker. Since Ren Xiaosu had the idea to sneak into Stronghold 109, he started to come up with some crooked ideas. He called everyone together and whispered, “What do y’all think of sneaking into Stronghold 109 by passing off as residents of Stronghold 113?”

“That won’t work.” Wang Fugui shook his head and said, “The stronghold residents have ID papers. We don’t have anything like that.”

“I can just say that I lost them while we were escaping, right?” Ren Xiaosu replied. “It should not be surprising since we traveled over a 100 kilometers to escape from such a big disaster.”

Wang Fugui said, “It’s difficult to say since there isn’t information sharing between the strongholds. Even if you say that you were a Stronghold 113 resident, there isn’t a way for them to verify it. In the past, an authorization letter would be required to travel between the strongholds, and the letter would have to bear the official seal of the stronghold overseer. But now that Stronghold 113 is no more, and with Stronghold 113’s overseer, Old Liu, sent away to the Northern Frontier by the Qing Consortium, who knows whose hands the official seal has ended up in….”

Ren Xiaosu clicked his tongue. “He would’ve died in the stronghold if he didn’t get shipped off to the Northern Frontier. What a blessing in disguise…”

“Now that you say it, it sounds like the Qing Consortium saved his life,” Wang Fugui said in a speechless manner. “But you have to consider other factors, too, if you want to sneak into Stronghold 109. For example, there are still more than 600 refugees here who recognize you. Besides, if Stronghold 109 were to refuse every single person from entering, even the big shots of Stronghold 113 would end up becoming refugees, not to mention us.”

“That’s a possibility.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Stronghold 109 most likely won’t allow anyone in.”

No precedent had been set for a matter like this. As no stronghold had collapsed before, there was nothing Ren Xiaosu and the others could compare it to. They could only take it one step at a time.

It would be good if they could get into the stronghold, of course. But even if they could not get in, Ren Xiaosu and company would still be able to live well.

However, it would be tough for those big shots who escaped from the stronghold. It was at least another 100 kilometers from Stronghold 109 from where they were now. To get there, the distance alone might be enough to exhaust them to death.

In the event they did arrive at Stronghold 109, many of these people would probably break down if they found out they weren’t allowed in.

Ren Xiaosu and his group found a spot downwind and decided to rest there for a while. Even if Ren Xiaosu could go on, Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others would not be able to bear it for much longer.

When the other refugees who escaped walked past them, they discovered that Ren Xiaosu’s group had stopped moving and were rather surprised by it. They asked, “Why have y’all stopped walking?”

Ren Xiaosu looked up at them. “We can’t walk anymore.” Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting on the ground, lowered his head again and started massaging his leg muscles.

Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not want to bother with them, the refugees didn’t say anything further and continued moving forward.

“Are they really unable to keep walking?” a few people asked after they walked away.

“Didn’t you see them massaging their legs? We had some rest in between, but they probably had none at all, right? They were being too smart for their own good.”

“I think he was so far ahead that he didn’t hear the wolves howling.” Someone sneered, “If he heard it, he would definitely be running away faster than us.”

This group of people kept whispering as they continued to walk. They were not planning to tell Ren Xiaosu about the wolves at all.

However, Ren Xiaosu did indeed know about the wolf pack that was following them. It wasn’t only the wolf pack; there were even more terrors like the Experimentals!

After those refugees walked away, Ren Xiaosu whispered, “I have a bottle of water here. All of you take a cloth, wet it, and wipe your faces. The faces of the stronghold residents are all clean, but our refugee faces are too dirty. We would get recognized straight away. Put on whatever better clothes you have as well so that we can assimilate with the stronghold residents.”

The refugees lacked water, as even the families of esquires like Wang Fugui did not have enough water rationed to them.

Ren Xiaosu had retrieved this bottle of water from the storage space in the palace. Even during the period he was stashing away the gold, he did not forget to place the two bottles of water inside. It was exceedingly important to have clean water when you were out in the wilderness.

Of course, the water in the bottle was refilled at a later time. The water that was originally in it had been drunk long ago.

As refugees, they were used to not washing their faces on most days. But now that they were planning on assimilating with the group of stronghold residents, they would have to look it. If there were really a chance to get into Stronghold 109 when they arrived there, it would be terrible if they were denied based on this detail.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu had the chance to wash his face clean. After all, it wasn’t particularly difficult to find a water source out in the wilderness. But his dirty face at that time had served as protection for him.

If Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu saw Ren Xiaosu after he wiped his face clean, they would probably not recognize him if they didn’t scrutinize him.

His face before could be considered beyond dirty.

When the other refugees passed by them, Ren Xiaosu deliberately had Yan Liuyuan lower his head. In their group, Yan Liuyuan’s face was clean, so it would make him easily recognizable to any refugees who saw him.

Now that they had wiped their faces clean and changed into better clothes, they might just be unrecognizable once they mixed with the crowd of stronghold residents. After all, there were several thousand of them behind and it was a sea of people.

They dusted off the dirt on themselves and cleaned their faces a bit more. At this moment, the large contingent of residents who had escaped from the stronghold finally arrived.

As a result, Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw them. Why were this group of people’s faces even dirtier than theirs?

The fuck!

What a miscalculation!

He had the mindset that the stronghold residents’ faces were all very clean. And since Yan Liuyuan’s face stayed clean even after escaping all the way here, Ren Xiaosu did not think about how these people did not have it as easy as Yan Liuyuan did when they fled for their lives.

He saw these people appearing before him who each looked more wretched than the last. The grime on their faces was so dark it looked like they had just been through a battle.

The dust generated from the collapse of the buildings after the earthquake stuck to their faces. As they made their escape, they started sweating, which made all of their faces look black and dirty!

At this moment, the faces of Ren Xiaosu and company were extremely clean and it made it seem like they were the big shots of the stronghold. Meanwhile, these people in front of them ended up looking like refugees.

The earliest batch of stronghold residents that arrived was taken aback when they saw Ren Xiaosu. However, no one said a thing at all. Everyone was busy escaping right now, so who would care whether some people’s faces were clean.

Xiaoyu started laughing from beside him. Ren Xiaosu said expressionlessly, “Ahem, let’s dirty our faces a little again….”

What a waste of half a bottle of water! Ren Xiaosu found it somewhat regretful to have cleaned their faces.

When the main group of stronghold residents passed by, Ren Xiaosu successfully blended Yan Liuyuan and the others into the crowd. Everyone was in a state of confusion at this time, and no one noticed them joining in.

“We’ll stay in the middle of this crowd.” Ren Xiaosu whispered, “Try to minimize contact with the refugees.”

Worried, Wang Fugui said, “Will this really work? There’ll surely be some refugees who can recognize us.”

“Don’t worry.” Ren Xiaosu was not bothered about that. “We’re just trying out our luck. Just think about it. If all of those refugees die, then no one would know our identities.”

Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. Could that even happen?

But all of a sudden, it seemed a conflict broke out among the fleeing crowd up ahead. Ren Xiaosu jumped up a little to have a look. It appeared that there was an argument going on between the crowd of refugees and stronghold residents. The sand plant’s manager, Wang Yiheng, was holding up a gun to someone’s head.

Chapter 109: I want to thank myself again

Due to the commotion, many people were attracted as they wanted to see what was going on up front. Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan, “Hide the gun and wait for me here. I’ll go and have a look to see what’s happening.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded. Ren Xiaosu could not possibly protect him at every moment, so he would have to learn to protect himself and even the others.

Ren Xiaosu squeezed to the front of the crowd. With his current physical fitness, no one was able to stop him from pushing his way to the front. When he got there and furtively started watching the commotion, he heard Wang Yiheng say ruthlessly, “I said, hand over your food to me! Can’t you understand human language?”

“But I’m very hungry as well,” said the bespectacled middle-aged man who had a gun pointed at his head, choking up. It seemed he had never met some as fierce as this in the stronghold.

The managers of the various factories, like Wang Yiheng, were actually residents of the stronghold as well. But as they had been stationed outside for a long time, there was always going to be a little bit of unruliness to them.

They were the “imperial” envoys sent out by the stronghold. Since they were equipped with guns, they had long since gotten used to having things go their way.

By this point, everyone had descended into a world without order. As such, they started behaving like wild animals. But just some time ago, this fellow wanted to kneel down and beg Luo Lan to take him along with them.

Wang Yiheng said to the people beside him, “Search him and those two fatties next to him too. Their pockets are bulging!”

The people standing with Wang Yiheng were his workers at the sand plant, so they were used to carrying out his orders. As he had a gun with him during this time, and because he had promised to help them get settled upon reaching Stronghold 109, Wang Yiheng became the mainstay of this group.

But to carry out a body search on the stronghold residents? How would they as refugees dare to do something like that?

Seeing these people around him not moving, Wang Yiheng raged, “What? Are you all deaf to my words now? I have a gun, so my word is law! Search them without worries! They’re not armed!”

Ren Xiaosu understood from this statement that there were some gun control laws within the stronghold, which was why Wang Yiheng was so sure the others did not carry any guns.

At a glance, he saw the refugees subconsciously stood on the side of Wang Yiheng. One of the reasons for this was that Wang Yiheng had already made a name for himself in town. The other was because he was carrying a gun.

At this moment, a middle-aged man came to the front of the crowd. “Wang Yiheng, you had better put the gun down. We won’t condone your tyranny.”

“Chief Ma!” Wang Yiheng looked startled. “What are you doing here?”

Chief Ma sneered, “What? Did you think that we’re all dead? Hand the gun over!”

Gun? Wang Yiheng turned to look at the gun in his hand as if making a decision. Then a cold smile appeared on his face as he raised his hand and fired the gun at Chief Ma.

Bang! Chief Ma fell to the ground in a pool of blood. There wasn’t even a chance for him to react. He had not expected Wang Yiheng to shoot!

The people watching the commotion started screaming and wanted to retreat, but where could they retreat to?

Wang Yiheng had hesitated for a moment because he used to live under the rule of Chief Ma. But he soon came around and remembered that Stronghold 113 was no more, so what power did Chief Ma have over him?

Wang Yiheng said in a cold voice, “Stronghold 113 is no more. When we get to Stronghold 109, everyone will get a fresh start. I’m not a cold-blooded killer, but if anyone disobeys my orders, don’t blame me for being unkind.”

Of the several thousand people escaping, there must have been some high-ranking officials in the stronghold among them. But even then, so what? They were nothing the moment they left Stronghold 113!

Ren Xiaosu stepped back and withdrew. When Wang Yiheng killed that person, none of the refugees dared to even make a sound. As such, Wang Yiheng would probably get even more unreasonable with his gang of refugees later on.

But what business was that of Ren Xiaosu’s? None at all! As for the gun Wang Yiheng carried around, Ren Xiaosu was not the least bit bothered by it. Just by the stance Wang Yiheng held when he fired the shot, it looked beyond amateur to Ren Xiaosu. If Wang Yiheng fired off another few shots in succession, the recoil might even cause him to lose grip of the gun and send it flying out of his hands.

As he made his way back to Yan Liuyuan and the others, Ren Xiaosu noticed a group of teenage boys and girls wearing light blue uniforms. He was taken aback by the sight because he saw the words “Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School” written on the back.

Were they students? Ren Xiaosu once heard Zhang Jinglin say there were dozens of schools in the stronghold, consisting of elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. There were even such things as “universities” in the larger strongholds too.

Zhang Jinglin also mentioned that teenagers around Ren Xiaosu’s age were able to sit in clean and well-lit classrooms while attending their classes. There would be many teachers teaching them basic knowledge of subjects, and there wasn’t a need to go out into the wilderness or go to work. The strongholds even offered some subsidies for the students.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu felt really envious of their situation and thought how good it would have been to be born in the stronghold.

When Ren Xiaosu passed by these students, they took a look at him and did not think much of it. They did not know that what was so easily accessible to them was something Ren Xiaosu badly wanted in the past.

The students seemed to have been frightened by the gunshot. A young woman beside them said, “Don’t be afraid. Your teacher will deal with anything that happens. We’ve already escaped from the stronghold.”

So this was a teacher of the stronghold? Ren Xiaosu glanced at the young female teacher and thought she was much better looking than Zhang Jinglin. If they had a teacher like her at the school, perhaps even a child like Wang Dalong would start studying hard.

Seeing so many of these students here, his thoughts shifted to the second side quest he was given. A 1,000 gratitude tokens! In the past, Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t even think about it. Where was he supposed to earn so many gratitude tokens from?

When he first heard about this side quest, his reaction was to earn them at the school. After all, he had only managed to complete his previous quest with a large portion of the gratitude tokens coming from the students.

But now that the stronghold had been destroyed, he didn’t have any idea of where he would earn these gratitude tokens from.

Ren Xiaosu remembered the time he killed the Experimentals where he thanked himself seven times. If he could thank himself and earn the gratitude tokens, did that mean that he could do it again until he completed the quest?

The black saber was floating quietly within the palace in its display cabinet at this moment. Once his mind focused on it, it would materialize in his hands. Even now, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t forget the pleasure of slicing through those Experimentals with a single slash!

So, if the basic form of the black saber was this powerful, what would it be like when he unlocked the next stage?

When he came back to where Yan Liuyuan and the others were, he tried out the thanking in a whisper. Yan Liuyuan was quietly watching Ren Xiaosu as he mumbled, “I want to thank myself for not killing the innocent?

“I want to thank myself for raising Yan Liuyuan to this age?

“I want to thank myself for not spitting out the grape skin when I eat grapes!”

Yan Liuyuan was confused.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. The palace was seemingly dead. It had no reaction at all!

Chapter 110: Robbery

Perhaps it was because he was sincere at that time, or perhaps it was because the palace didn’t want Ren Xiaosu to die, the seven thanks he gave were all returned with gratitude tokens. But this time around, none of his thanks managed to gain any tokens.

Ren Xiaosu found this a little regrettable. If he had known, he would have thanked himself more while he could!

But Ren Xiaosu didn’t notice that Yan Liuyuan, who was next to him, was totally confused by this. Other people might not have heard what Ren Xiaosu said, but Yan Liuyuan did.

The psychological impact he had gotten from being asked by Ren Xiaosu to thank him for an entire night had not been completely forgotten yet. And now, his brother was even resorting to thanking himself? And what was that about thanking himself for not spitting out the grape skin when eating grapes? Could he get more insincere than that?

Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the crowd again. Wang Yiheng had ordered the refugees to conduct a search on everyone present there. It seemed like he intended to confiscate and collect everyone’s food supplies.

Wait! It wasn’t just food.

Ren Xiaosu saw those refugees taking the watches off the wrists of others and their jewelry as well. They didn’t miss out on a single item.

These residents who had escaped from the stronghold were really unfortunate. They had just lost their properties and families this morning, and by nighttime, they were stripped of everything they owned. By the time they reached Stronghold 109, they might even end up with nothing on them that they could sell for money.

Wang Fugui was a little nervous. “Xiaosu, will they take everything of ours for themselves?”

As a matter of fact, Wang Fugui was carrying his life savings, medicinal supplies, gold jewelry, and cash on him. These things were all extremely valuable, so those refugees would definitely not miss out on taking it for themselves.

But Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “Don’t worry, no one’s gonna take anything from us.”

In fact, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of crossing paths with Wang Yiheng and his group. He only wanted to arrive at Stronghold 109 safely. That was it. But the problem was, even though he did not trouble trouble, trouble troubled him.

The escaping crowd of people were like an obedient bunch of sheep at this moment. More than 3,000 people were getting body searched by over 600 refugees, but no one resisted, nor did any of them dare to say a word. They didn’t even have the balls to escape from here and just stood in their spots.

Ren Xiaosu found it a little difficult to understand this. If the 3,000 of you raised your arms against those refugees in protest, what could the 600 of them possibly do?

The refugees were indeed more fierce than those from the stronghold. But two fists would find it difficult to overcome four hands, so what was there to be afraid of?

Ren Xiaosu looked into the crowd and saw the female teacher sneaking her students towards the back. It seemed like they were trying to escape from being searched.

When the refugees first started searching the stronghold residents, they were holding back a little due to fear. After all, they were facing those from the stronghold. In their minds, these people had always been lofty existences to them.

But when they realized the people from the stronghold did not dare to stand up to them, they became even more bold. Some of them even got touchy when they were searching the women!

It was at this moment that the female teacher led her students next to Ren Xiaosu’s group and stood behind them, apparently to observe the situation to see if they should continue moving further back.

But some of the refugees had already come this way.

Ren Xiaosu looked at those refugees and wondered whether he would get recognized by them. Since they had changed clothes and mixed into the crowd, it shouldn’t be obvious, right?

A dozen or so refugees walked over holding big and small bags. They were all wearing the watches they had just confiscated from the stronghold residents.

Watches were very valuable items in both the town and stronghold. When the town still existed, only Old Li from the grocery store owned a watch. Not even Wang Fugui had one!

It looked like there were quite a few rich people of high standing in this group of escapees. But right now, the authority and standing they used to enjoy had all but disappeared.

Ren Xiaosu quietly watched as those dozen refugees came over. However, those refugees froze when they saw Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could only let out a mental sigh as he wondered how the fuck he got recognized so easily. His disguise was an absolute failure.

While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how to deal with the refugees, the person who was in charge of searching and confiscating people’s belongings decided to detour around them and went towards the others.

Those near Ren Xiaosu looked over in surprise. What was with this? Why had those fierce refugees bypassed this teenager all on their own?

Why did they do something like that? Wasn’t he just a 16 or 17-year-old kid?

In fact, they had all seen it. When the refugees saw Ren Xiaosu, they had expressions of deep fear on their faces as though they were terrified of Ren Xiaosu.

They couldn’t figure out why these refugees were afraid of him.

But what they didn’t know was that no one dared to provoke Ren Xiaosu even when they were still in town, much less now when they were making their escape. This guy was famous for being ruthless, and he even had a gun on him!

Although the refugees knew there would be a lot of valuable items in Wang Fugui’s and Wang Dalong’s bags, it was not worth risking their lives for it!

The group of students and the female teacher behind Ren Xiaosu silently observed all that happened. The female teacher was looking at Ren Xiaosu’s back and appeared deep in thought as she pressed her lips together.

Just as the refugees were turning away to conduct a search on the others, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Ahem, you guys, come here.”

The refugees froze on the spot. They turned their heads slowly to Ren Xiaosu and said stiffly, “What…”

“Those watches ain’t bad,” Ren Xiaosu said.

The refugees looked at each other. They had fucking robbed over a 1,000 people so far. But now, they were going to get robbed by Ren Xiaosu of all people?! What the fuck!

This time, the people around them were left even more speechless. So there was someone even more ruthless among them?!

Then, one of the refugees quietly slipped off his wristwatch and handed it over to Ren Xiaosu in humiliation. Coincidentally, he had witnessed how Ren Xiaosu killed those people at the school…

The refugees were ready to turn away and leave. They wanted to get as far away as possible from Ren Xiaosu, but his voice rang out again. “You! You! You! You! Your watches are all pretty nice!”

The four people Ren Xiaosu pointed at scowled. It hadn’t ended yet?

But what could they say? All they could do was obediently hand over their watches to Ren Xiaosu. Everyone around them was shocked. How ruthless was this teenager?!

Ren Xiaosu didn’t continue to rob them. After all, he didn’t really want to take on these refugees. It was better to keep the peace. He waved his hand and said, “Carry on then.”

The refugees slipped away, their newfound confidence evaporating.

Ren Xiaosu handed over the four watches he had just taken off them to Xiaoyu and the others. He said proudly, “Here, we can see the time from now on.”

This was Wang Fugui’s first time wearing a watch. He took the watch meant for Wang Dalong with a smile and said, “Quick, thank your Uncle Xiaosu!”

Wang Dalong nearly cried. Why the hell had he suddenly been relegated a generation below Ren Xiaosu?!

Ren Xiaosu started to get endless fantasies. He wouldn’t usually resort to robbing other people, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he committed crimes against a villain, right?

Chapter 111: Liu Bu’s elder brother

Several thousand of the escaping stronghold residents had been looted by several hundred refugees of their watches, jewelry, cash, and food, leaving nothing for them at all.

The food they were carrying was already scarce. When the disaster struck, none of them were ready for it, so who would think to go and grab food? Or to put it better, the important people from the stronghold did not have a concept of what to do in a time like this. That was because the majority of them had never had to suffer from hunger before. So even those who did take some food with them had only grabbed a few snacks at most.

Of course, there were also some people who didn’t get robbed. For example, those who were standing in the radius of five meters around Ren Xiaosu were spared from the looting.

It was just that the refugee aggressors did not dare to hang around Ren Xiaosu for a second longer. They were all afraid that if they stood near him for a few seconds, Ren Xiaosu would spot something that he liked on them.

Ren Xiaosu was checking out the new watches they received with Wang Fugui and the others, unaware of the looks the people around were giving him.

Especially that female teacher standing behind him. The look on her face while gazing at him could only be described as complicated.

The escaping stronghold residents around Ren Xiaosu could all see that the refugees were afraid of this young man! They were terrified of him!

Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not kill people indiscriminately back in town. He had only killed those people because he was forced to do so. But somehow, the refugees always had an instinctive fear whenever they faced Ren Xiaosu.

This world was destined to work in a food web. The fearful were afraid of the vicious, while the viscous were afraid of those who murdered in cold blood.

After the group of refugees were done with the body searches and looting, they went back to report to Wang Yiheng. Someone whispered some words into his ear, causing Wang Yiheng to turn to look in Ren Xiaosu’s direction.

Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu had a feeling that someone was looking at him. So he turned around and locked eyes with Wang Yiheng.

However, there was a placid look in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. It was as though he had no fear at all. Wang Yiheng had a sullen expression while he remained silent. After a long while, he suddenly said to the refugee beside him, “Ignore Ren Xiaosu for now. If he tries anything else funny, we can always teach him a lesson.”

When Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Yiheng’s gaze turning elsewhere, he sneered. Wang Yiheng was just someone who picked on the weak. Although he didn’t have any dealings with Wang Yiheng before, their town wasn’t that large, and there were only so many factory managers around. As such, he had heard of him.

Wang Fugui said softly, “This Wang Yiheng has a godmother who resides in the stronghold, and it was because of her that he got the position of manager at the sand factory.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Just ignore him.”

Because of Wang Yiheng’s ransack of the stronghold residents, it delayed the entire group’s escape attempt. Right now, everyone was weary and thought they might as well sit down and rest. In just a short while, numerous people were lying all over the ground.

It was way too tiring, so tiring that everyone unknowingly dozed off.

Ren Xiaosu instructed, “Y’all go and get some rest first. I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night. Liuyuan, Old Wang, you guys take the second half.”

Yan Liuyuan and he couldn’t both be asleep at the same time. This was because he and Yan Liuyuan were the only ones who had a gun on them in their group, so one of them would have to remain in an alert alert at all times.

Within their group, Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and Wang Dalong all had no reason to harm him. First of all, Ren Xiaosu had not revealed to them the gold he had stored away in his palace. Second, none of them could make it to Stronghold 109 alive without Ren Xiaosu’s help.

In this chaotic mob, the five of them had formed a small unit. No one else would be allowed into their group, nor would Ren Xiaosu trust any other person.

Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, why don’t you sleep first and I’ll keep watch for the first half? You should be tired after everything you’ve been through today.”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Go and sleep like I told you to. Don’t waste any more time.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently.

Wang Fugui gave a mental sigh. Seeing how well-behaved Yan Liuyuan was in front of Ren Xiaosu, who could have imagined this kid had just shot and killed several criminals a few days ago? These two kids were cut from the same cloth.

When everyone was asleep, Ren Xiaosu started thinking about what they should do. If they could get into Stronghold 109, that would be for the best. The gold he had and those medicinal supplies Old Wang brought along should be enough for them to live on. But if they could not get in, they would have to make do with living in the town outside Stronghold 109.

That earthquake should have affected Stronghold 109 as well, but it wouldn’t have been instantly destroyed like Stronghold 113 had.

All of a sudden, a middle-aged man stood up and walked over to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked up at him. “Don’t come any closer, or you’ll die.”

Rather embarrassed, the middle-aged man said, “I was a supervisor at our Stronghold 113’s Logistics Division. My name is Liu Hai.”

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. He remembered that Luo Xinyu had told him Liu Bu’s elder brother was a supervisor at the Logistics Division. Surely that wasn’t referring to this person in front of him, right?!

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt unhappy. At that time, Ren Xiaosu had wanted to kill Liu Bu. But he, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin were not cold-blooded people, after all, so they didn’t end up killing Liu Bu.

But didn’t Liu Bu still betray all of them?

With the attitude Liu Bu had, would his brother be any better than him?

Liu Hai looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “It’s actually like this: I was wondering if I could join your group? When we get to Stronghold 109, I’ll immediately have my contacts help arrange for a good place to settle down inside the stronghold. If you want money, I have that too. But it’s all kept in the Qing Consortium Bank!”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a cold stare. It was yet another person making empty promises. “I doubt even your division chief can do what you had just claimed, right? If you were really that capable, you wouldn’t just be a supervisor. Get lost.”

Liu Hai paled as he remained silent for a long time.

A lot of nearby people got awoken by the commotion. However, they did not make a sound and just quietly listened to the exchange between Liu Hai and Ren Xiaosu. In fact, many of these people had similar thoughts to Liu Hai’s. It was very obvious that Wang Yiheng and the other refugees did not quite dare to mess with Ren Xiaosu. And Ren Xiaosu also seemed a little more approachable than Wang Yiheng’s group. In that case, wouldn’t it be good if they could get Ren Xiaosu to take care of them?

They assumed Ren Xiaosu was a kind person since the group he was taking care of consisted of the old, young, and women. However, they did not know the things Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu had done for Ren Xiaosu.

The students from Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School were spread out and lying on the ground. They didn’t care if it was dirty or not anymore as everyone was exhausted. Only that female teacher was still forcing herself to stay standing. When she saw people approaching Ren Xiaosu for help, her eyes lit up. But to her surprise, Ren Xiaosu dismissed all of those thoughts. She was a little disappointed, but there was nothing she could do. She also started dozing off. It had been a taxing day for this female teacher as she led her students in their escape.

In the middle of the night, Yan Liuyuan woke up. “Bro, it’s your turn to sleep.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. He glanced at Xiaoyu, Wang Fugui, and Wang Dalong, who were all fast asleep. Thinking, he said with a sigh, “Let them rest well today. It’s fine for just you and me to keep watch for the night.”

Chapter 112: Wild vegetables

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke up very early. He did not understand why, but since he became a supernatural being, he felt more energetic than ever. It was like there was a fire burning nonstop inside his body. He had only slept for four hours last night. But after waking up, he could feel himself back at his best.

Wang Fugui took out his food and handed it to everyone. They were now sharing their food. No one hid anything from the others.

Seeing how the thousands of escapees were all going hungry without food, the escapees who were beside Ren Xiaosu’s group swallowed hard when they saw them eating.

But they could only watch them eat. None of these people dared to approach Ren Xiaosu to ask for food. They were not dumb. They knew no one would possibly share their food at a time like this. Instead of being rejected, they might as well not ask.

Over at Wang Yiheng’s side, they had looted a lot of food. But the problem for them was that most of those refugees had not brought any food with them either. And the number of these refugees on Wang Yiheng’s side numbered over 600. In the end, only Wang Yiheng and a few dozen of his most trusted refugees managed to get anything to eat. The rest had to go hungry.

“We have to continue moving.” Wang Yiheng said with a sullen face, “Those of you who haven’t had anything to eat yet, don’t worry. I believe there’ll be food further ahead. From today onwards, we’ll all eat wild vegetables and tree bark if we have to!”

The refugees who didn’t have anything to eat yet were all complaining in their heads, ‘Yeah, right, you’re claiming you’ll pick wild vegetables with us after eating a full meal? Where were you earlier?’ However, they did not dare to speak out even if they were angry.

In reality, this group of refugees was not united. Just as Ren Xiaosu had described, they were just a mob.

Wang Yiheng led the refugees on a march. The thousands of stronghold residents making their escape followed them and started moving as well.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. If it were he who had been robbed, he wouldn’t follow Wang Yiheng and those refugees even if it meant death. But these escaping stronghold residents were different in that they still had to follow the refugees even if they were robbed by them.

“Let’s go.” Ren Xiaosu said to Xiaoyu and the others, “It’s still a long way from Stronghold 109. We can’t afford to relax.”

“Mhm.” Xiaoyu nodded. The majority of the townspeople were mentally stronger than those who lived in the stronghold. Whatever suffering they were going through, they experienced it long ago.

The students behind Ren Xiaosu stood up as well. Their teacher was groaning in pain and even fell back onto the ground. Ren Xiaosu turned around to look and saw some of the female students wanting to help their teacher up. In the end, the female teacher slowly got up by herself. She said to her students, “Your teacher is fine. You don’t have to worry about me. We must not lose sight of the main group.”

A student said softly, “Ms. Jiang Wu, I’m so hungry.”

They hadn’t eaten for a full day, and after making such a lengthy escape, how could they not be hungry? Some of the students were even experiencing dizziness.

The female teacher named Jiang Wu was put into a difficult situation. She consoled, “Let’s keep moving forward. Who knows if we might find some food along the way. And there might be people from Stronghold 109 sent over to rescue us. If none of that works out, your teacher will pick some wild vegetables for us to eat.”

“Teacher, what do wild vegetables look like?” a female student asked.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at that female student and saw she was still wearing a gold bracelet. If their group hadn’t been standing close to Ren Xiaosu last night, that gold bracelet would probably have been taken by the refugees.

These children had grown up in a world under the protection of the consortium all their lives. They did not even get the slightest whiff of the difficult environment the people living outside the stronghold had to go through, so of course they wouldn’t know what wild vegetables looked like.

But this question stumped Jiang Wu as well. She had only heard the people around them saying they could pick wild vegetables to eat, but she did not have the know-how to identify what wild vegetables were. This was not something they had learned in the stronghold before.

But Jiang Wu was not stupid. She surreptitiously pointed at Ren Xiaosu and his group, then whispered to her students, “See those people in front? You can see at a glance they’re more capable than the others. Whatever plants they pick, we’ll follow along and pick the same ones as them.”

Ren Xiaosu had yet not realized that this teacher named Jiang Wu had already identified him as the most capable person of the entire escaping crowd.

A student said, “Why don’t we just ask him to help us?”

Jiang Wu shook her head. “Now that the stronghold has been destroyed, you guys must understand something: No one owes us any help; we can only depend on ourselves.”

After setting off again, Xiaoyu, Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong were clearly back to a better state of mind. Xiaoyu turned around to look at Jiang Wu and her students, then said softly to Ren Xiaosu in a happy voice, “There are quite a few pretty girls in that group of stronghold students, and they’re even around the same age as you. How about it? Who caught your eye? Wanna let Big Sis go and speak to them on your behalf? They would absolutely be willing to follow you if you can take care of their meals.”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don’t have to worry about this. Getting to Stronghold 109 is our main priority.”

“Alright, alright.” Xiaoyu smirked. “But if you change your mind, you can let me know at any time. Big Sis will care for your future children.”

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up when he noticed the plants growing beside the road. He walked over and pulled the entire root out of the ground.

When Jiang Wu saw this, she hurriedly whispered her students, “Go, go and search for the same plants he’s picked!”

The students who had been hungry for some time rushed over to the side of the road.

Right then, Ren Xiaosu told Wang Fugui, “These plants absolutely must not be eaten. After I had some of it two years ago, I had diarrhea for three straight days.”

When Jiang Wu and her students heard that, they were speechless. One by one, they threw away the plants they had just plucked out of the ground.

Now, Ren Xiaosu realized the students were learning from him. After some thought, he told Wang Fugui, “That small bunch of plants next to your feet is known as pillow grass, AKA shepard’s purse 1 . It’s an edible plant that if eaten raw will taste bitter due to its alkaline nature. But compared to surviving, what’s a little bitterness?”

Wang Fugui was confused about why he was being schooled on something like this. ‘My family always makes shepard’s purse dumplings, so I know this.’

However, Ren Xiaosu did not say this for his sake. Jiang Wu gave Ren Xiaosu a look because she had been observing him all this time and knew why he had suddenly said this. He was saying it for her.

Jiang Wu glanced at Ren Xiaosu before turning back to her students and saying, “Everyone, go and pick the shepard’s purse.”

After she said that, she turned to look at Ren Xiaosu again and discovered he had already left with his group.

Laughing next to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, are you interested in that female teacher? She’s quite pretty.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I’m only hoping that teacher will survive a while more by doing that, that’s all.”

Jiang Wu must have suffered quite a bit after bringing her students out and escaping from the stronghold. In a time like this, who had the time to care about whether others lived or died?

Ren Xiaosu was a selfish person, but this didn’t prevent him from admiring Jiang Wu a bit.

Chapter 113: A balanced state of mind

As the several thousand-strong group made their way forward, most of them did so in extreme hunger. Especially since it was the beginning of winter, those who didn’t eat were extremely cold.

At this time of year, the wild vegetables were beginning to shrivel up. Even a plant as tough as the shepard’s purse had started withering.

The escaping masses scoured the roadside as they advanced, looking for anything from plants, to tree bark, and tree roots to eat.

At the beginning, the people from the stronghold still held on to their dignity. But now that they were this hungry, they dropped whatever they had left.

Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu and company who did not feel any stress. They had been eating such things all along.

When wild vegetables were eaten raw, they tasted bitter. They would leave an astringent aftertaste. Some people vomited after eating them as their bodies couldn’t handle such foods.

However, some people were even more unfortunate. They ended up dropping to the ground and started foaming at their mouths after eating some unknown food they found.

No one cared about these people who had fallen to the ground. Everyone walked by them indifferently and continued advancing, as though they were a group of soulless bodies.

Only Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks. He looked at someone who had fallen and said to Yan Liuyuan, “These are the symptoms of eating pulsatilla root 1 , which I usually call wild celery or poison ginseng. The leaves of this plant look exactly like that of celery’s. If it mistakenly gets eaten, the person will show signs of nausea, vomiting, cold hands and feet, and paralysis of the limbs. In serious cases, it can even cause death.”

Jiang Wu, who was following quietly, took note of what he said. Afterwards, she warned her students not to pick any plants with leaves that looked like celery’s. The students said in bewilderment, “But what do celery leaves look like?”

These students used to live in the stronghold, so it was only natural that their parents took care of all their basic needs. So who could have possibly learned what celery leaves looked like?

After the several thousand escapees passed by, the path they took looked as though it had been swarmed by locusts. All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw an off-road vehicle ahead of them. Wasn’t that Luo Lan’s vehicle? Why was it left there all by itself?

Everyone went over to have a look and was astonished to see that the vehicle frame was broken beyond repair.

The dirt road in this wilderness was extremely bumpy, so even if an off-road vehicle was well-suited for such conditions, it still couldn’t hold up to the abuse.

Perhaps not even Luo Lan could have expected that he would get into an accident. As a result, they had to abandon the vehicle.

A crowd of escapees were frantically opening the vehicle doors to search for anything inside that could be eaten, but they were all disappointed as the inside of the vehicle was cleaned out. Even the seats’ leather had been stripped off.

Not only that, some of the easier to carry parts were stripped off as well. Ren Xiaosu concluded that those parts must have been taken away to use as spares in case the other vehicles malfunctioned. As for this vehicle, it was totaled.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if Luo Lan was trying his hardest to hurry to Stronghold 109. Logically, Luo Lan might even have arrived at Stronghold 109 by now.

Today, many of the escapees were discussing whether they would be allowed into the stronghold when they got there. On what basis could Stronghold 109 reject them from entering? They were, after all, legal residents of a stronghold.

Although there was a big division between the various strongholds, with the organizations the true controllers of each stronghold, they were all supposed to be on the same battlefront.

Some of these people were also saying they would probably not be allowed in. They were from Stronghold 113, controlled by the Qing Consortium. But Stronghold 109, which they were heading to, was controlled by the Li Consortium. If they refused to let them in, there was really nothing they could complain about.

Ren Xiaosu thought important people from the consortiums such as Luo Lan would probably not have to think about whether they would be allowed into the stronghold. After all, the Li Consortium would still have to give some face to the Qing Consortium.

But for everyone else, it would be difficult to say where they would end up.

They kept moving. But not long after, Ren Xiaosu saw yet another military transport truck parked alone on the road.

Yet another vehicle had broken down? Everyone walked closer and realized it had a flat tire.

“Did they not have any spare tires?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

When the military transport truck passed Ren Xiaosu, he saw that it was full of soldiers. Clearly, they had overloaded the truck with too many people.

If any more of their vehicles broke down, Ren Xiaosu thought it would probably be incredibly difficult for Luo Lan to get to Stronghold 109.

But everyone was overjoyed at the sight of these impaired vehicles. When Luo Lan and his people drove by like the wind, the escapees were all thinking about what gave them the right to travel in vehicles while everyone else had to walk.

But it was all good now. Their state of mind had been brought back into balance.

On this night, everyone settled down next to the abandoned military transport truck to get some rest. It couldn’t even be called a “campsite,” as it was purely a mass of people huddling together on the ground in the wilderness to sleep.

The ground was freezing, and lying down on it would cause the cold temperature of the ground to seep into their bodies.

A lot of these people wanted to start a campfire, but the problem was they had nothing to start a fire with!

After Ren Xiaosu found a place for Yan Liuyuan and the others, he went to pick some firewood. The accursed weather was getting colder, so the firewood would have to last through the night. Otherwise, everyone could easily catch a cold when they woke up the next morning.

Even though Wang Fugui was carrying medicinal supplies, who in the right mind would choose to get sick for no good reason?

At this time of year, it was pretty easy to find firewood. When Ren Xiaosu came back carrying a large pile, he spotted Jiang Wu crouching on the ground as she attempted to start a campfire. This female teacher had organized her students and got them to gather back a lot of firewood. Then she tried her hardest to drill wood to start a fire.

Ren Xiaosu silently shook his head, thinking that this delicate female teacher had probably never done such tough work before. Normal people who wanted to start a fire this way might not even be able to start one after blistering their hands from drilling the wood.

Jiang Wu thought she might as well stubbornly hand drill to start a fire.

A male student said, “Teacher, why don’t you let me do it instead?”

Jiang Wu shook her head. “You’re students. There’s no need to do such menial and hard work. Go and get some rest.”

She glanced to Ren Xiaosu’s side, hoping to learn from watching how he drilled the wood to make a fire. In the end, she saw Ren Xiaosu taking out a box of matches.

Why was this person always so prepared? Jiang Wu covered her mouth in astonishment. All of them were clearly fellow escapees, but why did she feel that Ren Xiaosu’s group had it so much easier than the others?

When Ren Xiaosu got the fire started, it added a warm color to the darkness of the campsite. The previously cold moonlight was also given a touch of warmth.

Of course, it wasn’t only Ren Xiaosu who had managed to start a fire in the campsite. Some smokers had also brought along matches. But when a few women went over to them to ask to borrow their fire, presumptuous requests were made of them. How long had it been since they’d escaped from the disaster? So who would possibly give themselves up just to start a campfire?

Jiang Wu hesitated for a long while before walking over to Ren Xiaosu’s area. Xiaoyu and the others were chatting when she saw Jiang Wu stop to look at her.

“Can I…” Jiang Wu asked discreetly, “Can I borrow your fire? I can offer you firewood in exchange.”

“Sure,” Xiaoyu said with a smile. “There’s no need to give us any firewood. We have enough.”

“Thank you.” Jiang Wu said rather excitedly, “Thank you so much!”

She ran back to her area and carried some firewood over. Then she used Ren Xiaosu’s campfire to light it. The students were all watching like an eager flock of fledglings waiting to be fed.

Chapter 114: The Great Sage Equal to Heaven

When Jiang Wu started their campfire, all of the students gathered around for warmth. Their bodies had gotten so cold their fingers and toes were freezing!

All of a sudden, two middle-aged men stood up and walked over to Ren Xiaosu’s group. But before they could get near them, Xiaoyu had already given them a cold “no” in response.

The two middle-aged men resentfully returned to where they came from, wondering why there was such a great difference in their attitude towards men and women.

“Big Sister Xiaoyu is quite assertive,” Yan Liuyuan said with a smile. He mimicked Big Sister Xiaoyu’s tone and said coldly, “No!”

“What do you know?” Xiaoyu smiled and rolled her eyes at him. “That teacher named Jiang Wu seems rather nice and is a good person. The two men had the cheek to wait for a woman to set an example for them before they came forward to ask for help? They’re such failures as men. Besides, Jiang Wu had been trying for so long to start a fire by hand drilling wood. She only came to borrow our fire when she was left with no choice. As for the others, they only know to receive the fruits of our labor and don’t even want to put in any effort for their survival!”

When Xiaoyu said this, she purposely raised her voice. The group of men around her were incredibly embarrassed. Then she smiled at Ren Xiaosu and said, “I only dared to speak louder because you’re around. So, what do you think of that girl?”

Ren Xiaosu was mystified. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Stop playing dumb.” Xiaoyu giggled. “Although she looks a little older than you, a mature wife ensures a joyful life. As long as she’s a good person, that’s good enough.”

“Alright, alright, Big Sister Xiaoyu.” Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Just eat already.”

currently, Jiang Wu was sitting around the campfire with her students. She comforted them, “Everyone, sleep tight tonight. I have a hairpin you guys can use to burst the blisters on your feet before you sleep.”

All of the students fell silent. A female student lowered her head and said, “Thank you, Teacher. Actually, you don’t have to do all these things for us. We’re no longer at school.”

“What are you saying?” Jiang Wu interrupted. “I’m your teacher, so I have to safely lead you guys to the stronghold.”

“Teacher, I miss home….”

“I miss my parents so much, I wonder where they are now….”

The students began crying as they continued. It wasn’t until this moment that their grief from the disaster was finally let out.

When someone starts crying, the people around them also start crying. It’s contagious.

The people who had escaped from the stronghold were all crying, and everyone could not help but feel sad. They had really lost everything.

Only Ren Xiaosu and company were sitting among the crowd of crying people with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

“Bro, should we be crying too?” Yan Liuyuan asked meekly as he looked around him.

“It’s alright, we don’t have to cry,” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner.

Suddenly, footsteps and some voices came from the way that they had come from.

They heard someone over there shout, “Look, there’s the glow of fire. There must be survivors!”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see a young man running towards them with several dozen people. The young man shouted excitedly, “See, what did I tell y’all? I said I would bring all of you to the others, didn’t I?”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. This group of people must also have escaped from the stronghold, right? Why had they only just caught up?

When the young man came to the larger group, someone asked, “Did you guys escape from the stronghold as well? I remember that those behind us had been prevented from escaping by those strange bugs, right?”

A person answered, “It was all thanks to Chen Wudi. He was the one who helped open a path so we could escape. Oh yeah, he’s a supernatural being!”

The young man whose name was Chen Wudi said happily, “That was something I should do. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven shall subdue all demons and monsters to protect the people!”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘What the hell!’ He took a better look and felt Chen Wudi’s attire looked a little strange. There were some words written on the chest area of the blue and white striped clothing he was wearing: Stronghold 113 No. 3 Psychiatric Hospital.

‘What? This person is a mental patient?’

Ren Xiaosu had heard of the title “Great Sage Equal to Heaven” before.

There used to be a set of books at the school called Journey to the West that students could borrow. There was also a bar that operated before alcohol was prohibited. The storyteller in the bar loved telling stories of Zhao Zilong of the Three Kingdoms, who charged through Cao Cao’s army seven times at the Battle of Changban 1 , and also of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace.

Zhang Jinglin had said they were part of the Four Great Classical Novels and were treasures of mankind. There were also two novels named Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin. But the storyteller had never once narrated Dream of the Red Chamber.

Someone once asked the storyteller why he never narrated Dream of the Red Chamber. The storyteller smiled and said it was because he didn’t find it exciting enough to tell the story.

Some years back, Ren Xiaosu liked to bring Yan Liuyuan along to listen to the stories. But when alcohol became prohibited, life became more difficult as well. As they did not know where the storyteller had gone, they could not listen to the stories anymore.

At this moment, someone whispered to a person standing beside Chen Wudi, “Did he escape from the asylum? Isn’t he one of those people the Qing Consortium captured some time ago?”

The man beside Chen Wudi whispered, “I’m afraid that it might be the case. He’s a supernatural being who can materialize a staff in his hand. In fact, he’s really powerful too. But he keeps insisting that he is the reincarnation of the Great Sage. We don’t know whether that is true or not.”

Honestly, they would have regarded Chen Wudi as just a patient with a paranoia if he wasn’t a supernatural being. But it was different now as some people, in their daze, actually started to believe a little of what Chen Wudi was saying. But of course, they were also skeptical.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi with curiosity as he was now extremely interested in everything related to supernatural beings. But as Chen Wudi’s gaze swept through the crowd, his expression changed when he saw Ren Xiaosu. His eyes seemed to overflow with exhilaration!

“Make way! Make way!” Chen Wudi squeezed through the crowd as he walked over to Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling about this. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, “Bro, do you know him?”

“No!” Ren Xiaosu said in puzzlement.

Chen Wudi was approaching Ren Xiaosu. Finally, he stopped when he came before Ren Xiaosu and looked at him with piercing eyes.

“Master!” Chen Wudi surprisingly said.

Ren Xiaosu had no response. ‘What the hell?!’

Chen Wudi turned around and shouted to those who were with him, “I found my master. Y’all take care of yourselves! I’ll be escorting him to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures!”

Everyone watching was speechless.

Wang Fugui was next to them and started laughing like mad. Even though he could not understand what was going on, he felt an inexplicable joy when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s shocked expression.

But at this moment, Chen Wudi turned his head to Wang Fugui and said, “Pigsy, what are you laughing at?”

Wang Fugui stopped laughing.

Chen Wudi ignored him and went on to look at Wang Dalong. Then he said with a smile, “Friar Sand, you’re here too? That’s great!”

Wang Dalong was confused and suddenly felt that his relationship with his father seemed to have changed. Originally, they were father and son. But it had turned into a relationship of fellow disciples.

“What the hell?” Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little melancholic. Did he really have to go to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?!

The turning points in life were always unexpected.

Chapter 115: It’s you

Ren Xiaosu stared at Chen Wudi in dismay. “I have to explain that I’m not your master, and I won’t go to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain Buddhist scriptures.”

“That can’t be right.” Chen Wudi shook his head. “Master, which direction are you heading?”

“Southwest?” Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned. “Stronghold 109 is to the southwest.”

Chen Wudi said solemnly, “The Western Paradise is also in the southwest. Perhaps Master hasn’t realized it yet, but you’re already on your pilgrimage.”

What the hell! This was the first time Ren Xiaosu was so confused by someone. “I’ll repeat myself: I’m really not your master, Old Wang is not Pigsy, and the person next to him is Wang Dalong, not Friar Sand!”

Chen Wudi gave a wave of his hand. “That isn’t important!”

Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui were dumbfounded. What did he mean by it wasn’t important? It was very important, alright!

Beside them, Yan Liuyuan was trying to hold back his laughter as he was afraid he would attract Chen Wudi’s attention. Xiaoyu was hiding behind Yan Liuyuan, and the two of them were laughing so hard their bodies began to tremble!

At this moment, someone asked, “What did you guys encounter during the escape?”

Those who had just joined the larger group were still in a state of shock. “Those bugs with human faces on their backs were terrifying. Last night, we even heard wolves howling. We were so frightened we did not dare to sleep for the entire night. But fortunately, Chen Wudi—”

“Call me the Great Sage,” Chen Wudi corrected.

“OK. Fortunately, the Great Sage helped us drive away all the bugs. They seemed to be quite afraid of him.” The person speaking was exhausted as he had been in constant fear for the past two days. Now that they had joined thousands of others, they finally felt a sense of security.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was starting to think about how to get along with this Chen Wudi.

This guy claimed to be the reincarnation of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but Ren Xiaosu did not believe his claims. He presumed this fellow had heard too much of the story of the Monkey King when he was young, so he ended up fantasizing himself to be said hero.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu realized after reading Journey to the West that the unyielding heroic image of the Great Sage who subdued evil was purely the imagination of the people. They only exaggerated his image because they needed a hero to look up to.

At this moment, Wang Yiheng and the others came over. He deliberately avoided Ren Xiaosu and said to the group of people who had just arrived, “Hand over all your valuables!”

He still had his eyes on Ren Xiaosu as he spoke. Wang Yiheng’s strategy was very simple: First, I won’t provoke you and your people. But when I’m bullying the others, you had better not interfere either. We’re both wielding guns, so mind your own business!

However, he was stunned when his gaze fell on Ren Xiaosu’s side where he saw Chen Wudi materializing a black and gold metal staff out of thin air. Ren Xiaosu was also shocked. The metal staff had a gold band on each end, with the middle section being black!

Isn’t this the Golden-Hooped Rod from Journey to the West?

When Wang Yiheng turned his head to Chen Wudi, he saw Chen Wudi pointing the Golden-Hooped Rod at him and saying, “It’s you, Xiaozuanfeng 1 !”

Wang Yiheng was confused ‘Who the hell is Xiaozuanfeng?!’ Wang Yiheng thought that even if this guy had a mental illness, surely he should be called the Black Mountain Old Demon, Yellow-robed Monster or something of that level, right? ‘By calling me Xiaozuanfeng, aren’t you looking down on me a little too much?!’

But before Wang Yiheng could react, he saw Chen Wudi swinging the staff at him. Chen Wudi roared, “You’re not allowed to bully the folks here!”

Ren Xiaosu had Yan Liuyuan and the others take a few steps back. He was afraid someone would accidentally get injured by the battle. Wang Yiheng still possessed a gun.

When Wang Yiheng saw the Golden-Hooped Rod being swung at him, he reflexively backed off and drew his gun in a hurry. Chen Wudi’s staff brushed past the tip of Wang Yiheng’s nose before slamming into the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust as the ground trembled.

In his surprise, Ren Xiaosu wondered whether Chen Wudi’s staff really weighed more than 13,500 catties 1 . No, it shouldn’t be that heavy!

With a loud bang, a muzzle flash appeared from Wang Yiheng’s gun. But everyone was stunned. No one knew when Chen Wudi had placed his staff horizontally in front of his chest. He laughed and said, “No bullets can penetrate my Golden-Hooped Rod!”

Nearby, Yan Liuyuan curiously said, “But the bullet didn’t hit your Golden-Hooped Rod. Your chest is bleeding.”

Chen Wudi looked down at his chest, then took a deep breath and said, “Fuck…” After that, the veins on Chen Wudi’s neck pulsated, and the bullet that went into his chest was squeezed out of his body with brute force!

In fact, Ren Xiaosu noticed the bullet itself did not penetrate his skin. He could still see part of the brass bullet exposed on the surface of Chen Wudi’s skin.

According to the story, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven was so strong he was basically invulnerable. But what kind of muscle strength would it take to stop bullets from penetrating?

Ren Xiaosu was absolutely sure he couldn’t do the same.

Wang Yiheng clenched his teeth and attempted to fire off another shot. But in the blink of an eye, Chen Wudi vanished from view.

A moment later, the heavy Golden-Hooped Rod appeared on Wang Yiheng’s left, vibrating as it swooshed through the air. It almost felt like the air around it was resonating.

As the refugees around Wang Yiheng fled from the scene of battle, the Golden-Hooped Rod smashed ruthlessly into Wang Yiheng’s waist.

With an audible crack, Wang Yiheng’s body was twisted in an irregular fashion from his waist. This strike had broken his spine!

In that instant, Wang Yiheng was sent flying away. He could feel his whole body paralyzed as he lay on the ground!

Chen Wudi plunged the Golden-Hooped Rod hard onto the ground with a loud thud. Holding the staff upright, he looked majestic.

Chen Wudi turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Master, am I cool?”

“I’m really…” Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded and did not know how to continue the conversation.

The refugees quickly distanced themselves from Wang Yiheng. They were all afraid of getting implicated by Wang Yiheng, who was wailing in agony on the ground, while other escapees’ eyes were filled with joy. They had long hated Wang Yiheng and knew he would only get more and more difficult to satisfy.

Someone said to Chen Wudi, “Thank you!”

“Why are you thanking me?” Chen Wudi waved his hand without a care. “You should thank my master instead!”

A few people were stunned as they turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Thank you!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up, because he had received more than ten gratitude tokens with almost no effort!

He had been worrying about how to collect more gratitude tokens. He did not expect Chen Wudi would help him get so many of them without him needing to do anything.

Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu. He wanted to ask him what they should do next. However, he saw Ren Xiaosu walking eagerly towards Chen Wudi. “Disciple, does your injury still hurt? Master has an excellent medicine here that can treat wounds!”

Yan Liuyuan was confused

Wang Fugui was confused

Everyone watching was confused.

Did they really have to head to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?!

Chapter 116: 72 Transformations

Just a moment ago, Ren Xiaosu was still trying his best to deny that he was Chen Wudi’s so-called master. But now the two were putting on a show of how deep their teacher-disciple relationship was?

Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others stared blankly at Ren Xiaosu as he took out a vial. Wang Fugui gasped as Ren Xiaosu had always treated this medicine like a treasure. Back then, Ren Xiaosu was not even willing to make it cheaper for him no matter how much he tried to persuade him! But now, Ren Xiaosu was willing to take it out and give it to Chen Wudi for free! Was this still Ren Xiaosu?

However, only Ren Xiaosu understood how a delusional person who liked subduing demons and monsters to uphold justice like Chen Wudi could end up becoming a divine weapon for him to gain heaps of gratitude tokens!

In fact, the thought of purely making use of Chen Wudi also crossed Ren Xiaosu’s mind. But when he saw Chen Wudi’s sincere gaze, he felt a little touched. He sighed and turned to look at Wang Fugui.

Before Wang Fugui could react from his shock, he heard Ren Xiaosu say to him, “Pigsy, give some food to your senior apprentice brother.”

Wang Fugui was dumbfounded. Had he gone crazy?! Wang Fugui felt as though the entire world had gone crazy! Although he had such thoughts, Wang Fugui still took out some cornbread and handed it to Chen Wudi.

“Thank you, Master!” Chen Wudi took the cornbread and stuffed it into his mouth. He was famished!

“Gratitude received from Chen Wudi, +1!” The palace’s judgment could not be wrong. This was a sincere thank you.

When Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi gobbling down his food, he suddenly felt that this master-disciple relationship wasn’t too bad.

Chen Wudi looked up and said, “Master, I’m still hungry.”

Ren Xiaosu thought that not only could this disciple fight well, he was quite an eater too.

He thought for a moment and said, “Disciple, do you know what begging for alms is?”

“Yes!” Chen Wudi nodded.

“I’ll point out a few people for you. Go up to them and ask them to spare you some vegetarian food.” Ren Xiaosu then pointed out several refugees to Chen Wudi. They all used to be Wang Yiheng’s trusted aides at the sand plant. Ren Xiaosu knew they must have hidden some of the food they had robbed from the escapees.

“OK, Master!” Chen Wudi carried the Golden-Hooped Rod and went to look for those refugees. The refugees nearly pissed their pants. Even now, Wang Yiheng was wailing in agony on the ground!

‘You call this begging for alms? Even though everyone was committing robbery all the same, what makes ours a robbery, and yours begging for alms?!’

They glanced at Wang Yiheng and decided to take out whatever food they had on them. When Chen Wudi returned to Ren Xiaosu, he was holding a lot of food, such as chocolates and crackers. Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu as though he wanted to claim credit for it. “Master, these are for you.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “Since you’re the one who earned it, you should save it for yourself to eat.”

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to eat any of Chen Wudi’s food. He did not feel any pressure when he strongarmed the other refugees into giving him something. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu kept feeling a sense of guilt whenever the thought of bullying the dimwitted Chen Wudi crossed his mind. Perhaps this was also one of Chen Wudi’s talents.

Beside them, the girls from Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School admired Chen Wudi. He looked rather handsome and even upheld justice for them. Other than his asylum clothes that looked rather unsightly, he looked quite suitable as a hero.

The girls stole glances at Chen Wudi. They were also at an age where they were starting to understand love. In this chaotic environment, people who could give them some sense of security would immediately give them a good impression.

Only Jiang Wu’s gaze was still on Ren Xiaosu. She suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu might not be a good person, but he was also definitely not a bad person.

After the events blew over, everyone returned to normal. They urgently needed some rest as they still had to continue on their way tomorrow.

Ren Xiaosu found it a little odd. Those refugees had also robbed many things from the stronghold’s residents. Previously, it could be said that everyone had not dared to resist only because Wang Yiheng had a gun on him. That was understandable. But right now, Wang Yiheng, who was the backbone of the refugees, was dead, and the gun had fallen into Wang Fugui’s hands. Logically, the stronghold’s residents should be taking revenge and snatching back their belongings at this time. Unfortunately, Ren Xiaosu realized these people were still afraid of clashing with the refugees.

Initially, Ren Xiaosu’s group consisted of five people surrounding the campfire. But now it had turned into six people.

Chen Wudi ate his food noisily. It looked like he had really been starving for the past two days.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “I heard that the Great Sage can perform 72 Transformations and can use his hair to create a bunch of monkeys. Since you’re the Great Sage, do you know how to do that?”

“No.” Chen Wudi admitted his failings. He said, “Perhaps it’s because I’ve reincarnated recently. I haven’t awakened my other skills yet.”

“Have you tried it before?” Ren Xiaosu was curious.

“Yes, but it didn’t work,” Chen Wudi answered honestly.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Chen Wudi’s head and noticed a small bald patch behind his right ear. It looked like he really had tried it before.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu started to get the feeling that everyone’s superpowers were somehow related to their willpower.

For example, it was still a mystery as to what the value of his “mental fortitude” was.

For example, the combat strength of Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was directly correlated to his mental strength.

But it was even more obvious for Chen Wudi. He had fantasized about being the Monkey King, and as a result, he materialized the Golden-Hooped Rod. Moreover, his physical fitness was also approaching a state that surpassed humans.

Ren Xiaosu wondered whether there were even more patients with delusions who had become supernatural beings like Chen Wudi. Wouldn’t those patients with “schizophrenia” be miserable then? They might end up killing themselves soon after becoming a supernatural being due to their own paranoia.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu felt this was quite unrealistic. Not all the mentally ill would have strong mental strength.

While he was pondering this, some female escapees walked over to Jiang Wu and asked, “Can you let us light a fire with your fire?”

Ren Xiaosu turned to look and saw that several women of different ages had approached Jiang Wu. They probably felt that being a female teacher, she would be easier to talk to about borrowing the fire as ignition than approaching Ren Xiaosu. Perhaps, they were worried Ren Xiaosu might make some indecent requests of them?

Ren Xiaosu was not happy about this. ‘What do you take me for? Am I such a desperate person? And woman, you’re already in your fifties, alright?! What’s with that wary look in your eyes while looking at me?!’

But Jiang Wu did not oblige their request. She looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “I borrowed your fire to light mine. Would you agree if I let them use my fire to light theirs?”

“Go ahead.” Ren Xiaosu looked up at the women. He was not so petty as to scorn them. However, Jiang Wu’s reaction surprised him.

As the women repeatedly thanked Ren Xiaosu, they lit the firewood they were carrying and returned back to their spots. From this, Ren Xiaosu reaped yet another three gratitude tokens.

Chapter 117: You have to go!

Looking at the women bringing the firewood back to their location, Ren Xiaosu lamented that it truly was quite difficult for women to survive in this sort of environment.

At this moment, he heard someone snoring beside him. When Ren Xiaosu turned around to look, he saw that Chen Wudi had fallen asleep while eating.

Chen Wudi was probably exhausted from having to protect dozens of people all by himself en route.

Ren Xiaosu felt this world was a little ironic. Of the several thousand people here, only the crazy Chen Wudi and one woman named Jiang Wu were willing to be good people. As for those who felt they were smart and capable, they only had the thought of saving themselves. Even Ren Xiaosu was no exception. But Ren Xiaosu was not ashamed of that. He had never thought of being a good person.

“Bro, why don’t you sleep for a while?” Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu as he added more firewood to the campfire. “Uncle Fugui and I will keep watch for the first half of the night.”

“Yeah, I also have a gun now.” Wang Fugui smiled. He kept the gun close to him as though it gave him a sense of security while holding it.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “Alright then, I’ll get some sleep first. Liuyuan, teach Old Wang how to use the gun.”

Wang Yiheng, who had been struck in the waist by Chen Wudi, had died. Not only was his spine broken, his vital organs had also sustained various degrees of damage. With such injuries, no one could survive.

When Ren Xiaosu woke up in the middle of the night, he saw Chen Wudi staring at him with a piercing gaze. No one knew when he had woken up.

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Fugui had not slept yet as they were responsible for keeping watch during the night. Wang Fugui was holding his gun and guarding against outside threats while Yan Liuyuan guarded against Chen Wudi.

Although everyone knew that firearms would not be effective against Chen Wudi, they still had to keep their guards up around him.

To Ren Xiaosu and the others, no matter how much sincerity Chen Wudi had shown them, everyone had just gotten to know him. Who knew if he was just good at acting?

Of course, even if they felt that Chen Wudi had other reasons for approaching Ren Xiaosu, it did not seem like he had any motive for doing so either.

Right now, the Qing Consortium was probably the most interested in Ren Xiaosu. No, strictly speaking, the Qing Consortium was more interested in Xu Xianchu. So Chen Wudi was probably not sent by the Qing Consortium.

“Master, you’re finally awake!” Chen Wudi said.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “You’ve only slept for a while. Aren’t you sleepy?”

“Not at all.” Chen Wudi shook his head and said, “Ever since I realized that I’m the reincarnation of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, I’m fine with just three to four hours of sleep per night. It’s as good as sleeping for an entire night like I used to.”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. It was about the same for him. Now, he could just sleep three to four hours every day and it would be sufficient rest for him. “Liuyuan, Old Wang, both of you can go and sleep now. I’ll take over.”

“Master, why don’t you sleep for a little while more?” Chen Wudi said, “I’ll keep watch for you!”

“You don’t have to.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “How old are you?”

“Several thousand years old?” Chen Wudi wasn’t too sure of it himself. “After all, I don’t know how long I lived in the past.”

“I’m talking about this current life!” Ren Xiaosu snapped. He realized he actually had to phrase his words carefully when communicating with Chen Wudi.

“Oh, I’m 22,” Chen Wudi said.

As Ren Xiaosu felt it was rather strange that someone who was five years older than him had suddenly become his disciple, he asked, “Were you arrested and brought to the asylum by the private army?”

When Zhang Baogen got arrested, Wang Fugui received news that three arrested supernatural beings had been sent to the newly established psychiatric hospital by the private army on that same night. They even transported a lot of medical devices to the hospital at the time.

“No.” Chen Wudi shook his head and said, “I was already in an asylum a few years ago. I told them that I was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but they didn’t believe me. Some time ago, they transferred me to a new hospital for some reason. They even drew my blood and did some tests on me.”

“Then do you know Zhang Baogen?” Ren Xiaosu was curious.

“The one who blows bubbles?” Chen Wudi’s eyes lit up. “Yes, he was in the ward next to mine. There was also another patient, but I don’t know where he went.”

From those words, Ren Xiaosu confirmed that Chen Wudi was really from the psychiatric hospital and had been in there with Zhang Baogen at the same time.

He had thought Zhang Baogen and the others who had been arrested would get dissected after they got sent into the stronghold. However, they only had their blood drawn? No, according to Chen Wudi, there were originally three supernatural beings locked together, but one of them went missing.

The one who went missing… probably died, right?!

“What plans do you have?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I’ll accompany Master to obtain the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise,” Chen Wudi answered matter-of-factly.

Ren Xiaosu felt uncomfortable and upset whenever he heard this. He thought for a while and said, “What if I’m not seeking the scriptures?”

Chen Wudi was stumped. If they were not going to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, what else could he do? For the past few years, he had been thinking every day about looking for his master so they could go to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures. Along the way, he would subdue demons and monsters and bring justice to the innocent. However, his master was saying he didn’t want to go to the Western Paradise?!

Chen Wudi considered it for a long time before saying, “No, you have to go!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. ‘What do you mean by I have to go? I first have to know where the Western Paradise is, right? It’s not like Zhang Jinglin talked about this before!’

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Do you know where the Western Paradise is?”

Chen Wudi was stunned once again. “Nope.”

Well, this would be easy to handle.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu had realized Chen Wudi had not read the original text of Journey to the West. He only knew about it from hearsay, so it led to him having a heroic dream like this. Those who had read the original text knew that Sun Wukong’s image was not that great.

Hence, Chen Wudi would not know where the Western Paradise was and probably did not even know what could be found there. He could only remember that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven was a very powerful hero and that he must escort his master to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in the Western Paradise. Even if his master did not wish to do so, he had to escort him.

Ren Xiaosu thought that it was better that Chen Wudi did not know what Sun Wukong was like in the novel. Sometimes the world needed a hero like him.

Even Ren Xiaosu preferred the storyteller’s version more. In that version, Sun Wukong treaded on rainbow clouds, wore golden armor, and was an unrivaled god.

Ren Xiaosu looked around and saw several thousand people sleeping on the ground with only a few campfires burning. The sky was shrouded in darkness, and the early winter wind got even colder.

After the escapees experienced massive setbacks and went on a distant and arduous journey for two days, they still had to endure their hunger. They were feeble to the point of collapsing. When the cold wind blew tonight, a lot of these people were likely not going to get up again the next morning.

Fever, diarrhea, the flu, and heart and lung failure were all common symptoms for those who suffered from the winter weather.

In this wilderness, humans not only faced the hardships of wild animals. There were also prevalent diseases all around them.

With so many people fleeing for their lives, it would be impressive if half of them could reach Stronghold 109.

The numbers would be fewer if they encountered the Experimentals and wolves along the way. In fact, they could be wiped out if that happened!

Chapter 118: Epidemic

The next morning, a lot of people were feeling weak all over, and their bodies were aching as they got up from the ground. It was just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted.

The effects of being on a long and arduous journey and being affected by the cold weather had emerged. The healthier and stronger people could endure it, but a minority could not stand up to it at all.

Ren Xiaosu realized the stronghold’s residents did not have developed muscles. At least, they were not like the refugees in town where even a woman like Xiaoyu was slightly stronger than them.

At this moment, the difference in the circumstances of those who had a campfire to warm themselves last night and those who didn’t could clearly be seen. Even the students led by Jiang Wu appeared to be doing fine.

“Let’s hurry up and leave.” Ren Xiaosu got up and looked at the people around them. “This area has become ground zero for an epidemic. If we don’t leave quickly, we might get infected as well.”

No one could save those people anymore.

“Master, there’s greater merit in saving a life than building a seven-story pagoda!” Chen Wudi said, “We can’t just leave these people behind!”

“The Western Paradise is just up ahead.” Ren Xiaosu said as he walked, “I’m going there to obtain the scriptures. You can stay behind if you wish.”

Chen Wudi was stunned. After considering it for a long while, he finally caught up. It seemed that escorting his master to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures was top priority for him.

Seeing Chen Wudi catch up, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was worried Chen Wudi would foolishly try to save those several hundred people who had fallen sick.

How could they save them?

Wang Fugui still had some antibiotics on him, but how much could the medicine that one person carried do in this situation? Besides, that was all of Wang Fugui’s life savings, so why would he selflessly give it up to those people?

When they were about to leave the place, Jiang Wu gathered her students to follow close behind. In any case, Jiang Wu would have her students do whatever Ren Xiaosu was doing.

As everyone looked at the sick people around them, it was inevitable they would feel a little gloomy. But what could they do?

Some of the kinder students said to Jiang Wu, “Teacher, why don’t we stay behind and help them?”

Jiang Wu clenched her teeth in a dilemma. She decided, “No, we need to learn to save ourselves first. Perhaps I’m teaching you the wrong things right now, but you guys must leave with me straight away.”

This world had forced such a gentle and kind teacher into a corner, but she did not regret it.

“Stay close and don’t fall behind, everyone. Do you still remember the wild vegetables we ate yesterday? Pick them if you spot any by the road,” Jiang Wu said.

“But those wild vegetables taste horrible,” a student muttered with his head lowered.

“Even if it tastes horrible, you still have to eat it,” Jiang Wu said firmly.

With Ren Xiaosu getting up to leave, the escapees who could still move tagged along. They felt aimless and only knew how to follow whoever took the lead.

In the end, only the sick people were left lying on the ground.

Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. He knew the wolves had been following them all this while, but they had not come out to attack the group. Why was that? It was clear these people were no threat to them, so could it be the wolves were deterred by the number of people in the group?

What about the Experimentals? Ren Xiaosu was hoping that they had gone northwards from the Jing Mountains with the Qing Consortium’s people. That way, he would not have to worry too much about their threat.

Of course, if the Experimentals perished in that volcanic eruption, it would even be better….

Ren Xiaosu still couldn’t determine how many Experimentals there were or who had created them. He only understood that this world was not as simple as he had thought it was.

At this moment, the escapees were mostly avoiding Ren Xiaosu and company as they made their way along.

Ren Xiaosu had deliberately refrained from showing his superpower to the escapees because they still had to go to Stronghold 109. Who knew what they did to supernatural beings over there? What if they started arresting such people when they saw them just like what had happened in Stronghold 113?

As Chen Wudi had already exposed himself as a supernatural being, this could end up becoming troublesome for them. Ren Xiaosu felt a bit uncertain, but they could only take it one step at a time.

Ren Xiaosu found it quite funny when he saw another stationary off-road vehicle up ahead. He remembered there were three off-road vehicles and two military transport trucks when the Qing Consortium drove past them. But now, more than half of them had broken down.

While making their escape yesterday, they had seen an off-road vehicle and a military transport truck parked on the side of the road. And now, yet another vehicle was dumped midway. Ren Xiaosu thought that if they hurried up, they might just catch up to the Qing Consortium’s people.

After all, they couldn’t fit so many people into the remaining vehicles after three had broken down. Therefore, some of them must be traveling on foot.

Luo Lan would probably have his soldiers walk slowly to their destination while he went on ahead to Stronghold 109 in one of the remaining off-road vehicles or military transport trucks.

As the evening sun shone down on them, the escapees furthest up front raised a ruckus. Someone shouted, “Everyone, look!”

“It’s the people from the Qing Consortium!” Someone shouted, “Let’s get help from them!”

“We’ve finally met up with the troops!”

They did not even consider whether the combat brigade was willing to let them join their group and madly dashed up to the front. It was as though they were trying to grab onto a lifeline.

Ren Xiaosu looked up when he heard the commotion. He was surprised to see Luo Lan sitting in the scarlet sunset with several hundred of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops. Why had this fatty only walked until here? Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan’s pants looked a little funny. Upon closer inspection, why did his pants seem like they were made from two leather seat covers stitched together?!

At this moment, Luo Lan was ordering the soldiers to set up their tents. But when he turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. There was a large, dense crowd of people closing on them!

He quickly said to the troops, “Quick, those carrying firearms, take them out and prevent the escapees from invading our campsite!”

As the Qing Consortium’s troops were combat oriented, the sounds of weapons being cocked reverberated right after Luo Lan finished speaking.

When the escapees saw the guns pointing in their direction, everyone stopped in their tracks. They were at a loss.

A middle-aged man shouted from a distance, “Boss Luo, I’m Little Zhang from the Planning Division! You’ve met me before!”

Luo Lan hocked a loogie and shouted, “Aren’t you embarrassed to be called Little Zhang at your age? All of you, move back. We’ll open fire if you take another step forward!”

None of the escapees dared to move. The Qing Consortium did not care about who they were. As long as it were not one of their own, they would treat everyone as their enemies.

Ren Xiaosu was observing this scene while hiding behind the crowd. He had hoped the Qing Consortium would not interact with the escapees. After all, it was quite possible he was wanted by them. Of course, Ren Xiaosu felt that these people did not have the excess energy and time for that.

Seeing so many of the Qing Consortium’s troops wrapped up in bandages, it looked like they had been injured while escaping from the stronghold.

But Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. Luo Lan had not abandoned the soldiers and run off by himself. This surprised him a great deal.

Chapter 119: Where is the Western Paradise?

The escapees and the Qing Consortium’s combat brigade eventually reached a standoff. The escapees had no intention of attacking the combat brigade; they just couldn’t accept the situation.

Everyone initially ran over in enthusiasm to seek “refuge” with the troops, but they backed off when the guns were pointed at them.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu felt there was nothing wrong with the actions the Qing Consortium took. If it were him, he would have done the same.

But the escapees felt that even though they could not get near the Qing Consortium, it would be good enough to follow them. So they decided to rest on the spot. When the Qing Consortium set off, they would quietly follow them.

At the very least, the Qing Consortium would know how to get to Stronghold 109, right?!

Besides, now that there was clearly no more space in the Qing Consortium’s vehicles, the majority of those from the Qing Consortium had to travel on foot. As such, the escapees were not worried they would get shaken off by them.

“Xiaosu, will there be any danger if we stick so close to the Qing Consortium?” Wang Fugui asked in worry. After all, Ren Xiaosu had killed several of their people who were keeping watch at the school when the earthquake struck.

“It should be fine.” Ren Xiaosu stole a glance at the Qing Consortium.

Currently, the Qing Consortium and the escapees were separated by an open area. It seemed like the Qing Consortium’s people did not intend to make any contact with them.

It was better this way since the Qing Consortium would not know Ren Xiaosu was here.

“Y’all can stay here without worries.” Ren Xiaosu cautiously reminded them, “If the situation does not seem right, we’ll escape into the wilderness. Based on the current situation, it’s better to stay with everyone else for the time being. I’m a little worried the wolves will try to pick off vulnerable targets if we get separated from the group.”

The wolves did not dare to attack a group numbering several thousand people, but it would be hard to say what they’d do if Ren Xiaosu and company dropped out of the group.

Actually, Luo Lan was not thinking about capturing Ren Xiaosu at all costs.

When Qing Zhen was about to call him on the satellite phone and issue an arrest on Ren Xiaosu, the volcanic cloud happened to block out the signal. By the time Qing Zhen reached a spot where there was a signal, Stronghold 113 had already been destroyed. In his haste, Luo Lan did not take his satellite phone with him while making his escape. So they two of them couldn’t contact each other.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Wang Fugui nodded.

Ren Xiaosu went to gather for firewood as usual to start a fire and even brought Chen Wudi along with him. It was not that he wanted to order Chen Wudi around, but that he wanted to guard against him in case he really had other motives for joining their group.

In their group, only Ren Xiaosu could keep Chen Wudi in check. So it was better to keep him by his side. It was definitely a little tiring to keep guarding against someone, but Ren Xiaosu felt there was nothing wrong with being extra cautious. As they still had a long journey ahead, Ren Xiaosu would accept Chen Wudi if he later proved to have no other motives.

On their way to gather firewood, Ren Xiaosu found that the escapees had wisened up. They knew it would be very difficult to get to Stronghold 109 if they did not have a campfire to keep themselves warm. As such, a lot of people went to gather firewood and even shamelessly borrowed other people’s fire to start their own.

It was quite a spectacular sight seeing several thousand people gathering firewood together. Ren Xiaosu lamented he might have been too late in going out to collect the firewood. He mainly had not expected such a situation to occur. As he was late by a few minutes, Ren Xiaosu could not find any firewood even after walking around for a long time.

Beside him, Chen Wudi asked, “Master, didn’t you say that the Western Paradise was just ahead of us this morning? Why aren’t we there yet even after walking for a day?”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He thought for a while and said, “The Western Paradise… has shifted elsewhere….”

Chen Wudi said unhappily, “Master, do you think I’m dumb?”

Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. Indeed, even a fool would not get deceived by such an answer.

“Wudi.” Ren Xiaosu earnestly tried to change the subject. “Do you have any other wishes besides accompanying me to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in the Western Paradise?”

Ren Xiaosu was thinking of chatting with Chen Wudi for a while longer. After all, loose lips sank ships. As long as Chen Wudi’s thoughts were impure, he would reveal something if he spoke enough.

But he realized Chen Wudi was behaving awkwardly. “Yeah, I have another wish.”

“What is it?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I’m looking for a girl named Zixia.” Chen Wudi said in a serious tone, “I have two things that I must complete in this reincarnation of mine. One is to escort Master to obtain the scriptures, and the other is to find Zixia 1 !”

Ren Xiaosu turned to his side and stared blankly at Chen Wudi. Which version of Journey to the West did you read?

Even though he carefully recalled all the versions of Journey to the West he had read, he could not remember any woman named Zixia.

Suddenly, Jiang Wu came walking over from the opposite direction. She and her students were carrying a lot of firewood in their arms.

When Jiang Wu saw Ren Xiaosu, her eyes lit up. “You guys don’t have to collect any firewood. We’ve already helped you gather plenty.”

Strength in numbers, as they said. With Jiang Wu leading 28 students to collect the firewood, it was much faster than if Ren Xiaosu had collected it alone. Not only that, Ren Xiaosu estimated that the firewood they were carrying should be enough for four or five campfires.

Ren Xiaosu did not reject her and nodded. It was a good thing she intended to return the favor, and he did not mind her kind gesture.

He saw several female students looking at Chen Wudi in embarrassment. They walked over hesitantly and said to him, “You’re so handsome.”

Chen Wudi was stunned before replying, “Thank you, female almsgivers.”

The words “female almsgivers” were like buckets of cold water that immediately extinguished any romantic thoughts the young women had.

Ren Xiaosu ignored them as he walked to the front. He shouted as he walked, “Come, come, I’ve discovered some good things!”

Sometimes, nature is very generous in gifting. As long as you have a good pair of “seeking” eyes, you would definitely not starve to death.

Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to turn around, he suddenly saw that something was off about the patch of wild grass in front of him. Taking a closer look, he realized it was a sweet potato field!

He did not know how long this sweet potato field had been growing in the wilderness. Furthermore, this was the season sweet potatoes were the most delicious!

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Jiang Wu, “What are you still standing around for? Have your students start digging!”

“Oh, OK.” Jiang Wu reacted immediately as she beckoned her students to start digging. Honestly, if not for Ren Xiaosu, she would not know there were so many sweet potatoes growing underground.

They had to hurry before the other escapees found out. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be many sweet potatoes left for them.

There were simply too many escapees.

As Jiang Wu dug for the sweet potatoes with her students, she constantly stole glances at Ren Xiaosu. This young man was always full of surprises, which gradually turned into a strange kind of dependence for her. Jiang Wu felt that as long as they followed Ren Xiaosu, they would make it to Stronghold 109 alive.

Within a minute, all of the other escapees rushed over once they learned of the situation here.

No one dared to vie with Ren Xiaosu for the sweet potatoes. But as the field was huge, there were still many other spots for them to dig.

Ren Xiaosu did not care about the others. He and Chen Wudi dug up more than 30 sweet potatoes before they finally stopped. These sweet potatoes were shockingly large, so they wouldn’t have to worry about their provisions for the next few days at least.

When he got up from the ground and looked around him, he was shocked to see that the entire sweet potato field had almost been stripped bare by the escapees.

Even a locust swarm was not that terrifying….

Chapter 120: House arrest

It didn’t seem like tonight would be difficult to get through. Several thousand people had gathered around their campfires to keep themselves warm and thrown countless sweet potatoes into the fire to roast.

Eventually, the entire campsite was suffused with an enchantingly sweet aroma.

In the night, it seemed like countless lamps had been lit in the dark, and the desolate wasteland was flickering with yellow lights. Many people were watching with great anticipation as the sweet potatoes roasted in the campfires.

The sweet potatoes were each as large as a liquor bottle. When Chen Wudi ate three of them in one sitting, Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He suddenly felt that Chen Wudi had acknowledged him as his master probably so that he could scrounge all his food!

As Chen Wudi wiped his mouth clean, he looked at the people around him: Ren Xiaosu, Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and Wang Dalong.

“What are you looking at?” Ren Xiaosu gave him a look.

“Master, don’t you think that our group’s still missing something?” Chen Wudi asked.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. “What are we missing?”

Chen Wudi’s gaze kept wandering back and forth between Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. “We’re still missing a White Dragon Horse 1 .”

Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu both felt sick. However, Chen Wudi had principles. He said, “You two don’t have to look at me like that. Neither of you is the White Dragon Horse. I won’t acknowledge just anyone.”

Wang Fugui and Wang Dalong felt uncomfortable again. Could this mean the two of them were really Pigsy and Friar Sand?!

Ren Xiaosu was speechless and a little melancholic. Their group had been quite normal, but why did the group become weird after Chen Wudi joined them?

But Ren Xiaosu was more surprised by the fact that Chen Wudi had a logic system he abided by even though he was insane. So why had he acknowledged Ren Xiaosu as his master?

He ignored Chen Wudi as he quietly estimated everyone’s food intake. Currently, the sweet potatoes they had should be enough for them to survive on for the next two days. Furthermore, food like sweet potatoes might not turn bad even if they were kept past winter. However, it would be a little tiring to carry them as they pushed on towards Stronghold 109. After all, sweet potatoes were rather heavy.

They were only about a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 109. Calculating the distance the average person could travel in eight hours, it was about 40 kilometers a day. If the intensity were higher, it might be possible to walk 50 kilometers. However, Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Xiaoyu probably couldn’t take it.

In the afternoon, Xiaoyu took a sewing needle and helped Yan Liuyuan pop the newly formed blisters on his feet by pricking them. As Yan Liuyuan quietly watched the profile of her face, he felt it was really good to have a sister like her.

By this time, the blisters on the escapees’ feet had burst and scabbed over and over again. Fleeing as far as they could was not simply a matter of “How many kilometers can they travel in a day?”

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu estimated it would take at least three days for them to get to Stronghold 109. They did not even have to go out to search for food again if they rationed their sweet potatoes properly.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard Jiang Wu speaking from a short distance behind him, “Everyone, let’s hang in there a bit more. We’ll reach Stronghold 109 very soon. Remember to bring along the sweet potatoes we dug up in the afternoon. Although it might get tiring as we travel, it’s better than going hungry.”

These sheltered students had already passed the stage of homesickness and vulnerability as they learned how to be strong. Someone suddenly asked, “Teacher, can we really get to Stronghold 109 safely?”

“Definitely.” Jiang Wu said, “As long as we follow that young man, we’ll definitely get there.”

At this moment, some students winked and raised their eyebrows at Jiang Wu, telling her to look behind her. Jiang Wu happened to lock eyes with Ren Xiaosu the moment she turned around. She exclaimed and quickly turned away. Her cheeks glowed so red it looked like a campfire was illuminating them.

Jiang Wu lowered her voice and whispered to her students, “Why didn’t you all tell me earlier!”

“Haha,” the students laughed and said, “teacher is embarrassed.”

When Ren Xiaosu watched this happen, he realized humans were probably the best at finding joy amid hardship among all living things. If they could see a little hope, they would want to keep living.

After a while, Jiang Wu’s students started singing in soft voices of what sounded like schoolyard songs.

Ren Xiaosu fell into a trance as he listened to their singing. He had also wanted to live in a stronghold free from worries so that he could enjoy a comfortable life. But of course, life in the stronghold was probably no longer as comfortable.

At the Qing Consortium’s campsite a distance away, Luo Lan could smell the roasted sweet potatoes. While eating the combat rations taken from the combat brigade’s vehicle, he sighed, “These poor people really know how to live.”

Beside him, Luo Lan’s trusted aide asked, “Boss, do you think your brother will send someone to rescue you?”

“I don’t know.” Luo Lan was sad. “I’m worried about him instead. He was still in the Jing Mountains when things went wrong, and nobody knows whether he’s dead or alive.”

Luo Lan’s trusted aide muttered, “I think Boss Qing Zhen will be fine. You can always count on him to get things done. He’s that reliable.”

“Reliable?” Luo Lan sighed. “Didn’t an accident still happen all the same? But of course, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are natural disasters. They’re unstoppable forces.”

“Do you think the same thing happened to Stronghold 112?” his trusted aide asked. “After all, the distance of the two strongholds from the Jing Mountains is about the same. If our side could not stand up to the earthquake’s destruction, it should be the same on their side as well.”

“That’s right.” Luo Lan thought for a while and said, “I’m afraid Stronghold 112 might have collapsed as well. With the Qing Consortium suddenly losing two strongholds, Qing Zhen will probably get severely punished by the consortium.”

“But it’s not our fault either.” His trusted aide said softly, “It would still have collapsed no matter who was in charge.”

“Qing Zhen has too many enemies within the consortium itself.” Luo Lan said, “Furthermore, he recently killed a lot of the other consortium’s members. The consortium is probably worried it will become too difficult to keep him in check, so they might as well hang him out to dry. However, that’ll all be temporary since the Qing Consortium still needs him to do their work. Indeed, the others can’t perform as well as Qing Zhen can… rather, they are not as ruthless as he is.”

At this moment, Qing Zhen was still trekking on the paths within the Jing Mountains. His face had been blackened by the soot that had gushed out of the eruption, flushing his image down the drain.

Next to Qing Zhen, Xu Man said as he held the satellite phone, “Boss, the Board would like to speak with you.”

By this time, they had walked out of the cover of the volcanic ash cloud, and the satellite phone’s signal had been restored to normal.

“Tell them I don’t have free time,” Qing Zhen said, sounding peeved.

Xu Man felt conflicted but still conveyed the message exactly as it was said. After a few seconds, he looked at Qing Zhen. “They’re requesting you to immediately go to Stronghold 111 to be investigated once we get out of the Jing Mountains. Without their permission, you’re not to leave Stronghold 111. Stronghold 112 and Stronghold 113… have been destroyed….”

“Tell them I understand,” Qing Zhen said, uncaring.

Xu Man hung up after replying to the other party in the call, then said to Qing Zhen, “Are they planning to put you under house arrest?”

“It’s been a long while since we’ve gone to Stronghold 111.” Qing Zhen said, “Call Stronghold 109’s Lu Yuan and have him send someone to search for Luo Lan.”

Xu Man hesitated and said, “As a stronghold overseer, Lu Yuan might not have the authority to do much in a stronghold that’s controlled by the Li Consortium.”

“He should still have some authority when it comes to deploying a few private troops. Since Stronghold 109 is the closest to Stronghold 113, Luo Lan will definitely escape to Lu Yuan’s side if nothing happened to him.” Qing Zhen looked up at the gray skies behind him and said, “Tell him that if he can’t locate Luo Lan, death awaits him.”

Xu Man suddenly felt that Qing Zhen did not seem like someone who was going to be placed under house arrest and be investigated by the consortium. Moreover, the relationship between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan felt much better than what the rumors said.

Chapter 121: Stupid or just playing dumb?

Luo Lan did not know that Qing Zhen had already ordered people to start looking for him, nor did he know that Qing Zhen was facing subjugation by the consortium’s board of directors. He only knew the distant sweet potatoes smelled good.

He looked over to his trusted aide next to him and said, “Well… Tang Zhou, go and see if there are any more sweet potatoes that they haven’t dug up from the field.”

His trusted aide whose name was Tang Zhou said, “Why don’t we just take some from them?”

“What do you know?” Luo Lan scolded angrily, “Am I that kind of person? If the consortium wants me to kill those from the Pyro Company right now, I would do it without batting an eyelid. But what would they say about me if it gets found out that I snatched food from a group of escapees?”

“But the sweet potato field has already been dug clean by them,” Tang Zhou said awkwardly.

There were over 3,000 escapees in total. The sweet potato field was not the result of scaled up agriculture, but one that had sprouted up in the wild since who knew when.

It was not easy for these escapees who had been starving for several days to find something to eat. So they would definitely dig up everything they could find. Even if they could not finish eating the sweet potatoes, they could take them with them on the road. At the least, they would not have to go hungry again for the next few days.

Only people who had gone hungry before would understand what it felt like to be starving. Seeing that it was only a few days since their escape, all of the escapees had slimmed down quite a bit.

Only Ren Xiaosu and company did not seem like they had changed much in appearance.

Luo Lan thought about it for a long time. “Those of you who brought money with you, go and buy some from them.”

Luo Lan did not have the time to bring anything with him during his escape. Otherwise, he would have put on pants. It was almost the same for the combat brigade soldiers as well. As the earthquake happened too suddenly, nearly all those who had the thought to retrieve their money were buried underneath houses.

The soldiers looked at each other as they pooled their money. Finally, they managed to come up with 4,000 yuan that was made up of whatever spare change they usually carried in their pockets.

Luo Lan looked at the money with glimmering eyes. “Tang Zhou, take some people over and buy the food. Be careful not to get attacked by them.”

“Got it.” Tang Zhou led a combat platoon with him. The combat platoons that were lucky to survive had been reorganized into new teams. Although the wounded would not have to join the battles, at least two-thirds out of 200 troops could still fight.

Luo Lan did not forget to tell them, “Buy it at 50 times the usual price and don’t disgrace the Qing Consortium. We don’t take advantage of others.”

Food was obviously more important than money at this time, but whether offering 50 times the normal price was worth it would depend on the point of view.

They would get back human civilization someday and might even reach Stronghold 109 in another three days if they walked a bit faster. At that time, they would need money to buy things. Although the Qing Consortium only had a so-so relationship with the Li Consortium, they still had some businesses and assets in Stronghold 109. Therefore, the money issued by the Qing Consortium would still have some purchasing power.

The relationship between the organizations was very complicated. It was not like a stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium would not be influenced by the other organizations. Most of the time, the distribution of influence between the organizations was interconnected in a complex fashion.

As the various strongholds were in different locations, it meant they controlled different natural resources. So there was a mutual dependency between the corporations.

For example, the areas controlled by the Qing Consortium were mainly rich in vanadium titanomagnetite ore, halite, mirabilite, descloizite, sulfur, iron ore, asbestos, mica, gold, phosphorus, limestone, coal, and natural gas; while the Li Consortium-controlled south had nonferrous metals, coal mines, and an agriculture industry that produced an abundance of tobacco leaves.

But the most important fact was that the Qing Consortium was situated in a climate friendly basin. They controlled the planting of food crops such as rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and cash crops like tea leaves. The Li Consortium had to purchase such food commodities from the Qing Consortium on many occasions. Although they also grew these crops, their own supply was inadequate.

Every organization placed a great deal of importance on agriculture. But it didn’t automatically mean that the land they controlled would be suitable for growing such crops just because it was a priority for them. Nature would not bend to suit human will.

Soon after, Tang Zhou and his men returned with a lot of sweet potatoes in their arms. Not many people would dare to refuse the request of the Qing Consortium when they saw their soldiers approaching them with guns and offering to buy their sweet potatoes. Moreover, the Qing Consortium was not lowballing them.

Luo Lan excitedly ordered the soldiers to throw the sweet potatoes into the fire. Then the group waited eagerly for them to be cooked.

Luo Lan counted the number of people and sweet potatoes they had, then said with a sigh, “Each of us can only eat half of one; no one is to eat more. The wounded can eat a whole sweet potato by themselves.”

When the sweet potatoes were ready for consumption, Tang Zhou used a stick to retrieve one out of the fire for Luo Lan. “Here, Boss, eat up.”

Luo Lan picked it up, broke it in half, and handed a piece to Tang Zhou. “We’ll each have half.”

“Boss, you don’t have to share it.” Tang Zhou was a little hesitant. “Are you going to eat half as well?”

“Cut the crap and take it. It’s really hot!” Luo Lan looked at the others and said, “I have no time to prattle on with you. When we get to Stronghold 109, I’ll take everyone out for a good time. Hehehe, we’re bound for good fortune after surviving a huge disaster!”

The combat brigade’s troops ate their sweet potatoes without a word.

Ren Xiaosu had been observing the actions of the Qing Consortium. But a woman in the escapee group suddenly screamed. It was followed by an audible slap.

They turned around and saw a middle-aged man tussling with a woman. He said, “You’re still pretending to be decent after eating the sweet potato that I found? Your husband died in the stronghold! If it weren’t for me, do you think you’d’ve survived until now?”

“I said that I would pay you for the sweet potato when we got to Stronghold 109!” said the woman through clenched teeth.

“What are you going to pay me with? When we get to Stronghold 109, everyone will still be penniless!”

Ren Xiaosu scowled. These two people knew each other? The man was probably slapped for making indecent advances on her just now. In his anger and embarrassment, he dragged the woman and headed for the secluded wilderness. The woman was crying out but couldn’t put up a fight. However, everyone watched indifferently.

But then, a shout rang out beside Ren Xiaosu, “Stop it! So it’s you, King of the Southern Mountains 1 , who’s causing trouble around here!”

This shout was so loud it kept ringing in Ren Xiaosu’s ears. He looked at Chen Wudi with a stunned expression, only to see him rushing towards the two with his Golden-Hooped Rod out.

That middle-aged man could not react in time and got blasted to the ground by Chen Wudi’s staff strike and nearly vomited blood!

Chen Wudi even held back a little. Otherwise, the man would have died on the spot.

But before Chen Wudi could bask in the glory of subduing a demon, the woman who got dragged out by the man became angry. She looked at Chen Wudi and said, “Why did you hit him?! Get lost!”

Chen Wudi felt a little aggrieved but could not understand what was going on with them. He could only walk back to Ren Xiaosu while hanging his head.

Everyone was surprised to see this outcome. Only Ren Xiaosu, who had read the original text of Journey to the West, felt that something was off. The King of the Southern Mountains was the demon king of the Hidden Misty Mountain, Bent Peak, and Linked Cave in Journey to the West. In the original story, this demon king took a liking to a farmer’s wife and took her for himself.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was odd here, because he realized that whenever Chen Wudi was about to hit someone, he would always assign them a demon name, such as Xiaozuanfeng, King of the Southern Mountains, and so on When he wasn’t going to fight them, the other party would just be a normal human being to him.

This seemed to be the logic of a mental patient for affirming their own “reasons” and “stance” on a matter. He was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, so he must battle demons.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at Chen Wudi after he rejoined him. He thought for a moment and teased, “My disciple, what will you do if you start running out of demon names to use when you encounter more and more enemies?”

After all, there was only a finite number of demons in Journey to the West. Once he finished battling all of them, there would be no one left for him to fight.

Chen Wudi sank deep into thought as though this were a real possibility.

But after a while, Chen Wudi decided to bend his principles and said, “It’s alright, I can just recycle the demon names.”

Ren Xiaosu didn’t know what to say.

Was he stupid or just playing dumb?! Didn’t he say he would not acknowledge just anyone?

Chapter 122: Nightfall

“Master,” Chen Wudi said as he sat down next to the campfire and stared at it in a daze, “I defeated the King of the Southern Mountains, so why did that woman tell me to get lost?”

Ren Xiaosu kept quiet. He wanted to tell Chen Wudi that human nature was complicated and some people were just not worth saving. But he was also worried that he would destroy Chen Wudi’s innocence.

If there really were a Great Sage in times like these who ended up getting persuaded by Ren Xiaosu to become an ordinary mortal, he wondered if he would have done a good or bad thing.

Ren Xiaosu did not know if it would be a good thing or not if he managed to persuade a real Great Sage to become a normal person in this world.

But at this moment, Wang Fugui chuckled next to him. “You’re too much of a busybody. You would’ve saved yourself a lot of trouble if you adopted the mindsets of ‘none of your business’ and ‘none of my business’ in your life.”

“What do you mean?” Chen Wudi looked up, stunned.

“Look here.” Wang Fugui said earnestly, “Why do you have to poke your nose into this matter for no good reason? If you don’t poke your nose—”

“It’s none of your business,” interrupted Chen Wudi.

Wang Fugui was speechless.

“Hahaha!” Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu were convulsing with laughter. It was great that Chen Wudi had already mastered the use of the phrase “none of your business.”

As for whether he could learn “none of my business,” Ren Xiaosu felt that it depend on whether Chen Wudi was willing to learn it.

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu and company got up early and roasted some sweet potatoes to eat. A lot of people preferred to sleep for a while longer than to get up and eat. In reality, if they did not eat in the morning during this season, their bodies would remain cold for the rest of the day.

Ren Xiaosu saw that the Qing Consortium’s people had also gotten up. After all, the combat troops were different from the escapees in that they had a certain regimen to follow.

The conditions of the escapees were much better today. As usual, some of them still fell sick and went down with a fever, but it was not that many of them.

When the Qing Consortium started moving off, the escapees followed. Everyone silently and eagerly followed the Qing Consortium as they did not want to lose sight of them.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the group of escapees and discovered that the “King of the Southern Mountains” who had been beaten up by Chen Wudi last night was lying on the ground taking his last breaths. The woman who was with him had already rejoined the larger group and blended into the crowd.

Lying on the ground with no help from anyone would lead to certain death.

Actually, if what this unfortunate fellow had said was true, that woman not only should have been taken good care of by him in the stronghold, she was also only able to escape the stronghold with his help. But once he was in trouble, that woman decisively abandoned him.

In a world like this, there was no saying who deserved death more.

Ren Xiaosu looked over to the Qing Consortium’s people. The remaining two vehicles were now driving very slowly. Those who couldn’t fit into the vehicles had to keep up next to them on foot.

But Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see Luo Lan walking on foot as well instead of riding in a vehicle!

Why? Was he working out to get fitter?

Then Ren Xiaosu made a careful observation. Just which soldiers were allowed to ride in the vehicles? There shouldn’t be anyone more important than Luo Lan, right?

Ren Xiaosu was stunned by his observation. He saw the bandaged wounded in the back of the military transport truck and in the off-road vehicle. The truck was also half-loaded with firearms and munitions.

The firearms and munitions were definitely indispensable. Even if the soldiers were forced to walk, they would still have to bring those along with them. After all, those were their only means of protecting their lives!

The soldiers had helped Luo Lan force his way through a blockade of the face bugs, so Luo Lan allowed them to ride in the vehicles instead of himself.

The walking wounded still existed, but it was only because the vehicles were filled to the brim with people. Those who could still walk didn’t get into the vehicles.

But the wounded who weren’t in the vehicles were neither depressed nor resentful. It even seemed to Ren Xiaosu like they were chatting and laughing during the march.

Ren Xiaosu had thought Luo Lan would just abandon the wounded and drive straight to Stronghold 109 by himself. But what really happened was a total surprise to him.

These two brothers, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan… it was no wonder that even a supernatural being was willing to die for Qing Zhen.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not know the deceased supernatural being was not hired by Qing Zhen but was originally a soldier within the ranks of Qing Zhen’s combat brigade. After awakening his power, he instantly became Qing Zhen’s bodyguard and remained loyal and devoted to him.

That night, Ren Xiaosu felt an inexplicable sense of unease. Even Xiaoyu noticed his perturbation. Xiaoyu asked, “Xiaosu, what’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu looked at the campfire and shook his head. “I just feel like something’s off.”

But he couldn’t figure out what was wrong…. It felt like he was back at the extremely dangerous Jing Mountains.

The night was pitch black, enveloping them like a prison cell.

“Let’s go.” Ren Xiaosu extinguished their campfire with his feet. “We can’t stay here any longer tonight.”

After much deliberation, he still believed his intuition, because his intuition had saved him on more than one occasion.

Zhang Jinglin had once said that scientists from before The Cataclysm proved “gut feelings” were real.

When Ren Xiaosu stood up and extinguished the campfire, the escapees around them stared at him with puzzled looks on their faces. Jiang Wu reacted the quickest to it. Before the others could figure out what was going on, she was already urging the students to follow suit.

Although she didn’t know what was going on, she knew that there was no wrong in escaping with Ren Xiaosu!

Someone wondered, “Has that young man gone crazy?”

“I have no idea.”

“Bro, where are we going?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“I don’t know.” Ren Xiaosu said, “We’ll talk after we get out of here.”

But just as they separated from the group of escapees and were about to bypass the Qing Consortium’s campsite, Ren Xiaosu heard from behind him the sound of chains being dragged across the ground!

Furthermore, the sound was closing in!

“Run!” Ren Xiaosu yelled in a low voice. He was probably the only person among the countless escapees who knew what was coming from behind them!

When he saw a pack of Experimentals making a rush at him in the Jing Mountains, he instinctively retreated and fled. He didn’t even hesitate knowing that he would have to turn around and face the Qing Consortium instead! At that time, Ren Xiaosu could not determine exactly how many Experimentals there were. He only knew that if he did not run, he would surely die there!

Ren Xiaosu had been worrying about the wolf pack and Experimentals for the past two days. His worries would not dissipate until the day he got to Stronghold 109.

He had hoped that the destroyed stronghold would attract the Experimentals and wolves to it. But now, it seemed like all hope was lost. They could only make use of whatever time they had left to escape!

Although, Ren Xiaosu was a little confused by this. The Experimentals had only been active within the perimeter of the forest. Why had all of them come out now?!

Wang Fugui and the others did not know why Ren Xiaosu told them to run, but they had already started trusting him.

“What about the sweet potatoes!” Wang Dalong shouted as he ran.

Wang Fugui turned around and smacked away all the sweet potatoes in Wang Dalong’s arms. “How can you eat the sweet potatoes when you’re dead?! Quickly follow Ren Xiaosu!”

The sound of the chains coming from behind the escapees was growing louder. When everyone turned to look back, they saw the Experimentals scampering across the ground like spiders as they approached. They looked like demons!

It wasn’t until this moment that the escapees started screaming in horror before fleeing for their lives!

But the size of the escapee group was too large. The people at the front were still unsure of what was going on, while those at the rear were already running madly for their lives. As a result, a lot of people were knocked down as they collided into one another!

Terrified screams could be heard at the back of the crowd. Hundreds of Experimentals had rushed into the group and started hunting and killing maniacally!

Once they killed someone, they did not hesitate to pounce onto others. It was as though they wanted to finish off all of the escapees!

When Ren Xiaosu looked back, he noticed another Experimental walking upright behind the maniacal Experimentals. It was staring at them coldly.

Ren Xiaosu realized someone else might be controlling these Experimentals. They had not yet lost all of their intelligence.

Chapter 123: Someone must be sacrificed

As Ren Xiaosu was the first to start fleeing, his group was consistently ahead of the other escapees. While getting away, he turned around once to have a look and could vaguely sense there were not as many Experimentals as when he had faced them in the Jing Mountains.

Did the volcanic eruption reduce their numbers?

But that was a good thing. Ren Xiaosu could not wish more for them to die inside the Jing Mountains. The more, the merrier!

As he ran with his group, he shouted at the Qing Consortium from afar, “Don’t open fire. We have to escape together!”

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he was worried the Qing Consortium would start shooting indiscriminately. If the Qing Consortium troops took up firing positions, he would have to use his shadow clone to force his way out of this place.

Chen Wudi suddenly muttered as he looked at Ren Xiaosu, “Master, you have too much aggression in your current life…. But it’s much better than your previous life where you were too indecisive.”

Chen Wudi turned around to look and saw a bloody scene behind them. As the Experimentals murdered their victims, they did so in an exceedingly brutal manner. Blood was splattering everywhere!

The cries and screams sounded like they were all muffled as though purgatory were behind them.

Agony.

This was the agony of the mortal world.

Chen Wudi’s Golden-Hooped Rod materialized in his hand. The idea of subduing evil was stirring in him. But as there were too many Experimentals, he couldn’t possibly defeat them all by himself.

At this moment, a faint golden glow seemed to shimmer around Chen Wudi’s body. Ren Xiaosu did not see it as he was busy protecting Xiaoyu and the others who were fleeing up ahead.

The glow came from the golden chainmail armor and the phoenix-feather cap as recorded in Journey to the West!

But before all of these could fully materialize, a golden band appeared on Chen Wudi’s head! Then the golden armor and phoenix-feather cap 1 vanished at the same time.

Chen Wudi stood still and looked at the ferocious Experimentals.

“Forget it, I’d better go to the Heavenly Palace to request reinforcements! Master, wait for me!” Chen Wudi turned around and ran away!

Ren Xiaosu turned his head and shouted at Chen Wudi, “Disciple, help our guys carry their luggage!”

If Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Xiaoyu got slowed down during their escape, they might not be able to outrun the escapees!

Moreover, Chen Wudi’s strength was even greater than Ren Xiaosu’s, so it was not going to be a problem for him to carry a few of their luggage bags.

By now, the Qing Consortium had realized the chaos. Although the escapees had blocked their field of view, which made them unsure of what was happening, Luo Lan did not hesitate in this time of chaos. He ordered all of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops to quickly retreat.

Even with the escapees rushing towards them, the Qing Consortium was still running ahead of them. As Luo Lan fled for his life, he shouted to those in the vehicles, “You leave first! It’s quicker to get away with the vehicles!”

The wounded soldiers on the vehicles fell silent. Someone said, “We can’t leave you behind.”

Luo Lan panted as he said, “Hurry up and get lost! Why is a group of wounded people acting all melodramatic?”

The wounded soldiers in the vehicles could see from their relatively elevated position that the Experimentals were claiming the lives of the escapees with super high efficiency. Based on their speed, it would be impossible for normal humans to escape from their pursuit even if they ran with all they had.

It would have been good if the Experimentals were attracted by the humans at the back of the group who could not run fast enough. But the Experimentals did not seem hesitant in leaving behind their “food” they’d killed. They were looking to finish off everyone here!

The legendary saying, “You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you,” was no longer applicable. Everyone here had to die!

The wounded soldiers did not obey Luo Lan’s order to leave, decisively stopping the vehicles and unloading the firearms and munitions to the ground. Luo Lan’s trusted aide, Tang Zhou, ordered the combatants to quickly form a defensive firing line. He shouted, “I need two men to get in a vehicle and escort the boss out of this place!”

Tang Zhou’s decision was the correct one. With so many of them here, only one-third of their total strength could fit into the vehicles, while the remaining two-thirds could not outrun the Experimentals. Moreover, the group of escapees was getting killed so quickly it wouldn’t be possible to buy them much time.

Tang Zhou knew very well they couldn’t kill the Experimentals either. When Qing Zhen first caught an Experimental, he immediately fed the data to Luo Lan.

Hence, someone had to be sacrificed.

“What are you all waiting for? Waiting to die together?” Tang Zhou said coldly. He pointed at two of the younger soldiers and said, “You two, take the boss and leave!”

By selecting these two soldiers, he was giving them a chance to keep living. He picked them because they were still young and did not get a chance to savor life yet.

The other soldiers fell silent. They also knew the consequences of having to stay behind, but no one stepped forward to protest Tang Zhou’s decision.

“Fuck, let go of me!” Luo Lan was carried away by the two young soldiers. He immediately turned anxious as he tried to break free from the two soldiers. He said, “Are you trying to rebel? I, Luo Lan, have never been a deserter before!”

Tang Zhou smiled and said, “Thanks to both you and Boss Qing Zhen for taking care of me over the years.” He then said firmly to the two young soldiers, “Quickly get the boss into the vehicle.”

Ren Xiaosu had just led Xiaoyu and company to the front of the Qing Consortium’s people. Jiang Wu was also following close behind them with her students. However, the Qing Consortium’s soldiers did not care and allowed them and several other escapees to pass through the openings in their defensive line.

Tang Zhou looked calmly ahead as the escapees were chased down by the Experimentals. The Experimentals were getting closer and closer to them but he had to wait for an opportune moment.

“Platoons One through Five, get ready to shoot. Platoon Six, be on standby to replace them on the firing line. The wounded soldiers will be responsible for passing along ammo for reloading.” Tang Zhou’s calm voice echoed in the soldiers’ ears. Then he opened up a box on the ground and took out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Tang Zhou smiled happily and said, “Luckily for us, we brought along this thing!”

The escapees were wiped out by the Experimentals in just a few minutes. Tang Zhou knelt on one knee and placed the RPG launcher onto his shoulder.

When the first Experimental appeared in his line of sight, Tang Zhou calmly said, “Open fire!”

With a loud bang, the grenade fired out of the launcher on his shoulder. The momentary burst of power whistled like it had been sent from heaven as the RPG hit hell via Earth!

Ren Xiaosu looked behind him and realized the Qing Consortium’s combat troops were unusually calm and unperturbed in the face of death.

Clearly, this should have been a very touching sight, but there was hardly any drama. It was as though it were a trivial matter.

Luo Lan was dragged into the off-road vehicle by the two soldiers. Then they sped off for Stronghold 109.

But at this moment, a surprising turn of events happened. Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw as many as nine Experimentals approaching them from nowhere on both sides!

The Experimentals had circled around the sides of the Qing Consortium’s defensive line, and four of the Experimentals rushed in from the rear at Tang Zhou. Ren Xiaosu knew it was all over for Tang Zhou and his men!

Footnotes:

Chapter 124: 10,000 years from now!

Even though they had powerful firearms and explosives on their side, the Qing Consortium’s combat troops stood no chance of survival if their defensive line was breached.

Some of the soldiers fired at the Experimentals, but their opponents swiftly dodged the bullets. It was simply too difficult to hit their targets.

Suddenly, a wounded soldier pounced up and grabbed both legs of an Experimental with a grenade in his other hand.

With a loud boom, the wounded soldier and Experimental were blown away by the explosion. Ren Xiaosu realized that not even the Experimentals could handle the destructive power of a grenade!

The four Experimentals that pounced onto the defensive line turned into just three. This gave Tang Zhou and his men some respite.

But Ren Xiaosu was most touched by how the wounded soldier still remained calm before his death. There was absolutely no sense of tragedy or any noble last words. It was as though he was just trying to accomplish a trivial task.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t want to watch any further. The Qing Consortium was challenging his opinion of them.

He looked at the remaining Experimentals and saw one of them running fast as lightning in the direction of the departing off-road vehicle. It rammed itself straight into the vehicle during its pursuit.

When it collided with the off-road vehicle, Ren Xiaosu could even see the entire process of the vehicle’s structure crumpling. A moment later, the off-road vehicle lost balance and flipped over. It seemed like the Experimental was completely unscathed!

That Experimental got off the ground and gave a few slight shakes of its head. Then it jumped onto the vehicle and started tearing through the vehicle’s metal body. It seemed like it wanted to dismantle the vehicle.

However, Ren Xiaosu didn’t care about what was going on over there, because the four Experimentals that had surrounded them were bounding over! Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Chen Wudi, cover the right!”

By the time Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he was holding a black saber in his hands. It looked like he had pulled it out of thin air.

Instantly, the black saber came into contact with the Experimental that pounced at him from the left side. Its body was slashed in half at the waist by the black saber like a knife cutting through hot butter!

In the flurry, Wang Fugui was stunned by what he saw. So Ren Xiaosu really was a supernatural being!

Be it Ren Xiaosu’s speed or strength, they had surpassed the realm of normal people!

In fact, Ren Xiaosu was not all that nervous while battling the Experimentals, because he had previously fought these things. With the four Experimentals standing on one side, it was exactly the same situation as before. The only difference was that this time, Chen Wudi was around to help share the burden of fighting them. There was not even a need for Ren Xiaosu to use his shadow clone in the fight.

His only concern was that Yan Liuyuan and the others might accidentally get injured during the fight. After all, they had no chance of striking back when facing the Experimentals.

Ren Xiaosu had raised his saber and slashed it down in one swift motion, dicing that Experimental in half at the waist. Then he shouted to Wang Fugui and the others, “All of you, run!”

Be it Wang Fugui, Jiang Wu and her students, or even Yan Liuyuan, they were all frightened by the terrifying Experimentals.

The Experimentals were clearly humanoid, as they had the same nose, mouth, arms, and body as humans. But be it their behavior or ferocity, it was obvious they were no different from beasts.

When Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Fugui and the others not budging, he shouted, “Go on, run!”

Yan Liuyuan was the first to react. “Let’s go! Don’t stay here and be a burden to my brother!”

As Wang Fugui ran with Yan Liuyuan, those words kept ringing in his mind. It seemed like Yan Liuyuan did not think they would be of any help to Ren Xiaosu. This was even as Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan possessed guns.

Seeing that they had started fleeing for their lives, Ren Xiaosu finally heaved a sigh of relief. But the danger had not passed yet!

Importantly, a lot of Experimentals got temporarily halted by Tang Zhou and the Qing Consortium’s combat troops. But as their defensive line had been breached by the Experimentals from their rear, it would be difficult to say just how much longer they could hang on for. Seeing Tang Zhou and his men’s defensive line weakening, the group of Experimentals chasing after the escapees also started rushing at the defensive formation!

Ren Xiaosu had a frown on his face. Even if Tang Zhou and his men could hold the line for a little longer, how fast could Xiaoyu and the others run? They would probably get quickly caught by the Experimentals.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining Experimental he was fighting against. It seemed like it was hesitating after its companion got killed so easily. As such, it did not pounce at him again in attack for a long time. It started slowly backing off instead.

Ren Xiaosu did not intend to tussle with it either. He looked over at Chen Wudi and was stunned by the sight unfolding in front of him.

He saw the two Experimentals Chen Wudi was fighting already lying on the ground. Chen Wudi was stepping on them as he placed the Golden-Hooped Rod over his shoulder with one hand. There was a smug look to him.

This left Ren Xiaosu very surprised because he had felt Chen Wudi might not be that strong since he couldn’t block a bullet. But now, his combat value was probably much higher than what he had imagined. Unfortunately, as he had no time to pay attention to Chen Wudi’s earlier battle, he could not make a detailed assessment of him.

He heard Chen Wudi say, “You all will remember my name 10,000 years from now. My name is—”

“Stop being so long-winded!” Ren Xiaosu angrily interrupted.

“OK.” Chen Wudi turned glum.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone shouting something. The shouting was coming from the overturned off-road vehicle.

Ren Xiaosu realized the Experimental that had been trying to tear through the metal body of the vehicle had disappeared. The off-road vehicle was shaking violently. It looked like the Experimental had found its way inside the off-road vehicle!

Save them? Or not save them?

The Qing Consortium’s Luo Lan was inside the vehicle. Currently, Ren Xiaosu was a wanted man by the Qing Consortium, and they were looking to take him dead or alive. It would already be great if Ren Xiaosu did not take this chance to make a move on Luo Lan, so why could he possibly want to save him?

No, he could save him!

However, Ren Xiaosu had to first dump the Experimental he had just killed in a faraway place before rescuing Luo Lan. After all, the wound on the waist of the Experimental was too obvious. If Luo Lan saw it, he might instantly match Ren Xiaosu to the person in the Jing Mountains!

Since Luo Lan was also unaware of how many Experimentals were outside the car, Ren Xiaosu would just have to tell him there were two of them, both of which had been single-handedly killed by Chen Wudi.

Ren Xiaosu only rushed over after dumping the body. He saw the inside of the vehicle through the fissure. It was full of blood. A plump figure was wrestling with an Experimental inside the vehicle, but he wasn’t going to last much longer.

The plump figure was Luo Lan, and the other two people in the vehicle had probably been killed by the Experimental when they tried to protect Luo Lan. That was where the blood in the vehicle came from.

At this moment, Chen Wudi rushed over and grabbed the vehicle with both hands. He let out a shout and tore the vehicle apart using the fissure!

“Kill it,” Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi. After Chen Wudi received the order, he grabbed his Golden-Hooped Rod and smashed it onto the Experimental’s head from behind. Its pale yellow blood splattered all over Luo Lan’s face.

Chapter 125: Forced by circumstances

The reason Ren Xiaosu decided to save Luo Lan was because he intended to try to get into Stronghold 109 through Luo Lan!

Earlier, Ren Xiaosu noticed Luo Lan and the soldiers were getting along great. Moreover, he could feel their support for Luo Lan and Qing Zhen. People that well-supported must have something extraordinary about them. So Ren Xiaosu had been thinking if this lifesaving favor could resolve the enmity from before. If he couldn’t resolve it, it would not be too late for Ren Xiaosu to personally kill Luo Lan. He also thought about whether to conceal his identity by using another name, for example. But after thinking about it, Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea, because Luo Lan had seen Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu before.

“Brother, give me a hand!” Luo Lan wiped his face and said, “I can’t get out of the vehicle myself.”

Ren Xiaosu pulled Luo Lan out of the vehicle. “Let’s leave quickly. The Experimentals will break through the defensive line soon.”

But Luo Lan broke free from Ren Xiaosu and looked at Tang Zhou’s group in a daze. They were about to get overwhelmed by the Experimentals.

Concentrated gunfire and exploding grenades sounded from time to time at the defensive line they set up. The Experimentals still couldn’t breach the Qing Consortium’s defensive line for the time being.

This battle was enough to show how outstanding the soldiers of the Qing Consortium were.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “It’s hopeless for them. If you rush over there now, they would just die in vain.”

Luo Lan took a deep breath and said, “I have to! Thank you for saving me, but I can’t leave yet!”

Ren Xiaosu could tell Luo Lan really cared about this group of soldiers. If he didn’t, his first reaction wouldn’t have been to check whether his soldiers were alright after hearing the Experimentals were about to breach the defensive line.

This was different from Ren Xiaosu’s mindset of how an organization was run. He had thought they were just a group of snobbish and cold-blooded animals.

Chen Wudi turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. He asked, “Pigsy and the others have run far away. What should we do?”

“Let’s go.” Ren Xiaosu took a look at Luo Lan and decided to give up on him. Luo Lan had already run back to the troops’ defensive line. There was no need to die with Luo Lan just because he wanted to gain passage into the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu could tell Luo Lan was terrified. If it were anyone else, they would be terrified as well. Now that all of the escapees had been wiped out, only a few people managed to escape successfully. This place had been reduced to ruins.

But Ren Xiaosu could not understand why a fatty like Luo Lan could overcome his fear and run straight towards death. This wasn’t about putting on an act. He would really die if he went back there!

But when Ren Xiaosu and his group were about to leave, they suddenly heard the howling of wolves in the distance!

This howling came at such an extraordinarily abrupt time it made Ren Xiaosu’s heart sink. Was the situation about to become worse?

But to his surprise, the Experimentals started to stop attacking when they heard the howling of the wolves. Then they quickly retreated and left the battlefield within a minute!

What was happening? Ren Xiaosu stood still as he watched the scene unfold. He wondered if it was possible that these Experimentals were afraid of the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu had thought things would get worse with the arrival of the wolves. However, he did not expect the wolves’ presence to end up counterbalancing the Experimentals and holding them in check!

Ren Xiaosu did not wish to find out about what had happened between the wolves and Experimentals. He only hoped to get Stronghold 109 safely!

He said to Chen Wudi, “Wudi, go and tell Wang Fugui and the others—”

“Who is Wang Fugui?” Chen Wudi was taken aback.

“Go and tell Pigsy and the others… to not turn back. If something happens, they should continue escaping,” Ren Xiaosu corrected.

It didn’t seem like he could pass on the message effectively without referring to “dharma names 1.”

Chen Wudi went on ahead while Ren Xiaosu followed Luo Lan to return to the Qing Consortium’s troops.

“Boss, why have you come back?” Tang Zhou was gasping as he laid on top of a corpse. “Hurry up and leave. Those things could come back soon.”

Luo Lan squatted down next to Tang Zhou. He looked around and saw that more than 90% of the soldiers who had escaped with him from the stronghold were dead.

As for the remaining five or six soldiers, all of them had been seriously injured. Even though they might still be alive now, they couldn’t survive long enough to get to Stronghold 109.

The cruelty of the Experimentals was horrifying.

Squatting down next to Tang Zhou, Luo Lan said, “Do you have any words you want me to pass on?”

Tang Zhou smiled and said, “Boss, you said you’d treat us to a good time and show us the sensual pleasures of this world when we got to Stronghold 109. We’re afraid we won’t make it there anymore. So, Boss, please enjoy it on our behalf when the time comes.”

Luo Lan was sorrowful. “I’d probably die in Stronghold 109.”

The two of them broke into laughter as though they had cracked some lame joke.

Tang Zhou suddenly said, “We don’t regret it.”

“Mhm,” Luo Lan grunted in response.

“Um, let me interrupt you two for a moment.” Ren Xiaosu watched the two men and could not help but stop their conversation. “Actually, they won’t have to die.”

Tang Zhou and Luo Lan were stunned. They simultaneously looked at Ren Xiaosu. Tang Zhou started laughing and said, “Young man, stop joking. No one can stop my bleeding.”

However, Ren Xiaosu ignored them and took out a vial. “I have an excellent medicine here for treating wounds. Don’t worry, y’all won’t die. But I won’t be treating your wounds for nothing.” Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. “In return, I want you to get us into Stronghold 109 and obtain legal resident statuses for us.”

But Luo Lan ignored the latter part of his sentence and stared at the black medicine in Ren Xiaosu’s hand. This vial looked a little familiar to him.

Luo Lan’s expression gradually turned from calm to shock. “This can also treat wounds?! Wait a minute, you’re the magic hands that restore spring, Ren Xiaosu!”

Fucking “magic hands restore spring”! Ren Xiaosu nearly kicked Luo Lan to the ground when he was reminded him about that banner!

Still, Ren Xiaosu was one of the targets wanted by the Qing Consortium. Luo Lan could never have expected that Ren Xiaosu would appear here, and even rescue him at that.

Suddenly, Luo Lan remembered someone had mentioned before that Ren Xiaosu was a doctor back in town. This gave him some hope!

Seeing how Tang Zhou’s group needed Ren Xiaosu to save them, Luo Lan resolutely humbled himself and tried to cotton up to Ren Xiaosu by saying, “With our relationship, I’m fine with however many people you wish to bring into the stronghold. Anything can be agreed upon as long as you save them!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What’s our relationship?”

Luo Lan was also left speechless by that question. He hesitated awhile before saying, “A doctor-patient relationship…”

Ren Xiaosu speechlessly threw three vials of the black medicine to Luo Lan. “Apply these to their wounds.”

Luo Lan hesitated for a moment. “It won’t have that side effect, will it?”

“No, hurry up and apply the medicine on them. If the Experimentals or wolves come back, no one is gonna get out of here alive!” Ren Xiaosu was starting to get impatient. In reality, he decided to treat Tang Zhou and his squadmates’ wounds because he wanted Luo Lan to owe him a favor. Even though the off-road vehicle had overturned, the transport truck was still in good condition. After he finished treating Tang Zhou’s group, he could get them to drive the truck and pick up Yan Liuyuan and the others. It would be much easier for everyone this way.

“Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. “You guys won’t be arresting me after you’ve recovered from these injuries, right?”

“No.” Luo Lan hurriedly shook his head and said, “We’re actually just after Xu Xianchu, but you being wanted as well was purely a coincidence!”

Ren Xiaosu reacted with an odd expression. “That’s a good thing….”

He could only say in his head, ‘Big Brother Xu Xianchu, I’m sorry.’

Although this might inconvenience Xu Xianchu a bit, what else could Ren Xiaosu do? He was forced by the circumstances!

Footnotes:

Chapter 126: A lunatic wouldn’t admit they re crazy

When the black medicine was applied to Tang Zhou’s wounds, he felt like was brought back to Earth from the underworld.

The black medicine’s ability to stop pain was incredibly amazing and it applied a cooling sensation to a wound.

Tang Zhou looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said in shock, “Is this really the type of medicine Boss usually takes?!”

Luo Lan grew angry and snapped, “Will you die if you don’t speak? Shut up!”

“Which of the wounded knows how to drive?” Ren Xiaosu interrupted them. “If y’all don’t wanna die, get in the truck quickly and let’s get out of this place.”

Everyone stayed quiet. A wounded soldier who could still move struggled to get up and climbed into the driver seat of the transport truck. Ren Xiaosu frowned and said to Luo Lan, “Can you drive instead? He might die while driving with the shape he’s in.”

Luo Lan said helplessly, “I don’t know how to drive….”

“You don’t know how to drive?” Ren Xiaosu said with some disbelief, “You’re such a big shot in the stronghold, but you don’t even know how to drive?”

“There’s no relation between being a big shot and knowing how to drive, right?” Luo Lan said in a speechless manner, “Oh, wait, it is related. It’s because I don’t need to drive myself when I go out, so I didn’t need to learn how to drive.”

Ren Xiaosu had no time to argue with him right now. “Hurry up and get into the truck.”

In the Qing Consortium’s records, Ren Xiaosu was just a relatively stronger refugee. Xu Xianchu was the one who was supposedly the most dangerous of all.

When the truck passed the spot where Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi had killed the Experimentals, Luo Lan even counted how many there were. A total of three Experimentals had been killed, including the one that pounced on the off-road vehicle.

Logically, Ren Xiaosu would not have the ability to do this. Luo Lan suddenly recalled that the young man next to Ren Xiaosu looked a little familiar. But he could not remember who it was since he was still in a state of shock.

Soon after, the truck drove over to Xiaoyu and company. Ren Xiaosu’s head poked out from the back of the military transport truck. He said, “Hop in!”

Jiang Wu stood there and watched Yan Liuyuan and company climb in the truck. She said hesitantly, “Can you let us in as well? Or just let the students get in. There’s no need to worry about me.”

As Jiang Wu believed they were not related in any manner to Ren Xiaosu and his group, it would only take a word from him to determine whether they would be allowed into the truck. She knew she had to make this request.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu for a bit, then said, “That’s what I intended all along.”

“Thank you! Thank you very much!” Jiang Wu got excited and urged the students, “Everyone, hurry up and get into the truck. Remember to thank him for saving our lives!”

The group of students climbed into the back of the truck and saw it was more than large enough for everyone to sit in. Only Luo Lan, who was sitting in the corner, kept grumbling softly, “Isn’t this supposed to be my truck?”

Why did it seem like Ren Xiaosu was making most of the decisions here?

But Luo Lan had to bow out. He realized at this moment that Ren Xiaosu had an absolute advantage over the people in the group.

When Ren Xiaosu was giving treatment to Tang Zhou’s group, he deliberately took away all their weapons.

Every student who climbed in would say a few words of thanks to Ren Xiaosu. He found he gained more than 20 gratitude tokens in just a short time. The students were all sincerely grateful to him.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought it might the teacher, Jiang Wu, who had influenced them to be this way. As just a normal person caught in the disaster, this female teacher had displayed the most glorious aspect of human nature.

Ren Xiaosu, who lived in the chaotic town, felt somewhat envious.

By now, Ren Xiaosu had earned 56 gratitude tokens from everyone, including the gratitude tokens Tang Zhou, Luo Lan, and their soldiers gave. The gratitude tokens he reaped for this side quest came in much quicker than the previous one.

When everyone got into the truck, it started moving again. Everyone was sitting quietly. Everyone would feel different emotions after such a close brush with death. Only after near-death encounters would people yearn to live.

Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan took out some food from their bags and handed it to Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi. They knew Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi needed food to replenish their strength after the battle.

The others swallowed hard when they saw the food, but no one dared to ask for a share. Even Luo Lan did not say anything.

But all of a sudden, Luo Lan’s eyes flashed as he gave Chen Wudi a look. He finally remembered who he was!

“Aren’t you that lunatic from Third Psychiatric Hospital?” Luo Lan sat up straight. “Your name is… yes, your name is Chen Wudi!”

As the actual controller of the stronghold, how could Luo Lan not know about the existence of No. 3 Psychiatric Hospital? Moreover, all of the information on the supernatural beings who had been detained would be reported back to him. The content of the information was meticulously detailed and would even include their daily life, words spoken, and behavior displayed!

Even for the Qing Consortium, supernatural beings were an extremely important resource. Whether they had been made use of or studied upon, the Qing Consortium could not ignore the existence of such people.

Luo Lan figured out something at this moment: Who exactly had killed the Experimentals?

However, he was only seeing what Ren Xiaosu wanted him to see.

Chen Wudi looked at Luo Lan. He had not really taken a careful look at Luo Lan earlier on. In addition, Luo Lan’s face was stained with yellow blood at that time. Only after he had wiped his face clean did Chen Wudi finally recognize Luo Lan. “It’s you, Benbo’erba 1!”

“Ben? Ben, my ass!” Luo Lan grew heated. He had read Journey to the West before, alright? “You lunatic, don’t spout nonsense. Who the fucking hell is Benbo’erba?”

Ren Xiaosu gave Luo Lan a glance. He remembered that whenever Chen Wudi was about to hit someone, he would always assign a demon name to them.

Chen Wudi looked at Luo Lan unhappily. “Please address me as the Great Sage in the future. On top of that, I’m not a lunatic.”

Luo Lan snapped, “No lunatic would admit they’re crazy. You say you’re the Great Sage who protects his master so you people can go to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures? In that case, you must first have a master, right? So where is your master?”

It fell silent in the vehicle.

Then, Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, “I’m his master.”

Wang Fugui said, “I’m Pigsy.”

Wang Dalong’s gaze kept wandering back and forth between Wang Fugui and Ren Xiaosu. He hesitated for a few seconds before saying, “I’m Friar Sand…”

Luo Lan was confused.

Just how many mentally ill people were there in the truck? Luo Lan was dumbfounded. “Are you serious?”

Suddenly, the soldier in the driver seat shouted, “We have a situation up ahead!”

After that, Ren Xiaosu heard a sharp braking sound. It was as though the driver had come across an unbelievable sight.

“What’s going on?” Ren Xiaosu asked in a serious tone.

“There are a few cars ahead,” the driver answered. “No, there are a few damaged cars ahead of us. It looks like they came from the direction of Stronghold 109.”

Chapter 127: Gaining legal resident status in the stronghold!

Damaged cars?

After hearing what the driver said, many of those in the truck were startled. How could there be cars around here?

“All of you, stay in the truck.” Ren Xiaosu turned to Chen Wudi and said, “Wudi, get out with me and look.”

The truck was already stationary. After jumping off the back of the truck, Ren Xiaosu discovered Luo Lan had also jumped down with them. The three of them slowly advanced towards the damaged cars. But before they even got close, Ren Xiaosu could smell blood in the air.

Just as the driver had mentioned, three cars were blocking the road up ahead. They were all badly damaged and dripping with blood.

“Be careful,” Ren Xiaosu said. As he spoke, he inspected the nearby pavement to see what on earth could have attacked the convoy.

“Strange,” Luo Lan said in surprise, “these are indeed vehicles from Stronghold 109, but why did they send them out at this hour? And they were even headed in the direction of Stronghold 113?”

At present, Luo Lan had no idea that Qing Zhen had threatened the Stronghold 109 overseer. Lu Yuan, who was the overseer of that stronghold, had no choice but to hold off the pressure from the Li Consortium and send out a small group of private troops to search for Luo Lan’s whereabouts.

However, they ran into an accident.

The three cars were parked in a crooked manner on the road. The trio of Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and Luo Lan did not see any bodies and were only greeted by a trail of blood that led into the depths of the dark wilderness.

The bloodstains had already dried. Judging by the color, Ren Xiaosu deduced that the battle must have taken place around half a day ago.

Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu noticed a strand of white fur on the ground. Following, his expression turned to one of great shock. “This is the fur of a wolf!” Ren Xiaosu retreated with Chen Wudi. He finally realized what the bloodstains leading into the wilderness meant. It was the blood of the victims as they got dragged off in the mouths of the wolves.

What were the wolves doing here half a day ago?

But Ren Xiaosu didn’t care think too much. He just wanted to get back to the truck and get out of here!

“Wait a second for me!” Luo Lan whispered.

Ren Xiaosu watched him jog all the way over to the three cars. It seemed that he was looking for something in them.

A second later, Luo Lan took out a device Ren Xiaosu hadn’t seen before. “I found it!”

When the three of them returned to the truck, Ren Xiaosu asked, “What were you searching for in their cars?”

“Hehe,” Luo Lan chuckled. “A satellite phone! I hope the PIN on this hasn’t been changed from the original ‘1111,’ or I won’t be able to use it. We’re going to have to take a gamble.”

Ren Xiaosu examined it. So this was what the legendary satellite phone looked like? But what was that PIN Luo Lan mentioned? Ren Xiaosu had never even remotely heard of it before.

When the truck started moving again, Luo Lan said in surprise after keying in “1111” on the satellite phone, “It works!” Right after, he dialed another series of numbers with a sense of familiarity. He had memorized this number a long time ago.

“Who are you calling?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“My little brother,” Luo Lan replied and then waited patiently for the call to connect.

Suddenly, a man’s voice could be heard on the other end. “Hello, who is this?”

“I’m Luo Lan. Get my little brother on the line!” Luo Lan said in delight.

Very quickly, someone else spoke on the phone. “Where are you?”

“I’m trying to escape. I can probably get to Stronghold 109 in a day and a half at the latest,” Luo Lan replied. “How is everything on your side? Have you made it out of the Jing Mountains yet?”

On the other end, Qing Zhen paused and said, “I’m still in the Jing Mountains…. Xu Xianchu, god fucking damn you!”

The call volume of the satellite phone was a little loud. Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty after hearing what Qing Zhen said. He knew exactly why Qing Zhen was still stuck in the Jing Mountains. He was the one who slashed all of their vehicles’ tires.

Apparently reining in his emotions, Qing Zhen asked calmly, “Whose phone are you calling from? Have Lu Yuan’s men picked you up?”

Only then did Luo Lan realize the three cars were sent out by Lu Yuan under Qing Zhen’s orders. He answered, “Something happened to Lu Yuan’s men along the way. I found this satellite phone in one of their cars.”

Qing Zhen did not care about what happened to Lu Yuan’s men. He thought for a while and said, “Reorganize yourselves once you get to Stronghold 109, and don’t return to the Qing Consortium for the time being.”

“Why?” Luo Lan was taken aback but reacted quickly. “Have those old fogeys of the Board decided to punish you?”

“They’re just going to put me under house arrest in Stronghold 111,” Qing Zhen said in a relaxed tone. “But a lot of people have been very unhappy with you. If you go back now, you might receive a heavier punishment. Since they don’t know you’re still alive, you should stay at Stronghold 109 for the time being.”

“OK,” Luo Lan acknowledged in a low voice.

“By the way,” Qing Zhen said, “when you get to Stronghold 109, tell Lu Yuan to arrest Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu. I suspect these four people might’ve headed there after escaping from the Jing Mountains. After all, Stronghold 111 and 109 are the nearest to the Jing Mountains.”

Luo Lan gave an embarrassed glance at Ren Xiaosu: “Ren Xiaosu is right next to me….”

Qing Zhen was silent for a while, then asked in bewilderment, “You’ve caught him already?!”

Luo Lan got even more embarrassed. “You might not believe it when I say this, but based on the current circumstances, I’m probably the one who’s been caught….”

Qing Zhen was speechless.

Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Luo Lan, who was stressed a great deal, as he quickly sought to explain it was Ren Xiaosu who saved him. He would probably have died if not for that action.

Qing Zhen finally understood what had happened. Qing Zhen said from the other end, “Tell him we’ll forget all the unpleasantness between him and our Qing Consortium. On top of that, I, Qing Zhen, now owes him a favor and a life.”

“They want to enter Stronghold 109 and become legal residents there,” Luo Lan said.

“You can speak directly to Lu Yuan.” Qing Zhen did not seem too concerned about this matter.

Phew! Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. The name of the Qing Consortium had been weighing on his mind recently.

It was quite terrifying to be on the radar of such a huge corporation. Who in this era would be willing to go against a corporation that controlled over 20 strongholds?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was even more determined now to not let Qing Zhen find out he was the one who slashed all of their vehicles’ tires that night. Just based on how Qing Zhen had sworn at Xu Xianchu earlier, Ren Xiaosu got the feeling this matter wasn’t over yet.

But Ren Xiaosu remembered what Qing Zhen just said. He wondered where Yang Xiaojin would go after escaping from the Jing Mountains. Would it be to Stronghold 109 or Stronghold 111? Or perhaps somewhere even further away?

Since there were limitations to Luo Xinyu’s power to travel through the shadows, Yang Xiaojin and she couldn’t have gone too far, right?

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. Everyone heard the conversation between Luo Lan and Qing Zhen. At this very moment, there was visible excitement in both Ren Xiaosu’s and Yan Liuyuan’s eyes. They understood they were no longer going to be refugees. From this moment onward, they would become legal residents of Stronghold 109!

Chapter 128: Headache spell

Ren Xiaosu’s motive for rescuing Luo Lan was so they could get into the stronghold through him. Now that his objective was achieved, his wish could finally be considered fulfilled.

As for how Luo Lan and Qing Zhen would convince the Li Consortium and Stronghold 109’s overseer, that would be up to them. After all, the corporations had business dealings with one another all the time, so they would have to give each other some face.

From Qing Zhen’s tone, it felt like it wasn’t a particularly difficult matter to handle.

Nearby, Wang Fugui let out a sigh and said softly, “Some issues can be extremely difficult for us to handle but are only a matter of words for people in their world.”

Luo Lan said, “If we promise you something, our Qing Consortium will see it gets done. Would a large organization need to lie to a few refugees like you?”

All of a sudden, Wang Fugui asked Luo Lan, “Xiaosu saved your life, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah,” Luo Lan said in a surprised manner.

“Boss Luo is a big shot,” Wang Fugui said as his eyes revealed a certain shrewdness. “Since your life is so valuable, it would not be enough to just get us into the stronghold. If this matter gets out, other people will feel that the Qing Consortium is being stingy.”

When Wang Fugui escaped from town with Ren Xiaosu, he had explicitly expressed to Ren Xiaosu the value he could bring to the group. Now was finally the time to show it.

In reality, Wang Fugui knew all about his own shortcomings. He had never seen much of the world before and would appear very crude by bargaining with a big shot like Luo Lan. In fact, Luo Lan might even be mentally mocking him for daring to ask for help when he was not qualified to do so. But that didn’t matter to him. Wang Fugui had to help Ren Xiaosu obtain the most favorable conditions to the best of his abilities. For this reason alone, he was willing to be shameless.

From the conversation between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, Wang Fugui realized that obtaining legal resident statuses in the stronghold was no big deal for these big shots. So he wondered if they could get even more out of them.

“What else do you all want?” Luo Lan relaxed in the cargo bed and looked at Wang Fugui. “But you had better not make unreasonable demands!”

Wang Fugui felt hopeful at the words. He said, “We want a shop. The Qing Consortium must have a lot of properties in Stronghold 109, so it shouldn’t be a problem to get us a shop!”

Luo Lan downplayed, “My life isn’t worth as much as one shop.”

Old Wang was a little taken aback. Luo Lan was being rather shameless if he put it that way. As a refugee, Wang Fugui could be shameless. But how could a big shot of the Qing Consortium behave so shamelessly as well?

But Wang Fugui didn’t know that the most shameless people in the world were actually those who belonged to the organizations. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for them to make an organization in the first place.

Wang Fugui asked Luo Lan, “Your younger brother just said he owed Ren Xiaosu a favor and a life, right?”

“What is it you’re trying to say?” Luo Lan was feeling speechless.

“Is the favor and the life that your younger brother mentioned worth a shop?” Wang Fugui asked.

Luo Lan went quiet for a long time before answering, “Yes.”

Although he could be shameless about himself, it was not so when Qing Zhen’s name was mentioned.

“I’ll prepare a simple shop for you all.” Luo Lan said, “But our Qing Consortium does not owe you anything more after that.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu decisively accepted it. This would be a stable income stream for them in the stronghold. Even if they didn’t use the shop to do business, the rent they could obtain from it would probably be enough for their daily living expenses. Furthermore, he had promised Old Wang he would reopen a grocery store for him.

However, Wang Fugui still seemed unsatisfied. He said to Luo Lan, “How much do you think the lives of your five subordinates are worth?”

Luo Lan got annoyed. “Couldn’t you have finished saying it in one shot? Alright, I’ll give you a big shop that’s in a good location. Don’t ask me for anything more, or I’ll die here right in front of you!”

Wang Fugui wanted to go even further, but Ren Xiaosu tugged at him. It was best to stop asking since they had gotten what they wanted.

If they really made Luo Lan angry, he might just go back on his words after they got to the stronghold. At that time, Ren Xiaosu and the others would not be able to do anything about it.

Ren Xiaosu had chosen to save Tang Zhou and his soldiers because he realized Luo Lan was a little sentimental. Luo Lan would feel grateful to him after he saved them.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw Chen Wudi, who was seated opposite him, looking at Luo Lan in a hostile manner. It was as though he wanted to subdue evil right now.

He noticed some changes in Chen Wudi’s appearance, but he could not immediately tell what the difference was. Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu asked, “Eh, Wudi, is that a golden circlet on your head? Where did it come from?”

Before this night, he was quite certain Chen Wudi did not have a golden circlet on his head.

Ren Xiaosu suspected this item had also materialized out of Chen Wudi’s imagination. But unlike the Golden-Hooped Rod, this golden circlet was different as it didn’t actually disappear.

“The golden circlet was given to me by the bodhisattva. Master, don’t you know that?” Chen Wudi looked like he expected this to be common knowledge.

“…I do,” Ren Xiaosu answered. ‘But that’s not what I was asking!’

Ren Xiaosu intended to make up an excuse to get past his questioning. After all, his current role was Master Sanzang, so how could he possibly not know where his disciple’s golden circlet came from?

Then, Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu seriously and asked, “Master, do you still remember how to recite the headache spell?”

Ren Xiaosu nearly broken down. ‘How am I supposed to know that spell?!’

In the original text of Journey to the West, there was no mention of the specific contents of the spell when Guanyin 1 taught it to Tripitaka. Ren Xiaosu saw a sparkle of excitement in Chen Wudi’s eyes as he anticipated what was about to come. Ren Xiaosu tested him by reciting, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers 1?”

“Ahhh!” Chen Wudi clutched his head and cried out, “Master, stop it! Master, stop it!”

Ren Xiaosu sat there with his mouth agape. He thought to himself, ‘Chen Wudi, you’re playing along quite well.’

Ren Xiaosu realized that everyone else was giving him strange looks. Some students even sank deep into thought over this.

This bodhisattva was probably some kind of comedian, right?!

Luo Lan felt like his intelligence had been greatly insulted. He could not understand why a lunatic like Chen Wudi would regard Ren Xiaosu as his master!

If he had to believe that Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, Wang Fugui, and Wang Dalong were the reincarnations of Tripitaka and his disciples, he would rather kill himself by smashing his head here in the truck!

The truck had been driving for dozens of kilometers before they slowly came to a stop. Luo Lan asked, “Can we afford to take a break now? Won’t the wolf pack catch up to us?”

Ren Xiaosu was reminded about the strangeness of the wolves’ behavior. He gave it some thought before saying, “Let’s take a short rest. We only have one driver, so it won’t be good if he gets exhausted. Besides, if the wolves come chasing after us, the vehicle probably can’t outrun them if we keep driving.”

Actually, Ren Xiaosu was constantly wondering in his mind. He had previously thought that the wolves had not attacked the escapees only because they had gone back to what was now the ruins of Stronghold 113.

But by the looks of it, it seemed the wolves had been keeping close to them all this while. There was even a time when the pack overtook their group.

But why didn’t the wolves attack the escapees?

There was no logical explanation for it!

Unless there was someone in the group the wolves were unwilling to attack!

Footnotes:

Chapter 129: Instigating Chen Wudi’s defection

While everyone was resting, Ren Xiaosu found a hilltop where he could look around to spot the whereabouts of the wolves.

But when he reached the top of the hill, he was stunned. Ren Xiaosu did not really expect the wolves to be nearby.

He saw the silvery Wolf King standing in the wilderness and staring at him quietly. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing for it.

But very surprisingly, Ren Xiaosu did not get the feeling the Wolf King had any intention of attacking them this time. It just glanced at him quietly before turning around to run back into the wilderness.

The Wolf King looked extremely strong and powerful. Using some of the bushes that it stood next to earlier as a reference, Ren Xiaosu was startled when he realized his estimation was not wrong. This Wolf King had grown to a size larger than a cow.

Why? What motives did the wolves have in following them?

Ren Xiaosu had thought something did not feel quite right. Although the wolves did not dare to pass through the canyon, Ren Xiaosu found they had been waiting there all along when he returned from the mountains beyond the canyon.

At the time, Ren Xiaosu wondered if they bore a grudge against him after he had escaped from them the previous year. But now, it seemed like the situation was far more complicated than that.

Whatever! Ren Xiaosu thought it was going well as long as the wolves did not attack them. As for what that reason might be, he had no intention of delving any deeper into it.

He would be bidding farewell to the wilderness in another day or so. After that, he would be entering the stronghold he had always been dreaming of to live a life without fear or worry.

Then their lives would start getting better with each passing day. Ren Xiaosu had promised Yan Liuyuan he would lead him to a comfortable life someday.

When he returned to the vehicle, everyone had disembarked from the truck to stretch themselves. Although it was not too crowded inside the truck bed, there was still some discomfort from being stuck in it for an extended period.

Wang Fugui approached Ren Xiaosu and said solemnly, “Thank you, Xiaosu. Thank you for taking me and my son with you into the stronghold.”

“Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui and said, “You don’t have to be so polite with me. We’re not only going into the stronghold, we’re also going to reopen your grocery store.”

Wang Fugui shook his head. “It won’t be my grocery store but yours. Listen to me, Xiaosu. You’ve earned that grocery store in return for risking your life. It’s enough for me to be your shopkeeper in the future. I have nothing more to ask for, except that you remember to give me a high salary.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. He had not expected Wang Fugui to reject him when faced with such an enticing deal.

While Wang Fugui continued thinking about how to persuade Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu said, feeling touched, “OK, let’s do it as you say.”

Wang Fugui was speechless. Ren Xiaosu was still the same shameless, money-loving young man he knew.

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu added, “You’ll get a 30% share in the shop, and the money you get from selling those antibiotics will be yours to keep too.”

He was not exactly giving out shares to him for nothing. First of all, Ren Xiaosu did not have any talent in running a shop, while Old Wang had been running one all his life. So Ren Xiaosu felt he should let the professional handle it so he could spend his time on other things. In fact, what Ren Xiaosu wanted to do now was not to earn money but to go to school.

…

Luo Lan made use of this time to size up Chen Wudi while Ren Xiaosu was away. He was already quite familiar with Chen Wudi. Be it his daily routine or hobbies, someone had reported this information to him before.

Luo Lan had been quite envious that his younger brother had a supernatural being for a bodyguard. It felt really nice to even just think about that.

Unfortunately, the supernatural being had been serving in the military base under Qing Zhen’s command. However, Luo Lan was not that lucky.

And now, Luo Lan was starting to have such ideas again after finding out Chen Wudi was able to take on three Experimentals all by himself.

Chen Wudi was just a fool. As a big shot of the Qing Consortium, couldn’t he easily fool a fool?

As Ren Xiaosu had never displayed his superpower in front of Luo Lan before, he was only a skilled and ballsy refugee in Luo Lan’s eyes. What did he do to deserve such a powerful supernatural being like Chen Wudi as his follower? And it was even a master-disciple relationship too!

Luo Lan was richer and more handsome than Ren Xiaosu. He was also an organization’s big shot with power beyond imagination. A person like him should have a follower like Chen Wudi instead!

Thinking of this, Luo Lan went up to Chen Wudi and chuckled. “Hey, Wudi, since your master is so poor, why don’t you follow me instead?”

Chen Wudi glanced at Luo Lan and said, “I don’t wanna talk to Benbo’erba.”

Luo Lan was annoyed. ‘Fucking Benbo’erba! Are you still not done with that yet?! Just what is with a mentally ill peron’s train of thought? Can’t it be a little more normal?!’

When Ren Xiaosu came back, he saw Luo Lan sitting right up against Chen Wudi. He smiled and said, “What, you wanna go with us to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures too? If you really wanna, we’re still missing a White Dragon Horse…. No, you don’t look like White Dragon Horse.” So saying, Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked around. When he saw Wang Dalong, his eyes lit up. “We’re still missing a carrying pole 1 and two baskets. So why don’t you be the bamboo basket instead!”

Luo Lan got so angry he turned around and left. He suddenly felt he was not crazy enough to get along with Ren Xiaosu and the others.

Early the next morning, the truck was ready to set off again. This time, they were going to head straight for Stronghold 109!

When their other vehicles broke down, they siphoned the gas from them into the other vehicles that were still working. As such, the gas in the truck’s tank was more than enough to cover this leg of the journey.

Ren Xiaosu started imagining what it would be like to live in the stronghold. He suddenly asked Jiang Wu and her students, “What on earth is it like inside a stronghold?”

Jiang Wu thought back and said, “Students can attend lessons in the stronghold without worry. During their break, they can even play basketball and sweat it out in the schoolyard. When the girls see the boys they like, they will cheer for them. Actually, the teachers already know those students have developed feelings for each other, but they sometimes choose to turn a blind eye to it. Of course, the majority of the teachers will still choose to call the students’ parents.”

“Call their parents?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Why would they call their parents?”

“To tell the parents so they’ll punish their children,” Jiang Wu said with a smile.

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Fortunately for me, I don’t have parents.”

Jiang Wu choked on her words as she did not know how to continue the conversation! But for some reason, she felt a little sad for him. So this young man had been living in the desolate wastelands in such manner with absolutely nothing to fall back on.

Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Everyone, get into the truck! We’re setting off!”

Then he saw Luo Lan bow three times in the direction of where they came from. He was doing that for the soldiers of the combat brigade who had died for him.

Actually, Luo Lan had not shown any signs of exceptional sadness along the way thus far. It was as though he were still very optimistic about things.

But when Ren Xiaosu saw this, he felt that Luo Lan was not showing his sadness simply because he did not want to appear weak.

Chapter 130: A brush with death

“The town is right in front of us.” Yan Liuyuan’s eyes were shimmering as he leaned forward from the back of the truck and peeked through the transparent window between the cab and cargo bed.

Upon hearing that, all of the people who were nodding off in the back of the truck were jolted awake.

Everyone did not have it easy their entire journey here. There wasn’t even a place for them to lie down for one day, and everyone was always in a state of anxiety and constant worry. What if the wolves or the terrifying Experimentals caught up to them again?

Even if there was a supernatural being like Chen Wudi around, he probably couldn’t hold off so many Experimentals, right?

Although Ren Xiaosu told them they would be fine, everyone was still uneasy until the moment they finally saw “human civilization” again. An emotion welled up inside them. It was a kind of happiness that came after a brush with death.

Naturally, some people were puzzled too. For example, Luo Lan and Jiang Wu wondered why Ren Xiaosu would make the judgment call that the wolves would not be attacking them again when they didn’t even see him doing anything about it. Furthermore, the wolves really did not come to attack them!

Jiang Wu had already experienced it so many times along the way. The young refugee made many decisions correctly as though he had prior knowledge.

If she didn’t have her students catch up with Ren Xiaosu in advance on the evening the Experimentals attacked, they would have probably died there.

During their escape, Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others in their group did not suffer much. The other escapees had not brought anything with them on their escape. Of all the escapees, only the five of them were carrying a full set of luggage, and it was clear they were well-prepared. This made Jiang Wu envy Yan Liuyuan and the others. If Ren Xiaosu had led her and her students as well, they would probably have suffered a lot less.

Of course, she knew that Ren Xiaosu did not have such an obligation to them. Furthermore, he had already helped her with many things, such as searching for food and letting them get into the truck. Jiang Wu knew full well it was due to Ren Xiaosu’s credit that she and her students got to Stronghold 109 alive. She turned to the students and said, “Everyone, come and thank Ren Xiaosu. You should all know you’re only alive because of what he did.”

The students looked at Ren Xiaosu. This refugee, the same age as them, had truly earned their genuine admiration.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you so much!”

“Gratitude received from Xie Guangkun, +1!”

“Gratitude received from Chenghe, +1!”

“Gratitude received from…”

Ren Xiaosu was on cloud nine. “You’re all too polite, too polite!”

Within a minute, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said as he counted the number of people, “There are still two people who haven’t thanked me yet. Hurry up and…”

Jiang Wu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Although she was very grateful to Ren Xiaosu, she sometimes felt that his brain might really be wired differently from others.

The military transport truck drove on the road that cut through the center of town towards the stronghold’s gate. Yan Liuyuan leaned out of the back of the truck and looked outside. “Bro, this place is just like our town.”

What he meant by “just like” probably referred to the shacks and living conditions in town.

Ren Xiaosu used to think the sights in town were awful, but the same sights here felt warm and fuzzy to him now.

He was a little different from the others. After venturing out to the Jing Mountains, he didn’t even get to rest before he came back and encountered the disaster at the stronghold. It’d been half a month since he had gotten any proper rest.

Even someone with an extremely strong will like him would feel worn out.

Jiang Wu said hesitantly, “Did you guys used to live in a place like this?”

Everyone in the stronghold knew there was a town outside, but they did not know what the town actually looked like. That was because not everyone could pass through the stronghold’s gate as they wished.

So Jiang Wu had thought the town was some dilapidated place with squat buildings. She had never expected there would be no buildings at all. The majority of the homes here were run-down.

So they had been living in a fairy tale heaven the entire time, while Ren Xiaosu and company lived in hell.

Xiaoyu smiled and said, “But life was not that hard. Our Xiaosu was even a substitute teacher in town. If nothing had happened to the stronghold, he would probably have become the new teacher.”

Her words surprised Jiang Wu even more as she looked closely at Ren Xiaosu. Honestly, she only thought that Ren Xiaosu was capable. She did not expect he was even a teacher. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu’s image in her head became even greater.

This was the social status that came along with a social identity. If Ren Xiaosu were only a “drug dealer,” he would definitely not gain any respect from others.

Grumpy, Luo Lan jumped out of the vehicle. The more he looked at Ren Xiaosu, the angrier he became. He was clearly just a refugee, yet he had a supernatural being as his disciple and even a beautiful female teacher with eyes only for him.

He marched up to the gate in an awe-inspiring manner and shouted to the people at the gate, “Tell Lu Yuan to come out and see me!”

It seemed like the man at the gate was a town resident. He was stunned as he stared at Luo Lan. “Who is Lu Yuan?”

Luo Lan’s face darkened. He shouted, “Where’s the town administrator? Get him out here!”

Ren Xiaosu also jumped out of the vehicle and immediately saw the figure of a town administrator. After all, the demeanor and attire of the town administrator were totally different from those of the refugees. Ren Xiaosu told him, “We came from Stronghold 113. This is Luo Lan of the Qing Consortium. Report this to your stronghold overseer.” Ren Xiaosu then turned around to Yan Liuyuan and the others and said, “Y’all don’t have to get out of the vehicle. We’ll be driving straight into the stronghold.”

Jiang Wu was slightly taken aback, because Ren Xiaosu cast a glance at her when he spoke. She realized Ren Xiaosu was hinting something to her.

Luo Lan had only promised to let the six of them into the stronghold. He didn’t include Jiang Wu and her students. If someone made a fuss about it, Jiang Wu and her students might just end up refugees in the future.

But right now, they had the backing of Luo Lan. Everyone just needed to remain in the truck while they entered the stronghold. No one could say a thing about it. The people of Stronghold 109 would probably just think the truck was carrying the Qing Consortium’s people!

Usually, they would check their IDs before allowing them into the stronghold, but Ren Xiaosu was going to gamble that Lu Yuan would not dare to check Luo Lan.

The high and mighty stronghold overseers were poor bastards caught in between the various organizations at such a time. They wouldn’t dare offend any of them.

When Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he got back into the truck to get some rest. Meanwhile, Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and their soldiers waited outside for Lu Yuan to come out. The wait lasted an hour.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu always felt the way Luo Lan carried himself was extremely similar to that of his younger brother, Qing Zhen. In Ren Xiaosu’s eyes, the cocky looks on their faces were exactly the same. It was just that Luo Lan always seemed to be a level below Qing Zhen.

After all, Qing Zhen had been surrounded by a large number of combat troops, and he could feel the intimidating aura blow against his face; whereas when Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan for the first time, he was already in a pathetic state.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was still unaware he had flushed Qing Zhen’s image down the drain. This was also the reason why Qing Zhen was so determined to arrest Xu Xianchu by any means necessary.

Chapter 131: Inside the stronghold!

Finally, after an indefinite amount of time, the stronghold’s gate opened slowly. The heavy gate was pulled up by a rope hidden within the walls as the huge machinery behind it made loud, grinding noises.

Ren Xiaosu immediately turned around and looked inside the gate. This was the first time he so strongly desired to have a clear look at the inside world.

Stronghold 113’s gate would often open as well, but Ren Xiaosu had always restrained himself from looking at what was inside. That was because there were good days and bad days in these times, and he was afraid he would end up constantly thinking about it if he saw what it was like on the other side.

Yan Liuyuan had wanted to sneak a look inside, but he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. At that time, Ren Xiaosu said he would definitely take Yan Liuyuan to live inside the stronghold in the future, but he didn’t actually believe that himself.

And now, they were going to be part of that world soon.

When a large group of people came out of the stronghold, a handsome, middle-aged man strode forward. He smiled at Luo Lan in greeting. “A warm welcome to you, Boss Luo. Sorry for not welcoming you at the gate!”

However, Luo Lan’s face darkened. “Is an apology enough for making me wait out here for so long?”

Lu Yuan smiled and repeatedly apologized. “I immediately sent someone out to pick you up after receiving Boss Qing Zhen’s instructions. However, I lost contact with them as well. Otherwise, I would’ve been waiting out here for you for a long time.”

Luo Lan did not say anything else and walked into Stronghold 109. He waved the truck in. “Drive in!”

All of a sudden, Lu Yuan said loudly, “Wait a minute, who are those people in the truck? Shouldn’t they get out for inspection?”

Not a second later, Luo Lan turned around and landed a loud slap on Lu Yuan’s face. “Don’t overstep your boundaries! How dare you try to conduct a spot check on our Qing Consortium’s truck!”

Everyone was stunned! This was Lu Yuan, the overseer of Stronghold 109!

Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. He didn’t expect Luo Lan to have such a violent outburst. It wasn’t until this moment that Luo Lan finally had the bearing of an organization’s “big shot” like he had imagined. But in reality, he knew this was not Luo Lan’s nature after spending some time with him on their way here.

Rather, Luo Lan was just trying to protect himself with that appearance. He needed others to be afraid of him. It was no wonder that people in Stronghold 113 so revered Luo Lan when they heard his name.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not know that the fate of Stronghold 113’s overseer, Old Liu, had been decided by a word from Qing Zhen. He had already died on the way to Stronghold 178 after being exiled there.

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly found Luo Lan to be quite interesting as he was only doing this so they could get into the stronghold. There was nothing in the truck besides Ren Xiaosu’s group of six, as well as Jiang Wu and her 28 students.

The middle-aged man who was slapped in the face stood there for a long while without saying a word. Luo Lan smiled ambiguously at him and said, “What’s the matter, Lu Yuan? Have you forgotten your place?”

Lu Yuan lowered his head. “No, I didn’t forget. Boss Luo, please enter.”

He didn’t even ask Luo Lan why the people he sent out did not come back with them. But that was not actually important to him.

Ren Xiaosu sat in the truck and watched quietly. So this was the authority and power of an organization.

At this moment, another few people came out of the stronghold and said respectfully to Luo Lan, “Boss Qing Zhen ordered us to wait here for you.”

Luo Lan raised his eyebrows. “You’re my younger brother’s men?”

“Yes, sir.”

Luo Lan beamed. “Alright, lead the way.” After that, he turned to Lu Yuan and said, “Carry on with whatever you were busy with. I’ll get someone to send you the ID information this evening. Print around 40 stronghold ID cards and send them over to us.”

“Alright, I understand,” Lu Yuan said politely.

Luo Lan then got into the off-road vehicle that had been sent to pick him up. Ren Xiaosu watched from the shadows in the back of the truck as it slowly drove into the stronghold. Lu Yuan looked like he was thinking about something as he quietly stood outside the stronghold.

When the vehicles got into the stronghold, Yan Liuyuan leaned out of the back of the truck and sighed. “Bro, the streets inside the stronghold are so clean!

“Bro, the buildings inside the stronghold are so tall!”

There were only one-story houses and no tall buildings in the town, but they could see buildings with two or three stories everywhere in here. Some of the taller buildings even had five or six stories.

However, Ren Xiaosu wanted to tell Yan Liuyuan he had seen even taller skyscrapers in the abandoned city inside the Jing Mountains. They were so tall they looked like swords poking the sky.

Having witnessed that sight, Ren Xiaosu realized the high-rise buildings in the stronghold didn’t exactly seem that tall anymore. After all, human civilization had regressed a lot.

Jiang Wu quietly looked at Yan Liuyuan as he got dazzled by the sights. But she did not find anything humor in this. She only felt that the life they were used to was way too different from what the refugees knew.

“Bro, there are a lot of plants here inside the stronghold, and they can also be seen on both sides of the roads. Wait a minute, there’s even a large meadow over there!” Yan Liuyuan exclaimed.

“That’s a park.” Jiang Wu explained to Yan Liuyuan, “The stronghold’s residents can stroll there after dinner, and there are even some aunties who go dancing there at night. In this era, tape recorders are considered rare. So if any auntie has a cassette and a tape recorder to play music with, she becomes the most dazzling person on the dance team.”

Yan Liuyuan nodded. “Bro, look at that father and daughter sitting on the lawn. They’re feeding each other food. What a loving scene…. Wait, why have they started kissing?”

Jiang Wu said with a odd expression on her face, “They aren’t father and daughter….”

At this moment, a strange car sped past the truck. As it passed by, the engine made loud roaring sounds. A balding, middle-aged man was sitting in the car.

Ren Xiaosu asked Jiang Wu, “Why doesn’t that car have a roof?”

Jiang Wu thought for a moment before answering, “That’s what we call a convertible. It’s a car that only the rich can drive and is also a status symbol inside the stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu lamented, “How nice it is to be rich. Even their head is a convertible.”

Jiang Wu was stunned. She simply did not know how to respond!

Ren Xiaosu finally understood that it was no wonder celebrities like Luo Xinyu existed inside the stronghold. So it was because the stronghold’s residents were leading a much more luxurious life than them!

These people neither had to face wild animals nor get drenched in sweat carrying buckets of coal out of the mine. They only needed to work decent jobs within the stronghold in order to earn their pay.

The refugees outside the stronghold were like worker ants supporting over a 100,000 queen ants.

Ren Xiaosu had heard from Zhang Jinglin before that the refugees outside Stronghold 113 were considered few in number. In some other places, a large number of refugees would gather together to grow crops and work in manufacturing industries. There were even large human colonies entirely made up of refugees.

Naturally, those large human colonies were also controlled by the organizations.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw several rail lines laid within the ground. “What are these things?”

“Those are trolley tracks.” Jiang Wu said, “The residents can take the streetcar to work and back home every day.”

Chapter 132: Going to school!

As the truck drove forward, everything in the stronghold seemed new and interesting to Ren Xiaosu’s group, although some things still felt odd to them.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu sometimes thought that the wilderness was getting more dangerous these days. Although Stronghold 109 was not as affected as Stronghold 113 by the terrible earthquake, what if something happened here as well someday?

But the residents of the stronghold had never considered the fact that a disaster might happen and they would be left to fend for themselves. It seemed that all these problems had nothing to do with them and were only for the consortium to worry about.

If something really happened, these stronghold residents would not survive in the wilderness.

As the truck advanced, Yan Liuyuan kept looking out. However, some pedestrians in the stronghold had a kind of curious and sympathetic look in their eyes when they saw his dirty appearance.

It was either a look of loathing or sympathy as they silently assumed this child was a poor thing.

When Yan Liuyuan came into contact with these stares, the excitement in his eyes slowly faded away. Then he retreated into the back of the truck.

He and Ren Xiaosu had never needed anyone’s pity before since they didn’t feel like they led a miserable life.

“Bro, why don’t we go back to the town?” Yan Liuyuan was rapidly starting to get uncomfortable here.

“Oh, come off it,” Ren Xiaosu said. Pausing, he added, “If we really can’t get used to living in the stronghold, I’ll find a way to go with you to live outside the stronghold.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded happily.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Jiang Wu and her students. “What plans do y’all have for the future?”

Ren Xiaosu’s group did not have to worry about his group’s livelihoods for the time being. After all, he had a lot of gold in his possession, and Old Wang also brought along a lot of medicinal supplies as hard currency. They probably wouldn’t starve to death in the stronghold in the short term. Moreover, they even took over a shop from the Qing Consortium, which had also settled their living arrangements.

The question put Jiang Wu in a dilemma, because there was no place for them to go.

Tang Zhou smiled and said, “You don’t have to worry about this. We’ll arrange for you guys to be admitted to school once you’ve received this stronghold’s ID cards. Teacher Jiang Wu can still be a teacher, and the students can continue attending school. If you live in the school’s dorm, you can even qualify for subsidies. You guys don’t have to worry about anything regarding your livelihoods.”

“Are y’all that kind?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise.

“This isn’t about being kind.” Tang Zhou said, “Since we went through a near-death experience, we’re comrades. Our Qing Consortium isn’t so petty that we would not help with such small favors.”

“But isn’t this stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium? Does your word carry any weight in here?” Wang Fugui asked.

“The Li Consortium wouldn’t sacrifice their ties with us over such a trivial matter.” Tang Zhou said with a smile, “The matters between the corporations are sometimes very complicated and sometimes very simple. When there’s no conflict of interest, everyone will remain on friendly terms with each other.”

Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that it was just a triviality for an organization to send several people to school. They weren’t even worried about it.

“Um… ahem, how much are the subsidies the school gives out to their students worth?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“900 yuan per month?” Tang Zhou wasn’t too sure. “Every stronghold is different. As long as the funds cover a student’s monthly expenses, it’s sufficient.”

“Yan Liuyuan and I will attend school as well then!” Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “It’s not about the money. We’re just thirsty for knowledge!”

Dumbfounded, Tang Zhou stared at Ren Xiaosu.

“No, wait.” Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “It’s not just the two of us. Including Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Big Sister Xiaoyu and Chen Wudi, all six of us are looking forward to attending school!”

Tang Zhou looked at Wang Fugui in bewilderment. ‘Isn’t this man almost 50? You’re saying he also wants to attend school? Can you really be any more shameless than that?!’

Wang Fugui was even bewildered by what Ren Xiaosu had said, let alone Tang Zhou.

“I think we can forget about the others.” Tang Zhou said in a hollow voice, “We can make arrangements for you and Yan Liuyuan to attend school.”

Yan Liuyuan nearly cried. “But I don’t want to attend school either!”

“Do you think you have a say in this matter?” Ren Xiaosu glared at him. But at this moment, he saw a familiar figure outside the truck in his peripheral vision. When he turned to get a better look, he discovered the figure had vanished.

Was it an illusion or did he really see something? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.

The familiarity struck him like a flash of lightning, coming and going just as fast.

“But don’t be too happy yet.” Tang Zhou said to Ren Xiaosu, “Since our Qing Consortium and you don’t owe each other anything else, this is an addition to our deal. So if you want us to help you with your enrollment to school, you’ll have to give us something in exchange.”

With a smack, Ren Xiaosu slapped two small vials into Tang Zhou’s hands as though he already knew. “I know Fatty Luo wants this, so take these to him.”

Tang Zhou was speechless. ‘You think you can address him as Fatty Luo?!’

There were only two people in this world who could address Luo Lan as “Fatty Luo” and get away with it. One of them was Qing Zhen; the other was Zhang Jinglin.

But Tang Zhou suddenly felt Ren Xiaosu might turn out to be the third such person.

As the truck slowly rolled to a stop, Luo Lan’s voice came from outside. “Disembark.”

When Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck, Luo Lan told him, “The shop on the left is what I’ve promised you. As this place is a prime location, you won’t be making a loss if you start a business here.”

Looking around, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find the street was full of shops and had a high volume of foot traffic.

While Ren Xiaosu was looking around, the passersby were looking curiously at him. However, everyone recognized the ginkgo leaf logo on the truck and knew he was one of Qing Consortium’s people.

“What do you think?” Ren Xiaosu looked to Wang Fugui for his opinion. It was not like Ren Xiaosu knew if this location was good.

“It’s not bad.” Wang Fugui nodded to indicate to Ren Xiaosu to accept the offer. He knew Luo Lan wasn’t lying to them. There really was a lot of foot traffic as well as shops on this stretch of road. When it came to doing business, getting people in the door would mean making money!

“There’s also a yard and several rooms in the back that’s enough for you all to live in. The original business operation here was very similar to what you did, so I guess you got lucky.” Luo Lan said nonchalantly, “From now on, I, Luo Lan, don’t owe you anything.” As soon as he finished, he got into the vehicle with a very smug look on his face and left, leaving the six of them behind.

After that, Tang Zhou said to Ren Xiaosu and the others, “Don’t worry, I’ll send someone to deliver you your stronghold ID cards and school admission applications this evening.”

Yan Liuyuan had already rushed into the shop in excitement. It was clear this shop used to be a traditional Chinese medicine clinic. Before Ren Xiaosu’s group arrived, it was being run normally. After the Qing Consortium’s people pulled out from running this shop, they did not take anything away. The place was already fully furnished with tables, chairs, benches, and a good supply of traditional Chinese medicine.

Luo Lan had given this shop to them because he knew Ren Xiaosu had been the only doctor in town. So he thought Ren Xiaosu might want to reopen his clinic here.

But Ren Xiaosu felt sad. As if he knew shit about medicine.

Chapter 133: Where has Senior Apprentice Brother gone?

The shop given to Ren Xiaosu by the Qing Consortium was called the Hall of Chinese Medicine. On the same day, Wang Fugui said he wanted to custom build a new signboard for the shop, but Ren Xiaosu rejected his suggestion. After all, a new, custom-made sign required money, so they should discuss it together before doing it.

At the back of this shop were five rooms; a kitchen, three bedrooms, and a toilet.

After arriving at this stronghold, Ren Xiaosu didn’t even know how to use the toilet when he saw one. The toilets in town were all pit latrines, while they could flush water directly into the sewers in the stronghold.

Everyone finally learned how to use the toilet after trying it for a long time.

There was a tap in the bathroom that nobody knew what it did at first. But the moment it was turned on, they could see clear water flowing out.

Ren Xiaosu and the others were very surprised. They had never seen anything so magical before!

It seemed the original owner of the shop used this tap as the source of their daily water consumption. Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s no wonder the stronghold’s residents are so clean. It’s because they don’t have to ration their water usage in the stronghold.”

In town, each person was allocated a fixed amount of water each day. No one could change that rule.

Originally, there were still some wells in town. But those were sealed up by the stronghold for the reasons of preventing water theft and wasting of water.

The three bedrooms were allocated as followed: Xiaoyu would have one room for herself, Wang Dalong and Wang Fugui would be in another room, while Chen Wudi, Yan Liuyuan, and Ren Xiaosu would take the remaining room. With this arrangement, everything was set.

Although it seemed crowded for six people to live in, it was comfortable enough for Ren Xiaosu and the others. What kind of place did they used to live in? This was incomparable to that!

The six of them carried small stools out into the backyard and sat down, with the first shareholder meeting being held in this simple a place.

Wang Fugui spoke first. “While we were tidying up the house, a few patients came to the shop and wanted to see the doctor, not knowing the shop changed owners. It seems the original shop’s business was excellent and had a rather good reputation as well. Why don’t we continue to operate the shop as is?”

“But which of us knows medicine?” Ren Xiaosu snapped. “I don’t, anyway. All I have is the black medicine.”

The refugees of Stronghold 113’s town had suffered so much. For the past few years, there had only been two doctors in town, and they didn’t even have any medical skills to speak of.

But Ren Xiaosu felt he was better than that quack doctor, Yu Tong. At least his black medicine was really able to treat wounds! Actually, he could learn some medical knowledge for real since he had something as wonderfully magical as the palace. There had to be a proper hospital and doctors here in the stronghold. So Ren Xiaosu could use the Skill Duplication Scrolls on an actual doctor this time. The previous situation would definitely not repeat itself again.

But Ren Xiaosu was also wondering about something. Was it really necessary for him to waste a precious Skill Duplication Scroll on medical skills? In fact, he felt deeply that his Skill Duplication Scrolls were not enough after getting acquainted with Yang Xiaojin and the others! Right now, he wanted nothing more than to gain another dozen or so Skill Duplication Scrolls so he could learn all of the useful skills from Yang Xiaojin in one go when he saw her again.

Besides, he had only wanted to learn medicine for the gratitude tokens. Later on, he realized the doctor-patient relationship had gotten too tense these days. He couldn’t get many gratitude tokens by treating and saving the lives of people. It was too slow a process!

So Ren Xiaosu would prioritize saving the Skill Duplication Scrolls instead of learning medical skills if he had them. He would only use them all at once if he met with another “skill bank” like Yang Xiaojin. At that time, he might even gain a lot of excellent skills, such as jumping rope, Nursery Rhymes Singing, marble throwing, and so on.

Even now, he was full of resentment whenever he was reminded about the jumping rope skill.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Let’s sell the antibiotics you have for cash first. Those items have an expiration date, right?”

“Mhm.” Wang Fugui nodded and said, “I think I have enough to sell for a while. Since it’s getting late, I’ll go and exchange the Qing Consortium’s currency for some of the Li Consortium’s currency tomorrow. We don’t actually need money in the short term.”

“Alright, you can continue plying your old grocery store trade if we really don’t have enough money to get by,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“But we’ll need to have an excellent, long-term product to sell in the store. There are so many types of traditional Chinese medicine here. Do you think you can concoct the black medicine from it?” Wang Fugui’s eyes were shimmering as he could totally foresee how well-received the black medicine would be in the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yeah, but we can’t sell the black medicine in large quantities. Just sell one dosage per week.”

“That’ll do.” Wang Fugui beamed and said, “A shop must have a unique product in its inventory. With something like this around, we won’t have to worry about not having any customers!”

Ren Xiaosu didn’t intend to exchange the black medicine for money. After all, he still had so much gold with him, so he preferred to unlock the intermediate form of the weapon over earning more money.

But since a single gratitude token could be exchanged for three small vials of black medicine, and one small vial could be further divided into five or six portions to sell, just one gratitude token would be enough to last Ren Xiaosu for several months. It was not a heavy price to pay at all.

Ren Xiaosu decided he would first walk around the stronghold tomorrow to see if he could sell the gold he had bit by bit.

All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan asked, “Where’s Chen Wudi? Have y’all seen him?”

Wang Fugui was taken aback. “Right, where has Senior Apprentice Brother… ptui. Where has Chen Wudi gone?”

…

At this moment, Chen Wudi was having a curious look around the streets of the stronghold. He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital in his childhood, and the gloomy and oppressive environment in there made him yearn for the outside world. He had also lived in a prosperous world, but that was a memory of a long time ago.

Everything here gave him a familiar and strange feeling. The dazzling shops and commodities even made him forget about the important matter of going to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures.

As Chen Wudi slowly made his way to the park they had passed by during the day, he heard singing drift out from it.

Chen Wudi walked into the park and saw aunties dancing in a neat square formation on a wide plaza. This scene was so familiar yet so strange to him that he felt as though he had been transported back in time, distracting him a little.

The aunties stared at Chen Wudi as he walked with dignity to the front of their square formation. Before they could realize what was going on, they saw the young man staring at them with piercing eyes and shouting, “Children, start dancing!”

When Chen Wudi returned to the shop that night, his face was all bruised and swollen. When Ren Xiaosu saw him, he was shocked. Chen Wudi was someone who could even emerge unscathed after getting hit by a bullet. Who could be so godly to beat him up to such a state?!

Could there be someone extremely powerful inside this stronghold?

But no matter how Ren Xiaosu questioned Chen Wudi, Chen Wudi wouldn’t tell him what had happened.

Chapter 134: Encountering Yang Xiaojin again!

The Qing Consortium had sent Jiang Wu, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Dalong, and the students to a school known as 13th High. The full name was Stronghold 109 No. 13 High School 1 .

When Ren Xiaosu heard the name of the school, his first reaction was to think of how large the stronghold was to have 13 high schools. No, there should absolutely be more than that.

In the enrollment form given to him by the Qing Consortium, there were recommendation letters, stronghold ID cards, enrollment grade, and basic student registration information, etc., to be filled in. Tang Zhou said the school would officially add him to the school roster only after he had reported for school.

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong would attend 9th grade while Ren Xiaosu would attend 12th grade. When Tang Zhou said this, he also asked for Ren Xiaosu’s opinion on whether he would be able to keep up with the learning progress. After all, what could he have learned from the school in town? It would be embarrassing if he sat in class and not understand anything that was being taught.

However, Ren Xiaosu sneered at him. How could Tang Zhou possibly fathom a person as studious as him?

When Tang Zhou heard Ren Xiaosu say that, he did not say another word.

In reality, even though Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan had grossed each other out, their short experience of teetering on the verge of death together brought them closer. Although everyone was saying they did not owe each other anything else, Tang Zhou was still very considerate of Ren Xiaosu and the others when doing things for them.

If not for Ren Xiaosu, Tang Zhou would have died in the wilderness.

According to Tang Zhou, there was also a university in Stronghold 109 that some students from other strongholds would try to qualify for.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt it was all in the past when the wilderness was still safe to go out into. Now, very few people dared to venture out of their strongholds.

When Ren Xiaosu mentioned this, Wang Fugui chuckled. He said that even though there were no large animals or the existence of wolves in the wilderness when he was young, there were still refugees who became bandits and killed others for gain. But even so, people would still risk their lives to travel through the wilderness to go between the strongholds.

Sometimes, he really could not understand what those people were thinking. Perhaps they were really brave or just stupid, but there had never been a lack of such people.

Ren Xiaosu was not in a rush to have Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong go through the school admission procedures. Instead, he decided he would take everyone on a tour of the stronghold the next morning after washing up. The six of them in their group were too unfamiliar with how things worked in the stronghold.

Rather than quickly getting down to making money, they wanted to see what this place they had been longing to see for so many years was really like.

The next morning, Yan Liuyuan suddenly shouted from the front yard, “Bro, come and take a look at this. There’s a note here.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned before quickly walking over. He had had the feeling something was off since yesterday. First, he had briefly spotted a familiar figure in the streets, then sensed someone was staring at him the whole time. The feeling of being stared at instinctively made him shudder. And now, a note had appeared from nowhere. However, this might give him some answers to all that had been going on.

Ren Xiaosu took the note from Yan Liuyuan’s hand and saw a line of small words written on it: Don’t overstay your welcome in this eventful place.

“Bro, what do the words on the note mean?” Yan Liuyuan asked, “Who wrote it?”

“Where did you discover this note?” Ren Xiaosu asked back.

Yan Liuyuan pointed to the entrance and said, “It came from underneath the gap under the door. I think someone slotted it in last night. Could they be playing a prank on us?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head as he was certain this was not a prank. Because… he recognized the handwriting on the note.

On his way back to the stronghold from the Jing Mountains, he had seen another line of small, beautiful words appear in the cave. At the time, Ren Xiaosu knew these words were left there by Yang Xiaojin.

And it was clear the handwriting on this note was almost identical to the one in the cave.

Together with the familiar figure he had spotted yesterday, Ren Xiaosu could finally confirm that Yang Xiaojin was also here in Stronghold 109. Furthermore, she left this note for him.

Was some kind of major incident going to happen in Stronghold 109? That actually made her persuade him to leave?

Ren Xiaosu was certain Yang Xiaojin was backed by a powerful organization that was supporting her actions. She had to know something and had come here with a specific goal in mind.

Was she going to assassinate Luo Lan? After all, Yang Xiaojin had attempted to assassinate Qing Zhen, so it was understandable if she wanted to assassinate Luo Lan as well. But it didn’t make sense. Currently, Luo Lan did not have that many soldiers or someone really powerful around him. It didn’t seem like it would be a difficult task to kill him. If Luo Lan were really her target, Fatty Luo would probably have died yesterday.

Ren Xiaosu wondered why Yang Xiaojin had come to warn him. When Yang Xiaojin left him, she even stole her dagger back from him. He didn’t believe Yang Xiaojin would be so kind. But Yang Xiaojin probably did not know Ren Xiaosu had returned to that cave. So she would also not know the note she had secretly slipped in had exposed her.

Everything that happened in this world was just this coincidental.

But where could he go if he left this place? Ren Xiaosu was a little aggrieved. Having just been allowed into the stronghold, he had to leave again before he could even find out the name of the street he lived on?

But more importantly, he couldn’t get out of this place!

Ren Xiaosu thought Luo Xinyu’s ability might be able to disregard the presence of the stronghold’s walls. In that way, she could come inside with Yang Xiaojin.

But what ability did Ren Xiaosu have that would allow him to phase through the stronghold’s walls?

“Let’s not worry about this for now.” Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan, “Don’t tell Old Wang and Big Sister Xiaoyu about it yet in case they get more worried.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded.

“Do you need to catch up on sleep?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Nah.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head. “I’ve gotten enough sleep.”

Even though they were in the stronghold now, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan still kept up with their habit of keeping watch last night.

It wasn’t because they thought there was any hidden danger around but that they were used to this routine.

If the stronghold’s residents learned about this, they would probably laugh at them for not knowing things. There were indeed some thieves in the stronghold, and some people would even occasionally stake out remote places in the middle of the night to rob others, but even that was exceedingly rare. There was no need for people to keep a night watch.

Living in a stronghold and living in the wilderness was different.

In the morning, Wang Fugui first went out to exchange the Qing Consortium’s currency they had. He inquired at the foreign exchange counter of the Li Consortium’s bank. But when he asked about it, he realized there was a transaction fee of 23% on the total amount exchanged!

Ren Xiaosu advised him not to exchange too much of the money. If they ended up having to go to another stronghold someday, wouldn’t the transaction fee all go to waste?

When Wang Fugui heard this, he felt a little nervous. “Xiaosu, you mentioned that we might end up having to go to another stronghold later? Where will we be going?”

“I didn’t say that we’ll definitely have to leave here.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “But for now, we don’t really need much money. Just exchange it for some pocket money and save the rest for later.”

Ren Xiaosu already felt that they might really have to leave this place someday to travel to the next unfamiliar stronghold. But right now, he was more curious about why Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had come to Stronghold 109.

He wondered if he would get another chance to copy Yang Xiaojin’s skills.

Chapter 135: Contamination

The streetcar rattled along the track inside the stronghold. It wasn’t that Ren Xiaosu had not been in one before, but that this was his first time seeing this mode of “public transportation.”

When anyone boarded the streetcar, they just needed to drop 20 cents into a box at the entrance and they could ride to places far away. It wouldn’t even be a problem to ride from the origin station to the terminal station.

Wang Fugui had heard of streetcars long ago. After all, there would always be mention of new and quirky stuff in the stronghold whenever he interacted with the stronghold’s residents.

So when Ren Xiaosu mentioned he wanted to tour the stronghold, Wang Fugui said that taking the streetcar would be the easiest and most economic mode of transportation.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan said while leaning on the windowsill, “the stronghold’s residents will definitely not have anything to worry about. It’s so safe and convenient to live inside here. They can enjoy a life that is hundreds of times better than the refugees by just working an easy job in the stronghold.”

“How can people not have any worries?” Ren Xiaosu sat beside him and said with a smile, “Even Luo Lan will have things to worry about. Something like that does not decrease with the increase of material gains.”

“That’s true.” Yan Liuyuan nodded. “Then do you think there is anyone in the world who does not have anything to worry about?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Yeah, the dead.”

Yan Liuyuan slowly turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Bro, do you think it’s suitable to say something like that on such a happy occasion….”

“Even a fool like Chen Wudi has his own worries.” Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh. Chen Wudi was sitting in the last row with his face still swollen. No one knew where this fellow had gone to yesterday and who had given him such a beating.

On either side of the street in this stronghold city, people were selling all sorts of things, like soup dumplings, tofu brains, and other breakfast foods. Some shops also sold all kinds of hardware products and groceries.

Pedestrians were walking on sidewalks, and cyclists would occasionally speed past them.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How much does a bicycle cost in the stronghold? I feel like it’s quite convenient to travel around on one instead of having to walk.”

Once, an “esquire” in town bought a bicycle that had circulated out of the stronghold, but it was stolen on that very same night by someone else. To escape the pursuit of the esquire, the thief rode the bicycle all the way to another stronghold.

A bicycle was a luxury item in town. It was something you couldn’t buy even if you wanted to.

“I’ll go ask around this afternoon.” Wang Fugui said, “It shouldn’t be cheap. After all, resources are so scarce these days. You can see that those riding bicycles are wearing clothes of relatively better quality. It seems that they’re considered quite well-off in the stronghold.”

“I should’ve found out more from Jiang Wu on our way here to the stronghold,” regretted Ren Xiaosu. They had never been in a stronghold before, but Jiang Wu grew up in one.

But by now, Jiang Wu had reported to the school to continue working as a teacher. She was probably also going to be teaching at 13th High.

…

On the way, Ren Xiaosu heard some people around him talking. “Have you heard? Stronghold 113 has been given up on. It’s said the recent earthquake collapsed Stronghold 113. Even the Qing Consortium’s people have fled here to our stronghold.”

“For real?” someone said in surprise. “It wasn’t mentioned on the radio.”

“They definitely wouldn’t tell you anything about it on the radio,” the first person said with a smile. “But I have a friend who has a working relationship with the Qing Consortium, and he told me that the big shots from the Qing Consortium arrived at our stronghold. They even brought in dozens of refugees with them.”

“Refugees?” The other person said in surprise, “Shouldn’t the refugees be obediently working outside the stronghold? Why did they come in?”

Ren Xiaosu gave them a look but did not say anything. He heard someone else say, “Who knows? I wonder if they brought in any diseases, germs, or contamination from the outside.”

“Shh, look at those people behind us. I think they might be those refugees!” someone said in shock.

With this reminder, the others on the streetcar also turned around and looked at them. The more they looked at them, the more they felt that Ren Xiaosu and company might really be refugees.

Yan Liuyuan was surprised when he saw all of these people disembarking at the next stop.

After just one stop, they were the only ones left on the streetcar. If the driver weren’t required to operate the streetcar, Yan Liuyuan sensed he would also have gotten out!

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized the six of themselves. Today, all of them had put on their newly washed clothes, and everyone had taken a hot water bath too, so their faces and bodies were no longer dirty.

But the fashion of clothing the refugees could buy and their tanned skin contrasted too greatly from those of the stronghold residents.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan whispered, “I feel like the stronghold’s residents aren’t too friendly.”

The residents in the stronghold did not even come over to check with them and just avoided them as though they were the plague after guessing they might be refugees.

All because they could be carrying germs from the outside, and because the stronghold had spread word that refugees were not allowed on the inside due to their “contamination.”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply to him. He calmly said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, buy two new sets of clothes for each one of us tomorrow. Everyone will start wearing their new clothes so that we can blend in with the residents of the stronghold.”

“I’m not going to wear them,” Yan Liuyuan protested softly. It would feel like he was bowing down to the stronghold’s residents if he wore the new clothes.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Whether we’re living in the wilderness or the stronghold, you must blend in with and understand your surroundings to survive. Only then will you have the ability to resist. When you can’t change the environment, you must first learn how to disguise yourself.”

Wang Fugui was stunned to hear this. He didn’t expect Ren Xiaosu would apply his wilderness survival principles to living in the stronghold. So was he also treating the stronghold like a place in the wilderness?

They heard Ren Xiaosu add, “We might still have to leave the stronghold someday, so let’s be prepared for that.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. As someone who knew Ren Xiaosu best, he could tell that Ren Xiaosu had already made up his mind about leaving!

But Wang Fugui smiled and said, “Why don’t we leave tomorrow then? For some reason, I always felt more comfortable living in town.”

“There’s no hurry.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “And we can’t go outside anyway. Let’s talk about it when I find a chance.”

At this moment, the streetcar reached the terminal station. Ren Xiaosu and the others had planned to stay on the streetcar for the return trip at first. However, they saw many residential houses further out from where the terminal station was, and they even came with yards!

From a distance, it looked like this area was rather large, but it was also much more secluded when compared with other places.

Ren Xiaosu tapped on the streetcar operator and asked, “What is that place?”

“That’s an affluent neighborhood in our stronghold.” The driver said, “Only the rich and powerful live here. There’s no trolley tracks going there since everyone who lives there has their own car.” As the driver spoke, he kept inching back as he was afraid of getting too close to Ren Xiaosu.

Chapter 136: Xu Xianchu is here!

The driver had wanted to reprimand Ren Xiaosu to get him to stand further away. But for some reason, he was terrified when he met Ren Xiaosu’s eyes.

“Oh, thank you.” Ren Xiaosu nodded as he looked at the affluent neighborhood. So it turned out there were also both poor and rich neighborhoods inside the stronghold? It seemed like the difference between the rich and poor was just as obvious within this stronghold.

When Ren Xiaosu thanked him for the information, the streetcar operator was stunned. He had already regarded Ren Xiaosu and his group as dreadful monsters, so he didn’t expect Ren Xiaosu would thank him so politely.

Before the driver could react, Ren Xiaosu was asking him again, “When does this streetcar turn around?”

The driver said haltingly, “Why don’t you take the next streetcar? It’ll arrive in 20 minutes.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the driver. “Your suggestion is very irrational.”

“…All passengers, please sit tight and hold onto the handrails.”

…

On the way back, Ren Xiaosu disembarked from the streetcar a stop early, not far from their shop, because he had spotted a jewelry shop.

After confirming that no one was tailing him, he pretended to walk in as normally as he could. But as soon as he got in, he noticed a wanted poster put up on the walls of the jewelry shop.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw the wanted poster. Wasn’t this Xu Xianchu’s photo?! He was shown smartly dressed in a private army uniform that was probably taken when he was working for the stronghold.

“Manager, who’s on the wanted poster?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I don’t know. Someone from the stronghold’s Public Order Division came to put this up today.” The owner of the jewelry shop said, “They only mentioned that if anyone saw this person, they should immediately report it to them. There’s even a reward for doing so.”

“I haven’t seen this anywhere else, so why was it only put up in the jewelry shop?” Ren Xiaosu was getting worried.

“I heard it’s because someone stole some gold from the Qing Consortium. I don’t know the exact details, but the Public Order Division is conducting strict checks on all unknown supplies of gold. As long as the gold shows any signs of oxidization or doesn’t have a consortium’s logo imprinted on it, we are to report it to the Public Order Division when we come across it.” The owner of the jewelry store asked, “So, is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, it’s nothing…” Ren Xiaosu immediately walked back out of the jewelry shop.

Ren Xiaosu was despondent. He realized the Qing Consortium had likely detected he had taken a lot of gold with him.

Although he had left behind some of the gold he’d wrapped up in the jacket, someone from the Qing Consortium had to have realized the amount did not add up upon checking the jewelry shop’s display counters. In fact, the check would reveal that a large quantity of gold had gone missing! That was because a lot of dust had settled on the gold items that had been placed on the counter. After the gold was taken away, the signs pointing to it would be painfully obvious.

Ren Xiaosu did not want to take any chances. He knew that if the Qing Consortium had specifically put up the photo of a wanted man in a jewelry shop, they must have found out something. They clearly intended to seek him out at the point of sale when he tried to dispose of the stolen goods.

No, they should be seeking out Xu Xianchu.

Xu Xianchu had just arrived at the town outside Stronghold 111. After being on the run for many days, he finally made it here before he starved to death.

Along the way, Xu Xianchu would use his shadow clone to run as long as he was in a good frame of mind. Although it saved him a lot of energy when using the shadow clone to carry himself forward, he was on the verge of vomiting due to the bumpy ride when being piggybacked by the shadow clone.

But more importantly, he could not find much food to eat in the wilderness after parting ways with Ren Xiaosu and could only make do with some wild vegetables he found. During this time, he even suffered from diarrhea for an entire day. Fortunately for him, he was a supernatural being. Now that he had excellent physical fitness, eating some poisonous wild vegetables would not be enough to kill him.

At this moment, Xu Xianchu was looking forward to getting back to human civilization so that he could get something to eat. Every time he came across a rock these past two days, he would think it was an unfilled steamed bun that could be eaten!

But when he arrived at the entrance of the town, he had a feeling that several people staring were at him.

Xu Xianchu went over to a shack and said, “Hello, do you have anything I can eat? I’ll pay you for it.”

Xu Xianchu swallowed hard when he saw some cornbread inside the shack.

The man of the family came out and sized up Xu Xianchu. “You’re not from our town, right? You don’t look familiar at all.”

“Ahem, I’m just passing by,” Xu Xianchu explained. He was thinking that other people should not recognize him since his face was so dirty now.

But as the refugee sized up Xu Xianchu, he suddenly noticed something. He shouted, “Xu Xianchu! Xu Xianchu is here! Everyone, grab him!”

Xu Xianchu was confused.

On his way here to Stronghold 111, Xu Xianchu actually felt very hesitant. After all, Stronghold 111 was where the Qing Consortium’s headquarters were. But he felt that it wouldn’t be a problem if he just stayed in town for a short while, right? But at this moment, Xu Xianchu realized he was wrong to have thought that way!

The Qing Consortium should have issued an order to arrest him. Otherwise, these refugees would not be trying to catch him like they were all soldiers.

But he hadn’t done anything at all. When he was still in the Jing Mountains, he did not even manage to get past the lockdown perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up. So why were they wasting so much effort to try to catch him?!

Of course, Xu Xianchu was also a little worried for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. If there were already so many people going after someone who had not even breached the perimeter, he could easily imagine how massive the turnout would be when it came to arresting Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu.

In that instant, Xu Xianchu did not hesitate any further. He summoned his shadow clone to kick aside the refugee in front of him. Simultaneously, he rushed into the shack and grabbed several black cornbreads into his arms before running away!

He could not stay here anymore. It seemed he had to head elsewhere. It would be best if he could go somewhere not under the control of the Qing Consortium!

After much consideration, Xu Xianchu suddenly felt that Stronghold 109, which was controlled by the Li Consortium, was his best choice!

At this moment, the engines of a huge convoy of vehicles roared in the distance. Xu Xianchu had already mounted the back of the shadow clone before the refugees could catch up to him. The buff shadow clone immediately accelerated into the depths of the wilderness!

When the refugees saw this, they stopped in their tracks. This was most likely the first time they had ever seen a supernatural being with their own eyes!

When the convoy arrived in town after driving back from far in the wilderness, it started slowing down. Inside one of the vehicles, Qing Zhen was dirty and covered in dirt. If it weren’t for the consortium’s people picking him up from outside the Jing Mountains, who knows when he would have gotten back to Stronghold 111.

Qing Zhen frowned when he saw the disturbance in town. “Xu Man, go and find out what’s happening.”

They didn’t manage to see what had happened because they were too far away.

Xu Man rolled down the window and looked at one of the refugees. “What happened here?”

The refugee walked over and said in a respectful tone, “We discovered Xu Xianchu just now.”

Qing Zhen, who was seated in the back, immediately sat straight. “Xu Xianchu? Where is he?”

The refugee pointed in the direction Xu Xianchu had fled and said, “He ran out into the wilderness.”

“…Get someone to catch him.” Qing Zhen said, “Let the Spec Ops soldiers do it. They’re much more experienced in the wilderness than Xu Xianchu is.”

“Boss,” Xu Man said awkwardly, “you’re about to start your house arrest.”

Qing Zhen asked, “…Where does that path lead?”

Xu Man gave it some thought. “Boss, it should be Stronghold 109 over there.”

“Call Luo Lan.” Qing Zhen clenched his teeth and said, “If Xu Xianchu shows up in the vicinity of Stronghold 109, I want him arrested!”

Chapter 137: Obsessed with fame and fortune

Qing Zhen had not expected he would miss Xu Xianchu by such a narrow window, having just returned later by a moment.

However, he was not someone to dwell on such matters. Since he had missed his chance to get him, there was no point in regretting it.

“Let’s enter the stronghold,” Qing Zhen said calmly. Actually, what he should be most concerned about was not Xu Xianchu, but how the old fogeys from the Qing Consortium were going to punish him. Or rather, how they were intending to usurp his authority.

A lot of people in the outside world thought the Qing Consortium was helmed by Qing Zhen. But in actual fact, he only controlled a portion of the military.

Because the consortium’s external affairs were mainly handled by Qing Zhen, outsiders thought that Qing Zhen was very influential within the Qing Consortium.

Only Qing Zhen himself knew that the old fogeys in the consortium never trusted him. With batches and batches of the organization’s Shadows constantly getting replaced, the “face” of the Qing Consortium was the only thing that mattered to the old fogeys.

A saying that had circulated from the Qing Consortium went: “Violence is only a means to maintain order; it can never be order itself.”

In short, a Shadow should stay hidden instead of coming into the open.

With Qing Zhen stealing all the limelight after his confrontation with the Pyro Company, and the old fogeys of the consortium long wanting to suppress his arrogance, they turned to placing him under house arrest and relieving him of all his authority.

Xu Man whispered, “Boss, we’re going to report to the War Department tomorrow. All of our men will probably get separated and assigned to the other forces.”

“OK.” Qing Zhen nodded nonchalantly. “Go ahead.”

“Do you have any words you want me to tell the others?” Xu Man asked, “Why don’t you step out of the car to say a few words to the men? Or we can go with you to wander the wilderness? There are so many of us, and we even have guns too, so we can do anything that we want.”

Qing Zhen chuckled and shook his head. “Many of them are waiting to be reunited with their wives and children back home. But you want to tell them to go back to the wilderness and try to survive there instead?”

“They’d be willing,” Xu Man said.

Qing Zhen opened the car door. The moment he came out, all the soldiers inside the military transport trucks behind him also alighted from their vehicles. The town was suddenly overcrowded with several thousand soldiers, resulting in all of the refugees running away in panic.

“Gentlemen,” Qing Zhen said calmly as he looked at the soldiers in front of him, “after you get assigned to other forces, perform your best and don’t embarrass me.”

Once Qing Zhen finished, several thousand soldiers straightened their backs and answered in unison, “Yes, sir!”

The soldiers understood the fate awaiting them.

“Back into the vehicles!” Qing Zhen then got into his car nonchalantly.

The garrison standing on the ramparts was a little startled after witnessing this scene. It seemed like none of the Qing Consortium’s troop commanders were anywhere near as influential as Qing Zhen.

After entering the stronghold, Qing Zhen returned to his residential villa. He took a shower and then put on a new white suit. He had someone burn his old suit.

As soon as Qing Zhen’s group entered the stronghold, some of the Qing Consortium’s big shots eagerly took over his operational command. The several thousand-strong troops were divvied up as they got assigned to the forces under the different big shots based on a list. The soldiers under Qing Zhen’s command were all brave veterans. Now that the big shots had a chance to take command of a portion of these troops, no one was willing to let this chance slip away.

But it seemed that Qing Zhen did not mind at all.

After his shower, Qing Zhen came out of the villa’s front door. His personal car that had been parked at the door was gone. He smiled. “They even took the car away.”

He headed outside. But the two soldiers on guard duty looked at him awkwardly and said, “Boss Qing Zhen, you can’t leave the house. Please don’t make it difficult for us.”

Qing Zhen raised his eyebrows. “The old fogeys only said that I’m not allowed out of Stronghold 111. When did they say that I can’t even step out of the house? Is someone making things up? Don’t worry, I’m just going out to listen to some singing. Who in Stronghold 111 doesn’t know that I like listening to singing?”

The two soldiers looked at each other. How could he be in the mood to listen to singing at a time like this? Could it be that the renowned Boss Qing Zhen wasn’t worried about his own situation? But the soldiers still did not step aside for him.

Qing Zhen did not say anything. Then, a bullet came from nowhere and hit the flagstone pavement in front of the two soldiers. There was a hidden sniper nearby protecting Qing Zhen!

The two soldiers knew the sniper had shown them mercy. Even if the sniper had shot them dead, the Board would not impose a heavier punishment on Qing Zhen over such a small matter.

No one would want to cause any more trouble during the handing over of command of the combat troops!

Qing Zhen was still looking calmly at the two soldiers when they decided to step back. “Thank you, Boss Qing Zhen, for showing mercy to us.”

“Alright, don’t worry, no one will make things difficult for you two.” Qing Zhen chuckled and walked out.

The two soldiers couldn’t help wondering about this as Qing Zhen left them. Everyone had heard he kept a lot of trump cards around him, but no one expected it to be true.

But didn’t the Board usurp Qing Zhen’s authority? How could anyone still be willing to follow someone who had fallen out of favor with the consortium?

They heard Qing Zhen humming happily as he headed towards the prosperous part of the city. One of the soldiers asked as Qing Zhen walked away, “What is Boss Qing Zhen singing?”

“I don’t know. We don’t even have the money to go and listen to concerts.” The other soldier was unsure about what song it was.

In the evening, Qing Zhen sat down alone inside a theater. Everyone else had left the place as they feared he was poison. Only Qing Zhen was watching the performances as the performers on stage rotated.

He leaned his head against one of his hands. The more alcohol he drank, the clearer his vision became.

In this theater, there was only a sweet and sorrowful voice drifting up to the neon lights.

“A posthouse, a crossroads, how many officials go north and south every day?

“Promotion brings untold joy; demotion sends one home in silence.

“Fame and fortune have always been fleeting. Life keeps flowing and growing….”

At this moment, someone walked up from behind him and said, “Qing Zhen, the Board has something to discuss with you. They’re requesting you attend the meeting.”

Qing Zhen smiled. “Tell them I’m not going.”

…

On his way back from the jewelry shop, Ren Xiaosu thought about his future plans. Now that he couldn’t sell the gold in his possession and might even get targeted by others at any moment, he was starting to worry that he couldn’t exchange them for cash.

Initially, Ren Xiaosu was not enthusiastic about opening the shop because he still had gold. But now, he had to reconsider opening the shop to do business again. He couldn’t possibly expect to live on the subsidies given by the school to students, right?

Should he sell the black medicine? Ren Xiaosu didn’t want to do that. After all, it was more difficult to earn gratitude tokens than money.

As he walked, he suddenly realized he was back at the shop when he finally looked up. But the moment he came into the shop, he saw Wang Fugui acting suspiciously as he promoted something to a man.

When Ren Xiaosu got closer, he was surprised to see it was the black medicine being promoted.

From Wang Fugui’s expression, it was obvious he was not explaining the proper use of the black medicine. Moreover, the middle-aged man had an indecent look about him.

Ren Xiaosu felt sad. Was he destined to be a drug dealer forever?!

Chapter 138: Pyro

“That drug dealer”—this was often a label that came up during discussions surrounding questionable behavior.

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t accept this. How could a young and promising supernatural being like him be labeled with such an unworthy title?

Just as he had said before, his social standing would plummet if he became known as “the drug dealer.”

At this moment, a man walked in and said, “Doctor, can you take a look at what’s wrong with me? My stomach constantly hurts.”

Without even thinking, Ren Xiaosu rejected him. “We won’t be treating any more patients from now on.”

However, the man became unhappy. He said, “You’re running a clinic, so how can you refuse to treat patients? Do you know who I am?”

Ren Xiaosu was also getting unhappy. What was with the residents’ behavior in this stronghold? Why did they all like to boast so much about who they were the moment they opened their mouths? It was as though they were living based on their social statuses. He stared at that man. “And who are you?”

“I’m Yan Linfeng from the Western District! Just go around and ask who I am!” the man said disdainfully.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the long-awaited voice from the palace say, “Quest: Treat a patient.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Linfeng with a broad grin. “Come, come, tell me about your symptoms.”

Yan Linfeng was stupefied. Was his name really that effective? He had only wanted to throw a tantrum to vent his anger but that quickly subsided. “My stomach doesn’t feel good. It hurts a little.”

“Old Wang, prescribe three antibiotic pills for this patient.” Ren Xiaosu said nicely, “You have gastritis, but you’ll be fine after taking some medicine.”

“Really?” Yan Linfeng said skeptically.

“Yes!” Ren Xiaosu said firmly. ‘Like I care whether it’s real. Completing the quest is more important.’

The palace had not assigned him any quests for a dozen days. This was a good start to the day.

The moment that man took the medicine from him, the voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. The quest was complete!

When Yan Linfeng took the medicine and paid for it, he asked, “Is there any food I should avoid?”

“Don’t eat bitter melon,” Ren Xiaosu said absentmindedly as he started thinking about the scroll in the palace.

“Why shouldn’t I eat bitter melon?” Yan Linfeng was taken aback.

Ren Xiaosu replied, “Because it doesn’t taste good.”

Yan Linfeng was confused.

Wang Fugui sent Yan Linfeng away. Ren Xiaosu looked up and asked, “Did we only get two customers today?”

“Well, not really, but we don’t know how to treat patients, so we just asked them to leave,” Wang Fugui said with a smile. Then he slid out a piece of red paper from underneath the counter. “By the way, someone sent us a pamphlet. Have a look.”

“What is it?” Ren Xiaosu was uncertain as he took it from him. But he was stunned when he saw it, because the logo of the Pyro Company was printed at the top of the pamphlet.

The Pyro Company’s logo was that of a small flame which seemed to represent the survival of civilization as it passed on from generation to generation.

Ren Xiaosu turned serious. Did the Pyro Company have business here in Stronghold 109 as well? Ever since he got out of the Jing Mountains, the Pyro Company was one of the organizations Ren Xiaosu was most curious about.

Until now, he could only speculate on the company based on a few words Yang Xiaojin had said. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu kept a constant wariness for the company.

Maybe it was because Yang Xiaojin had a hostile attitude when she was describing the Pyro Company, and he got influenced.

“Effective from today, supernatural beings can drop by our company and get paid for donating your blood. Your blood will be used for our company’s future research and also contribute to humanity’s progress. Furthermore, you will receive 1,000,000 yuan in exchange for just 200 mL of your blood. Our company will keep your personal information confidential and offer you protection. For further information, please contact…”

There was a series of numbers at the bottom.

According to Yang Xiaojin, the Pyro Company controlled a place similar to the Jing Mountains. Furthermore, there were no volcanoes there, and it was preserved in pristine condition.

Currently, all of the strongholds held a mostly hostile view of supernatural beings. However, not only had the Pyro Company started purchasing the blood of supernatural beings, they even openly offered them protection!

Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Well, do you want to give it a try?”

Yan Liuyuan walked next to them and glanced at the pamphlet. “Uncle Fugui, something is off about this company. My brother must not go there.”

“True.” Wang Fugui immediately understood. They had witnessed the tragic cases of Zhang Baogen and Chen Wudi for themselves. Who could guarantee that this Pyro Company was acting with good intentions?

Even if the Pyro Company meant well, who could guarantee they could keep the information confidential? So they would rather not earn this money if it meant Ren Xiaosu had to risk his life for it.

However, Wang Fugui realized from this just how aware Yan Liuyuan was of his surroundings.

Holding the pamphlet in his hand, Ren Xiaosu tried to figure out what other tricks the company might be playing. In reality, Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan still did not understand this world well enough.

Just citing those terrifying Experimentals as an example, did those subjects all willingly become Experimentals? Probably not.

If the Pyro Company were trying to obtain the blood samples of supernatural beings, they were definitely thinking of obtaining the genetic information. This company was so ambitious that it actually sought to collect the blood of all supernatural beings in the world for research.

But Ren Xiaosu did not think this was a good thing. He called Chen Wudi over and instructed him not to use his superpowers without his permission. For this reason, Ren Xiaosu even had to threaten Chen Wudi with the headache spell before Chen Wudi was willing to promise he would not do so.

“I never expected that the headache spell would be that useful,” Ren Xiaosu lamented.

Wang Fugui said with some regret, “But it’s quite a pity to give up on such a huge reward.”

Making money was a lifetime business to him. It was really difficult not to feel tempted when faced with the promise of so much money for the first time. Of course, he knew his priorities.

All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “Since this Pyro Company is so rich, why don’t we pull a heist on them!”

Ren Xiaosu kicked Yan Liuyuan’s buttocks. “Get lost. Pack up and get ready to go with me to school tomorrow!”

“OK…” Yan Liuyuan responded.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Yan Liuyuan. As this kid had grown up in an environment as harsh as the town, someone would have to teach him from time to time about right and wrong.

Ren Xiaosu noticed the series of numbers at the bottom of the pamphlet. “What do these numbers represent? Is it a code?”

“That should be a telephone number.” Wang Fugui smiled and said, “I’ve heard before that every stronghold has a telephone network. A person can chat with another person even though they’re dozens of kilometers away from each other. We have a landline in our shop too, but we haven’t figured out how to use it yet.”

After this group of refugees arrived, they had to explore everything by themselves. Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should ask Jiang Wu to come over to give them a lesson about living in the stronghold so they would all get a better understanding of how things worked here.

“Why don’t we try using the phone?” Yan Liuyuan said excitedly. He was at an age where he was interested in all kinds of new things.

Chapter 139: Leaving an escape route

A group of people gathered around the magical landline. Even Xiaoyu joined in on the fun.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How do we use this thing?” He saw a bunch of numeric buttons on the phone, but there was no operating manual for it.

“Look at the series of numbers on the Pyro Company’s pamphlet.” Wang Fugui said as he pointed at it, “Do we just dial them in sequential order?”

“I guess so. Let’s try it.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Liuyuan, you give it a try.”

Everyone was quite curious about this new device, but Ren Xiaosu still took care of Yan Liuyuan and decided to let him have fun with it first.

Under the gaze of everyone’s anticipation, Yan Liuyuan dialed the series of numbers. They definitely would not use the Pyro Company’s numbers to test it out, so it ended up with numbers being punched in randomly.

But after dialing the number, nothing happened!

Yan Liuyuan looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Bro, there’s no response.”

“Let me think.” Ren Xiaosu said, “We probably made a mistake operating it. You can see that it’s an eight-digit number on the Pyro Company’s leaflet. So we should be dialing an eight-digit number as well.”

Chen Wudi came in from the backyard and saw the whole lot of them crowded together. He asked, “Master, what are all of you doing?”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. “Come, come, my disciple, see if you know how to operate this thing.”

Although Chen Wudi used to live in a psychiatric hospital, he should still understand some basic functions of things, right? Maybe there was such a thing as a telephone in the psychiatric hospital?

“Let me see.” Chen Wudi glanced at it and said, “This is a telephone.”

Chen Wudi then picked up the handset on the telephone. Ren Xiaosu and the others finally understood they had to pick it up first before using it.

They saw Chen Wudi punch in a series of numbers. After several rings, a voice sounded from the receiver. “Who is it?”

Chen Wudi said in an imposing manner, “I’m the Great Sage!”

“You’re crazy!”

With a click, the person on the other end hung up.

Ren Xiaosu grinned. This phone thingy was amazing! The person on the other end could even accurately identify Chen Wudi’s nature through it.

Chen Wudi got so angry he wanted to call back to scold that person. However, he had already forgotten what number he dialed.

“Come, Liuyuan, give it a try as well,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

Yan Liuyuan dialed the numbers in anticipation. After two rings, someone picked up the phone, and the voice of a middle-aged man could be heard saying, “Who is this?”

Yan Liuyuan felt as though he had opened up a door to a new world. He said politely, “Hello, uncle.”

The person on the other end was stunned. “Who are you? Is there anything you’re calling me for?”

“It’s nothing, I was just trying to make a call,” Yan Liuyuan said honestly. “I just learned how to use the telephone. I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

“Um, it’s alright.” The person on the other end hung up.

Yan Liuyuan looked up and said to Ren Xiaosu with the receiver in his hand, “Bro, this phone thingy is amazing. The other person on the phone feels like he’s right across from me.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Don’t test it anymore. It’s not good to disturb others.”

But suddenly, the phone rang. Ren Xiaosu was stunned before picking it up. “Hello?”

The person on the other end said, “Do you need a small loan…”

The person prattled on and said a lot of things, but Ren Xiaosu and the others were stunned. They just could not understand what the person was saying. Ren Xiaosu hesitated before saying, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

That person stayed silent for a couple seconds. “It just means that we can lend you money.”

“How much is the interest?” Ren Xiaosu asked after a short pause.

” 3% 1 ,” the person in the call said.

Ren Xiaosu laughed, “Isn’t that loansharking?”

The person in the call shouted to someone, “Boss, someone says that we’re loan sharks.”

Someone else came to the phone and said, “Young man, don’t you spout nonsense. We aren’t loan sharks.”

Ren Xiaosu laughed his ass off. “Isn’t charging 3% interest loansharking? Of all the businesspeople out there, you’re the ones without a conscience.”

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu thought that everyone in the stronghold lived and worked in a prosperous environment. But it seemed that there were also some shady businesses.

The man spoke in a low voice, “Do you know who I am?”

Immediately, Ren Xiaosu wondered why the voice sounded so familiar. Didn’t he hear this voice somewhere before? He asked him back, “Do you know who I am?”

The man was stunned. “Who are you?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m Yan Linfeng from the Western District!”

After a brief silence, the man replied, “Fuck, I’m also the Yan Linfeng from Western District…”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

So it turned out it was not everyone who liked introducing themselves, but that he was always encountering those who did. And they were always fucking called Yan Linfeng too. It was no wonder the voice sounded so familiar!

With a click, Ren Xiaosu hung up the phone. When Yan Linfeng came to see the doctor, Ren Xiaosu was already a little unhappy with him. He was thinking that if he used this name over the phone, he could let those people fight among themselves. But he never expected to encounter the same person.

Yan Linfeng probably did not know who he was calling, right? Even if he knew who it was, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of him. Ren Xiaosu already knew that guns were prohibited in the stronghold. In the entire stronghold, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of anyone other than the Li Consortium’s troops.

“Actually, we should work on our relationship with a local like him.” Wang Fugui said, “It seems that Yan Linfeng is involved in some shady business and has underlings working for him. I think it’s helpful to know such people no matter where we are.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “If he comes here to see the doctor again, you can have a longer chat with him.”

“Sure,” Wang Fugui agreed. “News of the effectiveness of our black medicine should start spreading after tonight. We won’t even have to promote it and can just rely on word of mouth to create a market!”

Ren Xiaosu felt somewhat uncomfortable. After tearing up the Pyro Company’s pamphlet, he said, “Everyone, don’t tell anyone that Chen Wudi and I are supernatural beings. Keep a close eye on Chen Wudi and don’t let him run around outside unnecessarily in the short term, in case he gets into trouble.”

He assumed Luo Lan would not disclose the fact that Chen Wudi was a supernatural being to the stronghold. However, there was no guarantee that Jiang Wu’s group of students could keep it a secret, so they should be prepared for all possible scenarios.

Ren Xiaosu remembered the small note left by Yang Xiaojin. It seemed she was right after all. The presence of the multiple powers had turned Stronghold 109 into a chaotic place. He didn’t know why or how many other powers were involved. So the best he could do was protect Yan Liuyuan and the others.

“Old Wang,” Ren Xiaosu ordered, “I’ll write a list for you. Go and see if you’re allowed to buy these items. Remember not to buy them together, but separately.”

Ren Xiaosu had to prepare an escape route. He would use it as a last resort.

Ren Xiaosu had stolen something very crucial from Yang Xiaojin while they were in the Jing Mountains: Advanced Bomb-making.

Chapter 140: In the name of justice

The items Ren Xiaosu needed Wang Fugui to prepare were actually not that difficult. Although a lot of them were everyday necessities, he would have to be careful if he bought them all at the same time. Because, by buying these items together, it might catch some people’s attention. After all, it was no secret that these items could be used to make a bomb.

The next morning, Wang Fugui went out. He did not ask Ren Xiaosu what he needed those items for. If Ren Xiaosu needed them, he had to go out and get them.

Currently, Wang Fugui saw himself as the shopkeeper of the group. All he needed to do was to perform his duty as required of him.

Ren Xiaosu had been afraid that Wang Fugui would mess up with this task. In the end, he realized Wang Fugui was even more careful than he had expected him to be.

Wang Fugui had spent the entire day taking the streetcar to the North, South, East, and West Districts, making four separate purchases in each of them in order to gather all of the items for Ren Xiaosu.

When he got home at night, Ren Xiaosu could see that he was wiped out.

Xiaoyu had already bought some new clothes for Ren Xiaosu and the others. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu, and Wang Dalong’s school admission procedures had been processed. Furthermore, Xiaoyu helped them find out the schools in the stronghold had two intersession breaks each year. It was winter now, so the first semester of school was coming to an end. Ren Xiaosu and the others would not have to attend school for long before the semester break began.

Of course, this was in line with what Ren Xiaosu wanted. The beginning should be an adaptation phase, so having a vacation break would certainly take the pressure off a little.

But in the end, they would still have to go back to school. Ren Xiaosu was suddenly looking forward to it. He wondered if the stronghold’s school taught similar things as what Mr. Zhang had taught them.

After dinner, Wang Fugui found Ren Xiaosu and said to him quietly, “When I was buying these items today, one of the shopkeepers mentioned something that’s scared me even until now.”

“What was it?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“The shopkeeper let slip his wondering about why everyone was buying these things.” Wang Fugui said, “So I asked him who else was buying them? He then told me that a girl had gone to his shop yesterday to buy the same things, and that he had fortunately restocked the items today. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had anything for me to buy.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. Out of nowhere, he thought the girl might just be Yang Xiaojin!

Their two bomb-making skills were exactly the same. So when considering how to create a bomb, the items they would require were probably going to be the same as well.

Yang Xiaojin was probably not expecting Ren Xiaosu to be doing the same exact thing as her.

Just what was Yang Xiaojin planning? Surely this girl wouldn’t be thinking of blowing up the stronghold, right?

Of course, it wasn’t practical to blow up the stronghold with just a bomb of this magnitude. Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin’s target might just turn out to be the Pyro Company’s branch office in Stronghold 109. After all, he already felt Yang Xiaojin had some kind of feud with the Pyro Company.

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu and the others took the streetcar and hurried on their way to 13th High School. When they were on the streetcar, they noticed some other students on it as well. It was easy to recognize who were the students since they all wore blue and white uniforms.

When Tang Zhou handed over the application procedures to them, they were told the school uniforms would only be issued when they reached school since it was given out based on their measurements. Jiang Wu’s students had already been issued theirs, so only Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong were not wearing it.

Currently, Jiang Wu was living in the faculty dormitory with her students. From now on, these students had to work hard and depend on themselves since their parents were no longer around.

But what Ren Xiaosu didn’t expect was that these students were exceptionally united. Having nearly died, and without any more family around, they instinctively started treating each other as family.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the students at the front of the streetcar discussing, “Did anyone tell you guys yet? There are some refugees who came into the stronghold recently. I heard someone fell sick the moment they got home after taking the same streetcar as them. My mother said it’s because refugees carry germs from the outside.”

Another student said, “My dad told me to stay away from the refugees if I encounter them.”

“It doesn’t feel that serious to me,” a female student said softly.

“Who knows? My mum said the germs brought in by the refugees to the stronghold several years ago infected a lot of people and killed dozens more. Why else do you think everyone does not want them inside the stronghold?”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he frowned. Why had the news spread so far in just one night? Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu had really not thought refugees would be ostracized so badly before coming into the stronghold. Besides, even if they had been ostracized before, it was more for reasons such as being poor.

He wouldn’t have expected it to be over something like them being carriers of “germs.”

It was not like the town was considered a quarantine zone. Ren Xiaosu was very disdainful of any talk of the refugees being germ carriers. He had been in contact with a lot of people from strongholds, such as Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and the private troops who had gone on the expedition.

It wasn’t like any of those people had died of an illness, right?

Who could have purposely said the refugees were spreading diseases in the stronghold? This was making Ren Xiaosu and the others seem like they were some kind of terrible disease carriers.

Wang Dalong was transfixed on a girl in the streetcar. It was as though the conversation the others were having was none of his business.

However, Yan Liuyuan was a tad more sensitive. He frowned and whispered, “Bro, are we really carrying germs on us?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head.

“Then why are they saying that? Shouldn’t we be refuting them?” Yan Liuyuan’s previously good mood after getting into the stronghold was spoiled by what was going on around them.

“It’s no use refuting them,” Ren Xiaosu answered.

“Why? They’re vilifying us.” Yan Liuyuan could not understand.

“Liuyuan, if ten people say we’re in the wrong, does that count as vilifying us?”

“Yes, why not?” Yan Liuyuan answered.

“Then if a 100 people say that we’re at fault, does that count as vilifying us?” Ren Xiaosu continued to ask.

“…I guess so.” Yan Liuyuan gave it some thought before answering.

“Then what if 10,000 people are saying something bad about us?” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “That wouldn’t be vilification but justice.”

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan said softly, “although I’m not as philosophical as you, if 10,000 people vilified us, I wouldn’t call it justice as long as I think it’s wrong.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. “You’re right.”

These students on the streetcar had all been influenced by their parents. They’d been told not to foolishly stand up for others and to be more “street smart” when they were outside. Their parents would also tell them not to mix with certain people.

In reality, the students’ mindsets were basically an extension of their parents’ wills. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu understood that the majority of the stronghold’s residents did not welcome their arrival. But he wasn’t really sure whether this situation would get worse.

However, Ren Xiaosu had no time to care about this right now. When he learned Yang Xiaojin might also be purchasing large quantities of bomb-making material, he got even more curious about what she was planning to do.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt that if he had a chance, it would be best to find out exactly where Yang Xiaojin was going to plant the bomb. That would save him the trouble of getting bombed himself….

Chapter 141: Silencing witnesses

With Yang Xiaojin and the Qing Consortium both here in Stronghold 109, and the Pyro Company audaciously seeking to collect the blood of supernatural beings as well, Ren Xiaosu nearly forgot this stronghold was actually under the control of the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about what could have attracted all these people here and the events that might be unfolding soon.

Until now, Ren Xiaosu had only met with the stronghold overseer whose name was Lu Yuan. There was no trace of anyone from the Li Consortium. Could the Li Consortium not know about what was going on in the stronghold? Surely that couldn’t be possible!

So why didn’t the Li Consortium make an appearance to control the situation? With so many different powers gathered here, it felt like some kind of matchmaking session. As the host, why wasn’t there any sign of the Li Consortium?

It was at this moment that a student on the streetcar said, “There’s still half a year until exams. I wonder if we’ll qualify for uni?”

“Haha, I’ve already given up,” said a student dressed more casually than the others. His collared shirt was mostly untucked while his hair was pretty long. As he spoke, he kept brushing his bangs to the side. “My dad already said he wants me to go to his factory and climb the ranks after I graduate from high school.”

“What does your family’s factory produce?” someone asked.

That student laughed and said, “We make clothes. My family’s factory processes 10% of the fabric brought in from the outside. A lot of the clothes we make are even exported to the other strongholds to be sold.”

“That sounds awesome!” the other student exclaimed. “But it hasn’t seemed like it’s very safe outside the stronghold in recent times. Are the clothes your family make still going to get exported?”

“It’s true that it isn’t safe outside the stronghold anymore. My dad says we won’t be exporting anything out in the short term.”

Ren Xiaosu took a look at them. Zhang Jinglin once said that the smokestack industries 1 were all outside the stronghold, while the industries that did not cause serious pollution were within it. Of course, it wasn’t an absolute.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought the strongholds seemed to survive on the basis that the refugees had to suffer on the outside. Life outside was an abyss of suffering while everything on the inside was peaceful and prosperous.

The refugees living on the outside were only allowed to get involved with the most basic production of raw materials, while all further processing was to be carried out inside the strongholds. This would mean that whatever items the refugees needed, they would have to buy it with money from the stronghold.

In this way, whatever hard-earned money of the refugees would eventually flow back into the hands of the stronghold. To the big shots of the corporations, this was all but a simple game.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not feel that most people in the strongholds had any value at all. So why would the corporations find it necessary to support so many people?

But unlike how Ren Xiaosu had imagined it, those who lived in the strongholds had always lived in one since the strongholds started. However, a consortium was not necessarily a consortium at the beginning.

By the time the corporations started growing and gaining power, the masses in the strongholds had already formed a unique way of life. Even if the corporations wanted to change that, they would find it extremely difficult to do so.

The difference between the majority of a stronghold’s residents and a town’s refugees was none other than that those who were born in the strongholds had won before the race had even started.

The students in front of them looked like they were affluent second generations of the stronghold. Wang Dalong had been an affluent second generation in their previous town. But now, it seemed like Wang Dalong was doing much worse when compared to these people.

At this moment, one of the girls realized Wang Dalong was staring at her with an obsessive gaze. As such, she glared back at Wang Dalong. But even so, Wang Dalong did not look away. He was extremely focused on her.

Then Ren Xiaosu heard the students changing the subject. “Have you heard about the new transfer student in Class 12-2 1 ?”

“Are you talking about that girl?” The other boys suddenly became interested in this topic. “I saw her from a distance two days ago. I heard she had transferred over from another high school.”

“But she’s always wearing that cap, so I couldn’t get a clear look at her face.”

A girl who could provoke a group of boys into discussing her would definitely be pretty to a certain extent.

However, when Ren Xiaosu heard this, he got an odd feeling…

At this moment, the driver at the front of the streetcar shouted, “We’ve arrived at 13th High!”

Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong out of the streetcar. As it only took them four stops to get from the shop to the school’s entrance, Ren Xiaosu wondered whether they should walk to school in the future.

Then Yan Liuyuan discovered Ren Xiaosu had abruptly stopped in his tracks. He turned around to where Ren Xiaosu was looking and was surprised to see a cap-wearing girl looking straight back at Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu had already made a guess on the streetcar, but he really had not expected to bump into Yang Xiaojin here! Instead of catching up with one another, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin both reached for their waists, ready to pull out their guns. However, both of them had a sudden, simultaneous realization that they were here to attend school.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu’s gun was not holstered at his waist. He kept it in the storage space in his mental palace.

Yan Liuyuan was confused. Wasn’t this cap-wearing girl the person from before who was with the celebrity called Luo Xinyu? Why did she appear here then? Furthermore, she even caused Ren Xiaosu such panic?

Instantly, Ren Xiaosu got a thought in his mind. He could sense that Yang Xiaojin seemed to be a little surprised and might even be thinking of silencing him.

Ren Xiaosu could guess why Yang Xiaojin would have such a reaction. Clearly, Yang Xiaojin was the transfer student those students had mentioned.

This girl had come straight to Stronghold 109 after getting out of the Jing Mountains. Furthermore, she was even allowed direct entry into the stronghold.

Getting into the stronghold could easily be explained with Luo Xinyu’s superpower. But surely that power wasn’t going to help Yang Xiaojin enroll for school as well, right?! Who could possibly have such an awesome superpower?

As such, her organization must have already infiltrated into this stronghold. By investigating how Yang Xiaojin’s student application was handled, it might be possible to find out who was secretly backing her in Stronghold 109.

Although they were once teammates and had been connected by a temporary alliance, their relationship wasn’t exactly that close, to be honest. So it was normal that Yang Xiaojin would react in such a way to protect herself and her companion in the organization.

Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. He hadn’t expected to meet this cap-wearing girl here either. Perhaps this girl might not even know he already had an idea of who had left the note under the door.

The two of them were caught in a deadlock outside the school’s entrance. Quite a few students gave them strange looks as they passed by. Since Ren Xiaosu felt this wasn’t going to lead anywhere, he initiated a reconciliatory action.

He slowly brought his hand out from behind his waist to show he wasn’t holding a gun. Yang Xiaojin looked at him calmly but did not put her hand down. Ren Xiaosu had a look at the pedestrians around them before attempting to talk about something else to ease the situation further. “Return the dagger to me.”

Yang Xiaojin raised an eyebrow. Honestly, she had not expected Ren Xiaosu to talk about this.

At this moment, several students walked over. When they saw Yang Xiaojin, they greeted, “Hey, why are you standing out here?”

Yang Xiaojin calmly pointed at Ren Xiaosu. “He’s trying to rob me.”

Ren Xiaosu reacted, “Huh?!”

Chapter 142: Transfer student, Ren Xiaosu

When the group of students heard Ren Xiaosu was trying to rob Yang Xiaojin, they turned hostile. They even shouted for the other students to gather. It looked like they were about to turn him in to the law.

More and more students came over to watch the commotion. One of the reasons was that Yang Xiaojin got quite popular after her transfer, and the other reason was that people just loved watching a commotion.

Ren Xiaosu panicked on the spot. “We know each other!”

If he got into trouble for suspected robbery on his first day of school, that would be such an injustice. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu did not expect Yang Xiaojin to be so ruthless that she would bluntly accuse him of attempting to rob her! Besides, how could she say he was trying to rob her? The dagger was his in the first place. He had traded food to her for it! ‘I can let slide you taking back the dagger for yourself, but what’s with your accusation?’

The students had doubtful looks as they glanced at Yang Xiaojin before casting their eyes to Ren Xiaosu. “You two know each other? It doesn’t look like it.”

“We really know each other.” Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, “Isn’t it just a misunderstanding? I’m also a student of 13th High.”

“Since you say you know her, tell us what her name is,” a male student demanded.

“Yang Xiaojin!” Ren Xiaosu was amused. Yang Xiaojin’s biggest flaw in her plan was that he already knew her name.

However, the male student sneered. “How dare you pretend that you know her? Her name is Ren Xiaosu.”

Ren Xiaosu felt like he’d been struck by lightning and nearly broke down.

He looked at Yang Xiaojin in disbelief. But he realized Yang Xiaojin wasn’t embarrassed at all. It looked like nothing to her as she focused on watching Ren Xiaosu make a fool of himself.

‘But if your name on the student application is Ren Xiaosu, what the fuck should I be called? Are you not ashamed?!’

One student looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “You say you’re also from 13th High, but why aren’t you wearing a uniform? Which class are you in and what’s your name?”

Ren Xiaosu calmed down a little by this time. He quieted his thoughts before saying, “If I say that my name is also Ren Xiaosu, I doubt you guys will believe me…”

At his side, Yan Liuyuan was almost tearing up with laughter. It was at this moment that he made a careful assessment of Yang Xiaojin. It seemed like his brother had had quite a few run-ins with her.

Yan Liuyuan felt this farce playing out in front of him wasn’t really that big a deal. It was pretty interesting to see Ren Xiaosu getting upstaged like this. There were simply too few people who could get an edge over Ren Xiaosu like that. This cap-wearing girl was definitely not a normal person. Besides, normal people would never need to use a pseudonym either.

While Ren Xiaosu was trying to explain himself to the others, Yan Liuyuan ran before Yang Xiaojin. “Hello, big sis. I’m Ren Xiaosu’s younger brother, and my name is Yan Liuyuan.”

Yang Xiaojin did not even blink when she was sabotaging Ren Xiaosu. But when she saw Yan Liuyuan, she turned pleasant and cheerful. She said in a soft voice, “Mhm, hello. I’m your big brother’s good friend.”

Yan Liuyuan turned around and took a look at Ren Xiaosu, who was caught inside the crowd. Was this really what a good friend would do?

In the end,the large group of people forcefully brought Ren Xiaosu to the Academic Affairs Office. At the office, the teacher flared up when he was told that someone had tried to rob a student. But when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s admission papers, he became polite.

He had received the notification yesterday that there would be a student admitted to the senior high section, and another two students to be admitted to the junior high section. He was informed of this news by the principal himself. Furthermore, he was reminded repeatedly that these three students were extremely important and were closely related to Lu Yuan, the stronghold overseer.

Although the actual controller of the stronghold was the Li Consortium, the daily running of the stronghold was presided over by Lu Yuan as long as it did not affect the consortium’s interests. It could be said that he had power over the life and death of many people.

Perhaps, the consortium had never thought much of Lu Yuan before. But to the everyday man on the streets, Lu Yuan was still the most admirable existence they needed.

But what puzzled the teacher at the Academic Affairs Office was, didn’t someone named Ren Xiaosu already get transferred into the school? When he saw the school application form in front of him, he felt a little confused.

Ren Xiaosu felt that this matter between him and Yang Xiaojin was still not over!

“Teacher, which class am I going to be in?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

The Academic Affairs teacher smiled and said, “Let’s go, we’re going to Class 12-3. Come, let me introduce you to your new classmates.”

He called over another teacher to take Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to the junior high section while he personally led Ren Xiaosu to the senior high section. It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu remembered something. What was it that those students on the streetcar had said? The new transfer student was in Class 12-2?

How lucky for him to not have been assigned to the same class as Yang Xiaojin. Otherwise, if there were two Ren Xiaosus in a class, the teachers would probably break down, let alone Ren Xiaosu.

When Ren Xiaosu entered the class, the teacher who brought him here said kindly, “There’s an empty seat in the third row from the back. You may sit there for now. In our school, we assign seats to the students based on their results. After the upcoming exams, you may choose where you wish to sit if you do well.”

“OK, thank you, Teacher,” Ren Xiaosu said politely. He had seen Yang Xiaojin on the way here when he passed by Class 12-2 next door, and she was sitting in the very last row all by herself.

The two of them exchanged a fiery look full of belligerence.

That said, Yang Xiaojin seemed like she was truly unafraid that Ren Xiaosu would go and tell on her to the Qing Consortium. No, Ren Xiaosu felt he had better get Yan Liuyuan and the others to leave first. Who knew what kind of tricks Yang Xiaojin might try again?

Ren Xiaosu sat at his desk. On his left was a female student similar in age to him. On his right was the hallway.

“Hello, I’m Cao Yuqi. What’s your name?” The female student greeted Ren Xiaosu.

“I’m Ren Xiaosu.”

Cao Yuqi asked, “Are you a transfer student?”

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. “Uh-huh.”

“Which school did you transfer from?” Cao Yuqi followed up with, “East City?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, “I transferred from 5th High.”

“5th High?” Cao Yuqi was stunned. “But there’s no such school in our stronghold.”

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. ‘There’s a 13th High, so why wouldn’t there be a 5th High?! How does the numbering in this stronghold work?’

Actually, there used to be a 5th High School in the stronghold, but it merged with 6th High School later as they were too close to each other. In recent years, the population in the stronghold had constantly been growing. As such, a residential building was built on the former site of 5th High School after it got demolished.

But how would Ren Xiaosu know that? He was just making things up!

“You…” Cao Yuqi looked at Ren Xiaosu suspiciously. “So which school did you really transfer from?”

“8th High?” Ren Xiaosu said.

Cao Yuqi would know something was wrong even if she were a moron. She was startled for a bit before asking, “Don’t tell me you’re from outside the stronghold?” As Cao Yuqi said that, she inched further away from Ren Xiaosu. The rumors of refugees carrying diseases had been flying all over the place for the past two days!

Chapter 143: Perverse

The entire stronghold was already fervently discussing the matter of the refugees. Some things might not sound too serious when it first started spreading, but it would get scarier and scarier as it passed on from one person to another.

For example, some people who were worried about the refugees entering the stronghold at the beginning would say, “Will the refugees bring in diseases from the outside or something? After all, there’s a saying that all refugees are contaminated.”

When it reached the next person, it would become: “This is bad! The refugees have brought diseases into the stronghold!”

When it spread to the third person: “Several dozen people have already died from the disease the refugees are carrying!”

As it spread: “The refugees want to kill everyone in the stronghold with their disease!”

Cao Yuqi put some distance between herself and Ren Xiaosu. But as fellow classmates and deskmates, how far could she possibly distance herself?

In the face of Cao Yuqi’s questioning, Ren Xiaosu did not answer or lie. He did not say he was a refugee because he always believed there was nothing wrong with being one in the first place. This wasn’t up to him. Besides, it wasn’t something disgraceful either.

Ren Xiaosu might change into a new set of clothes and try to integrate into this society, but he would not deny who he was. If he did, he would have denied all 17 years of his life thus far.

So at this moment, Cao Yuqi was looking at Ren Xiaosu in silence as she knew she had guessed correctly.

‘He’s a refugee!’ Cao Yuqi was at a loss. Her new deskmate had turned out to be a refugee!

Honestly, Cao Yuqi was even hoping to switch seats. But at this moment, a bent old man walked in. The old man placed his lesson plan on the lectern and said slowly, “The final exams will be here soon, so let’s review trigonometric functions today.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. ‘What are functions?’

Tang Zhou had asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted to start with the 12th grade curriculum. At the time, Ren Xiaosu confidently said he had studied well during his time in town. When it came to learning, he said it would absolutely not be a problem for him. But now, Ren Xiaosu realized what Zhang Jinglin had taught him was quite different from what was being taught here in the stronghold.

In reality, Zhang Jinglin could not be faulted for that. Zhang Jinglin himself wasn’t a proper teacher either. Moreover, their class consisted mainly of the younger boys and girls such as Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong, so there wasn’t a need to follow a lesson plan meant for higher grades.

When a student got to Ren Xiaosu’s age in town, they would usually stop schooling and start helping out at home. It was only Ren Xiaosu who had an abnormal thirst for more knowledge.

All these reasons led to Ren Xiaosu unable to understand what was being taught in class at this moment!

The entire lesson felt like he was making his way through a fog. Ren Xiaosu had always been extremely attentive when attending classes. He wanted nothing more than to remember everything that was taught in Zhang Jinglin’s lessons.

But it was different this time. He also wanted to take in all of what had been taught for trigonometric functions, but he just didn’t have the ability to do so. He couldn’t make sense of it at all!

When he had come to school to process his admission, the Academic Affairs Office issued him new textbooks. However, these textbooks were all for 12th grade classes. Even if Ren Xiaosu wanted to catch up on his knowledge, he would have to start with the 10th grade curriculum.

During class intermission, Ren Xiaosu’s deskmate hurriedly left her seat. Several students gathered in the corner of the classroom and started chattering. At times, some of the students in the group would let out a gasp, exclaim, or frown.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t even have to wonder to know they were discussing his status as a refugee, and the harm he might bring to them as one.

People in the stronghold did not treat refugees nicely. This was Ren Xiaosu’s feeling after interacting with them. There were even times when he felt living in town was much freer. Of course, with the current threat of the Experimentals and wolf pack, it might not be safe to live in town.

The refugees living in the town outside Stronghold 109 probably did not know the wilderness was filled with many things that could threaten their lives.

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others could only bear with it for now. This was because they hadn’t found a safe haven yet to replace the protection the stronghold offered them.

After the class intermission, it felt like every one of the students knew Ren Xiaosu was a refugee. Everyone’s attitude towards him became colder.

Some of the students who had wanted to reach out to get to know Ren Xiaosu were now left with a complex mix of emotions.

More importantly, in order to strengthen their own social class, the consortiums had inculcated into everyone the idea that refugees were of a lower class. They would often intentionally or unintentionally spread the idea that refugees were “contaminated” and used this as a reason to refuse entry to them into the strongholds. This also helped them to avoid getting caught in a moral outrage.

“I would like for the refugees to come into the stronghold too, but they’ve been contaminated. If we allow them to come in, that would be irresponsible of us to everyone else.”

The stronghold residents were used to hearing similar statements.

However, Ren Xiaosu wasn’t really bothered by it. Although he would like to get to know more people at school, he wouldn’t force it if others weren’t willing to make friends with him. After all, he and Yan Liuyuan had solely relied upon each other all these years. It didn’t matter to him what others thought about them.

After school ended on the same day, Ren Xiaosu grabbed his backpack and left the class. It wasn’t like he was anxious to get home. He just didn’t want to lose sight of Yang Xiaojin.

On that night in the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu clearly remembered how terrifying it was when he saw Yang Xiaojin taking a sniper rifle out of thin air. If he allowed Yang Xiaojin to get a step ahead of him in locating a commanding point, he would probably end up dead!

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, Yang Xiaojin was very likely looking to silence him.

This was because Ren Xiaosu was very sure that if he told Luo Lan that Yang Xiaojin had been admitted into 13th High School, not only would Yang Xiaojin’s plan fail, something would also happen to the person who helped her with her school enrollment.

Ren Xiaosu believed the Qing Consortium still had some hidden influence within this stronghold. If they knew about Yang Xiaojin’s whereabouts, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan would definitely not miss this chance to exterminate a threat.

When he left the class, he happened to spot Yang Xiaojin coming out of the class next door. A smile appeared on Yang Xiaojin’s face under her cap. She did not make her way out of school but instead went in the opposite direction as she headed to the top floor of the school building.

The rooftop became quiet and secluded after school.

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he was unsure of what Yang Xiaojin was planning.

After school, the students started pouring out of the compound. As it was only 5 PM, many students stayed behind at school to play basketball or soccer.

Ren Xiaosu got a thought when he saw this scene. He wondered how the refugees outside would feel if they knew the people in the stronghold were actively seeking enjoyment in their lives during a time when refugees were struggling to even fill their stomachs.

Therefore, the walls of the strongholds not only stopped the dangers of the wilderness from coming in, but also prevented the refugees from knowing what was going on inside. It didn’t let them realize just how comfortable it really was inside a stronghold.

But Ren Xiaosu thought this seemed a little distorted. It felt like the recent disaster had caused humans to put on an even greater pretense of peace and prosperity.

It was just like how an oppressed and poor person who got rich overnight would likely choose to splurge and squander without limits. This was a kind of psychological perverseness 1 that needed fulfilling.

…

Chapter 144: Each other’s secret

In the crowd of those making their way out of school, the figures of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin going in the opposite direction to the roof stood stark. But since everyone was in a hurry to leave school, no one paid any attention to it.

As Ren Xiaosu followed Yang Xiaojin, he realized she had a great figure, and she was tall as well.

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him when she was turning the corner at the stairs. Ren Xiaosu immediately looked away.

Upon reaching the rooftop, Yang Xiaojin pushed open the rusty metal door and walked outside. Ren Xiaosu followed and suddenly felt as though his horizons were broadened as he stood outside on the rooftop overlooking the stronghold. This was the first time he was able to do so. Although the school building wasn’t that tall, it was high enough to be able to see into the distance.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin threw something at Ren Xiaosu. It was the dagger she had stolen from Ren Xiaosu.

“We’re even now.” Yang Xiaojin sounded very calm. She did not explain why she had taken back the dagger, nor did Ren Xiaosu ask about it.

The two of them stood on the rooftop and were locked in a stalemate.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from behind where Ren Xiaosu was standing. He turned around to look and was stunned to discover two students, a male and a female, holding hands as they came up via the stairway. It looked like they were a couple?

When the couple saw there were others around, they did not seem to mind and continued heading up towards the roof. As a result, Ren Xiaosu shut the door leading to the rooftop.

The couple was dumbfounded when they saw the door get shut in their faces.

When Ren Xiaosu closed the door securely and turned back towards Yang Xiaojin, he discovered she was already pointing a small silver pistol at him.

Ren Xiaosu immediately recognized the type of gun it was—a SIG Sauer P238. This was once the most classic model of SIG Sauer and was known as the “pretty lady” among handguns.

But Ren Xiaosu did not panic. He said, “If we wanted to kill each other, we would’ve already done so. Aren’t we both here because we want to reconcile?”

If Yang Xiaojin had really intended to shoot, she wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of throwing the dagger back to him. Ren Xiaosu was feeling unusually calm at this moment.

Yang Xiaojin put away her gun again and said, “How did you manage to escape from the Qing Consortium’s defense perimeter?”

“I kept running all the way out.” Ren Xiaosu played dumb.

“What happened in the Jing Mountains after we left?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Countless Experimentals came rushing out, and there was even a monstrous creature that appeared from the crater of the volcano.” Ren Xiaosu briefly mentioned, “A lot of shocking incidents occurred. You can’t possibly imagine how terrifying that creature in the crater was.”

“I can imagine that,” Yang Xiaojin corrected him.

Her answer stunned Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin sounded very firm. Could Yang Xiaojin also have seen something the size of that creature before?

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are you worried that I’ll squeal on you to the Qing Consortium?”

“I’m not afraid of that now.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Because you also have a secret you’re afraid the Qing Consortium will find out about.”

“What secret?” Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt as though something was off, and he had missed out on some details!

Yang Xiaojin started smiling. There was even a hint of arrogance to it. “When Luo Xinyu and I went back the way we took to the Jing Mountains, we discovered the wolf pack had been waiting at the mouth of the canyon all along. If it weren’t for Luo Xinyu’s ability to jump through the shadows, we would probably have had to take a detour to get around them. But calculating the time you took to get back, you must’ve already reached the town before Stronghold 113 was destroyed. First, you couldn’t have run that quickly if you were just a normal person with greater strength. Second, if you were really a normal person, you couldn’t have gotten past the wolf pack for sure.”

Ren Xiaosu tensed up. Yang Xiaojin continued, “Therefore, you’re also a supernatural being. It was just that you kept your powers more hidden than Luo Xinyu and me. It was no wonder you dared to join the expedition to head to the Jing Mountains. It was because you had a hidden trump card.”

“I didn’t meet any wolves on my way back.” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I just ran through the canyon. The face bugs can’t move fast either, so I had already run past them by the time they crawled out of their caves.”

Yang Xiaojin looked seriously at Ren Xiaosu and said, “I’m not listening.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. There was nothing he could do about it. After all the explanation, all it took were three words for it to be refuted.

But Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, “I’m not saying all this to threaten you. I just want you to understand that everyone has secrets. So don’t do anything stupid that’ll make both of us suffer.”

“Deal!” Ren Xiaosu said. In fact, that was what he wanted as well. As long as everyone got along peacefully, everything would be fine.

They had gotten along rather well in the Jing Mountains, so there was no need to fight to the death now just because they were out of the mountains.

Moreover, if Yang Xiaojin and those working with her really wanted to make a move, he would be more handicapped since Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others were all normal people.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu knew he could not drop his guard just because of this temporary ceasefire. After all, Yang Xiaojin was someone who could even steal back a dagger she had given away, so what else could she be capable of?

After the talk, Yang Xiaojin got ready to go downstairs. As she went past Ren Xiaosu, she noticed his grip on the dagger tightened.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why is the Pyro Company offering to buy the blood of supernatural beings? And why did you all make an attempt on Qing Zhen’s life?”

“The danger in Stronghold 109 is greater than you think.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Do not recklessly provoke the Pyro Company, nor sell your blood to them. That’s all I can say about it. As for the matter between us and Qing Zhen, you’re still not fit to involve yourself yet.”

“What other danger is there?” Ren Xiaosu was startled. Could there still be other forces at play other than the Pyro Company?

“Don’t be so nosy.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Besides, I doubt you have much free time to care about other matters. You might have underestimated how much the stronghold residents ostracize the refugees.”

Ren Xiaosu started pondering. It seemed like the refugees coming into the stronghold was still not over yet?

He looked down at the school entrance. A girl wrapped in a scarf and wearing a pair of sunglasses stood there. When the girl noticed him looking in her direction, she waved at him in greeting.

Just by this familiar greeting, Ren Xiaosu knew it was Luo Xinyu…

Ren Xiaosu decided to clear the last of his doubts. Or to be accurate, this was something he wanted to know deep down. “Why have supernatural beings started appearing?”

Yang Xiaojin stood at the entrance of the rooftop and turned around to look at Ren Xiaosu. She pointed a finger at her head and said, “Humans have always been weakening their physical attributes during evolution. You’ve said this before when we were in the Jing Mountains, and so has that Mr. Zhang from Stronghold 178. That’s the price to pay for wisdom.”

“I know that.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. At that time, Yang Xiaojin had also hinted that Zhang Jinglin was not a simple man. So she had already guessed his identity back then, but she wasn’t sure about it yet.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that this conversation was extremely important. The girl seemed to be using what he already knew to help him uncover the truth of this world. Ren Xiaosu started to get serious.

“Therefore, if a price has been paid, it naturally means there’s been a harvest,” Yang Xiaojin explained.

Ren Xiaosu was a little taken aback. “What do you mean?”

Yang Xiaojin laughed. She pushed her cap down further and said, “When a disaster comes, mental strength becomes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.”

Chapter 145: Bicycle

In the evening, when Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong back to the shop, he realized that something was off. Why were there so many people at the shop?

After they took over the running of the shop, they had informed a lot of those who came to see the doctor that the shop would not be doing any more consultations in the future. As such, the popularity of the shop died down very quickly. For the past few days, he and Old Wang still hadn’t decided about what to do with the shop.

As Ren Xiaosu walked in, he noticed people crowding around Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui was explaining something to them.

“Boss, you’re finally back!” Wang Fugui’s eyes gleamed when he saw Ren Xiaosu.

“Um, why are there so many people here?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Wang Fugui pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, “Didn’t we sell off one dosage of the black medicine the day before yesterday? As a result, people have already started finding their way here.”

“That can happen?” Ren Xiaosu was a little confused.

“Men always openly share such things over a meal.” Wang Fugui smiled and said, “All you young men have such high libidos, you don’t understand the pain of the middle-aged and older men. They’re all in the same boat! Besides, our black medicine does not have any side effects after taking it. That makes it so much better than the other medicines out there.”

“But we still can’t sell too much of it.” Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea and said, “Tell them that only one dosage will be sold per week. We can’t sell any more than that.”

Seeing that a great business opportunity couldn’t be completed, Wang Fugui was upset. If Ren Xiaosu could give him more of the black medicine, he would guarantee their shop would become the largest healthcare product store in the stronghold.

What sort of a concept was it to monopolize the healthcare products industry in a stronghold?

But since Ren Xiaosu said no, there was nothing that he could do about it. Wang Fugui explained to the customers that if they wanted to buy the black medicine, they would have to wait until next week.

Suddenly, a customer said, “I’ll pay 800 yuan to reserve next week’s medicine. Keep it for me until you have it ready!”

Wang Fugui’s eyes lit up. They could even do that?

Even as a shrewd businessman, Wang Fugui did not realize there would be such a strong demand for the black medicine from these middle-aged men in the stronghold!

When the others heard someone offer 200 additional yuan to make a reservation, their interest immediately subsided. Although they wanted to buy it, they didn’t want to be a sucker just to get it. So after the person who made the reservation paid the deposit, the others quickly dispersed.

Then from nearby Yan Liuyuan said, “We can’t use that kind of simple porcelain vial anymore. We’ve got to hold the black medicine in the best container so that it’ll create hype! The more mysterious-looking this black medicine is, the better!”

“Liuyuan is so smart!” Wang Fugui said excitedly, “We probably won’t need to sell anything else in the future. One dosage of the black medicine per person will be enough to make us rich!” Wang Fugui seemed to have sensed a great business opportunity.

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Do as you deem fit. I don’t know anything about doing business anyway. By the way, where’s Chen Wudi?”

“He headed out as soon as y’all went to school.” Wang Fugui said, “I don’t know where he went, but I couldn’t locate him. Don’t worry, though, he’ll definitely be back when it’s mealtime. He’s extremely punctual….”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “He only remembers when it’s time to eat?”

Wang Fugui hesitated for a moment before saying, “It’s not that. He doesn’t come back because he wants to eat.”

Ren Xiaosu was confused. “Didn’t you just say that he’ll definitely be back when it’s time to eat? If it isn’t to eat, why else would he be coming back?”

A next moment later, Chen Wudi walked in from the outside with his arms full. Wang Fugui looked at the figure of Chen Wudi in a daze and said, “To bring us food…”

He heard Chen Wudi shout at the top of his voice, “Master, I’m back from alms begging.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Ren Xiaosu saw a big bundle of food in his arms that included buns, Chinese burritos, and even a small bag of pickles. There was quite a large variety of food.

But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was just how deeply immersed Chen Wudi was into his character.

When Chen Wudi shoved all the food into Ren Xiaosu’s arms, Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. “Where did you get so much food from?”

Ren Xiaosu had been worried that Chen Wudi would consume too much of their food. But taking a glance, he realized just how self-sufficient Chen Wudi was!

“I got it when I went begging for alms.” Chen Wudi chuckled.

“People just give food to you when you ask for it? Are they that generous?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“They didn’t give it to me for nothing. I said that I would help them subdue evil,” Chen Wudi said.

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. “Did you display your powers?”

“No. Master, didn’t you instruct me not to do so?” Chen Wudi explained.

Finally, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was really worried Chen Wudi would get targeted by the other organizations. “Then how did you manage to get the food from them?”

Chen Wudi thought for a while. “I took it by force.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Wait a minute! It seemed like this idea of begging for alms was also taught to Chen Wudi by him. At that time, Ren Xiaosu got Chen Wudi to seek out those refugees to beg alms from while they were escaping here.

So Chen Wudi’s definition of begging for alms was what Ren Xiaosu had taught to him back then?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried the police officers from the stronghold’s Public Order Division would rush in and take Chen Wudi away. As he wasn’t entirely sure of how Chen Wudi had begged for alms, he didn’t know whether his attempts would constitute robbery or not.

“Um…” Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, “You better not go out for the time being.”

“Why?” Chen Wudi asked.

“First, we are not running out of food yet.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Second, it’s better that you keep a low profile for now.”

“Master, I can’t. It’s too boring at home. Pigsy and the others all have things to keep them busy with, but only I have nothing to do,” Chen Wudi said aggrievedly.

Ren Xiaosu was caught in a dilemma. “Then if you go out, you mustn’t go around to beg for alms anymore, do you understand?”

“OK,” Chen Wudi promised. He could ignore other people’s words but not that of his master’s.

After Yang Xiaojin’s reminder, Ren Xiaosu became even more worried the other organizations would target Chen Wudi, especially by that mysterious Pyro Company.

It wouldn’t be too bad if it were just the other organizations, but the Pyro Company seemed to be specifically targeting supernatural beings.

But fortunately, this place was not the Pyro Company’s territory.

At this moment, Xiaoyu walked in from outside. She waved at Ren Xiaosu to come over, saying, “Xiaosu, come look at the present that Big Sis bought for you.”

When Ren Xiaosu saw it, he was stunned. No one knew where Xiaoyu had bought the bicycle from. But since she didn’t know how to ride it, she had to push it back here with all her effort.

“Big Sister Xiaoyu, why did you buy this thing? It can’t be cheap, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“It’s fine, Big Sis still has some savings of her own. With this, it’ll be easier for you to get to school in the future,” Xiaoyu said happily. It was as though she had received a gift herself.

The moment she pushed the bicycle out into the backyard, Yan Liuyuan went up to her. “How do you ride this thing? Wouldn’t it be difficult to balance on with only two wheels?”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Does anyone know how to ride this?”

As the group of people gathered around the bicycle, Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu both shook their heads.

Ren Xiaosu tried riding on it several times but found that he could not grasp the concept. He thought that maybe he should ask Jiang Wu or Yang Xiaojin for some advice tomorrow.

Chapter 146: Helping out a classmate

The next day, Ren Xiaosu discovered that the atmosphere in the classroom was a little strange the moment he walked in. The students who were in intense conversations fell silent.

Ren Xiaosu walked over to his own seat, seemingly unaffected, and buried his head in a book. He was thinking that if he couldn’t keep up with the lessons in class, he would have to start learning from scratch. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu got Wang Fugui to purchase some 10th and 11th grade textbooks for him yesterday so that he could start self-studying today.

While he was studying by himself, Ren Xiaosu had a hunch that his fellow classmates seemed to know that something was about to happen. However, all of them tacitly chose to keep it from him.

And whatever that was going to happen was definitely not going to be in Ren Xiaosu’s favor.

There were four periods scheduled in the afternoon, one for Chinese, one for geography, one for mathematics, and one for physics. The Chinese class was still manageable, but Ren Xiaosu still couldn’t understand anything that was taught in math and physics.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu felt the geography class was a little odd. He was startled to discover that what was being taught in the lessons were totally different from what he knew. Moreover, the entire subject seemed to be very loosely strung together.

There wasn’t even a complete map to be found in the geography textbook, and the topics only touched on matters found in the vicinity of Stronghold 109, as well as some knowledge of economic geography 1.

Ren Xiaosu guessed that some of the global information in this stronghold might have been lost. Just like how the Li Consortium would never share their topographical maps with the Qing Consortium, the other consortiums would maintain secrets from each other.

Ren Xiaosu was different from most students. A normal student would only seek to learn whatever knowledge was presented in the textbooks. But when Ren Xiaosu read them, he would consider the geopolitics affecting the different consortiums.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu had a realization. He knew he could no longer look at problems from the point of view of a normal student.

Ren Xiaosu inadvertently turned his head at this moment and saw Cao Yuqi looking pale. It was as though she were enduring some sort of pain while holding her belly with her left hand.

At this moment, the long-awaited palace finally spoke again. “Quest: Help out a classmate.”

Ren Xiaosu was starting to find the voice from the palace to be very endearing. After all, the palace always gave him a great gift whenever it spoke.

Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before asking Cao Yuqi, “Do you have a stomachache?”

Cao Yuqi gave him a look but did not say anything, as though it were taboo to speak with him.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was paying full attention to any possible reactions from the palace in his mind. As long as the quest wasn’t completed yet, he wouldn’t give up asking.

“My fellow classmate, is it because you don’t have toilet paper? I have some over here,” Ren Xiaosu said. He was thinking that Cao Yuqi had an upset stomach.

Cao Yuqi could not help but roll her eyes at him. “It’s not an upset stomach.”

“Oh.” This was beyond Ren Xiaosu’s understanding. “Then what’s the matter? Are you sick? Why don’t I send you to the hospital?”

“Stop asking.” Cao Yuqi said impatiently, “What I have is incurable.”

Incurable? Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ‘Is it that serious?’

Honestly, Cao Yuqi was starting to regret being so hostile towards Ren Xiaosu. He was showing so much concern to her, yet she replied so harshly to him. As the saying goes, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. They were ostracizing Ren Xiaosu due to his refugee status mainly because some of these ideas had been instilled in them by their parents or simply out of fear.

However, just as Cao Yuqi was thinking of softening her tone, she suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu getting up to walk to the lectern.

It gradually quieted down in the classroom as everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. They were all waiting to see what he was up to.

Ren Xiaosu went up to the lectern and said to his classmates with a face full of grief, “Everyone, our classmate Cao Yuqi has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I hope that since all of us are classmates, we can offer her our support by donating some money.”

Cao Yuqi was confused.

The students in the classroom were confused.

All of the students’ eyes landed on Cao Yuqi as she nearly broke down on the spot.

‘What terminal illness are you talking about!? It’s just my Aunt Flo visiting! Don’t you have any common sense?!’

Of course, she wasn’t exactly sure if Ren Xiaosu really did not know, or if he was doing this on purpose.

At this moment, the voice in Ren Xiaosu’s mind palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. It was completed just like that? And the reward was even a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll?!

He really made a killing this time!

He could copy skills from so many people in this stronghold. For instance, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu, both of them were supernatural beings with superpowers! No matter whose power he learned, it would be well worth it!

But Ren Xiaosu did not really want to use this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll on Yang Xiaojin. On one hand, he was much more interested in Luo Xinyu’s power to travel through shadows. With it, he could easily take Yan Liuyuan and the others freely through the high walls of the stronghold.

In that way, he would have the freedom of going in or out of the stronghold. This would be equivalent to him gaining the initiative to do whatever he wanted!

Moreover, it would be really powerful to have a power that allowed him to cover distances in just one step when fighting battles. This would make enemies unprepared and defenseless.

Also, Ren Xiaosu did not want to use this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll on Yang Xiaojin because he knew she had many skills above master level, of which many were even nonsensical skills!

If he randomly copied another skill like Nursery Rhymes Singing, Ren Xiaosu would have nowhere to cry.

He had discovered the previous time when learning Xu Xianchu’s power that if the other party did not have a master-level and above skill on them, the Skill Duplication Scroll would automatically choose to learn their superpowers instead. Therefore, from a risk-reward point of view, it was a better choice to learn from Luo Xinyu.

During the next class intermission, the incident that happened in Ren Xiaosu’s class spread to the class next door.

Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin standing in the hallway when he went out for a breather. She was wearing a cap and leaning against the railings in the hallway while looking at Ren Xiaosu.

Cool and composed initially, Yang Xiaojin started trembling uncontrollably.

“Go ahead and laugh if you want,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

“Hahaha,” Yang Xiaojin laughed as she returned to her classroom. Ren Xiaosu was left alone as he gazed out at the school’s athletic grounds. This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had witnessed Yang Xiaojin laughing so happily.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that instead of trying to get along with those “classmates,” he had been better off working together and guarding against Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness.

When the bell rang, Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked back into class. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps and chattering came from outside the class. It sounded like a group of people were heading to their classroom.

Cao Yuqi revealed a joyful look as she seemed to know what was about to happen.

The homeroom teacher of their class appeared at the classroom door. He waved to Ren Xiaosu, who was inside the classroom, and said, “Ren Xiaosu, come outside for a while.”

Chapter 147: Switching classes

Ren Xiaosu walked out of the classroom and was surprised to see a large group of middle-aged people standing behind the homeroom teacher.

The homeroom teacher deliberated for a moment before saying, “These are some of the parents of your classmates. It’s like this: Everyone has mentioned how you might have brought in germs from outside the stronghold, so it’s everyone’s wish that you consider transferring to another school.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Transfer? Transfer to where?” With this matter exposed, there probably wouldn’t be another school willing to accept him, right?

A male student’s parent said, “If no schools are willing to accept you, you should stop going to school. It won’t be very nice if everyone’s safety gets affected all because of one person.”

Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. All of this was probably within Yang Xiaojin’s expectations, so it was no wonder she said the stronghold held a subconscious ostracism of the refugees and that it would be even harsher than he could imagine.

Only when he saw these parents appearing here that he realized why his classmates had all kept quiet when they saw him. They had probably gone home last night and told their parents about this, resulting in the parents immediately deciding to come down to school together so they could force him to drop out of school.

To these parents, Ren Xiaosu was nothing but a refugee. With so many of them stepping forward regarding this matter, the school would have no choice but to accede to their demands.

Nowadays, as long as you dared to make a scene, there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be solved.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the parents and said, “And if I don’t want to transfer schools?”

Honestly, these parents would’ve been dead if this were the wilderness. The rules of the wilderness were much simpler than in here. It was much more direct!

However, the parents did not care about Ren Xiaosu. They looked at the homeroom teacher and said loudly, “If you people don’t make him transfer schools, how are you going to answer for it when an epidemic spreads? Furthermore, all of the resulting medical expenses will have to be borne by you. If you don’t compensate, we’ll sue you in court!”

Ren Xiaosu was contemplating this. He had once encountered the term “court” while studying in the town’s school and knew it was a place that presided over justice and fairness. However, there was never a place like that in town.

He never could have expected that the first time a term like “court” would get associated with him would be over a lousy matter like this.

The students had quietly walked out of the classroom as well. They were watching the conversation happening over here because they were also hoping to find out how this matter would get resolved.

The 12th grade homeroom teacher was in a pickle. The teacher of the Academic Affairs Office yesterday had told him before that Ren Xiaosu was related to Lu Yuan. Who could have thought that the student enrolled by Lu Yuan would turn out to be a refugee?

The homeroom teacher thought that maybe he should pass the buck. He said softly to the parents, “This student’s admission was arranged for by Lu Yuan. Why don’t you all go and speak to him instead?”

The parents looked at one another. They did not know about this prior to being told. If they had known that Ren Xiaosu was enrolled in school by Lu Yuan, they probably wouldn’t have taken on such a threatening tone.

But before they thought of how to handle it, a person suddenly squeezed through the crowd of people. When Ren Xiaosu turned around to see who it was, he discovered it was Jiang Wu.

Jiang Wu looked at the parents and said, “What are you trying to do?”

“We’re not trying anything.” A parent said, “We can’t possibly have our children attend school with a refugee, can we?”

“Why not?” Jiang Wu got so angry her face flushed red. “Aren’t all of us people? Who says a refugee will definitely spread diseases? Did any of your children get sick after returning home last night?”

The parents seemed to back off a little at the mention of this. “They didn’t, but I’ve heard people in the stronghold fell sick.”

“You heard?” Jiang Wu raised her voice a little. “Just because you heard about something gives you the right to destroy the future of a student?”

“What future does a refugee have?” The parents were also beginning to get angry. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m a teacher of this school!” Jiang Wu said.

Ren Xiaosu’s homeroom teacher had already stopped speaking. He was so happy someone had stepped in for him.

A parent said, “Since you’re a teacher, why are you arguing with us over a refugee?”

“I don’t know about any refugees or stronghold residents.” Jiang Wu stood her ground and said, “All I know is that he is a student!”

As Ren Xiaosu watched, he suddenly felt that Jiang Wu was stubbornly cute and even a little silly.

But if it weren’t for this persistence and steadfastness, Ren Xiaosu would not have helped her when they were still wandering in the wilderness. If it weren’t for Ren Xiaosu’s help, Jiang Wu and her students would probably have died out there.

Ren Xiaosu felt a little touched, because he had finally seen something positive in someone in this troubled world.

Before that, there was also Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu.

Chen Wudi would probably count as half, while there was no need to mention Yan Liuyuan. What Yan Liuyuan and he had was as good as a sibling relationship.

A parent suddenly said, “Since you’re protective of him, why don’t you let him go to your class?”

Jiang Wu said without any hesitation, “That was what I came over for. I’ll go and apply for Ren Xiaosu to transfer to our class right away.”

A voice sounded from the crowd. “I’m also going with you to apply to transfer to your class.”

Ren Xiaosu turned to look and was astounded to discover it was Yang Xiaojin who had spoken.

When one of the parents heard Jiang Wu say that, they sneered. “As a teacher, you’re really irresponsible about what you say. You might be willing to let him into your class, but will your students’ parents allow it?”

Jiang Wu hesitated for a moment before saying in a soft voice, “My students no longer have parents. All I need to do is seek their consent.”

This point hit Jiang Wu’s soft spot. The happiness her students experienced after escaping from death had slowly turned into longing for their families. This was a pain that could never be separated from any disasters. All they could do was to hide it within themselves until the pain slowly lessened.

Suddenly, a hubbub occurred beyond the crowd. Twenty-something students walked next to Jiang Wu. “Teacher, you don’t need our consent to let Ren Xiaosu join our class. We’ll support you and support Ren Xiaosu as well.”

The other students from the other class muttered, “Why are you guys siding with a refugee so much?”

One of Jiang Wu’s students said in a serious tone, “Side with him? We’re not siding with or helping him. And he doesn’t need our help either. You people are utterly clueless about the outside world. I find it to be really sad.”

In the eyes of Jiang Wu’s students, they were merely standing up for Ren Xiaosu out of gratitude. If not for him, they would not even be here sitting in class and attending school.

The number of people who made the getaway was in the thousands. But how many of them made it to Stronghold 109?

What they remembered most about the escape was what Jiang Wu had said to them, “As long as we follow that young man, we’ll definitely get there.”

In the end, they did manage to survive.

All of the students’ parents standing in the corridor were stunned. This had turned out far too different from what they had imagined.

Chapter 148: Unrest in the stronghold

Be it Ren Xiaosu’s own classmates or these parents of the students, none of them could have expected anyone to stand up for Ren Xiaosu.

Honestly, if their roles had been reversed and they were placed in Ren Xiaosu’s position, they believed no one would bother to speak up for them.

Yang Xiaojin folded her arms and stood in the hallway as she watched the situation with interest. She might have guessed this would happen, but little could she have expected such a conclusion.

The parents were a little embarrassed. Right now, they did not know what they should do. Meanwhile, the students were all looking at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. All of them were wondering what kind of backing this teenager had.

Jiang Wu looked at Ren Xiaosu’s actual homeroom teacher and said, “We’ll have Ren Xiaosu transfer to our class, so why don’t you handle the paperwork with the school?”

This was most welcome to the homeroom teacher. He said with a smile, “Sure, I’ll get to it in a bit.”

But before he could heave a sigh of relief, he heard Jiang Wu say coldly, “A teacher who can’t even protect his own students. I feel ashamed for you. You didn’t even put in a good word for him.”

The homeroom teacher choked until he turned purple, yet he couldn’t come up with a retort to what Jiang Wu said.

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the classroom to retrieve his belongings and got ready to change classes, he went over to Cao Yuqi. Cao Yuqi suddenly had an ominous feeling.

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said earnestly, “Get well soon.”

“Pfft.” Yang Xiaojin felt like she had never had such a good laugh in years as she did today. It was as though all of the funny moments over the years were concentrated on Ren Xiaosu. However, she did not hang around long and went to pack her belongings as well.

On the way to the new class, Jiang Wu said to Ren Xiaosu, “If you have any difficulties in your classes, you can let me know. I can give you remedial lessons on any subjects you don’t understand.”

Ren Xiaosu considered it for a moment before saying, “There’s indeed something that I would like to seek advice from Ms. Jiang.”

“Which subject?” Jiang Wu asked.

Ren Xiaosu froze. “Cycling?”

Jiang Wu stopped in her tracks and looked quietly at him. She had thought Ren Xiaosu might ask her for help on things like math or other subjects, but never could she have expected that he would want to learn how to ride a bicycle. He was truly a young man who always surprised others.

Yang Xiaojin walked beside Ren Xiaosu and asked, “You bought a bicycle?”

Ren Xiaosu gave her a look. “What are you playing at? Shouldn’t we be trying our best not to be in the same class, Ren Xiaosu?”

Yang Xiaojin smiled gleefully and said, “I don’t mind.”

“Who cares if you mind or not!” Ren Xiaosu wanted to curse at her.

Due to switching classes, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ended up becoming deskmates. Even Ren Xiaosu had to accept this was probably fate at work.

After afternoon classes, Jiang Wu went with Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong to take the streetcar back to the grocery store. While on the way to meet them, Yan Liuyuan seemed to have heard about what happened in school as well, so he thanked Jiang Wu the moment he saw her.

This was in gratitude to Jiang Wu for helping his brother out of a tight spot.

Frankly, Yan Liuyuan was really starting to dislike the people in the stronghold more and more, with the exception of Jiang Wu and her students. Oh, and of course, not including Yang Xiaojin either.

Back at the shop, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t wait as he made Jiang Wu teach everyone how to ride a bicycle. Ren Xiaosu asked everyone to learn how to cycle since it was an extremely useful skill.

Ren Xiaosu thought that if they had to travel between the strongholds, a motor vehicle would definitely be their first choice of transport.

But the problem was that there was no way for them to get their hands on one. Besides, motor vehicles required gas to operate and had other limitations as well, while they also had no idea who they could learn driving from.

So the next best available option would be a bicycle as their first-choice mode of transport. It wasn’t difficult to repair, could be used for a long time, and was also easy to learn!

More importantly, it was something they could afford to buy right now!

The bicycles cost around 3,000 yuan in the stronghold and were considered to be in the range of luxury goods. Therefore, it could be seen just how determined Xiaoyu was when she decided to gift one to Ren Xiaosu. Most people could not bear to spend so much money like that, and Xiaoyu was even the type who would often haggle for up to half an hour just to get a 20 cent discount on her grocery shopping trips.

The group of them watched as Jiang Wu effortlessly rode the bicycle through the street in front of the shop. Chen Wudi even squatted down in front of the shop, looking extremely determined to learn how to cycle.

Jiang Wu explained to them the basics of riding a bicycle. She said, “To ride a bicycle, you first have to master your balance. On top of that, your eyes must not be focused on what’s in front of the bicycle, but what’s ahead of you. Overcome your fear…”

While Ms. Jiang Wu was demonstrating, she exhibited the unique charm of a mature woman.

When Jiang Wu finished the demonstration, everyone went over one by one to get some hands-on practice. What surprised Ren Xiaosu was that Yan Liuyuan managed to learn it on the spot. This kid was able to ride the bicycle steadily after just seeing it get demonstrated once.

And what surprised Ren Xiaosu even more was that he himself was unable to master it.

To be precise, it wasn’t that he couldn’t master it. In reality, learning how to ride a bicycle was just a matter of time.

The truth was, most people would take several days or even longer to learn how to ride a bicycle. So Ren Xiaosu’s progress was considered normal.

But what Ren Xiaosu could not accept was that even Chen Wudi the fool had successfully mastered cycling.

This made Ren Xiaosu look somewhat bad, but he was absolutely not going to admit it was his problem.

Ren Xiaosu mused over it for a while before turning to Xiaoyu. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, is there something wrong with the bicycle you bought?”

Big Sister Xiaoyu covered her mouth and giggled. She wasn’t angry at him. If both Liuyuan and Chen Wudi could ride the bicycle, what could be wrong with it? However, she seemed to have realized Ren Xiaosu had a habit of passing the buck 1 .

Of course, she didn’t know the previous person Ren Xiaosu had pushed the blame onto was now carrying an invisible cauldron on his back and trekking through the wilderness.

Jiang Wu smiled and said, “Actually, it takes several days to learn how to ride a bicycle. You’ll master it in a few days.”

As Jiang Wu’s voice trailed off, a loud explosion boomed in the distance. It sounded like a bomb had gone off in the stronghold. Could it have been Yang Xiaojin’s doing?

Ren Xiaosu subconsciously thought the bomb Yang Xiaojin had built might have been detonated. But upon analyzing the sound in greater detail, he realized it wasn’t so!

He ordered Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, “Arm yourselves with the pistols and close the shop’s doors. Don’t open them before I get back. Ms. Jiang, please stay and hide here for the time being in case anything happens.” Ren Xiaosu then proceeded to leave the shop. As a supernatural being, he couldn’t stand on the sidelines. He had to go and see for himself to understand the situation firsthand. Only then could he make the right decisions. Only by doing so could he ensure that everyone could carry on surviving.

The location of the explosion should be several kilometers where they were. But with Ren Xiaosu’s current speed, he should be able to get there in a matter of minutes.

While Ren Xiaosu was making his way there, he noticed a building that was about a dozen stories tall. This was one of the tallest structures in the stronghold, and it looked like it would make a good spot for him to observe the battle that had broken out.

Chapter 149: A brewing storm

Explosions kept reverberating throughout the stronghold from time to time. However, it did not sound as intense as the first one. While hurrying there, Ren Xiaosu saw several stronghold residents coming out of their homes. Everyone started gathering and were apparently discussing what had just happened.

Someone suggested that one of the factories might have caught fire, and the explosions were caused by the flammable substances within.

But Ren Xiaosu did not think it was as simple as that, especially not during a tense period like this. As a matter of fact, Stronghold 109 was currently a gathering place for a large number of dangerous people.

When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the foot of the high-rise building, he saw the logo of the Li Consortium’s bank slapped on it. But he wasn’t worried about that right now. He headed straight for the top by climbing up the façade of the building.

But when he got to the edge of the rooftop and was about to clamber over, the dark muzzle of a gun pressed against his forehead. Ren Xiaosu froze. He never expected someone else would be up here! He looked up and saw the familiar figure of someone wearing a cap.

Yang Xiaojin also looked surprised to see Ren Xiaosu up here. It had to be said she felt the two of them really seemed to have some sort of a strange unspoken understanding. The things they did and choice in locating a commanding position coincided with each other.

However, Yang Xiaojin had the absolute high ground at this moment. She smiled and said, “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Didn’t both of us get attracted by the sound of the explosion?” Ren Xiaosu said calmly. He could be sure now that the explosion wasn’t set off by Yang Xiaojin. After all, it was still quite a distance from here to where the explosion had occurred.

Ren Xiaosu tried to dodge away from the barrel of Yang Xiaojin’s gun. But he was sure that based on her marksmanship, he would absolutely have no chance of avoiding it.

Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, “Let me ask you again: Is the dagger yours or mine?”

Ren Xiaosu answered in seriousness, “It’s mine.”

Yang Xiaojin was speechless.

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu hadn’t expected Yang Xiaojin to still be thinking about the dagger at this time. Likewise, Yang Xiaojin never thought Ren Xiaosu would still claim ownership over the dagger in such circumstances!

“Come on up then.” Yang Xiaojin holstered her gun away with a cold expression. She did not know how to deal with Ren Xiaosu anymore. She had only pointed her gun at him to scare him, but she wouldn’t have pulled the trigger for real.

Ren Xiaosu climbed onto the rooftop and patted the dust off himself. “What happened? Why was there such a loud noise?”

“The Pyro Company is playing with fire.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “An awakened supernatural being approached them to sell his blood. He thought the Pyro Company was really some kind of a charity organization, but they made a move on him on the spot. They tried to capture him but didn’t succeed.”

“So the Pyro Company is really using the 1,000,000 yuan reward as bait?” Ren Xiaosu was really glad he had not gone to sell his blood and had even stopped Chen Wudi from doing so. He sighed and said, “But how did the Pyro Company fail in their attempt to capture that person?”

For a company as powerful as them, would they really have attempted to catch a supernatural being without extreme preparation?

“Well, they succeeded at first. They injected a large dose of anesthetics into the supernatural being, but they never thought he would have a companion with him.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “Those two supernatural beings must’ve known each other beforehand and made a plan to rescue the other person in case one of them got into trouble with the Pyro Company. You can call it a simple alliance of sorts.”

This time, Ren Xiaosu understood. So even the supernatural being who went to sell his blood was prepared. He chuckled and said, “Then the Pyro Company has fucked up. Isn’t this a good opportunity to pull a heist on them?”

“Don’t look down on the Pyro Company.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “The fighting force known as ‘Dawn’ that operates under the company is extremely strong even if only five of their men show up in the stronghold. Those two supernatural beings have survived until now only because Fatty Luo from the Qing Consortium is also messing around out there.”

“Luo Lan?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “What does he have against the Pyro Company?”

“Qing Zhen set up an ambush and captured over a 100 members of the Pyro Company last year.” Yang Xiaojin said, “The Pyro Company and the Qing Consortium are actually adversaries, the type that will take it to the bitter end with each other.”

This puzzled Ren Xiaosu a little. “What has Qing Zhen got against them?”

“The Pyro Company used this method to bait one of Qing Zhen’s soldiers who had been on leave. The operation was successful, and it was so covert that Qing Zhen only discovered it after the Pyro Company had withdrawn their presence,” Yang Xiaojin explained. “However, Qing Zhen managed to rescue that soldier during the ambush he conducted.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. What kind of a timeline was that? It was way too messy. Were the struggles between the corporations really that intense?

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t help but ask, “Then why did y’all target Qing Zhen? You’re obviously against the Pyro Company, so wouldn’t that make the enemy of your enemy your friend?”

Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. “Enemies are enemies. We don’t form alliances.”

It was at this moment Ren Xiaosu realized that Yang Xiaojin’s organization had very clear goals or principles. Whoever encroached on their interests would probably get added to their hit list.

“You’re getting curious, aren’t ya?” A big sniper rifle appeared in Yang Xiaojin’s hands. Her cheek stuck to the side of the menacing rifle in her hands as she looked into the distance through a telescopic scope nearly as thick as her arms. “The Pyro Company and Qing Zhen are both trying to control something they’re absolutely incapable of controlling. Whether they succeed or fail, it’ll still be disastrous.”

Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So the mission statement of Yang Xiaojin’s organization was to spread love and peace.

What nonsense! Ren Xiaosu absolutely did not believe anyone would be that selfless in this world!

At this very moment, Ren Xiaosu saw countless combat troops from the Li Consortium arrive at the battle site. They quickly closed off all the intersections and set up barricades and pillboxes around the area. Then, heavily armed platoons infiltrated into the middle of the battlefield in an unusually cautious manner.

Meanwhile, the location Yang Xiaojin had chosen happened to fall just outside of the lockdown perimeter. Ren Xiaosu knew he had been lucky in choosing this place to watch the battle from, but Yang Xiaojin probably did not depend on her luck for this. Instead, she must have known about the standard operating procedures of the Li Consortium’s troops before deciding on this spot.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “The Li Consortium seems to have arrived a little late. Isn’t this supposed to be their home field?”

“They have something more important to protect right now.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “Anything that does not constitute a threat isn’t going to bother them. Quiet now!”

Yang Xiaojin’s breathing then became shallow.

Ren Xiaosu looked where her rifle was pointing and was surprised to see that a manhole cover outside the Li Consortium’s perimeter had been pushed open from underneath. The first person who climbed out of it happened to be Luo Lan!

He saw Fatty Luo panting as he climbed out of the sewers, followed by Tang Zhou and the rest of their men. Tang Zhou was even carrying an unconscious person on his shoulder. They were running towards a vehicle that was parked nearby, and it looked like they were planning to use it to escape.

Chapter 150: Lunatic

Looking at the situation, this escape route should have been planned by Luo Lan and his men. The only thing that puzzled Ren Xiaosu was why such an important figure of the Qing Consortium like Luo Lan would be so familiar with the sewer system of the Li Consortium’s stronghold.

Could it be that the Qing Consortium had planted many spies inside this stronghold? Or could it be that the Qing Consortium had ideas about the Li Consortium since a long time ago?

Yang Xiaojin took out a spotting scope from her pocket and passed it to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu was startled. “Do you think I’m your spotter? Keep dreaming.”

“Distance.”

“…651 meters.”

“Wind speed.”

“Half value, 0.4 meters per second.”

For a sniper, there were three types of wind 1: Full value, half value, and no value.

A full value wind meant it would affect the bullet’s trajectory. Such winds would come from 2, 3, 4, and 8, 9, 10 o’clock. But for wind coming from 1, 5, 7, and 11 o’clock, the wind’s effect on the bullet would be halved, thus being referred to as half-value wind. No-value wind was just as its name suggested. It did not have any effect on the bullet’s trajectory. Such winds would blow from 6 and 12 o’clock.

As Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he watched Yang Xiaojin make a rapid calculation of the compensation required for the shot. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Do you intend to kill Luo Lan?”

With a loud bang, Yang Xiaojin answered Ren Xiaosu’s question. The unexpected sound of the gunfire cracked through the night sky and nearly made Ren Xiaosu jump.

He looked at where Luo Lan was and discovered that Yang Xiaojin had not hit him. Instead, the shot hit the curbside off-road vehicle Luo Lan and his men had prepared.

Did she miss?

A moment later, the vehicle exploded. Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin had not missed. She was aiming for the off-road vehicle’s gas tank all along and had even used an incendiary bullet to do so.

Only this special type bullet was capable of igniting a gas tank, and no sniper would be so bored as to use incendiary bullets to snipe individual soldiers.

Luo Lan, who had yet to reach the vehicle, was furious. Who the fuck did that? He was so close to getting in the vehicle and making their escape, but it ended up getting blown up by someone instead! Who could be lunatic enough to do something like that?! Without a vehicle, how were they going to get away?! But he did not hesitate. Knowing that the noise here would quickly attract the Li Consortium’s people, he decisively led Tang Zhou and the others back into the sewers.

Yang Xiaojin stowed her rifle swiftly as Ren Xiaosu watched helplessly. He said, “You came out at this hour of the night just to destroy Luo Lan’s vehicle and make things difficult for them?”

Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. “That was so fun.”

‘Fun?! What was so fun about that, you crazy woman!’ Ren Xiaosu watched as the Li Consortium’s troops started heading over here from afar to encircle the area. It was at this time that Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, “Good luck.”

A door then opened up in the shadows beside Yang Xiaojin. She held the hand that reached out of the Shadow Door and disappeared from Ren Xiaosu’s sight.

That hand… was probably Luo Xinyu’s, right?

Ren Xiaosu did not feel that good anymore. Again?!

Yang Xiaojin was not only making things difficult for Luo Lan and his men. After she revealed their location by firing that shot, she also implicated Ren Xiaosu as well!

Right then, Ren Xiaosu heard someone shout, “There’s a sniper atop the bank!”

Hur hur, how fucking fun!

He immediately turned around and climbed down the building. If he didn’t leave now, he would get surrounded by the Li Consortium in no time!

…

When Ren Xiaosu arrived back at the shop, he was drenched in sweat. He had sprinted all the way back here. Even with his current fitness, he still found it quite unbearable.

But he did not go in through the front door. Instead, he jumped into the backyard from the roof.

Ren Xiaosu discovered Wang Fugui and the others were still waiting for him out in the yard. Yan Liuyuan was the first one to come and circle around Ren Xiaosu. He was only able to set his mind at ease after confirming that Ren Xiaosu did not get injured. “Bro, what happened?”

“The Pyro Company clashed with some supernatural beings. The Pyro Company’s intentions are indeed bad. A supernatural being went there to sell his blood but fell into their trap,” Ren Xiaosu explained to them, simplifying the events.

Jiang Wu, who was standing nearby, did not say anything at all. As someone who had fled to Stronghold 109 with Ren Xiaosu, she figured out that Ren Xiaosu was not a normal person at the very least.

Moreover, since Chen Wudi claimed Ren Xiaosu was his master, then the master of a supernatural being should also be a supernatural being.

In reality, Jiang Wu did not know much about supernatural beings. She could only logic out the situation.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and said, “Ms. Jiang, there shouldn’t be any danger around here. Why don’t I have Chen Wudi send you back first.”

“Mhm.” Jiang Wu nodded.

But at this moment, someone knocked on the door to the store. Ren Xiaosu frowned. The store had been closed for two hours now, so who could be knocking on the door? He went up to the door and peeked through the peephole and discovered that the people outside were Luo Lan and his men. Ren Xiaosu opened the door. He looked strangely at Luo Lan. “Why do you smell so bad?”

Luo Lan led Tang Zhou and the others into the store. But he seemingly did not want to tell the truth. “I tripped. Bring out your black medicine, I have someone here who’s injured.”

Ren Xiaosu pretended to ask, “What injuries? I heard an explosion in the stronghold just now. Could it be related to y’all?”

“Don’t spout nonsense.” Luo Lan nearly jumped. “We just tripped over!”

In fact, Luo Lan also knew what he said would not deceive anyone. For someone as smart as Ren Xiaosu, how could he possibly believe the lies he was making up?

But Luo Lan had no other choice. He couldn’t admit to it, right?

Ren Xiaosu was amused. He purposely said to spite Luo Lan, “Eh, did y’all walk here? Where’s your car?”

Luo Lan felt persecuted. “I sent it in for maintenance.”

“What does maintenance mean?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“Things like cars require maintenance after a period of driving.” Luo Lan gave him a look. “You don’t even know something like that?”

“I’ve never driven a car before.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

Then Luo Lan gave a look to Ren Xiaosu. “Don’t speak a word about what happened tonight. Otherwise, I’ll reveal that Chen Wudi is a supernatural being.”

“Don’t you worry,” Ren Xiaosu said in irritation as he took the black medicine out. He scrutinized the unconscious person and wondered if it might have been one of the two supernatural beings involved in tonight’s incident.

Luo Lan did not dare bring this supernatural being to a hospital, so he had to come over to Ren Xiaosu’s place. The two of them had dealt with each other before. Even though Luo Lan was pissed off at Ren Xiaosu, he still found it more reliable to find Ren Xiaosu at this time.

Suddenly suspicious, Luo Lan asked, “Ren Xiaosu, why are you drenched in sweat? Were you outside just now?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu pointed at the bicycle in the yard and said, “I was just learning how to ride a bike. Ms. Jiang came over specifically to teach us.”

“Oh.” Luo Lan nodded. “Ms. Jiang, you came over to teach them how to cycle?”

Jiang Wu smiled and nodded. “Yes, they’ve never ridden a bike before.”

Jiang Wu acted very natural, and there were no signs she was putting on an act.

Chapter 151: You don’t seem like a good person

Luo Lan watched Xiaoyu and Ren Xiaosu from the side as they helped to clean the wounds on the injured and unconscious supernatural being. He even reminded them every now and again, “Be careful, don’t kill him.”

Luo Lan became even more excited as he thought. After the supernatural being regained consciousness, Luo Lan would only need to stir his emotions with reasoning to touch his heart. Would he also end up with a supernatural being as his bodyguard, just like his younger brother, Qing Zhen?

Thinking of this, Luo Lan glanced at Chen Wudi. If this supernatural being turned out to be more powerful than Chen Wudi, that would really be great. It would make Ren Xiaosu so envious of him!

Luo Lan still felt begrudged over how he had failed to recruit Chen Wudi…

Xiaoyu went to get a towel to clean the bloodstains on the injured supernatural being’s face. She said in surprise, “It’s actually a woman, and she looks to be around 27.”

Luo Lan’s eyes lit up. “Are you sure?”

When he went closer to get a good look, he realized it really was a woman!

Chen Wudi went over as well. “Master, she looks like the White Dragon Horse.”

Luo Lan got anxious. “It’s fine if you want to go around acknowledging someone as your master, but don’t go bringing others into the picture as well!”

To be honest, Luo Lan was fairly afraid the woman would follow Chen Wudi and the others to the Western Paradise to obtain Buddhist scriptures after she regained her consciousness…

Wouldn’t all of his hard work go down the drain after spending so much effort to rescue her?!

Fortunately, Chen Wudi said after making a close inspection, “No, I got it wrong. She’s older than the White Dragon Horse.”

When Chen Wudi said that, Luo Lan finally felt more at ease. He chuckled and said, “It’s good that she’s not. I never expected you would fuss over something like age.”

All of a sudden, Luo Lan felt he must also be fucking crazy. He took the lunatic Chen Wudi’s words seriously?

When Ren Xiaosu saw it was a woman, he stepped aside for Xiaoyu to apply the medicine on her.

Xiaoyu sent everyone away. “When a woman is getting medicine applied on her, men shouldn’t look.”

But the supernatural being regained consciousness at this moment. When she saw everyone around her, she sat bolt upright and asked, “Who are you people?”

Luo Lan was the first to go over. “I’m the one who saved you from the Pyro Company!”

The woman scrutinized Luo Lan. “You? You don’t look it.”

“Who doesn’t look it?!” Luo Lan nearly flipped the table. “Why doesn’t it look like I saved you?! I’m really the one who saved you from the Pyro Company!”

But the woman just got up and walked outside without saying a word of thanks. But before she could even take two steps, she fell to the ground. Although the black medicine could help ease her pain quickly, it would not be so easy for her to recover from the injury she had suffered.

Xiaoyu ran over to help her up. She comforted her, “Your injury hasn’t healed yet, so you shouldn’t move about.”

However, tears started to fall from the woman’s eyes. “My big brother is still in the hands of the Pyro Company.”

Luo Lan was stunned. The other supernatural being was her elder brother? So there were two supernatural beings in the same family?

But this also made Ren Xiaosu understand why she had gone to his rescue.

Next to her, Tang Zhou calmly said, “Then he’s definitely dead. While you were escaping with him on your back, the blast from the RPG threw him off of you. We only had time to save you, but your big brother was not that lucky. Besides, the Pyro Company had always been after blood samples. They don’t leave the donors alive.”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. When he first heard of the Pyro Company, he thought their mission was to keep the embers of humanity alive by ensuring the continuation of the human species. He never expected the Pyro Company would resort to any means necessary to obtain the blood of a supernatural being. In that case, would someone like Yang Xiaojin, who was an enemy of the Pyro Company, be considered good? No, that wasn’t right either. Ren Xiaosu always had the feeling the girl did not seem to be a good person either.

In fact, the definition of a “good” or “bad” person was too limited. The complexity of human nature had greatly surpassed those definitions.

He suddenly asked, “Fatty Luo, did you save her from the Pyro Company? You better not drag us into this affair.”

“Don’t you worry a whit. You won’t get implicated.” Luo Lan snapped, “And I won’t make you save someone for nothing in return. I’ll have Tang Zhou send 30,000 yuan over tomorrow morning.”

The female supernatural being slowly returned to her senses. She knew she could not save her older brother anymore. The most important thing she should do now was to hide, then seek a chance to avenge him.

Luo Lan squatted down next to her and said, “Why don’t you join us? We happen to have a feud with the Pyro Company. We even killed more than a 100 of their members some time ago.” Luo Lan started contemplating again. No matter what, she was still a real supernatural being, and she was even a woman….

However, the woman glared at Luo Lan. “You don’t seem like a good person yourself either!”

Luo Lan got angry. “Why are you biting the hand that fed you? I really did save you!”

The supernatural being stood up at this moment and bowed to Ren Xiaosu and the others. She said, “Thanks to all of you. My name is Dong Funan. If there’s a chance in the future, allow me to repay the favor. For now, I can’t stay here. Otherwise, I’ll implicate all of you.”

“Gratitude received from Dong Funan, +1!”

Luo Lan said disconsolately, “Why?!”

Why was she thanking Ren Xiaosu and the others when he was the one who saved her?

Tang Zhou whispered, “Boss, maybe it’s because you don’t look like a good person.”

Luo Lan turned around and looked dumbfoundedly at Tang Zhou. “Buddy, your skin’s gotten really thick recently, eh!”

But just as Luo Lan finished speaking, the supernatural being, Dong Funan, fainted again.

“What should we do now?” Xiaoyu looked to Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu said unsympathetically, “Luo Lan, hurry up and take her away.”

Ren Xiaosu even suspected Dong Funan might have pretended to faint so she could impose on them. At least her thanks was sincere.

“She’ll stay here with you all for now. I’ll pay for it.” Luo Lan said, “Take care of her for me and I’ll send over the money tomorrow!”

“Deal.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, help her to your room. Chen Wudi, you’ll stand guard at Big Sister Xiaoyu’s room. Don’t let this woman escape before Fatty Luo pays up.”

“Yes, Master,” Chen Wudi said.

This series of arrangements made by Ren Xiaosu dumbfounded Luo Lan!

That very night, Luo Lan and his people waited until midnight before sneaking off. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu did not sleep a wink just to ensure that nothing untoward happened. The next morning, he led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to school.

When they walked up to the school gate, they bumped into Yang Xiaojin. Yan Liuyuan greeted her in a polite and friendly manner, “Hello, Big Sis.”

Yang Xiaojin said happily, “Hello to you too. I’ll bring some delicious food tomorrow and have your brother pass it to you.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded in response.

Somehow, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off as he watched their interaction from close by. When did their relationship become so good?!

Then Yang Xiaojin asked in curiosity, “Ren Xiaosu, didn’t you have Teacher Jiang Wu teach you how to ride a bike yesterday? Why didn’t you ride it here today? You couldn’t learn it?”

“Hahahaha, how could I possibly not learn something so simple!” Ren Xiaosu laughed it off.

“Then why didn’t you ride it here?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, “I sent my bike in for maintenance.”

Yang Xiaojin was confused.

Chapter 152: The two Ren Xiaosus

“You’re saying you sent your bike in for maintenance?” Yang Xiaojin verified again with a strange look on her face.

“Yeah,” Ren Xiaosu replied as he vaguely realized he might have said something wrong when he saw her expression. But he still did not know what he had said wrong.

Then in broad daylight, Ren Xiaosu watch Yang Xiaojin laugh so hard at the school’s entrance she doubled over.

“What’s so funny about that?” Ren Xiaosu walked into the school with a dark expression, leaving Yang Xiaojin behind as she continued laughing crazily outside the entrance.

After Ren Xiaosu entered the classroom, Yang Xiaojin followed close behind him. They sat in the last row and became new deskmates all of a sudden. At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was trying her best to restrain herself from looking at Ren Xiaosu. Otherwise, she would break out into a fit of laughter if she glanced at him.

“What’s so funny?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“If you couldn’t learn to ride a bike, just admit it.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Why did you come up with such a bad excuse?”

“But when I asked Luo Lan about his vehicle yesterday, he told me that he sent it in for maintenance,” Ren Xiaosu said puzzledly.

“He drives a car.” Yang Xiaojin explained through laughter, “Maintenance for cars refers to changing the engine oil and filters, stuff like that. As if your bike has any oil filters!”

Ren Xiaosu understood where he had gone wrong. So it turned out there wasn’t a need to send bicycles in for maintenance. This was truly a case of being disadvantaged due to poverty!

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. “So what if I didn’t learn how to ride a bike? Did you master it on your first attempt?!”

Yang Xiaojin said in a serious tone, “That’s right, I did master it on my first attempt.”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He thought to himself if he should use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll to copy cycling from her. Judging from his past experiences, Yang Xiaojin would most likely be an advanced or even master cyclist.

However, Ren Xiaosu had wised up by now. Before learning anything, he would first check with the palace. “What’s Yang Xiaojin’s cycling proficiency?”

The palace voice said, “She doesn’t have any bicycle-related skills.”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and stared at Yang Xiaojin in a daze. ‘Then what are you bragging to me about! You might as well go to Heaven!’

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized that this girl, Yang Xiaojin, did not even need to “write a draft” 1 before lying. She just spoke irresponsibly!

Ren Xiaosu had learned about this idiom in class. But later on, he found out that it should have been “to speak daftly” 1 instead when checking through the old dictionaries that Zhang Jinglin kept. So he asked Zhang Jinglin why the idiom was written differently.

However, Zhang Jinglin said that it might have been a rebus character 1 from the past and that it was written as “draft” instead of “daft” these days. It was basically an idiom that could be used to describe someone who spoke nonsensically.

After the conversation about bicycles, Ren Xiaosu felt he had to synthesize any information he received from Yang Xiaojin.

When the bell rang, the teacher who taught math to Class 12-3 walked into the classroom. He stood at the lectern and said very slowly, “I will temporarily be teaching math for you. Everyone, open up your books. Today, we’ll be reviewing probability.”

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t understand any of the lessons that had not been taught in town. Therefore, he decided to start studying according to his own study plan in order to catch up with the class as soon as possible.

He heard from Jiang Wu that the final exams would be starting soon. He was bound to fail the upcoming exam and could only hope to do better on the next one. According to Jiang Wu, he could finish studying the 12th grade curriculum within a year as long as he worked hard enough. If he was smart enough, it was also possible to finish it within half a year.

Ren Xiaosu thought that if he could catch up with the required progress by the college entrance examinations, he might even be able to qualify for university and have a look around there.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu discovered that Yang Xiaojin had fallen asleep at the bench. He wrote a note and poked Yang Xiaojin’s arm. The note read, “Don’t you have to study? Why are you coming to school?”

Yang Xiaojin got up and shot him a look. Then she replied on the note, “I’m here to sleep.”

Ren Xiaosu replied on the note, “Why are you coming here to sleep instead of sleeping at home?”

“I can sleep better at school.”

In reality, Ren Xiaosu had another purpose in writing the note. He wanted to verify that Yang Xiaojin was the one who had slotted the note under the threshold of their shop’s door.

However, it seemed like Yang Xiaojin knew of Ren Xiaosu’s intention. Even though the two of them sat at the same table, they continued to test each other while playing dumb.

Ren Xiaosu kept writing more notes to her, while Yang Xiaojin deliberately refrained from using her usual handwriting.

Ren Xiaosu wrote, “Any good eats around here?

“What vehicles can’t be sent in for maintenance besides bicycles?

“What’d you have for dinner last night?”

The notes they exchanged were basically nonsense. Ren Xiaosu refused to believe that Yang Xiaojin could keep on pretending!

After passing back a series of notes filled with nonsense for a while, Yang Xiaojin frowned and switched her handwriting to the one she usually wrote in. “I’m the one who slotted the note into the shop, so just get to the point!” She decided to stop pretending and laid all her cards on the table.

Ren Xiaosu replied on the note, “So you told me not to overstay in this place because you were afraid that I might find out you stole my identity?”

With that, Yang Xiaojin completely ignored Ren Xiaosu.

Suddenly, the math teacher who was standing at the lectern said, “You two in the back, please stop passing notes back and forth.”

All of the students in class gave Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ambiguous looks. They heard the math teacher ask, “You two, what are your names?”

“I’m Ren Xiaosu.”

“I’m also Ren Xiaosu!”

The math teacher got furious. “Do I look gullible to you?”

Ren Xiaosu felt badly wronged…

A student said softly to the math teacher, “Teacher, both of them are really called Ren Xiaosu.”

“Um, Teacher, it’s true….”

The math teacher was dumbfounded. He went to the office to get the roster for Class 12-7 and discovered to his surprise that there were really two Ren Xiaosus. What the hell!

After pondering it for a while, he realized it was indeed a misunderstanding. But he could not just leave it at that. “The Ren Xiaosu wearing the cap, I want you to answer the question on the blackboard.”

Ren Xiaosu was elated. ‘Serves you right, Yang Xiaojin!’

But a second later, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He watched Yang Xiaojin take off her cap and put it on his head as though no one could see them. ‘Is this even allowed?!’ But Ren Xiaosu could not think about anything else at this moment. He was astounded by Yang Xiaojin’s delicate and stunning face.

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu felt Yang Xiaojin might have only worn a cap to hide her beauty, not because she wanted to hide her identity.

This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen her take off her cap, and he was absolutely astonished by how beautiful she was.

All the students held their breath. Like Ren Xiaosu, they did not expect Yang Xiaojin to look so beautiful.

In the entirety of the classroom, only the old math teacher remained calm and collected. “The Ren Xiaosu wearing the cap, stand up and answer the question.”

Ren Xiaosu pointed at himself after recovering from his shock. “Me?”

“Yes, you!” the math teacher said.

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback again. “Teacher, didn’t you see that this cap was just placed on me?”

The math teacher chuckled. “She’s such a lovely young lady that I can’t bear to make her answer the question, so hurry up and answer the questions.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Chapter 153: Copy! Shadow Door!

Ren Xiaosu still greatly respected those in the teaching profession due to his relationship with two teachers, Zhang Jinglin and Jiang Wu.

He stood up and said honestly, “Teacher, I don’t know the answers to the questions on the blackboard since I’ve never learned them in the town’s school. I’m starting to catch up from the 10th grade curriculum.”

“Alright.” The math teacher nodded. “Stop passing around notes in class. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you may come to the staff room and ask me. My office is on the third floor.”

“Thank you, Teacher,” Ren Xiaosu said politely.

“Please sit down,” the math teacher said with a smile.

In fact, many of those who attended school in the stronghold would stop studying after 12th grade, because the university in the stronghold was not that big and the number of admission spots was limited. 90% of the students in the stronghold had no chance to further their studies.

After the students graduated from high school, they would immediately have to consider whether they wanted to find work or attend vocational schools to learn skills such as mechanics, agriculture, excavation, culinary arts, etc.

After they finished their studies, they would become the foundation of this stronghold.

There were high-end research laboratories in the stronghold, including the university that focused on research in various fields. University students in the stronghold were very valuable resources these days as they represented the knowledge structure of the stronghold.

But a complete society could not only consist of a superstructure 1. The base was indispensable too.

Just as the refugees needed to do basic work such as farming, mining, and similar menial tasks, most people in the stronghold were required to work basic jobs such as cleaning, greening 1, and so on.

During second period, Jiang Wu came into the classroom. The subject she taught was Chinese, but Chinese classes were generally held in third or fourth period. In this era, physics, chemistry, and mathematics were the most important subjects.

Jiang Wu stood at the lectern and said, “Settle down, everyone. You should know that our class has just been set up. We’re still missing a class monitor, a student councilor, and representatives for the various subjects. So I’d like to make use of this period to hold an election for those roles.”

A student named Zhu Peiyuan laughed and said, “There’s no need to vote. Let’s just appoint Ren Xiaosu as the class monitor.”

After the recent incidents, the relationship between these students and Ren Xiaosu had gotten much closer, and everyone approved of him too. Therefore, if they were going to elect a class monitor, everyone would choose Ren Xiaosu.

At this moment, someone asked jokingly, “Which Ren Xiaosu?”

“Haha, both of them should be elected. The guy will be the class monitor, and the girl will be the student councilor. It’ll be easier to differentiate them that way. We’ll address them as Monitor Ren Xiaosu and Councilor Ren Xiaosu from now on,” one of the female classmates named Bian Lingchen said wittily.

“So it’s settled then?” Jiang Wu smiled at everyone.

“Yes, it’s settled!” the group of students echoed.

In the last row, Ren Xiaosu wondered if the class monitor would get more subsidies. They just made the decision without asking for his opinion.

Yang Xiaojin had already put her cap back on. Ren Xiaosu looked at her and whispered, “What are the class monitor and student councilor for?”

“They’re responsible for ensuring that everyone studies hard,” Yang Xiaojin replied in brief. She felt it was meaningless to answer this question. In reality, the class monitor and student councilor were rather unimportant roles, but she did not want to explain it to Ren Xiaosu in detail. However, she did not expect her remark to end up becoming a disaster for her classmates.

Ren Xiaosu found that Yang Xiaojin did not seem to be attentive to any of today’s lessons. He wondered why this girl was even attending school. Could it be that her target was hidden here in the school? But that couldn’t be right either. If she wanted to assassinate someone in this school, she would just kill the target based on her straightforward character. It should not be that difficult for her. So Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this matter.

After school, Yang Xiaojin took the lead and headed out of class first. Ren Xiaosu followed her silently.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu got an idea. He planned on finding out where Yang Xiaojin lived and if she was close to him.

After all, this girl had also bought those materials to make a bomb with. If she clashed with the Pyro Company, he would at least know where not to go.

However, Yang Xiaojin was walking towards a more and more remote place. When she came to a small alley, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw Yang Xiaojin turn around and smile at him. Right after, a door opened again in the shadow of the alley and a hand stretched out.

Luo Xinyu must have come to pick Yang Xiaojin up!

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. This method could save him a lot of money used for taking the streetcar.

When he last saw Luo Xinyu take Yang Xiaojin away from the rooftop, he did not have the time to react. After returning home, Ren Xiaosu regretted it a little. Why didn’t he use the Skill Duplication Scroll on Luo Xinyu at that time?

This time, Ren Xiaosu was not going to miss the chance again.

He said in his mind, “Use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll and Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!”

Ren Xiaosu had two Skill Duplication Scrolls in total right now. He used them both at once so that in case he failed to copy her superpower, he could at least attempt to copy one of her master-level skills.

The palace voice intoned, “Randomly copied target’s Advanced Nose Picking. Do you want to learn it?”

Learn? My ass!

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ‘Can’t you two have some normal skills?! Why would a reputable celebrity like you have such odd skills! Can you pick your nose cleaner with Advanced Nose Picking? Is that how it is?!’

However, he still had another chance. The result of the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll had not been determined yet!

Then, right before Yang Xiaojin completely disappeared—

“About to copy the target’s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it.”

“The target has many master-level and above skills. Randomly copied target’s superpower: ‘Shadow Door.’ Do you want to learn it?”

Yang Xiaojin, who had already left the place, did not see Ren Xiaosu celebrating in ecstasy. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was drowning in an ocean of joy!

Frankly, Luo Xinyu was sure to possess quite a few master-level skills, or even perfect-level skills. Hence, there was only a tiny chance of being able to copy her superpower. As such, Ren Xiaosu did not expect he would really acquire his second superpower!

The power he got this time was going to be even more important for him, not to mention how incredible his first power, Shadow Clone, was.

Ren Xiaosu immediately tried out this new power. Instantly, two Shadow Doors appeared in front of him. One was the entrance, and the other was the exit.

The only flaw was that Ren Xiaosu still couldn’t grasp the exact location of where to open the exit, possibly because he had only just acquired this power.

The location of the exit in front of him was quite different from what he had imagined. He had wanted to open it on the left, but it ended up opening on the right.

But this was not important!

Ren Xiaosu was extremely delighted at the sight before him. With this, he also could take Yan Liuyuan and the others and travel through the stronghold at will!

He attempted to go through the entrance of the door, but something unexpected happened. Ren Xiaosu discovered he could only get half his arm through the door!

“Wait a minute! Something’s wrong!” Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded as he tried it multiple times in the space of a minute. But no matter how many times he tried, he could still only get one of his arms through the door!

Was it because Luo Xinyu had only stretched out one of her arms when he used the scroll?

Could the palace be any more unreliable than this? ‘Why are the others able to travel freely through the door while I’m only allowed to put one arm through? What if I want to escape when I encounter danger? Is my arm supposed to escape first?!’

Chapter 154: Research results

In reality, Ren Xiaosu was someone who knew how to be content. Having a superpower was better than having nothing at all. It was quite fortunate he did not randomly copy the master-level jumping rope skill.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu must have also possessed a very high level of proficiency at jump roping. After all, he thought it would be pointless for Yang Xiaojin to jump rope by herself…

Although he was content, he still felt a little peeved when he thought about how he had the chance to copy Shadow Door in its entirety the previous time.

The palace should have said so earlier if it couldn’t fully copy the skill during the duplication process. What was the point of finding out it was flawed only after the skill was copied over to him?

Ren Xiaosu really wanted a power like Shadow Door when he thought of how Luo Xinyu had used it repeatedly to escape with Yang Xiaojin. If he could utilize Shadow Door fully, he would no longer have to worry even if he encountered the wolf pack again.

In the end, he could only get one of his arms through it! What could he do with that? Steal?

Moreover, he still couldn’t open the Shadow Door wherever he wanted to. Just based on the earlier deviation, it seemed impossible for him to accurately control the location of the door.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt he could improve on accuracy through additional practice. There would definitely come a day when he could open the Shadow Door precisely where he wanted it.

In reality, what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that Luo Xinyu had spent nearly a year just to practice opening the door. Only then was she able to manipulate the Shadow Door at will.

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the shop, he locked himself in his bedroom to practice. He tried to find out if there was a pattern to controlling the Shadow Door by opening it over and over again.

Luo Xinyu would probably be shocked if she saw this, because when she started practicing at the beginning, she would get exhausted and dizzy after just one or two tries a day. Even now, she could only use the door within a one-kilometer range. Even if she did not expend all her mental strength, she still could open the door only three or four times a day.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had opened it more than a dozen times in just a short period.

At this moment, Xiaoyu knocked on his door. Ren Xiaosu opened the door and asked, “What’s the matter, Big Sister Xiaoyu? Is it time for dinner?”

“No, not yet.” Big Sister Xiaoyu asked with a dark expression, “I just wanted to ask you where Yan Liuyuan is. Did you forget to bring them back from school?”

“Huh?!” Ren Xiaosu finally came around. He should have gone to pick Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong up from the junior high section before heading home together in the first place. However, he had forgotten all about them and left them behind at school just so he could find out where Yang Xiaojin lived. “I’ll go and fetch them immediately!”

“What kind of an older brother are you?” Xiaoyu grumbled. “Pick them up and come home for dinner. I’m almost done making it.”

But a moment later, Jiang Wu walked in with Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan. She smiled and said, “Didn’t you say we were going to continue learning how to ride a bike today? Why did you leave by yourself after school?”

Xiaoyu smiled and said, “Ms. Jiang Wu, you’re here? Quick, wash your hands and join us for dinner.”

Yan Liuyuan gave Ren Xiaosu a cold stare. “I stood in the school building and saw you and Yang Xiaojin leaving together with my own eyes.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed. “Hahaha, I had something urgent to attend to!”

Then they heard the rumbling of a car engine coming from the outside. It sounded like it had stopped outside their doorstep.

Eh? Ren Xiaosu wondered what was with today as people kept coming to the grocery store in wave after wave.

He heard Luo Lan’s voice come from outside. “Ren Xiaosu? Come and have a look at my new car. What do you think?”

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t help but roll his eyes. ‘Look at how cocky you’ve become after buying a new car. So what if you are rich?!’

But why did Fatty Luo suddenly like coming here so much? Wang Fugui had mentioned Luo Lan had already been here to deliver the money at noon.

While he was thinking about that, Luo Lan and Tang Zhou walked in from outside. Tang Zhou was even carrying a lot of items in his arms. Luo Lan told Tang Zhou, “Take these over to Miss Dong Funan. These tonics are all beneficial to her recovery.”

Ren Xiaosu sensed Luo Lan was in love.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Do you have to resort to all this? As a big shot of the Qing Consortium, why do you still keep coming back here even after you’ve been snubbed?

Luo Lan said unhappily, “What do you know? There used to be so many girls coming in and out of my life, yet I never once took a fancy to any of them. Now that I’ve changed, I realize that only Miss Dong Funan is worthy of me!”

“You’ve never taken a fancy to any of them?” Ren Xiaosu laughed. “So you mean you gave the medicine that you bought from me to Tang Zhou?”

“Don’t you slander me. When have I ever bought any medicine from you!” Luo Lan looked downright indignant.

Dong Funan had been recuperating in Xiaoyu’s room. But when she heard Luo Lan’s voice, she locked the door from the inside. With a click, Luo Lan could not look any more embarrassed.

However, Luo Lan was not a normal person either. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and changed the subject. “Can you lend Chen Wudi to me for some time?”

“What do you want Chen Wudi for? How can I lend a living, breathing human being to you? You can ask him yourself.” Ren Xiaosu washed his hands of the matter.

“These past two days, I found out that other powers are coming into this stronghold as well.” Luo Lan whispered, “It’s said that there’s research that’s about to be completed in the university of Stronghold 109, and many people are interested in getting ahold of the research results for themselves.”

“What kind of research is it?” Ren Xiaosu was starting to get interested but did not show it on his face.

“I’m not sure…” Luo Lan said.

“You’re having ideas about something you don’t even know?” Ren Xiaosu wondered. But considering the circumstances, the Qing Consortium’s people had probably not infiltrated into that university yet. He wondered how Luo Lan had found out about it. Yang Xiaojin had also mentioned the Li Consortium was trying their best to protect this thing.

This thing… was probably so important it would change the entire structure between the organizations. That was why all the different powers were placing a lot of emphasis on it.

And on the night some supernatural beings fled from the site of the explosion, the Li Consortium only expelled the known members of the Pyro Company who were present in the stronghold, but did not conduct a thorough search to make any further arrests. It seemed like they did not want to complicate things further since most of their manpower was probably used to guard and protect the research results.

However, Ren Xiaosu was curious about something. How could the Qing Consortium possibly not know what the research results were about? Others already knew, but only you were still in the dark?

“We never paid any attention to this university before.” Luo Lan said, “But it must have a very special value for so many powerful forces to be targeting it! How about this? Why don’t you order Chen Wudi to protect me and I’ll pay you for it!”

Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan was lying through his teeth. He definitely knew what the research results were. He just didn’t want to tell Ren Xiaosu!

He shook his head and rejected Luo Lan. “If you want Chen Wudi to protect you, you can talk to him yourself. I will not order him about.”

Right at this moment, someone from the Qing Consortium walked in. He whispered a few words to Luo Lan before leaving in a hurry. As Ren Xiaosu watched the man from behind, sensing the Qing Consortium might be plotting something.

Ren Xiaosu wondered what made the research results so important. Could he steal them using the Shadow Door if he could ascertain its location?

Seeing that Ren Xiaosu was not planning to lend Chen Wudi to him, Luo Lan did not waste any more time on it. He just simply went over to talk to Dong Funan from the other side of the door. Before he could say much, Dong Funan said coldly from the bedroom, “I’ll come out to see you after you’ve slimmed down.”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Then you’ll probably never get to see him.”

Luo Lan said angrily, “Don’t say such discouraging words. Isn’t it just losing some weight? I’ll slim down very soon!” Then Luo Lan whispered to Tang Zhou next to him, “How can I slim down quickly?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “You’ll definitely slim down if you only eat one steamed bun each in the morning, at noon, and during the evening.”

Luo Lan got lost in thought. “…Do I eat them before or after my meals?”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Chapter 155: A seedy shop selling black medicine

Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan was getting too obsessed with supernatural beings.

Chen Wudi had said that Benbo’erba had tried to get him to defect to his side, but that attempt was immediately seen through by his “discerning eyes.” As the Great Sage, how could he work for a demon? That definitely would not do since demons did not seek the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise!

Luo Lan had even risked his own life to save Dong Funan just so he could have a supernatural being as his bodyguard. Furthermore, he relentlessly courted her, but Dong Funan did not take a liking to him.

In between, Ren Xiaosu even checked with Luo Lan to see if he might have set eyes on the wrong person. What if there were problems with Dong Funan?

Moreover, by allowing Dong Funan to stay here, it was equivalent to having a ticking time bomb next to them if she turned out to be problematic.

However, Luo Lan said there shouldn’t be any problems since she looked so innocent.

“Shouldn’t a big shot like you do a background check on her?” Ren Xiaosu snapped.

“It’s not like this stronghold is under our control,” Luo Lan replied matter-of-factly.

This made Ren Xiaosu feel that something was wrong. He would have to be warier of Dong Funan.

All of a sudden, the voice from the palace said, “Side quest: Take in someone in distress for seven days; one out of seven. After the quest is completed, you will unlock a new product in the vending machine.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He thought there was only black medicine to be bought from the vending machine. So it turned out he could also unlock new products by completing quests the palace assigned to him?

Then wasn’t this quest going to be a cakewalk to complete?

While they were eating dinner, Ren Xiaosu nonchalantly asked Dong Funan, “What’s your superpower?”

“I have more strength than normal…” Dong Funan said softly.

“More strength?” Ren Xiaosu felt that such a superpower was rather useless. “How much greater is it compared to the average person?”

“I probably have strength equivalent to two adult men.” Dong Funan said, “But my strength is still increasing, and I might get even stronger in the future.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Frankly, you couldn’t have escaped without Luo Lan and his men’s help with just your superpower alone.”

“He doesn’t have good intentions!” Dong Funan replied, “His gaze and the way he speaks tells me that!”

“What plans do you have?” Ren Xiaosu asked. To be honest, he did not really like this willful girl. Even if she did not like Luo Lan, she should at least thank him for saving her. Ren Xiaosu even thought of speaking up for Luo Lan.

Dong Funan gave it some thought before saying, “When my injuries heal tomorrow, I’ll go and get revenge on the Pyro Company!”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “You can’t go.”

“Why not?” Dong Funan was taken aback.

“First of all, the Pyro Company has already been expelled from the stronghold. Even if some of their people are still hiding in the stronghold, you won’t find them.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Second, you might reveal that we took you in before if you get caught and tortured by them.”

Besides, Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘How am I suppose to complete my quest if you leave now!’

However, what he said was also true. What if the Pyro Company came to take revenge on them after Dong Funan was unable to endure the torture and confessed? This girl seemed very self-centered and wouldn’t care about other people’s safety. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not trust her at all.

Dong Funan said stubbornly, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that y’all took me in.”

“Can you guarantee that?” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Wudi, you’re in charge of keeping a close eye on her for the next few days!” But Ren Xiaosu then noticed Chen Wudi looked a little unhappy.

Yan Liuyuan whispered a few words to Chen Wudi, and he immediately agreed in delight.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and asked him, “What did you say to make him so happy?”

“It’s very easy to make him happy.” Yan Liuyuan said after eating a spoonful of porridge, “Just address him as the Great Sage.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He realized Yan Liuyuan was fantastic at noticing what made others tick.

Dong Funan attempted to run off while Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were talking. She was afraid she wouldn’t be allowed to seek revenge. However, she was carried back by Chen Wudi before she could even get far.

No matter how great her strength, it couldn’t be greater than Chen Wudi’s current strength.

Next to him, Yan Liuyuan smiled at Chen Wudi and said, “The Great Sage is amazing!”

“Of course!” Chen Wudi said proudly.

Yan Liuyuan had Chen Wudi dancing in the palm of his hand as he knew exactly how to stroke Wudi’s ego.

Chen Wudi escorted Dong Funan to Xiaoyu’s room and even found a rope to tie her up with.

Dong Funan was shocked. She had thought she was saved by a group of kind-hearted people. But why did it feel like she had been taken and kidnapped by a den of thieves? All that was missing was a phone call to her family to ask for a ransom!

She roared, “Why are you all refusing to let me go? What kind of shop are you all operating? This must be a seedy shop, right? And you must be selling black medicine here too!”

Everyone looked quietly at her in this moment. Xiaoyu smiled and said, “We really do sell black medicine here…”

Dong Funan was confused.

Before this, she had the impression that Xiaoyu was tender and gentle and thought she must be a good person. But at this moment, she realized Xiaoyu was also in a gang with those bad people.

“I didn’t expect y’all to be such people!” Dong Funan said angrily.

“We didn’t expect you to be such a person either,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Dong Funan tried to shout for help, but Chen Wudi had already stuffed her mouth shut with a pillowcase.

Ren Xiaosu sneered, “It’s already very courteous of us to let you stay here. Even if you don’t spare a thought for yourself, you have to think about our entire family. If you try to run away again, I’ll break your legs!”

If Ren Xiaosu didn’t receive the quest or accept Luo Lan’s money, he would probably have….

It was the weekend the next day, and Luo Lan came over early in the morning to look for Dong Funan to speak with her. But no matter how long he called out to her at the door, he couldn’t get any response from her.

Previously, Dong Funan would scold him a little. But now she did not even bother scolding him.

Luo Lan turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Has Dong Funan left already? Or did you people do something to her?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “No, she just doesn’t want to speak with you.”

Luo Lan wondered, “But why doesn’t she at least scold me a little?”

Ren Xiaosu pondered it. “She’s probably sick of scolding you already.”

“Oh.” Luo Lan nodded in understanding.

“Say, I doubt you can handle this girl.” Ren Xiaosu was thinking he could get Luo Lan to totally give her up. It would be easier to deal with Dong Funan after the seven days were up that way.

Luo Lan said disconsolately, “Can’t you see that I still haven’t found my next target?”

Alright! Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan was not such a devoted person after all. He might give up on Dong Funan after he found his next target. He said to Luo Lan, “Good luck.”

At this moment, Tang Zhou came over to look for Luo Lan. After that, Luo Lan left in a hurry as though he had something urgent to attend to.

“Bro.” Yan Liuyuan watched Luo Lan’s receding figure as he left the store. “Luo Lan must be planning something. I wonder if it’ll involve us?”

The few of them had only gained their stronghold resident statuses because of Luo Lan. If Luo Lan stirred up any trouble here, the Li Consortium would likely settle the score with them as one.

“Let’s not worry about that.” Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “You’ll keep watch at the room today. I’m going to start building a bomb. It’s gonna be our trump card… By the way, let’s test something.”

Ren Xiaosu then pulled Yan Liuyuan into a room. Ren Xiaosu said, “I’ve gained a new power that allows me to open up a door in the shadows. Let’s give it a try now and see if I can pull you into the door.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan did not ask Ren Xiaosu how he obtained this power or how he knew how to build a bomb.

Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “Step back a little, I’m going to open the Shadow Door in front of you.”

A second later, Ren Xiaosu activated the Shadow Door in his mind. Yan Liuyuan stared blankly at the ceiling and said, “Y’know, Bro, can fully control this door?”

Ren Xiaosu intended to open the Shadow Door in front of Yan Liuyuan, but it opened up across the ceiling.

“No, no, let me try it again. Trust me, I’m very sure I can do it. A minor mistake isn’t a big deal. Who doesn’t make mistakes anyway?” Ren Xiaosu said in embarrassment. Then the door opened up across the floor.

Yan Liuyuan quietly said, “Bro, you’d better not test it out on me first…. I’m a little nervous.”

Chapter 156: That’s such a miracle

Eventually, Ren Xiaosu abandoned the idea of using Yan Liuyuan to test out his new power due to safety concerns. After all, he still could not control the power all that well. What if something happened to Yan Liuyuan when he went through the Shadow Door?

However, Ren Xiaosu thought of another idea. When he copied the Shadow Door from Luo Xinyu, the door stood at almost two meters tall.

But since Ren Xiaosu could only get one arm through it, why would he need to open such a large door? Moreover, it would attract other people’s attention too easily. As such, Ren Xiaosu wondered if he could make the door smaller so it would be just enough for him to put one arm through.

When he thought of that, Yan Liuyuan, who was next to him, saw the Shadow Door reappear on the ceiling and start swaying. It was as though some kind of law were resisting Ren Xiaosu’s will.

Ren Xiaosu noticed the Shadow Door’s form seemed to be fixed from the very start and wasn’t something that could be changed.

This was going to be a clash of wills.

But wasn’t it the power that served the will? The power that surpassed the ordinary had originated from the will itself.

Yan Liuyuan saw beads of sweat forming on Ren Xiaosu’s forehead, but he did not dare interrupt him.

A second later, Yan Liuyuan saw the edges of the Shadow Door become unstable as it started shrinking!

If Luo Xinyu were here, her jaw would probably drop to the floor, because even though she was the originator of Shadow Door, she had no way of adjusting its size!

Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. By this point, the diameter of the Shadow Door had become only as thick as an arm. He closed the Shadow Door and opened it up again. This time, Ren Xiaosu discovered he could control the size of the door at will.

His only regret was that no matter how large the door was, he could still only get one arm through it.

It didn’t make any fucking sense at all!

Since he had completely mastered the power, why was there still such a limitation?

Ren Xiaosu asked his mind palace, “Are you the one who did this?”

The voice from the palace answered, “Unauthorized to answer.”

Ren Xiaosu was annoyed. This time, he was quite certain the revolting condition of only being able to put one arm through the door was something that was decided by the rules of the palace.

Ren Xiaosu said to Yan Liuyuan, “Buy a live chicken when you and Big Sister Xiaoyu go grocery shopping tomorrow.”

“Uh, OK,” Yan Liuyuan responded. “Bro, what are the uses of this power of yours?”

“It couldn’t be more useful.” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “Even though I can only get one arm through it, I can still catch someone by surprise and give them a good beating. This way, no one will even know who the culprit is.”

Although he hadn’t perfected the power, it quite suited Ren Xiaosu’s nature.

…

The next morning, Yan Liuyuan went grocery shopping with Xiaoyu. Right as Wang Fugui finished raising the shop’s roller shutter door, he saw a familiar face waiting at the entrance.

It was Yan Linfeng from the Western District.

He watched Yan Linfeng swagger on in. “I heard you’re selling a kind of wonder drug here?”

Wang Fugui thought about how business had finally arrived at their doorstep. It had been nearly a week since someone had bought the medicine from here. Usually, the medicine’s effectiveness would’ve already been publicized. Yet no customers turned up even after such a long time.

Wang Fugui had felt a little low on confidence. But with Yan Linfeng now here, it meant the word of the medicine’s effectiveness had spread.

However, Wang Fugui was not in a hurry. He replied with a smile. “Yes, we’re selling a wonder drug that’s specifically used by men. But due to the complexity of the manufacturing process, we can only sell one dose a week.”

“Oh?” Yan Linfeng remarked, “How much does one dose go for?”

“2,000 yuan,” Wang Fugui said with a smile.

“Highway robbery!” Yan Linfeng was shocked at the price. “Why did I hear that it was only 800 yuan per dose?”

“Because the raw materials needed for the formula are getting harder and harder to come by. The black medicine that can be made in the future will also decrease as a result,” Wang Fugui replied nonchalantly. For a shrewd businessman like him who only had profit on the mind, wouldn’t it be simple to find a reason to raise the price?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu strolled in from the backyard. He heard Yan Linfeng say after some consideration, “Give me one dose.”

“I’m sorry, we only start selling this week’s supply tomorrow. The sales time each week is fixed,” Wang Fugui said in a pompous manner, unmoved.

Yan Linfeng said unhappily, ” Do you know who I am?”

Ren Xiaosu was amused since he knew him too well, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he changed the subject and said, “We also turned down Supervisor Chen from the Public Order Division when he came to inquire last week. It’s not that we’re playing hard to get, but that the black medicine hasn’t been made yet.”

Yan Linfeng said with a dark expression, “I need the medicine urgently. Aren’t you a doctor? Is this what a doctor should say? I’ll give you all a chance to change the way you speak to me!”

Ren Xiaosu was stupefied for a moment. What should a doctor say? He thought for a moment before answering, “I’m sorry, but we tried our best.”

Yan Linfeng was confounded. ‘Is that what you should say?! Do I look like I’m dying?!’

Then some other customers walked in from outside. Yan Linfeng looked back and was surprised to see it was Supervisor Wang from the Planning Division.

He saw two subordinates following Supervisor Wang, and they were even holding a banner in their arms.

When Yan Linfeng saw him, he immediately bowed and said with a smile, “Supervisor Wang, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, it’s Little Yan.” Supervisor Wang said with a haughty smile, “I came to thank the doctor here.”

When Ren Xiaosu saw the banner, he got an ominous feeling. Would it be something like “magic hands restore spring” again? But when Supervisor Wang’s subordinates unfurled the banner, he saw four large characters embroidered on it: “Guanyin, Bringer of Children.” 1 ‘Hey, wait a minute! What does this have anything to do with “Guanyin, Bringer of Children”?!’

Nearby, Yan Linfeng was also dumbfounded by this sight. How could it have such an effect? But Yan Linfeng, who was about to create trouble, suddenly did not dare to make a move. He thought that if he caused trouble in the shop at this moment, he would likely offend Supervisor Wang.

Supervisor Wang explained gleefully, “The stronghold’s No. 3 Hospital diagnosed me as infertile several years ago. It’s always been bugging me that I couldn’t conceive a child. Some time ago, someone passed the black medicine to me to try it out. To my surprise yesterday, my wife told me she was pregnant the day after I used it!”

The moment Supervisor Wang finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu asked his mind palace, “Does the black medicine also have the ability to treat infertility?”

To Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, the voice from the palace bluntly answered, “No.”

Even Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui were a little confused by this time. Ren Xiaosu asked to confirm, “Are you sure your wife is pregnant?”

They heard Supervisor Wang say happily, “I’m sure. We went to the hospital yesterday to take a blood test. Since the blood test cannot be wrong, she must be pregnant.”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought as he looked at Supervisor Wang, then said with a smile, “That’s such a miracle.”

Chapter 157: Dong Funan has issues!

News about the black medicine in Ren Xiaosu’s shop that could treat infertility had even caused a small stir in the stronghold, but Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui kept quiet about it.

Although they were very eager to make money, they could not publicize an effect the black medicine did not have.

When it was time for school the next day, Wang Dalong rode the bicycle with Yan Liuyuan to school. Ren Xiaosu could only take the streetcar to school. It was not that he did not want to ride the bicycle, but rather that he still hadn’t managed to learn how to ride it.

Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu even repeatedly reminded Chen Wudi to watch over Dong Funan carefully. He had a feeling she would be a huge threat to them. For this reason, Ren Xiaosu even promised Chen Wudi he could go out and do as he liked for three days six days later!

Ren Xiaosu was finally able to go to school in peace when he saw Chen Wudi moving a small stool to sit right next to Dong Funan.

When he arrived in class, Yang Xiaojin was already lying on the table and sleeping. Ren Xiaosu wondered to himself if this girl was really coming to school just to sleep. Finals were gonna begin in a few days. Didn’t she need to prepare?!

Ren Xiaosu ignored her and sat down. But just as he took his seat, Yang Xiaojin got up and said, “Luo Lan is planning something dangerous, so it’s best you keep your distance from him.”

Ren Xiaosu’s interest was piqued. It happened that he also suspected Luo Lan was secretly up to something. “What is Luo Lan planning?”

“We saw people from the Qing Consortium scouting outside No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital.” Yang Xiaojin said slowly, “It seems like they plan to rob that hospital.”

“I’ve heard of people robbing jewelry shops and even the organizations’ banks if they were desperate enough.” Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. “But this is the first time I’ve heard of someone planning to rob a psychiatric hospital….”

“There’s something you don’t know.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “That’s where all the supernatural beings arrested by the Li Consortium are detained. There’s a very dangerous supernatural being who’s held there. It’s a blessing for everyone that he’s willing to quietly stay in the psychiatric hospital without putting up a resistance. If Luo Lan released him, I’m afraid all of Stronghold 109 would have an unpredictable future.”

Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Luo Lan had turned his attention to the so-called No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital when he failed to win Dong Funan over. That said, Luo Lan had really spared no effort in trying to find a supernatural being to be his bodyguard.

Unbeknownst to everyone, both Luo Lan and Qing Zhen had reached an agreement that supernatural beings were one of the most valuable resources in this wasteland. A large amount of information and intelligence led them to understand that the evolution of supernatural beings was very fast, and that there were probably no individual weapons that could compare to supernatural beings in the future of combat. Of course, when it came to weapons of mass destruction, the Qing Consortium already had those in their arsenal.

“But the Qing Consortium here have such few people. Why would they rob the psychiatric hospital?” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner.

“You underestimate the Qing Consortium.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Or should I say you’re underestimating Qing Zhen.”

The Qing Consortium must have planted quite a few of their people here in Stronghold 109, and they were currently all under the command of Luo Lan.

“But this is the Li Consortium’s territory.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Isn’t Luo Lan afraid that the Li Consortium will expel him after they find out about it?”

“You may not be aware of how much of a jerk Luo Lan is.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “When he was in Stronghold 113, he was already behaving lawlessly. But Luo Lan is a bold and careful person. He’s just using the fact that the Li Consortium can’t worry about him right now. Even if something were to happen, they would just get Qing Zhen to redeem Luo Lan with money. The Li Consortium would never dare to kill him.”

Alright, so he still wasn’t familiar enough with Luo Lan.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are y’all also afraid of the person locked up in No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital?”

“It’s not that we’re afraid of him,” Yang Xiaojin corrected. “We’re only worried he will bring too much uncertainty to the situation.”

“What’s his superpower?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Hypnosis.” Yang Xiaojin said, “He’s been completely isolated within the psychiatric hospital. Even the people who deliver food to him every day have to wear noise canceling headphones before sending in the food through the door.”

“Why do they have to keep it under wraps?” Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘How scary of a person is he to make the Li Consortium and the stronghold overseer so wary of him?’ He asked, “Why don’t y’all just kill him if you’re so worried about him getting out?”

“Why should we kill him when he didn’t do anything bad?” Yang Xiaojin replied in confusion. “Your logic is very strange.”

Ren Xiaosu calmly said, “But how do y’all judge between good and evil? The power of judgment is all in your hands, but what if y’all’re wrong? You said that both Qing Zhen and the Pyro Company want to possess something they can’t control, but who’s to decide?”

Yang Xiaojin fell deep into thought before saying, “The world was destroyed because of those things. We just don’t want to see the world sink into despair again.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This was the result of a previous cause. Yang Xiaojin’s organization was just clearing the world of the things that had destroyed it. He did not know how to answer her, because he sometimes felt the current him still knew nothing of this world.

Yang Xiaojin said, “By the way, there’s something up with that supernatural being Luo Lan saved. If she follows Luo Lan, you guys had better be careful.”

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu was surprised that Yang Xiaojin was reminding him about so many things today and even told him a lot of undisclosed secrets. But was she referring to Dong Funan now? Ren Xiaosu asked, “What’s wrong with that supernatural being?”

Yang Xiaojin still did not know Dong Funan was lodging in Ren Xiaosu’s shop. Yang Xiaojin replied, “We’ve confirmed there’s no relationship between Dong Funan and the supernatural being that died. They had no blood ties, were not a couple, and did not have any dealings. We initially thought them to be allies but were later informed they were not.

“Furthermore, there’s been a string of strange murder cases in the stronghold recently. All of the victims were sucked dry of blood and turned into mummified remains. Right now, we think the supernatural being named Dong Funan is one of the prime suspects. Luo Xinyu witnessed the entire proceedings of the battle that night. After analyzing it, she felt that Dong Funan’s motive for saving another supernatural being was probably… because she wanted to hide somewhere to suck the blood of that supernatural being. But as she was inexperienced in battle, she screwed up. To put it bluntly, she’s just a newbie.”

Ren Xiaosu got a great deal of information from Yang Xiaojin. First of all, Dong Funan might only be acting out her current plight and was actually the one behind the string of murder cases. Second, Yang Xiaojin’s contact in the stronghold likely held an important position. If not, they couldn’t possibly have received such clear and detailed intel.

“Dong Funan is in our shop right now,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

“Then why don’t you run back to check on her?” Yang Xiaojin frowned and said, “I can get Luo Xinyu to send you back.”

“There’s no need.” Composed, Ren Xiaosu said, “She’s already been restrained by us.”

Yang Xiaojin looked quietly at Ren Xiaosu. She thought for a while, then said, “But she’s a supernatural being.”

“That’s fine. We have another supernatural being guarding her,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

“Chen Wudi?” Yang Xiaojin asked. “I know him. He was quite famous in Stronghold 113’s psychiatric hospital. But aren’t you worried he can’t keep her under control? What if your family’s safety gets compromised?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I’m not worried about the safety of my family right now. I’m just afraid that Chen Wudi will beat her to death.”

After all, he would not be able to complete the quest if she got beaten to death.

Chapter 158: Three battles with the White Bone Specter

Xiaoyu was busy washing and snapping apart vegetables in the backyard of the shop. Since last night, she had not been near Dong Funan at all, because Ren Xiaosu had informed her that something was wrong with Dong Funan.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong even before Yang Xiaojin told him about Dong Funan. Although he had received a sincere gratitude from her, what stood out to him was that she had rejected Luo Lan’s approaches too readily.

Moreover, she only said her strength was greater than normal when asked about her superpower.

This made Ren Xiaosu a little suspicious. Was it really only her strength that was greater, or was she deliberately concealing her true power? So based on these suspicions, Ren Xiaosu had Xiaoyu stay away from Dong Funan to prevent any accidents from happening.

Thinking about it now, Dong Funan might have some kind of ability to distinguish who were supernatural beings. After she arrived at the shop, she immediately cast Luo Lan aside because she had discovered there were two supernatural beings here whose blood she could feed on.

However, Dong Funan was still very cautious. She waited until she had fully recovered from her injuries and when Chen Wudi was alone before she decided to make her move.

At present, Chen Wudi was sitting on a small stool next to Dong Funan and completely absorbed in watched a row of ants marching on the ground.

He still did not realize that Dong Funan, who was originally tied up behind him, had slowly freed herself from the binds.

Her slim and extremely flexible body was just like a snake’s, allowing her to distort her joints as she liked. This made the rope that was binding her look like a decoration of sorts.

Xiaoyu shouted from outside, “Wudi, it’s time for lunch.”

“OK, Big Sister Xiaoyu,” Chen Wudi said obediently. But all of a sudden, Dong Funan’s arm moved up towards Chen Wudi’s neck. It was as though she had leaned her entire body against his back.

Dong Funan whispered, “Little boy, what are you looking at?”

“Almsgiver, please behave yourself,” Chen Wudi said in a startled manner.

But just as he finished speaking, Dong Funan opened her scarlet mouth. The two canine teeth in her mouth grew rapidly as she bit down onto Chen Wudi’s neck! With a crack, her teeth broke off.

When Dong Funan bit his neck, a faint golden armor suddenly appeared under his skin on his shoulder. Then the armor even covered the entirety of his shoulder to his neck.

Dong Funan could never have expected such a thing to happen. She did not even know what Chen Wudi’s power was, but the armor was way too hard!

But before she could react, a gust of wind stirred in the room. Chen Wudi immediately knelt and turned around, landing a heavy punch in Dong Funan’s abdomen!

In the dimly lit room, Dong Funan could even see Chen Wudi’s veins protruding after his armor vanished. The punch made her splutter out a mouthful of blood as she nearly got killed by him!

However, Chen Wudi did not hold back just because she was a woman. He landed yet another punch onto the left side of Dong Funan’s face.

By this time, Dong Funan had completely lost her combat capabilities and even the ability to think properly as her head buzzed, ringing.

“Don’t…” When Dong Funan was about to beg for mercy, she noticed the iron fist had once again punched her on the right side of her face!

When Dong Funan received the first punch, she knew she couldn’t fight back. She was definitely not as powerful as Chen Wudi, so she thought of just lying on the ground and admitting defeat. But with Chen Wudi raining a combo of punches on her, she did not even get the chance to lie on the ground.

Chen Wudi straightened up and sneered, “I had thought you were the White Dragon Horse, but I didn’t expect you’d turn out to be the White Bone Specter. However, you’re still too weak to take a single punch from the Great Sage.”

Dong Funan was nearly crying as she laid on the ground. “Then just punching me once would be enough. Why did you have to punch me two more times?”

Chen Wudi sneered. “Because I have to fight three battles with the White Bone Specter.”

Dong Funan was confused.

In Chen Wudi’s memory, there were many twists and turns in the plot of the “three battles with the White Bone Specter.” For the first two battles, his master would misunderstand him, before getting convinced after the third battle that he had really defeated a demon. Hence, Chen Wudi thought that in order to avoid his master’s misunderstandings, he would finish all three “battles” at once. In that way, he could skip the misunderstandings that would happen in between each of them!

Hehe, he really impressed himself by how quick-witted he was.

“Do you think I’ve never read Journey to the West before? Are you implying that the ‘three battles with the White Bone Specter’ was completed all at once?” Dong Funan laid on the ground and started crying in pain.

At this moment, Xiaoyu came into the room. She found that Chen Wudi had beaten Dong Funan to tears.

When Dong Funan saw Xiaoyu, she immediately said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, you’re the kindest person here. Can you ask them to let me go?”

But then, Dong Funan saw Xiaoyu hand Chen Wudi another rope. “Tie her up more securely this time. After that, come and have lunch.”

Dong Funan wondered what kind of people lived in this house. Why weren’t they taking people’s lives seriously?!

She still did not know she had fallen into the hands of the most vicious family in Stronghold 109…

Although Dong Funan had killed people before, she still grew up in the peaceful environment of the stronghold. To be honest, Yan Liuyuan had killed more people than her.

She had wanted to wait in front of the Pyro Company in case someone went there to sell their blood. Then she would just wait for the seller to come out before she followed them home to feast on their blood.

Dong Funan grew stronger each time she sucked on someone’s blood. So she wondered if she would get stronger even faster if she sucked the blood of a supernatural being. She couldn’t figure out how she ended up in this sorry state.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu thought that this woman’s modus operandi was just like children playing a game. She had no plans at all. Just as Yang Xiaojin had said, she was indeed a newbie. She was unlike Ren Xiaosu and the others who were used to seeing people die all the time and who had a great deal of combat experience.

She was also not trained by an organization like Yang Xiaojin, who not only had a lot of messed up skills but also had a fully functioning organization behind to provide her with intel.

Thus, Dong Funan was actually just a normal person who suddenly gained a superpower and was then corrupted by this strange and powerful ability.

When Ren Xiaosu returned home with Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong in the evening, he saw Dong Funan tied up in the room with her face all bruised and swollen. While looking at them through swollen eyes, her eyes took on a look of despair.

Frankly, Ren Xiaosu did not want to treat a woman like this. But in such times, were security risks differentiated by male and female?

Bad people were not always men; they could also be women, elders, or even children. Anything was possible. That was just how it was in these wastelands.

Kindness was precious, but if you were kind and unarmed, that would only be seen as weakness.

Then, Dong Funan heard Xiaoyu say to Ren Xiaosu, “What should we do now? Why don’t we just kill her?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu said, “But lock the door properly. Don’t let Luo Lan see her like this. Wudi, you did a very good job this time. Well done.”

Wasn’t he only doing this because he still had to “keep” her for another six days to complete the quest? Ren Xiaosu was actually looking forward to the new product that would be unlocked in the vending machine.

Next to him, Chen Wudi was really happy. He really managed to avoid the misunderstandings by finishing the three “battles” all at once.

Chapter 159: Hypnosis

“Do y’all feel like something’s wrong?” Ren Xiaosu asked during dinner.

“It really does feel like something’s wrong,” Wang Fugui said as he wiped his mouth.

Yan Liuyuan said, “We’re missing the noise that Luo Lan brings when he tries to get into Dong Funan’s good books.”

This was an unusual night. Luo Lan, who had come to the shop nearly three times a day for the past few days, did not even appear once today.

Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan and his men were planning their heist on the No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital. Surely it wasn’t going to happen tonight, was it?

He asked, “Do y’all know where No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital is?”

“What’s the matter?” Xiaoyu asked in surprise. “Liuyuan asked me to buy a map of Stronghold 109 just the day before. I’ll go and get it. We should be able to locate No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital with it.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan as he did not expect him to be so prepared.

“I just felt that we were unfamiliar with this place. It’s definitely right if we look at the map first when arriving at a new place,” Yan Liuyuan said.

Yan Liuyuan probably developed this habit after getting influenced by Ren Xiaosu. It was the same with Ren Xiaosu when he went out into the wilderness. He would have to observe the environment and understand it first before there was any chance of survival.

The six of them leaned over the map of the stronghold that covered the entire table and searched for the psychiatric hospital. Wang Fugui suddenly said, “I found it, it’s about ten kilometers from here.”

Ren Xiaosu thought the stronghold was way too big. Just the distance between two places was greater than ten kilometers, and that was already considered close.

He ordered Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, “Watch over Dong Funan closely. Be careful not to let her cause any trouble.” As he trailed off, he thought of something and pulled Yan Liuyuan aside. He whispered, “Don’t make any wishes if there’s no danger.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently. But in reality, both of them understood he would still make a wish if he had to.

After Ren Xiaosu spoke, he left the shop.

…

When it turned dark, the stronghold would usually be bustling as residents headed to teahouses in groups. During those times, the sound of people playing mahjong could be heard as it filled the entire streets.

The more affluent residents could even enjoy hot pot, with the hot pots filled with delicious-looking red broth, fresh vegetables, and meat that were extremely appealing to the palate.

In the current day, eating in a restaurant was a very prestigious affair. If a person often dined out at restaurants, it would mean they were very respected in the stronghold.

The aunties were still performing their plaza dance in the park as though they were not afraid of the cold winter. Meanwhile, some nightclubs were already filled with lonely and single men and women.

When the night sky turned pitch-black, the crowd started to disperse and leave.

A manhole cover outside No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital was suddenly pushed aside from below. Following, 30 combat troops with loaded guns climbed out of it. Luo Lan was there with them as well.

These men had attached silencers to their guns and even camouflaged their faces. All of them appeared to be exceptionally prepared.

No one knew when Qing Zhen started making his arrangements in Stronghold 109, but he already had a proper understanding of the entire underground system of Stronghold 109. Not even the Li Consortium might have known how many people were hidden underground or what other things might be down there.

Tang Zhou spoke into a simple communication device, “Split into three squads and get ready to infiltrate the building according to the briefing.”

The full platoon quickly divided themselves up into three squads, headed towards No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, and surrounded it.

There were more than a 100 security guards guarding No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, but the 30 members of the platoon were unafraid. In their opinion, there was no need to fear the security personnel here as they were only private troops..

Luo Lan followed them with a swagger as he saw the three squads swarm into No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital like three sharp, black daggers.

The moment the Qing Consortium’s combat troops encountered the security personnel in the psychiatric hospital, the guards were eliminated.

The three squads continued advancing until they finally reassembled as a full platoon outside the psychiatric hospital’s main building. Tang Zhou whispered, “Don’t keep lusting for a fight. Once Test Subject No. 2 is located, retreat immediately. Kill all targets on sight other than Test Subject No. 2.”

According to their intel, Test Subject No. 2 would be getting dissected later tonight, which was why they chose to attack since they could not wait any longer.

Only two supernatural beings were held in No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital. But according to their intel, Test Subject No. 1 was far too dangerous. Therefore, Luo Lan decided to give up on the idea to abduct that person.

As the platoon broke through towards the top of the building, all of the psychiatric hospital’s staff were surprised to see the hospital getting stormed. Importantly, it was still peacetime within the stronghold. Although there was that incident caused by the Pyro Company, their members had already been expelled from the stronghold.

Luo Lan was laughing at the back of the platoon as he said, “Don’t show them any mercy. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with killing those who treat their own species as lab rats.” Right now, Luo Lan’s face was filled with bellicosity and excitement.

Many people had the mindset that he was just a good-for-nothing, illegitimate child and would at most address him as “Qing Zhen’s older brother.” However, the people in Stronghold 113, as well as Qing Zhen and his men, all knew very well that Luo Lan was never a coward.

Just his participation in the smaller battles alone was countless. Some people felt that Luo Lan had the same maniacal blood flowing through his veins as his younger brother.

When they passed by the reference library, Luo Lan went inside and found the information related to Test Subject No. 1. This included three bulky and old fashioned videotapes.

He slowly inserted a videotape into the VCR in the reference library and turned on the television.

There were three recordings on this videotape. He saw a handsome young man with fair skin sitting in the interrogation room and a doctor in a white coat sitting across from him.

The young man suddenly asked, “Did you see where ‘I’ went?

“I’m asking you, did you see where ‘I’ went?

“What? Don’t just open your mouth and say nothing.

“Hey, you there, did you see where ‘I’ went?”

The doctor said nothing for a long time.

The young man slowly lowered his head. “Oh… I’m sorry, ‘I’ can’t be found anymore.”

The young man sat there by himself with his head down. He had even lost himself.

Luo Lan stood before the television and quietly watched the footage. For some reason, he felt that the young man seemed to be sitting in a corner of the world as he slowly became forgotten by others and himself until he had nothing left.

This was what true loneliness felt like.

…

In the second clip of the treatment records, the hospital’s hypnotist was trying to hypnotize the young man. In this clip, the young man seemed much more normal than before.

The hypnotist said to the young man, “Close your eyes…. Relax… try to imagine you’re walking along a tunnel as the world gradually fades into darkness….

“It’s a tunnel you’re familiar with. You’re running towards the tunnel on the right, and there’s a light at the end of it. When you get to where the light is… you will arrive at where you want to be. On the count of 3…

“…2…

“…1…”

But at this moment, the young man opened his eyes. The hypnotist asked in surprise, “Why have you opened your eyes?”

The young man smiled and said, “I ran in the wrong direction.”

…

The third clip of the treatment records still showed the hypnosis process.

This time, the hypnotist said to the young man, “Close your eyes…. Relax… imagine being enveloped by warm seawater. While you’re floating on the surface, breathe freely as you like. Once you submerge to the bottom of the sea, you’ll arrive at where you want to be. On the count of 3…

“…2…

“…1…”

However, a surprising turn of events happened. This time, it was the hypnotist who had fell asleep!

Meanwhile, the clip was showing the profile of the young man as he revealed a smile.

Chapter 160: Tiger and pig

The video ended abruptly during the third recording. It seemed like the follow-up research was either meaningless or could not be carried out any further.

But after watching the three video clips, Luo Lan had a feeling the young man was guarding unspeakable secrets. He lamented, “So it turns out this is the legendary Demon Whisperer? It seems like his superpower was awakened during the hypnotism process.”

Tang Zhou asked, “Should we bring him with us?”

“Bring him with us?” Luo Lan shook his head. “I, Luo Lan, still know myself well enough to understand that I can’t control someone like him. Moreover, we don’t know what kind of trouble he’ll cause if we let him out. You don’t know how many people in this psychiatric hospital have died because of him.”

“Demon Whisperer” was a title given by the organizations to supernatural beings who possessed extreme hypnotism methods.

Everyone was unsure about the level of hypnotism they possessed, but Luo Lan was surprised after watching the video. What made it even more scary was that the person in the video had probably only just awakened his superpower at the point the third video clip was being recorded.

Tang Zhou said, “Why don’t we just capture him and bring him back to do research on?”

“Qing Zhen and I do not do such things,” Luo Lan scorned. “Don’t bother about him, we will only take with us the No. 2 test subject.” Luo Lan then continued heading upstairs.

By this point, the platoon had already cleared the entire building. No one was alive other than Test Subjects No. 1 and 2.

The Qing Consortium’s troops performed their tasks efficiently. The Pyro Company would not have been so badly battered by them otherwise. Of course, this was also because the Pyro Company had not expected Luo Lan and his men to suddenly appear there. Furthermore, force Dawn under the Pyro Company had also not participated in the battle.

When Luo Lan passed by the soundproof room that Test Subject No. 1 was isolated in, he subconsciously moved away from it. It was as though he were afraid some beast would suddenly jump out of there.

Luo Lan and Qing Zhen’s father had passed away many years ago. He had died of lung cancer and could not be saved. At that time, their old man called them to his bedside and told them he was actually not worried about Luo Lan. He was more worried about Qing Zhen.

Because of the pride ingrained into Qing Zhen’s bones, it made him a very showy person. If the first half of his life was not smooth sailing, the latter half might not end well.

But Luo Lan was different. As an illegitimate child, he was extremely adaptable to circumstances. Even if someone threw mud on his face, he would not take it up against those he could not afford to mess with.

The younger and older brothers were like a tiger and a pig, respectively.

The younger brother was obviously stronger, but their old man kept reminding Luo Lan to protect his younger brother before passing away. No one could understand what the old man was thinking.

By this time, the platoon had carried Test Subject No. 2 off the operating table. Luo Lan took a look at her, then he curled his lips and said, “She’s too young. She must only be 10 or 11 at most? She could even be my daughter, so how is she supposed to help fight in the battles?!”

“Boss, the Li Consortium’s fighting force has been deployed. We’ve got to hurry and leave now.” Tang Zhou said, “The vehicle is standing by.”

Just as he finished speaking, Luo Lan and Tang Zhou heard a few rumbling sounds outside. They looked out of the operating room’s windows and were surprised to see that the vehicle standing by in the secluded area had exploded. It was as though they were watching a brilliant fireworks show in the middle of the night.

Luo Lan flew into a rage. “Who the fuck is destroying my new vehicles every day for no apparent reason?! I’ll take this to the bitter end with them!”

“Boss, stop yelling. We have to quickly get down into the sewers.” Tang Zhou dragged Luo Lan along as they ran out.

…

It was the wee hours of the morning. When Ren Xiaosu returned to the shop, everyone was still awake as they were worried about his safety. No one could sleep even if they wanted to. As Ren Xiaosu was now the mainstay of the entire family, no one would feel at ease if he wasn’t back.

However, Dong Funan was the one who suffered the most. She really wanted to sleep, but Chen Wudi said that she had to pray for Ren Xiaosu’s safe return together with them.

Dong Funan was dumbfounded. ‘Isn’t it good enough that you people are praying for his safe return? Why should I have to pray as well?! Are you all still human?! Never mind that I’ve been tied up and beaten, you’re even refusing me sleep now?!’

After Ren Xiaosu returned, he sat in the shop and waited quietly, because he reckoned… Luo Lan would probably come over later.

Right as Luo Lan and his group were about to leave the site, a battle ensued between them and the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu believed some people in Luo Lan’s group would get injured. If they needed any treatment, his first choice would definitely be to head to Ren Xiaosu’s place.

Luo Lan and his group got caught up in the battle because Yang Xiaojin had blown up their vehicle again. This girl was really good at sabotaging others, and her mind was probably filled with all kinds of trickeries.

Indeed, it wasn’t long before Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of a manhole cover being lifted up outside the roller shutter door.

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. How did these people accurately locate the manhole cover that was outside their shop’s door?!

Ren Xiaosu raised the roller shutter door and let them in. Luo Lan whispered, “Hurry up and give treatment to these two brothers of mine. I’ll pay you!”

“Mhm, it’s easy since you’re paying,” Ren Xiaosu said slowly. He had a look at the injuries of the soldiers and then said to Xiaoyu, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, remove the bullets from them before you suture their wounds and apply the medicine.”

Then Ren Xiaosu looked at the girl in Tang Zhou’s arms and asked, “Who is this?”

Seeing that the girl was still in a coma, Tang Zhou explained, “This is our boss’s younger cousin.”

Ren Xiaosu nearly burst out laughing. ‘How shameless are y’all to lie like this?’

Chen Wudi also came over to have a look. He scrutinized the girl for a long while. Suddenly, he said to Ren Xiaosu, “Master, she looks like…”

Everyone in the room fell silent.

Luo Lan got so angry he laughed. “What? Does everyone look like the White Dragon Horse to you now?”

“No.” Chen Wudi shook his head and said, “She’s not the White Dragon Horse but a carrying pole.” 1

Luo Lan was confused. Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Luo Lan got really irked this time. “How can such a cute and beautiful little girl be a pole? Even the carrying pole has achieved spiritual awareness?!”

The girl was still unconscious from the anesthesia she received during the operation earlier in the night. Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not understand. How could the people in the stronghold do such a thing to a little girl? Even if she were a supernatural being, they still shouldn’t do something like that, right?!

Luo Lan glared at Chen Wudi. “It’s fine if you want to go seek the scriptures yourself, but why are you always eyeing the people I bring back?”

Chen Wudi said patiently, “Like you’d understand anything, Benbo’erba!”

Luo Lan sneered. “If you claim that she’s a carrying pole, does that make her a carrying pole? Would she agree to that?”

All of a sudden, the girl snorted and slowly regained consciousness. She looked around at the strangers around her, and then her gaze fixated onto Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi.

Chen Wudi tested her by saying, “Carrying pole?”

The girl stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Senior Apprentice Brother?!”

Luo Lan was confused. Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

‘What’s with a carrying pole like you randomly addressing someone as your senior apprentice brother?!’

Luo Lan felt like his intelligence had been insulted again. How could these two lunatics figure out the secret signal?! Just who were the ones going crazy?!

Chapter 161: Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium

The atmosphere in the room stiffened for a while. Honestly, not even Ren Xiaosu expected such a reversal. The strange frequency the two mental patients were communicating on actually connected.

How… unexpected.

As a matter of fact, the scriptures seeking group was becoming more and more complete. Chen Wudi had not only gathered his master and his three disciples, he even considered they would need the carrying pole as well.

Ren Xiaosu thought all that was needed now were the two baskets 1 and the White Dragon Horse to join the group.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan looked at the girl and said with a smile, “Little girl, what are you called in this life?”

“I’m Si Liren,” the girl replied.

“What’s your superpower?” Yan Liuyuan continued asking.

“I have extraordinary strength,” Si Liren said proudly.

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he felt a little hesitant. The last person who said something like that was still tied up and held in a bedroom…

However, Ren Xiaosu felt he could not be too arbitrary. She had successfully reunited with Chen Wudi after all…

Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, “How strong are you? Can you show us?”

Si Liren made a noise of agreement as she casually lifted Wang Dalong. Wang Dalong was so frightened he kept screaming.

Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh, “Looks like Friar Sand is the one who’s getting carried around by the carrying pole in this reincarnation.”

Next to them, Xiaoyu smiled and said, “Liren, are you hungry? Do you want Big Sis to cook something for you?”

“I’m not hungry,” Si Liren said cutely.

Luo Lan could not accept this. He just could not understand why the people he worked so hard to rescue always ended up joining the Western Paradise scriptures seeking group.

After so many days of planning, Ren Xiaosu got the better end of the deal? Why did all the supernatural beings keep flocking to Ren Xiaosu?!

“I don’t believe it. This little girl must have taken a blind guess!” Luo Lan shouted.

“But no one colluded with her beforehand or anything…” Ren Xiaosu said awkwardly. “She was brought here by you and hasn’t left your line of sight either.”

“Chen Wudi mentioned the White Dragon Horse earlier,” Luo Lan said, “so she might have guessed something from that.”

In Luo Lan’s view, how could there be such a coincidence in this world? ‘If you shouted out “carrying pole,” I would shout out “senior apprentice brother?” Who are you fucking trying to bluff?! Is this some kind of comedy?!’

Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu immediately said, “Why are you looking at me? I don’t know what’s going on either.”

It would be justifiable to say that one person was acting crazy, but two people acting crazy together? That was just too strange. At some point, Ren Xiaosu started to believe he might really be the reincarnation of Tripitaka.

Of course, he was very sure this was impossible.

Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan pointed at Luo Lan and asked the girl, “Who is he?”

The girl looked at Luo Lan. “Benbo’erba.”

Luo Lan was confounded and nearly broke down. Ben? Ben, my ass! How could she have also gotten this right?

Yan Liuyuan then pointed at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Who is he?”

“Master!” the little girl said with a sweet smile.

“Who am I?” Yan Liuyuan asked the girl while watching her closely.

“Oh, you’re Little White Dragon,” 1 the girl answered matter-of-factly.

It was Yan Liuyuan’s turn to laugh. “Sadly, I’m not.”

The girl was stunned. She was at a loss. At this moment, they heard clapping come from outside the shop. A handsome young man walked in with a smile on his face. “Sure enough, we can’t fool everyone. Liren, come back over here.”

In that instant, the atmosphere in the room became tense. Ren Xiaosu did not even notice when the young man had stepped in.

Simultaneously, Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and his men raised their guns and aimed at that young man as though they were facing a formidable foe.

It was not that Luo Lan was getting nervous, but that he knew of his identity as a Demon Whisperer!

Luo Lan clearly had not bothered rescuing this young man, so how did he escape from that room? Or was it…

Suddenly, Luo Lan understood. It was likely this young man was not under the control of the psychiatric hospital and had already gained control over everyone in it.

That magical hypnotism was able to control others silently. Although the staff of the psychiatric hospital had been wary enough of him, they might not have even known they were already under his control.

This Demon Whisperer was not released by Luo Lan. He was capable of freely passing through the hospital doors since a long time ago.

Hypnotism like this was truly enough to make all of the powers that be afraid.

Stronghold 109 was probably going to become even more chaotic.

They saw the young man smiling while being held at gunpoint. He said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium. I don’t have any malice towards you all.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. This guy was actually with the Li Consortium? Ren Xiaosu realized who this person was. He was probably that very dangerous person Yang Xiaojin had talked about. However, she had not mentioned he was from the Li Consortium.

Luo Lan whispered, “He’s a Demon Whisperer, and he’s extremely dangerous.”

Actually, Luo Lan was also very puzzled. Even he was unaware that Li Shentan was actually with the Li Consortium. But why did someone from the Li Consortium get locked up in the psychiatric hospital? Wasn’t this the Li Consortium’s own territory?

It seemed like there was much more behind this “abandoned son” phrase he mentioned.

The girl named Si Liren had already returned to Li Shentan’s side. It seemed he had purposely allowed the girl to get saved by Luo Lan. But what was their motive in doing that? Was it just for the sake of locating where they stayed?

Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling of being exposed. Li Shentan knew about Chen Wudi and knew what he had said before. He even knew Chen Wudi identified Luo Lan as Benbo’erba!

What a terrible feeling this was. It felt as though everything was in his control.

But how did he know about all that? Did the Qing Consortium get infiltrated? With his power, it would be a piece of cake for him to obtain intel from members of the Qing Consortium.

Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, “What do you want?”

Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “It’s just that the two of us are getting a little lonely in this stronghold. Now that so many friends have gathered here, I feel we should come out to greet everyone.”

“Alright, the introductions are over.” Ren Xiaosu prepared to see them out. He did not have any intention of crossing paths with this Demon Whisperer.

But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt like a huge burden had been lifted off his chest after learning that Si Liren was not really a “carrying pole.” He truly did not want to be Tripitaka.

Li Shentan seemed quite surprised about Ren Xiaosu’s attitude, but he wasn’t particularly bothered.

He suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, “Somehow, I get the feeling there’s something very special about you.”

It was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be surprised. “I’m super handsome?”

“No, no, no.” Li Shentan pointed at his head and said with a laugh, “You’re very special here, so… let’s meet again if fate allows. On top of that, Boss Luo, I didn’t hypnotize any of your subordinates, so don’t worry too much.”

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why didn’t you leave the psychiatric hospital before now?”

Li Shentan gave it some thought and said, “Because it wasn’t the right time to come out.” Li Shentan then led Si Liren out and walked off into the darkness.

Before they left, Si Liren even turned around and waved to everyone. “Bye bye, everyone. I’m very happy to have met you all!”

Ren Xiaosu realized from Li Shentan’s words that he must have something he needed to do since he decided to leave the hospital. Could it also have something to do with the Li Consortium’s research results?

Luo Lan let out a sigh beside him. “It was all for naught in the end. I had better keep chatting up Dong Funan. I think she’s still the more reliable one.”

Ren Xiaosu remained speechless as he stared at Luo Lan. He hesitated over whether he should tell Luo Lan that Dong Funan was actually not reliable either.

Chapter 162: Rebuilding Stronghold 113

In the end, Ren Xiaosu did not tell Luo Lan the truth about Dong Funan. He thought it would be better to wait for the seven-day deadline to pass before saying anything to him. What if Luo Lan caused a ruckus when he saw Dong Funan with a bloody nose and bruised face?

At this moment, Dong Funan, who was locked up in the room, wanted nothing more than to get married to Luo Lan on the spot as long as he could take her away. But Chen Wudi had tied her up too securely this time. Moreover, Wang Fugui even found some medicinal herbs and stuffed them into her mouth. It numbed her mouth so much so that she could not make a sound!

There were plenty of medicinal herbs in the shop to spare. However, what Dong Funan couldn’t understand was why everyone in this family was so proficient at what they did!

Even though Wang Fugui was a kind person, he had lived as a refugee for a long time. So he definitely had a few tricks up his sleeve.

The refugees were different from the stronghold’s residents as they faced imminent danger the day they were born.

Luo Lan chatted with Dong Funan for a while through the door but found that it was meaningless to keep talking by himself. He got bored after a while.

Ren Xiaosu chuckled, “Drink some water if you’re thirsty.”

Luo Lan sat in a chair in the yard and sighed. “It’s a little surprising that Li Shentan broke out of the psychiatric hospital. I was trying to be really careful when I went there since I was afraid he would get out and cause trouble.”

“I’m curious about something.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Didn’t y’all know that he’s from the Li Consortium?”

At this moment, Luo Lan carefully recalled the past records he had read about Li Shentan. He confirmed there was no mention of the Li Consortium in the intel he received. However, he suddenly remembered the three video clips he watched. At that time, he could even feel the person’s sense of loneliness and abandonment through the television screen.

Luo Lan said, “Did you hear him describing himself as the abandoned son of the Li Consortium? Could it be possible that he was institutionalized by the Li Consortium?”

“Why would the Li Consortium imprison one of their own?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“How would I know?” Luo Lan said disconsolately, “The inner workings of an org aren’t as perfect as you think. Infighting and plotting can be found everywhere. If you want to come out on top within the ‘family,’ you have to sacrifice brothers and sisters to advance.”

“Then how many brothers and sisters have you and Qing Zhen sacrificed?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.

Luo Lan replied in a suddenly solemn voice, “Qing Zhen and I don’t have any other choice. He was born to be a leader, so he should get to the top of the mountain to view the scenery from up there.”

“What about you then?” Ren Xiaosu said, slightly stunned. He realized just how protective Luo Lan was of his younger brother.

Luo Lan had said his life was not worth a thing when Wang Fugui requested to get rewarded for their lifesaving favor to them. But when Qing Zhen’s name was brought up, Luo Lan immediately turned generous.

“Me?” Luo Lan smiled. “All I have is this worthless life. I’ll live no matter what happens.” Luo Lan did not sound indignant at all. It was as though he thought it was right and proper of him to do so. His younger brother should be regarded as high and mighty, while he was just a worthless person.

“Oh, yes.” Luo Lan glanced at Ren Xiaosu. “Don’t be too conspicuous these days. Even the Yang Consortium has arrived in this stronghold, and there are still people from the Pyro Company hiding somewhere as well. Now that the Demon Whisperer has come out to make trouble, who knows what’s going to happen?”

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at him. “Do you think it’s right for you to say this to me? Aren’t you the most conspicuous person in the stronghold right now!”

“Hahahaha, is that so?” Luo Lan started laughing. “Am I that outstanding?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ‘Why are you so proud of that!’

“By the way, the people from the Saboteurs are here too.” Luo Lan got furious. “Someone targeted and destroyed two of my two vehicles from a distance. It must be those people from the Saboteurs since they’re the only ones who would do such things with no apparent reason!”

It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu finally found out that Yang Xiaojin might be a member of the Saboteurs. But he thought of a question. Luo Lan had mentioned earlier that the Yang Consortium was also here, so could Yang Xiaojin have anything to do with the Yang Consortium too?

“What about your Qing Consortium?” Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. “Has the Qing Consortium sent you alone?”

“Who are you looking down on?” Luo Lan snapped, “So what if it’s only me? I can take on 1,000 people, alright?”

“Sure, sure, I meant to say, didn’t the Qing Consortium send anyone to support you?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“No, they’re busy dealing with matters in Stronghold 113 and the Jing Mountains.”

…

The terrain of Stronghold 111 was neither flat nor regular. The landscape’s topography was higher in the west and got lower towards the east, with the entire stronghold built next to a mountain. The mountain at Stronghold 111 was called Mt. Ginkgo. When the ginkgo leaves turned yellow in autumn, the entire mountain would turn golden. The Qing Consortium’s headquarters were located here on the mountainside.

At this moment, a large convoy set off from the city towards Mt. Ginkgo. The pedestrians in the stronghold pushed and shoved to get to the front to have a look. They knew these big shots of the Qing Consortium were members of the board of directors.

At this time each month, these executives of the Qing Consortium would usually drive to Mt. Ginkgo to attend a meeting. They would discuss matters that determined the life of the organization.

By evening, the huge manor atop Mt. Ginkgo was brightly lit. There were 13 men, made up of the young, middle-aged, and old, seated quietly within the conference room.

A huge tiger head made into a specimen from a dead tiger hung above them on the wall of the conference room. Humans had always enjoyed such repulsive hobbies. Before it died, the tiger was considered the king of beasts. However, it ended up becoming humanity’s plaything after its death. This was the power of humanity.

The entire conference room looked magnificent and grand. It was as though this place was never affected by The Cataclysm, and those who were here had always held authority in their hands.

The elder seated in the seat of honor was tapping his fingers on the table. “How is Qing Huai’s progress?”

“They’ve went around the Jing Mountains two days ago, and it’s estimated they’ll reach Stronghold 113 by today.” A middle-aged man said, “When the post-disaster rebuilding team arrives, they’ll head with them to the Jing Mountains to locate the creature that appeared in the volcano’s crater. Now that the creature has fallen back into a slumber, it seems like it doesn’t intend to leave the crater anymore. We suspect it has some sort of reliance on the temperature within the volcano.”

“Can Qing Huai handle it?” the elder in the seat of honor asked calmly. “The coal mines near Stronghold 113 are extremely important, so they must be rebuilt as soon as possible.”

“Qing Huai has already gone there with a combat brigade. It shouldn’t be a problem dealing with a few hundred Experimentals,” the middle-aged man replied.

“Since the resources near Stronghold 113 are extremely important, the post-disaster rebuilding work must be completed as quickly as possible. Qing Yun, coordinate with them to allocate some refugees to work over there,” the elder said.

A young man who was sitting at the end of the table smiled and said, “Alright, I understand.” The young man’s hair was neatly slicked back. Under the lighting, his smooth hair appeared elegant and crystalline.

“You’ve got to adopt a cautious attitude when handling this matter. If anything goes wrong, you won’t be sitting here in the future.” The elder frowned.

The young man lowered his head. “I understand.”

Someone nearby laughed and said, “You don’t have to be that harsh on the young ones.”

The elder did not answer. Instead, he switched topics and asked, “What is Qing Zhen doing now?”

“He doesn’t have anything to do other than go to the theater to listen to songs every day,” someone replied. “He listens to random songs with nothing specific in mind, nor does he have a favorite performer he watches.”

“OK.” The elder nodded calmly. “Let’s leave him out to dry for now. That young man is getting too arrogant and needs to be suppressed. He needs to learn that the power of money might come from an exchange system, but the power of authority is given by the consortium. Without a home, there will be no rules, nor will there be any authority to speak of.”

The others did not express their views on this. But at this moment, someone knocked on the door of the conference room.

The elder said softly, “Come in.”

The person who walked in was a secretary. The elder’s frown deepened as the secretary whispered something into his ear. He looked up at the others present in the meeting and said, “The 7th Combat Brigade led by Qing Huai was attacked by the Experimentals. They’re currently retreating with more than half of their force having taken casualties.”

Chapter 163: A series of strange happenings

All of the Qing Consortium’s executives were talking and laughing in the conference room a moment ago. But now, all of them fell silent.

Qing Huai was considered the best candidate of the middle generation to lead soldiers into battles. The troops under him were also more elite. Everyone had thought the 7th Combat Brigade would definitely head into Stronghold 113 and eliminate the Experimentals. But they did not expect there to be bad news coming back from the front line before the meeting was even over.

“How could the 7th Combat Brigade, made up of several thousand people, get ambushed by a few hundred Experimentals?” someone wondered. “Could this information be false? We all know the 7th Combat Brigade is equipped with the best gear, and its combat capability is the strongest as well.”

Naturally, the person who spoke knew the most powerful units in the Qing Consortium had been the 5th Combat Brigade under Qing Zhen and the 6th Combat Brigade under Luo Lan. But those brigades didn’t exist anymore.

The 5th Combat Brigade had already been disbanded, and all of their soldiers had been separated and reassigned to other brigades, whereas the 6th Combat Brigade had perished in the earthquake.

In reality, everyone had been reluctant to make a move on Qing Zhen because he and Luo Lan each possessed a relatively stronger military force that they dreaded. But now that something had happened to Luo Lan, Qing Zhen would be left to fend for himself.

However, they were unaware that not all of Luo Lan’s soldiers had perished in the disaster at Stronghold 113. The earthquake only split the military base in two, forcibly separating the combat troops and making it impossible for them to join up with the other.

At present, the displacement in the ground that stretched from the Jing Mountains was known as the Stair of the Jing Mountains. It was as though the stairs had been forcefully squeezed out of the ground like a crease in the plains.

It was almost foreseeable that this place would become a new mountain range within the next few centuries or millennia.

But the Qing Consortium would not give up on this place until they discovered new coal mines.

That elder in the conference room calmly said, “The number of Experimentals has exceeded our estimation. There are probably close to a thousand of them. When Qing Huai and his men were setting up camp, the Experimentals attacked them with lightning speed. Qing Huai hadn’t expected that the Experimentals would initiate the attack. Right now, I suspect that a new life form has emerged from the hordes of Experimentals… one that has intelligence.”

“It seems Stronghold 113 has become their lair.” Someone sighed. “Why don’t we get Qing Zhen to deal with those Experimentals? He’s a veteran, after all.”

When the elder looked at the person who suggested that, a kind of inexplicable pressure descended on the conference room. The elder said, “Qing Yun, take the 1st Combat Brigade with you. How can the will of the organization compromise with an individual? From today onwards, Qing Zhen is not allowed to take a single step out of his villa.”

The other executives in the conference room began to have their own considerations. Qing Zhen had proven his capabilities to the organization over the years. But with the will of the organization changed, this capable young man could only end up a dignified prisoner.

But they felt that if Qing Zhen had been the one sent to Stronghold 113, the outcome of the mission would be completely different.

Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had suffered a terrible loss in the incident in the Jing Mountains. But who could have expected natural disasters like an earthquake and volcanic eruption to happen? This was an act of nature.

…

At this moment, a convoy of vehicles carrying goods and supplies were driving slowly towards Stronghold 109. A black figure was clinging to the undercarriage of a large truck. This person was Xu Xianchu, who had traveled on a long and arduous journey to Stronghold 109.

Xu Xianchu clenched his teeth and persisted. It was not easy to cling to the undercarriage, but he was determined to sneak into Stronghold 109. At a time like this, who would expect Xu Xianchu to enter Stronghold 109 like this?

In reality, no one in Stronghold 109 was particularly interested in arresting Xu Xianchu like he had anticipated. After all, this place was not controlled by the Qing Consortium. Even if Lu Yuan was diplomatic towards them, he was not going to actively follow up on this case.

Moreover, everyone felt Xu Xianchu would not attempt to get into the stronghold by force. Hence, Ren Xiaosu discovered that even though the Public Order Division had put up a wanted poster of Xu Xianchu when he visited the jewelry shop, they only instructed the shop owners to report to them should someone come to sell unknown sources of gold. If they wanted to carry out stringent checks, it would probably be much stricter than this.

This was why Xu Xianchu went with the most correct judgment based on his common sense.

The private troops on guard duty would be changing shifts soon.

Xu Xianchu knew exactly what the private troops’ behavior was like. This applied to almost all of the private troops in the world since all the organizations in the world were almost the same.

When he was still at Stronghold 113, he had observed that the private troops would usually check the cargo trucks very carefully when they were passing through. But their inspection would get a lot slacker during the shift change at night. In fact, many contraband items were transported into the stronghold during that time frame. Some people would even purposely bribe the private troops in hopes that they would turn a blind eye to their activities.

Xu Xianchu had guessed that it would be the same for the private troops in Stronghold 109. Of course, he was not a 100% sure of that. But if he wanted to infiltrate the stronghold, this was the only time he could do it. If he could not get in, he would just be forced to run away again. It was not like those private troops could stop him anyway.

Sure enough, it was just as Xu Xianchu had predicted. This goods and supplies convoy was not even given the most basic of inspections as it entered the stronghold.

This made Xu Xianchu both relieved and suspicious at the same time. It seemed to him like the management of the private troops in Stronghold 109 was slacker than that of Stronghold 113.

After the convoy drove noisily into the stronghold, Xu Xianchu climbed into the cargo container from underneath the truck. These vehicles were similar to coal trucks, with an open-air hauler.

Xu Xianchu sat in the container and thought about the next phase of his plan. As he was exhausted from fleeing, all he wanted was to find a secluded place where he could eat something and get some rest.

When he looked at the goods in the container, Xu Xianchu suddenly had some doubts. Everything here was sealed in wooden boxes, so he could not see what was in them.

Xu Xianchu took out his dagger to pry open a wooden box. He was stunned when he saw the goods, because they were all filled with guns and ammunition!

All of a sudden, the truck deviated from the convoy. The rest of the vehicles continued driving forward, but the truck he was in had separated from the main group and was headed for who knew where.

Xu Xianchu immediately knew something was wrong. This truck was not delivering the firearms to the Li Consortium. If it were, it would not have to do it in secret. Someone must be smuggling all of these weapons in!

Before he could figure it out, the truck came to a halt. Then he heard a voice come from outside the truck, “Hurry up, unload the goods and place them in the warehouse. Find an opportunity tomorrow to distribute them.”

The side door of the container opened up with a rumble. Right after, Xu Xianchu and Luo Lan stared at each other.

As it was in the wee hours of the morning, Luo Lan looked into the container while shining a flashlight. He wanted to have a clearer look at the person inside the container. Then—

Luo Lan shouted, “The fuck! Xu Xianchu?”

Chapter 164: The Qing Consortium is too petty!

Luo Lan was still quite famous in Stronghold 113 and would often attend public events such as ceremonies and galas. The private troops would then assume the role of security personnel at such events. So Xu Xianchu had seen Luo Lan before.

But Xu Xianchu was a little stunned. He could never have expected to encounter Luo Lan at this place! But he quickly realized there was an inevitable connection behind this seeming coincidence.

The time Xu Xianchu chose to infiltrate Stronghold 109 was when the private troops were laziest in carrying out their inspection duties. Hence, many people usually chose this time frame to smuggle items into the stronghold.

Currently, the Qing Consortium could only rely on smuggling to transport firearms into the stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium. So by stowing away in a vehicle that was used for smuggling, he ended up meeting Luo Lan, who was just receiving a batch of smuggled firearms.

But surely this truckload of firearms would be enough to launch a small-scale battle, right? Was the Qing Consortium going to attack Stronghold 109?!

The most difficult thing for Xu Xianchu to accept was that he got recognized at a glance even when his face had already become so dirty!

In that instant, Xu Xianchu jumped out of the container. He kicked Luo Lan in the chest and ran out onto the street. The Qing Consortium’s troops would not be able to react yet. If he did not get away at this moment, he might not be able to escape from them later on.

After getting kicked, Luo Lan groaned and fell to the ground. He did not forget to yell to the people around him as he lay on the ground, “Hurry up and catch him! We must capture him no matter what! That’s Xu Xianchu!”

The Qing Consortium’s troops immediately unholstered their guns that were already fitted with silencers and chased after him like a pack of hunting dogs!

Xu Xianchu, who was fleeing up ahead, was frightened to death when he looked back. Although he had a shadow clone that could shield him from bullets, it would not work if too many shots were fired at him!

Xu Xianchu was very puzzled. He had only been a little curious about the secret of the Jing Mountains back then. However, he had not trespassed into the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up. Could they get any pettier than this?!

As they made a mad rush through the streets, the Qing Consortium’s troops did not dare to shoot freely. Even if their guns were equipped with silencers, they would still cause quite a bit of noise if the bullets hit any surface. They would probably have to retreat into the sewers again if the Li Consortium’s combat troops were alerted.

The position where Luo Lan and his men were stationed was not too far away from Ren Xiaosu’s shop. So Xu Xianchu and his pursuers arrived at the door of the shop after running for just a few kilometers.

Ren Xiaosu had been alarmed by the commotion outside. He furtively raised the roller shutter door and watched what was going on. But suddenly, a figure ran past the door. Ren Xiaosu looked in the direction of where it came from and was surprised to see more than ten troops in their black uniforms chasing after whoever had just run past.

Wait a minute, weren’t those troops from the Qing Consortium?

After the troops had also run past the shop, Ren Xiaosu raised the roller shutter door and saw the last person, Luo Lan, running over while panting. Ren Xiaosu laughed. “Who are you chasing after?”

“Xu, Xu Xianchu!” Luo Lan panted as he said, “Ren Xiaosu, I will pay you 100,000 yuan if you get Chen Wudi to help me capture Xu Xianchu!”

Ren Xiaosu froze. So that was fucking Xu Xianchu earlier? Why did he come to Stronghold 109?!

He asked with a strange expression, “Are you sure it’s Xu Xianchu?”

“Yes! It’s definitely him!” Luo Lan confirmed.

Ren Xiaosu was put in a difficult position. He would have to help, but it was not the Qing Consortium he should be helping. In fact, it was Xu Xianchu he wanted to help escape right now! After all, if Xu Xianchu were caught by the Qing Consortium, Ren Xiaosu would probably be in deep fucking shit!

So he had to help Xu Xianchu…

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “Quest: Help someone in dire straits escape.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered why the palace had already judged Xu Xianchu to be someone who was in dire straits. That somehow made it sound like he was in quite a pathetic state right now.

He said to Luo Lan, “You can carry on pursuing Xu Xianchu as you wish, but I will not get involved in matters between you two.” He then lowered the roller shutter door while ignoring whatever Luo Lan was cursing from outside. Ren Xiaosu immediately went to the backyard and climbed over the wall. He ran along the roofs in the direction Xu Xianchu had fled.

In reality, the most important thing to Ren Xiaosu right now was to not let Xu Xianchu fall into the hands of the Qing Consortium…

Chen Wudi also wanted to go out to have a look. However, Yan Liuyuan looked at him and said, “Your master asked you to keep a close watch over the White Bone Specter. If you allow her to escape, I’m guessing he’ll have to recite the headache spell for three days and nights once he gets back…”

Chen Wudi became obedient as soon as he heard that. Dong Funan’s hopes were raised only to be dashed again. In fact, she was still capable of escaping from here. Although she was securely tied with rope, she could still break free of them with some effort. But what was the use of freeing herself from the rope? She couldn’t defeat Chen Wudi! Dong Funan even suspected Chen Wudi might be the strongest supernatural being around at the moment.

Frankly, Dong Funan wanted her freedom back. To hell with sucking blood. She would be a vegetarian for the rest of her life if it meant she could get her freedom back.

Earlier tonight, Ren Xiaosu had a good, long chat with her, during which he essentially let her know that the black medicine used to treat her wasn’t for free and that she had to work to pay it off.

As for how she was going to pay it off? The arrangement would be for her to wash the dishes under the supervision of Chen Wudi…

Dong Funan was really driven to despair. Just based on Ren Xiaosu’s ferocity, it was no different from how the organizations exploited the refugees! She would like to have asked what he did with the money Luo Lan paid him. However, her mouth was still so numb she could not speak a word. Ren Xiaosu told her that if she did not say anything, he would consider her to have given him her consent.

At this moment, Dong Funan was hungering for freedom more than anything else. It would be fine if she only had to face Chen Wudi. But right now, the one she was most worried about was actually Yan Liuyuan.

It was easy to fool Chen Wudi as he was so simple-minded. If she were alone with Chen Wudi, she could probably coax him to let her go. However, Yan Liuyuan would have his eye on her at all times and was an extremely clever and alert person. She could not deceive him a whit.

By this time, Ren Xiaosu had pushed his speed to its limits as he leaped and bound over the roofs. In just a few short minutes, he could already hear the footsteps of the Qing Consortium’s troops.

He glanced at Xu Xianchu, who was up ahead, and was surprised to see he was running with all he had while Luo Lan and his men chased him from behind. However, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled by this. Logically speaking, Xu Xianchu’s current physical fitness should have exceeded that of ordinary humans. So why was he running so slow?

Ren Xiaosu did not know that Xu Xianchu was famished. Why else would he be running so slow?

As Ren Xiaosu kept up with them, he wondered what he should do to save Xu Xianchu without offending Luo Lan at the same time. ‘Wait a minute, don’t I have a godlike power for hitting someone in secret?’

A moment later, Luo Lan suddenly saw a hand stretching out from the shadows of the roof’s eaves next to him. It slapped his forehead, making him tumble to the ground.

Luo Lan realized this was the power used to open doors in the shadows. But wasn’t this power unique to Luo Xinyu? He shouted in fury, “Luo Xinyu, fuck your grandpa! Aren’t you people from the Saboteurs done yet!”

Chapter 165: Ren Xiaosu, you re a good guy

In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not mean to slap Luo Lan’s forehead. His intention was just to open a Shadow Door next to Luo Lan and pull him to a stop. After all, they had a good relationship going. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu also felt a vague sense of respect for Luo Lan and his soldiers. Even though he wanted to save Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu did not want to cause them too much trouble.

It was purely just a slip of the hand that he slapped Luo Lan’s forehead. It was because he still didn’t have full control of the Shadow Door.

However, it was wonderful that it made Luo Lan think it was Luo Xinyu who did it. This girl and Yang Xiaojin had already sabotaged him so many times in the past. If Ren Xiaosu could make the Qing Consortium pay more attention to them, he really would not mind slapping Luo Lan’s forehead a few more times.

Ren Xiaosu kept closing and reopening the Shadow Door. In an instant, the Qing Consortium’s troops felt insecure. They were all afraid the Shadow Door would suddenly open next to them.

All of a sudden, the mysterious Shadow Door caused the Qing Consortium’s troops to fall into disarray. All of them were left wondering where the hand would appear next!

But it wasn’t only them who thought this way. Even Ren Xiaosu himself was unsure of where the Shadow Door would open next.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. By not even knowing where the Shadow Door would appear, he had achieved the highest realm of mystery!

The Shadow Door superpower was really useful since it was impossible to defend against.

In fact, even if Luo Xinyu, who was the originator of the power, used it, she might not be able to use it as effectively as Ren Xiaosu, because she could not open the door as many times as he could. As such, she had always used Shadow Door sparingly.

But Ren Xiaosu did not know that. He thought Shadow Door would not tap into his willpower at all.

Tang Zhou looked at Luo Lan and asked, “Boss, what should we do now?”

Luo Lan said resentfully, “Did you see that? We’re at a huge disadvantage without a supernatural being on our side. Why are all of you so weak? Shouldn’t at least one of you have had your superpowers awakened?”

Tang Zhou replied, “Yes, yes, we’ll try our best to do so…”

Although Luo Lan was disgusted by them, nobody minded it. Boss Luo had always been a jerk anyway.

Luo Lan sighed. “Let’s retreat for now. If we continue chasing him, who knows if monsters might start appearing as well.”

“Boss,” Tang Zhou wondered, “is Xu Xianchu a member of the Saboteurs as well? Why did Luo Xinyu suddenly appear the moment we started pursuing him?”

“That’s impossible,” Luo Lan refuted. “Seeing how pathetic Xu Xianchu looked just now, he’s definitely not a member of the Saboteurs.”

“That’s true.” Tang Zhou nodded.

Ren Xiaosu finally felt relieved when he saw Luo Lan and his men giving up the chase. As long as Xu Xianchu did not get caught by them, everything else would be easy to handle. He glanced in the direction Xu Xianchu had escaped and carefully considered things for a moment before chasing after him.

Ren Xiaosu still felt a little bad for making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat when he was in the Jing Mountains. After all, Xu Xianchu had become the Qing Consortium’s most wanted criminal without even offending anyone. Although Ren Xiaosu had been forced to do so, it did not mean he felt good about it.

Xu Xianchu would have to continue taking the blame, but Ren Xiaosu should still repay him for being the scapegoat, right?

Ren Xiaosu kept looking out for Xu Xianchu’s whereabouts as he made his way forward on the roofs. When he spotted Xu Xianchu, he was surprised to find him hiding on the rooftop of a ranch-style house and gasping for breath. He looked utterly exhausted.

He whisper shouted, “Xu Xianchu!”

Xu Xianchu sprang to his feet and put his guard up. Ren Xiaosu quickly said, “It’s me! Ren Xiaosu!”

Xu Xianchu was stupefied. Then he looked like he had met a family member again. “Ren Xiaosu, what are you doing here!”

“Um, it’s a long story. Stronghold 113 collapsed not long after I got back there, so I had no choice but to flee here.” Ren Xiaosu jumped over to the roof Xu Xianchu was on and asked, “Why did you come here too?”

“Don’t bring it up.” Xu Xianchu said miserably, “I planned to go to Stronghold 112 at first, but that place collapsed as well. Then I headed to Stronghold 111 only to discover the Qing Consortium had already marked me as a most wanted fugitive.”

In fact, Ren Xiaosu felt a bond of friendship when he saw Xu Xianchu. After all, they had traveled together while they were in the Jing Mountains. Although their time spent together was very short, the adversity they went through got them to know each other better and deepened their relationship.

He said to Xu Xianchu, “So you fled here from Stronghold 111? But how did you bump into Luo Lan?”

Xu Xianchu was speechless. “I was hiding in a smuggler’s truck that just so happened to be used by that Fatty Luo to traffic firearms. Eh, were those firearms brought here to deal with you?! I didn’t expect Luo Lan would actually come here just to arrest you. You should be careful. He’s brought in a lot of firearms!”

From Xu Xianchu’s perspective, he would not know why Luo Lan had brought so many firearms into the stronghold. Since Stronghold 113 had collapsed, Luo Lan, as a member of the Qing Consortium, should have returned to Stronghold 111.

Xu Xianchu was unaware that Luo Lan couldn’t return to the Qing Consortium for now. He would be placed under house arrest like Qing Zhen if he returned there.

Xu Xianchu was also unaware of how great a mess Luo Lan had already caused in Stronghold 109, as well as how he was preparing to deal with the remaining people from the Pyro Company who were still hiding in the stronghold.

He had overheard Luo Lan cursing at Luo Xinyu, so he kind of knew it was probably because of Luo Xinyu that he managed to escape so easily. Before this, Xu Xianchu did not know Luo Xinyu was also a supernatural being. After all, he did not go into the Qing Consortium’s perimeter in the Jing Mountains. But now he realized Luo Xinyu might not be that easy to figure out either.

So Xu Xianchu thought Luo Lan had smuggled in the firearms so he could arrest Ren Xiaosu and Luo Xinyu with them.

Worried, Xu Xianchu said, “It must’ve been hard for y’all to escape the pursuit of the Qing Consortium, right?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Yeah, it was really difficult….”

“Why do you think the Qing Consortium is sparing no effort to pursue us?” Xu Xianchu brought up the biggest question weighing on his mind.

Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. “I’m not sure either….”

Now, Xu Xianchu took out half a loaf of cornbread and asked, “Are you hungry?”

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu choked up with emotion. “I’m not hungry. Xu Xianchu, you’re a good guy.”

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu even thought of surrendering himself to the Qing Consortium. He took out a letter and a stack of money from his pocket. “Take this with you.”

Xu Xianchu was taken aback. “What’s this?”

“There’s 5,000 yuan here and a letter.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Take this letter to Stronghold 178 and look for a man named Zhang Jinglin. He’ll see to your future prospects.”

This was something Zhang Jinglin had promised Ren Xiaosu. But now Ren Xiaosu was going to give it to Xu Xianchu.

When he thought about Mr. Zhang, Ren Xiaosu felt that a person like Xu Xianchu would definitely have a chance to shine when he got to the Northern Frontier.

In the first place, Ren Xiaosu’s group did not have much money to speak of. Although their business was slowly getting on track, they had not really made much.

Although he had smelted quite a few gold bars, he could not give them to Xu Xianchu. Otherwise… Xu Xianchu would guess what had happened…

Xu Xianchu asked, “Stronghold 178? I was just thinking of trying my luck there. Although I don’t know who Zhang Jinglin is, let me thank you in advance! Ren Xiaosu, you’re a good guy!”

“Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!”

When Ren Xiaosu saw the gratitude token, he got mixed feelings.

But at this moment, a few dark figures on a roof were slowly approaching them in the distance. Ren Xiaosu looked around and was surprised to find that they had already been surrounded by those people. However, he had never come across any of them before.

When those people got closer, Ren Xiaosu noticed the logo of a small flame on the bosom of their shirts.

Chapter 166: The price of freedom

When Ren Xiaosu saw the Pyro Company’s logo emblazoned on their chests, he was startled.

During this recent period, Ren Xiaosu had gotten a rough idea of the type of organization the Pyro Company was. Their lust for the blood of supernatural beings had placed them way high on Ren Xiaosu’s to-be-wary-of list. Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he heard the Li Consortium had expelled the members of the Pyro Company from the stronghold, because he was worried Chen Wudi would attract their attention after his identity was exposed.

Later, both Luo Lan and Yang Xiaojin mentioned there were still some of the Pyro Company’s members hiding in the stronghold. And tonight, they had targeted him and Xu Xianchu.

Xu Xianchu asked in a whisper, “They’re from the Pyro Company?”

Xu Xianchu was obviously not as knowledgeable as Ren Xiaosu about the outside world. Ren Xiaosu made a sound of affirmation. “Be careful, they’re not good people. They specialize in catching supernatural beings.”

Taken aback, Xu Xianchu said, “Oh, I see.” Xu Xianchu then unholstered the gun he had brought from Stronghold 113. On his journey thus far, he had not used it much at all.

Although firing the gun might attract more trouble, they couldn’t worry about that at this time.

Ren Xiaosu observed the layout of their surroundings and noticed the roofs were mostly even in height. The four members of the Pyro Company were each standing in the north, south, east, and west and looked like they were going to beleaguer Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu. It didn’t look like they were planning on letting either of them off. They might have to fight to the death tonight. However, Ren Xiaosu did not want to show that he had the power to summon a shadow clone in Xu Xianchu’s presence.

One of the young men laughed and said, “We have never failed when ‘Midnight’ strikes. Why don’t the two of you just surrender and save us the trouble?”

Xu Xianchu hesitated before saying, “Midnight? But dawn’s breaking. Something might be wrong with your watch.”

The young man from Midnight was visibly taken aback. He suddenly realized Xu Xianchu might not even have heard of the team called Midnight before.

Ren Xiaosu wondered where this dumb person hailed from. ‘If you want to fight, just fight! What are you being all cocky about?’

But at this moment, Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised their guns and fired. It was as though they had discussed this beforehand and did so without any hesitation!

The loud and clear gunshots cracked through the night, as if trying to scare awake the sleeping stronghold.

Being in a battle meant fighting to the death without the need for superfluous words. You didn’t need to attach any meaning to it or consider the consequences. The moment you placed yourself in a battle, the only consideration was to win!

But the moment Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu raised their guns and fired, their respective targets dodged the bullets by tilting their heads to the side at the same time. They had calculated the trajectory of Ren Xiaosu’s and Xu Xianchu’s shots in an instant, and their reactions were so fast they could move at will.

They barely budged, only tilting their heads to the side to dodge the incoming bullets.

Ren Xiaosu’s heart slowly sank. No wonder they were blabbering on and on. They were actually this formidable?

In fact, he could also judge the short-range trajectory of a shot based on the angle the shooter was aiming at. But if their opponents were all at this level, he realized he and Xu Xianchu might not be able to defeat them.

Although Xu Xianchu had Shadow Clone, his current strength was quite weak and would probably end up becoming a hindrance between the two of them.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the Midnight members and remembered what Yang Xiaojin had mentioned to him about how the Pyro Company’s plans had only been messed up by Luo Lan because Midnight was not there. It seemed like she was serious about that.

He silently examined his options on how to deal with this tough situation before him in his mind. But the four Pyro Company members around him seemed very calm and not in a rush. This put a tremendous amount of pressure on Ren Xiaosu.

If they tried to run away, it might work out for Ren Xiaosu. However, it would be rather difficult for Xu Xianchu to get out of here safely.

Moreover, since he had been targeted by them, could he really avoid future trouble?

They likely targeted Xu Xianchu due to Luo Lan’s pursuit. However, it looked like they had now made a spontaneous decision to capture Xu Xianchu. If Ren Xiaosu departed now, the Pyro Company would probably start searching all over the stronghold for him.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “What are y’all planning to do by taking us away?”

“Contribute to the survival of mankind.” The young man who was the leader of the group smiled and said, “Just think about it. How glorious will it be for your genes to be the last common ancestor of mankind as it survives in the population with the breakthrough of genetic modification. All of humanity will remember you.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “So are y’all also the beneficiaries of genetic modification?”

“That’s right.” The young man smiled and said, “It will be such a great achievement to go down in the annals of history, and the price for that is nothing more than the loss of freedom.”

“What if I choose freedom instead?” Ren Xiaosu asked. Then he tore off a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt. He was thinking of tying it around his hand to let it flutter in the wind.

The young man looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “If you choose freedom, I’m afraid you’ll have to pay a price you can’t afford.”

The nearby residents seemed to have been awoken by the gunshots. In the dark of the night, many of the households suddenly turned on their lights. Ren Xiaosu believed the Li Consortium or other major powers would start arriving soon.

Ren Xiaosu calmed down completely. He looked at the young man and said, “The price of freedom is what makes freedom even nobler.”

The cloth that had been fluttering stopped moving. The atmosphere seemed to solidify as the wind stopped.

Ren Xiaosu muttered silently in his mind, ‘Now!’

In that instant, killing intent struck like lightning from afar.

The young man who was speaking suddenly saw his chest burst apart as his blood sprayed out in a fan shape and splattered onto the roof.

A bullet had rifled in from several hundred meters away. It wasn’t until Ren Xiaosu saw the blood spraying into the air that he heard the gunshot.

The crimson blood contrasted starkly with the dark of the night.

‘Thanks.’ Ren Xiaosu gave a brilliant grin. He said to Xu Xianchu, “Go and handle the left side.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu jumped to the roof on his right. An opening had appeared in the perimeter formed by the four people. This was the way out created by Yang Xiaojin!

There would not be another shot from the sniper. Ren Xiaosu knew that even with Perfect Firearms Proficiency, it would be impossible to hit a fast-moving supernatural being over several hundred meters. Unless, of course, Yang Xiaojin was a god! As such, Ren Xiaosu could only rely on himself.

Because of Ren Xiaosu’s actions, the battlefield was suddenly split into two. Of the three remaining Midnight members, one stayed behind to deal with Xu Xianchu while the other two chased after Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu did not stay put on the roof because he was planning to go all out. He needed to find a place where he would not be seen by others. It was his trump card in this battle!

When Ren Xiaosu jumped down into a small alley, the two members of Midnight following and jumping down as well. But just as they were about to pursue him, they discovered that Ren Xiaosu did not continue running. He stood there alone and trapped them in the alley!

They looked at each other and wondered where this young man’s confidence came from. He dared to challenge the two of them all by himself?!

Chapter 167: Dead end

The alley was only wide enough for about three people to pass through, and it was a dead end.

Ren Xiaosu sized up the two supernatural beings from Midnight as they stood in the dead end. To be honest, he had not seriously fought other supernatural beings before, so he would like to see how he measured up to them. Only by fighting them would he have any idea.

Ren Xiaosu was never a coward. If he were, he would never have survived in the wilderness for such a long time.

Since he could not ignore the problem, he would kill those who caused it. Such was the law of the wilderness.

The two supernatural beings looked at each other and opened fire on Ren Xiaosu in unison. They had already failed once tonight. If they failed again, they would most likely face the fate of obliteration as well.

The walls on either side of the alley were made up of slate-gray bricks, and Ren Xiaosu had no space to avoid being shot. But in that instant, the shadow clone in the palace separated from Ren Xiaosu and appeared in front of him.

Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone were standing in a perfectly straight line. When the bullets hit the shadow clone, it was as though they had been fired into the deep sea. The bullets could not penetrate it to cause any damage to Ren Xiaosu whatsoever.

But as the bullets hit the shadow clone’s body, Ren Xiaosu felt like they were directly hitting him. He could only frown and endure the pain for now.

The intense pain continued to spread through his limbs and bones. But the more the pain, the more sober Ren Xiaosu felt.

It seemed like the two supernatural beings from Midnight had not expected that Ren Xiaosu’s superpower could summon a shadow clone. The reason they had been hunting them was so they could capture Xu Xianchu. The Qing Consortium issuing an arrest warrant for Xu Xianchu, as well his appearance and superpower, was no longer a secret. It made the Pyro Company extremely interested in Xu Xianchu.

They had thought the man Luo Lan had been pursuing was Xu Xianchu, but they did not expect it would turn out to be this person in front of them!

They sneered and threw their pistols to the ground. Then they each drew a long sword from their waists. When it came to hunting supernatural beings, they were the best at it.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw one of them taking off his black leather gloves. What were supposed to be hands under the gloves had turned out to be black claws? Was he still human? Could this be a result of their genetic modifications?

One of the Midnight members laughed and said, “Your courage is admirable.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the two supernatural beings in silence. He simply lifted his hand into the air and grasped something. Then he yanked it out!

The two supernatural beings saw Ren Xiaosu draw a mysterious black saber out of thin air. What kind of power was that? The two of them frowned as they had never seen a supernatural being with two completely different superpowers before.

“Why do you have two types of superpowers?” one of the Midnight members asked as he frowned.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Not two types, but three types.”

During the conversation, Ren Xiaosu activated a tiny Shadow Door next to his wrist. He raised his saber and stabbed it through the Shadow Door.

Shink! The man he was speaking to stared blankly at the saber’s tip that poked out of his chest as blood flowed out. What kind of devious superpower was this?! He could stab him in the back from right in front of him!

The remaining Midnight member was stunned at the sight. He could never have expected that two of their members would get killed so easily!

Not a moment later, the shadow clone rushed him fierce as a train. The remaining supernatural being from Midnight jumped into the air, intending to bypass the shadow clone and kill Ren Xiaosu!

But before he could leap over the shadow clone’s head, the supernatural being saw the shadow clone leap up from the ground as well. He kicked the shadow clone with one of his feet, but the shadow clone took the kick without any fear and grabbed his ankle.

The excruciating pain spread from the supernatural being’s ankle and swept through his consciousness. The shadow clone’s hands were crushing his ankle like a pair of pincers.

With a crack, he was shocked to discover his ankle had really been crushed!

Importantly, their bones and muscles were much tougher than that of most other supernatural beings. In normal battles, they were the ones who could withstand the most attacks. But now the tables had been turned!

Never mind the fact the ghostly shadow clone could block bullets, it could even crush his ankle with its bare hands too? Just how terrifying was its strength!?

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who was initially on high alert, was stunned. Why were these people so weak!

The shadow clone did not stop after crushing its opponent’s ankle. It grabbed his broken ankle and ruthlessly pulled him down towards the ground. As they fought in midair, their movements were so fast that afterimages could be seen. Their powerful moves even felt like it was causing the air around them to combust and explode.

The shadow clone and the supernatural being were trading blows. But the supernatural being suddenly realized that while he was nearly beaten to a pulp, his opponent was still acting like it suffered no damage. During this time, he did not even have the chance to use his power.

When the two of them landed on the ground, the shadow clone’s feet touched the floor first. However, it did not stop there as it immediately sprinted at the supernatural being again, grabbing him with its hands and slamming his body into the wall of the alley. With a boom, cracks formed on the wall.

The cracks were like a horrible spiderweb that appeared on the wall. The supernatural being who was stuck in it looked like a picture that had been hung on it!

Before he could recover from the shock, he saw the shadow clone take a small step backwards. The shadow clone bent forward with one foot in front. When it moved again, it charged ruthlessly at him like a cannonball, leading with its shoulder to deal maximum damage.

The supernatural being’s abdomen caved in rapidly. It was evident just how terrifying the force of collision was!

Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to heave a sigh of relief, he felt the air behind him ripple like water.

Ren Xiaosu immediately looked behind himself and barely spotted the outline of a supernatural being charging at him with a sword. It turned out Midnight did not only have four members. There was another one lurking in the shadows with his superpower.

“Are they done yet?” Ren Xiaosu sneered.

His abdomen muscles tightened as he twisted his body around and slashed his saber.

His iron will roared through the air. No one knew what would happen in the next moment except for Ren Xiaosu.

With a clang, the supernatural being was shocked to find the sword he usually relied on to fight had broken upon impact with the mysterious black saber like it was made of paper. Right after, he saw his arm separating from his body, and the severed arm was spurting blood like a pump!

His previously transparent body revealed itself in midair, leaving him with nowhere to hide!

Ren Xiaosu already knew the black saber was extremely sharp when he used it to kill the Experimentals. The items his mysterious mind palace gave him had never disappointed him before.

Then Ren Xiaosu tensed his legs as he rushed forward, exuding a huge aura of pressure. Before his opponent could come back to his senses, Ren Xiaosu had taken his enemy off the ground and nailed him to the brick wall at the end of the alley with his black saber!

Ren Xiaosu pulled the black saber out from the wall and corpse, letting it fall awkwardly to the ground because it had lost its support.

Right now, the entire alley seemed to be stained with blood. Ren Xiaosu stood there in silence with only one thought in mind: ‘These people from Midnight don’t seem strong at all.’

As the saying went, it looked like they were heroes, but they turned out to be zeroes.

The supernatural beings were so weak they got defeated even though they had fought three against one. He wondered why they were so cocky in the first place.

Chapter 168: Gaining a new understanding of Ren Xiaosu

Ren Xiaosu recalled his shadow clone and climbed back up onto the roof. Xu Xianchu was sitting up there and gasping violently for breath. His opponent was already dead, his neck snapped like a pastry twist. 1

Ren Xiaosu looked at a tall building in the distance and waved at it. Then he said to Xu Xianchu, “Let’s go to where I live first so that you can take a bath and change clothes. If you wanna get to Stronghold 178, you’ll have to fill your belly before you set off.”

Xu Xianchu said emotionally, “Thank you!”

“Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was seriously considering if he should persuade Xu Xianchu to stay behind just so he could say “thank you” to him every day.

However, Xu Xianchu continued, “But I can’t stay around any longer. After tonight’s battle, they might lock down the entire stronghold even more securely. It’ll be impossible for me to leave when that happens, so now is the best opportunity to ;leave.”

Ren Xiaosu said with some regret, “Aren’t you gonna wait a bit more?”

“I’ll only implicate you if I stay any longer.” Xu Xianchu said sincerely, “Ren Xiaosu, if we’re fated to meet, we’ll meet again!”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and nodded. “We’ll probably see each other again at Stronghold 178, so take care!”

After this exchange, Xu Xianchu left without even looking back. As for how he was planning to leave, it didn’t seem like it was going to pose a problem to Xu Xianchu since he was a former private army officer.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu could hear shuffling footsteps on the streets in the distance. It seemed that the troops from the stronghold were almost here. Ren Xiaosu was really hoping all of the other major powers in the stronghold would fight among themselves. Then no one would have the energy to worry about him once everyone started fighting for their lives.

After Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu left, a security team from the stronghold’s Public Order Division finally arrived. They quickly sealed off the scene and sent their men to inform the Li Consortium.

They could tell something was wrong just by looking at the battle that had taken place here. This was not a fight between normal people; it was a clash involving supernatural beings. Furthermore, the people from the Public Order Division realized that this was not something they could interfere with when they saw the Pyro Company’s logo on the clothes of the dead victims.

In reality, the Public Order Division also knew something was stirring in the stronghold. There was the massacre at No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, and the explosion set off by the Pyro Company when they were attempting to capture some supernatural beings. With these cases put together, even a fool would know it was better not to get embroiled in whatever was going on if they wanted to live.

As a matter of fact, the Public Order Division was made up of average people, and they were only equipped with small-caliber firearms that could be used to deal with run-of-the-mill thieves. But if they encountered a supernatural being, they would definitely end up getting slaughtered.

On the rooftop of a high-rise building in the distance, Yang Xiaojin had just stowed her gun. Beside her, Luo Xinyu was holding the railing and wondering, “Don’t you find it strange? Although that wasn’t the main force of the Midnight task force, that kid still killed them too easily. Did we underestimate him too much?”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin was thinking about something as she looked out at the battlefield in the distance. “True, it was a little unexpected. I used to think his combat strength was not that high, so I didn’t expect him to take on three opponents at the same time. Although I didn’t exactly see what happened in the alley, Ren Xiaosu must’ve faced three opponents if Xu Xianchu only took on one of them.”

“It’s standard for Midnight to have five members per team when conducting missions. They’ve always liked outnumbering their opponents, after all,” Luo Xinyu said in a bored voice. “Somehow, they managed to screw it up this time. After this incident, I reckon they’ll finally understand the principle that numbers mean nothing in the face of absolute power when dealing with a supernatural being.”

“I had wanted to carve out an escape path for him.” Yang Xiaojin was also quite surprised. “But I never imagined he’d end up massacring all of the Midnight members.”

“That lad’s really bloodthirsty.” Luo Xinyu said, “It was so apparent in his eyes when we were making our way into the Jing Mountains. Once there are any signs of a threat, he tries to rid the problem. A supernatural being born of the wilderness has always been more ruthless than those who had their powers awakened in a stronghold.”

Yang Xiaojin said, “It was probably caused by the environment he lived in. He’s only trying to survive, that’s all.”

“Why are you so eager to explain him on his behalf?” Luo Xinyu said in amusement, “This lad’s already powerful enough by himself, and he even has that Chen Wudi, whose combat strength is unknown, on his side too. That already makes their small group quite powerful. Should we draw both the Li Consortium and your Yang Consortium’s attention onto them so the focus won’t be on us?”

“They just want to live a stable life in the stronghold. Don’t give them any unnecessary trouble,” Yang Xiaojin said calmly.

“Hahahahaha,” Luo Xinyu burst out laughing. In reality, she didn’t intend to do anything and just wanted to see Yang Xiaojin’s reaction.

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “It’s a little strange. Even now, no one’s discovered what kind of superpower he has.”

Luo Xinyu asked in surprise, “Don’t you know what his superpower is?”

“And why would I know it?” Yang Xiaojin glanced at Luo Xinyu.

“You two have such a good relationship, so I thought he would tell you about it.” Luo Xinyu chuckled. “You two are deskmates, with one being the student councilor and the other the class monitor…”

Yang Xiaojin looked at her. “The Li Consortium’s combat troops will get here soon. Let’s go.”

“Alright, alright.” Luo Xinyu activated Shadow Door and led Yang Xiaojin away from the rooftop in a flash.

Tonight, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had both updated their understanding of Ren Xiaosu. They had guessed he was a supernatural being, but they never expected him to be so strong.

Something kept bugging Ren Xiaosu during his battle with Midnight. He felt that Midnight’s effectiveness had been exaggerated as they were obviously not that strong, yet they acted as though they were the best.

But in fact, there was a misunderstanding since Midnight was quite well-known. As a matter of fact, this fighting force had successfully captured three supernatural beings in the past.

On most days, this unit would be considered the second echelon 1 to the Pyro Company’s main force.

…

On the same night, the Li Consortium acted out of the norm and imposed martial law across the entire stronghold. During this critical period, they even ordered a curfew on all residents. Those who went out after 10 PM would be treated as criminals and arrested!

At first, the Li Consortium did not want to split up their forces as they wanted to focus all their manpower on protecting the research results. After all, that was their utmost priority right now.

But the frequency of incidents happening in the stronghold was increasing. No matter how good they were at enduring it, they couldn’t sit idle this time.

In fact, the reason Luo Lan’s group kept causing trouble everywhere was so the Li Consortium would be busy up to their ears. Finally, it would get to the point where they would have no choice but to split up their manpower.

And after Ren Xiaosu’s battle with Midnight tonight, the Li Consortium simply could not hold back anymore.

Even before the sun came up, a regiment of soldiers were patrolling the streets. When they discovered any suspicious persons, they would go up and interrogate them.

The private troops and Public Order Division had cut short their leave, with one-third of the Li Consortium’s ORBAT also mobilized for this operation. All of a sudden, it felt like a war was about to break out in the stronghold. The loose strings had all tightened.

Ren Xiaosu could feel the tension outside the shop as a storm brewed in the stronghold.

Chapter 169: Reforming Dong Funan

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu reexamined his mind palace to discover the quest to help someone in dire straits to escape had been completed.

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

This was a long-awaited fitness improvement reward. During the night battle with Midnight, Ren Xiaosu had realized the importance of having a good fitness.

During a battle, the most important and essential traits were strength and speed. When he had overwhelming strength and speed, his opponent might not even get a chance to use their superpower.

Furthermore, the fitness of the shadow clone was double that of Ren Xiaosu’s own physical fitness. This meant it was a multiplier of his strength and speed. The greater Ren Xiaosu’s fitness was, the stronger and faster the shadow clone would be! When Ren Xiaosu’s strength increased by one, the shadow clone’s strength would increase by two.

Currently, Ren Xiaosu’s Strength attribute had reached 8.5, and his Dexterity was 5.1. If he faced the two supernatural beings from Midnight again, he would probably have it easier.

However, he clearly remembered the quest was still incomplete when he parted ways with Xu Xianchu yesterday. It looked like Xu Xianchu had finally left Stronghold 109. As such, the palace passed its judgment and decided the quest was completed at this moment.

But didn’t the quests used to be considered complete as long as he showed the attitude to finish it? Why was it different this time? Could the palace feel bad about the fact Ren Xiaosu had been making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat all this while?

But Ren Xiaosu was glad Yan Liuyuan did not fall sick after making a wish this time. In fact, Yan Liuyuan had made a wish as usual again last night. This was not something Ren Xiaosu could stop him from doing as Yan Liuyuan had a mind of his own regarding such matters.

So Ren Xiaosu could have actually tried dodging the bullets instead of using his shadow clone to block the bullets in the alley last night. However, as he was worried the luck factor would cause Yan Liuyuan to suffer, he didn’t depend on that. And since nothing happened to Yan Liuyuan, it meant Yang Xiaojin’s presence on the battlefield was not due to his wish.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Dong Funan, who was washing dishes in the kitchen. He was in a bind regarding how to handle this woman.

Wang Fugui asked Ren Xiaosu, “Will Chen Wudi be fine by himself when y’all go to school?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before asking, “You’re worried he’ll kill her, ain’tcha?”

Wang Fugui chuckled, “Never you mind.”

After breakfast, Ren Xiaosu took the streetcar to school alone while Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan rode the bicycle to school together. In the morning, Ren Xiaosu had instructed Wang Fugui to purchase as many bicycles as he could once the week’s allocated dose of black medicine has been sold for a high price. Furthermore, he wanted everyone to learn how to ride a bike.

Who knew when the day would come when they would need to escape? Those bicycles would come in handy at that time.

They not only had to buy the bicycles but also maintenance tools to repair the bicycles and mend the tires. This was in case the bicycles broke down and became unusable while they were escaping.

Ren Xiaosu got rather excited when he imagined the sight of a group of people riding on bicycles to escape.

…

When Ren Xiaosu arrived in class, Yang Xiaojin was already at her seat. She looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Did anything strange happen other than the battle with Midnight yesterday?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“Last night, the Qing Consortium suddenly upped the reward for the capture of Luo Xinyu for some reason.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “But the Qing Consortium definitely wouldn’t adjust the reward for no reason. There must be something that happened that we’re unaware of.”

“Hmm…” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly, “I don’t know about that. All I did was save Xu Xianchu. Luo Lan’s group was initially chasing after him, but they couldn’t catch up to him in the end.”

Yang Xiaojin stayed silent for some time. She wasn’t actually expecting an answer from Ren Xiaosu. It was just that she and Luo Xinyu were a little perplexed by this.

“Thank you.” Ren Xiaosu thanked her sincerely. Whether or not he could defeat Midnight by himself, he still had to thank Yang Xiaojin for coming to his rescue.

Yang Xiaojin acknowledged him as though it was no big deal. “Why did you save Xu Xianchu? Do you have some other motive for doing so?”

Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “What other motives could I have? We’re friends, after all, and traveled as a group while we were in the Jing Mountains. No matter what, we’re teammates. If something were to happen to you, I’d also risk my life to save you!”

Yang Xiaojin cast him a glance. “OK.”

And so the matter was considered wrapped up. Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was starting to make more and more people his scapegoats now.

Then Yang Xiaojin asked, “What are you planning to do with Dong Funan?”

When Yang Xiaojin had previously brought her up to Ren Xiaosu, she realized he was not fearful of Dong Funan at all. At the time, she even wondered where Ren Xiaosu’s confidence came from. But now it seemed like Ren Xiaosu had more secrets than she had imagined. Moreover, Chen Wudi was likely to be very powerful as well.

“I was just thinking about it.” Ren Xiaosu felt a little speechless when this was brought up. “I can’t keep her with us forever.”

“Why don’t you hand her over to us then?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Why? Are y’all doing studies on supernatural beings as well?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he did not have a good impression of organizations that conducted research on supernatural beings.

“We don’t do studies on supernatural beings.” Yang Xiaojin said slowly, “We only reform them.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at her in a daze. They could be reformed? How would they reform them? By forcing them to go through physical therapy? He said, “I can hand her over to you, but not just yet.” He counted on his fingers. “In four days.”

“OK,” Yang Xiaojin agreed.

At first, Ren Xiaosu intended to ask Yang Xiaojin if there was any compensation for selling Dong Funan to them. But when he thought about how Yang Xiaojin had come to his rescue last night, he did not say anything about receiving compensation.

At this moment, Jiang Wu walked in from outside the classroom. She stood at the lectern and said, “Final exams will officially start tomorrow. I’ll announce everyone’s examination room and number in a while. Your exam numbers are sorted alphabetically by last name, so you don’t have to come to class tomorrow and can head straight to your stated exam room. I wish all of you luck on your exams.”

During this period, the entire class had been studying very hard, except for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, who did not really pay any attention to the lectures. There were a lot of debates and controversies from outsiders about their class, especially regarding Jiang Wu, who was often ostracized by the faculty.

Therefore, these students who had a close brush with death were very motivated to do well for themselves. Speaking of which, it was quite hilarious too. In the entire class, they were all good students except for the class monitor and student councilor, both of whom did not study hard at all.

Jiang Wu stood at the lectern and said, “Some of you have asked about the university’s admission criteria, so I went to check it with the university in Stronghold 109…”

The classroom fell silent. These days, as long as you were an aspiring student, you’d be ambitious enough to attend university, because being a university student in the current day meant having knowledge, status, and money.

Chapter 170: Straight-A student, Yang Xiaojin

Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin quietly, “What’s university life like?”

Yang Xiaojin gave it some thought and said, “Classes are rather flexible, but the exams can be extremely strict. There are relatively fewer students admitted into universities, and most of them will continue research with their advisers after graduation. It’s said that universities were very lenient with their admissions in the past, but now they’re recruiting fewer and fewer students over time. They’ve become more like a research base these days, and there are only around 20 universities scattered across the hundreds of strongholds in existence. The heads of these universities have already begun to streamline their student recruitment and organizational structures. They go all-out to make breakthroughs in their identified fields of research.”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Do the students get any subsidies?”

“Hmm…” Yang Xiaojin realized her words had fallen on deaf ears. After talking so much, Ren Xiaosu’s only focus was on whether the students would get any subsidies? She said calmly, “No, there are no subsidies.”

“Are you serious?” Ren Xiaosu did not believe her.

Yang Xiaojin said lightly, “You are not suited for scientific research, so don’t go and be a burden to the other university students.”

“How can you say that!” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Why am I a burden?!”

Yang Xiaojin ignored him. Jiang Wu, who was standing at the lectern, said, “If you want to qualify for the university in Stronghold 109, there are only four subjects you’ll be tested on: math, physics, chemistry, and biology. Each subject has a maximum score of 150 points, and the cutoff point for admission last year was 560 points. That is to say, if you want to qualify for university, you’ll have to score above 140 points in each subject.”

Ren Xiaosu gasped. He had taken a mock exam the day before and could only manage to score 140 points in total on four subjects…

He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, “How can I get 140 points in every subject?”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him. “You can get that by skipping a few multiple-choice questions per section.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He couldn’t understand it at all. Was a hopeless student like her who paid no attention in class qualified to act as though she were a model student?! ‘We aren’t that different!’

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something wasn’t right. He decided to ask his mind palace, “What is Yang Xiaojin’s proficiency in math?”

“Intermediate.”

He was very happy when he heard that from the palace. Although her intermediate proficiency in mathematics was definitely better than his, she still wouldn’t be considered a model student.

Eh, wait a minute!

Ren Xiaosu rephrased his question. “What is Yang Xiaojin’s proficiency in math at the senior high level?”

“Perfect.”

Ren Xiaosu realized that by adding in the two words “senior high,” the assessment was completely different! Fuck! In fact, senior high math was considered the most basic level of mathematics.

“What’s Yang Xiaojin’s proficiency in physics at the senior high level?”

“Perfect.”

“What is Yang Xiaojin’s proficiency in chemistry at the senior high level… Forget it, I’m not asking anymore.” Ren Xiaosu sulked. When a hopeless student like him saw Yang Xiaojin sleeping in class every day, he felt a warmth in his chest, knowing that someone else would be accompanying him at the bottom of the class.

But at this moment, he realized he was the only hopeless student in class.

When does one feel the loneliest? Times like these are when one feels loneliest.

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him and then asked, “Are you aiming to go to uni?”

Ren Xiaosu replied, “I’m not qualified.”

Yang Xiaojin was surprised.

…

For the following day’s exams, Ren Xiaosu went to the examination room after locating it. When he looked around, he found no one he knew in the entire classroom. For today’s exams, Ren Xiaosu had come with the mindset of just participating. The results were not as important as the fact that he attempted it.

In the past, examinations were also held in the town’s school, but they were all conducted by Zhang Jinglin in the form of an oral test. In contrast, the examinations here were conducted on test papers.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was just trying to save money on buying paper, so he tested the students by asking them questions one by one. After all, paper was not exactly cheap these days.

How would Zhang Jinglin feel If he learned his image in Ren Xiaosu’s mind was like this?

At this moment, a girl who was seated behind Ren Xiaosu patted him on his back. “Student?”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the girl. “What’s the matter?”

“Um, how are your grades? Can you let me copy your answers?” This girl was relatively good at communicating, so she started a conversation with Ren Xiaosu.

The school had segregated the students to prevent those who knew each other from cheating. However, that would not stop everyone’s enthusiasm to cheat.

All of a sudden, the voice from Ren Xiaosu’s mind palace said, “Quest: Help your fellow student complete her exam.”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked on the spot. He wondered whether the palace had positive or negative fundamental values. How could it even encourage him to aid someone in cheating?

But for Ren Xiaosu, nothing else mattered as long as there was a quest for him to do.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the girl and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll let you copy mine!”

The girl beamed with joy. “Thank you so much!”

“Gratitude received from Li Mo, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘This is killing two birds with one stone. Not only can I complete the quest, but I also earned a gratitude token.’

When the exams began, Li Mo was surprised. She observed Ren Xiaosu from behind and discovered he was writing diligently and answering the test questions. What a good student!

Halfway through the examination, Ren Xiaosu shifted his body to the side and allowed Li Mo to copy his answers.

When she finished copying and felt satisfied, the bell finally rang. Then the teacher went around to collect the tests.

Li Mo looked at Ren Xiaosu happily and said, “I never expected you would answer all the questions. You’re amazing. Did you know how to do all of them?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “No, I don’t.”

Li Mo was confused.

It didn’t matter whether he knew the answers or not. He just had to complete the quest. The palace’s quest required him to help a fellow student “complete” the test, so Ren Xiaosu could not leave any questions blank. What would he do if the palace judged him to have failed the quest if he did not answer a question?

To be honest, it was really quite tiring to fabricate answers for every question on the test.

On his way back home at night, Ren Xiaosu saw Xiaoyu waiting at the door of the shop. When she saw Ren Xiaosu, she reacted as though her savior had arrived. “Xiaosu, you’ve finally returned. Old Wang has been arrested.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “What’s going on? Tell me all the details.”

“Many people from the Public Order Division came over today.” Xiaoyu explained, “They said we didn’t obtain a license from the stronghold to sell the drugs and that the in-house doctor did not have any medical qualifications. So they arrested the person in charge here.”

Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. Although Old Wang getting arrested was a serious matter, it was fine as long it wasn’t related to supernatural beings.

He was most worried that his secret would get exposed and lead to the Li Consortium targeting him. If that happened, it would truly be a serious matter.

“Did they say anything before they left?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Those people from the Public Order Division said that you’d have to make a trip down to their office once you got back.” Xiaoyu said.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “There’s no hurry. Fatty Luo should be coming over to the shop later. I’ll ask him about what’s going on first.”

He also wanted to get Wang Fugui out quickly, but he could not be rash when dealing with this matter. He had to check out the situation with Luo Lan first before deciding on the most suitable way to handle it.

Chapter 171: There’s no such place as Heaven in this world

“But this place isn’t the Qing Consortium’s territory.” Xiaoyu said in worry, “Will approaching Luo Lan be useful?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “He even had the power to help us get legal resident statuses in the stronghold, so it shouldn’t be difficult for him to handle a small matter like this. I don’t think it’ll be an issue at all.”

“What if he doesn’t come over?” Xiaoyu asked.

Yan Liuyuan, who was close by, said, “Don’t worry, Dong Funan is still in our hands.”

As he finished speaking, he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching in the street. Ren Xiaosu turned his head and had a look. Wasn’t that Luo Lan sitting in the passenger seat and looking all cocky?

When the car came to a stop in front of the shop, Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. “You’ve gotten yourself another new car?”

Apparently, Luo Lan was really rich. Xiaoyu had mentioned she had gone to a car dealership to ask about the prices. But whether the cars were branded or not, all of them were being sold at astronomical prices.

Meanwhile, Luo Lan had changed cars several times over the span of a few days.

But Ren Xiaosu did not know that these cars that were sold at “astronomical prices” were just like toys when it came to the financial might of an organization.

Luo Lan jumped out of the car and chuckled, “Why are you all standing at the door?”

“Wang Fugui has been arrested by the Public Order Division.” Ren Xiaosu got straight to the point.

Luo Lan was taken aback. “What happened?”

After Ren Xiaosu explained the situation, Luo Lan frowned. “It seems like some people have set their eyes on your black medicine, probably because it’s so effective. As a result, it made some of the people in this stronghold want to monopolize it for themselves. I’ve seen a lot of such schemes before. First, they’ll resort to all kinds of ways to stop you from selling it before getting someone to approach you with an offer to acquire the formula.”

“Acquire the formula?” Ren Xiaosu asked sullenly. Whoever was capable of getting the black medicine’s formula from him hadn’t been born yet, right? After all, even he himself did not know the formula.

“This is definitely not over.” Luo Lan said, “There’ll be even more trouble coming your way. Even if you can handle one of them, others will keep coming. They’ll make you to land in dire straits and try to buy the black medicine’s formula off you for a very low price.”

“Let’s not talk about what might happen.” Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and asked, “Do you have someone from the Qing Consortium in the Public Order Division?”

Luo Lan said, “Yeah, two of our men were arrested and put in there two days ago…”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He was so angry he almost laughed. “Damn you, that’s not what I was asking.”

“Hahaha, I’m just joking with you.” Luo Lan chuckled.

“So even people from the Qing Consortium have been arrested?” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner. He had been thinking of using Luo Lan to help him get Wang Fugui out of the Public Order Division, but to his surprise, the Qing Consortium also had some of their people arrested.

“You’ve misunderstood.” Luo Lan replied, “I’ll go and talk to Lu Yuan about this. Wang Fugui will be released tonight.”

“Why aren’t you getting your own people out first?” Ren Xiaosu was puzzled.

A little embarrassed, Luo Lan said, “They can’t reveal their identities yet.”

When he said that, Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that both of Luo Lan’s men who had been arrested must have been carrying out illicit activities under Luo Lan’s orders. Therefore, Luo Lan could not show up as of yet to bail them out of trouble. However, he could still help with Wang Fugui.

But before he finished talking to Luo Lan, he saw Wang Fugui entering the shop from outside. Ren Xiaosu was astounded. “Old Wang, didn’t you get arrested by the Public Order Division?”

“Oh.” Wang Fugui explained, “As soon as I got to the Public Order Division, they apparently received some orders from their superiors. After that, they sent me back here.”

“Who did they get their orders from?” Ren Xiaosu wondered. “Did they do anything to you?”

“No, no. Someone told me that it was the stronghold overseer, Lu Yuan, who ordered them to release me,” Wang Fugui said with a smile as though nothing had happened.

Next to them, Luo Lan started getting cocky. “So what do you think? They still have to respect me. That Lu Yuan is really sensible.”

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off. No matter how much Lu Yuan respected Luo Lan, they could not possibly have released Wang Fugui when Luo Lan had not even looked for him yet. Could there be any other reason for this? But Ren Xiaosu did not know what kind of relationship Lu Yuan had with the Qing Consortium. As such, he was unable to make a judgment on this.

In any case, it was good that Wang Fugui had been released.

“Alright, you two continue chatting. I’ll go and talk to Dong Funan.” Luo Lan said with a smile, “There’ll definitely still be problems, but I’ll handle them for you if you come to me.”

“Will those people still continue to pester us now that Lu Yuan has intervened?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“People are motivated by money.” Luo Lan explained, “As the saying goes, the lower ranked they are, the harder it is to get past them. Moreover, Lu Yuan is not the true authority of Stronghold 109. Who knows if it’s the Li Consortium that’s set their eyes on your black medicine? Or it could even be someone who has links with them. Such people can cause you a lot of misery just by constantly harassing you.”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. This was his first time facing such nasty people in the stronghold. If people in the wilderness mugged others with a knife, people in the stronghold did so with a blunt knife.

But ultimately, weren’t they all still robberies however you looked at it?

Wearing a suit would not change the nature of these bandits.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Thanks in advance. If something else happens, I’ll look for you immediately.”

Luo Lan said with a smile, “Now that you’re in the stronghold, you’ll have to adapt to the stronghold’s environment. You can’t just rely on fighting and killing all the time. Tang Zhou, give them the phone number to our place.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, “But aren’t you the one who’s been doing all the fighting and killing recently?”

“Hahahaha, is that so? Luo Lan smiled in embarrassment and said, “That’s also a strategy of mine!”

“And what strategy is that?” Ren Xiaosu asked, curious.

“You see, the Li Consortium guarded their research results like they were treasure and used all of their military might to protect it.” Luo Lan said proudly, “But as you can see, they can’t sit idle with so many incidents happening. They’ve been forced to split up their manpower. As a result, won’t their defense forces at the university get weakened?”

Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “You even have the brains for that? Why do I get the feeling that you’re just making up a reason?”

Luo Lan said unhappily, “Who are you looking down on? I can’t be bothered to talk with you anymore. What a waste of my affection!”

After Luo Lan walked into the backyard, Ren Xiaosu told Wang Fugui and the others, “It’s better to be more careful for the time being.”

“Isn’t there a more direct way to solve this problem?” This was also Wang Fugui’s first time encountering something like this. “What kind of people are these? Such disgusting behavior is not seen even in the wilderness.”

Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “We used to think that the stronghold was a place that all refugees wanted so badly to get into. But it’s only after we got here that I realized there isn’t such a place as Heaven in this world.”

Chapter 172: Rules of the wilderness!

Just as Luo Lan had predicted, the people who coveted the black medicine Ren Xiaosu’s controlled did not give up easily just because of Lu Yuan’s intervention.

As news of the black medicine’s effect circulated through the stronghold, a constant stream of people started coming to the shop to ask about it each day. If it were just for the intended effect of the black medicine, that would have been fine as people would not be as crazy as they were now. But it became magical when news spread that it could treat infertility.

Although Wang Fugui never admitted that the medicine had such an effect, those who came to their shop sought it for this purpose.

Nobody knew if it was an aftereffect of The Cataclysm, but infertility in humans had become increasingly common in recent times. That was where the market for the black medicine came in.

If it were only one stronghold, the market size would be considered relatively small. But many of the medium-sized companies in this stronghold had already gained the ability to sell medical drugs to the other strongholds. At the very least, it would not be a problem to export them to the dozen or so strongholds controlled by the Li Consortium.

If they could seize the formula of this black medicine, their pharmaceutical companies would possess a cash cow that would provide them with a steady stream of income.

Who would ever think they had earned enough money?

Ren Xiaosu headed to school early in the morning to continue taking his exams. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui thought that since it was not yet time to sell the week’s allocated dose of the black medicine, he’d go out to check the bicycle market. Since Ren Xiaosu had told him to purchase some bicycles, he’d have to take a look around.

Since the boss had spoken, the shopkeeper would definitely get down to it.

Xiaoyu also told Chen Wudi to watch over the shop before she went out to buy some groceries. She was planning to cook some pork rib soup for Ren Xiaosu and the others in the evening. After all, many members of the family were still growing, so she wanted to make some nutritious food for them.

But in the morning, several people wearing red uniforms suddenly came down to the shop. When they walked in, they saw Chen Wudi sitting with his legs crossed. “Who is Wang Fugui?”

Chen Wudi glanced at them and asked, “What are you looking for him for?”

“My name is Chen Bohan. We’re from the stronghold’s Legal Division. Someone accused Wang Fugui of unfair business practices, so we’re here to issue him a subpoena,” a man in red said.

Chen Wudi was stunned. “What do you mean by unfair business practices?”

“You’ll know when you attend court at our Legal Division.” Chen Bohan looked at Chen Wudi and said, “You aren’t Wang Fugui, right? You can also sign on his behalf, but this subpoena has to be signed by an adult member of his immediate family. Are you his immediate family?”

“Yes, I am,” Chen Wudi answered.

“Oh, then you can sign it.” Chen Bohan handed a pen to Chen Wudi and asked, “What’s your relationship with the defendant?”

Chen Wudi said, “I’m his Senior Apprentice Brother.”

Chen Bohan was confused. Immediately, he snatched the subpoena back and said, “How does a senior apprentice brother count as immediate family? Are you trying to mess with us?”

Chen Wudi was not happy to hear that. “What do you mean I’m mess with you? Our master and us three fellow disciples are like family, so how am I not his immediate family?”

Chen Bohan from the Legal Division was left speechless for a while. Then he explained, “The meaning of immediate family is not what you defined. Wang Dalong is the immediate family of Wang Fugui. You are not.”

Chen Wudi thought for a while and got even more confused. “What’s the difference? Wang Dalong is our Third Junior Brother. So if Third Junior Brother is his immediate family, why wouldn’t I, as Senior Apprentice Brother, be considered his immediate family?”

Chen Bohan did not know how to react. What sort of nonsensical crap was this?!

Chen Bohan was so frustrated by him that he straight-up turned around and left. He felt he could not communicate with Chen Wudi at all.

When Ren Xiaosu came back in the evening, he frowned after hearing about the event. All of a sudden, he felt he could not fit in with this prosperous stronghold.

When they just arrived in the stronghold, the people on the streetcar got off when they realized that they were refugees.

When he started attending school, the students’ parents wanted him to transfer away because he was a refugee.

Now that their shop was just starting to get popular, people wanted to enforce the laws in the stronghold to deal with them and force them to hand over the black medicine’s formula. If they didn’t do so, they would be imprisoned and their family torn apart.

Ren Xiaosu had yearned to live in the stronghold, but at this moment, he also started having thoughts of leaving like Yan Liuyuan.

The longer he stayed in the stronghold, the more he felt that it was not as comfortable as living in the wilderness.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu wondered, ‘Is it possible to create a home I truly belong to?’

No, he still did not have that power.

But Ren Xiaosu had never been one to run away in the face of problems. Since he knew nothing about the rules of the stronghold, he could only resort to applying his own rules to solve the problem.

Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Fugui, “If they come to deliver the subpoena again, receive it. After that, go to the Legal Division to find out exactly what’s going on and who’s behind it. I’ll handle the rest from there.”

“Nothing will happen right?” Wang Fugui asked worriedly.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Didn’t Luo Lan mention that the Li Consortium has no time to worry about these small matters at the moment?”

In the eyes of the rich, Wang Fugui, Ren Xiaosu, and the others from this shop were just a group of refugees who had recently arrived in the stronghold. Although they had the backing of Lu Yuan and Luo Lan, this was their Li Consortium’s home turf!

But what they did not know was that the person who massacred the Midnight team last night was the owner of this shop.

Right now, news of the Midnight team’s massacre was causing a stir at the highest levels of the Li Consortium. The field survey showed there were only two people who battled against Midnight at night, and one of them had taken on three members of Midnight alone.

Even though Midnight itself was already pretty well-known, there was a supernatural being who could crush them single-handedly? But more importantly, everyone was still in the dark as to who this person was.

Currently, the Demon Whisperer, Li Shentan, was eating noodles in a small shop with Si Liren. Some people around them were discussing what had happened last night.

The Public Order Division did not keep this matter a secret, so the news spread extremely quickly. In the past, the public was still a little unfamiliar with supernatural beings. But after tonight, that gap seemed to have closed by quite a bit.

An uncle sitting next to them was drinking and saying mysteriously, “I told you they don’t know who did it. There were no traces of the murderer.”

“It’s way too cruel. So many of them got killed just like that,” someone said with a sigh.

“Don’t talk like you know anything. Those people from the Pyro Company are not good either,” the uncle scorned. “A friend of mine told me they were the ones who caused the explosion some time ago.”

Li Shentan smiled and said to the girl, “It’s probably that Ren Xiaosu.”

“How do you know it’s him?” Si Liren asked as she blinked.

“There are only so many supernatural beings in this stronghold, and he’s the only one I have no idea of what kind of superpower he has.” When Li Shentan smiled, he looked warm and inviting. No one would guess that he was the Demon Whisperer who was making the organizations feel a little on edge. He continued, “I told you, I knew he’s really powerful.”

“Is it because you weren’t able to hypnotize him?” Si Liren asked curiously.

“No, no, no, I haven’t tried to hypnotize him,” Li Shentan said with a smile, “because my intuition tells me that if I try to hypnotize him, I could end up being hypnotized instead. Of course, that’s just my intuition.”

“Do you want me to kill him?” Si Liren asked. There didn’t seem to be any trace of good or evil in her innocent tone. The malicious words of murder were a huge contrast to her lovely little face.

Li Shentan shook his head. “Why would we kill him? Have you forgotten? We just became friends with him.”

“Oh, right.” Si Liren nodded. “We’re friends now.”

“Besides, you might not be his match either.” Li Shentan sighed.

Chapter 173: The disappearing Experimentals

Stronghold 113 had been reduced to a huge pile of ruins. The prosperous city that once represented human civilization had been destroyed. Rats, feral dogs, and feral cats could be seen lingering around as they searched for food in the ruins. In just a matter of weeks, weeds had already appeared out of the cracks in the concrete ground.

But the rats, dogs, and cats still had to move around cautiously. It was as though they were avoiding something terrible yet unknown.

Suddenly, a platoon of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops wearing their black uniforms appeared out of a small pathway. They were on high alert and were heavily armed in addition to the firearms in their hands.

The huge feral cats and dogs ran away in a hurry when they spotted them. When the platoon leader made a tactical hand signal, two members of the platoon rushed forward to check out the situation behind a huge obstacle up ahead.

That obstacle was a collapsed building.

Their operation was being carried out stealthily. The two pointmen signaled to the advance party: No target spotted.

The platoon pushed forward once again. If someone looked down on them from above, the 30-man platoon would be seen snaking up bit by bit as they moved forward on the battlefield.

After they passed the obstacle, groups of full-strength platoons would immediately fill their positions from behind. Some of the platoons were even armed with a large number of heavy weapons, while others were responsible for building defensive bunkers whenever it was called for.

There were many other similar formations infiltrating in this manner at the northwest of the stronghold. This was the 1st Combat Brigade led by Qing Yun of the Qing Consortium, and the remaining troops from the 7th Combat Brigade that was previously led by Qing Huai had been incorporated by him.

Qing Huai was dead from the previous ambush by the Experimentals. Currently, the 7th Combat Brigade existed in name only. Qing Yun was planning to take full control over this brigade to expand his strength.

As long as this operation was successful, he would be able to replace Qing Zhen’s previous place in the hearts of the Board.

The reason why a large organization never gave in to an individual was because the organization itself had a strong ability to nurture talents. The Board believed the influence of an individual in the entire organization was as good as negligible. If such a large community with shared interests wanted to survive in the long run, it had to believe in the power of the organization, not that of individuals.

Qing Yun was staring coldly at a screen in the command vehicle that was on the furthest end of the ORBAT. At this moment, the dozen-odd screens in the vehicle were each displaying the operational progress of the dozen-odd platoons.

Right now, everything was proceeding smoothly, but Qing Yun couldn’t help but feel a little strange. It was too quiet in the stronghold ruins.

Qing Yun looked at a middle-aged man beside him. “Adjutant Li, was this where you guys were ambushed?”

“That’s right.” Adjutant Li nodded and said, “The Experimentals suddenly cut the infiltrating ORBAT right through the middle and split the entire battlefield in two. They’re very familiar with the terrain here, and their combat prowess is shocking. Ordinary bullets can’t deal fatal damage even when they get hit in vital areas. You must be extremely careful to avoid getting ambushed by them again.”

Qing Yun nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m not Qing Huai. I’ll be waiting right here for them to come out.”

However, as the large ORBAT advanced, they did not see any signs of the Experimentals. The city was so quiet that it felt a little eerie.

Human remains could frequently be seen littered along on either side of the road. It was obvious just how much damage the disaster had caused here.

The face bugs were no longer around after their attack in the aftermath of the disaster. Based on the Qing Consortium’s intel, this place had become the Experimentals’ territory.

But where were the Experimentals?

Suddenly, someone said on the comms channel, “A huge crevasse has been discovered in the ground, and there are signs indicating Experimental activity around here. It’s suspected that they might be hiding underground.”

“Send two platoons in to have a look,” Qing Yun said.

The frontline commander hesitated for a moment before saying on the comms channel, “I’m afraid no one will survive if they encounter any Experimentals belowground.”

Qing Yun frowned. “You don’t need to question orders. All you have to do is to execute my commands.”

“Roger.” The voice on the other end seemed to have calmed down.

Next to him, Adjutant Li did not dare speak out. He wondered who would be the unfortunate ones to get sent down into the crevasse.

All he knew was that he would get summoned to be court-martialed when he returned to Stronghold 111. Instead of sympathizing with others, he might as well sympathize with himself. It was either that or try to make amends in this operation. If Qing Yun could speak up for him when they returned to the stronghold, Adjutant Li would have a chance to push all responsibility onto the dead Qing Huai.

At first, everyone thought they would hear the screams of the troops and gunfire reverberating from inside the crevasse. However, there wasn’t any commotion at all as it remained peaceful throughout.

Suddenly, someone on the front lines spoke on the comms channel. “This likely used to be the Experimentals’ lair. A huge cave has been dug out in here by force. However, there are no signs of Experimentals down here!”

Qing Yun frowned. Where had those Experimentals gone to?!

Right after, someone said on the comms channel, “There’s some sort of a mini research lab in here. It looks like the Experimentals shifted some lab equipment into this place. There’s even used syringes lying on the ground!”

All who heard this were stunned. Based on everyone’s knowledge, the Experimentals were just like wild beasts. No one would associate the Experimentals with performing experiments.

Qing Yun said coldly, “Everyone, retreat. There are probably no more Experimentals left here. Bring all the syringes and lab equipment back to Stronghold 111 for sampling and research. I want to know what on earth they were injecting themselves with!” He then disconnected from the comms channel and picked up the satellite phone to report the situation to the Board located far away in Stronghold 111. Now that Stronghold 113 had become an empty city, no one knew where the thousands of Experimentals had disappeared to.

However, when the soldiers heard the Experimentals could conduct their own research and experiments, as well as inject themselves with drugs, they were shocked and alarmed.

The Board was also lost in thought after receiving the news. They had no idea what it meant.

Then a secretary walked into the conference room and said, “Qing Zhen has gone missing. A convoy was spotted leaving the stronghold just a moment ago. We suspect Qing Zhen is in that convoy.”

A member of the Board frowned and reprimanded, “You can’t even watch over Qing Zhen?!”

Someone else said, “We must thoroughly investigate how Qing Zhen managed to escape the surveillance we put on him. There must be someone helping him in secret. How else could he have escaped from the stronghold without getting detected?”

“It looks like Qing Zhen hasn’t been idle either,” someone sighed.

The elder asked calmly, “Which direction is the convoy headed?”

“They’re heading in the direction of Stronghold 109,” the secretary replied.

“Isn’t that stronghold under the control of the Li Consortium? Is Qing Zhen planning to defect?” someone wondered. “I suggest we chase after him immediately. Qing Zhen knows too many of our consortium’s secrets. If he defects to the Li Consortium, it will likely cause us enormous losses.”

Chapter 174: Qing Zhen’s defection

Defection?

The board of directors in the conference room fell silent. That was a grave crime.

There used to be defections from the Qing Consortium, but it had become a much rarer occurrence in recent years. That was because the price to pay for defection was simply too great, and the organization never let any defectors off.

Someone asked the secretary, “Did Qing Zhen leave any information behind?”

“He left a letter on the table in his villa.” The secretary said, “He said he was going out to take a break from things.”

Everyone in the conference room was stunned. Did Qing Zhen treat the Board’s decision as a game? He was ordered not to take a single step out of his villa, yet he just left the stronghold!

The elder thought for a moment and said, “He wouldn’t go so far as to defect to the Li Consortium. I suspect he must have received news of the disappearing Experimentals from someone. There should be some connection between these two matters. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a coincidence.”

Someone wondered, “Are you saying that Qing Zhen left the stronghold because he received news that the Experimentals have disappeared?”

“It seems like it,” the elder said with a sullen face.

When the board of directors in the conference room heard that, they got a little confused. “But what does the news of the Experimentals disappearing have anything to do with Qing Zhen? Why did he have to escape?”

“It seems that Qing Zhen has concluded that the large number of Experimentals have probably started heading towards Stronghold 109.” The elder said, “Qing Zhen went to Stronghold 109 because he wants to save his older brother, Luo Lan.”

It was no secret that Luo Lan was at Stronghold 109. The consortium did not order him to return only because they could not be bothered with an illegitimate son of the family.

Everyone knew that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had a great relationship. However, they did not expect that Qing Zhen would be willing to risk being branded a defector to escape from Stronghold 111 for Luo Lan’s sake.

“But what’s the use of Qing Zhen going to Stronghold 111 by himself?” someone wondered. “He no longer has anyone under him.”

Someone asked the secretary, “Have there been any movements from the soldiers recently assigned to the other troops?”

“No, they’re all very obedient. Everyone is still holding at their respective military bases,” the secretary said.

With that, everyone went quiet. Based on Qing Zhen’s character, how could he possibly have gone to Stronghold 109 without bringing some people with him?

In that case, there could only be one explanation left. Qing Zhen still had some secret troops under his control that even the Board did not know about.

Actually, wasn’t this exactly the reason the Board had seized Qing Zhen’s power back from him? The most famous Shadow in the organization was about to get out of control.

…

Ren Xiaosu kept feeling like something was off for the past few days. The entire stronghold seemed to have suddenly become peaceful.

No one was stirring up any trouble, and there were no more fights breaking out. It was as though all the different major powers had tried so hard to get into Stronghold 109 just to enter and sightsee.

Ren Xiaosu did not see Yang Xiaojin at the end-of-the-year ceremony after finals finished. According to tradition, students would have homework assigned to them over break during the ceremony, and the exam results would be announced as well. The teachers would also take the opportunity to go over the tests with the students.

However, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have disappeared.

The only thing Ren Xiaosu was not surprised about was that Yang Xiaojin had scored exactly 140 points for each subject in the final exams.

When Jiang Wu was handing back tests to the students, she asked which set of tests belonged to Monitor Ren Xiaosu and which one belonged to Councilor Ren Xiaosu. As a result, Ren Xiaosu took advantage of Yang Xiaojin’s absence and shamelessly claimed the papers with the higher score.

Jiang Wu was a little puzzled as she said to Ren Xiaosu, “The handwriting on that set of tests is very elegant and doesn’t look like yours at all.”

However, she suddenly noticed that the name written on the paper was “Ren Xiaosu, monitor of Class 12-7.” Jiang Wu heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s really your exam. I didn’t expect you to achieve such a high score on the exams.”

Now it was Ren Xiaosu who did not know what to.

Rumor had it that a girl from another 12th grade class had come to look for Ren Xiaosu in the afternoon. She had gathered her classmates to beat him up, but when the large group of them arrived at the door of Ren Xiaosu’s class, they were stopped by his classmates.

The students from the other class were a little puzzled. This class might be wholly united, but could they guarantee he would never be left alone?

However, Ren Xiaosu’s classmates earnestly said to them, “We’re actually protecting you by stopping you here, understand?”

Li Mo was having none of it. “Ren Xiaosu is clearly witless, yet he deliberately allowed me to copy his papers and caused me to score only 40 points total throughout all the subjects. How can someone do something like that?”

Ren Xiaosu was not in the class at this time. His classmates looked at each other and exclaimed, “Did you get it wrong? Ren Xiaosu scored 560 points on his exam!”

Li Mo was confused. Surely this was not something someone could do, right?!

At present, Ren Xiaosu was not in the mood to go to school, nor did he pay any attention to what was happening in school.

That was because he knew that something major was going to happen over the next few days. The present was the calm before the storm.

After he became a supernatural being, he was destined to have a different way of thinking from other students. Those students were still thinking about how to spend their vacation, but Ren Xiaosu had already started thinking about how to survive through the coming chaos.

After he completed the quest in which he’d let Li Mo copy his test, Ren Xiaosu was rewarded with a 1.0 Dexterity increase. As of now, Ren Xiaosu’s Strength was 8.5 and his Dexterity was 6.1. But this small increase in dexterity would probably not make a big difference for the coming crisis.

What Ren Xiaosu was really looking forward to was the reward the palace would give him after completing the quest related to Dong Funan. The reward for the previous side quest was a black saber. So to Ren Xiaosu, the side quest represented a chance of getting a high-quality reward.

Actually, it was not only Yang Xiaojin who had suddenly disappeared. Luo Lan had also not been to the shop for many days. The number of LI Consortium troops on the street had decreased little by little. Eventually, only the private troops and the Public Order Division remained.

Everything felt unusual, bizarre, yet the atmosphere became even more peaceful than normal.

Ren Xiaosu stood at the entrance to the shop and watched pedestrians walk past. Suddenly, a man passed by and stuffed a manila envelope into his hands.

After going back into the shop and opening the envelope, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see a faded yellow ginkgo leaf inside accompanied by a short letter. Was this information sent to him by Luo Lan? Why was there a need to be so mysterious about it?

Ren Xiaosu opened it up and read the letter: “A large number of Experimentals have disappeared from Stronghold 113. It’s suspected that they’re on their way to Stronghold 109. Find a way to leave the stronghold within three days.”

The letter did not mention how they were supposed to leave, but it was kind enough of Luo Lan to issue him a timely reminder. After all, their friendship was not as deep as everyone had imagined.

But what gave Ren Xiaosu a frown was the information that was contained in the letter. It seemed like the Qing Consortium was not very optimistic about the situation of the Experimentals arriving.

Had the Experimentals gone mad? Why were they suddenly attacking Stronghold 109?

No matter what, there were probably going to be major changes in the stronghold within three days. The people who coveted the research results would definitely make a move within these three days.

None of them had any time to waste. The only question was who would be the first to make a move and unveil the curtain to the chaos.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others, “It’s time to leave. Start packing.”

Wang Fugui touched the counter he had cleaned earlier and said with some regret, “This is such a nice shop. I never expected we would have to flee again.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Why? Can’t bear to leave this place?”

“Not really.” Wang Fugui said with a wry smile, “Xiaosu, have you realized that even though these hundreds of strongholds have stood intact in these wastelands for so many decades, or even centuries now, successive incidents have happened in this one year alone? This isn’t just some random occurrence. It’s real chaos that’s starting to make a comeback.”

Chapter 175: A new item in the palace!

None of the residents in the stronghold seemed to have heard the news that the Experimentals had disappeared from Stronghold 113. Everyone behaved no differently on the streets from before, as they continued heading out to work, did grocery shopping, or attended plaza dancing as they used to do.

At night, Ren Xiaosu delegated tasks to Wang Fugui and the others. An unexpected incident had happened this morning. A black off-road vehicle stopped outside the shop’ entrance, and out came two young men who said to Ren Xiaosu, “We’re here to take away the goods. Yang Xiaojin said she already mentioned it to you.”

The goods these two people were referring to was probably Dong Funan. Ren Xiaosu did not suspect them since only Yang Xiaojin and he knew of this matter.

Curious, he asked, “Are you two Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu’s colleagues?”

The two young men gave each other a look and laughed. “We’re not qualified. There’s no need to ask further questions.”

What was with that? Ren Xiaosu was starting to wonder about the structure of Yang Xiaojin’s organization and how many ranks there were.

But it wasn’t time yet. The palace had still not informed Ren Xiaosu about the completion of the quest. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was still about half an hour before the full seven days would be up.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the two young men and said, “You can’t bring her away yet. You’ll have to wait a while.”

Suspicious, the two young men asked, “Why do we have to wait? Is there still something important you need to do?”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘It’s not like I can tell you two that my quest hasn’t been completed yet.’ He gave it some thought before saying, “Yes, there’s still something important that I need to do. You two can go and wait in the backyard while I speak to her about something.”

Less than five minutes later, the two youths saw Dong Funan whose swelling had already started going down sitting on a small bench obediently in the backyard. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was speaking in a serious tone in front of her, “I believe you’ve recognized your mistakes after your hard labor reform? So, I’m going to hand you over to someone else today, so I hope you can be a good person when you get there. Be someone who contributes to society, be a supernatural being who contributes to society…”

His talk with her went on for over half an hour.

The two young men from the Saboteurs were shocked. How the heck was this a while?!

They had thought Ren Xiaosu was only going to say a few words, but little did they expect he could go on for so long.

What atrocities had this Dong Funan committed that she would need such a lengthy ideological reeducation?

When Ren Xiaosu noticed Dong Funan gradually breaking down, he finally heard the palace say, “Side quest complete. A new product has been unlocked for purchase in the vending machine!”

Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He managed to delay the handover of Dong Funan until now. When Dong Funan saw that Ren Xiaosu had finally stopped talking, she nearly burst into tears. Previously, she still had some disbelief when Chen Wudi mentioned that his master was Ren Xiaosu. But to her surprise, Ren Xiaosu truly turned out to be as naggy as Tripitaka! 1

Ren Xiaosu happily said to the two young men, “Alright, you can take her away now.”

The two young men looked at the anticipatory expression on Dong Funan’s face and thought they might not even have to carry out any further reforms on her. They felt that as long as they could get Dong Funan away from Ren Xiaosu, she would be more than touched by their actions.

Ren Xiaosu finally had the opportunity to have a look at the vending machine inside his mind palace after Dong Funan was taken away. He saw a new transparent window slot had appeared in it.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the item inside the window and felt a little confused. It looked like a set of poker cards? ‘After going through so much trouble to complete the quest, what is the meaning of giving me a set of poker cards? Do you intend to have me play “Fight the Landlord” 1 with Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and the others?’

As poker was also a form of entertainment in this era, Ren Xiaosu was a little confused when he saw the new vending machine item had turned out to be a deck of cards. Though there was a title written at the bottom of the slot: Explosive Poker!

Ren Xiaosu gave it a try by slotting in a gratitude token. As a result, the vending machine dispensed a “three of clubs” card.

Wait, but there was nothing special about this card when he held it in his hand. ‘What’s so explosive about this? And people sell cards by the deck, yet you’re fucking selling one card per gratitude token?!’

Ren Xiaosu did not believe it and proceeded to put another gratitude token in. This time, out came a “five of diamonds.” He looked up and shot that vending machine a look of surprise.

Having thought of something, apparently, he quickly slotted in over a dozen gratitude tokens in a row. Even more cards were dispensed.

Ren Xiaosu had a look at the words “Explosive Poker” written above the vending machine slot, then had a look at the four “threes” he had just gotten his hands on and sank deep into thought.

…

The next day, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui headed out separately for their tasks. There were two gates in Stronghold 109, one in the east, the other in the west.

Stronghold 113 was located northeast of Stronghold 109. If the Experimentals were to arrive here, they would definitely reach the west gate first. Ren Xiaosu had Wang Fugui rent a courtyard house at the east gate. They would move over there tonight.

This way, if anything happened, they could at least escape easily from the east gate.

Now, all there was left to do was to purchase supplies!

Knowing in advance that a disaster was coming, Ren Xiaosu definitely wouldn’t be unprepared for an escape like the previous time. This time, they could not leave anything out as they prepared supplies for their journey.

But before that, what they needed to prepare most of all was… cash.

In fact, nobody had much money on them. The black medicine had not been sold for long, and there was also no time to trade in Old Wang’s anti-inflammatory medicine for cash either. Therefore, the most urgent task that Ren Xiaosu had to get done was to sell the gold for money!

He had been worried he would reveal his identity and get investigated by the Public Order Division if he went to cash in the gold. So he kept delaying it.

After all, what would he do if Luo Lan started suspecting him?

But Ren Xiaosu did not have to worry anymore. Since he was going to leave this stronghold, what was there to worry about?

Besides, Xu Xianchu had shown up at this stronghold as well. So wouldn’t it be expected that he would trade the gold for cash in Stronghold 109?

In the span of a day, Ren Xiaosu wore a baseball cap and went around visiting over a dozen gold shops. The gold he sold at each shop was in the form of a gold bar that weighed about a 100 grams. Based on the gold prices in the stronghold, that would amount to roughly 40,000 yuan.

One gold bar weighing about a 100 grams was not exactly much to the gold shops and shouldn’t attract much attention either.

But such unbranded gold bars would definitely stand out. Who would have the free time to smelt gold to make them into gold bars? Most people who came to sell their gold would just sell it in its jewelry form.

But what other choice did Ren Xiaosu have? If he didn’t smelt the gold into gold bars, the oxidized jewelry would be even more eye-catching than this.

So when he left the shops, some of the gold shop owners immediately reported him to the Public Order Division. When the last gold shop owner that Ren Xiaosu visited saw the gold bars, he got a little hesitant. “You’re… Xu Xianchu?!”

Ren Xiaosu acted shocked. “How did you know!” Then he turned around and ran out of the gold shop, looking disconcerted and flustered.

Chapter 176: Getting ready to flee

When Ren Xiaosu finished visiting the dozen-odd gold shops, the cash he had on hand reached 430,000 yuan. Honestly speaking, the money he had earned today was probably more than all of what he had earned in the 17 years of his life.

It was the first time he felt so wealthy. This sum of money was probably what the majority of the households in this stronghold would have saved up, or perhaps they wouldn’t even have as much as what he had now?

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “It has been detected that the host is carrying an amount of money exceeding what is required to unlock further storage rights. Confirm unlock?”

Ren Xiaosu froze. He had already unlocked storage rights once when he was in the Jing Mountains. At that time, he used 20,000 yuan in exchange for one cubic meter of storage space.

Back then, Ren Xiaosu already knew more storage space could be unlocked. However, as he did not know how much it would cost to unlock the next tier of storage rights, he could only wait until the palace informed him the next time.

Now it finally happened.

No matter how much Ren Xiaosu loved money, he still understood that having storage space was more important than having money.

Furthermore, they were planning to flee from the stronghold, so he could easily store more supplies and clean water if he had a bigger storage space. If he somehow stumbled upon another ruined city, he could start searching for more gold there.

But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was why the palace would accept any kind of currency, be it the Qing Consortium’s currency or the Li Consortium’s currency. ‘What would you as a palace even want money for?!’

“Can you tell me what you want the money for?” Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind.

The voice from the palace answered, “Unauthorized to answer.”

“You’re just jealous that I have money, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked in curiosity.

The voice from the palace said, “…Unauthorized to answer.”

Ren Xiaosu mulled over it for some time. “Then do you accept spirit money? 1 ”

This time, the palace chose not to answer at all.

“Hehe.” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “So money issued by the Underworld’s bank is not considered currency? Aren’t you looking down on the Underworld?”

He wondered if he would have hit the highest tier of storage rights if the palace accepted spirit money.

What a pity…

Ren Xiaosu hesitated no more as he said in his mind, “Unlock!”

A moment later, he saw the original one cubic meter of storage space spread outward on the wall. Afterwards, Ren Xiaosu saw his 430,000 yuan turn into just 150,000 yuan!

Wait! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ‘Why did my money drop by so much?!’

He scrutinized the storage space and estimated it had expanded 15 times.

Making a mental calculation, Ren Xiaosu now understood that the relationship between the amount of storage space and cost was basically equivalent.

Unlocking one cubic meter of storage space: 20,000 yuan.

Unlocking two cubic meters of storage space: 40,000 yuan.

Unlocking four cubic meters of storage space: 80,000 yuan.

Unlocking eight cubic meters of storage space: 160,000 yuan.

Therefore, having spent 280,00 yuan this time, Ren Xiaosu’s storage space had expanded to a total of 15 cubic meters!

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips in satisfaction. Not bad!

As of now, he still had 150,000 yuan on him. Ren Xiaosu felt that if he only had to stock up on supplies for their escape, it would be more than enough!

…

They were extremely prepared this time for the journey. If a person wanted to survive in the wilderness, what would they need?

Ren Xiaosu went into a grocery store and bought several dozen bags of salt all at once. The remaining supplies of sugar, hardtack, and other items he bought were also countless. When the shop owner saw this, he was overjoyed to have such a big spender.

The shop owner smiled and said, “Why are you buying so much salt, sugar, and food? Most people don’t buy that many of these items.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “There’s no harm in being prepared.”

The shop owner was amused. “Some years ago, there were some people who were just like you. They kept saying it wasn’t safe anymore in the stronghold and that it was necessary to stock up on supplies to be prepared. In the end, all of the items went bad, and still, nothing happened to the stronghold. Can’t you see? It’s been decades and the stronghold is still doing well, isn’t it?”

“I’m just preparing for danger in times of safety.” Ren Xiaosu gave the shop owner a look.

“Boy, I’m seriously advising you not to buy too many of these supplies,” the shop owner advised. “What will you do if they turn bad at home?”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this shop owner must be really kind. Instead of trying to get people to buy more, he was persuading them not to? However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly tell him that something was going to happen to the stronghold in the next few days, right? They would have to believe it in the first place.

When the shop owner saw that Ren Xiaosu was still as determined, he did not keep trying. After Ren Xiaosu paid the bill and left, the shop owner said to his shop assistant with a laugh, “I guess that boy is crazy. Just watch, nothing will happen to the stronghold even after he keeps those supplies at home for decades.”

Such a scene did not only take place in the grocery store. It happened when Ren Xiaosu went to the pharmacy to buy medicine as well. The shopkeeper could not understand when he saw Ren Xiaosu buying so many medicinal supplies.

The medicine Ren Xiaosu bought was actually specific to their needs. There was definitely no need for any anti-inflammatory medicine, but antivirals like ribavirin were definitely going to be useful. The same went for antifungals like ketoconazole and antidiarrheal agents like diosmectite, which were considered necessities when heading into the wilderness.

Antidiarrheal remedies were especially important. If you didn’t pay close enough attention to your dietary intake, you might get the runs up to 20 times a day and could even die from it.

The remaining items he needed to get were tools such as hammers, saws, shovels, pliers, ropes, plastic buckets, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap…

And several backpacks, several dozen matchboxes, compasses, and blankets.

Ren Xiaosu spent the entire day shopping for supplies that only a wilderness survivalist would know to get. If a person had never lived in the wilderness before, the only things they would think of bringing with them would be food, water, knives, and some other very general items. Once they got to the wilderness, they would descend into panic.

In just this one day, Ren Xiaosu experienced a lot of suspiciousness from others due to the large quantity of purchases he made. However, he did explain himself once.

He did not return to their own shop, instead taking the streetcar straight to the courtyard house located in the most western part of the stronghold. Yan Liuyuan and the others were already waiting there.

While taking the streetcar, he even overheard a young man talking about a small music festival that would be taking place in a few days. According to him, a certain Prince Charming and a certain goddess would be coming to perform.

Someone else was gossiping about celebrities in whispers. They were talking about a female celebrity named Cicada and how she liked cooking, and how another female celebrity named Fang Yujing used to study Chinese medicine.

As the streetcar trundled down the track toward the sunset, yellow light pillars on the horizon projected into the sky and through the gaps in the clouds and back down. Ren Xiaosu suddenly started feeling somewhat out of place when he heard words like “music festival” and the likes.

The bustle and peace that was taking place was about to get destroyed before his eyes.

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t someone who passed his days without an awareness of his surroundings. He knew the Experimentals were coming, and he knew the various major powers that had gathered here would be declaring war on the Li Consortium within the next three days. So he made preparations.

The entire stronghold might plunge into an abyss of misery at that time, but Ren Xiaosu was confident he would have an advantage over others.

But thinking about how so many people would die, Ren Xiaosu realized this was probably not something to be happy about.

After all, this era was already tinted with the color of sorrow.

When he arrived at the rented courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu froze, because Jiang Wu was also here.

Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “I brought Ms. Jiang Wu here. We can ignore other people, but we had to warn Ms. Jiang and her students, right?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu ruffled Yan Liuyuan’s hair. “You weren’t wrong in doing so.”

Chapter 177: New neighbor, Yang Xiaojin

Actually, even if Yan Liuyuan had not gone to warn Jiang Wu, Ren Xiaosu would still have done so the next day.

However, he had to make it clear to Jiang Wu. “Ms. Jiang, I’m afraid that the stronghold is no longer a safe place. We rented a courtyard house here to facilitate our escape.”

Jiang Wu tucked her hair behind her ear and said gently, “Mhm, I understand.”

“Don’t you have any questions for me?” Ren Xiaosu was curious. “Like what kind of danger is coming, and why it’s so important that we have to escape?”

Jiang Wu smiled and said, “You must have your reasons for doing so. Back then, we only managed to survive because we followed you. Since you judge that it’s getting dangerous, there isn’t any reason for us to distrust you.”

Ren Xiaosu had been doubted the entire day while he was running errands. Now that someone believed him, he was rather surprised. “Ms. Jiang, you can bring your students here to the courtyard house to live temporarily. But lemme tell you beforehand, there isn’t enough space inside the house, so y’all’ll have to make do and sleep out here in the courtyard. Furthermore, we won’t be providing y’all with any food while we’re making our escape. We’ll each flee separately.”

“Mhm, I understand.” Jiang Wu nodded.

Although Ren Xiaosu would have liked to help Jiang Wu out of the goodness of his heart, he was absolutely not going to risk having anyone hold back the speed of their escape.

If the Experimentals could even cause Luo Lan to prepare to flee, they must be extremely terrifying. Ren Xiaosu wondered if there might be a lot more Experimentals than they had previously imagined.

At this moment, Jiang Wu looked to the many bicycles Ren Xiaosu and the others had parked in the yard. “Are you all planning on leaving on these bicycles?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “It’s so we’ll be faster when it’s time for us to go. Y’all might not be able to keep up with us.”

In this stronghold, bicycles cost at least several thousand yuan each. Anything made of metal these days was considered a luxury.

Although the school had already paid Jiang Wu her salary, and the students also received their subsidies for attending school, it was only going to be enough for them to buy some supplies for the journey and wouldn’t be enough to purchase a bicycle.

Jiang Wu hesitated for a long while. She had wanted to borrow some money but couldn’t bear to ask no matter how she thought about it. After all, what reason did she have that would make Ren Xiaosu want to lend her the money to buy bicycles?

Ren Xiaosu inadvertently mentioned, “Actually, there’s a bicycle shop just a few dozen meters down from where we are. You can always go and look for the owner to borrow his bicycles when trouble breaks out in the stronghold…”

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. “Bro, are you sure you meant to say ‘borrow’? Do you even intend to return them?”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He knew this was wrong.

Jiang Wu shook her head. “That wouldn’t set a good example to the students.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He thought there was nothing wrong with Jiang Wu having such a sense of justice. After all, didn’t Ren Xiaosu help her previously because she had this “glow” to her?

But since this was the case, there was really nothing that Ren Xiaosu could do about it.

Jiang Wu said, “But I know there’s a place in the stronghold where we can rent bicycles from. It costs 90 yuan a month to rent one, and all we have to do is to submit our ID cards and 300 yuan as an initial deposit. I can just rent the bicycles for now.”

300 yuan was definitely not enough to cover the cost of a bicycle, but with the renter’s ID card withheld, there wouldn’t be any fear they would run off with the bicycles. After all, the stronghold was locked down at all times, so there wouldn’t be a chance for anyone to escape. And Jiang Wu’s students had received 600 yuan each for their education subsidy, so that would leave them with enough money to buy supplies for their escape after renting a bicycle.

Besides, their Stronghold 109 ID cards were going to be useless soon.

However, Ren Xiaosu asked out of curiosity, “What’s the difference between borrowing and renting the bicycles if that’s the case? We all know that those bicycles won’t be returned anyway.”

Jiang Wu said softly, “Surely we should at least compensate the shop a little, right?”

Ren Xiaosu was still curious, “But that will also set a bad example to the students, won’t it?”

Jiang Wu suddenly said determinedly, “Then I’ll just not tell them.”

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Fugui were speechless.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and wondered whether she was sincere or hypocritical.

When this female teacher spoke, Ren Xiaosu could see the internal struggle she was going through.

Jiang Wu was someone who practiced what she preached. Back when they were escaping to Stronghold 109, her students would not have survived if she hadn’t been so hellbent on saving them.

But right now, Jiang Wu was bending her principles just so she could let her students gain a tool to facilitate their escape.

She couldn’t tell this to them, so she decided to bear the burden of the sin herself. She wanted her students to keep the correct fundamental values in life.

Ren Xiaosu found it very difficult to judge whether this behavior was mean or admirable, but he wasn’t qualified to do so.

Then a crisp laugh cut through the air. “Isn’t it just 20 or so bicycles? The Saboteurs are admirers of Ms. Jiang as a person, so we’ve decided that we’ll be sponsoring you guys with those bicycles!”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked as he turned his head to where the voice came from. The courtyard house they were in was not an independent structure but sat side by side with other courtyard houses. Therefore, there was another house’s backyard right next to the one that they were in.

Then Ren Xiaosu spotted Luo Xinyu leaning over the divider wall. She said, “Ren Xiaosu, aren’t you happy and surprised to see me?”

“Hah.” Ren Xiaosu’s expression darkened. What a fucking surprise, alright! This courtyard house they had rented was right next to Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin’s place? How could it be so coincidental?

But Ren Xiaosu knew they must have moved in here first, because Old Wang had wanted to rent the place next door, but the landlord informed him that it had already been rented out a day earlier.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized this might not have been a coincidence at all. This was because most of the major powers present in this stronghold probably knew the Experimentals were headed here. That was why everyone had come here to where it was most convenient to escape from.

They were all thinking the same thing!

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Where’s Yang Xiaojin?”

“Hehe.” Luo Xinyu laughed but did not answer.

Her laugh made Ren Xiaosu nervous. ‘Why are you laughing so strangely!’ Ren Xiaosu asked, “How many others are staying in this area?”

“Luo Lan and his men are also staying nearby.” Luo Xinyu made a mental note and said, “Those from the Pyro Company have already been killed by you, so you won’t see them around anymore. As for the Yang Consortium, they’re all staying on the next street.”

As expected, everyone was here.

All of a sudden, Luo Xinyu asked, “Why didn’t you mention that you broke Dong Funan’s teeth off?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “She tried to bite someone, but her teeth weren’t strong enough, so who can she blame? Why? Are they not going to grow out again?”

Luo Xinyu snapped, “Can your teeth still grow out after they’ve fallen out? She’ll have to be a vegetarian from now on!”

Vegetarian? Ren Xiaosu pondered it and said, “Vegetarian… do you mean she can only suck the blood of someone who’s in a vegetative state?”

Luo Xinyu raised her eyebrows. ‘The fuck you mean by someone who’s in a vegetative state!’ “What I mean is, she can only consume blood that’s been transfused out and not by biting someone.”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu really did not feel bad about it. He chuckled. “If that’s how it is, she can even try out different flavors of blood by consuming cow’s blood or pig’s blood. If she consumes pig’s blood, maybe she’ll grow as strong as a pig!”

In fact, Luo Xinyu did not have much sympathy for Dong Funan before this. After all, Dong Funan was not exactly a good person to begin with. But with Ren Xiaosu saying that, she began to pity her a little.

Chapter 178: Li Shentan’s present

Yang Xiaojin wasn’t at home in the rented place, and only Luo Xinyu had free time to keep chatting with them in the backyard. Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu was just killing time with them as she had nothing better to do.

Ren Xiaosu had thought Yang Xiaojin would return at night, but she was still nowhere to be seen even after it turned dark. Rather, it was Luo Xinyu who went out.

He felt that something was wrong. This must surely be a sign that trouble was about to begin.

Soon after, someone sent over the bicycles Luo Xinyu had promised them. Then Ren Xiaosu went out as well after informing the family about it. He suspected the various powers might start taking action against the Li Consortium tonight!

While Ren Xiaosu was heading out, he thought about where the action would take place if it was really going to happen. At the university?

Before it turned completely dark, he hurried off to where the university was. Someone had once described the university to Ren Xiaosu as a park with lots of greenery where the students could live and take strolls in. The university was like a utopia that felt peaceful and tranquil to be in.

But when Ren Xiaosu saw the university with his own eyes, he felt he had been deceived. He saw protruding anti-armor barricades set up outside the college’s entrance, and countless bunkers and fortifications were being constructed on the campus grounds as well. The Li Consortium’s combat troops were patrolling on the inside, and all of them were constantly looking warily around their surroundings with stern expressions.

How was this like a park? This was clearly more like a military base!

It was no wonder the Li Consortium did not bother with the antics Luo Lan had kicked up. So it was because all of their troops stationed in Stronghold 109 were concentrated here.

Just how important were research results that the Li Consortium wanted to protect them this much?

This university’s campus was not located in a secluded place at all. There were still a lot of stronghold residents walking around the nearby streets, while it was business as usual for the street vendors.

But it was at this moment that a tough-looking man in plain clothes came up to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could see this man was concealing a gun with the side of his body.

The man seemed to have noticed Ren Xiaosu constantly looking at the campus, so he questioned, “Boy, what are you doing here?”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this person was probably someone from the Li Consortium. He never expected the defensive perimeter to be so tight. He explained himself, “So this is the university? I came here for research.”

The man laughed. “Do you think you look like a university student in research?”

Ren Xiaosu was not happy. “I’m going there to get researched on. Is that not allowed? Who are you to look down on me!”

The man was surprised. Then he signaled to his surroundings. Out came several plainclothes personnel who gathered together.

But right at this moment, a pedestrian who happened to be passing by suddenly took out a hand grenade from his pocket and threw it at the school gate. After throwing it, he did not escape but fished out a pistol to fire at random around him. It was as though he were trying to create chaos.

Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the disturbance and quickly found a bunker to hide behind. He wondered who the fuck that was and why he was being so reckless!

The gunfire intensified outside the school gate, sounding like a pot of ice-water boiling. The street vendors who were going about their business suddenly rushed up and shot all of those plainclothes personnel dead!

However, the chaos did not stop here. These killers briefly retreated after killing the plainclothes personnel before several cargo trucks turned the corner at the end of the street and headed straight for the school gate!

If it were just several cargo trucks alone, they would not have had much impact on the heavily fortified school gate. Ren Xiaosu leaped to his feet and turned and ran. He suspected the trucks were loaded full of explosives!

Several of the killers noticed Ren Xiaosu, and one of them happened to be where Ren Xiaosu was retreating towards. He raised his gun and took aim. However, just as he pulled the trigger, Ren Xiaosu shifted his weight as quickly as a ghost, making the bullet miss its target!

At the moment, every muscle fiber in Ren Xiaosu’s body stretched to its extreme. A great amount of strength was spread across every inch of his body!

The killer was stunned. How could someone be so fast that they could even dodge a bullet?!

Before this killer could fire another shot, he suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu rocketing toward him with a punch!

This punch landed right on the killer’s neck. He did not even have the chance to dodge it as he heard the bones in his neck crack!

With a single punch, Ren Xiaosu instantly killed one person!

When the killers nearby witnessed this scene and tried to shoot in response, they found themselves in a mist of blood that sprayed out of them after getting fired upon from an unknown position. They did not even manage to raise their guns.

The scent of blood filled the air. When the wind blew, mists of blood floated through in the air like a crimson cloud.

Only a sniper rifle would have such power.

Ren Xiaosu jerked his head up at a high-rise building in the distance. He saw a young woman holding a large sniper rifle and standing atop the building. The moon that had just risen was hanging right above the high-rise building and next to Yang Xiaojin.

The narrow and delicate crescent moon acted like a foil to her presence.

Suddenly, the ringing of the bell reverberated through the night from the center of the stronghold, gong after gong.

But Ren Xiaosu froze at the sound. This was because there shouldn’t have been any sound coming from the bell after 6 PM!

…

Moments before the bell was sounded.

Li Shentan was standing in the street far away from the middle of the stronghold in a magician’s costume. In front of him was a hat, and in the hat was some loose change.

He opened his mouth and said to the stronghold residents who had gathered around, “The magic of hypnotism lies in its ability to help everyone take control of their subconscious. Are there any of you who occasionally wake up from your sleep punctually at 3 AM even though you didn’t set an alarm?

“Have you heard of any seniors who can catch a child falling from seven stories up with their bare hands?”

Li Shentan paused for a moment before saying, “What is the subconscious? The human brain is made up of 14 billion brain cells and can actually store information amounting up to five billion books. Yet you’ve already forgotten whatever you remembered a moment ago.”

“Someone is managing your body for you, yet you can’t control that ‘person.’” Li Shentan laughed and said, “How dangerous is that?”

Someone in the crowd suddenly asked, “So what’s the point of managing one’s subconscious?”

Li Shentan smiled and said, “Have you ever thought about how, when you gain control over your subconscious, you’ll stand a chance of becoming a supernatural being? No, it’s more like becoming a god!” Li Shentan then gently lifted a car on the side of the road. It was as though the car were made of paper!

When the spectators saw this, they were stunned. Someone started throwing money into Li Shentan’s hat while others were checking if there was any trickery with the car.

It was at this moment that the bell rang in the night. Li Shentan smiled and said, “Let the games… begin.”

When the soundwaves of the bell started reverberating outward, countless residents in the stronghold suddenly stood still in a trance. Then they began to slowly walk in the direction of the university like they were zombies.

At first, they walked very slowly. But gradually, they picked up speed to the point where everyone was sprinting!

Their speed even exceeded that of a normal human being’s sprint record. All of these people who were sprinting even seemed like they were drawing energy directly from their life force.

A fat resident started to visibly get thinner as he sprinted, while those who were thin to begin with were now starting to look like skeletal figures of their former selves.

They kept sprinting without a care, as the instructions that Li Shentan left for them were all they cared about after the ringing of the bell acted as the trigger for the hypnosis. It was as though they were guided by a god.

Li Shentan bent over to pick up the magician’s hat from off the ground and spilled the money in it all over the ground. But he didn’t care about that.

This young man walked down the now silent street while his surroundings became an infernal hell.

Tonight, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium had presented it with a gift.

Chapter 179: The ratlike Qing Consortium

Ren Xiaosu hid at the entrance of the university and watched.

The entire Western District of Stronghold 109 had suddenly fallen into inexplicable madness due to the uncertainty that Li Shentan’s appearance brought.

Yang Xiaojin, who was standing at the highest point, could clearly see the entire situation. During this early evening period, she saw nearly one-fifth of all the people in the district start rushing to the university. The people on the ground were like moths circling a light source, and all of them were swarming and sprinting. It was as though they were a group of uncontrolled, wild beasts.

In the past, she had said to Ren Xiaosu that if the Demon Whisperer were released, the fate of the stronghold would become unknown. No one could predict whether it would head in a good or bad direction.

And now, the outcome was without a doubt the worst of the speculations they had. In fact, many people could not imagine that the enemy could create such widespread chaos single-handedly.

This was the age where supernatural beings would rise, but many of the organizations were still ignoring the changes that supernatural beings could bring to the era.

On the other hand, Li Shentan took practical action to inform the major powers on all sides just how shockingly destructive supernatural beings could be.

Powerful individuals were gradually transcending the strength that groups of people had.

The people in the crowd ran even faster when they got closer to the university. Some of those whose physical fitness was worse fell to the ground when their bodies could no longer take the stress.

But the others behind them continued rushing forward as though they did not see the others drop to the ground before them.

At the university, the Li Consortium’s combat troops who were in charge of defending the place were stunned by the sight. It wasn’t that their mental fortitude was weak, but that they had never imagined they would witness such a hellish scene here on earth.

The commanding officer of the defensive forces was the first to react. He immediately issued a preliminary warning that they would fire at the crowd if they got any nearer.

As someone from the Li Consortium, he subconsciously chose to give a warning first instead of shooting to kill. This was because the people running amok were all residents of the Li Consortium’s stronghold. If they were to mercilessly fire into them, he could end up getting severely blamed and criticized. At that time, when the Li Consortium faced the wrath of the residents, he would definitely be singled out and made the scapegoat for giving the order to shoot at them!

But more importantly, he thought that if he gave a warning before opening fire, the people would stop in their tracks in fear of their weapons.

Alas, he couldn’t be more wrong!

The mindless residents had absolutely no sense of fear, having lost all control of themselves.

The “essence” of hypnotism was to let those who were hypnotized completely surrender their consciousness!

It was precisely because of this officer’s wrong call that the Li Consortium’s combat troops lost their best opportunity.

Actually, there wasn’t anything wrong with this officer’s decision. He was faced with a terrifying opponent he had never encountered before.

By the time they realized the warning had served no purpose and got ready to fire at the residents, the lunatics were only a few dozen meters away from the university’s entrance.

“We can’t wait any longer! Shoot to kill!”

Intense gunfire rang out as the soldiers from the Li Consortium pulled their triggers in fear.

But after killing the first wave of cannon fodder, those behind them stepped over the bodies of the fallen and rushed forward. They kept coming wave after wave without any fear!

In just one short minute, the seemingly heavy fortifications at the entrance of the university had been broken through. The rush of people flowing in swept aside the entire defensive line that had looked impenetrable at first glance and tore it to pieces.

Not only that, there were still plenty more residents who fearlessly climbed the electrified wire netting on the sides of the walls.

One of the walls fell!

When Ren Xiaosu saw that, he was terrified. Had these people gone mad?!

All of a sudden, the ground below his feet moved.

Ren Xiaosu looked down and discovered he was standing on top of a manhole cover.

It felt like someone was pushing the manhole cover aside from below, but whoever was doing so did not succeed in moving it even after a long time. Then Luo Lan’s irritated voice sounded from underneath it. “Those bastard fuckers from the Li Consortium actually sealed the manholes? C’mon, let’s go to a different spot and try again.”

A strange look appeared on Ren Xiaosu’s face. He walked a few dozen meters away and stood on top of yet another manhole cover. As a result, Luo Lan’s voice sounded out again, “Fuck! This one has been sealed too!”

But before Ren Xiaosu could feel amused, he heard Fatty Luo shout below, “Fucking blast this manhole cover apart!”

This time, Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, “Come on up. There’s no need to blow up anything…”

After Ren Xiaosu stepped aside, the manhole cover quickly opened a little. Luo Lan’s eyes locked on to Ren Xiaosu’s eyes through the small seam that had opened up.

“So it’s you, kid,” Luo Lan snapped as he climbed out from below. His rotund body would have gotten stuck in the manhole if not for the people below him pushing him out.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Were you born in the year of the rat? Why do you keep scuttling around in the sewers?”

“What do you know?” Luo Lan said disdainfully, “We’re just prescient. Back when they were constructing this stronghold, our people infiltrated their architectural design team. There are no Li Consortium strongholds we’re not familiar with. Don’t you think that it’s awesome to be able to navigate around the place from below and not get discovered by anyone?”

“Sure is.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Except it’s also a little stinky.”

Then he saw the Qing Consortium’s troops crawling out of the sewers one after another, until over a 100 people had come out. They were all in full battle gear, with one soldier even carrying an RPG!

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Are y’all getting ready to attack the university campus too?

“But of course. For something so precious to the Li Consortium, we’d definitely like to know what it is,” Luo Lan said.

“Say, why are y’all getting so excited over something that you don’t even know about?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“We have an idea of what it might be.” Luo Lan said, “It could be nanomachines.”

Ren Xiaosu’s face darkened. “Can you sound surer?”

Luo Lan said unhappily, “The Li Consortium has done a very good job of keeping it a secret. Everyone else is also just guessing at what it might be. But the thing is, the Li Consortium is at the forefront of the nanorobotics field. We are still stuck in the experimentation phase, but their nanomachines have already been put into use in medicine.”

Fatty Luo continued, “In the early years, the nanomachines they created from DNA could already clear blood clots and other things like that. Back then, some of the executives from the other organizations would even go to the Li Consortium’s hospitals to get their illnesses treated when they got older. The Li Consortium even have nanozymes 1
that are used to treat hepatitis C. All of these are the main research fields the Li Consortium led.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered the mention of the hepatitis virus. “What, is the Qing Consortium thinking of venturing into the medical industry?”

Chapter 180: They re all guilty

“No.” Luo Lan shook his head. “We’re only guessing what it might be. In the past, nanomachines could only perform extremely simple and basic operations as it was too difficult for the Li Consortium to implement complex programming into them. So we paid no further attention to this matter after that. But it seems like they might have had a breakthrough in the field.”

Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought it was some extraordinary result from the research of supernatural beings. In the end, it turned out to be something about some nano thingy. When he heard that, his first thought was to leave.

Such scientific research results might be useful to the large organizations, but it wasn’t worth a hoot to Ren Xiaosu. A hopeless student like him had not even fucking heard of nanomachines before, much less knew what they were.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu also had his own understanding of science. But whatever he did not hear of before would get treated as superstition.

Moreover, if people like Luo Lan were still just guessing and could not even be sure of what it was after so much guessing, all the more Ren Xiaosu would not waste his time on something so uncertain.

Luo Lan said, “How about this? You’ll help me to steal the research, and I’ll pay you for it.”

“Since y’all like guessing so much, why don’t you guess if I will help you?” Ren Xiaosu said with a chuckle.

“My guess is that you will!” Luo Lan said excitedly.

“Guess again!”

Luo Lan was silent, then said, “Look here, I was the one who told you the Experimentals were coming.”

“Thank you,” Ren Xiaosu said sincerely.

“Forget it.” Luo Lan waved his hand in frustration. “It’s fine if you don’t wanna help. I might as well tell you something else. There could be the existence of an intelligent being among the Experimentals, as we found out they’ve actually been performing experiments on themselves. Can you imagine how scary that is?”

Ren Xiaosu was a little taken aback. “What else are the Experimentals supposed to do if they don’t perform experiments?”

Now it was Luo Lan’s turn to be taken aback. “That’s quite logical.”

Ren Xiaosu ignored Luo Lan and planned to return to their rented courtyard house immediately. Currently, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others were waiting there for him.

When he left, Ren Xiaosu even turned back to have a look. He realized Yang Xiaojin was still on top of that building. It was as though she were providing cover for someone.

Then he suddenly saw a familiar face appear in the distance. It turned out to be the Stronghold 109 overseer!

He saw Lu Yuan coming over. Anyone who attempted to stop him ended up with a mist of blood spraying out of their bodies. So… Lu Yuan was actually a member of the Saboteurs?!

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that many of the questions that had puzzled him just got answered.

No wonder Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had gotten their stronghold resident statuses so easily. No wonder Yang Xiaojin could enroll in school so easily. No wonder that when Old Wang got arrested by the Public Order Division, Lu Yuan immediately called them to have him released. No wonder Yang Xiaojin had wanted to make things difficult for Luo Lan. It was because Luo Lan had slapped Lu Yuan, and Yang Xiaojin wanted to get back at him for her colleague.

When Lu Yuan saw Ren Xiaosu, he smiled and waved to him. Lu Yuan appeared much more cheerful than before. He looked to be much happier after shedding the false identity.

But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was that his school enrollment should also have been handled by Lu Yuan, while Yang Xiaojin had enrolled for school two days earlier than him, so wouldn’t that mean she already knew he would be attending school as well? And she even knew which school he would be going to?!

Ren Xiaosu had always been suspicious of Yang Xiaojin as she did not really have any reason for attending school. Why was she going to school? As it turned out, he was actually the target the entire time! Was it so she could observe him at a closer distance, or were there other reasons?

Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered if these people were thinking of recruiting him into the Saboteurs as well. But Ren Xiaosu had no time to wonder about these things. He immediately turned and left.

The courtyard house Old Wang had rented was not far from the university. So Yan Liuyuan and the others had also heard the gunfire. When Ren Xiaosu pushed open the door and entered, everyone heaved sighs of relief.

The entire courtyard was filled with people. The students, Jiang Wu, and a whole lot of bicycles were all there.

Xiaoyu asked, “Xiaosu, what was with the gunfire? Are you alright?”

“I’m OK.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Everyone, get on your bikes. We’ve gotta leave right away!”

No matter what was about to happen in this stronghold, Ren Xiaosu’s top priority would to lead everyone to safety, not to try to get his hands on something!

With so many lives at stake, Ren Xiaosu could not be selfish.

When the group saw Ren Xiaosu rushing out the door, everyone wore their backpacks that were filled with their personal supplies.

After everyone got on their bicycles, Yan Liuyuan hesitated before asking, “Bro, why are you carrying your bike?”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “‘m afraid that I’ll damage the bike. Enough nonsense, hurry to the stronghold’s gate!”

…

Li Shentan was walking the streets of the Western District. The people in the other districts were likely still unaware of what had happened here. The little girl whose name was Si Liren suddenly floated over from behind him. Neither of her feet were touching the ground.

“I was afraid the bell wasn’t loud enough, so I struck it a few more times,” the little girl said with a smile.

“Well done.” Li Shentan smiled dotingly and said, “That should be enough of a surprise for the Li Consortium’s people.”

“But why did we do that?” Si Liren asked curiously.

Li Shentan stood still and looked at both sides of the street. It all looked familiar yet strange to him. He said, “My mother married into the Li Consortium a long time ago to counteract my ill father’s bad luck. At the beginning, his sickness did improve. But it didn’t last long before he passed away a few years later.

“My mother brought me up in the Li Consortium. When she fell in love with a young teacher later on and wanted to marry him…” Li Shentan sighed. “Actually, all that is human nature. However, the Li Consortium believes that any woman who married into the Li Consortium belongs to the organization for life. If my mother married someone else, they would see it as disgracing the Li Consortium.”

Si Liren quietly listened. “What happened afterwards?”

“Afterwards?” Li Shentan thought for a moment before saying, “Afterwards, the Li Consortium dragged her out of the stronghold on this very street we’re treading on and buried her alive. I don’t even know where she was buried.”

All of a sudden, a Shadow Door appeared not far behind Li Shentan. Luo Xinyu asked from behind the Shadow Door, “Then what are the other residents in this stronghold guilty of?”

Li Shentan looked at the Shadow Door and said with a laugh, “Why are you hiding behind the door? Aren’t you gonna come out and say hi to your friend?”

Luo Xinyu snapped, “I know you can hypnotize people with just a look, so don’t try that with me. You still haven’t answered the question I posed to you.”

Li Shentan laughed and said, “On that day, I cowardly hid on the side of the street and watched as the vehicle escorting my mother passed by. On that day, the entire population of the Western District came to watch. There were people who made fun of her and jeered at her, but none stepped forward to plead for her life. Therefore, they’re all guilty.”

After that, Li Shentan went crazy and was sent to the psychiatric hospital.

While in the psychiatric hospital, he briefly lost his identity before becoming a legendary Demon Whisperer. It was as if he had become the representative of the Underworld on earth.

It was no wonder no one could find out the identity of Li Shentan. It seemed like the Li Consortium had also thought of him as a disgrace and decided to erase all traces of mother and son.

Chapter 181: Wait for me

But Li Shentan suddenly smiled and said, “I know something very terrifying is making its way towards Stronghold 109 as we speak. The main defensive forces of the stronghold supposedly made up of the Li Consortium’s combat troops are now holed up in a university because of you people. When those terrifying things arrive, who will defend the city? Guess how many people will die to the hands of those things. And who is going to take responsibility for that?

“The Saboteurs, the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium, or the Pyro Company?” Li Shentan questioned, “Which of you are qualified to throw stones at me?”

Luo Xinyu stayed silent.

“We’re all sinners,” Li Shentan lamented.

“Since you’ve already gotten your revenge, isn’t it time to reel it in?” Luo Xinyu said, “You have to trust that even though justice may be delayed, it won’t be denied.”

Li Shentan reacted like he had heard a hilarious joke. “That isn’t the original version of the saying. The original goes like this: ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’”

Luo Xinyu suddenly asked, “What do you think is the essence behind turning supernatural?”

“Isn’t it already summed up in the mission statement of your Saboteurs organization?” Li Shentan chuckled. “When a disaster comes, mental strength becomes the best weapon humanity has in the face of danger. But my understanding of mental strength is based on… furthering the development of the brain.”

Luo Xinyu calmly said, “But studies about furthering the development of the brain have been refuted since before The Cataclysm.”

“Anything that hasn’t been rigorously argued over can only be taken as rumors. Even now, humanity still hasn’t fully discovered which part of the brain corresponds with the human emotion, so how dare they say they’ve completely understood it?” Li Shentan said in seriousness, “But I still can’t be sure if supernatural beings have unlocked a new area in their brains or whether they’ve just achieved an increase of their brain’s potential to a 100%. I guess it’s better to just call it something like mental strength for now.”

“Then according to your logic,” Luo Xinyu said, “does it mean that the more powerful a supernatural being is, the closer they are to destroying themselves?”

“Theoretically, yes.” Li Shentan said, “The moment the brain’s potential reaches a 100% capability, humanity might evolve a will that’s equivalent to that of a god. Their bodies could also disintegrate as a result of not being able to handle this extremely vast will. This might even start happening once the brain reaches 70% capability.”

Li Shentan was suddenly reminded of a youth he knew and seemed a little unsure as he said, “But I think there are also exceptions to that. So whatever we’re discussing right now is pointless. It’s only when humans evolve to that level that we’ll know the answer.” Li Shentan then ignored Luo Xinyu. He continued walking with Si Liren towards the university to see for himself the destruction of Stronghold 109’s Li Consortium troops.

Luo Xinyu did not bother questioning him any further as she had something more important to handle. Time was running out.

Even for an organization as powerful and well-connected as the Saboteurs, they couldn’t gain access to all the secrets of this world. Whatever had been discussed here today, Luo Xinyu would have to write up a report detailing every single word that was said so the others in the organization could readjust their research direction.

But at this moment, the other districts of the stronghold that had been peaceful burst into an uproar. It was as though something extremely alarming had happened. Those who were in the know shuddered in their hearts as they knew the Experimentals must have arrived in advance!

Luo Xinyu ignored this and just stood outside the university. She closed the Shadow Door she had opened up next to Li Shentan. When she opened the Shadow Door again, she walked right through it.

Step by step, she went from where she was to an enclosed research laboratory that looked very technologically advanced. Luo Xinyu examined her environment.

Whatever she was looking for was in here.

Luo Xinyu held a gun in her hand and kept her guard up in case any security personnel inside the lab became a threat. However, no one seemed to be in the lab anymore. It looked like everyone might have already escaped due to the unrest that was happening outside.

The entire lab was empty.

At this moment, she noticed a portable hard drive that was locked inside a bulletproof glass case. Luo Xinyu raised her gun and fired continuously at the glass to break it open. She then got ready to take the hard drive out and leave through the Shadow Door.

But a second later, the lab’s ceiling lit up brightly. The entire interior of the lab turned bright as day. There were no blind spots where the light could not reach!

Luo Xinyu attempted to open the Shadow Door to leave, but it could not be formed in this place where no shadows could be cast. The Shadow Door she tried to conjure up materialized as a dull shadow that quickly dissipated after swaying a couple times.

This lab was actually fitted with anti-theft measures specific to her ability!

Luo Xinyu frowned as she decided to go and open the lab’s door instead. However, she discovered she did not even know how to open the steel door several centimeters thick.

Frankly, Luo Xinyu felt a little powerless now. This was the first time she had encountered a measure that was specially tailored to her!

However, she was not worried for herself but Yang Xiaojin, who was currently waiting for her on the rooftop of the high-rise building.

…

Ren Xiaosu carried his bicycle and ran ahead of the group. Along the way, they saw several residents who had been hypnotized by Li Shentan sprinting past them. None of those residents gave them a second look.

When the students saw the crazy looks on those people, they felt a little scared. Ren Xiaosu tried to comfort them. “Don’t be afraid, the entire Western District has become like this. They won’t attack us.”

When the students heard what the entire Western District had become, they got even more frightened.

Within two minutes, Ren Xiaosu and the group arrived at the stronghold’s gate. Right now, alarms were going off everywhere inside the stronghold, as if to say that something terrifying was coming to attack the stronghold.

Or rather, those terrifying things had arrived a while ago. However, they only started a full-scale attack after the chaos broke out.

The Experimentals had broken into the stronghold through the sewer system. However, they were not in a hurry to attack and had chosen to set up an ambush instead.

And now, they felt it was time.

Luo Lan should count himself lucky that he had only gone a short distance underground today. Otherwise, he might have gotten a nasty surprise if he bumped into the large group of Experimentals.

At this point, the private army’s soldiers that were assigned to guard the stronghold’s gate had also rushed over to the university upon hearing the alarm. This place was now void of people.

Yan Liuyuan frowned and said, “Bro, how do we open the gate?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “It’s fine, I have bombs.”

Yan Liuyuan and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu with anticipation. Then their eyes grew wide when they saw him taking out four poker cards with the number three.

Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Chen Wudi were confused.

Were these the legendary bombs he was talking about? How the hell could they possibly blow the gate up with that?

What? Are you going to throw out four threes 1 at the gate, then let it say “pass” before opening up the gate for you?!

Yan Liuyuan’s face darkened. “Bro, can you be a little more serious at a time like this?”

“Don’t panic, it’s not a big problem!” Ren Xiaosu said as he waved for everyone to step back. Then he stuck the four cards onto the gate and also ran far away to take cover.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Detonate!”

Suddenly, those four poker cards stuck on the gate exploded with a shocking amount of power and a fiery glow. Afterwards, there was a lot of dust and smoke around where the gate used to be.

After the blast, the powerful explosion lifted a large cloud of dust and smoke in the opposite direction. Debris from the remnants of the gate scattered everywhere while Yan Liuyuan and the others all felt the ground tremble below them!

Ren Xiaosu looked over to check. “It’s done!”

The gate had a huge hole blown through it!

Wang Fugui was shocked. So it was actually that dangerous to play “Fight the Landlord”?!

“Everyone, get out of the city. We’re going to head north.” Ren Xiaosu was planning on leading the way. As for whatever was happening in the stronghold, it really had nothing to do with him anymore.

But when he turned around to have another look at the stronghold, he saw Yang Xiaojin standing on top of that building far off in the distance. There were over a dozen Experimentals crawling up towards her like spiders. Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. Why hadn’t Luo Xinyu gone to fetch Yang Xiaojin yet?!

This wasn’t how he had imagined it would be. Based on past experience, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu should have made the most comfortable retreat of all.

But as it stood, Yang Xiaojin was still ten stories high on that building’s rooftop. She was a lone boat in the dark ocean. She could capsize at any moment.

Ren Xiaosu only hesitated for a moment before he turned to Wang Fugui and the others and said, “You guys, leave first. I need to make a trip back to the stronghold! Chen Wudi, make sure you protect everyone!”

Wang Fugui panicked. “Xiaosu, no one’s gonna survive in that stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at them and said firmly, “Head north, and don’t turn back! I’ll catch up to y’all!” Ren Xiaosu then turned around and headed back to the city that had now turned into a hell.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu was unsure why he had chosen to turn around. Perhaps it was because of the familiarity of facing those wild beasts that led him wanting to be among them again. Or perhaps it was because he liked the night sky in this city that he wanted to take in more of the scenery here. Or even perhaps he had forgotten to grab his wallet?

Well, alright! Ren Xiaosu knew all those were poor excuses for turning back. Perhaps it was only because he didn’t want that girl to die here.

Ren Xiaosu started running faster and faster, with his clothes flapping loudly in the wind. He was a male lion on the hunt.

He looked at the top of the high-rise building, while the girl at the top also seemed to quietly look back at him.

The chaotic gunfire around him and the Experimentals that were choosing who to eat, all of those things made this world feel a little absurd right now.

The dark sky even felt like it was about to split apart in the middle.

But none of that was important.

Wait for me.

Chapter 182: Against the current

Wang Fugui and the others stood at the gate and watched as Ren Xiaosu headed back into the dangerous stronghold. Sometimes, Wang Fugui felt that Ren Xiaosu was way too brave. He just had to head back into a place everyone was trying their best to run away from.

Though, Wang Fugui felt he had made the wisest decision of his life when he chose to bring Wang Dalong with him and follow Ren Xiaosu in their escape. If it weren’t for that, he would probably have perished in another disaster even if he were fortunate enough to survive the one that happened at Stronghold 113.

The world today was simply too dangerous a place.

The past couple days, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui had both been doubted countless of times by the stores they bought their escape supplies from. It even caused Wang Fugui to sometimes feel that if it weren’t an earthquake or some other natural disasters occurring, no harm would befall the stronghold.

But as the facts had proven, Ren Xiaosu was correct after all.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan could only watch helplessly as Ren Xiaosu headed back in. Xiaoyu sighed and said, “Liuyuan, are you worried about your brother?”

Everyone knew how close these two brothers were, so it was only natural that Yan Liuyuan would be worried about Ren Xiaosu. However, Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said, “No, I’m just thinking if I should go over to remind him that he’s still carrying his bike around.”

Xiaoyu was surprised.

It was only at this moment that everyone realized in shock that Ren Xiaosu still was carrying his bicycle with him when he turned back to the stronghold.

But the earlier situation was simply too pressing, and with Ren Xiaosu’s shocking decision to head back into the stronghold, they couldn’t get a handle on the situation.

Wang Fugui felt that the mighty presence and image Ren Xiaosu had built up in their minds had all but poofed.

Yan Liuyuan got onto his bicycle and said, “Let’s go! My brother naturally knows what he’s doing if he dares to go back in there. We’ll head north!”

Chen Wudi looked at the stronghold and said in a sad voice, “Master will probably elope with the ruler of Womanland 1 now. How can we go and seek the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise?”

Yan Liuyuan consoled, “Don’t worry, we’ll just bring the ruler of Womanland with us.”

Chen Wudi mulled over this for a long time before saying reluctantly, “Well, alright.”

…

The high-rise building Yang Xiaojin was on was only about a kilometer away from the stronghold’s gate. Ren Xiaosu glanced at the building, then sighed as he put the bicycle down by the road. How careless of him to have forgotten to hand it to Yan Liuyuan for safekeeping first.

The 15 cubic meters of storage space he had was already stuffed full of supplies. Actually, he could just take some of the supplies out and put the bicycle in, but there was no time to fiddle around with it now.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw many people in front of him fleeing toward the stronghold gate near him. Behind them, several Experimentals were frantically chasing after them.

The Experimentals were so terrifying that the stronghold residents cried with fear. Some people even lost their shoes as they ran, while others were fleeing wearing only a thin pair of pajamas. From the looks of it, they must have run straight out of their homes.

These stronghold residents who had recently been talking about music festivals and fashion trends finally understood just what the world outside the stronghold was like.

When Ren Xiaosu first came into the stronghold, he had a thought: Everything in the outside world seemed to be changing at an extremely rapid pace, but the strongholds remained the same throughout. These people were enjoying a false sense of peace and prosperity behind the stronghold walls that seemed to be protecting them but were actually shackling their progress.

Ren Xiaosu looked up at the high-rise building Yang Xiaojin was on. He saw an Experimental climb almost to the top. However, just as it was about to leap over onto the rooftop, it was greeted by the large muzzle of a gun.

The Experimentals were not afraid of bullets. Even bullets fired by an automatic rifle from 50 meters away would get lodged in the surface of their skins due to their tough muscles.

However, that did not include being fired upon by a sniper rifle.

Yang Xiaojin had such great strength that she was actually able to use the sniper rifle as a close-range artillery weapon. With a ringing shot, the Experimental that was the first to reach the rooftop had its entire head blown off!

The recoil from the sniper rifle packed a punch. If a normal person were wielding this weapon, they would probably have been thrown back by the recoil after firing one shot.

But Yang Xiaojin looked like she wasn’t affected at all. Very quickly, she fired at another Experimental.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu always felt an extreme amount of contradiction seeing Yang Xiaojin’s petite figure wielding that sniper rifle. Yet this contradiction exuded a unique aesthetic of violence.

…

Ren Xiaosu had originally been worried about if he would get there in time. Ren Xiaosu knew that if nobody went to support her, Yang Xiaojin would definitely reach a point where she would get overwhelmed. After all, there were simply too many Experimentals.

But now he was a little relieved. At least he still had some time to get there!

Or rather, Yang Xiaojin was buying time for herself!

Ren Xiaosu picked up his pace and accelerated forward. But with everyone else heading toward the stronghold gate, Ren Xiaosu was going against the current.

When the fleeing people passed Ren Xiaosu by, even in this life and death situation, every one of them could not help but look at him in amazement. How could someone be going in the opposite direction, towards the Experimentals? All of them wanted nothing more than to get away from those creatures right now!

At this moment, everyone in the city was fleeing for their lives and were being driven towards the stronghold’s gate by the Experimentals. On these streets, only one person was heading in the opposite direction of everyone else.

Yang Xiaojin was watching this scene from the building in the distance. When she saw Ren Xiaosu making his way back towards the stronghold, she suddenly felt that the current Stronghold 109 was not that scary anymore.

Then an old man recognized Ren Xiaosu in the crowd. Wasn’t that the boy who had bought a lot of food supplies from his store?

This old man was the grocery store owner from before. Yesterday, he was still making fun of Ren Xiaosu for worrying too much. But now he finally realized just how great of a fool he was.

How did this young man know there would be danger?

Moreover, since he already knew there would be danger, why hadn’t he fled in advance? Why was he still heading in the opposite direction from them at this time?

Those two questions kept swirling around in the grocery store owner’s mind. As he continued running, he kept wondering why. But as soon as he passed Ren Xiaosu by, screams burst from the front of the fleeing crowd!

At the far end of the street, many Experimentals suddenly rushed out from the left side of the intersection in front. These Experimentals had actually taken another path to outflank them!

However, only Ren Xiaosu, who was going in the opposite direction, was not surprised by this. This was because, having taken on the Experimentals before, he knew well that their hunting style was to leave no survivors.

If they were not fully prepared, there was absolutely no way they would have waited so patiently underground in ambush.

The intelligent being that helmed these Experimentals surely had greater ambition!

Footnotes:

Ch 182 Footnote 1

The Tang priest and his three disciples, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, journey through Womanland on their way to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures. In Womanland, the priest is horrified when the Queen decides she will marry him and make him king of Womanland and father to future kings. Monkey has a plan to extricate the travellers, but things start to go wrong when the priest is carried off in a whirlwind by an unknown woman. | https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/The_Womanland_of_Western_Liang.html?id=AVEXHAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

Chapter 183: Running out of time!

Soon, Ren Xiaosu arrived at the back of the crowd as he made his way through them in the opposite direction. Here, three Experimentals chased after over a 1,000 people and slaughtered anyone they could get their hands on. When they realized Ren Xiaosu was heading straight for them, one of the Experimentals gave up on its target and pounced at Ren Xiaosu instead!

But before they could even get in front of Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu had already pulled a saber out of thin air. Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. He ran even faster, leading with shoulder forward, brushing past the Experimental that had pounced at him.

Ren Xiaosu gripped the handle of the extremely sharp saber firmly as he felt it going through the Experimental’s body. Its gray skin was sliced open by the blade.

The muscle fibers within the gray skin ruptured thread by thread. Following, the bones were cleanly cut through. Finally, the gray body was split in two as large amounts of pale yellow blood spurted out of it.

All of a sudden, the crowd that was fleeing toward the stronghold’s gate was blocked off by some Experimentals up ahead. Everyone instinctively turned around and ran back to where they came. Turning around didn’t mean they would survive, but they did not know what else they could do!

The despairing crowd had lost all sense by now. They had not received any evacuation training, nor faced the wilderness before. As such, even if they had a strong desire to live, their survival instinct was unable to guide them on where to go.

The instant they turned around, they saw the sight of an Experimental getting sliced in half. The black saber, the youth who was bursting with strength and power, and the Experimental that looked so vulnerable in the face of the blade.

A girl discovered to her surprise that the youth who did this was the Ren Xiaosu who had once been asked by their class to drop out of school. Back then, they were all afraid that Ren Xiaosu would bring disease and death to them since he was a former refugee. But what did that student who spoke up for him say at that time?

On that day, one of Jiang Wu’s students had said to them and their parents, “Side with him? We’re not siding with or helping him. And he doesn’t need our help either. You people are utterly clueless about the outside world. I find it to be really sad.”

No one knew what that student was trying to say at the time. But now she realized what it meant.

So this world had become this dangerous. The students who escaped in the wilderness to Stronghold 109 had clearly gone through life and death with Ren Xiaosu. As a result, they knew exactly what he was capable of.

Such capabilities might not mean much inside the stronghold. But compared to the larger world, these strongholds were just a mere speck.

The girl tugged at a middle-aged woman next to her and shouted, “Mom, that’s Ren Xiaosu! He’s the refugee who was forced to switch classes by you all!”

A complicated look appeared on the woman’s face. But in this life and death situation, was there a need to have other considerations? She said, “Do you know him? Ask him to come back and save us!”

At this moment, when the fleeing crowd that had been forced to turn back by the Experimentals saw that Ren Xiaosu could slay these creatures, someone shouted, “Follow him, follow him closely!”

It was as though they had found their savior and thought they could survive just by following Ren Xiaosu.

But after slaying one of the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu did not come to a stop. He immediately hurried away from the battle site so the other two Experimentals would not have a chance to close in on him and cause any further delays.

His objective was to save someone, not stay behind to kill these Experimentals!

With just a moment’s effort, Ren Xiaosu left the Experimentals and the fleeing crowd far behind.

Seeing they could not catch up to Ren Xiaosu, the Experimentals turned back around to the frightened crowd. When the girl saw Ren Xiaosu running further and further away, and just as she was about to call out to him to come back and save them, the Experimental in front of her pounced and bit down on her throat!

The girl’s cry for help did not even manage to make it out of her mouth, and only despair remained in her eyes.

Ren Xiaosu was never a savior of others. There was only one person’s life in this stronghold he cared about right now.

Then the palace suddenly said, “Quest: Save the stronghold’s residents.”

But even so, it did not make Ren Xiaosu turn his head.

He definitely needed to complete the quest. But Yang Xiaojin was also a resident of the stronghold, so wouldn’t saving her also allow him to complete the quest? Ren Xiaosu always had a unique understanding of the quests assigned by the palace.

While he was running with everything he had, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see an Experimental crouched next to a man who had fainted. The man did not have any visible injuries on his body and seemed to have only been knocked unconscious.

Ren Xiaosu kept his distance from this Experimental as he continued running towards the building. However, he couldn’t help but keep noticing its odd behavior.

Usually, the Experimentals would pounce when they noticed a living being like him. However, this Experimental apparently had something more important it needed to do.

The Experimental suddenly opened its mouth wide and stuck out its tongue. Ren Xiaosu thought it was going lick its “food” before devouring it. However, he noticed there was a small syringe wrapped around the end of its tongue. Then the Experimental took the syringe and held it in its hand. It attempted to inject the syringe filled with a gray liquid into the man’s neck!

Ren Xiaosu felt a chill run up his spine. What was this Experimental trying to do?

Luo Lan had already reminded Ren Xiaosu that these Experimentals were known to conduct experiments. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was wondering what else would the Experimentals do if not experiments? But at this moment, he was shocked.

The normal skin color of the man suddenly started to visibly turn gray. His muscles that couldn’t be counted as particularly lean also started bulking up rapidly.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu thought the Experimentals’ goal was to slaughter all living things. But right now, he realized they were not actually looking to kill everyone.

What exactly was the liquid that had been injected into the man?

To tell the truth, when Luo Lan mentioned the “nanomachines” and “Experimentals performing experiments”, Ren Xiaosu reacted quite scornfully to it. After all, a break in human civilization had occurred, so technology should still be in its preliminary stage of revival, right?

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of what Zhang Jinglin had said to him before. Technology had not really been fully displaced.

Zhang Jinglin’s original words were: “They are in the possession of a minority of the people.”

That should be the reason for the organizations rise to become what they were now.

Ren Xiaosu realized why the Experimentals’ numbers were increasing.

It was no wonder the Experimentals were attacking another stronghold. It was because they were trying to increase their food sources and expand their community, so they had to take over new strongholds in order to get them.

If Stronghold 113 had not collapsed from an earthquake, the Experimentals would not have been able to expand in numbers so rapidly. It was because they didn’t have enough numbers to attack and take down a stronghold before that event.

But ever since they increased their numbers at Stronghold 113, they had raised a big enough army to devour a stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu knew he was running out of time. He needed to get Yang Xiaojin out of this place pronto.

Chapter 184: Rescuing Yang Xiaojin

Finally, he arrived at the entrance of the tall building.

The firing of the sniper rifle had stopped. It was quite likely that the Experimentals were already up on the roof, and Yang Xiaojin had given up on using the sniper rifle and switched to close combat.

Ren Xiaosu did not choose to take the stairs. He called upon his shadow clone and hopped on its back as it started climbing to the top of the building from the exterior.

Between here and the top, the shortest route was a straight line. If he took the stairs up, Yang Xiaojin would probably already be dead by the time he got up there!

Ren Xiaosu felt some regret. If he had completely copied Luo Xinyu’s power, would he have to spend so much effort now?

When he first copied Shadow Door, he got Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu to buy a live chicken back from the market for him. It wasn’t because he wanted to eat meat but that he wanted to try and see if he could pull someone through the Shadow Door like Luo Xinyu did.

But as it would be too dangerous to test it on Yan Liuyuan, he could only try it out on an animal.

After testing it out, Ren Xiaosu gave up. Even when the target he was trying to bring through the Shadow Door was a chicken, he could only manage to get one of its legs through. It couldn’t be pulled any further than that.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu still got a little angry about it.

Suddenly, perhaps alerted by the sound of him climbing up the building, two Experimentals crashed through the windows on the seventh story and climbed out. They were forcefully blocking Ren Xiaosu’s path to the roof.

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Just the two of you and you want to block me? Do y’all know how many Experimentals I have killed? Do y’all know…”

However, the two Experimentals simply hung upside down on the façade and kept their eyes on Ren Xiaosu without flinching.

Ren Xiaosu lamented, “Alright, it seems like I couldn’t scare you.”

As soon as his voice trailed off, his shadow clone pushed off from the exterior with all of its limbs and leaped up. The fuzzy outline of the shadow clone solidified into steel.

Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone separated in midair, and both of them drew a black saber out of thin air at the same time, their actions in unison.

The two Experimentals above him growled and pounced down. But before they could finish, the two black sabers cut through their necks.

The shadow clone kicked one foot off of a falling Experimental’s body and used this change of direction to regain its grip on the steel frame of the building with one of its hands. The other hand grasped tightly onto Ren Xiaosu’s wrist.

In the blink of an eye, the two Experimentals did not even make a ripple when facing Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone.

The coordinated move of Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone was flawless.

Without any obstacles between him and the roof, his shadow clone took him to the top in a single bound.

When the Experimentals that had surrounded Yang Xiaojin saw another human being jump onto the rooftop, all of them turned to look at Ren Xiaosu ferociously.

Ren Xiaosu stood on the edge of the roof and scrutinized his surroundings. There were seven Experimentals in all, but one of them was already immobilized on the ground. Yang Xiaojin, who was injured and stained with blood all over, had her back facing the parapet walls of the roof as she gasped violently for breath. She was holding a new dagger that did not look like it was cast from normal steel.

This was Ren Xiaosu’s first time face to face with so many monsters. If it weren’t for his shadow clone, Ren Xiaosu would probably have to die here as well.

Seeing the suspicious look on Yang Xiaojin’s face, Ren Xiaosu said to his shadow clone, “Old Xu, let’s get all of them!”

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Yang Xiaojin was hiding a slight smile in her eyes despite looking really pathetic at this moment.

Yang Xiaojin said weakly, “Xu Xianchu is already a few hundred kilometers from here.”

“Hahahaha, is that so?” Ren Xiaosu laughed in embarrassment.

Yang Xiaojin did not bother arguing with him and slowly sat on the ground. Every wound on her body was giving searing pain. Having lost a lot of blood, she was almost in a state of shock as well.

Ren Xiaosu calmly said, “You rest for a bit. I’ll get you out of here.”

“Mhm,” Yang Xiaojin responded softly.

…

Luo Xinyu burning with anxiety in the lab as the seconds ticked away. Before she came in here, she already knew the Experimentals were about to start their attack on the stronghold. If she didn’t go and bail her out now, Yang Xiaojin would be in great danger.

But in this enclosed lab where light encroached upon every corner, there was nothing she could do.

Luo Xinyu tried shooting at the ceiling, but even the glass roof was bulletproof. She could try to use her coat to create a faint shadow, but that wouldn’t be big enough for her to activate the Shadow Door.

This was where Luo Xinyu was different from Ren Xiaosu. Although Ren Xiaosu’s Shadow Door only allowed him to put an arm through it, he could adjust the size of his Shadow Door at will. Luo Xinyu’s Shadow Door could only be conjured at the standard size she had no control over.

Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang out from outside. Then she heard a voice yelling, “Hehe, if it’s something I want, you can bet I’ll get my hands on it!”

Luo Xinyu’s eyes lit up. Who could have expected Luo Lan to come barging in at this moment? As soon as Luo Lan opened the door and came in, the light source would turn off. At that time, she might have the chance to immediately leave through the Shadow Door.

Luo Lan’s voice sounded from the outside, “Hurry up and key in the password for the door to open. Otherwise, I’ll finish you off where you stand.”

It sounded like Luo Lan had taken an employee hostage and was ordering them to open the lab’s door.

With a rumble, the door slowly started lifting. The employee had apparently inputted the correct password, but a gunshot still rang out. The lab employee screamed in fright. But after screaming for a while, he realized he was not dead.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” the lab employee asked, trembling.

Luo Lan chortled and said, “When have I ever gone back on my word? Do you think your wretched life or my reputation is more important? Now get lost!”

Luo Lan waited for the door to raise halfway before bending down to get in. When he saw Luo Xinyu on the inside, he froze.

By this moment, the bright lights in the lab used to drown out any shadows had already turned off. Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu’s Shadow Door had already vaguely formed.

But when Luo Lan saw this sight, he immediately took out a powerful flashlight from his waist pocket and shone it at Luo Xinyu’s Shadow Door. With that, the Shadow Door disappeared again.

He belly laughed. “I haven’t even gotten my revenge for getting slapped on my forehead by you, so how dare you take what I want and try to escape? It was a good thing I brought along a flashlight just in case!”

After Luo Lan was slapped by Ren Xiaosu on his head, he started carrying around a powerful flashlight for defensive purposes. However, Luo Xinyu was confused by what Luo Lan said. “What did I slap?”

Luo Lan did not banter with her. “Hand over the information and I’ll let you go.”

Luo Xinyu sneered, “Do you think I’ll believe you? Step back, or I’ll destroy this hard drive!”

Luo Lan started laughing. “Your partner should still be on top of that building, right? The Experimentals have already gotten into the stronghold. If you don’t hurry up and rescue her, she probably won’t make it out of here. How about this? Hand the hard drive to me and I’ll let you go rescue her.”

Honestly, Luo Xinyu did not believe that Luo Lan would let her go. However, if she did not go and rescue Yang Xiaojin now, it might really be too late.

So Luo Xinyu decided to take a gamble.

She threw the hard drive over to Luo Lan, then went on guard against him.

In the end, Luo Lan caught the hard drive and turned around to leave. “Hurry up and rescue her. I, Luo Lan, will never break a promise. Don’t start guarding against me like you would a petty criminal. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have said so much already.”

Luo Xinyu looked at him, then opened a Shadow Door to leave. In a single step, she arrived at the rooftop she and Yang Xiaojin had agreed to meet at.

But what she saw stunned her. All she could see were the scattered, torn pieces of Experimentals’ bodies here, but Yang Xiaojin was nowhere to be seen.

Who had rescued Yang Xiaojin?!

Luo Xinyu looked around from on the high-rise building at her surroundings. All she could see were gray Experimentals traversing the streets as they hunted their prey. She was a little worried. Even if someone had saved Yang Xiaojin, they couldn’t possibly have escaped from the stronghold, right?

That person must have taken her somewhere to hide.

Chapter 185: Exposing each other

In the wide and gloomy sewers, footsteps echoed clearly. Compared to the narrow space Ren Xiaosu had imagined, the sewer system in Stronghold 109 seemed more like it was designed based on the specifications of a bomb shelter.

When the strongholds were built many years ago, people were still living in the shadow of The Cataclysm. That led to their designs being influenced by the possibility of war breaking out again. So when Stronghold 109’s sewer system was designed, it was done so that the sewer pipes were constructed as wide as a bomb shelter. But of course, only the main sewer pipes were designed this way.

The black shadow clone was walking in the sewers and carrying an unconscious Yang Xiaojin on its left shoulder. Ren Xiaosu, who was enduring its pain, was being carried on its right shoulder.

Ren Xiaosu had also been injured, and blood was dripping down into the murky sewage from his dangling arm.

Seemingly attracted by the blood, huge sewer rats watched the shadow clone as it walked by in the darkness as well as the two wounded people it was carrying on its shoulders.

But for some reason, the rats did not dare to come out to attack them.

Ren Xiaosu was not only dealing with his own injuries but also enduring the pain from the bites the shadow clone had received during the battle that were in turn transmitted to him.

This was probably Ren Xiaosu’s toughest battle to date. At first, he thought he would only have to face six Experimentals. But once they started fighting, he discovered that another five Experimentals in the building had been attracted by the noise.

During the fight, several Experimentals had been kicked off the building and died on impact. As their corpses were not on the roof, Luo Xinyu misjudged the state of the battle when she arrived at the scene.

Based on Luo Xinyu’s understanding, a supernatural being who could attack and kill six Experimentals at the same time was already very terrifying. In fact, she would not even have dared think beyond that scenario.

In this era when supernatural beings had just started rising up, everyone was slowly feeling their way forward as they advanced in the realm of the supernatural. Unless it was a natural-born evil like Li Shentan, an individual would still find it difficult to use their power to overcome the masses.

That was to say, no single person today would be strong enough to ignore the number of their enemies. Supernatural beings were not powerful to that extent. Why else would they be hunted by the organizations to the point they had to remain hidden all around the world?

But there was a consensus among all the supernatural organizations. A supernatural being powerful enough to ignore the masses would definitely be born sooner or later.

As the shadow clone continued walking forward in the sewers, Yang Xiaojin suddenly regained consciousness. At this moment, all of her body ached so badly that she could not even lift herself up. “Ren Xiaosu?”

Her voice was oddly abrupt in the empty sewers. Ren Xiaosu said dejectedly, “Hm?”

“Where are we?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Good question.” Ren Xiaosu answered, “Broadly speaking, we’re in the sewers. But if you want to be more specific, I have no clue where we are.”

Yang Xiaojin instantly realized Ren Xiaosu might also be injured. But from the way he was still speaking nonsensically, his injuries shouldn’t be too bad.

The shadow clone finally came to a stop when it found a dry platform to place Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu down on.

Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu both leaned against the wall and sat down. Ren Xiaosu took out a candle and lit it before placing it on the ground. He asked, “Why didn’t Luo Xinyu take you away this time?”

“Probably because something happened.” Yang Xiaojin had recovered a little. “If something hadn’t, she would have come for me.”

Ren Xiaosu still did not give up on trying to hide his powers even at this time. He said to the shadow clone, “Thanks, Old Xu.”

Yang Xiaojin chuckled. “My injuries hurt a lot, so please don’t make me laugh.”

“Old Xu ran from over a hundred kilometers away just to rescue us. Are you really not going to thank him?” Ren Xiaosu said righteously.

“We secretly planted a tracker on Xu Xianchu.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “He just crossed over the Tungsten Mountains this morning and was continuing to head northwest to Stronghold 178. It was you who told him to go that way, wasn’t it? I remember you mentioning Zhang Jinglin before. I didn’t think much of it at that time, just that the name sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure if it was the same one I knew.”

Ren Xiaosu got angry. “What right did y’all have to plant a tracker on Old Xu!”

“Don’t change the topic.” Yang Xiaojin said softly, “So I used to have a question I couldn’t figure out an answer to. I clearly saw you in the Jing Mountains, yet the Qing Consortium never put you on their wanted list, instead placing a huge bounty on Xu Xianchu’s head.”

Ren Xiaosu said, feeling guilty, “That has nothing to do with me. Don’t try to accuse me of anything.”

“So your superpower is to copy others’ superpowers, right?” Yang Xiaojin said in a soft voice, “You also copied mine. I carefully studied the angle you raise your gun at, and it’s exactly the same as mine. There’s no difference.”

Yang Xiaojin had always felt that Ren Xiaosu raised his gun in an awfully familiar way, as though she were looking at a male version of herself. It wasn’t until now that she finally figured it out.

Yang Xiaojin did not know how she should gauge Ren Xiaosu’s power. The consensus among supernatural organizations was: A supernatural being cannot have more than one superpower at the same time.

But Ren Xiaosu was different. He had already exceeded it having two superpowers since some time ago.

All supernatural beings only managed to awaken their superpowers after going through tough times, yet this superpower of theirs could now easily be copied by someone else. In fact, the replicated superpowers were even stronger than the originals. How frustrating.

For example, Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was not as strong as Ren Xiaosu’s.

As such, Yang Xiaojin felt… Ren Xiaosu’s power placed him above all of the other supernatural beings.

Yang Xiaojin continued, “So when Luo Xinyu’s bounty was raised the other day, that was also because of you, huh?”

Ren Xiaosu really could not admit to it. “Not at all! I refuse to accept that!”

It was not like he was worried that other people would find out he had framed Luo Xinyu, but rather, he really did not want Yang Xiaojin to know that the power he had copied from Luo Xinyu had actually diverged from the original. She could bring someone through the Shadow Door, but he could at most put an arm through it.

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if he admitted to that?

“So you own up to everything else, right?” Yang Xiaojin giggled.

Ren Xiaosu felt he couldn’t just let Yang Xiaojin have her way and keep exposing his secrets. He needed to counterattack, so he suddenly said, “Let’s first consider how to escape from this stronghold. I have a plan. Even if we can outrun the Experimentals, we don’t have the stamina to run at full speed for a long distance, so we need a mode of transportation. I know where there’s some bikes. Don’t you know how to ride a bike? When you’ve recovered, you can ride lead and get us both out of here.”

Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. Then she calmly said, “OK, OK, stop probing me. I don’t know how to ride a bike either.”

“Hahahahaha.” Ren Xiaosu stifled his laughter. ‘Yang Xiaojin, serves you right!’

“That’s enough,” Yang Xiaojin calmly said.

Chapter 186: An unfinished quest

“Lu Yuan is also a member of the Saboteurs, right? So you already knew that I would be going to that school, yet you pretended not to know anything about it?” Ren Xiaosu questioned.

“Ren Xiaosu, you should know when to stop…”

“Hahahaha!”

Ren Xiaosu kept laughing for a long time. It made Yang Xiaojin start laughing as well. It was infectious.

Inside the dark sewers, the only light source was the faint candlelight where Ren Xiaosu was. Even though the ground above them was likely very dangerous and teeming with Experimentals, both of them still found some joy to cherish in this difficult moment.

Yang Xiaojin started coughing as she laughed. When she finally got her breathing under control again, she suddenly asked, “Why did you come back to save me?”

“I forgot my wallet,” Ren Xiaosu answered matter-of-factly.

“Mhm,” Yang Xiaojin acknowledged.

They both knew this reason was lame beyond belief, but neither said anything about it.

Yang Xiaojin said, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone about your secret. You probably haven’t realized this yet, but you’re already considered very strong even among supernatural beings.”

Yang Xiaojin recalled the the battle.

In fact, she wasn’t sure at the time if Ren Xiaosu could take on six Experimentals and beat them. This was because based on what she knew, there were not many supernatural beings who could take on six Experimentals at once.

In the current era, supernatural beings had started sprouting up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. However, their powers were not strong enough to break past a certain threshold yet. The Saboteurs defined this threshold as: Is the supernatural being capable of ignoring the power of the masses?

In layman’s terms, it just meant whether a supernatural being was capable of destroying an organization’s fighting forces alone.

Li Shentan could be considered halfway there because his power depended on hypnotizing his targets, so he would be considered as using the masses against the masses. As for his own strength, it might not be that great.

But there would surely be a day when a truly strong individual emerged from the world of the supernatural beings.

The Saboteurs termed this the “Dawn of Gods.”

Back on the roof, Yang Xiaojin had witnessed the power of Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone. It had a strength and speed that crushed the existence of the Experimentals. Moreover, even when a hoard of Experimentals attacked it at once, they still couldn’t bring it down completely.

But what surprised Yang Xiaojin most of all was that both Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone were able to wield their own sabers.

Honestly, Yang Xiaojin had never seen a weapon that was capable of slicing through the Experimentals like that. It didn’t even feel like it was something that modern civilization was capable of producing. As such, it could only be attributed as a kind of power.

At that time on the roof, Ren Xiaosu displayed strong combat awareness. This “combat awareness” did not refer to technique but an instinct.

Instinct was not something that could be trained.

Training could allow a person to increase their reaction speed, gain greater strength, become faster, and even learn cleverer ways of generating power, but none of that could replace instinct.

Some people said that hard work could make up for it, but only a true elite would understand that hard work could never replace talent.

And Ren Xiaosu had this talent for combat.

If it weren’t for the last Experimental that had crawled up and sneak attacked, Ren Xiaosu would not even have gotten injured.

At this time, Ren Xiaosu took out two pieces of hardtack and handed one to Yang Xiaojin, leaving one for himself in his other hand.

Yang Xiaojin did not stand on ceremony and simply took it from him. They were both injured and had lost a lot of blood, so they needed to replenish whatever necessary energy they could get.

She looked at the candle on the ground next to them and suddenly realized that this might be the first candlelit dinner she had eaten in her life. “Does this count as a candlelit dinner?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and asked, “What’s a candlelit dinner?”

Yang Xiaojin laughed. “Never mind.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “I heard you mention Zhang Jinglin earlier? Just what kind of a person is Mr. Zhang?”

This question seemed to have stumped Yang Xiaojin a little. She even had to carefully search for the right word in her mind but was unable to think of something that accurately described Zhang Jinglin. “You can say he’s the most ‘enlightened’ person in our current times.”

This answer truly stunned Ren Xiaosu. “What kind of an appraisal is that? What is his identity in Stronghold 178, really? And what exactly is Stronghold 178 protecting?”

“Whether it be the strongholds or the towns, the organizations will try to tell you that there are extremely powerful beasts and terrifying creatures, as well as scary insect swarms beyond the outermost perimeter of the strongholds,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“Isn’t that true?” Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback.

“It’s not.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Stronghold 178 in the northwest and Stronghold 169 in the northern plains are not really there to stop the wild beasts from coming in, but humans. The humans who try to invade into the interior every now and then.”

“Like the Experimentals?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“No, they’re people just like you and me.” Yang Xiaojin said softly, “Even after the disaster, wars between humans have not stopped at all. That’s probably about the most ironic thing that has happened.”

This was a secret Ren Xiaosu had never known about. So there were still humans who lived beyond the outermost perimeter of the ring of strongholds!

Yang Xiaojin said, “Zhang Jinglin was the original commander of the fighting force at Stronghold 178, the true controller of that place. He suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago, leading to many people saying he had grown tired of war. But no one knew the real reason behind his disappearance. However, everyone at Stronghold 178 is waiting for him to return. That place is an independent force by itself that falls outside the control of the Alliance of Strongholds. In recent years, the Zong Consortium, which is active at the frontier, has been trying to gain control of Stronghold 178, but now that Zhang Jinglin is going back, the Zong Consortium’s plans have all come to nothing. Those bastards only recognize Zhang Jinglin. Not even money moves them!”

Ren Xiaosu was doubtful of this. Zhang Jinglin did not even look like a soldier as he was so weak. How could someone like that have such a powerful background?

But this also reassured Ren Xiaosu. Xu Xianchu would definitely get special treatment by bringing that recommendation letter there, so he didn’t feel as bad anymore.

Wait! Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a problem. Why wasn’t his quest that required him to save a stronghold resident complete yet? Didn’t he already save Yang Xiaojin?

Could it be that he needed to get her out of the stronghold before the quest requirements were met? That couldn’t be! Ren Xiaosu kept thinking that something must be wrong somewhere. He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, “Do you hold a Stronghold 109 ID card?”

Yang Xiaojin was taken aback, as though she couldn’t wrap her head around why Ren Xiaosu was asking this question. “No, why would I need one? If anything crops up, I can just look for Uncle Lu to settle it. We don’t need any ID cards here.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Oh, so Yang Xiaojin wasn’t really a resident of this stronghold?!

It was no wonder the palace had specifically stressed Ren Xiaosu save the stronghold’s residents. So it seemed like the palace was also afraid that Ren Xiaosu would only attempt to save Yang Xiaojin and not the others. However, Ren Xiaosu did not realize the intention of the quest at that time!

Yang Xiaojin wondered aloud, “I found it weird at the time. There were clearly so many people who were still running for their lives on the streets, so why did so many of the Experimentals split up from the rest and come to attack me instead?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, “Probably because you’re not a resident of the stronghold.”

Yang Xiaojin was confused.

Chapter 187: I ll carry you

Yang Xiaojin just looked at Ren Xiaosu. They had attacked her because she wasn’t a resident of the stronghold? What kind of nonsense was that!

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, “This particular group known as the Experimentals have been growing stronger and stronger. When I was on my way to rescue you, I saw an Experimental inject a normal human being. When the gray liquid was injected into that person’s body, he somehow turned into an Experimental as well.”

Yang Xiaojin was hearing this for the first time. She said in shock, “So if they inject all of the stronghold’s residents with that drug, wouldn’t there be hundreds of thousands more Experimentals? No, wait, they’re probably selective about who they inject it into.”

“That’s right.” Ren Xiaosu said, “They probably selected specific individuals to inject the drug with, but we don’t know what kind of conditions they must meet. I think as long as we can figure out the origins of the Experimentals, we should be able to understand how they select their candidates. There had to have been thousands and thousands of survivors in the aftermath of the disaster at Stronghold 113, but the number of Experimentals only increased by around a 1,000 or so in the end.”

Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, “We received intel about the Pyro Company, and it seems like that lab in the Jing Mountains is related to them. They were using it before The Cataclysm, and it became lost after that. They had no choice but to give up on that portion of their research, so the related studies were also lost as a result.”

“Then do y’all know what kind of experiments they used to carry out in there?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“We don’t know. All we know is that they experimented on cancer patients. The cancer patients knew they wouldn’t live for much longer, so they decided to sell themselves to the Pyro Company in order to leave behind a lump sum of money for their families,” Yang Xiaojin replied.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu’s wounds seared with pain again. He retrieved the black medicine from the palace and applied some on himself. “You should apply some medicine on your wounds as well. Where are you hurt?”

Yang Xiaojin said, “Give me the medicine. I’ll apply it myself.”

Ren Xiaosu handed a bottle of the black medicine to Yang Xiaojin. He had wanted to inform her of the price but managed to hold back from doing so.

Then he watched Yang Xiaojin blow out the candle before she started applying the black medicine on her wounds in the dark. “I’ve long heard about how miraculous this black medicine of yours is, but I really didn’t expect it to be this effective.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said curiously in the darkness, “Do you have any wounds that you can’t reach? Let me…”

With a striking sound, Yang Xiaojin used a match to relight the candle. Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and continued applying the medicine on his wounds.

Yang Xiaojin watched Ren Xiaosu lift up his shirt to reveal four very deep and bloody wounds around his abdomen. They were probably inflicted by the claws of an Experimental. It was fortunate that his organs were not wounded. She said in surprise, “Didn’t you find it painful just now?”

Ren Xiaosu had been speaking with her like everything was fine for a long while. It didn’t look like there was any indication of pain on his face.

As he applied the medicine on his wound, Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I’m used to it.”

“Used to it.” These three words seemed to have a kind of quiet strength. Over a decade of bitterness and suffering were harbored within these three words.

Used to the pain.

Used to getting injured.

Used to enduring it.

In the candlelight, Yang Xiaojin noticed that Ren Xiaosu’s forehead was dripping with sweat. Moreover, his lips had turned pale. He was clearly suffering from very serious injuries.

She took the black medicine from Ren Xiaosu and lifted his shirt up. She was greeted by the sight of more than a dozen wounds everywhere. Yang Xiaojin said, “I’ll apply it for you.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say a thing and just let Yang Xiaojin’s finger go over his wounds.

This skin of the girl’s hand was not delicate at all. In fact, her hand was covered with callouses, clearly demonstrating she had been through some very tough training

In fact, Ren Xiaosu already knew while in the Jing Mountains that Yang Xiaojin wasn’t delicate and fragile like most other girls.

“Is it painful? Tell me if I’m too heavy with the application.” Yang Xiaojin said softly, “Turn the other way. You have injuries on your back as well.” Yang Xiaojin sounded very firm.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, “The place above where we were earlier should be filled with Experimentals. Now that we’ve walked quite far away, we should be getting close to the stronghold’s gate. However, I’m not sure if we can escape from there.”

It would be very simple to get from underground to the surface, but how could they avoid getting hunted down by the Experimentals afterwards?

If they bumped into the Experimentals the moment they went up to the surface, they could be chased for up to several hundred kilometers from the stronghold and still end up dying!

Ren Xiaosu could feel the soothing effects of the black medicine. The pain of his wounds was relieved, leaving him in much better spirits. “But I think these Experimentals definitely need to rest during the day. So if we wait here quietly until daylight when it’s time for them to hide, we can make use of that time to flee. We should just rest and conserve our strength for now.”

Yang Xiaojin replied, “It’s no secret they’re afraid of daylight, so your deduction is correct. They’ll be certain to go into hiding to sleep when it’s daytime.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded at her affirmation. He thought, ‘Great minds think alike.’

The two of them sat in the dark sewers and fell into a brief silence. Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, “Actually, not even a close friend would come back to save me in that kind of a situation. I’ll skip the thanks and just-“

But Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “You should still thank me.”

Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. “Thank you…”

“Gratitude received from Yang Xiaojin, +10.”

Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu was startled. He had only gotten Yang Xiaojin to thank him because he thought that since the quest could not be completed, he should at least earn a gratitude token to make up for his loss. As a result, Yang Xiaojin’s thanks actually earned him ten gratitude tokens!

What made Yang Xiaojin so special?!

But at this moment, the manhole cover above them suddenly moved. Then an Experimental jumped down from above. However, the Experimental did not expect to see anyone down here either, so both parties were equally surprised by this encounter!

Whatever happened to making their escape at daylight? Why had this Experimental suddenly come down into the sewers? It was almost daybreak now. Shouldn’t it be looking for a place to get some rest?

Yang Xiaojin said softly, “I suddenly thought of a problem. Where do you think they’ll retreat to during the day?”

Ren Xiaosu considered the question for a moment. “The sewers?”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt terrible. He had wanted them to make their escape when it was daylight, but it looked like they had to quickly run now. Otherwise, they might end up having to sleep with the Experimentals. Who knew if the Experimentals would welcome them?

In an instant, the Experimental roared and pounced at the two of them. Ren Xiaosu did not even need to move as his shadow clone rushed forward with the black saber in its hands. The shadow clone choked the Experimental with one hand and raised the black saber with its other hand before plunging it through the Experimental’s heart. The Experimental was pinned against the sewer wall on the opposite side.

But an even greater calamity was to come. This Experimental’s roar had alerted all of the other Experimentals aboveground. Two other Experimentals laid on the road next to the manhole and popped their heads down to have a look. Ren Xiaosu said, “Run, I’ll carry you!”

He couldn’t let his shadow clone carry Yang Xiaojin since he needed it to fight!

However, Ren Xiaosu did not realize that his body could hardly hang on any longer. After the intense battle during the night and getting injured, he was finding it difficult to even remain standing.

Right at this moment, Yang Xiaojin knelt down in front of him and said, “I’ll carry you.”

Before Ren Xiaosu could react, Yang Xiaojin had already placed him on her back and started running.

Yang Xiaojin was quite tall, but her body frame was small. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward when he was being carried by her, because he had never ever relied on anyone else before even in the most difficult of times.

He had come back to the stronghold to rescue someone. But right now, the person he wanted to rescue was carrying him instead.

Chapter 188: Experimentals in the sewers

In the dark sewers, danger lurked behind every corner. While Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were making their escape, the manhole covers above them were constantly flipped opened by new groups of Experimentals that had rushed over. Following that, these Experimentals would join in and chase after them.

The saber-wielding shadow clone was surprisingly lethal, but this was not the moment to savor that. The shadow clone battled with the Experimentals while slowly making its retreat as well, because there would only be more and more Experimentals coming down into the sewers from here.

Yang Xiaojin piggybacked Ren Xiaosu and kept running in the sewers. There was the sound of splashing with every step she took in the dirty water. Ren Xiaosu could even hear Yang Xiaojin breathing heavily. He knew Yang Xiaojin was already at her limit, so it had to have been taking a heavy toll on her to carry another person on her back at this time.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Why don’t you put me down—”

“No!” Yang Xiaojin stubbornly said before he could finish. Just like in the Jing Mountains, the girl’s character had always been tougher than a man’s.

The shadow clone kept colliding with the sewer walls to prevent the Experimentals from locking it down with their limbs. When one of the Experimentals pounced onto its back, the shadow clone rammed the sewer wall with its back and crushed the Experimental.

In just a moment, Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone had blocked five or six of the Experimentals that had just crawled into the sewers behind it. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were now getting further and further away from the Experimentals.

However, the number of Experimentals that were attracted into the sewers by the noise kept increasing. Ren Xiaosu did not know how long his shadow clone could hold them off for.

“It’d really be quite an injustice if we died in here,” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.

Yang Xiaojin said, “We won’t die here. I’ll definitely get you out of this place.”

Suddenly, a rough voice boasted from ahead of them, “Haha, these stupid Experimentals must not be expecting their Uncle Luo to be hiding right under their noses in here.”

Right after that, Tang Zhou said in a perfunctory tone, “That’s right, Boss is absolutely right.”

All of a sudden, Luo Lan sounded a little uncertain. “Uh, did you all hear that?!”

Yang Xiaojin hooked a left at one of the intersections and ran right into Luo Lan’s dumbfounded group.

Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and their men were all on guard and holding their guns up cautiously. The moment they shone their flashlights on Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan was amused. “You’ve gotten your comeuppance too, eh, Ren Xiaosu?”

Ren Xiaosu couldn’t care less and weakly called out, “Run!”

Luo Lan was stunned, not understanding the situation. “Run? Why?”

Then the roars of the Experimentals reverberated behind Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Luo Lan blanched as he turned tail. “Fuck! Why does nothing good ever come out of meeting you!”

Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, “Luo Lan, you’re familiar with the sewers! Bring us to the courtyard house we rented!”

Luo Lan said guiltily while running, “Like I know where your rented courtyard house is! It’s not like I’ve been monitoring you all!”

When Yang Xiaojin saw that Luo Lan was still acting dumb at a time like this, she sneered, “Do you want to live or die?!”

Luo Lan turned his head and saw the Experimentals getting closer and closer. “Turn left!”

As they ran for their lives in the sewers, the well-trained Qing Consortium combat troops fell to the back of the group. Occasionally, they would stop and rake the Experimentals with gunfire in an attempt to delay them so Luo Lan could escape. As their shots were not aimed, however, Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone got hit by the random gunfire as well.

This had nothing to do with purposeful friendly fire. Ren Xiaosu understood that no one cared to carefully take aim at their targets at a time like this. But more importantly, he could feel pain when those bullets hit his shadow clone! The continuous firing from the guns left Ren Xiaosu in extreme pain. He was already sweating, but there was nothing that he could do about it.

When Luo Lan happened to turn back and saw the shadow clone, he muttered as he ran, “I didn’t expect Xu Xianchu to still be in the stronghold. Where is he in person? I’ve heard this shadow clone isn’t afraid of bullets, but I didn’t expect it to be true.”

Ren Xiaosu expressionlessly looked at the rotund figure of Luo Lan from behind and made a note to remember what happened here today.

At this moment, Luo Lan checked their position with a glance and roared, “We’re here, climb up!”

With that, the group climbed up to the surface via a rusty ladder that extended into the sewers as over a 100 of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops remained below where they formed a simple intercepting line of fire.

They knelt on one knee in the dirty sewage water and took turns firing their guns. When the first row of soldiers ran out of bullets, the second row of soldiers immediately replaced them in the firing line. Only by doing this could they hold off all the Experimentals in the sewers. Even these creatures that were not afraid of bullets, they still wouldn’t dare to rush into such an intense hail of fire.

Ren Xiaosu controlled his shadow clone to force its way back to his side. The pain he felt from the gunfire nearly caused him to pass out. By this point, his shadow clone was no longer shouldering the responsibility of holding back the Experimentals. Therefore, he made it carry himself and Yang Xiaojin on its shoulders again. Ren Xiaosu knew that Yang Xiaojin was also nearing her limits. She had purely been running on willpower while she carried Ren Xiaosu all the way here.

The group took turns to climb up to the surface while the Experimentals were kept at bay by the Qing Consortium’s suppressive fire. But as everyone started climbing up to the surface, the number of people who were holding the firing line decreased. In the end, some people would have to remain behind in the sewers, because they had to hold the Experimentals back for the others, and no one would be able to do it for them.

The Experimentals in the sewers had realized the firepower was getting weaker, so they got ready to pounce forward again!

Luo Lan shouted out into the sewers from above, “Hurry up and get up here!”

However, the remaining five soldiers belowground detached the grenades from their uniforms and said with a smile on their faces, “Boss, it’s too late now. After you escape, remember to drink more on our behalf.”

“Fucking stop uttering nonsense. Do you all want me to drink myself to death?” Luo Lan cursed down into the sewers.

As he said that, he looked like he was about to go back down into the sewers. However, he was firmly held back by Tang Zhou. “Boss, you’ll die if you go back in there!”

“What’s there to be afraid of? At most, we die together!” Luo Lan said angrily, “Get your fucking hands off me!”

However, after Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone placed the two people it was carrying onto the ground, it jumped right back into the sewers. Then the dark shadow clone wielded the black saber in its hands and stood in front of the five Qing Consortium soldiers. In front of it, the Experimentals were surging forward.

The shadow clone looked back and signaled to the five Qing Consortium soldiers: Go.

The Qing Consortium’s soldiers looked at one another. They had not expected such a twist. They all softly gave thanks and hurried up the ladder to the surface. Meanwhile, the shadow clone was instantly overwhelmed by the Experimentals!

The Experimentals scuttled like spiders and blanketed the shadow clone’s body. Even with the physical fitness of the shadow clone, it found it difficult to put up any effective resistance.

Ren Xiaosu said ruthlessly, “Blow them up!”

Luo Lan was stunned. “But Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone is still down there.”

Even though he hesitated, Yang Xiaojin did not. She knew Ren Xiaosu must have said so for a reason. As for what reason that was, she didn’t have to consider it.

Chapter 189: The gratitude tokens that disappeared

Yang Xiaojin seized two grenades from one of the Qing Consortium’s soldiers with lightning speed. The Qing Consortium soldier unconsciously tried to avoid her attempt since protecting one’s weapons was the instinct of every solder. But in the end, all he felt was a numb sensation in his hand, the grenades gone.

Yang Xiaojin resolutely and decisively pulled out the safety pins and threw the grenades into the sewer. With a thunderous boom, the stone bricks on the streets flew up with the explosion.

The Experimentals confined in the tight space of the sewers couldn’t withstand the destructive power of two grenades going off at once. They were blown away and dropped to the ground with blood oozing from all orifices.

But even so, everyone discovered that several of the Experimentals were actually unaffected by the blast. Ren Xiaosu said in a cold voice, “Blow them up again!”

Yang Xiaojin seized another two grenades and threw them down into the sewer. It was only at this time that the remaining Experimentals that were still mobile started retreating and letting go of Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone!

Ren Xiaosu laid on the ground with his head throbbing. He was finding out for the first time just how powerful grenades were.

The feeling was like 10,000 knives cutting into his flesh. The shrapnel from the explosion was even more powerful than he imagined.

However, he had the bravery to let Yang Xiaojin throw the grenades in because he knew he could bear with the pain from the blasts, and his shadow clone would not be affected by it.

But after this was over, Luo Lan would owe him a great big favor!

When the shadow clone crawled out of the sewers, Luo Lan teared up and held its hand. “Xu Xianchu, I’ve really got to thank you for this.”

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘This has nothing to do with Xu Xianchu.’ But he couldn’t explain it to them yet.

In the past, he had always made his shadow clone his scapegoat. But now that he had done something good with it, Ren Xiaosu was unused to it.

Luo Lan suddenly said, “Go on, everyone, thank him. If it weren’t for Xu Xianchu, five of our men would have died in the sewers.”

“Thank you, Xu Xianchu!” Seeing this big group of people thanking his shadow clone in unison, Ren Xiaosu did not receive one single gratitude token!

Ren Xiaosu immediately felt his heart ache. Over a 100 gratitude tokens had slipped through his hands just like that!

As a matter of fact, he was still around 800 gratitude tokens away from unlocking the next weapon in his Side Quest #2. If Luo Lan had his men to give thanks a few more times, wouldn’t the weapon be unlocked with just a snap of a finger?

A 100 gratitude tokens were all that was needed to give him a powerful weapon like the black saber. If it weren’t for the black saber, Ren Xiaosu would have died several times over. So Ren Xiaosu was really anticipating what kind of weapon a 1,000 gratitude tokens could get him. But instead, he had lost the opportunity to gain over a 100 gratitude tokens just like that!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu even considered admitting to all of the deeds he had committed. As long as there were gratitude tokens to be earned, to hell with being wanted!

Then Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Xu Xianchu carried and helped both of you to escape. Shouldn’t you two also thank him?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “… Thank you.”

Yang Xiaojin stifled her laughter as she also expressed her gratitude to the shadow clone. She was quite amused by this sudden turn of events, but this was not the time to tease Ren Xiaosu about it. She said, “The sound of the explosions here will be sure to attract many Experimentals. Everyone, gather up all the bombs you can from inside the courtyard!”

Yang Xiaojin then pushed open the courtyard house’s door. Everyone was stunned on the spot when they saw the entire courtyard filled with cluster bombs. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought about how Yang Xiaojin was always sleeping in class and wondered if she had been staying up late every night just to finish making all these bombs.

Ren Xiaosu said, “There’s also bombs at my place next door.”

The 100 or so soldiers from the Qing Consortium looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in silence. Everyone was thinking about how young these two looked yet the things they did were all so violent.

Luo Lan roared, “What are you all standing there for! Hurry up and gather the bombs, then quickly find a place to plant them along our escape route. Let’s bomb the fuck out of those bloody bastards!”

They had bombs now. As for how they should be used, Yang Xiaojin didn’t need to teach them. These Qing Consortium soldiers under Luo Lan were all elite troopers, so they couldn’t be more familiar with how to use the devices.

Luo Lan had also smuggled in a lot of explosives from outside the stronghold. But during the conflict with the Li Consortium, they had used up all of them. Now that they could rearm themselves with more ammunition, everyone couldn’t look more eager.

They had all been pushed around by the Experimentals for far too long, so of course they would have to kill some of them to appease the hatred inside.

Just as expected, the explosion from the four grenades thrown into the sewers had attracted a 100 other Experimentals from the surrounding areas. While Luo Lan was escaping, he looked back at them. He was shocked to discover those Experimentals were scurrying between the uneven buildings like they were on flat ground.

Suddenly, flames shot into the air behind them as explosions rang out.

The Experimentals that happened to pass by the bombs were sent flying by the massive force of the explosion.

The Qing Consortium’s soldiers who were responsible for setting up the bombs looked at one another. They had thought that the bombs would not be powerful since they were homemade. But as it turned out, these bombs were far more powerful than they had imagined. They couldn’t help but look at Yang Xiaojin. These bombs were actually built by a girl?!

A number of Experimentals were blown to smithereens by the explosions. However, this did not frighten the other Experimentals at all. Instead, it turned them even more savage and ferocious!

More explosions boomed behind Ren Xiaosu and the others as they made their escape. But even as the bombs went off one after another, the number of Experimentals pursuing them did not seem to lessen. It was not that the Experimentals did not die from the blasts but that new Experimentals kept joining in the chase.

These Experimentals had seemingly become even more aggressive like they wanted nothing more than for this group of people to die!

Luo Lan covered his head with his hands and said through clenched teeth, “Even though we have a lot of bombs, they’re not enough to hold back the more numerous Experimentals. Even if we manage to flee from the stronghold, we won’t be able to escape their pursuit!”

When they saw the stronghold’s gate appearing in their field of vision, nobody let down their guard. The Experimentals were not simpletons with predictable behavior. Getting out of the stronghold didn’t mean they would give up on chasing them.

Even after getting past the gate, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they were saved.

But at this moment, an armored vehicle crashed through the already half blown up stronghold gate and sent debris flying everywhere. Luo Lan noticed the ginkgo leaf logo on the bulky armored vehicle. The black armored vehicles acted like a giant land beast as it barged its way forward. One by one, more and more of the Qing Consortium’s armored vehicles came roaring into the stronghold. Ren Xiaosu estimated the number and thought there could be several dozen of them in total!

Could the Qing Consortium have sent an entire army here?!

Luo Lan suddenly stopped running and stood still at the end of the street. He started laughing hysterically at the incoming wave of Experimentals and said, “Little bastards, Grandpa’s backup has arrived, hahahaha!”

This fatso who had been covering his head in fear turned cocky the moment his support arrived.

The convoy of armored vehicles whizzed past the escaping group of people and came to a stop between the Experimentals and them. Qing Zhen emerged and got out of one of the vehicles, and a vast number of the Qing Consortium’s troops followed him out.

Chapter 190: The Mountain Obliterator

These Qing Consortium troops took their positions behind the heavy machine guns mounted on top of the armored vehicles. When Qing Zhen gave the order, the heavy machine guns started spitting out a barrage of thunderous fire. Countless bullets within their sight range could be seen interweaving like a net of fire as it forcefully subjected the Experimentals to a terrifying metal storm!

Spent shell casings were spat out continuously in great numbers from the top of the armored vehicles. In just half a minute, the ground around these armored vehicles turned a yellowish hue as the roads got filled with empty bullet shells.

The Experimentals that were unafraid of bullets were swept up by this metal storm, and their tough bodies were penetrated by the bullets. The force at which the bullets hit them even sent them flying into the air. But before they could hit the ground, an even greater torrent of bullets raked over them again until they became mincemeat.

There used to be a lot of houses over there. But when the metal storm hit, the rows of walled structures got utterly destroyed and pulverized into a fine powder.

The housing structures collapsed like a mountain from the intense hail of bullets.

Some of the Experimentals had taken shelter behind the houses, but none of them could have expected that this torrent of bullets could even bring down buildings.

Ren Xiaosu did not continue fleeing anymore. He just watched this violent and bloody scene play out before him. This was probably why humanity once controlled the world. The grand civilization could even create weapons so terrifying that the supernatural would fear them.

The roaring armored vehicles were the true ferocious beasts, while the bullets were like a sea of arrows whose might was even greater than a tsunami.

Only the Qing Consortium had these heavy machine guns in their arsenal. The entire structure of the gun was like a heavy iron case, and this heavy machine gun earned the nickname of the “Mountain Obliterator,” meaning that it could even be used to destroy a mountain.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed that the interior of the armored vehicles seemed to have several metal pipes linking out to the main gun structure. Each of the armored vehicles were actually equipped with cooling equipment to prevent the heavy machine guns from overheating.

Qing Zhen stood in the middle of the road and quietly watched as the Experimentals slowly retreated in the face of human civilization’s firearms. The fearless Experimentals were finally starting to feel afraid.

All of a sudden, someone discovered an Experimental standing upright atop a building in the distance staring at them. However, Qing Zhen looked right back at it undaunted.

Luo Lan said to Ren Xiaosu with a laugh, “See that! Half of the forces here are my old troops from Stronghold 113. Aren’t they amazing!”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply. So this Qing Zhen had already assembled all of Luo Lan’s troops that had gone missing during the earthquake? These two brothers must have still been keeping in contact all this while. Otherwise, Luo Lan wouldn’t have become fearless the moment he saw the ginkgo leaf logo.

The Experimentals began retreating. Qing Zhen said coldly, “Don’t pursue them.”

Everyone understood that if they maintained their positions and kept fighting, their heavy machine guns would definitely be more powerful. But the moment they started going after the enemy and headed into urban warfare, there wouldn’t be enough people to fight just based on the numbers that the Qing Consortium had here.

Moreover, this stronghold was also under the control of the Li Consortium. There was absolutely no reason why the Qing Consortium would want to help the Li Consortium clear out the Experimentals from this place. It was better to leave this headache of a mess to the Li Consortium themselves.

The Qing Consortium previously controlled 21 strongholds, but ever since the earthquake in the Jing Mountains, only 19 remained. Under these circumstances, the Qing Consortium’s people couldn’t wish more for the other organizations to lose a few of their strongholds as well. It would only be fair.

When the Experimentals retreated deep into the city, Luo Lan plopped onto the ground. “Hurry up and get me some water.”

Several soldiers carried a few buckets of clean water out of the armored vehicles before handing out some cups to the refugee-like people who’d fought together with Luo Lan.

Qing Zhen looked at him and said with a laugh, “I told you to leave this place earlier, yet you insisted on getting your hands on the Li Consortium’s research results first. It’s not worth getting pinned with the blame for that stuff.”

“You don’t know this”— Luo Lan took a sip of the water—”but the Li Consortium has discovered a way to connect directly to the neurons in your brain. In the future, they won’t need to program the nanomachines anymore. The human brain itself will act as the interface of the program. This is a very important technology. Just think about how scary nanomachines will be if they can execute complex operations.”

Qing Zhen laughed and said, “There are a lot of important technologies in this world, but this isn’t what we need. Without the breakthrough we require in the field of nanorobotics, it’s practically useless to get our hands on this technology.”

“But we can sell it to the other organizations.” Luo Lan said angrily while pointing at Yang Xiaojin, “Just look, their Yang Consortium is also thinking of getting their hands on this tech, so why not we just sell it to them?”

Qing Zhen’s gaze shifted to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. He said to Ren Xiaosu, “You saved my brother before, so I promised you a favor.”

“That favor has already been returned.” Luo Lan hurriedly said, “I’ve already returned it for you!”

Ren Xiaosu was not happy to hear that. “But I’ve saved so many soldiers again this time.”

Luo Lan was also unhappy to hear that. “It was Xu Xianchu who saved us. What has it got to do with you?”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He realized he could not refute that.

Suddenly, Luo Lan said startled, “Eh, where’s Xu Xianchu? Wasn’t his shadow clone around a moment ago?”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “He’s afraid you all will arrest him, so he’s already fled.”

Ren Xiaosu echoed, “That’s right, he’s already fled.”

Qing Zhen said to those around him, “Xu Xianchu is no longer wanted starting from today. Our Qing Consortium and him are even now.” Qing Zhen then looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, “Why have the Saboteurs made me a target?”

“Shouldn’t you know all about the nuclear test site you set up?” Yang Xiaojin said coldly.

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘Girl, they have so many people on their side right now. Should you really be arguing with them at a time like this?’

As a result, Qing Zhen laughed and said, “Not even the Board of our Qing Consortium knows about the site, yet you all actually found out about it? So just for that, I have to die?”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him calmly. “You’re trying to control something that humans can’t control. The world has already been destroyed once because of it. You’re playing with fire.”

Qing Zhen shook his head. “Was that the fault of nuclear technology? It was the fault of humanity. You don’t even know how beautiful that blue glow inside a nuclear reactor is. It’s literally a gift from the world.”

“Humanity should never have even tried controlling a power that could destroy themselves,” Yang Xiaojin said stubbornly.

“Should we not eat just because we fear choking?” Qing Zhen said earnestly, “If we have a nuclear reactor, do you know how much energy we can save?”

Then Qing Zhen had someone bring over some lighting equipment. “This is our radioluminescent light. If there are no accidents, it can retain its brightness for as long as 20 years without any external help. This is the power of nuclear technology.”

“What if nuclear technology is used for war again?” Yang Xiaojin asked calmly.

Qing Zhen laughed. “It can also be used to end wars. Actually, we won’t be able to come to an agreement on this no matter what. Facing the Experimentals today, we’re brothers in arms. But I’ll still welcome the Saboteurs anytime after today. Let’s not hold back or show mercy to each other.”

He then took a hard drive from Tang Zhou and threw it to Yang Xiaojin. “This is the thing your Yang Consortium is after. Have you ever thought what it’ll be like if you all can link your nanotech, which is still only being used in the medical field, with neurotech and commission it for military use? Are you saying the Yang Consortium is not trying to get its hands on this technology for war?”

Chapter 191: Look at how big and round this cauldron is

Actually, Qing Zhen was not wrong. If they were to debate this subject, neither Qing Zhen nor Yang Xiaojin could convince the other. Both parties were coming from a different standpoint, and there was no way to distinguish who was right or wrong. This was because “right” and “wrong” were just judgments imposed by others.

But be it the matter of nuclear technology or nanorobotics, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was indeed no right or wrong regarding these two matters. However, what motives did those who wanted to use them have?

While they were deadlocked, Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised his own doubts. “I have a question. Are those nanomachines really that great?”

“They weren’t in the past.” Luo Lan gave a simple explanation. “They used to only be deployed for angioplasty through some basic programming, but it’d totally be different if they could directly interface with neurons in the brain and be put to military
use.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “Different in what way?”

“Just think about what if those tiny yet extremely tough nanomachines could become your new skeletal structure and muscles? What’s more, after interfacing with your neurons, they’ll fully be under your control like how you control your fingers. There wouldn’t be a need to give them any specific instructions. Just use them like how you would use your hands,” Luo Lan said.

“It still sounds rather normal to me,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Forget it, you won’t understand!” Luo Lan scorned, “There’s no way to communicate with an uneducated person.”

Ren Xiaosu grew unhappy. “I scored 560 points on my final exams, so who are you calling uneducated? How much did you score on your exams?”.

Luo Lan was embarrassed. “Hahaha, why would you bring that up!”

Yang Xiaojin calmly lwatched Ren Xiaosu and felt he was really thick-skinned. He could even deceive himself like that?

At this moment, Qing Zhen laughed and said, “No matter what, we’re still brothers in arms today. Whatever happens in the future, let time be the judge. We don’t have any use for the hard drive, so feel free to take it back with you.”

Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, “The Experimentals you people caught, are the results of the study you did on it out yet? Just what are those things?”

Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, “You might not believe it even if we tell you. Those things are full of cancer cells. No, to be more precise, they’re full of cancer cells that seemed to have reached a state of equilibrium.

“It’s common knowledge that cancer cells are a heterogeneous population, with giant nucleated, binucleated, and heteromorphic nucleated cells. However, the cancer cells found in the Experimentals comprise only of a single binuclei[1] population, and they’re even uniformly divided as normal human cells are.

“I suspect the Pyro Company attempted to search for a way to live forever. There was once a woman who, after her death, had her cancer cells taken and cultured. Later, those cancer cells were used to propagate into tens of thousands of generations of cancer cells became known as the HeLa cell line[2].”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Has that already been verified, or was it just your guess?”

“Oh,” Qing Zhen laughed and said, “it was just my guess. After all, we haven’t started our research on the Experimentals for long, so don’t take it too seriously.”

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘If you were only guessing, please don’t sound so certain when you are relating it to us.’

“Wait.” Yang Xiaojin suddenly also conjectured, “They were selectively injecting drugs into humans, so does that mean they’re selecting people with cancer cells?”

Qing Zhen said, “But I think, since cancer cells are derived from a mutation in normal cells, if you’re trying to define it, you can also say it’s uncontrolled evolution. But in my opinion, such evolution will always be an inferior product.”

Today, Ren Xiaosu came into contact with various kinds of speculations, and some of these speculations were not even ideas he knew before. For a moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a little envious of these people for having received a complete education. It meant that these people were able to have a complete understanding of the previous world.

“Let’s part ways here.” Qing Zhen smiled and said, “Speaking of which, I’m still under house arrest.”

“Aren’t you worried about the threat that they pose to this world?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Qing Zhen waved it off as he stepped into an armored vehicle. “They’re not enough to cause me any worry yet. It’s only the kids who find them scary.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Yang Xiaojin and thought that it was no wonder she wanted to shoot him with her rifle. What a pity it was to not shoot a show-off like him.

However, his relationship with the Qing Consortium had suddenly turned from enemies into something much more ambiguous. At least when he encountered Luo Lan next time, they wouldn’t have to immediately fight it out to decide a victor.

Actually, there wasn’t really a conflict between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium. He was just a typical supernatural being who wanted to survive in this post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Ren Xiaosu watched as the armored vehicles drove off. He then summoned the shadow clone to carry him and Yang Xiaojin on its shoulders, before getting it to start running. The Experimentals had only retreated because they were afraid of the armored vehicles’ firepower. Now that they had driven off, Ren Xiaosu would have to quickly get them both out of here.

“What plans do you have now?” Ren Xiaosu asked during the bumpy ride on the shadow clone’s shoulder.

“I’m going back to Stronghold 88,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“Stronghold 88? That sounds really far,” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, as there was such a big difference between the strongholds’ numbers.

“It’s not exactly that far.” Yang Xiaojin said, “It’s only two strongholds away.”

“Eh? Then why is its number so distant?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“It used to be called Stronghold 101,” Yang Xiaojin explained, “but the consortium thought it’d be luckier to call it Stronghold 88, so they changed it. The previous Stronghold 88 has been renamed to Stronghold 101.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for such a long time that he could not say anything. It could even be done that way? Wasn’t that such a feudal form of superstition?

“How about you, what plans do you have?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“I’ll have to find Yan Liuyuan and the others first. I told them to head north.”

At this time, the sky was just starting to turn bright. The two of them were being carried on the left and right shoulders of the shadow clone and chatting without a care as it ran into the distance. The eerie stronghold city behind them that had been destroyed got further and further away from their sights.

If anyone came here in the future, they would probably not expect this place to have a glorious past.

Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was trekking in the wilderness. As he was already very far away from any Qing Consortium-controlled territory, he was no longer worried they could do anything to him anymore.

When he passed by the Zong Consortium’s town yesterday, he even used the money Ren Xiaosu had given to him to purchase quite a few supplies. As a matter of fact, the Qing Consortium’s banknotes were really quite useful out here. Other than having to pay some administrative fees, there was no need to worry about it not being accepted.

In this era, people who often traveled between strongholds would always have to bring along different corporation-issued currencies, which made it very inconvenient.

The further northwest Xu Xianchu traveled, the more desolate the scenery became. Sometimes when a gust of wind blew, yellow dust and sand would get swirled up into the air.

All of a sudden, Xu Xianchu stopped in his tracks. He was surprised to see a group of people on motorcycles speeding towards him. Sensing danger, Xu Xianchu immediately summoned his shadow clone.

The refugees at the Zong Consortium’s town had cautioned him beforehand to be careful of bandits when he headed further north.

But in the instant he summoned his shadow clone out, he froze. For some reason, a large black cauldron floated in front of him before his shadow clone came out.

The incoming group of people started indiscriminately shooting at Xu Xianchu from afar. But the bullets did not even leave any marks on the black cauldron as they hit it!

Xu Xianchu was very happy. Could his superpower have evolved to become even better?

As for these bandits, would a supernatural being need to be afraid of them? Xu Xianchu grinned. He would have to test out his new power on someone!

Chapter 192: I m giving you an out

News of Stronghold 109 getting destroyed and taken over by the Experimentals had quickly spread to the rest of human civilization under the Alliance of Strongholds.

If Stronghold 112 and 113 were destroyed by acts of nature, there was nothing that humans could do about it. But for Stronghold 109’s destruction, the shadow of a nonhuman species challenging the survival of mankind hung over the incident.

That was because Stronghold 109 was not destroyed by an act of nature. This threat came from a new species that also happened to be extremely aggressive.

The strongholds had been standing in this world for hundreds of years now, while some of the most powerful empires in the history of human civilization only lasted 200 years at most. Therefore, humans had almost become accustomed to the safe lives they knew in the strongholds.

But now, the appearance of the Experimentals was telling humanity they had to reexamine this world.

The road from Stronghold 109 to Stronghold 111 was mainly flat. The armored vehicles had already left, leaving only two off-road vehicles speeding their way through the vast wilderness. Behind the off-road vehicles, a large cloud of dust was left in their wake. This was a grand sight to behold from afar.

Qing Zhen sat in the back of the vehicle with his eyes closed and seemed to be thinking of something. Next to him, Luo Lan kept eating. Every now and then, he would say a few words to Qing Zhen.

“Are we really just going back to Stronghold 111 without putting up a fight?” Luo Lan said indignantly. “Does the Board really intend to kill the donkey the moment it leaves the millstone? We have done so much for the Qing Consortium, yet they’re placing us under house arrest just like that?”

Qing Zhen opened his eyes and looked at Luo Lan. “You can call yourself a donkey if you want, but don’t drag me in.”

“Oh, oh, I used the wrong idiom,” Luo Lan corrected himself. “But you get what I mean anyway.”

“The Qing Consortium is our home. If we don’t go back there, where do we go?” Qing Zhen said, sounding bored, “Since you’re going back with me this time, it’s going to be safer for you. By placing you in someone else’s stronghold, who knows what kind of trouble you’ll cause again.”

“I didn’t cause trouble for nothing though.” Luo Lan was unhappy. “Didn’t I successfully get my hands on the Li Consortium’s research results? But who knew you’d go and give it away just like that? Speaking of which, why’d you give it to that little girl from the Yang Consortium? Even if our nanorobotics tech hasn’t had any breakthroughs yet, what if we do get a breakthrough later on? Just think, we’re both normal humans, but we can become superhuman with this nanorobotics tech!”

Qing Zhen didn’t care to explain. “I don’t like all that fighting and killing.”

“But all you’ve been doing is fighting and killing.” Luo Lan said, “Isn’t that what everyone thinks you’re best at?”

“I’m best at growing flowers.” Qing Zhen said in seriousness, “I’m warning you. Don’t you dare touch the flowers I grew when we get back.”

“Sure.” Luo Lan curled his lips. “Why would I touch your flowers when I can touch women instead? But anyway, I still find it such a waste that we gave that hard drive away to the Yang Consortium.”

Qing Zhen laughed and said, “It’s not a waste. One of the Li Consortium’s strongholds has been destroyed and their research results were even stolen. To resolve their internal conflicts, they’ll be sure to pin the blame on an external party. The Yang Consortium will be that target. With our two neighbors fighting, we can rest easy.”

“As if they would start fighting so easily. There hasn’t been a real war in such a long time,” Luo Lan said.

Qing Zhen looked out of the window and said calmly, “That’s where the problem is. There hasn’t been a war in such a long time among mankind. If we human beings don’t start a war, can we still be called greedy humans?”

“Look at you, putting down humanity like that. Well, I dislike wars, but that’s just how life works.” Luo Lan said, “But now that the Saboteurs have discovered your secret base, you should increase the defenses around it.”

Qing Zhen said calmly, “They haven’t found where it is yet. They’re only guessing it exists.”

“How do you know that?” Luo Lan was taken aback.

“Based on how the Saboteurs operate,” Qing Zhen chuckled and went on, “they would have already blown up the place if they discovered our nuclear test site.”

All of a sudden, Luo Lan shouted, “Eh, look up front.”

On the road ahead, a convoy of heavily armed vehicles were blocking their only path to Stronghold 111. There was the logo of the ginkgo leaf on the vehicles. Luo Lan was amused. “The Board seems to think rather highly of you.”

Qing Zhen waited for their own vehicles to come to a complete stop before getting out. A man dressed in a suit and wearing sunglasses approached them from the vehicle convoy opposite. “Qing Zhen, do you know you’re still under house arrest?”

Qing Zhen sincerely stated, “Secretary Zhou, please let me explain. Weren’t you all thinking of capturing that fatty, Luo Lan, to place him under house arrest? I’ve done that for you!”

Luo Lan echoed from the side, “That’s right. He captured me after such great efforts since I was really resistant to the idea of coming back.”

Secretary Zhou, who was clad in a suit, was taken aback. He had thought there would be a clash between him and the two brothers, so much so that he even brought troops over for this confrontation. But who knew that Qing Zhen would come up with that reason? He was a bit confused.

Secretary Zhou sneered, “Don’t think I don’t know why you went to Stronghold 109. Where are those troops of yours? Qing Zhen, as a member of the consortium, how dare you raise personal troops!”

Qing Zhen said sadly, “The troops were all killed during the capture of Luo Lan!”

Luo Lan hooted, “That’s right, do you think it’s so easy to capture me?”

Secretary Zhou was so angry he laughed. “What are you two putting on a crosstalk in front of me for?!”

Calm spread on Qing Zhen’s face. “I’m giving you an out here, so just take it.”

In that instant, Secretary Zhou felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. It was as though the party in front of him was a tiger. Even though he was only standing quietly, he was like a ferocious beast that would make anyone tremble with fear.

Qing Zhen walked over and took off Secretary Zhou’s sunglasses to put them on himself. “The sun’s really harsh, and I just so happen to lack a pair of sunglasses. Secretary Zhou, I’m afraid you’re still not qualified to ask me about those troops. The Board will have to personally question me.”

Secretary Zhou turned around and went back to his vehicle. “Let’s see if you can still keep up the bluster after we get back to the stronghold!”

Then the convoy of vehicles started moving towards Stronghold 111. Secretary Zhou, who was in his car, could feel his hands trembling.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu’s and Yang Xiaojin’s injuries had gotten much better. They kept heading north, albeit not at a fast pace.

Yang Xiaojin raised her head and glanced at the scorching sun in the sky. She asked, “We aren’t going in the wrong direction, are we? Why can’t we see Liuyuan and the others yet?”

“No,” Ren Xiaosu said, “identifying directions is a basic skill in wilderness survival. However, I can’t say if Yan Liuyuan and the others might have gone the wrong way.” “That can’t be. We saw so many campfires still around yesterday. It looked like there were quite a few people who managed to escape out of Stronghold 109, so they should be together with the rest of the escapees,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Chapter 193: Parting ways

“I have a question.” Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Did y’all really discover Qing Zhen’s nuclear test site?”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him. “No, I was just bluffing Qing Zhen. His people had been in contact with several particle physicists. But soon after their meeting, those physicists all went missing, including their family members. However, the Qing Consortium has never made any foray into this field of research, so we suspect it’s Qing Zhen’s own private dealings. He must have his own private nuclear test site.”

“Isn’t he part of the Qing Consortium? Why does he have to defend against his own people in that case? He even set up an independent base of his own?” Ren Xiaosu did not understand.

Yang Xiaojin explained, “Because he knows very well that in the past hundred years or so, almost none of the Qing Consortium’s Shadows have come to a good end. A Shadow… will always remain as just a Shadow.”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. So Qing Zhen was probably doing this for self-preservation?

Yang Xiaojin said, “When we explain it to the others, we’d better say it was Xu Xianchu who saved us both. Otherwise, your superpower will get revealed very easily. I’m seriously advising you this time. You must not let anyone know you have the ability to copy someone else’s powers. It’d be too dangerous if anyone found out.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “Wait, but don’t the Saboteurs already know that Xu Xianchu isn’t at Stronghold 109 anymore? So how are we supposed to say it was him who saved us?”

Yang Xiaojin said, “Well, that was a bluff as well.”

“Ha, ha.” In reality, Ren Xiaosu had many unanswered questions on his mind and was slowly answering them with Yang Xiaojin. “Is Lu Yuan also a member of the Saboteurs? I saw you providing him with cover earlier.”

“He’s not a member of the Saboteurs.” Yang Xiaojin said, “He’s from the Yang Consortium. The Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium have been carrying out research and development on nanotech all this while, because they believe nanotech will provide a breakthrough in terms of individual combat prowess. Actually, Qing Zhen was right. The Yang Consortium is also planning to use nanotech to prepare for war.”

“Then how are the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium related?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“The Saboteurs were created by the first supernatural being of the Yang Consortium.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “Actually, the Saboteurs have a complicated relationship with the Yang Consortium. Currently, the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium do not agree on their ideals and have gradually started moving in their own directions. It’s just that the relationship between both parties is a little difficult to make clear. Actually, the Saboteurs were not called such in the beginning. But since that was what everyone called us, we just went with it and took up that role in this chaotic world.”

Ren Xiaosu did not probe too much into the current relationship between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium. After all, it seemed like that was Yang Xiaojin’s family affairs. However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. After all, he was just a refugee.

Yang Xiaojin came to a stop in front of a rock that had a strange symbol etched into it. From her pocket, she took out a finger-length metal stick and activated one end of it, shooting a flare into the sky.

Ren Xiaosu quietly watched and thought that Yang Xiaojin must’ve discovered a sign that her fellow Saboteurs had left for her to send them a signal.

Suddenly, an off-road vehicle rushed out of a narrow pathway with Luo Xinyu waving out of the window from the backseat. “Xiaojin, I’m so glad you’re fine.”

The off-road vehicle, being driven by Lu Yuan, came to a stop in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Lu Yuan got out of the vehicle and said to Yang Xiaojin, “Let’s go back home. This mission was a failure. The hard drive Xinyu managed to procure was taken from her by that Fatty Luo.”

Yang Xiaojin took the hard drive out of her pocket. “Qing Zhen’s giving it to the Yang Consortium, but I think he’s just trying to deepen the conflict between the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium. Doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s not like our two families had a good relationship in the first place.”

Luo Xinyu cheered. However, they were both more concerned about how Yang Xiaojin had managed to get out of trouble. Yang Xiaojin explained, “Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu teamed up and saved me. Xu Xianchu is very powerful now, so we had better keep a close eye on him.”

Luo Xinyu was startled. “I went to the site of the battle and looked around. How did the two of them combined manage to become such a lethal force?”

“It’s mainly Xu Xianchu’s credit. But he’s already heading to Stronghold 178,” Yang Xiaojin said calmly.

“Oh, we can return home then.” Luo Xinyu quipped at Ren Xiaosu, “Hey, Ren Xiaosu, do you want to come with us to Stronghold 88?”.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned before shaking his head and saying, “No, it’s fine. I still have to search for my brother.”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him. “I’ve got to go now.”

Ren Xiaosu made a noise in acknowledgment.

Yang Xiaojin said, “After you find Yan Liuyuan and the others, come to Stronghold 88. I’ll wait for you there.”

“Alright.”

Then Yang Xiaojin hopped into the off-road vehicle. Lu Yuan stepped on the accelerator and the off-road vehicle roared into the distance.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu knew the two of them would eventually have to bid each other farewell. But when adults parted ways, it was always an easy thing to do. Sorrowful goodbyes were only reserved for poets.

If they wanted to meet again, they’d definitely be able to.

Ren Xiaosu watched as the vehicle got further and further away. He suddenly remembered and shouted, “Hey, give me a ride if y’all’re going north!”

However, the off-road vehicle was too far away.

Snowflakes suddenly drifted down from the sky. This was the first snow of winter this year and it looked heavier than usual. The snowflakes fluttering down from the sky seemed almost like they were here to clean off the bloodstains from this wasteland.

…

There were already quite a few campfires burning at a campsite in the north. Thousands and thousands of people were shivering in the cold wilderness. The campfires in front of these people were the only thing that provided them some warmth.

Even though the Experimentals had broken into the city and gone on a killing spree, there were still only slightly over a 1,000 of them. Meanwhile, the number of residents living in the stronghold was in the hundreds of thousands, so there were quite a lot of people who managed to escape the siege.

Furthermore, the little girl next to Li Shentan had also participated in the battle and opened up a path of escape for a group of residents.

Li Shentan and that little girl named Si Liren had gone off to someplace unknown. The escapees had begged for the two to bring them along, so Li Shentan told them to head north and find a group of people who rode on bicycles so that their survival would be ensured.

From the sounds of it, Li Shentan was playing a little joke on Ren Xiaosu.

The escapees revered Li Shentan like a god who had saved them, but they didn’t know he was actually one of those who had brought this disaster upon them. After getting his revenge on the Li Consortium in Stronghold 109, Li Shentan did not make any further moves there. Instead, he headed off to the other stronghold cities that were under the control of the Li Consortium. He seemed to be planning on bringing down the entire Li Consortium all on his own.

Eventually, the escapees located the cycling group, who happened to be fixing their bicycles after heading north. Compared to Yan Liuyuan and the others who were riding on bicycles and carrying backpacks, the escapees appeared to be in a much more miserable state.

At this moment, Wang Fugui said mysteriously, “Liuyuan, I found something good that might be of great use.”

Yan Liuyuan looked at Wang Fugui and asked, “Uncle Fugui, what’d you find?”

Wang Fugui carefully took out a deck of cards. “See this? It’s a pack of explosives!”

Chapter 194: Zixia

Yan Liuyuan looked at the old deck of cards in Wang Fugui’s hand. He explained to him earnestly, “In my brother’s hands, the cards would be bombs. But in your hands, they can only be used to play Fight the Landlord.”

Off to the side, Wang Dalong said, “Can’t we play three-card brag[1] instead?”

Yan Liuyuan paused for a moment. “Well, you can.”

Wang Fugui might have been surprised by Ren Xiaosu’s four “threes” the last time around, so he still had some lingering thoughts. When he found a pack of cards that someone had dropped, he was quite happy about it. They were ammo to him. However, when Yan Liuyuan told Wang Fugui he could not use it, he smacked his lips and said, “I’ll keep it for Ren Xiaosu.”

Yan Liuyuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Ren Xiaosu’s cards might seem like ordinary cards, but they were really conjured up by his superpower.

As all the other refugees cried in misery, Yan Liuyuan and company were caught in a heated discussion about card games. It even seemed like they might start playing Fight the Landlord at any moment now.

Truly, there was a difference between being prepared and unprepared. Although it was very cold outside in the wilderness and would be quite difficult to bear even if you were prepared, people usually lived in comparison to others. When you saw other people in a miserable state, you wouldn’t think you had it that bad anymore.

Chen Wudi mumbled from off to the side, “Master will get abducted by the ruler of Womanland soon, and y’all are still in the mood to play cards?!”

Wang Fugui chuckled heartily and said, “Don’t worry, Master will definitely not ditch us.”

“Really?” Chen Wudi’s eyes lit up.

“Of course!” Wang Fugui said with a smile.

Chen Wudi said, “Then let’s play three-card brag, I’m pretty damn good at it.”

All of a sudden, a cry rang out from the crowd in the distance. Chen Wudi immediately stood up and turned his attention to them. He saw a man trying to snatch a scarf from a plump woman.

Snow blanketed the ground with white. The man must have been unable to bear the cold since he was only wearing his fall clothing. However, he didn’t dare snatch the other men’s clothing, so he could only snatch some from a woman. A woman’s clothes wouldn’t fit him, but a scarf would still be useful.

It can be difficult to imagine how despicable some people can get in the face of adversity. The man was willing to resort to any means necessary as long as it meant survival for him.

But this was only the beginning of their escape. For refugees like Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others, all of them knew quite well that things would only get worse for this group of escapees.

During their previous escape, the weather was not this cold. As such, human nature did not get pushed to such desperate straits. There wasn’t a lack of food either at that time since they managed to locate a field full of sweet potatoes.

But it was different this time. The evil side of human nature thoroughly surfaced at this moment, baring its fangs.

Chen Wudi stood up and strode over. “Get your hands off her!”

That man looked at Chen Wudi. “Mind your fucking business!”

Chen Wudi was tickled pink by this man. “As the Great Sage reborn, I have to poke my nose into the injustices of this world. If you don’t let her go, this punch of mine might just kill you!”

By the campfire, Yan Liuyuan and the others quietly watched this unfold. They all knew Chen Wudi’s character. In the past, everyone had suspected that Chen Wudi might be putting on an act. But they realized later that he was simply a guy who imagined himself a hero.

Actually, when Yan Liuyuan followed Ren Xiaosu to the bar to listen to the storyteller’s stories when he was younger, he also had fancied himself becoming a hero in the future. But Ren Xiaosu told him at that time that other than tears, this world did not believe in heroes.

Back then, Yan Liuyuan felt that Ren Xiaosu was lying, since he was clearly very inspired by the stories too. So Ren Xiaosu must also have had dreams of becoming a hero. It was just that he had suppressed the thought of it.

If giving up on physical strength was the price humans paid for gaining intelligence—then crushing his dreams would be the price Ren Xiaosu paid for survival.

However, Yan Liuyuan felt that the fact that since Ren Xiaosu chose to help Jiang Wu and bring Chen Wudi along with them on their escape, it showed Ren Xiaosu had not completely given up on his dream of becoming a hero.

At this moment, the man who snatched the woman’s scarf threw a punch at Chen Wudi. However, Chen Wudi didn’t even dodge and just let the punch land on his face. With a crack, the man’s wrist apparently broke while Chen Wudi looked totally unaffected.

Yan Liuyuan shouted from afar, “Don’t kill him.”

Chen Wudi said, “OK!”

After that, Chen Wudi lightly punched the man’s stomach. The man slowly tumbled to the ground as his entire body turned numb from the attack.

Chen Wudi said, “That’s a small lesson for you as an example to everyone else.”

The woman whose scarf had been snatched stood up and came over to retrieve it. Then she hurried over to Chen Wudi and said, “Thank you, thank you so much.”

“It’s no big deal.” Chen Wudi was about to turn and leave.

But the woman suddenly seemed like she wanted to get closer to Chen Wudi. She said, “It seems like we were fated to meet!”

In this wilderness, there would always be a greater chance of survival with help from others. Chen Wudi and company, who were riding on bicycles, stood out too much, so everyone else knew they were well-prepared for the escape and even had food with them. As such, this woman was looking to cotton up to Chen Wudi.

Chen Wudi turned his head. “Huh? Fated?”

The woman shyly twirled her hair. “Aren’t you the Great Sage? My name is Zixia, Zhao Zixia!”

Chen Wudi looked like he had been struck by lightning. “You’re Zixia?! But you don’t look that age!”

Zhao Zixia joked, “I might have been reborn a few years before you.”

Chen Wudi despaired a little. ‘How is that a few years? It’s more like a decade, at least! Aren’t you jumping the gun?!’ However, Chen Wudi calmed down and said, “Big sis, I’m sorry, but I’m not your version of the Great Sage.”

Yan Liuyuan and the others were laughing themselves silly over at the campfire. When Chen Wudi came back, no one held back from teasing him. Previously, Chen Wudi had said that he was searching for Zixia, a fairy immortal, but no one thought he would suddenly change the version of the Great Sage now that he had finally found her? He could even switch the version of the Great Sage? That was probably Chen Wudi’s last route of retreat he had left for himself.

At the beginning, Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu thought Zixia was just a relationship setback trope Chen Wudi had created for himself. Now that Zixia had personally appeared and met him, she helped Chen Wudi cut himself off from all mortal desires.

Right at this moment, Yan Liuyuan caught sight of a figure of a person slowly making their way over in the snowy weather. The escapees started whispering among themselves as they never expected someone to still be coming from the direction of Stronghold 109 at such a time.

Before everyone else could react, Chen Wudi and the others stood up. Yan Liuyuan waved his hands excitedly and shouted, “Bro! Over here, over here!”

Although Yan Liuyuan knew Ren Xiaosu was definitely fine, he could only feel truly at ease after seeing him again. For Yan Liuyuan, there wasn’t a point in living comfortably if Ren Xiaosu wasn’t around to accompany him.

Chapter 195: Respect the old and care for the young

When Yan Liuyuan shouted to Ren Xiaosu, some people who did not notice Ren Xiaosu turned to look at him as well.

The escapees did not quite understand why Yan Liuyuan’s group had not ridden their bicycles when they clearly had them. Instead, they just pushed their bicycles along with the crowd without any panic. But now, everyone realized this group of people did not escape as quickly as possible by cycling because they had been waiting for someone.

But where had this young man who just walked over from the frozen, snowy land outside gone before this? Surely he could not have just escaped from the stronghold, right? After all, the stronghold was filled with terrifying Experimentals, so who could possibly escape from there? They should be the last wave of people who’d fled from there.

Suddenly, a girl in the crowd realized she knew Ren Xiaosu. Wasn’t that the scoundrel who deliberately caused her to score badly on her exams?! This girl was Li Mo, and she had sat behind Ren Xiaosu during the final exams. After the exams were over, she had gone to Ren Xiaosu’s class to seek revenge on him. However, she did not even manage to confront him. Furthermore, the students in Class 12-7 really pissed her off when they claimed they were actually protecting her by stopping her from taking her revenge!

Amid the escaping crowd, she saw Ren Xiaosu walking over from the wilderness. For some reason, she felt those students might have been telling the truth and had not deliberately been trying to piss her off.

As Ren Xiaosu passed through the crowd, he knew a lot of people were looking at him. However, he was not exactly bothered by it. He had been walking in the frozen, snowy land for a long time and almost lost his way. It was not that he had bad wilderness survival, but that he could not even get landmarks to use as a reference in the heavy snowfall. He only found Yan Liuyuan and company because of his strong sense of direction!

He really should have been smarter and hitched a ride with Yang Xiaojin’s group. If he had, he wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble.

When Ren Xiaosu sat down next to the campfire, Yan Liuyuan immediately handed him some hot water and porridge. “Bro, did you manage to save the ruler of Womanland?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Who’s the ruler of Womanland?”

Yan Liuyuan chuckled. “Big Sister Xiaojin.”

Ren Xiaosu was confused. ‘Wait, when did Yang Xiaojin become the ruler of Womanland?!’ He looked at Chen Wudi. “Did you give her that nickname? Stop talking nonsense!”

Chen Wudi smirked. “Only names can be given wrongly. How can nicknames be called wrong?”

Yan Liuyuan kept a straight face and told Ren Xiaosu about the “Zixia” incident that happened earlier. Ren Xiaosu was also amused. “Wudi, will you still look for Zixia in the future?”

Chen Wudi froze. “Zixia? Who?”

“Oh, so you’ve already forgotten about her.” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “How amazing that you can switch versions of yourself. Hey, didn’t you used to insist on looking for Zixia?”

Chen Wudi said in seriousness, “Master, I’m crazy, not stupid.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered what he just said but couldn’t figure out the difference even after a long time.

At this moment, an old lady walked towards them with a child in hand. Ren Xiaosu turned around and had a look at them. He thought that if they wanted to share the campfire to keep themselves warm, he could make some space for them. It was really cold out, after all, and they were an elder and child.

But when the old lady came up to them, she said to Ren Xiaosu, “You people should take the initiative to share your food with the elderly and children. I’ve been observing you all for some time. But as a group of young people, you all aren’t even virtuous enough to respect the old and care for the young. How did your parents teach you?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he had not expected such a twist. No one in town had ever mentioned anything about respecting the old and caring for the young before. Like refugees would be so free to discuss virtues and whatnot! So he didn’t expect someone would act so righteous to get them to share their food with the elderly and children.

It was getting late into the night, and the temperature dropped rapidly again. It was really not easy for an elderly person to take care of a child while escaping. If this old lady had just asked nicely for some food to be shared with them, Ren Xiaosu would have given it to her. But since she spoke with that attitude, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t help feeling disgusted. To be honest, he could not understand how someone like her managed to escape from the stronghold.

The child pointed to the golden circlet on Chen Wudi’s head and said, “Grandma, I want that.”

Yan Liuyuan mischievously explained, “That can’t be removed.”

“I don’t care, I want it!” the child said selfishly.

The old lady looked at Chen Wudi. “What’s the big deal with letting my grandson play with your hairband for a while? And why is a grown man like you even wearing a hairband?”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to laugh aloud. Then a woman next to them said, “What’s wrong with you people? Can’t you let the child play with it?” Saying that, she removed a hairpin from her hair and gave it to the child. “Here, play with Auntie’s hairpin instead.”

However, the child slapped the hairpin to the ground and started crying. “I don’t want yours, I want his.”

Ren Xiaosu threw another two pieces of firewood into the campfire and said with a smile, “Y’all better get lost while I’m still in control of myself. In a world like this, you still dare to boss people around? I feel that you might not get to the next stronghold.”

The old lady said with a stuck-up look, “I’m an ancillary family member of the Li Consortium. Even though one of our strongholds has been lost, the Li Consortium’s forces from the other strongholds will definitely come to our rescue soon. So don’t think you can behave as you like, all lawlessly.”

“Get lost,” Ren Xiaosu calmly said.

The child got afraid when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s calm expression. He hid behind the old lady and said, “Grandma, let’s go. I’m scared.”

After saying that, he dragged the old lady back into the crowd. It was as though he wanted to get as far away from Ren Xiaosu as possible. Even while the old lady was leaving, she was still scolding and swearing at them.

Chen Wudi wondered, “Master, why are there people like her in this world?”

She was clearly in the wrong, yet she acted as though she were the righteous one and took advantage of her seniority by emphasizing “respecting the old and caring for the young.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Wudi, I know that you want to be a hero and uphold justice. But if you think that everyone in this world has goodness in their hearts, then you haven’t met everyone yet.”

“Bro, where are we headed next?” Yan Liuyuan said, “If we keep going north, we’ll end up in the Qing Consortium’s territory. These Li Consortium residents probably don’t even know where they are right now. Even if the Li Consortium really sends reinforcements over, they won’t bump into them.”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, “Let’s go to Stronghold 88.” “Stronghold 88?” Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Whose territory is that? Why should we go there?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “Uh, I have an acquaintance there. If we go to Stronghold 88, it’ll be easier for us to obtain legal resident statuses and whatnot. You can even attend school.”

After chatting with Qing Zhen, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu really wanted to learn more about this world through education. He might not even need to go to school since Yang Xiaojin mentioned there was a huge library in Stronghold 88.

“OK, whatever you say.” Yan Liuyuan asked, “But where is Stronghold 88?”

A bolt of lightning struck Ren Xiaosu. ‘Oh, right! Where is Stronghold 88?!’

Chapter 196: Stealing bicycles

In current times, maps of the areas that were under the control of an organization were rarely made available to the public. As such, most people did not really have a clear concept of the geography. Usually, people would just describe the location of the next stronghold with terms like in front, behind, to the left, to the right, up north, or down south. As for the exact distance and where they were precisely located, no one really knew.

Ren Xiaosu thought about how all those strongholds were actually a huge alliance, yet no one came up with a complete map of the lands. The organizations were all guarding against each other as though they were thieves. Of course, he felt that the various organizations would probably have more detailed maps but kept them secret.

This led to… Ren Xiaosu feeling embarrassed when he discovered he did not know where Stronghold 88 was even though he suggested going there.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. “It’s not a big deal. It should be somewhere to the north. We should be able to get there with a bit of walking.”

“Bro, why do I feel like you’re also uncertain about what you said?” Yan Liuyuan said. He checked with Jiang Wu, who was beside him, but realized she also did not know where Stronghold 88 was.

According to Yang Xiaojin, there were two strongholds between Stronghold 88 and Stronghold 109. The entire distance of the journey should be between 500 to 1,000 kilometers, so it might be quite difficult to get there just by walking.

When normal people looked to travel to another stronghold, they tended to head to the nearby ones. It was impossible to get to those that were too far away. It was only the organizations that were capable of traveling across the wasteland.

So it wasn’t a surprise that Jiang Wu did not know where Stronghold 88 was.

“Bro, are we going to ride a 1,000 kilometers on our bikes?” Yan Liuyuan felt despair when he thought about it.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. “Why don’t we try to get our hands on a car after we get to the next stronghold? We can then drive to Stronghold 88!”

“Get our hands on a car? Bro, why don’t you just say we’re stealing one? You don’t need to mince your words.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Currently, the Qing Consortium’s Stronghold 111 is the closest to us. If you’ve already decided on stealing a car, I suggest that we go there to steal one.”

“Qing Zhen and Luo Lan should be on their way back to Stronghold 111.” Ren Xiaosu pondered and said, “I think it would be best to avoid going there. After all, those two are bellicose people, so it’s not good to be interacting with them too much.”

“Bro, seeing as you’re so insistent on going to Stronghold 88, that acquaintance you mentioned should be Yang Xiaojin, right?” Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked.

“You always have so much to say.” Ren Xiaosu glared at him. “Rest early. We’ll start pushing faster tomorrow and go north first. If we encounter a stronghold along the way, we can stop at the town outside of it for a while. Once we find out where Stronghold 88 is, we can continue there.”

Ren Xiaosu felt it was better to stay away from the Qing Consortium’s Stronghold 111, as well as the Li Consortium. Otherwise, they might just get involved in the wrath of Li Shentan’s vengeance. When he thought of Li Shentan, he sensed the only interest the young man had after getting out of the psychiatric hospital was revenge.

But then, the howling of wolves came from the distance. Following, more howling sounded in the quiet wilderness, scaring people.

Some of the escapees who had fallen asleep jolted awake. They looked around in a panic and wondered why they had to encounter the wolves so soon after escaping from the claws of the Experimentals. So it was actually that dangerous in the wilderness?!

Someone said softly, “Everyone, look at the hilltop over there!”

Everyone looked over and saw several hundred white wolves as large as bison standing atop a hill and staring at them quietly. The size of the white wolves was utterly different from what the stronghold residents had been taught. The wolves they learned about in the textbooks were not this big!

If these wolves attacked the escapees’ campsite, more than half of them would likely get killed or injured tonight. On top of that, the remaining survivors would find it hard to escape the pursuit of the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything as he knew the wolves would not attack the escapees’ campsite. That was because if these wolves would’ve attacked a campsite, his group would have died during their last escape from Stronghold 113.

But he could not understand why these wolves kept following them everywhere. Ren Xiaosu’s intuition told him the wolves were here because of their small group, not because of other escapees. However, he was not a 100% sure of that.

But the escapees did not know this. When they saw wolves had arrived, they leapt up and continued fleeing north. When Ren Xiaosu saw the escapees were starting to move again, he said, “Let’s keep up with the bigger group for now!”

As Ren Xiaosu’s voice trailed off, Jiang Wu started waking up her students who were still asleep. They did not ask why and just followed wherever Ren Xiaosu went.

A group of people were riding bicycles and blending into the right side of the escapees’ group. As the road here was not that bumpy, it was much easier to escape on their bicycles than running on foot. The physical exertion between the two was completely on a different level.

“There’s no need to ride too fast. Just keep up with the pace of the crowd,” Ren Xiaosu instructed.

Yan Liuyuan happened to turn around at this moment and saw Ren Xiaosu sitting on the back of Chen Wudi’s bicycle and giving out instructions in high spirits.

“Bro, you still haven’t learned how to ride a bike?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

Ren Xiaosu kept a straight face and said, “I learned how to ride it, but I’ve lost my bike.”

“Bro, why don’t you take my bicycle while I get a ride from you instead?” Yan Liuyuan said.

Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly, “Liuyuan, you’re already an adult, so you should be riding your own bike.”

Yan Liuyuan lamented, “Bro, you’re the most shameless person I’ve ever met. No one else comes close.”

Jiang Wu and her students were cycling behind Ren Xiaosu’s group. As they rode along, they felt they really could survive longer just by following Ren Xiaosu.

Suddenly, two escapees who saw the students riding bicycles came over and tried to take them away from them!

Everyone knew they would escape faster with a proper mode of transportation. Besides, Jiang Wu’s students looked like clear pushovers, so some of these people started getting ideas about the bicycles!

The two escapees grabbed hold of a student’s shirt and shouted, “Get off!” They then proceeded to push the student off the bicycle.

Chen Wudi jumped off his bike and leaped in front of the two escapees in a single bound. “How dare the two of you behave so insolently in front of the Great Sage!”

Chen Wudi sent them flying backwards in an instant with a punch and a kick. One of them even had their leg twisted unnaturally!

Chen Wudi picked up the bicycle and handed it back to the student. “Keep your guard up. Shout for me if anyone else dares to come and steal your bicycle
again!”

That female student looked at Chen Wudi and said in a daze, “Th-Thank you!”

“There’s no need to thank me! You should thank my master instead!” Chen Wudi said as he waved it off.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was the one who felt most downcast.

Ren Xiaosu had only sat behind Chen Wudi on his bicycle as he thought he was stronger, so would not be burdened by his weight and get too tired. He could never have expected Chen Wudi to actually jump off the bicycle while it was still moving.

With a loud crash, Ren Xiaosu fell to the ground together with the bicycle!

Chapter 197: The Wolf King’s act of goodwill

With Ren Xiaosu’s physical fitness, he would not get injured from just falling off a bicycle. He dusted off the dirt and snow on him and got back on his feet. “Wudi, if you see any injustice in the future, just let me handle it. You should focus on riding the bike, alright?”

“Oh, sure thing, Master!” Chen Wudi hurriedly picked the bicycle up and continued riding with Ren Xiaosu as he caught up to the group.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the wolves on the hilltop. The white wolves were not alarmed by the sight of the escapees running away and stood there motionlessly in the snow. It was as though they had nothing better to do and were only here to take a gander. But Ren Xiaosu could not understand what their motives were.

In front of him, Chen Wudi was pedaling hard and saying, “Master, why are there always people in this world who think nothing of hurting others to achieve their goals?”

“Humans are self-serving,” Ren Xiaosu replied nonchalantly.

“What about people who try to get something without making any effort for it?” Chen Wudi asked.

“That’s also because humans are self-serving,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

Chen Wudi suddenly sounded a little depressed. “Master, do you think I should still fight against injustices in the future? There are so many bad people out there. What if the people I save turn out to be bad as well?”

Ren Xiaosu could feel the contradiction inside of Chen Wudi. It seemed like his dream of becoming a hero was starting to waver. Although Ren Xiaosu did not want to be a hero himself, he found this quality in Chen Wudi’s nature to be praiseworthy.

Ren Xiaosu patiently explained to Chen Wudi, “You can continue saving others if you wish to save them. But if you discover that they’re bad people after you’ve saved them, you can just beat them to death.”

“OK.” Chen Wudi nodded vigorously in response.

All of a sudden, a scream came from the fleeing crowd. A woman shouted, “Someone has taken my belongings! Everyone, please help me! He snatched my bag!”

Immediately, Ren Xiaosu jumped off the bicycle in anticipation of what might happen. By the time he landed on the ground, he saw that Chen Wudi had already rushed to that woman to help her and left the bicycle behind with no one to control it.

Ren Xiaosu felt sad. It was still better for him to learn how to ride a bicycle. It wouldn’t do if he had to keep depending on others like this. After a while, Chen Wudi ran back after beating up another man. When he saw the bicycle lying on the ground, he was a little embarrassed. “Master, I’m sorry. I forgot you were on the bike again.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Ren Xiaosu had no alternative but to dismiss it. “But with so many people here, you can’t possibly handle everything, right? I’m afraid that you will exhaust yourself to death if you continue dealing with every little matter.”

Moreover, this was just the beginning of their escape. There would probably be many more instances of such bullying among the escapees in the future.

“Then I’ll just handle them one at a time.” Chen Wudi said hesitantly, “I can’t possibly just ignore them.”

After fleeing for a while more, Ren Xiaosu suddenly called out to his group, “Alright, let’s stop here. The wolves aren’t pursuing us. Besides, if they were really chasing after us, none of us could get away.”

Yan Liuyuan and the others came to a stop. When the other escapees saw them stopping, they also slowly stopped in their tracks. Everyone was weary to the bone now.

The only good thing that came of this was that they did not feel as cold after some exercise.

Now that they had fled to a new location, they would have to rebuild their campfires and collect more firewood to burn. Some people who were too lazy to go around doing all that again just laid in the snow. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan led the group of students who did not mind the trouble of restarting their campfire.

This was what Ren Xiaosu had requested of them. No matter how cold or tired they were in the snowy wilderness, they were required to make a campfire. Otherwise, they would pay a hefty price.

“Bro.” Yan Liuyuan asked, puzzled, “Did you sense anything strange about those wolves?”

“You sensed it as well?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Yes.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I keep having the feeling that the Wolf King is constantly watching me from afar. It’s like I can feel its gaze on me all the time.”

This was something new to Ren Xiaosu since he did not feel that he was being watched.

When it was late at night and Ren Xiaosu saw that everyone around them had fallen sleep, he reminded Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, who were keeping watch, to be careful. He needed to go somewhere for a while.

Ren Xiaosu walked into the wilderness with great doubts on his mind. He was going in the direction of where the wolves had appeared.

The snow was very deep. Ever since The Cataclysm, the winters would get exceptionally cold, and the snowfall also became much heavier.

He walked towards the wilderness with some difficulty in the snow. Some escapees who were still awake were shocked when they realized someone was brave enough to venture into the wilderness at such time.

“Is he going for a potty break?” “Maybe, but wasn’t he the one who came from the wilderness alone and joined us?”

“Look at how well-prepared their group is. They probably knew something was going to happen to the stronghold.”

“How did they know?!”

A woman who had her face concealed behind a scarf was secretly watching Ren Xiaosu’s receding figure. Suddenly, someone beside her said in surprise, “Aren’t you… Fang Yujing?”

Even though she had concealed herself very well, someone still recognized her. The person said happily, “It’s really you! I’m your fan! I heard you were going to be participating for a couple days in the music festival, but I never thought something like this would happen.”

Fang Yujing forced a smile. “It’s good enough that we’re all still alive.”

When she turned her eyes back to Ren Xiaosu, she discovered he had disappeared into the distance.

Ren Xiaosu crested a tiny hillock and was surprised to see the wolves playing in the snow. Several of the females even had a dozen little wolf cubs with them. The wolf cubs seemed unafraid of Ren Xiaosu as they looked over from afar.

Ren Xiaosu did not dare go any closer as he was worried the wolves would suddenly attack him.

He just wanted to see what was going on with the wolves here. But before that, he would have to ascertain if the wolves saw him as prey.

The strong and powerful males in the wolf pack stood still in the snow and observed him. Then they moved aside for the Wolf King as it made its way over from the rear with a large rabbit dangling from its mouth. The rabbit was still warm and dripping with blood.

Ren Xiaosu stood still. He wanted to see what the Wolf King was planning to do, while the black saber was getting restless as it kept buzzing in the palace.

The rabbit was as large as a bicycle tire. Ren Xiaosu didn’t know what it ate to grow to this size. He could see condensation coming from the rabbit’s warm blood as it dripped onto the snow.

The Wolf King stopped not far from Ren Xiaosu and placed the rabbit on the ground. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Are you giving that to me?”

But the Wolf King did not respond. It just turned around and left with its pack. Ren Xiaosu could only watch as they padded away.

This confused Ren Xiaosu even more. Had the wolf pack gotten so sociable that they even sent food to humans? But what astonished him was that the number of wolves seemed to have increased by a lot this time. It looked like the Wolf King had been tirelessly accepting new wolves into its pack.

Chapter 198: The escapees attempt robbery

In the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu’s sudden walk into the wilderness by himself shocked many people. No matter what he intended to do, the fact that someone would venture out alone was very surprising to the escapees. After all, the wolves were still out there.

But now Ren Xiaosu returned carrying a large rabbit in tow. Did he go hunting just now?

Seeing as the weather was freezing as snow continued falling heavily from the sky, a lot of people were worried they would get buried under the snow when they woke up. But even in such bad weather, someone still went out to hunt and returned with such a large rabbit.

When the Wolf King dropped the rabbit, the snow was already very deep. Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as the Wolf King cleared a path through the snow by walking in front while the other wolves followed behind it. That would make the walk much easier in the snow.

Ren Xiaosu did not know what the Wolf King’s intention was when it left him a rabbit. But he found it a little odd.

On the way back to the campsite, he noticed many people staring at him in surprise. However, Ren Xiaosu would never explain to them that the wolves gave him the rabbit.

When he got back, Yan Liuyuan asked, “Bro, did you hunt the rabbit yourself?”

Ren Xiaosu whispered, “The wolves gave it to me. That Wolf King doesn’t seem to have any malice towards us. For now, we won’t have to worry too much. At the very least, we don’t have to worry about the wolves attacking us.” If the wolves had any malicious intent, killing Ren Xiaosu just now would definitely have been the best opportunity they had. After all, the distance between them earlier was just a leap away.

Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to eat the rabbit. Since everyone was already asleep and ate dinner in the evening, they definitely would not feel too hungry yet.

The escapees around them were so hungry their eyes gleamed upon seeing the rabbit. After all, some of them did not have anything to eat as they fled over the past two days. If it hadn’t snowed today, they would not even have replenished the water lost from their bodies.

The snow may have looked white, but it was not as clean as you would think. Ren Xiaosu knew the escapees would pay the price for casually putting things in their mouths when they woke up the next morning

Currently, only a miniscule number of escapees still had any food left on them, while most of the others were famished with nothing to eat. When some people saw Ren Xiaosu bringing such a large rabbit back, their eyes lit up.

Some of those people were whispering among themselves, apparently discussing something. Yan Liuyuan glanced at Ren Xiaosu. “Bro, you’d better make an example of some of them quickly so that the others won’t get any ideas.”

Ren Xiaosu looked up at those escapees. “Upon identifying the ringleaders, we’ll kill them off. Wudi, make sure to protect everyone when it gets chaotic later. I’ll handle the killing.” When Ren Xiaosu mentioned killing people, his expression didn’t change.

Then he noticed Jiang Wu had also woken up. Jiang Wu said, “Xiaosu, do you have any weapons to spare? Can you lend one to me?” Jiang Wu and her students had also brought a lot of food with them. Although the escapees looked like they were only interested in the rabbit for now, Jiang Wu’s group was also in danger of being targeted.

However, Jiang Wu did not request Ren Xiaosu to protect them as well. Instead, she wanted to borrow a weapon from him so they could protect themselves. Because Jiang Wu and her students had a separate campfire, it looked like they were two separate groups of people. Ren Xiaosu had also mentioned to Jiang Wu before that they would have to depend on themselves once they had escaped into the wilderness.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and quietly handed a gun to Jiang Wu. After the events of Stronghold 109, he had amassed quite a few firearms in his storage space. At the very least, he had enough to issue one to each person in their group.

When the Li Consortium’s troops were attacked by those under the control of Li Shentan, many soldiers had died and a lot of their guns went missing. Ren Xiaosu was there at the scene.

“Ms. Jiang, do you know how to use a gun?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Jiang Wu shook her head. “No.”

Ren Xiaosu asked again, “Then have you killed a person before?”

“No.” Jiang Wu shook her head again. However, her tone soon became determined as she said, “For the sake of my students, I can do it.”

“Why not you give the gun to a male student to hold? Wang Yuchi looks quite strong. He can learn how to do this,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“No.” Jiang Wu said, “Their responsibility right now is to learn, not kill people. I know it’s not good to be so protective of them in times like these, but I know people change after killing someone. As long as I can protect them for one more day, I don’t need them shouldering such sins.”

Chen Wudi, who was next to them, suddenly said, “If I don’t descend into the Underworld, who will?”

Ren Xiaosu told Chen Wudi, “With a teacher like Jiang Wu around, you being a hero will have meaning.”

At this moment, someone within the escapees’ group stood up and led others towards Ren Xiaosu’s group. Ren Xiaosu smiled at Yan Liuyuan and said, “Remember the faces of these people.”

As the escapees walked over aggressively, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover the old lady who tried using her seniority to her advantage also within the crowd.

But Chen Wudi’s expression seemed a bit strange. “Master, there’s someone in that crowd I’ve helped before.”

A man had his jacket taken by someone else, but Chen Wudi managed to prevent the robbery in time. But now, that man ended up joining forces with others to rob Chen Wudi and his group.

Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say.

The group of escapees walked up to Ren Xiaosu’s group and said, “I’m sure you all knew beforehand that something would happen to the stronghold, right? Did you people have anything to do with what happened at Stronghold 109?”

“Why? Are y’all trying to gain the moral high ground?” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “The Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium all knew that something was going to happen at the stronghold, yet none of you knew a thing.”

The people in their group looked at one another as this was their first time hearing about this. But soon, someone raised their voice and snapped, “There’s so few of you here. Can you even finish eating so much food? Also, you are so well-prepared with supplies, so why can’t you just help everyone?”

As that person spoke, one of them came over in an attempt to take the large rabbit away!

Ren Xiaosu sneered as he took out his pistol and fired it into the air. The crowd of people were stunned. They did not expect Ren Xiaosu to have a gun on him!

The crowd started retreating quietly. Some of them even pulled others in front of them to shield themselves. They were hoping they would not be the ones to die when the bullets flew.

“Who were the ones who suggested you rob us?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.

Noisy chatter filled the escapees’ group. “It wasn’t me! I think it was that guy in blue!”

The man in blue said in panic, “It wasn’t me, don’t lie! I said not to come over, yet you people insisted on doing so!”

“Enough with the arguing.” Ren Xiaosu calmed down. “I know who they are.”

He raised his hand and shot the instigators that were standing at the front. In a mere two seconds, Ren Xiaosu had already identified and shot the three masterminds dead.

Everyone in the crowd started screaming and retreating. Not only did they not expect Ren Xiaosu to have a gun, they did not expect he would open fire on them!

This was what you would call a mob. They did not have any goals nor considered the consequences before doing things.

When something really happened, they would be easily scared off by just one person.

The man Chen Wudi had helped fell to the ground after losing his balance and got trampled by the crowd. He could not stand up again.

All of a sudden, someone whisper-shouted, “Let’s take the food from those students since they can’t fight back!”

They shifted their attention to Jiang Wu and her students immediately. The escapees all knew that Jiang Wu’s group also had food on them!

Chapter 199: Jiang Wu turns superhuman!

The escapees who had gone hungry for two days acted as though they were under a spell. When they heard the word “food,” everyone made a mad dash to Jiang Wu’s group.

They had long since noticed this group of people. Although Jiang Wu and her students were on good terms with Ren Xiaosu’s group, there was still a separation between them. Didn’t the two groups also sit separately while eating?

But they did not understand that Jiang Wu was only trying to be independent so they would not become a burden to Ren Xiaosu’s group.

Just as the crowd was about to make a rush for Jiang Wu and her students, Chen Wudi stepped forward to get between them. Since he had been instructed by his master to protect the campsite, he would have to do it even if a million troops descended down on them!

To Chen Wudi, the people in front of him were no longer escapees but heinous demons. From his point of view, their faces had turned to dark, smokey appearances, and their hands and feet had become animalistic claws.

But… before Chen Wudi could get in front of Jiang Wu, he saw her resolutely raise her pistol and shoot it into the crowd.

The people who bounded at her had shocked expressions on their faces. Someone fell to the ground after unexpectedly getting shot, and there was even an incredulous look on his face as he dropped to the ground. After the victim’s heart got shot, his blood splattered out from the gunshot wound and stained Jiang Wu’s fair cheeks blood red.

However, the students did not feel scared at the sight of this. Rather, they thought the bloodstains resembled plum blossoms in the snow.

The crowd got frightened off after hearing the second gunshot and retreated. Jiang Wu did not lower her pistol and panted heavily, as though dazed.

From the side, Ren Xiaosu watched the scene unfold. This world had even forced someone as nice as Jiang Wu into shooting and killing others?

Xiaoyu walked over and slowly removed the pistol from Jiang Wu’s hand. Only then did Jiang Wu come back to her senses. Xiaoyu comforted, “Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and asked, “Are you scared?”

In the frozen, snowy lands, the flickering, red-orange campfire illuminated Jiang Wu’s face very gently. Jiang Wu turned to Ren Xiaosu and said tearfully, “If I don’t descend into the Underworld, who will?”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the bloodstains that had been splattered on Jiang Wu starting to move involuntarily towards her hand. When they finally finished gathering in her hand, a crimson plum blossom was produced. It had formed into a single stalk of a single plum blossom in her hand, the petals of the flower all sharp as knives.

Following, all five plum blossom petals detached from the stalk and started hovering around Jiang Wu as though they were protecting her.

A faint breeze circulated around Jiang Wu as it made her soft hair flutter and come alive.

Ren Xiaosu threw a dry log at Jiang Wu as he had thought of something. The plum blossom petals apparently perceived it and crushed the log into pieces.

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. He had never expected that Jiang Wu would become a superhuman with one shot from a gun.

Her students went over and looked at Jiang Wu happily. When they approached her, the plum blossom petals reattached themselves to the stalk in a way that resembled a bud waiting to bloom.

“Teacher, you’ve also become a supernatural being,” the students said in elation.

Wang Fugui took out the pistol Ren Xiaosu gave him a long time ago. He looked at the pistol, then at the crowd who was fleeing. He was caught in a dilemma.

Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, “It has nothing to do with guns or killing others. It happened purely because her willpower has reached a transition point.”

“Then can I reach my transition point as well?” Wang Fugui said with anticipation. Seeing how Wang Dalong kept doubting his family bloodline, Wang Fugui was really eager to prove himself.

Ren Xiaosu was tickled pink by Wang Fugui. “Don’t think about all that irrelevant stuff. It’s not like everyone can become a supernatural being. Even if you’re not one, you can still live a good life.”

At this moment, the escapees’ group was keeping their distance in fear that Ren Xiaosu would seek them out to settle the score. It wasn’t until this moment that they understood that the moral coercion and societal pressure that were effective in the stronghold were no longer effective here.

These were the wastelands, not the stronghold.

In the past, they believed that as long as they had more people on their side, and as long as they dared to kick up a fuss, they could definitely get things their way. They believed that as long as they had the moral high ground, others would have to yield to them. But that was not the case out here in the wilderness, and Ren Xiaosu had fired a shot to make them learn.

Now that everyone was awake, Ren Xiaosu decided to gut the rabbit and roast it for everybody to have a taste of meat.

Some time ago, Xiaoyu discovered that meat sold in the stronghold was extremely expensive after first arriving there. Even imitation meat[1] was extremely expensive too. So they ended up having less meat to eat than before while living in the stronghold.

Since Ren Xiaosu knew how to hunt, he caught more wild animals in the wilderness to make up for the lack of meat in their diet.

In the earlier years, Ren Xiaosu’s hunting targets were limited by his physical fitness and skills even if he knew how to hunt. But now, he was no longer constrained to just hunting for sparrows.

As the fatty meat of the plump rabbit roasted over the fire, Ren Xiaosu brought out some honey from his storage space. He made some cuts on the rabbit and applied honey to it. Very quickly, fats from the meat started dripping down bit by bit into the campfire.

The sight of this made the students on the other side salivate. But since Ren Xiaosu did not say they could eat it, they could only watch quietly as the rabbit cooked.

During their escape, Jiang Wu had been constantly reminding them that they would have to depend on themselves for everything and not rely on others for help.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Y’all can come over and have some too.”

The students looked towards Jiang Wu with anticipation. “Teacher, can we?”

Jiang Wu smiled and nodded. “Go ahead, but remember to give thanks.”

With just some barbecued meat, Ren Xiaosu managed to gain more than 40 gratitude tokens without much effort. Some students even thanked him several times in a single breath and were always sincere each time they said it.

Ren Xiaosu thought these well-educated students were way too well-mannered. “Hahaha, eat up, eat up!”

The group of students surrounded the campfire in great anticipation. Ren Xiaosu saw them holding their knees together as they sat by the side and swallowed hard.

When he saw the meat on the surface browning, he cut out a small piece of it for everyone to share. However, the students were all showing humility to each other and only cut a small piece from the shared portion for themselves before handing it to the next person.

Ren Xiaosu felt Jiang Wu had really taught them well.

The aroma of the meat drifted towards the escapees when the wind blew. The escapees could only sit there in a daze in the snow and smell the aroma but not eat the meat.

Not once had they thought about how if all of them worked together, they could easily catch some wild goats, wild pheasants, or wild ducks with the number of people they had. These creatures in the wilderness had multiplied to great numbers without any human interference. But the thought of gaining something for themselves through their own efforts had never crossed their minds.

One of Jiang Wu’s students suddenly asked Ren Xiaosu while eating, “Can you please teach us how to hunt? Or how to use a gun? We would also like to rely on ourselves to find food so we can protect our teacher in the future.”

[1] Restructured steak is a catch-all term to describe a class of imitation beef steaks made from smaller pieces of beef fused together by a binding agent.

Chapter 200: It wasn’t my fault

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Your teacher just wants y’all to study hard so you can work in research or similar fields in the future. Wouldn’t that be better?”

A student said, “But we can’t always depend on others.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Jiang Wu. “Alright, I’ll teach y’all tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” the students said earnestly.

With this wave of thanks, he received another 20-odd gratitude tokens. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that his decision to bring these students along was one of the wisest decisions he had ever made!

Meanwhile, someone among the escapees asked in a soft voice, “Why don’t we go and apologize to them?”

“How would that help?” someone wondered.

A middle-aged woman said, “If so many of us apologize to him, what more could he ask for?”

But in the end, still no one dared to say anything to Ren Xiaosu and company. They did not even have the courage to apologize.

However, the other escapees who were not involved in the attempts to take the rabbit for their own also kept a distance from the group that did. They feared they would end up becoming collateral damage if those people got punished later. But only a minority of the escapees were not involved, and they probably only made up 20% of the entire group. At that time, they maintained their rationality and stuck to their morals.

As it turned out, they were right. Although Ren Xiaosu had killed the perpetrators, he was still a little angry about the incident. In the middle of the night, he was still thinking about whether he should open up some Shadow Doors and drop snowballs over the campfires of those escapees to extinguish them.

However, the person whose fundamental values were rocked most was actually not Jiang Wu and her students, but Chen Wudi.

While divvying up the meat, Chen Wudi kept hold of a small stick as he sat on the edge of the campfire.

When Ren Xiaosu handed him some meat, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

Chen Wudi thought for a little and said, “That group of people felt like a cloud of darkness trying to devour me.”

The long-awaited palace finally spoke at this time. “Quest: Help Chen Wudi stabilize his mental state.”

In fact, even if the palace did not say anything, Ren Xiaosu would still do it. However, the palace probably also recognized Chen Wudi’s current state of mind and did not want him to be defeated by reality. Therefore, it assigned Ren Xiaosu a quest to help him.

But wasn’t there something wrong with how the palace had phrased its words? By stabilizing his mental state… did it mean that it did not wish for Chen Wudi to get better?!

Ren Xiaosu thought for a long while before saying, “Humans are always being attacked by reality and the ugliness of their own species. Everyone will slowly begin to think that everything is meaningless. When that happens, they try to seek the light in the dark.”

Chen Wudi was somewhat confused. “Master, what’s wrong with this world?”

This time, Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “But, Wudi, try to think about it differently. If you constantly feel that you’re devoured by the darkness, wouldn’t it mean that you are that light?”

Chen Wudi’s eyes lit up. “Is that true, Master?”

“Yes.”

“Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

Currently, Ren Xiaosu’s physical attributes reached 9.5 Strength and 6.1 Dexterity. He was still unable to accurately gauge how strong his punches were, but it became an even more terrifying power when they were amplified through his shadow clone.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not wish to gain any further Strength right now. He preferred having a few Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls so he could learn other people’s cycling.

When the sky turned bright, Ren Xiaosu’s group quickly packed up and prepared to set off. They had followed the large group of escapees because they were afraid of the wolves. But now that Ren Xiaosu realized the wolves were not going to attack them, he decided to speed up their journey. The earlier they could locate a new human settlement, the easier it would be for them to determine which direction Stronghold 88 was and readjust their route.

Ren Xiaosu did not intend to enter a new stronghold yet. He only wanted to ask around for directions in the town outside the stronghold so they could avoid getting into any conflict with the authority of the stronghold.

After all, there were a few too many supernatural beings in their group, so it was inevitable that the stronghold overseer would regard them as enemies.

It was only they who had eaten meat for their meals and had blankets to cover themselves with on this escape so far. The other escapees did not have such comforts at all.

Some of the escapees even had to resort to eating ice to quench their thirst. In the morning, a minority of the escapees’ faces were flushed and their temperatures went up. In their current condition, they most probably would not get up anymore.

Ren Xiaosu knew that even the cleanest-looking snow in the wilderness had to be boiled for at least 15 minutes before it was safe for drinking.

Bacteria is one of the most deadly things in the wilderness. Just because they could not be seen, some people would ignore their existence.

A man whose face was flushed stood in front of Ren Xiaosu’s group and blocked them from leaving. He begged, “Since you’re all so well-prepared, you must have brought along some medicine like antibiotics or something, right? Please, give me some of it. Otherwise, I definitely won’t survive for much longer.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. Then Yan Liuyuan said, “He was one of the troublemakers.”

With that, Ren Xiaosu ignored the man and left him pleading behind them.

The man realized Jiang Wu would be kinder, so he turned to her and begged for help.

However, Jiang Wu was no longer the young and naïve teacher. She said to her students, “Let’s hurry up and keep pace with the group. Remember this person. He tried to rob us of our things yesterday.”

Along the way, Ren Xiaosu taught some wilderness survival techniques to the rest of the group. He said in a loud voice, “Right now, it’s not the season for harvesting wild berries. But when you do encounter them, remember that 90% of the purple, blue, and black berries are edible, while 50% of the red, green, and yellow berries are edible. So if you’re extremely hungry, it’s better to find the purple, blue, and black berries to eat first…”

While the students rode on their bicycles, they felt that even though this young man was being ferried on the back of a bicycle, his back had become larger than life.

A little kid among the escapees shouted to an old lady next to him, “Grandma, I want to ride on a bike too. Get a bike for me!”

His grandmother, who had still been ordering people around, was stumped by her grandson’s request. Her grandson shook off her hand and started crying, “You’re not a good grandma. I want my mommy and daddy.”

When the other escapees walked past them, nobody cared about what was happening. No one had any sympathy for them nor were they going to offer any help.

Along the frontier in the heavy snow, Xu Xianchu was slowly advancing against a violent blizzard with a black cauldron floating in front of him. The snow was so deep that it had already come up to his waist. If it weren’t for his shadow clone carrying him, he probably wouldn’t have walked any further.

Suddenly, a dozen-odd people camouflaged in white cloth got up out of the snow. While pointing their guns at the big black cauldron, one of them shouted into the wind, “We’re the 3rd Combat Brigade of Stronghold 178! State your name and purpose!”

When Xu Xianchu heard the words “Stronghold 178,” he couldn’t be more overjoyed. He shouted, “I’m Xu Xianchu from Stronghold 113! I have a recommendation letter from Zhang Jinglin!”

The soldiers were stunned when they heard Zhang Jinglin’s name. As they cautiously approached Xu Xianchu, one of them went over to take the letter from him while the others stood by for further instructions. Their guns were still pointed at Xu Xianchu’s figure. It was just that the black cauldron and shadow clone felt a little strange to them. “Brother, you’re a supernatural being, right? Why do you have two types of superpowers?”

The soldiers from the observation post buried under the snow seemed to understand supernatural beings very well. Xu Xianchu was stunned by that question. “I’m not sure either. But can’t I have two superpowers?”

The person who questioned him read the letter and said to the person next to him, “It’s really Commander Zhang’s handwriting. The secret code in the letter is also correct.”

Everyone nodded. “Brother, come with us!”

They then led him towards Stronghold 178 in the distance. Currently, the walls of Stronghold 178 were white. It looked like it was encased within a wall of solid ice, giving it a sense of time-worn dilapidation. But it still looked exceptionally magnificent nonetheless.

While they walked against the blizzard, someone asked, “Brother, did you come from Stronghold 113? That place is so far away!”

Xu Xianchu shouted into the wind, “I came out of Stronghold 113 and went to Stronghold 112. Then I was forced to go to Stronghold 109 before finally heading here.”

The person next to him was stunned. “Brother, those strongholds you’ve been to are all gone now….”

Everyone around Xu Xianchu stopped in their tracks. It seemed like they were seriously considering whether they should still take him to Stronghold 178.

Xu Xianchu hesitated for a while before saying, “It wasn’t my fault.”

Creator’s Thought

Dear readers,

Regarding the East/West Gate matters that affected which direction the Experimentals would attack from.

-Stronghold 113 is in the northeast of Stronghold 109.

-Experimentals attacked from the east gate.

-Ren Xiaosu’s family moved from the east to the west of the stronghold.

-Li Shentan wreaked havoc in the Western District.

The wrong directions have been rectified.

Chapter 201: Escapees form cliques

By evening, it stopped snowing.

As far as could be seen, there was snow everywhere in front of them. It felt like they had ventured out into another world.

A large field mouse crawled out of the ground and scurried through the snow, looking for food. It could smell the grains while it was still in its burrow. During winter, the animal’s fur had grown much denser and made this field mouse look just like a furball.

However, before it could scurry far from its burrow, Ren Xiaosu, who was hiding in the snow behind it, suddenly pounced. Having been lying in the snow for a long time, the snow that fell on him had concealed the outline of his body and his breathing.

The plump field mouse was so shocked it instantly puffed up its fur. But it was too late for it to get back to its burrow.

Nowadays, field mice in the wilderness were extremely quick. If it were the average person, it would be impossible for them to catch it. However, a dagger came stabbing at the field mouse as though it knew beforehand where it was going, pinning the field mouse dead to the ground on the path leading back to its burrow.

Cheers broke out in the distance. Jiang Wu and her students were rubbing their hands in the cold weather and cheering with joy. They were going to have meat for dinner again tonight!

Ren Xiaosu walked over holding the field mouse by its leg. “It takes patience to hunt in the wilderness. The wild animals these days have become smarter. They won’t fall for it if you just place some bait out there. If you do not have more patience than them, you’ll end up going hungry.”

It had just stopped snowing, but Ren Xiaosu had lain in the snow for several hours. Although he and Chen Wudi could go out to hunt for wild boars instead, that would not be a suitable hunting method to teach these students.

Ren Xiaosu’s main purpose was still to teach and… earn their gratitude tokens.

After Ren Xiaosu finished sharing his experience, the students quickly thanked him with smiles on their faces. In just the short span of a day, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than 400 gratitude tokens by relying on the idolatry of these students.

He had always been trying his best to gain as many gratitude tokens as he could ever since he was assigned the side quest. In the end, Ren Xiaosu discovered that students were still the more gullible ones.

Ren Xiaosu had been worried that Jiang Wu had brought along too many students and it would delay their escape. But now he felt she had brought along too few students, resulting in him unable to earn more gratitude tokens at a faster rate.

Ren Xiaosu would patiently go out and teach the students how to hunt, set up traps, and raid squirrel nests every day. With everyone so well-fed during the escape, they looked much healthier, with rosy glows on their faces.

As he led the students back to their campsite, he said, “If you manage to find a squirrel nest during winter, it’s a really great harvest. It’s filled with all kinds of food that the squirrel has stockpiled for winter, so it’ll definitely be enough to last you several meals at least. Furthermore, there isn’t any worry of being poisoned by food that a squirrel would eat.”

One of the students asked, “If we clear out the squirrel’s food, how is the squirrel supposed to survive through the winter?”

Ren Xiaosu comforted, “If you just eat the squirrel as well, it won’t have to survive through the winter.”

When the students heard that, it made sense to them.

When Jiang Wu, who was slowly following them, heard how Ren Xiaosu was teaching her students, she was a little conflicted.

At the campsite, Yan Liuyuan and company had already set up a campfire. Meanwhile, the students were carrying more firewood over. With the fire able to burn for longer, they wouldn’t have to feel so cold tonight.

The large group of escapees set up their campsite not far away. Now the escapees just followed Ren Xiaosu’s group wherever they went. However, they did not dare approach them. But compared to the initial number of escapees who had escaped from the stronghold, only slightly less than half of them were still able to keep up with Ren Xiaosu’s group.

Xiaoyu took the dagger from Ren Xiaosu and skillfully prepared the field mouse meat. After that, she cleaned off the blood on her hands with some snow.

Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “The escapees have already started forming cliques. Just today, I discovered some people ordering others to do their work for them while they enjoyed the fruits of their labor.”

“Mhm,” Ren Xiaosu grunted as he sat at the edge of the campfire and tried to make the fire burn stronger by prodding it with a stick. He added some pine twigs to the fire and heard them crackle. He said, “Ignore them. Such things can’t be avoided. At the beginning of an escape, everyone will constantly be on the run. But soon after, some of the smarter and more ruthless people will start making use of others. Such is human nature.”

“In the past, they could live a proper life inside the stronghold by just following the rules and working daily. There were also many types of entertainment outlets for them to spend their money on. Although they worked, they couldn’t save much money. They would just repeat their lives day in, day out and have no time to think about other things,” Ren Xiaosu continued. “But once they come out into the wilderness, they understand what this world is really like.”

Then Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Those strongholds are like a world that the organizations have carefully designed for the residents.”

Right at this moment, a fracas broke out in the escapees’ group. Ren Xiaosu looked up and was surprised to see a few of the men attempting to catch a lone escapee.

That escapee broke free from their grasp and ran over to Ren Xiaosu’s group.

“Bro, what should we do?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“Let’s wait and see how it turns out.” Ren Xiaosu took the field mouse meat and roasted it over the fire.

The men ran over as they chased down the escapee. But halfway through, they came to a halt when they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting next to the campfire.

The escapee had concealed herself very well. Although the people behind her had already stopped in their tracks, she continued running and stumbling around in the snow. Finally, she fell into the snow not far from Ren Xiaosu’s group and stopped moving

That escapee seemed to think that Ren Xiaosu’s group would get alarmed by the disturbance, and someone would go over to help her up. But as it turned out, she ended up lying there for over an hour.

After some time, Chen Wudi, who was sitting at the edge of the campfire, couldn’t help but say, “Master, someone’s over there.”

“Don’t worry, she’s just sleepy. Let her sleep for a while and don’t disturb her,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. The others might not know, but he could sense that the person lying in the snow had an irregular breathing rhythm.

An unconscious person wouldn’t breathe that way. Furthermore, she even surreptitiously adjusted her posture just now when she apparently felt a little bit uncomfortable in that position.

A moment later, the person lying in the snow slowly got back up. She acted as though she had just regained consciousness. Then she removed the scarf on her head to reveal a beautiful face. Yan Liuyuan whispered, “It’s a woman.”

That woman stared blankly at Ren Xiaosu and the others. “Oh, how did I pass out here? Hello, I’m Fang Yujing.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at her. “Since you’ve regained consciousness, please go back to your side.”

He was really not interested in a scheming person like her. Although she was beautiful, she was still not the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Don’t you guys know who I am?” Fang Yujing was stunned.

Everyone in Ren Xiaosu’s group speechlessly looked at each other next to the campfire. Ren Xiaosu said, “You might not believe it when I say this, but we really don’t know who you are….”

Chapter 202: The Li Consortium’s army

While Ren Xiaosu was still at Stronghold 109, he had heard of Fang Yujing and Cicada’s names on a streetcar. At the time, he wondered if the celebrities of this stronghold were also members of the Saboteurs based on the situation with Luo Xinyu.

But later on, he felt that he was wrong to think that way. When the great disaster struck Stronghold 109, Luo Xinyu and Lu Yuan had specially waited for Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness for some time. However, no one else was in the vehicle. If these two celebrities were also members of the Saboteurs, they would have been taken by them back then.

Moreover, if Fang Yujing were a member of the Saboteurs, she would not need to approach him in such a manner. It would be just as how Luo Xinyu had greeted Ren Xiaosu openly after discovering he was her neighbor.

Right now, it seemed like the escapees who had started forming cliques had somehow learned of Fang Yujing’s identity and wanted to get their hands on her. As a result, she approached Ren Xiaosu’s group in a roundabout way to get his help.

No matter whether his deduction was right or wrong, Ren Xiaosu did not actually intend to bother with Fang Yujing’s plight. If someone made immoral advances on the celebrity again after she went back, Chen Wudi would naturally give them a thrashing…

By this point, Ren Xiaosu fully entrusted Chen Wudi with doing all the good deeds. However, Ren Xiaosu still reminded Chen Wudi over and over to try his best not to reveal his superpower. He also told this to Jiang Wu as well.

When Jiang Wu awakened her power yesterday, no one noticed since the escapees were busy fleeing in panic. Therefore, they were just a group of normal people with guns in the eyes of the other escapees. This way, they would not attract any special attention from the corporations when they reached the next stronghold together. This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu would rather use a gun instead of depending on his powers last night. After all, most of the organizations were not really friendly towards supernatural beings nowadays.

Then the faint rumbling of vehicles came from ahead of them. Ren Xiaosu looked up at the sound and was surprised to see a convoy of vehicles approaching them. On the sides of the vehicles, the logo of the Li Consortium’s white spider could be seen.

In reality, it wasn’t exactly a white spider. It was just a logo in the shape of a nanomachine that resembled a spider drawn with well-defined edges.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. The last thing he wanted to see now was the Li Consortium’s people.

Hundreds of military transport trucks slowly came to a stop in front of the escapees, and all of their tires were fitted with snow chains.

A dozen or so combat platoons jumped out of the vehicles and slowly approached the group. The escapees were crying and shouting for help like their saviors had arrived. It was as though they had finally met their family members again.

The officer commanding the platoons asked coldly, “Where have you all come from?”

With tears streaming down his face, an escapee said, “Sir, we’re residents of Stronghold 109. We escaped from there.”

Another escapee said in elation, “Didn’t I say? The rescue troops would definitely find us. The Li Consortium hasn’t forgotten about us. Sir, do you have any food? We’re on the verge of starving to death.”

But the officer sneered, “I’m not here to save you all. We’ve been ordered to come to Stronghold 109 to annihilate the invaders. We were instructed to send everyone back to town at Stronghold 108. We aren’t responsible for providing any meals to you.”

The escapees were taken aback. “Aren’t you going to give us any aid?”

The officer looked at the escapees and told the adjutant next to him, “Do a headcount of the escapees.”

These armed troops of the consortium quickly did a headcount of everyone. But during the process, their guns remained pointed at the escapees to prevent them from rioting.

When the escapees who had been thinking of protesting against being treated like this saw the guns, they suddenly became as obedient as quails and did not dare say anything more.

When everyone saw the army arriving, they were overjoyed, like they had been reunited with their family members. But now they realized these people did not even care about them!

Someone finally could not hold back anymore. A young man walked to the front of the crowd and said, “My brother-in-law is a supervisor at Stronghold 108’s Public Order Division. Kind sirs, please take me back with you. My brother-in-law will definitely reward all of you handsomely.”

The officer said with a smile, “All civilians are strictly forbidden to pass through the strongholds now. Even if you all came back with us, you wouldn’t be allowed to enter the stronghold. So it’s better not to speak all those empty words. I hope you can recognize the situation you’re in. You’re all refugees from now on and no longer residents of a stronghold. Moreover, claiming that a lowly supervisor at the Public Order Division could reward those of us from the Li Consortium’s army, isn’t that too much of a brag?”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he realized the Li Consortium had probably decided to implement stricter controls on people passing through the stronghold after the lesson at Stronghold 109. This was to prevent any further dangerous elements from getting into their strongholds.

However, this was exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted as he did not intend to enter a stronghold that was controlled by the Li Consortium. Who knew what kind of dangerous plans Li Shentan was up to?

From the conversation, Ren Xiaosu could tell that soldiers who were under the direct jurisdiction of the Li Consortium had never thought much of the stronghold’s management. This alone was enough to show just how important the army was to the entire consortium.

A man wondered, “Then what should we do when we go back? Are we only allowed to become refugees in town? We really are the stronghold’s residents!”

The officer smiled. “You don’t have to worry about having nowhere to go. Our Li Consortium has already started a new round of conscription. All of those who are of suitable age will be required to join the military. Who knows, some of you might end up working under me in the future. As for the women, they’ll be sent to the factories to make military uniforms for the new recruits. Since it’s wartime, there’s no need for me to explain anything to you people.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. The Li Consortium was actually planning to draft soldiers? Surely he wasn’t fucking going to get conscripted, right?! After the stronghold had been destroyed, the Li Consortium had lost an entire stronghold of combat troops. In order to face an increasingly dangerous world, it would only be natural for them to recruit more soldiers.

Moreover, several organizations were responsible for the destruction of Stronghold 109. If the Li Consortium wanted to seek revenge, they had to first expand their military strength.

However, Ren Xiaosu could never have expected that he would really get conscripted!

“Bro, what should we do?” Yan Liuyuan muttered.

At this moment, the officer said to the adjutant, “Call the private troops and tell them we’ve located the escapees. Get them over here to escort the escapees back, and make sure to watch over them carefully.”

After a while, another dozen-odd military transport trucks arrived from behind them. Ren Xiaosu said, “There’s nothing we can do now. Let’s follow them to the town at Stronghold 108 first. We’ll try to find a way to leave when there’s a chance.”

At this moment, it was definitely not practical for them to force an escape from here. If Ren Xiaosu was by himself, he could just leave as he wished. But if he were to go, what would become of Yan Liuyuan and the others?

The men and women boarded separate vehicles with the private army soldiers pointing their automatic rifles at them and keeping a close watch. It was as though they were afraid they would try to escape.

Before they went their separate ways, Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and said, “It’s your turn now to protect Xiaoyu while I protect the male students on my side. I’ll leave the rest to y’all to watch out for your own safety.”

Jiang Wu looked at him and said in a serious tone, “I will. You be careful as well.”

After that conversation, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, Chen Wudi, and all the men boarded one of the trucks, while Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the women boarded another.

Chapter 203: Exemption from military service

As the military transport truck rumbled along noisily, a cold, piercing wind blew through the exposed cargo bed, the knife wind cutting the passengers’ faces.

At the beginning, what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was that these military transport trucks would transport the men and women to separate places, with the women being directly transported to the factory to work as female workers. However, that situation did not happen, and it allowed him to let out a temporary sigh of relief.

Wang Fugui said with a frown, “We couldn’t bring our bicycles with us.”

The moment he said that, Ren Xiaosu’s face turned gloomy.

This was probably the first time their group had suffered such a significant loss since leaving Stronghold 113.

This was the wasteland. All belongings were but worldly possessions, where things got discarded at a whim. If that saying applied to human lives, it was even more so for bicycles!

In the current situation, even though Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were both supernatural beings, it would still be extremely difficult for them to take on an entire unit.

Watching the Li Consortium’s troops heading towards Stronghold 109, Ren Xiaosu felt that he might not see them anymore in the future. That was because he did not think those troops were a match for over a 1,000 Experimentals in urban warfare. Unless, of course, the Li Consortium resorted to using heavy weaponry to flatten the stronghold.

But a stronghold was built precisely for the resources around it. Would the Li Consortium be willing to completely give up on an entire stronghold just like that? They definitely would not. The price to pay was simply too great if they had to blow up an entire stronghold and rebuild it from scratch.

The trucks drove through the snow for seven to eight hours straight. During this period, some of the trucks in the convoy broke down several times. It was only at such times that the people in the trucks were allowed to get out to stretch and relieve themselves.

The private troops kept an eye on the escapees as though they were supervising prisoners. Ren Xiaosu exchanged glances with Xiaoyu and Jiang Wu from a distance, but they had no idea what the other party was trying to say.

After the trucks were repaired, the convoy continued on with its journey. During this time, Wang Fugui was striking up conversations with the soldiers, which was what he was best at. In just a short while, he was on very familiar terms with the soldiers who were assigned to watch over them.

When they got back into the truck, Wang Fugui whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “It seems that we’re heading straight for the town outside Stronghold 108. I’m sure we all know what these soldiers are like. Once we get there, I’ll see if I can get them to secretly exempt us from military and manual labor by offering them some money and antibiotics.”

The “manual labor” was referring to the female escapees getting recruited to work in the factories.

With someone like Wang Fugui in the group, any news would not become too inaccessible for them. Ren Xiaosu and the others were not good at dealing with people, so Wang Fugui had to be the one to do

Ren Xiaosu asked in a whisper, “Did you ask them what the situation at the other Li Consortium strongholds is right now?”

“I asked, and everything is fine for now,” Wang Fugui replied. “However, they’re on full alert now. The Li Consortium has announced to the world that they’re on wartime alert. It seems like war will be breaking out soon.”

“It looks like they’re not only gonna be dealing with the Experimentals this time.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. If it were only about handling the problem of the Experimentals, there wouldn’t be a need to raise the alert across a dozen-odd strongholds at once.

But where did the Li Consortium find the confidence to start a war? Surely they didn’t intend to rely on their nanomachines, right?

Yang Xiaojin had mentioned that even though the research results that everyone had been trying to get their hands on did not get destroyed in time by the Li Consortium, they must have already transferred the research data through their own satellite network. So the Li Consortium’s research was definitely not for nothing.

At the time, Ren Xiaosu even raised some doubts regarding the matter. If that were the case, the portable hard drive was probably left behind on purpose. If the Yang Consortium decided to use it, it would be better for them to inspect it first. Otherwise, it might turn out to be a trap.

Such was Ren Xiaosu’s nature. While other people might not overthink things, he would be extra careful and alert as long as he felt there was something unusual.

As of now, the best solution was for them to use money to get an exemption from having to serve in the military and perform manual labor. The soldiers were swearing in the truck at having to come out to work in such cold weather. They were quite similar to the private troops in Ren Xiaosu’s memory.

These troops were also very greedy and always thinking about money. In the truck, Wang Fugui quietly swapped the most valuable items to Ren Xiaosu so he could stuff them into his storage space. That would prevent the soldiers from getting any ideas in case they saw the valuable items they had.

The escapees in the truck had ashen looks on their faces. They thought they would be rescued once the Li Consortium’s troops arrived. No one expected it would turn out like this. Going from a stronghold resident to a refugee—they were rather unable to accept such a fall from grace.

Just as they were about to arrive at the stronghold, the private army’s convoy suddenly came to a halt. Then an officer who did not even bother wearing his beret properly said while tucking his thumbs in his belt, “Look, we also don’t wish for all of you to suffer as soldiers or manual laborers, but it’s not up to us since these orders came from above.”

An escapee begged, “Sir, I’ve got problems with my knee. I really can’t be a soldier.”

A woman also begged, “We really don’t know how to sew. We’ve never done anything like that before.” With a smile, the officer of the private army said politely, “Don’t worry, it’ll be easy to pick up. However, I have another solution. I’m very familiar with Commander Li, who’s in charge of the draft. If any of you have any ideas, I can put in a word for you. But it’s certainly not enough to just talk about it. Let me make this clear: I do not stand to gain anything from this. All I’m trying to do is to plead on everyone’s behalf.”

Ren Xiaosu immediately knew that he was hinting at getting some bribes.

Someone immediately took off his wristwatch. “Sir, this watch is a Soaring Bird. I just bought it last year.”

The officer immediately beamed and said, “Note his name… Is there anyone else who wants to be exempted from military or manual labor?”

Wang Fugui immediately went over and pulled the officer aside. “Sir, my name is Wang Fugui. I’ve got a 100 antibiotics and five branded watches over here. However, there are quite a few of us who would like to get exempted.”

When the officer heard that he had a 100 antibiotics, his eyes popped out of their sockets. When he heard he was being offered five watches as well, his eyes shone brightly!

Wang Fugui said softly, “The thing is, we have more than 20 students in our group. Just think about it, what are students capable of doing? They won’t be able to contribute at all. Besides, students are the foundation of our future. Wouldn’t it be such a waste for them to become soldiers or female workers?”

The officer looked at Wang Fugui. “The female students can be exempted but the male students can’t. To be honest, the bottom line is that all men of the right age must be conscripted. If I dare to overstep this line, I’ll get executed tomorrow.”

When Wang Fugui heard this, he started panicking. He couldn’t care less about other people, but Ren Xiaosu definitely couldn’t be conscripted. He pointed to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Didn’t you just exempt someone from military service?”

“To be honest with you, the person who was exempted is too old and not within the conscription requirements at all,” the officer said with a smile.

Old Wang could completely understand that manual labor could be exempted, but military service was unavoidable. The middle-aged man who handed over his watch had purely been taken for a sucker. He rephrased his words and said, “Look at that person over there. He might look young, but it’s only because he has kept his face well-maintained. I hope this won’t make it sound like a joke, but he’s actually my uncle.”

“Fuck.” The officer was chuckled. “Old Wang, can you be any more shameless than this? No means no. With these antibiotics and watches, I can only exempt the girls from their manual labor. But the men are all of suitable age, so they won’t be exempted from military service.”

Wang Fugui sighed. Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan did not have to be conscripted as they were too young. But based on the current situation, it was certain that Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and all eight of Jiang Wu’s male students would have no choice but to serve in the military.

Chapter 204: Master, don’t get too upset

Knowing the opportunity was hard to come by, Wang Fugui did not hesitate any further. He would have to handle the exemptions for Li Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the rest of the female students from their manual labor first.

He went back over to Ren Xiaosu and told him about it. Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “It’s already quite good that we can get an exemption from manual labor. You’ll need to settle them in town after we get conscripted. If we decide to escape one day, it’ll be easier for us to meet up when that time comes.”

Right now, only ten people in their group were required to serve in the military. This consisted of Chen Wudi, Ren Xiaosu, and the eight male students. The remaining people would be allowed to stay in town for the time being.

Who could have everything go their way in a chaotic world like this? This was already a very good outcome.

After the soldiers finished receiving their bribes, they continued on their journey. After an hour, they finally arrived at the outside of Stronghold 108. To Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, the town outside the stronghold was much livelier than the other towns he had been to.

Construction vehicles could be seen shuttling back and forth. There was even a huge military base stationed just outside the town. It seemed that the Li Consortium had already gathered a lot of its military forces outside Stronghold 108.

Although it was early morning, it was extremely busy outside the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Even if Stronghold 108 was the closest to Stronghold 109 where the Experimentals now were, was it really necessary to gather so many troops here?

When they got out of the vehicles, the officer in charge of escorting them immediately instructed those who had paid bribes to run into town via a narrow trail to avoid getting drafted into manual labor. The remaining people were made to stay there to await further instructions.

The officer chuckled and said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Qingzheng, and I’m going to bring you all over to the conscription office now for a physical examination. I’ll secretly share some good news with you all. As long as you pass the test, you stand a chance of returning to the stronghold. In any case, I’m not that fortunate. But for you all, it’s all up to your own luck.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Was this a normal physical? It could even decide whether a person would end up becoming a refugee or a stronghold resident?

They followed Li Qingzheng and came to a large military tent. At this moment, a group of people happened to be coming out of the tent. One of them said excitedly, “I can get into the stronghold! I can go live in the stronghold!”

Li Qingzheng was watching that man’s excitement with a grimace. “What a lucky man. A refugee has been elevated in status just like that.”

He looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others while explaining, “That person was previously a refugee from Stronghold 107’s town. However, he’s become a stronghold resident after being sent here and taking the physical. Interesting, right?” Ren Xiaosu stood outside the tent and looked at that man from behind. He suddenly felt that this physical examination was likely to be related to the Li Consortium’s new technology.

Everyone stood in line and waited for their turn to enter the tents. Currently, the physical examination was being carried out in more than a dozen tents within the military base at the same time. Not only were there refugees undergoing the physical examination, but even the active servicemen of the Li Consortium were required to go through the physical examination again!

Ren Xiaosu went into one of the tents. However, the physical examination being carried out on the inside was not what he had expected. There were only several people dressed in white coats standing in front of an apparatus. The person undergoing the physical examination was required to sit on a stool that was attached to the apparatus. He was also wearing a metallic ring that was connected to some wires on his head.

A person in a white coat read the data and said, “Synchronization rate at 3%, fail.”

The staff member next to him dismissed the person who was undergoing the physical examination. “You did not pass.”

Ren Xiaosu slowly moved all the way to the back of the line. He kept having a feeling that something was off about this.

Li Qingzheng chuckled, “What, don’t you want to get back into the stronghold? I heard you used to be a stronghold resident.” Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Aren’t you a stronghold resident?”

“No, I only became a platoon commander because the private army’s strength increased. But I was also a refugee before,” Li Qingzheng said with a smile.

So it turned out that the Li Consortium was increasing its military strength all across the board. Even refugees were being recruited into the private army now.

At this moment, one of the people in the white coats said, “Synchronization rate at 81%, pass. Record this person’s details into the personnel database.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What does this ‘synchronization rate’ mean?”

“I’m not sure either.” Li Qingzheng said, “Anyway, if you can pass the test, you’ll be allowed into the stronghold. But if you fail it, you’ll become one of my men.”

The man who passed the test was an escapee who had fled together with Ren Xiaosu’s group from Stronghold 109. He asked the doctor in disbelief, “Am I allowed to enter the stronghold?!”

The doctor in the white coat glanced at him and said indifferently, “Congratulations. Your name?”

“Hahaha, I can finally enter the stronghold!” the escapee said excitedly.

The doctor said impatiently, “Name, please?”

“Lin Qi! My name is Lin Qi!” the escapee answered excitedly.

Then someone took him away. One by one, the people in their group stepped forward for the physical examination. The synchronization rates of the eight male students basically fell between 40% and 60%, but the passing requirement was apparently much higher than that.

When it came to Chen Wudi’s turn, the doctor frowned. “Synchronization rate at 1%. Why is it so low?”

But Chen Wudi seemed unaffected by the result. When the doctor asked him to leave, he asked Ren Xiaosu in a whisper, “Master, why is my synchronization rate only at 1% and so much lower than theirs?”

“It might be a test of whether your brain is functioning properly or not.” Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before replying. “It’s only because there’s something wrong with your brain that you scored 1%.”

At this moment, the doctor urged Ren Xiaosu to come forward for his turn.

At one point in time, Ren Xiaosu felt that his synchronization rate would somehow turn out to be surprisingly high. But what if he got selected to enter the stronghold? He wasn’t keen on entering the stronghold at all!

When Ren Xiaosu placed the metallic ring over his head, he felt like there were some barely discernible strands of silk threads trying to communicate with his mind. They felt like a physical presence in his mind, but before those threads could connect with the palace, they started snapping in quick succession!

A second later, the doctor opposite him said in a surprise, “Synchronization Rate at 0%?!” How can that be?”

Nearby, Chen Wudi said with a look of sarcasm, “Master, don’t get too upset.”

Ha ha…

Ren Xiaosu was confused. Was it because of the palace that his results were 0%?

Then the doctor said, “Record it. Neuron interfacing was a complete failure.” He called out to the person after Ren Xiaosu, “Next.”

If Ren Xiaosu had not said those words to Chen Wudi, he would definitely have been accepting of this result. But now, he found it really hard to swallow. Although he did not wish to pass this test, his score should at least be higher than Chen Wudi’s, right?!

“Doctor,” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “I think I can get a better result than that. There must be something wrong with the machine. How else could I have scored so low?”

The doctor shot him a look. “Don’t waste the stronghold’s resources. Next!”

As Ren Xiaosu got dragged out of the tent by Li Qingzheng and the others, he kept shouting, “Doctor, please give me another chance!”

The doctor in the tent said coldly, “I’ve seen loads of people like that. It’s going to be the same no matter how many times they get tested. What a bunch of good-for-nothings.”

However, when the next person sat down on the apparatus, the doctor froze. “Why is there no reaction? It’s not displaying any data at all.”

“Could the machine be faulty?” someone asked softly.

The doctor keyed in a 16-digit PIN on the apparatus to unlock the refrigerated chamber in the middle where a bottle of silvery, liquidlike substance could be seen.

The doctor puzzledly took another bottle of the “liquid” and replaced the one in the chamber. The machine was immediately restored back to normal.

He handed the bottle of “liquid” he took out of the machine to his assistant. “Send this back to the stronghold for checking. There might be some problems with this bottle of nanomachines.”

Chapter 205: The outpost’s new recruit, Ren Xiaosu

The synchronization test was being carried out across the entire Li Consortium. Not only were Ren Xiaosu and the others tested, but even the Li Consortium’s own combat troops were also involved.

Looking in from outside the tent, Ren Xiaosu watched as those soldiers lined up and entered the tent. Whenever someone passed the synchronization test and got selected, others would come forward to congratulate them.

These troops from the Li Consortium should know exactly what they were being screened for. So seeing how they were all congratulating their comrades upon passing the test, it must be a matter that was extremely worth being happy about.

“Monitor, what is this synchronization screening about?” a student asked.

As they were all classmates, they continued addressing Ren Xiaosu as their class monitor, even calling him “teacher” sometimes.

Ren Xiaosu did not hide it from them. He gave it some thought before sharing his assumption with them. “The Li Consortium has made a breakthrough in nanorobotics and neurotechnology. It seems like they’re selecting suitable candidates as hosts for the nanomachines.”

Indeed, the Li Consortium had immediately put their nanorobotics technology into military use after they saw a breakthrough in their research. If it were really as Luo Lan had said, nanomachines could help humans gain a stronger skeletal structure, muscles, and even achieve other improvements. At that time, the Li Consortium would probably try to build an elite unit that was assisted by nanomachines.

However, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that it would be extremely uncomfortable to have machines placed into his body.

The officer named Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others with a smile. “Everyone, follow me. We’ll go and handle the registration first. After that, you’ll all be my men starting from today. Stick with me, and we will have good food and wine together!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at him. At present, Li Qingzheng still wore his beret crookedly, while his collar was also unbuttoned. It was like he was just some ruffian. No, he was exactly what a real ruffian would look like.

Ren Xiaosu walked over and shook Li Qingzheng’s hand. At the same time, he stuffed two banknotes into his hand and said, “Pleased to meet you, Platoon Commander Li.”

Seeing how Ren Xiaosu understood the “rules,” Li Qingzheng beamed. “Don’t worry, everyone. I just become an officer, so let’s not have any bureaucracy between us. Let’s all be brothers from now on!”

With just two banknotes, their superior-subordinate relationship had now changed to a brotherly relationship. Ren Xiaosu asked, “Where are we heading now?”

“Let’s get all of your registrations completed first. Then we’ll head to an outpost at the front after getting your uniforms. The entire outpost will be all ours!” Li Qingzheng said in high spirits.

Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this. Wasn’t Li Qingzheng just a platoon commander in the private troops. How could he possibly command an entire outpost?

“Aren’t we going to be carrying out our duties nearer to the stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“There are still some factories out there. We need to protect those factories from being attacked,” Li Qingzheng explained. “We’ll be fine. Y’all don’t have to worry at all. I’ve been practicing martial arts with the blacksmiths in town since childhood. I’m proficient in many types of boxing now.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not exactly feel better. It was fine that he had to serve in the private army, but how did he end up getting drafted into such a haphazardly assembled group of soldiers?

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Although you look a little skinny, have a really low synchronization rate, and don’t look to be much of a soldier, you can rest assured that Big Brother Li here will protect you!”

“Mhm. Thanks, Big Brother Li,” Ren Xiaosu said. After his Dexterity went up, he did look a little on the skinny side.

The students beside them all looked at one another, not knowing what to say. To them, it looked more like Li Qingzheng’s brains would get smashed out of his head with just a single punch from Ren Xiaosu.

At this moment, seven other escapees in the group were also required to perform military service. These escapees looked grief-stricken. They had thought that refugees were the most inferior humans in the world and were only born to serve the stronghold residents. But they could never have expected they would end up becoming refugees themselves one day!

Since Ren Xiaosu was the one who paid the money, he was Li Qingzheng’s brother. But these other escapees did not have any money on them to pay him with. Li Qingzheng looked at them with a different expression. “You people over there, hurry it up. Who are you trying to gain sympathy from with your crying? You’ll feel better once we get to the outpost.”

Originally, Li Qingzheng only had about a dozen soldiers under him. But now he had finally gathered up to a total of 30 soldiers to make up a full platoon.

Ren Xiaosu learned from Li Qingzheng that they were going to be serving under Eighth Platoon, the Iron Second Battalion of the private army.

At this moment, Li Qingzheng was still unaware of what kind of people had joined his unit.

Their group went and registered. When they were collecting their uniforms, the soldiers of the Logistics Division informed them there was a shortage of uniforms, and they would be issued at a later date.

Ren Xiaosu wondered just how big of an expansion the military was undertaking that they could not even afford to issue them with uniforms. Were they going to guard the outpost in their current attire?

Wasn’t the conscription carried out too fucking hastily?! Even though the stronghold had expanded the size of the private army, they did not give them any priority. When it was time for them to collect their weapons, they were not even issued with firearms!

Along the way, he suddenly saw Yan Liuyuan standing outside the military base. Neither of them spoke, and Yan Liuyuan simply threw a note over the wooden fence. Ren Xiaosu opened it up and read: We’ve settled down in town. Everything is fine.

Ren Xiaosu could finally feel relieved.

At this moment, Li Qingzheng shouted from a military transport truck not far away, “Brothers, get in! We’re setting off to the outpost!”

Ren Xiaosu walked to the truck after giving a nod to Yan Liuyuan. He was unsure of what kind of outpost he would be assigned to. The moment he figured out his situation, he would take Yan Liuyuan and the others away.

Meanwhile, the bottle of silvery, liquidlike nanomachines was being sent into the stronghold. A researcher draped in a white coat was standing in front of the stronghold’s gate and having his ID checked. When the garrison guards saw his special identification papers, they immediately let him through. They even prepared an exclusive car for him to send him to Research Facility 613, located on the inside of the stronghold.

As the researcher sat in the car, he thought about something. Since their nanorobotics technology had become mature, it would still be justifiable if only one or two of the nanomachines were defective. But for an entire bottle to be defective was a little strange. The number of nanomachines contained within this bottle of silvery liquid was simply astronomical. They couldn’t possibly all be defective, right?

Nanomachines were not exactly smaller than a nanometer. They would just have to ensure that their operating tentacles were in the range of nanoscale levels, with the individual body size of each nanomachine at approximately four nanometers.

What is a nanometer? A nanometer is equivalent to 0.000000001 meters. If this entire bottle of nanomachines were defective, then it would definitely not be due to a technical issue but some other reason.

He was extremely confused and also highly suspicious.

When he arrived at Research Facility 613, he walked straight into the research building and said to the secretary, “I would like to see Mr. Li!”

The pretty secretary adjusted her glasses. “If you have anything, just tell it to me. Mr. Li is very busy.”

“We’ve encountered a minor problem with this thing here.” The researcher said, “Please let Mr. Li know immediately.”

“You can place it here with me and write down your contact information. I’ll inform you when we get results. Multiple cases of defective nanomachines due to operational error have occurred across the various strongholds today. Mr. Li is busy handling all that right now,” the pretty secretary said nonchalantly.

The researcher was stunned. The nanomachines were damaged due to operational error? But why did he somehow feel that their situation here was different? He clearly remembered that there was no mistake in the way he operated the machine!

He said in earnest, “I’ll go back and wait for your news. But please make sure to explain to Mr. Li that there was no operational error with our bottle of nanomachines. The circumstances surrounding its failure were extremely suspicious!”

The secretary gave him a look and then pasted an “urgent” label on that bottle of nanomachines right before his eyes. Only then did the researcher give a sigh of relief. “Thank you!”

But what he did not know was that there were already hundreds of bottles of samples labeled “urgent” that had been sent into the laboratory.

Chapter 206: Middle of nowhere

The military transport truck slowly drove through the vast wilderness towards a mountainous region. Here, the mountains were not very high.

While the platoon sat in the back, Ren Xiaosu silently took note of their current position. This should be a place several dozen kilometers away from Stronghold 108.

When they passed by several factories along the way, Li Qingzheng introduced the place to them. “These are the Li Consortium’s oil refineries, and our outpost is just up front. Our daily responsibility will be to observe any signs of approaching enemies. If there are, we have to report it immediately through the satellite phone.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What do we do after reporting
it?”

This question stumped Li Qingzheng. The higher-ups had not mentioned what actions to take after reporting an intrusion. Were they supposed to defend the place until reinforcements arrived or should they retreat?

It seemed like their task was just to keep watch and function as an early warning system.

But Ren Xiaosu felt they would be risking their lives by keeping watch here.

They were not issued with any uniforms or firearms. An entire platoon consisting of 30 people only had 11 automatic rifles and just over 20 magazines with them. What else could they be other than cannon fodder?

However, Li Qingzheng was not too worried about that. “Just think about it. A large contingent of soldiers from the combat troops have already been deployed to Stronghold 109. If there’s any danger, they’ll be the ones to handle it. What do we have to worry about?”

“What if other organizations start a war?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“That won’t happen.” Li Qingzheng waved it off and said, “How can there still be wars in this era? I’ve never witnessed a real war since the day I was born!”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not say anything more. Even the refugees were used to living in these peaceful times. Everyone always thought that war was something very far away from them, and even Ren Xiaosu also had such thoughts.

But Ren Xiaosu felt that something was not right. What if the Li Consortium initiated an attack on others? What if those frontline troops of the Li Consortium couldn’t beat back the Experimentals?

If war was not coming, the Li Consortium would have no reason to mobilize so many troops. Moreover, the various organizations would also have spies planted inside the other strongholds. If the Li Consortium started ramping up its war preparations, that would make the other organizations nervous as well.

It was like they were all tied together by a single rope. If someone pulled too hard, it would tighten around the others. Once the rope snapped, war would break out.

“We’ve arrived!” Li Qingzheng shouted excitedly, “This will be our outpost from now on!”

When Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck, he was stunned after looking around at the place. He could only see a row of small, one-story houses standing on the hilltop in front of him with a big mountain behind. This was the middle of nowhere.

No one was in the outpost. It seemed like Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second was going to have this outpost all to themselves. It was no wonder Li Qingzheng could speak so pompously back then.

Li Qingzheng pointed at the top of the mountain as he stood on the flat ground of the outpost. “Every day, five of you will be on sentry duty on a rotating basis in the watchtower up there where you’ll check for any signs of the enemy. If a situation crops up, report it immediately to the higher-ups.”

“Is that all?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Right, there’s nothing else.” Li Qingzheng said with a smile, “Supplies will be delivered to us regularly, so we don’t have to worry about anything at all. All we need to do is to keep a close eye on this direction.”

“Who will come from this direction?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“How would I know?” Li Qingzheng was amused. “No one goes into those mountains, and neither will anyone come out from there. So we can all just rest assured that no one will attack us.”

Ren Xiaosu made a rough guess of their current position. They should be situated at one of the northernmost outposts in the area controlled by the Li Consortium. Which organizations were to the north? The Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium?

Ren Xiaosu asked him, “Do you know where Stronghold 88 is?”

Li Qingzheng was surprised. “I don’t know.”

Alright, Ren Xiaosu would just have to ask someone else when there was an opportunity. He should have asked Yang Xiaojin back then…

After everyone unloaded the supplies from the military transport truck, Ren Xiaosu estimated their supplies would only last the 30 of them seven days at most. He wondered if the subsequent resupply would be delivered on time. Seeing as the Li Consortium was busy on all fronts, who knew if they would forget about them over here.

When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu’s expression, he said with a smile, “Bro, I know y’all are looking to leave this place. But in the current circumstances, even if you escape back to town, you might not be able to leave with the others. There are many military bases stationed all over town, and there’s so many of you as well, so how are you going to leave? Y’all will probably get caught and interrogated before you can even step out of there.”

Ren Xiaosu realized that even though Li Qingzheng looked rather stupid, he was well aware of the situation. He clearly knew that Ren Xiaosu’s mind was not present.

Li Qingzheng added, “I suggest you just stay here for now. If there’s an opportunity in the future, I’ll try to transfer you back to the town. Then you can get together more often with your relatives and friends.”

Ren Xiaosu knew Li Qingzheng was hinting at more money, but he still thanked him anyway. “OK, I’m counting on you then, Platoon Commander Li.”

“Haha, no need to be polite.” Li Qingzheng said with a smile, “You can just stay at this outpost with no worries. If enemies really do come, I’ll chase them away with my boxing. There’s nothing for y’all to be afraid of.”

Li Qingzheng had also found out that Ren Xiaosu and his group used to be students from Stronghold 109 and that Ren Xiaosu was the class monitor of the group. To him, it was normal that a group of students would feel afraid coming to such a place. As a big brother, he had to comfort them a little.

The students beside them did not say anything as they unloaded the supplies. They did not know what expression to make when they heard Li Qingzheng’s words.

Right at this moment, Li Qingzheng laughed, “Y’all don’t have to do this work. Just let the stronghold residents do it. Didn’t they used to despise us refugees? It’s time we let them experience the life of a refugee.”

The students looked at Ren Xiaosu, who said to Li Qingzheng with a smile, “Let’s work together instead.” Although he also did not really like the stronghold residents, it was not enough to make him want to order the seven escapees around.

Li Qingzheng said with a smile beside him, “You students are really kind, but it’s a shame you didn’t pass the synchronization test. I heard that those who passed the test will become true elite troopers who can fight against a 100 opponents.”

Ren Xiaosu was still skeptical about the idea of one person fighting against a 100. To be honest, he had his own path to follow. So he was not envious of those who had passed the test. The only problem was that he felt a little uncomfortable when he saw the compassionate look in Chen Wudi’s eyes.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu looked up and saw the majestic Wolf King standing on the summit of a mountain and watching him quietly. He was shocked to realize the wolves were still following him.

When the Wolf King saw that Ren Xiaosu had noticed it, it did not avoid his eyes. After a while, it disappeared into the mountains. Li Qingzheng followed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze and looked at the mountain as well, but he saw nothing there. “What are you looking at?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. “Just enjoying the scenery.”

Suddenly, wolves howled. Everyone jumped up in shock. Li Qingzheng said in panic, “There’s actually wolves in those mountains?!”

But Ren Xiaosu did not feel any fear this time.

Chapter 207: Birth of the Lord of Wolves

The howling of wolves seemed to have struck some fear into the recruits at the outpost. A soldier asked, “Platoon Commander, what should we do? Why don’t we run away!”

Li Qingzheng was in a dilemma. “But we’ll become deserters if we run away now.”

“It’s better than getting eaten by the wolves.” An escapee said, “You haven’t seen how huge those things are, but we encountered them when we were escaping. They’re even bigger than bison!”

“Are you serious?” Li Qingzheng had not seen any wolves in a long time. When he heard about how big the wolves were, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous. But as the platoon commander, he had to reassure everyone. “Don’t be afraid. I did not train in martial arts for nothing. Besides, aren’t we also equipped with guns?”

When the escapees heard the word “guns,” they suddenly remembered that Ren Xiaosu and his group also had guns on them while fleeing from Stronghold 109. Moreover, their group was extremely intimidating at that time too.

Just as they were about to say something, they noticed Ren Xiaosu staring at them with an ambiguous smile. The escapees realized if they snitched on him, they would have nowhere to escape to! So they held back from speaking.

Furthermore, Li Qingzheng obviously disliked them as they used to be stronghold residents, so there were also no obligation for them to remind him.

For some reason, the escapees suddenly did not feel so scared anymore when they realized they were in the same outpost as Ren Xiaosu’s group.

Eventually, Li Qingzheng and his original batch of soldiers were the only ones who were still afraid.

Li Qingzheng and his men held their guns for a long time and waited, but the wolves did not show up. He slowly felt more at ease and said, “Let’s clean up the place first. I think those wolves are also afraid of us since we have more people and guns as well, so they don’t dare to come here.”

It looked like the outpost had been abandoned for a very long time. The pots and pans inside were all covered with a thick layer of dust. It would require a great deal of effort for them to clean up the place if they wanted to live in it.

The escapees did their chores in a trance. Li Qingzheng’s attitude towards them made them feel inferior to refugees. It felt like they had become the lowest class of humanity in this world.

Ren Xiaosu had no sympathy for them, but he would not deliberately ostracize them either. The escapees knew he was a ruthless person, and they subconsciously wanted to get on better terms with him. Since Li Qingzheng did not like them, they would have to find another backer somehow.

Everyone was harboring their own thoughts in this small outpost out here. Only the students were busy working with great enthusiasm and performing their tasks with great efficiency.

Li Qingzheng was still a little unsettled because of the howling from the wolves. He kept considering whether he should call the private army’s headquarters to ask for reinforcements. But when he finally made the call, he did not receive any help he was expecting even after being ridiculed by them. The person on the other end of the line also warned him not to make false reports of the enemy. Otherwise, they would court martial him.

When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu continue cleaning with the students like nothing had happened, he asked, “Aren’t y’all scared?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Oh yes, I’m so scared.”

The students nodded quickly in unison. “Yeah, we’re really scared.

Li Qingzheng felt that Ren Xiaosu and the students were just mollifying him. In reality, Ren Xiaosu had already told the students in private while they were escaping that the wolves would not attack them. Although the students did not know why Ren Xiaosu said that, Ren Xiaosu was proven right.

Since Ren Xiaosu was not worried, what was there for them to be worried about?

Ren Xiaosu asked Li Qingzheng, “Platoon Commander, why did you choose to be a soldier?”

“For the pay, of course!” Li Qingzheng explained, “If I were rich, who would be willing to come to this godforsaken place and be a soldier? Have you heard yet? The Pyro Company is offering to buy the blood of supernatural beings. You can get 1 million yuan in exchange for a drop of blood! If I were a supernatural being, I would sell my blood every day until the Pyro Company goes bankrupt!”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Who in the right mind would risk selling their blood just to earn some money after becoming a supernatural being?

After cleaning up the place, everyone stared at each other blankly, as they were unsure of what to do next. But in actual fact, this was just how it was in a remote outpost like this. Boredom was simply a part of their daily lives.

At this moment, Li Qingzheng let out a sigh and said, “To be honest, it’s such a pity for you stronghold students to come here to be sentries. With all the knowledge that you have, there’s nowhere you can apply it to. Y’all have studied for over a decade for nothing.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had heard from Jiang Wu before that she hoped the students could further their studies in the future, and that these children were all fine saplings who studied very hard and were also very smart.

He looked at the remaining eight students and suddenly said, “I have some textbooks with me. Starting from today, y’all can study by yourselves whenever you have free time. If there’s a chance, I’ll buy some advanced textbooks from town for y’all. Even though we’re now in a place like this, you can’t fall behind in your studies.”

The students were stunned. “We’re going to self-study here?”

They were more interested in learning how to hunt, how to protect themselves, and how to protect others now, rather than continue their education.

After experiencing the cruelty of this world, the students’ thoughts on education had started to waver. Sometimes, they would wonder if education was even useful at all.

Ren Xiaosu explained patiently, “I’m your class monitor. Back then, the student councilor said that it’s the duty of the monitor to ensure that everyone studies hard.”

The students could not find any words to refute him with. Then Ren Xiaosu continued, “In life, your friends might betray you one day, or your lover could betray you; but math, physics, and chemistry will not.”

The students were dumbfounded. What kinda nonsensical crap was that!

Ren Xiaosu whispered to them a promise. “Study hard, and I’ll take y’all to the mountains to practice shooting firearms tomorrow!”

This time, the students broke out with smiles.

Looking at these students, Ren Xiaosu got the thought that the Yang Consortium was probably also making use of this time to research the nanomachines. If there were no repercussions from its usage, it might be a good idea to give these students some self-protection abilities using the nanomachines.

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu was still sleeping in the house when he heard Li Qingzheng shout from outside, “Quick, come out and have a look!”

Ren Xiaosu put on his clothes and went outside to have a look. He saw a goat lying at the door of one of the houses in the outpost. He also noticed some packed snow in front of the door where a neat row of large wolf prints could be seen.

Ren Xiaosu immediately looked around and saw the Wolf King up on the summit of the mountain again. When it saw Ren Xiaosu looking over, it turned around and disappeared into the wilderness. It was as though it had stood there just to greet him.

This goat was as large as a domesticated cow, and it would probably take several days for everyone at the outpost to finish eating it.

Even though there were some changes to domesticated animals nowadays, they were not as great as the changes seen in the wild. The wolves must have hunted this goat in the mountains.

While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about that, Li Qingzheng was belly laughing. “I never expected the wolves would offer tribute and bow down before me after I arrived at this mountain. Don’t address me as Platoon Commander Li anymore. Call me the Lord of Wolves instead!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes twitched. This fellow was too good at elevating his own status.

Off to the side, Chen Wudi was wondering if he should beat up Li Qingzheng since the title “Lord of Wolves” sounded like a demon name.

Chapter 208: Don’t believe in superstitions

“Platoon Commander, what should we do with the goat?” someone asked.

Li Qingzheng cut in, “Don’t address me as Platoon Commander, call me the Lord of Wolves! What is the name of the mountain we’re at? Oh yes, it’s Mount Kun! I shall be known as the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun from now on!”

Off to the side, Chen Wudi asked, “Master, should I subdue this demon?”

“Not for now, no,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

Chen Wudi understood that Ren Xiaosu meant that Li Qingzheng might have to be subdued at some later point. “Master, when can we eat some goat?” He slurped.

“How about now?” When Ren Xiaosu heard Chen Wudi slurping, his expression nearly turned dark.

As the group prepared to cut the goat up and make the campfire, the male student named Wang Yuchi looked at Ren Xiaosu curiously. He lowered his voice and asked, “Monitor, when the wolves last appeared, you brought back such a large rabbit so quickly in the heavy snow. When the wolves appeared this time, they took the initiative and gave us a goat. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”

Chen Wudi and the students all looked at Ren Xiaosu. Wang Yuchi had spoken quietly enough that only their group heard it.

Ren Xiaosu could only look at them and say with a laugh, “Haha, it truly is a coincidence.” Since the situation had come to this, he could only claim it was a coincidence.

Wang Yuchi wondered, “Monitor, did the wolves present you with the rabbit as well? Was that why you said we didn’t have to worry about them?”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these students were indeed smart. They could figure out the truth with so few details. He whispered, “Don’t say that to anyone else.”

After all, it would cause somewhat of a sensation if there were any mention of his interaction with the wolves. Since Li Qingzheng was willing to be the scapegoat, Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to let him do it.

But Wang Yuchi said, “Do we need to give anything in return?”

“I don’t think so.” Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “We don’t really have anything that we can give them anyway.”

On the same night, the entire platoon sat down beside the campfire at the entrance of the outpost. With the aroma of the roasted goat attacking their nostrils, the escapees started tearing up as they bit into the meat. These people had been starving for many days, and no one gave them any food even after they were conscripted into the military.

Li Qingzheng and his soldiers were refugees who had been recruited during the expansion of the private troops and were also unable to afford meat for their past meals. He lamented, “Actually, I felt terrible when I first learned I had been assigned to the outpost. After all, this is such a nowhere place that it feels like we’re being exiled. If we encounter any danger out here, we’ll just end up becoming cannon fodder.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. He didn’t expect Li Qingzheng to understand their situation so well, and that he was actually just not showing it.

Li Qingzheng continued to lament, “But thinking about it now, it’s really quite nice if we could have meat for all of our meals. The smell of goat meat is really great!”

“We can go out and hunt since we have guns,” Ren Xiaosu suggested.

“But we’ll need our guns to fight against the enemy.” Li Qingzheng rejected his suggestion.

Ren Xiaosu analyzed, “Look, we only have a dozen guns or so. What can we do with a dozen guns when the enemy arrives?”.

“That really seems to be the case,” Li Qingzheng replied after some thought.

The students next to them realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to have a unique flair in persuading others.

Li Qingzheng was gnawing on goat leg and said with a smile, “I heard that the big shots in the stronghold can have barbecue for every meal. They even prepare lemons and onions before barbecuing the meat, only cooking it to medium rare so that the original juices are retained!”

Although lemons were uncommon these days, everyone had heard of this type of fruit. They never ate it before, but they heard that lemons were extremely sour. Onions, on the other hand, were still commonly seen.

Chen Wudi asked in a soft whisper, “Master, why do you need lemons and onions for a barbecue?”

Ren Xiaosu pondered it before saying, “So that you can squirt the lemon juice or rub the onions into other people’s eyes to get dibs on the meat?”

Chen Wudi was confused.

The people around him looked over with expressionless faces. Li Qingzheng said, sounding rather surprised, “Are you serious…”

But all of a sudden, Li Qingzheng noticed the light from a vehicle heading up the mountain. He stood up immediately. “Why would anyone come to this remote place at this hour of the night?”

A lone off-road vehicle was approaching them. Venturing out in this current wilderness with so few people was usually not too confidence inspiring. Under normal circumstances, most people would choose to travel in convoys. So the appearance of this lone off-road vehicle made the situation seem even stranger.

Everyone at the outpost stood at the entrance. Li Qingzheng and other soldiers who were issued with guns were even carrying them on their backs.

When the off-road vehicle arrived at the entrance of the outpost, the dazzling headlights of the vehicle shone directly in the faces of Ren Xiaosu and the others. It was as though they did not care about how they felt.

When two people jumped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu saw they were both wearing the Li Consortium’s military uniforms. But from the looks of it, the fabric was much more exquisite than the ones he had come across in the past.

No. Actually, he had seen it once before. The commander of the combat brigade was dressed just like the two of them.

But when Li Qingzheng saw the colonel epaulets on their shoulders, he saluted. “Sirs, we welcome you to our outpost for inspection.” The two officers had fair complexions and looked dignified. When they stepped onto the snow in their leather boots, they made crunching sounds. They were even wearing black leather gloves. However, the two men looked exceptionally young. When one of them saw the roasted goat, he said with a smile, “I didn’t expect you all to be enjoying this so much. After inspecting several dozen outposts, we noticed all of them were having difficulties just getting by. It’s only you guys here who are living so comfortably. Bring two chairs over for us.” After he said that, he walked into the outpost with the other officer. Li Qingzheng got someone to bring out two chairs for these two officers while he prepared to sit on the ground.

But just as his buttocks touched the ground, that officer suddenly frowned and said, “Did we say you could sit? Stand to the side!”

He took off his gloves and started cutting some meat from the goat. After taking a bite, he frowned and said, “You didn’t even season it properly! This tastes horrible. Ptui!”

Ren Xiaosu watched this guy spit out the meat in his mouth along with some saliva onto the roasted goat. How were the rest of them supposed to eat it now?!

But his first reaction was… to stop Chen Wudi. Ren Xiaosu whispered, “Don’t be rash. I’ll kill them later when no one is around.”

With the illumination of the campfire, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a silvery gleam underneath the officers’ eyes. He thought they might have something to fall back on. Why else would the two of them venture out this late at night? It didn’t even seem like they had brought any heavy weapons with them.

The two officers wiped their hands on the snow and put their leather gloves back on. The lead officer said calmly, “Keep a careful watch at the outpost. If you see any enemies approaching, remember to report it immediately. If there is any delay, all of you will be brought in for a court martial. There can only be one outcome then, execution!”

Li Qingzheng bowed slightly as he nodded and said, “Yes, yes, we’ll keep a careful watch here at the outpost.”

As the two men spoke, they got back into the vehicle. With a roar, the vehicle moved off and left behind deep tracks in the snow with its snow chains.

The two of them had trashed the originally good mood everyone was in. Someone asked, “Are we going to let them leave just like that?”

Li Qingzheng could only helplessly wave if off. “Put out the fire and go to bed. What else can we do if we don’t let them leave? Just blame it on our shitty lives. They’re family members of the Li Consortium, after
all!”

“What about the goat?” someone asked.

“We can still eat it after cutting off the parts they spat on,” Li Qingzheng replied. As refugees, they had had a certain submissiveness hammered into their characters. So what if they were angry and feeling wronged? Life would still go on.

He then walked into his house. Ren Xiaosu looked at the others and said, “Y’all can go to sleep first. We’ll tidy up the place.”

By “we,” he was referring to their smaller group consisting of himself, Chen Wudi, and the students, which they themselves were fully aware of. But since the students were always diligent at doing their work, no one thought anything of it.

When everyone else returned to their houses to rest, Ren Xiaosu said, “Y’all take your time to tidy up. I’ll head out for a while.”

When the students heard that, their eyes lit up. “Good on you, Monitor!”

The off-road vehicle was moving slowly along the mountain road. Even though the vehicle was equipped with snow chains, they could not drive too fast in the snow, especially not when they were driving downhill.

Jazz music was playing inside the vehicle while the officer in the front seat chuckled as he put in another cassette. “You can really feel the control the Li Consortium has over these lands when you see the fear in those people’s eyes.”

“It’s really quite interesting to see them angry but not dare to show it.”

“After we get back this time, we should be able to step up for the second stage of synchronization. By then, even more nanomachines can be injected into our bodies. Apparently, a family member of the Li Consortium in Stronghold 107 has already gone on to the second stage of the process.”

“There’s no hurry. We’re only just beginning.” The family members of the organization were all outstanding and intelligent. They received the best education and understood the truest face of the world. If all the roads in the world led to Rome, they would be born in Rome.

But since the Li Consortium could even produce a demon like Li Shentan, they could create even more of such demons. The only difference was that one of them was lonely while the others were not.

During their conversation, something suddenly dropped down from above. They looked astounded but managed to react quickly enough to open the door and jump out at the same time!

With a loud bang, the shadow clone landed on the off-road vehicle from above and smashed right through the middle. The sparks from the black saber cutting through the vehicle were extraordinarily striking in the darkness!

Ren Xiaosu watched this scene quietly from the hillside. But to his surprise, the reactions of the two officers were much quicker than he expected. Furthermore, they should be showing signs of fractures and other injuries after jumping out of the vehicle into the hilly terrain. However, they were unscathed!

The two officers got up from the ground and dusted off the snow on their bodies. One of them sneered, “Could it be someone from the outpost?”

They were not stupid. Anyone who would attack them in a place like this would definitely have to be from the outpost. But they could never have expected there to actually be a supernatural being posted to that shabby outpost back there.

As an officer took off his gloves, he could feel a silver torrent gushing through his veins. The new nanoforms followed his will and gathered within his body until even his blood turned silver.

“You’re the first supernatural being to face our newfound strength, so you should feel honored—”

His voice stopped abruptly. He only had enough time to see the black shadow clone suddenly disappear from above the vehicle before a menacing hand grasped him by the neck. With a slight twist, his neck was broken.

Ren Xiaosu found it a shame that Luo Lan was not here to see this. Didn’t he tell him to not believe in superstitions?

When the shadow clone disappeared from sight again, the other officer turned around and tried to escape into the wilderness. However, he was immediately chased down by the shadow clone from behind.

The shadow clone punched the spine of its opponent, making a cracking sound. Ren Xiaosu felt some sort of special energy surrounding the spine that was trying to disperse the weight of the punch with an intense, regular motion. However, the strength of the shadow clone was simply too great! Before the opponent could build up his defense, it had already started to break apart.

Ren Xiaosu slowly made his way out of the forest. He had noticed a lake on the hillside that was suitable for discarding the corpses and vehicle in. It was just that it would be a bit tough on the shadow clone to carry the vehicle over. After all, it did weigh more than a ton.

Ren Xiaosu did not use his saber throughout the battle because he was worried about leaving bloodstains behind. In the end, his opponents turned out to be surprisingly vulnerable. At the beginning, the arrogance of these two people made Ren Xiaosu very cautious of them. He did not expect that his punches would be so strong against them.

Just like his encounter with Midnight back then, he had planned on giving it his all in an earth-shattering battle. But before he could even get to that point, his opponents had already been killed. With the outcome like this, it seemed like he had gotten all stoked for nothing…

But a moment later, Ren Xiaosu saw a silvery glow seeping out from under the skin of the two bodies. It was as though it was being guided by his will. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover that he seemed to be able to… control them.

Chapter 209: Returning the favor

When Ren Xiaosu battled the two officers, he had observed a fine, silvery glow coming from the blood vessels on the backs of their hands. As the blood vessels of an ordinary human should look bluish on the outside, it was obvious there was some kind of special energy flowing within their bodies during the time their hands glowed from the inside. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was guessing it was caused by the nanomachines. And from the looks of it now, it was just as he had thought.

The silvery radiance emanating from the two officers’ bodies right now was like a stream converging into a river as it started building up on the surface of their skins. Ren Xiaosu was hesitating, approaching it warily, not knowing if he should try to acquire this unknown power.

He had always been cautious about the unknown.

‘If I end up using it after saying to not believe in superstitions, would that be a little hypocritical?’ Ren Xiaosu was in a dilemma.

During the physical examination at the military base, he discovered that the nanomachines were trying to interface with his neurons via an external controller. But now that no one was controlling them, he realized he had natural control over these things.

Nanomachines did not have a mind of their own and were only machines. In the early days, nanomachines could not be put into military use because they were too small to be loaded in with overly complex instructions.

After gaining a breakthrough in neurotech, the human brain ended up becoming a processor, while the nanomachines were just an execution terminal. To put it simply, they were purely tools to be used.

But nanomachines needed to be paired with a specific DNA sequence before they could be used. Each person’s DNA was just like a unique password that could only be used to pair with their own nanomachines. The nanomachines would determine whether they were in an operable state via an authorization process. The paired nanomachines were a safe locked with a password. Without the password, they would stop working and refuse any unfamiliar consciousness from trying to access them. Therefore, the two officers were unable to control each other’s nanomachines, and neither could anyone else access theirs.

But when Ren Xiaosu’s willpower tried to initiate contact with the nanomachines, he detected them to be in an idle state. It was as though there were some sort of a barrier denying him from syncing with those nanomachines.

But after his willpower swept over them, the typewriter in the palace suddenly typed several lines of small words.

“Reloading system…

“Resetting to factory settings…

“Reinstalling applications…

“Pairing successful.”

After that, Ren Xiaosu found he had actually taken control of these little machines.

The silvery “river” started flowing towards him across the surface of the snow. They moved up along his legs and finally gathered in his hands. The nanomachines extracted from these two officers combined only amounted to the size of a fist.

It was no wonder they were so weak. So it turned out they had this few nanomachines inside their bodies?

After the nanomachines lost their owners, their ports reopened to wait for a new pairing. Under normal circumstances, they should have been sent back to the factory to be paired again. However, the palace had bypassed all of those steps and helped Ren Xiaosu interface with these nanomachines.

If the ports had not been reopened, the palace could not have proceeded with the pairing process.

The silvery, liquid-metal ball cycled through various strange forms within Ren Xiaosu’s palm. Then it turned into a metallic gauntlet that wrapped around Ren Xiaosu’s hand. After interfacing with Ren Xiaosu’s neurons, they became just like a part of his body and did not make him feel uncomfortable at all.

When he threw a punch at the body of the off-road vehicle, he watched the steel body creak and then collapse. Meanwhile, the nanogauntlet on Ren Xiaosu’s hand did not seem damaged at all.

When Luo Lan mentioned the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu disdained them greatly. But now his opinion had changed a little.

If he could create body armor with the nanomachines, did it mean he wouldn’t have to use the shadow clone to shield himself from bullets? After all, that method was still rather painful for him.

Of course, it had only changed his opinion a little for now. As for whether it would really prove to be useful, Ren Xiaosu felt that he would only find out after extracting more nanomachines from the other members of the Li Consortium.

Someone would surely come and investigate after two elite members of the Li Consortium disappeared while they were out on inspection. Ren Xiaosu wondered if those who came to investigate would also have nanomachines in them.

Ren Xiaosu ordered the shadow clone to place the two corpses in the vehicle and carry it to the location of the lake as per his memory. He had to be extremely careful when it came to dumping these corpses since he still needed more people with nanomachines to come out here in the future.

When he killed them, he did not use the saber as he was afraid of leaving behind any traces of blood. Right now, he was being even more careful for fear of leaving behind any evidence.

As Ren Xiaosu led his shadow clone forward, he asked, “Old Xu, do you think the amount of nanomachines in the body varies from person to person?

“Since the synchronization rate goes from low to high, there must be a difference in the amount of nanomachines one can control, right?

“Do you think that the next group of people to arrive will be even stronger? That would be good. Who knows, they might have even more nanomachines in their bodies… “Aren’t you being a little shy? Why aren’t you talking?”

People always said that small details make a big difference. So, in order not to expose his own identity, Ren Xiaosu decided to name his shadow clone “Old Xu.”

Before Ren Xiaosu threw the vehicle into the lake, he removed the two officers’ uniforms and put them away in his storage space. Who knew if they would be of any use later? These were the Li Consortium’s colonel uniforms, after all.

After he filled the vehicle with stones and threw it into the lake, he returned to the outpost. When the students saw him coming back, they went up to him and asked, “Monitor, how’d it go?”

“It’s been taken care of,” Ren Xiaosu answered simply and comprehensively. “Go back to sleep. We still have to get up early tomorrow.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed the Wolf King standing on the summit of the mountain way in the distance. He thought for a while before heading out into the mountains.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu also did not know why he was so eager to interact with the Wolf King. As he walked on the mountain path, he suddenly felt it was sometimes easier to get along with the wolves than with people.

Before Ren Xiaosu could get far, he saw the Wolf King slowly coming down from the mountain ridge. He had planned on chatting with the Wolf King, but he did not know what to say after he saw it.

As the Wolf King looked calmly at him, Ren Xiaosu thought about how it was still chasing him all over the wilderness just one and a half years ago.

He suddenly remembered the student who mentioned giving the wolves something in return for their favor. Ren Xiaosu opened his mouth and broke the deadlock. He said, “Um… since you gave me a rabbit and a goat, shouldn’t I also give you something in return?”

The Wolf King did not say anything, but Ren Xiaosu could feel it relaxing its muscles slowly. This meant the Wolf King was also putting down its guard.

When Ren Xiaosu saw no response, he prodded, “Since you can’t speak, why don’t I let you choose from a few gifts that I have? Look at you, you’re always running around by yourself in the mountains. I can understand that a king is always lonely, so why don’t I present you the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun? He can chat with you since both of you are considered ‘kings’ of the wolves. Who knows, you two might have something in common.”

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt the Wolf King understood him! Because, when he mentioned the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, the Wolf King immediately gave a look of disdain. Ren Xiaosu wondered how the Wolf King was even able to make such an expression!

Chapter 210: Trade complete

When Ren Xiaosu looked at the Wolf King’s strange expression, he said, “If you don’t want the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, I still have other things that I can offer you.” He took out a pistol and asked, “Do you want this?”

The Wolf King kept quiet as it reverted back to its calm expression.

Ren Xiaosu put away the gun. A man and a wolf were sitting next to each other on this mountain path with the moonlight shining down upon them. It was an atmosphere that could only be described as exceptionally harmonious.

“Do you want this?” Ren Xiaosu took out a bottle of antibiotics Old Wang gave him before they parted ways. Although he did not fall sick as often now, he could use it to save the students in case they fell ill.

However, the Wolf King still did not respond.

Ren Xiaosu pulled out a dazzling array of items like a hammer, shovel, pot, etc., but the Wolf King still remained unmoved. Ren Xiaosu sighed, “If you are gonna be so picky, I won’t be able to return your favor.”

Wait a minute! He still had one item he didn’t take out. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu brought out a vial of black medicine from his storage space. “Do you want this?”

When Ren Xiaosu said this, he did not hold any high hopes while pulling the stopper off the vial. But when the Wolf King sniffed and caught a whiff of the smell in the air, it suddenly nodded to Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu was momentarily taken aback as he did not expect the Wolf King to really understand human language.

He threw the vial over and the Wolf King picked it up with its mouth as it got up. Ren Xiaosu could finally let out a sigh of relief. It looked like they were not going to be lacking any meat from now on. “I never expected that you’d need something like this while in the prime of your life.”

When the Wolf King heard that, it looked a little confused. It didn’t seem like it realized what Ren Xiaosu had just given it. It was just that there was an inexplicably attractive smell emanating from the vial into the air. It was not the smell of the medicine that attracted it, but a smell of mystery that originated from the palace.

Then the man and the wolf parted ways. After a brief exchange, Ren Xiaosu felt that his relationship with the Wolf King had become a little closer. At the very least, they were now trading partners or something like that. As long as they were not enemies, anything was fine.

In the wee hours of the same night, everyone at the outpost was jolted awake by the noisy howling of the wolves. Everyone put on their clothes as they walked out of their houses and looked towards the mountains. They could not tell where the howling was coming from.

Li Qingzheng was wearing a military overcoat and wondered, “What’s the matter with those wolves in the middle of the night? They’ve been howling for over an hour already. Are they out on a hunt?”

Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty. “They probably are. Who knows?”

“Could they be gathering their allies to attack the outpost?” someone wondered.

“That’s unlikely. They wouldn’t need to gather their allies to attack our outpost. We’ll all be dead if just a few hundred of them came to attack us,” someone said.

“Aren’t we putting ourselves down too much by saying that?” a soldier said.

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “That’s what you call self-awareness….”

However, Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty because he suspected it might have something to do with the black medicine he had given the Wolf King that caused the wolves to behave so abnormally.

For the next two days, the Wolf King did not send any additional game from their hunts to the outpost. After they cut off the dirtied part of the roasted goat, Li Qingzheng and the others continued eating it with relish. However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any appetite for it anymore.

It was not a matter of whether the meat was dirtied or not, but in Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, that spit represented an insult from the high and mighty family members of the organization.

But of course, it was mainly because he was not hungry.

Li Qingzheng lamented as he sat at the edge of the campfire and looked at what remained of the goat, “I wonder what happened to the wolves. Why aren’t they sending us food anymore?”

“They’re probably exhausted.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. He was thinking about if he should have clearly explained the effects of the medicine to the Wolf King. After all, there was quite a difference between using it externally and internally.

Seeing how the Wolf King did not send them any more game after taking the medicine, could it bear a grudge against him now?

But when Ren Xiaosu was sleeping that night, he suddenly heard something that sounded like goods being unloaded coming from outside the house. When Ren Xiaosu looked out the window, he saw the wolves dumping several goats, boars, pheasants, and whatnot on the ground! It was quite a selection of different wild animals!

Just looking at the quantity, they not only made up for not bringing any game over for the past two days, but they also brought a lot more than that! After the wolves left, everyone at the outpost was in shock. A soldier looked at Li Qingzheng and said, “Are you really the Lord of Wolves?”

Even Li Qingzheng was also shocked at this. “Could I really be the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun?”

Those who did not know the truth felt a sense of respect for Li Qingzheng. But the students who knew better all looked at Ren Xiaosu with complicated expressions on their faces.

A student asked, “Monitor, how did you manage to do that?”

“The Wolf King probably knows that my master is ill, so it decided to send over more game for his recuperation,” Chen Wudi said with a sigh.

“There’s nothing wrong with my brain,” Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.

He reckoned the Wolf King had sent over all this game mainly because it wanted to thank him. He could have never expected that the Wolf King had an underlying condition.

At this moment, someone said, “How long will it take for us to finish eating all this? Fortunately for us, it’s winter now, so we can store them for a longer time.”

“But we can’t just leave it there like that. Why don’t we make it into cured meat?” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “If we make it into cured meat, it wouldn’t even be a problem to keep them until the start of spring.”

The group started busily skinning and cutting up the meat. However, they did not have enough salt to start curing the meat, nor were there any seasonings and spices.

Cured meat was usually made by cutting the meat into strips before rubbing the surface with salt and drying it. There wasn’t a need to worry about wasting salt, since the salt needed by the human body would be present in the cured meat. By eating it, it would be as good as replenishing the body’s salt content.

Ren Xiaosu said, “In another two days, we can trade for some salt and seasonings with the meat we have during the supply run. We won’t be able to finish this much meat anyway.”

“Don’t do that.” Li Qingzheng said softly, “You’ll suffer a huge loss if you barter with those ruffians. We might as well sell them in town. Not only can we buy more salt that way, but we can also earn quite a bit of money. We can then afford to buy more things so that it won’t get too miserable in the mountains during winter.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng, who seemed to be very familiar with the private troops’ behavior. He heard Li Qingzheng say, “We’ll sneak back to town in another two days. Don’t you still have some friends in town? We can bring some of the cured meat to them. It can be a little difficult to get by winter without having some meat to eat.”

“Sure.” Ren Xiaosu nodded in response. This would also be his chance to go back to town to visit Yan Liuyuan and the others. If they’d encountered any difficulties, Ren Xiaosu would be able to help them to resolve them as well.

Everyone was working outside in the open ground in front of the outpost. Li Qingzheng weighed the fleshy meat in his hand and said with a sigh, “This feels more blissful than the days I spent in town.”

“Master, what does ‘blissful’ mean?” Chen Wudi asked Ren Xiaosu.

Li Qingzheng was amused. “Wouldn’t having meat to eat already count as blissful?”

Ren Xiaosu gave Li Qingzheng a look and said softly to Chen Wudi, “Everyone’s definition of bliss is different. Are you happy when you’re subduing demons and monsters?”

“Yes, I am!” Chen Wudi said.

“Well then, that’s what bliss means to you.” Ren Xiaosu said.

“I get it!”

Chapter 212: Attacking an outpost

Ever since the wolves arrived at this mountain, they had not clashed with humans. Without the threat of humans in the wilderness, the resources of the natural world were able to grow abundantly. As such, the wolves did not lack any food here.

So, for a time, Ren Xiaosu thought the wolves were nonviolent and peace-loving animals.

But at this moment, he remembered the reason he managed to acquire the first gun in his life some time ago was because the wolves had attacked the factory outside town, as well as Stronghold 113’s private troops.

Ren Xiaosu had already known there was a long-standing feud between the wolves and Stronghold 113’s private troops. But he never expected the wolves would actually seek to attack the Li Consortium’s combat troops as well.

It seemed like the soldiers in the truck driving slowly down the mountain did not realize danger was approaching. Even though Li Qingzheng and the others saw the wolves, none of them dared to act rashly. On one hand, they were worried the wolves would wipe out everyone at their outpost. But on the other hand, since the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun had not said anything yet, they did not know what to do either.

Li Qingzheng said, “It’s none of our business and there’s nothing much we can do about it anyway, so let’s just pretend that we never saw anything.”

Seeing that the wolves did not seem to be interested in their outpost, Li Qingzheng decided to bury his head in the sand. The soldiers of the Li Consortium had never treated them nicely before anyway, so why care about their lives?

Li Qingzheng sent everyone back into their houses. “Stop watching. This pack of wolves might be just coming out for a stroll?”

Then Li Qingzheng went back to his house first and shivered in fear while holding his automatic rifle close to him. With so many wolves out there, it would be too easy for them to wipe out the outpost.

He suddenly felt that it couldn’t be more stimulating than to have been deployed to this outpost. They could eat meat with their meals every day, yet had to live in constant fear as well. Who knew when it would be before the wolves came to attack them and carry them away in their mouths?

Ren Xiaosu also pretended to be afraid as he walked back to his house. But taking a sweeping glance, he realized there were not as many wolves as he had thought. It looked like only a portion of them were roaming around now.

Back in the house, Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, “Wudi, watch over everyone for me. Don’t let anyone into the house before I get back. If anything unexpected happens, just say that I have diarrhea and needed to go to the toilet.”

As a result of their smaller group of ten, one-third of the entire platoon at the outpost were their people. Therefore, all of them had been grouped together when they were assigned their living quarters. This was also what Ren Xiaosu fought for at the beginning, because it would be more convenient for him to go out on his own with this arrangement, and it would only work if he was surrounded by people he could trust.

The students were already used to this since their class monitor was always able to take care of himself anyway. Although Li Qingzheng kept proclaiming himself the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, Ren Xiaosu was actually the true Lord of Wolves to them.

Ren Xiaosu jumped out the window and ran all the way to the foot of the mountain. He did not have a specific purpose and just wanted to see how things would turn out. Along the way, he would also try to get his hands on some nanomachines.

In a world like this, Ren Xiaosu was interested in anything that could enhance his strength further. Who cared if they were superstitions?

After acquiring some nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu could not help but summon them for testing while performing his sentry duty alone atop the mountain. In the process, Ren Xiaosu discovered that even if he did not let the nanomachines enter his body to strengthen his muscles and skeletal structure, they were still powerful enough to be used as an external suit of armor. Perhaps he could really achieve a state of invulnerability when this suit of armor covered his entire body.

What were the things that supernatural beings were most afraid of at the start? It was not the threat of other supernatural beings, but the individual firearms currently in the possession of human civilization! No matter how powerful supernatural beings were, they would still die after getting shot a few times.

The soldiers in the military transport truck were chatting happily as the truck made its way down the mountain. Since the officer was not sitting with them in the back, they started talking without restraint.

“I’ll be returning to the stronghold next week for my shift off of leave. I wonder if the mistress I keep misses me yet,” a soldier laughed as he leaned against the wall of the compartment. Although life as a private army soldier was very miserable, the Li Consortium’s combat troops had always been treated very well.

The Li Consortium’s combat troops lived in the stronghold while they were not on duty. When the members of the Public Order Division and private troops saw them, they would always detour around them.

However, discipline within the organization had always been upheld very strictly, and they were forbidden from disturbing others.

“Debauchery is forbidden in the military. You should be careful not to let anyone know about her,” one of the soldiers reminded him.

“What’s there to be afraid of?” The soldier said disdainfully, “Even the Li Consortium’s officers themselves don’t refrain from doing that, so as if they would care about such things.”

In any organization, the higher-ups would set the example for their subordinates to follow. If the higher-ups were religious, the subordinates would also have to be religious. Even if they did not believe in it, they would have to pretend like they did.

If the higher-ups behaved themselves, the subordinates would also conduct themselves with restraint.

With a large number of the Li Consortium’s residents conscripted into the army, an extravagant and impetuous air had spread through the ranks of the Li Consortium’s combat troops over the past two years.

Ultimately, the Li Consortium had expanded its strength too quickly as the foundation was not yet properly established.

As the group chatted, they did not notice the approaching danger.

However, the wolves did not choose to attack immediately as they just followed the truck quietly in the wilderness. Only Ren Xiaosu knew that wolves were one of the most patient species among the animals in the wilderness.

As the wolves followed the Li Consortium’s combat troops, Ren Xiaosu tracked the wolves. They kept moving slowly for dozens of kilometers until the Li Consortium’s platoon arrived at the next outpost.

At this moment, the wolves suddenly launched an attack as fast as lightning just as the military transport truck entered the outpost!

Ren Xiaosu silently observed from a distance as the Li Consortium’s combat troops responded rapidly. In a mere three seconds, they had already formed an effective defensive formation. The entire outpost was filled with loud gunshots while the private troops at the outpost were dumbfounded. They had no inkling of what was going on!

This time, Ren Xiaosu was watching the entire attack by the wolves as an onlooker. During the shootout, some of the wolves acted as the advance party to draw the opponent’s firepower onto them while making high-speed movements to avoid getting shot. Simultaneously, some of the other wolves had circled around and arrived at the rear of the Li Consortium’s combat troops while everyone was distracted.

During this time, the Wolf King discovered Ren Xiaosu’s presence on multiple occasions. But it did not seem bothered by him as it continued its hunt. Under normal circumstances, the wolves would give up hunting as a precaution upon encountering any external interference.

The Li Consortium’s combat troops were only here because they had to investigate the disappearance of the two officers and had not expected such a fierce battle to break out. Although they were very combat oriented, the wolves had an overwhelming advantage over them in terms of strength and numbers.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not surprised to see that the wolves were able to quickly recover after getting shot. Their physical fitness was simply too good

Chapter 213: Acquiring even more nanomachines

This battle started and ended in a flash. When the wolves that had gone to the rear of the Li Consortium’s platoon started their attack, the tight defensive formation began to crumble.

The remaining officer was still dodging the attacks with great speed and agility, but he wasn’t going to last for much longer. When Ren Xiaosu saw the officer’s blood vessels that were glowing silver from the use of nanomachines starting to dim, he knew that the nanomachines were running out of power.

All of a sudden, the Wolf King bit into the officer’s waist from behind. Right after, it swung its head violently and sent the officer flying like a ragdoll.

Even for a wild animal as strong as the Wolf King, it still resorted to sneak attacks as a tactical priority. There was no fairness to speak of in any battles in this world. The result was the only thing that mattered.

Ren Xiaosu could not help but call out, “Hey… I have something to say, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate!”

The Wolf King was a little puzzled as it turned around and looked at him. Ren Xiaosu pointed to another wolf who now had the officer dangling from its mouth and took out a vial of black medicine. “Let’s trade.”

With a look from the Wolf King, that wolf immediately placed the officer in its mouth down. That officer still had a few breaths left as the injuries he suffered were not lethal. However, he was already on the verge of death.

When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he was shocked. He did not expect this young man to appear here, nor did he expect Ren Xiaosu to be making deals with the wolves!

Ren Xiaosu wondered if he had betrayed humanity by making deals with these killer wolves.

After slaughtering the entire outpost, the wolves reorganized themselves on the spot. They picked up the corpses from the ground with their mouths and prepared to head back into the mountains.

The wolves did not stay around any longer. Ren Xiaosu saw the white fur on several wolves stained red with blood, and it seemed like they urgently needed to go back to deal with their injuries.

After the wolves left, Ren Xiaosu squatted down beside the officer. “Gonna ask you something. How do you usually recharge the nanomachines?”

Ren Xiaosu had already operated the nanomachines multiple times. But in the process of operating them, Ren Xiaosu realized the energy source of the nanomachines was completely dependent on the bioenergy of the human body.

However, the disadvantage was that the nanomachines needed to be “recharged” in the body for a very long time after each usage. However, the subsequent usage duration would not last for long.

So Ren Xiaosu felt that the Li Consortium’s nanomachines still had some flaws after he gained a better understanding of them. If they could not solve the energy source issue, these nanomachines would likely be of little value when encountering a high-intensity fight on a real battlefield.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu speculated that there had to be other methods within the inner circle of the Li Consortium’s forces to quickly recharge these nanomachines.

Wait! Right now, it seemed like Qing Zhen was the one who had researched the most on the subject of energy. After all, nuclear power was one of the most efficient energy sources in the world.

The officer paled, but he remained tight-lipped. Ren Xiaosu said, “Look, your injury isn’t fatal. Who knows you might still be saved if you answer my question?”

“If you let me go back, do you think you can survive?” The officer clenched his teeth and sneered, “Would you dare let me go?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Goading doesn’t work on me.” He realized this Li Consortium officer was quite unyielding and very different from the private troops he knew. Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s too slow to use bioenergy to recharge the nanomachines. Y’all should have some sort of special charging method, right? How else could you sustain yourselves in high-intensity battles?”

The officer closed his eyes and refused to say anything “You were probably running out of power by the end of the battle, right?” Ren Xiaosu said slowly, “You were only able to fight for about ten minutes or so, but how could there be such quick battles on the real battlefield?”

At this moment, the soldier opened his eyes in surprise and said, “Why are you so interested in the nanomachines? And you even know so much? You’re just an ordinary soldier in the private army!”

At this moment, he realized that something was off. He even suspected that Ren Xiaosu had nanomachines in him. Wait a minute, they had indeed lost some nanomachines, and it was that very batch of nanomachines that the two missing officers were carrying that they were currently investigating!

But how could this be? Regardless of whether this young man in front of him could kill two elite soldiers with nanomachines in them, even if he could, their nanomachines would have to be sent back to headquarters for unlocking before they could be paired once again! Hence, the young man in front of him could not possibly use the nanomachines even if he had acquired them!

But why? Why did he keep thinking something was wrong? He was really hoping to report this back to the General Staff[1], but he did not have the chance to do so!

“Don’t expect me to breach confidentiality,” the officer struggled to say.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Forget it, I’ll respect you as a brave person.”

He realized he still could not underestimate the combat troops of the organizations. It wasn’t only the Qing Consortium’s combat troops that were powerful, but every organization in the world had to rely on them as well.

Without a strong military, those organizations would not be able to tower over these wastelands.

After Ren Xiaosu waited for the officer to take his last breath, he quietly watched as the silvery liquid in the officer’s body started seeping out through his skin. He was pretty familiar with this process and waited patiently for the palace to restore the batch of nanomachines to their factory settings and execute a series of other operations.

The harvest was not exactly a lot this time. After all, it was only one person carrying the nanomachines, so the amount only equated to half of what he had acquired previously.

The gauntlet still remained a gauntlet without much change to it. However, Ren Xiaosu was not in too much of a hurry now. After all, there still had to be a lot more officers with nanomachines within the ranks of the Li Consortium’s combat troops he could slowly farm.

Ren Xiaosu got an idea. Since he could reset the nanomachines with the help of the palace, did that mean he could share some of them with the students if he had excess nanomachines in the future?

Chen Wudi would certainly not require these machines. To be honest, Ren Xiaosu could not figure out exactly how strong Chen Wudi was. If he really fought him at his full strength, it was difficult to say if he could even defeat his disciple.

However, Ren Xiaosu wasn’t too bothered by this. After all, the master in Journey to the West was also no match for his disciple. When he thought of this, he felt much better.

Ren Xiaosu manipulated the shadow clone to carry the officer’s corpse and was ready to sink it into the lake as well. After all, he could not just leave the corpse lying in the wilderness. There wouldn’t be a way to explain why the wolves chose to take everyone away except for the officer.

Furthermore, if those who came to investigate the incident discovered that the nanomachines in this officer’s body had disappeared, that would pose a humongous problem for him.

No matter what, Ren Xiaosu was not willing to risk the Li Consortium finding out that he could restore the nanomachines to their factory settings. Otherwise, they would surely hunt him to the ends of the Earth.

An hour later, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried as he stood by the small lake in the mountain. Seeing that the lake itself was not that large, would the water level get higher if he started dumping more things into it in the future?

It was late at night after he finished disposing of the corpse. But instead of rushing back to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu headed into the mountains.

As there was no howling from the mountains tonight, Ren Xiaosu wanted to check on the wolves to see if they had suffered any serious injuries.

Chapter 214: Chen Wudi’s adaptability

After several days of the Wolf King’s fornication, Ren Xiaosu suspected their community would expand even more after the next two months.

When the wolves went out hunting today, he realized that their numbers were much lower than usual. Perhaps it was all female wolves that were missing.

Based on the known gestation period, it would take about 63 days for a female wolf to give birth after getting pregnant, which was a duration that was too fast for humans. Furthermore, no one knew if there were any changes to this natural cycle after the evolution of these wolves.

He followed the tracks left behind by the wolves into the mountains. Ren Xiaosu deduced that the wolf den should not be located too far away from the outpost since the howling he heard the other night sounded like it had come from nearby.

But before Ren Xiaosu could walk far, the Wolf King suddenly appeared at the end of the mountain path and blocked his way.

Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that the Wolf King had also come out to look for him.

When he heard the Wolf King letting out a whimper, Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. “Are you looking for me to help you treat the wounds of your packmates?”

Animals in the wild were extremely cautious when they were hunting. That was because they could easily die from an infection caused by a small wound. Even the most powerful species would find it difficult to survive a bacterial infection. It had been proven that bacteria was one of the toughest living organisms in the world.

Even after the world went through repeated cycles of destruction and rebirth, some types of bacteria still managed to survive each time.

When Ren Xiaosu finished asking, the Wolf King actually nodded in response.

Ren Xiaosu took out the black medicine and said, “This medicine can treat wounds. I know that some of your packmates have gotten injured, but I can help you treat their wounds.”

The puzzled expression on the Wolf King seemed to be suggesting, “This thing can even be used to treat wounds?!”

Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was thinking that humans could just use their fingers to apply the medicine on their wounds, but what about wolves? Wolves usually treated their wounds by licking them. So if the wolves relied on their tongues to apply the black medicine, wouldn’t there be trouble?

The Wolf King seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then it turned around and led Ren Xiaosu into the mountains.

When Ren Xiaosu arrived at a valley downwind, he saw dozens of wolf cubs rolling around on the grass. They were not afraid of him as they had seen him when he was escaping. Though now the number of wolf cubs had increased by quite a bit. It looked like the wolves had not been idle either along the journey.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu understood. After all, the wolves had such a readily available source of food, and they couldn’t read books, play cards, or do any other recreational activities.

When the wolves saw that Ren Xiaosu was here, they slowly made way for him. Ren Xiaosu was terrified as he walked through the wolf pack, but he endured his fear as he continued moving forward.

He was a daredevil. If it were someone else, they wouldn’t have ventured so deep into a wolf den. It was not without reason that he could live such a comfortable life in town by relying on hunting.

As Ren Xiaosu walked further in, he saw seven wolves lying on the ground and gasping for their lives. The scent of blood filled the air around them.

Although the bullets that passed through their muscles were not enough to cause them fatal injuries, the long-term pain and bleeding would slowly drag them into the abyss.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the Wolf King beside him and said, “I have to remove the bullets from their wounds first. It will definitely be very painful, so I’ll need you to tell them not to bite me…”

The Wolf King swung its head in the direction of the wounded as though to say, “Hurry up!”

Ren Xiaosu crouched down next to a wounded male wolf and took out a pair of pliers from his storage space. He didn’t have the luxury to worry about sterilization in this moment. In any case, the wolves would not understand what sterilization was.

Honestly, this was his first time attempting something like this. As Ren Xiaosu used the pliers to probe the wound, he kept an eye on that wolf next to him in case it reacted to the pain and tried to bite him.

But Ren Xiaosu was surprised that the wolf did not make a single sound even though it was rolling its eyes in pain.

“What a brave wolf.” Ren Xiaosu felt a little emotional when he saw this. He located the position of the bullet with the pliers. He found the bullet in a much shallower position than he thought it would be. This meant the muscle density of these wolves was even greater than he had imagined. Ren Xiaosu threw the bullet he removed from the wound at a nearby rock, and it landed with a clink. All that was left was just to apply some black medicine to the wound.

The moment Ren Xiaosu applied the black medicine to the wound, he noticed the wolf whose muscles were trembling from pain start to relax slowly.

At this moment, the way the Wolf King was looking at the black medicine in Ren Xiaosu’s hands changed!

After Ren Xiaosu finished treating the seven wolves, he was sweating profusely. He had also overcome his fear of wolves. Ren Xiaosu wiped his sweat away and remarked, “Remember to send us more meat after they’ve recovered from these injuries. We’re planning to sell some of it in the stronghold and make some money so that we can enjoy the Lunar New Year. It’s also time to buy some new clothes for Big Sister Xiaoyu and Liuyuan…”

Next to Ren Xiaosu, the Wolf King listened quietly without interrupting as both human and wolf walked out of the wolf den.

Ren Xiaosu had never imagined that one day, he would pass through a wolf’s den at will, especially as he regarded wolves as enemies some months ago.

“Alright, you don’t have to see me out,” Ren Xiaosu said as he walked outside. “Remember not to let them eat any spicy food, onions, ginger, garlic—”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He stared into the snowy landscape of the wilderness and lamented being too professional. Like the wolves would eat spicy food!

He had barely been a doctor for more than a few days, yet he thought he really was one now…

Back at the town outside of Stronghold 113, he was the only doctor in the entire town. That somehow made it sound like he was the “hope of the entire village.” But as he kept performing his physician duties, he somehow turned into a vet.

“But the wounded wolves should eat as little goat meat as possible. You have to listen to a doctor’s advice, OK?” Ren Xiaosu then took a deep breath while looking at the Wolf King and said, “Remember to send over more of those pheasants that have green tail feathers. Those are much more delicious than goat meat. They’re delicious!”

The Wolf King was getting disinterested in what this chatterbox was saying. It turned around and padded back to the wolf den.

While on the way back, Ren Xiaosu thought that living such a life was actually quite nice. At least it was much better than receiving cold looks from residents inside the stronghold.

But when Ren Xiaosu almost reached the outpost, he suddenly heard something at the outpost that sounded off. At this time, everyone should be asleep, so why was such a strong campfire still burning?

When he went over to have a look, he saw everyone sitting around the campfire and barbecuing some meat. An old man with gray hair stood out among the crowd.

When the old man saw Ren Xiaosu coming back, he said with a smile, “You’re Ren Xiaosu, aren’t you? They told me that you were suffering from diarrhea. It looks like you were taking a really long time to clear your stomach, eh?”

Ren Xiaosu’s instructions to Chen Wudi earlier was to improvise if an unexpected situation arose. He could deal with it by saying that Ren Xiaosu had diarrhea or something and try his best not to say anything conflicting.

From the looks of it, Chen Wudi was quite adaptable at making up excuses. Ren Xiaosu called Chen Wudi over and asked him, “How long have I had the runs?”

Chen Wudi counted on his fingers. “Six hours.”

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded and did not know how to carry on the conversation. He asked Chen Wudi again, “And who is that?”

Chen Wudi thought for a moment before saying, “He’s the Earth Deity[1]!”

Ren Xiaosu felt he was very stupid to have asked Chen Wudi such a serious question…

At this moment, Li Qingzheng hurried over to get Ren Xiaosu to sit down when he saw him still standing there. At the same time, Li Qingzheng whispered, “He’s from the Li Consortium and is also here to investigate the disappearance of the two officers. We didn’t mention that we saw wolves during the day, so don’t bring it up.”

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows slightly. An old man dared to come here by himself to investigate the case?

[1] A tutelary deity of a locality and the human communities who inhabit it in Chinese folk religion.

Chapter 215: A new member for the outpost

When Ren Xiaosu learned the old man was here to investigate the disappearance of the Li Consortium’s officers, he immediately went on full alert. However, he did not show it outwardly.

When Ren Xiaosu sat down beside the campfire, a student next to him handed him a roasted chicken drumstick.

The old man smiled at Ren Xiaosu as he ate. “Young people these days don’t pay much attention to their health. When you all get to my age, you’ll realize that having a good appetite is a blessing.”

“You’re right.” Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. It was definitely not logical for him to have the runs for six hours. He had been mentally praising Chen Wudi for being so adaptable, but thinking about it now, it looked like he had overestimated him.

If Chen Wudi said he had the runs for six hours, it meant the old man had already been here for six hours.

However, this old man did not even ask him where he had gone. He just went with diarrhea as the reason like he did not intend to delve any deeper into his disappearance from the outpost.

Ren Xiaosu did not believe that someone in charge of investigating a case could overlook such a simple, common sense problem. He felt that he was just playing the fool and feigning ignorance.

“Since you’re here to investigate the case, have you found any clues yet?” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly.

“Although I’m here for the investigations, what do those missing people of the Li Consortium have anything to do with me?” The old man smiled and said, “I’m already so old, yet they still made me come out to work in such bad weather. How can they do something like that?”

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized him and asked, “May I ask how old are you?”

“I’m 73 this year.” The old man said with a smile, “I haven’t had the chance to introduce myself yet. Hello, everyone, my name is Hu Shuo[1].”

Everyone looked at each other as this name sounded really strange. However, Ren Xiaosu was more concerned that his surname was not Li.

In this region, Ren Xiaosu paid extra attention to anyone with the surname of Li. Up until now, nearly everyone Ren Xiaosu met with the surname Li were the middle and higher-ranking officers of the organization’s military. The only exception was Li Qingzheng, who was the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun.

“Why did you take on the case then?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I didn’t plan on accepting it either,” Hu Shuo said with a smile while scratching his head with his pinky finger. “But the Li Consortium gave the order that I would not get my pay if I didn’t investigate this case, so I had no choice but to come here to handle it. But I didn’t expect that I would get to eat so much exotic meat at your outpost. It’s really my lucky day!”

Ren Xiaosu felt this matter was unlikely to be as simple as the old man had explained. For a 73-year-old man to come all the way here, how could he be a normal person? There had to be a reason for why the Li Consortium would send him over to investigate after something had happened here.

But at this moment, Hu Shuo stood up and dusted off his pants. “Alright, I’ve had my fill.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “How many outposts have you visited today?”

Hu Shuo chuckled, “Only yours.”

Ren Xiaosu felt the old man might already have a clue about the situation. That was why he came here directly. In an instant, Ren Xiaosu was even contemplating whether he should quickly chase him away from here.

But Hu Shuo suddenly said, “Well… which house can I stay in?”

Everyone was stumped by this question. Ren Xiaosu was still wondering if he should chase the old man away, but little did he expect that the old man was already planning on living here.

Li Qingzheng, who was beside him, gave a placating smile. “We’ll get a house cleaned up for you immediately.”

There were seven one-story houses in the outpost, and one of them was originally used as a storage space, although it was quite empty. Since Hu Shuo now intended to stay the night, Li Qingzheng, as the platoon commander, was willing to strike up a relationship with this old man he suspected of being a big shot.

Most of the refugees had the instinctive thought that they could make their lives easier by rubbing elbows with the big shots in the stronghold. They blindly believed in this kind of relationship.

However, this left Ren Xiaosu in a tight spot. He decided to observe the situation for the time being until he could be sure of the old man’s motives. It would not be too late to decide what to do then.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Hu Shuo had already found some evidence, but he could not understand why he would dare to remain behind.

But something that surprised Ren Xiaosu even more happened. Hu Shuo was not only going to stay here for one night. He did not intend to leave… at all!

The next morning, the Wolf King sent a lot of pheasants over as promised. The pheasants were all stacked up at the entrance of the outpost.

But this strange sight did not arouse Hu Shuo’s suspicions. He just praised this location as a really good place to eat meat and acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Ren Xiaosu examined the old man’s expression closely. Everyone clearly knew this was an abnormal situation, but Hu Shuo did not even ask about it and just practiced tai chi at the entrance of the outpost. After that, he would have Li Qingzheng and the others prepare meals as he still wanted to eat meat.

Thus, everyone started barbecuing meat early in the morning until Ren Xiaosu felt like his whole body was full of the smoky smell of barbecue.

“Why didn’t you ask where we got all this game from?” Ren Xiaosu asked as they ate the meat.

Hu Shuo chuckled and said, “Why should I care about where the food came from as long as there’s something to eat? Surely it wasn’t brought here by wolves, right?”

Ren Xiaosu was temporarily rendered speechless. He was getting more and more confused by Hu Shuo’s intentions.

On the morning of the third day, Hu Shuo still continued to practice tai chi after waking up. After that, he would get everyone to prepare meals. However, it was slightly different today. Another truck drove up the mountain, but the soldiers who came this time were a little different. They actually brought along bedding, a teapot, and some other daily necessities. Then they even cleaned up the house a second time for Hu Shuo.

Ren Xiaosu was shocked to discover that Hu Shuo seemed to be planning on living here for an extended period.

While the soldiers were cleaning the house, Ren Xiaosu carefully watched to see if Hu Shuo gave any strange instructions to the soldiers, like hinting at them to come and encircle the outpost with a larger force or something similar. However, he did not do anything like that.

When the soldiers reported about some matters to Hu Shuo, they also did not purposely avoid doing so in the presence of Ren Xiaosu and the others. What the soldiers reported on was also related to Ren Xiaosu: An outpost on another hill had been attacked by wolves. Traces of wolf blood and fur were found there. The military was paying close attention to this matter and was planning on sending troops to eliminate the wolves in the mountains.

Ren Xiaosu observed Hu Shuo’s reaction, but Hu Shuo just laughed and said, “The wolves have nothing to do with our case, so let’s not interfere.”

Right from the beginning, the old man seemed not to have linked the pheasants at the entrance of the outpost to the wolves.

But Ren Xiaosu knew he was just playing dumb.

At this moment, Li Qingzheng whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “The officer who sent over this old man’s things is a senior colonel!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. How highly ranked would a person have to be in the Li Consortium to order a senior colonel around like that?

After that, no one came to the outpost again. Hu Shuo ended up staying there for the entire week. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt he might even be planning to spend the Lunar New Year together with them.

[1] Hu Shuo also means “speaking nonsense” in English.

Chapter 216: The teacher of the outpost

It was getting closer and closer to the Lunar New Year. Hu Shuo would practice tai chi and enjoy his barbecue at the outpost every day as there wasn’t really anything else he could do here.

Normally, a person in their seventies should have difficulties eating barbecue due to their aging teeth. However, the old man seemed to find everything delicious, and nothing could hinder him from eating.

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “So aren’t you going back home?”

During this period, the Wolf King sent over additional game to them on more than a few occasions. However, Hu Shuo did not ask about it and only cared about eating.

Hu Shuo answered, “Since I don’t have any children, there’s no point in going home. I’m much happier living here.”

“You don’t have any children?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Did Hu Shuo remain single all his life or was he infertile?

However, Hu Shuo watched the campfire in front of him as he said, “I had a daughter. In my earlier years, I left her in someone’s care without anyone knowing so she wouldn’t be at risk. But to my surprise, she still got into trouble in the end. It was already too late by the time I learned of it. All I have left now is a grandson who doesn’t want to live with
me.”

Ren Xiaosu did not expect this answer from him. However, the old man did not mention his son-in-law whatsoever and what kind of trouble his daughter got into. But it would be inappropriate for everyone to ask for too much detail.

“Are you planning on spending the Lunar New Year here?” Ren Xiaosu next asked.

Hu Shuo thought for a moment and answered, “It’s not like I can’t, but since you all are inviting me to stay, I can only accept your hospitality.”

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ‘Who’s inviting you?’

Ren Xiaosu had been guarding against the old man every day since the start in case he called upon his soldiers to wipe out the entire outpost after discovering some evidence. However, nothing happened even after such a long time had passed.

Was he really here to investigate the case? No, it felt more like he was here on vacation!

And he was even freeloading with no intention of paying at all!

If they were to sell this exotic meat in the stronghold, it would surely fetch a high price for them.

In fact, even though the big shots in the stronghold had access to a supply of meat, they were more interested in exotic meats. Whoever had the chance to taste exotic meat would definitely be able to show off to their friends.

Ren Xiaosu got the feeling that this old man who claimed to be here to investigate the case was starting to look rather suspicious.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “The Li Consortium has sent you to investigate the case, but you haven’t even conducted any investigations. Won’t the Li Consortium be unhappy with you?”

“At my age, it’s not like they care about me anymore,” Hu Shuo said matter-of-factly. “Moreover, the younger generation of the Li Consortium are all brats. It wouldn’t make a difference if any of them went missing.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He did not know how he should assess this old man.

Slowly, everyone started getting used to the fact that there was an additional person at the outpost. In addition, they slowly realized Hu Shuo did not have any airs to him and was extremely easy to get along with.

A few days later, Hu Shuo suddenly expressed his embarrassment at being a freeloader and that he could help out with some work.

The moment he said that, nobody would dare to allow him to do so. He was too old. What if something happened to him after they made him perform some menial work like splitting logs or doing the dishes? Who could they approach to clear the air with if that happened?

But Ren Xiaosu thought that since Hu Shuo held a very high position within the Li Consortium, he should also be very rich. “It’s definitely not suitable for you to perform menial work, so why don’t you just pay?”

Li Qingzheng was startled when he heard Ren Xiaosu say this. He did not expect Ren Xiaosu to actually ask for money from Hu Shuo.

Hu Shuo gave it some thought and said, “Aren’t there eight of you who are students? I’ve been seeing you all studying by yourselves every day, so why don’t I become your teacher instead? That way, I won’t be considered a freeloader anymore.”

Hah! Ren Xiaosu realized the old man was just reluctant to pay up!

After Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu, and the others held a discussion, they deemed this as giving Hu Shuo something to do. Although, Ren Xiaosu wanted to see just how well he could teach.

Ren Xiaosu had been rather melancholic recently. He knew it wouldn’t do for the students to keep studying by themselves. Whenever they encountered problems, no one could help them resolve their queries. Sometimes, the students would ask him questions. But as the class monitor, he was totally clueless.

The students were also a little curious regarding that. “Monitor, didn’t you score 560 points during finals? Why does it seem like you don’t know anything?”

Ren Xiaosu did not know how to answer them when faced with the question.

But since Hu Shuo had taken the initiative to be the teacher here, Ren Xiaosu was glad to see it happen. However, he said, “It’s not eight students, it’s nine. I’m a student as well, and I want to be in the class too.”

It was Hu Shuo who was stunned this time. “You’re a student?

When Hu Shuo was chatting with everyone, no one mentioned anything about this. Although the students kept addressing Ren Xiaosu as their class monitor(1), Hu Shuo thought they were actually calling him platoon commander. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu did not look like a student either.

He thought for a while and said with a smile, “Sure, I’ll teach the nine of you then.”

Hu Shuo was a person who did things in a crisp and efficient manner. On the very same day, he held a lecture for Ren Xiaosu and the eight male students. This way, everyone could finally be busy. Ren Xiaosu also came to realize that Hu Shuo seemed rather fond of being a teacher.

During the break, the students would discuss in private. “Mr. Hu is able to make his lessons easy to understand and further expand our knowledge. He’s much better at teaching than the previous math, physics, and chem teachers.”

“That’s right, I didn’t expect Grandpa to be so knowledgeable,” Wang Yuchi said.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu also realized the examples brought up by Hu Shuo during the lectures were extremely easy to understand, and he could also talk endlessly without even looking at the textbooks.

The knowledge he imparted always revolved around the key points in the textbooks, but he was able to bring it to a further level.

However, Ren Xiaosu still had some difficulties in understanding the lessons as his foundation was missing. He would have to ponder over the things taught in class for a long time while the other students understood immediately.

At the end of the lesson, Hu Shuo said to the students, “You can ask me in private if there’s anything you still don’t understand. In times like this, it’s not easy to encounter such studious students like you. It’s a pity that you can’t attend university in the Li Consortium’s stronghold and further your studies.”

As the other students could understand what was taught during the lesson, they had no more questions after class ended. As it was evening by the time class was dismissed, Hu Shuo was about to gather everyone for a barbecue party.

But before Hu Shuo could walk out of the house, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. Although the others did not have any questions, he had plenty of questions to ask.

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu amiably and said, “As the ancients said, ‘If you know, recognize that you know. If you don’t know, recognize that you don’t know.’ Your attitude of seeking knowledge is very courageous. It’s really admirable!”

But when Ren Xiaosu got started with his questions, the exchange went on until nearly midnight. Hu Shuo could see everyone else eating barbecue outside while he was busy clearing Ren Xiaosu’s doubts to the point of feeling thirsty. He did not even have a chance to take a sip of water.

Finally, he could not help but say, “Look, Ren Xiaosu, why don’t I pay for the food instead? I’ll continue to teach the other students, but as for you, you should do some self-study first to catch up on the progress-“

“No!” Ren Xiaosu firmly said.

Chapter 217: Reunited with Liuyuan

At this moment, Hu Shuo felt a little wistful. There was an old saying that went, “hoist with one’s own petard,” and Ren Xiaosu turned out to be an especially heavy petard. 1

Hu Shuo couldn’t help but ask, “You were able to lead quite a comfortable life even with your limited knowledge, so why do you still hunger for more knowledge? Are you aiming to qualify for the university in the stronghold?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, “I’m not planning to get into the university. I just want to understand the truth of the world.”

Hu Shuo was stunned by this answer. He went deep into thought before saying with a sigh, “You can still come and ask me anytime in the future if there’s something you don’t understand.”

Hu Shuo’s previous daily routine was to wake up at 6 AM to practice tai chi until 7 AM before eating breakfast. Then he would bask in the sun, chat, eat lunch, eat dinner, and finally go to bed at night.

Now, he would still wake up at 6 AM to practice tai chi until 7 AM before eating breakfast. But then he would start class, eat lunch, resume teaching again, and get so annoyed with Ren Xiaosu that it made him lose his appetite for dinner and be unable to fall asleep at night.

Throughout this, Ren Xiaosu kept wondering why on earth this old man came to their outpost.

During this period, a group of combat troops from the consortium came to the outpost to investigate the wolf attack on the other outpost. They wanted to ask if any suspicious activities were seen around the vicinity but were sent away the moment they stepped into the outpost.

It seemed like the officers all knew who Hu Shuo was, so they just left the place without further questioning. It didn’t look like they found it strange that he was living here.

This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little. Who on earth was this old man?!

However, he made a trip to the mountains that very night to inform the Wolf King that the wolf pack would need to go even deeper into the hinterlands of the mountain to settle down. That was because the Li Consortium would probably send troops to eliminate them.

During his stay, Ren Xiaosu thought of asking Hu Shuo where Stronghold 88 was located since he felt Hu Shuo would definitely know. However, he was worried that if he asked Hu Shuo, Hu Shuo would think he was colluding with the enemy based on the current relationship between the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium.

Although they had been getting along rather well, Ren Xiaosu felt his relationship with Hu Shuo had still not reached the stage where they could trust each other.

Seeing that the Lunar New Year was approaching, Li Qingzheng pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, “We’ve run out of salt, so we have to make a trip to town. We’ll also need to purchase some New Year supplies as well.”

People at the other outposts were so poor they did not have enough to eat, and the supplies delivered to them were starting to lessen as well. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu and the others at this outpost were all looking energetic and in high spirits. They had even gotten sick of having meat every day and wanted to get some vegetables in their diet for a change.

There was a small plot of land behind the outpost where they could grow vegetables. But if they wanted to grow vegetables in this weather, they would have to build a canvas shed to house the vegetables. However, they did not have any canvas to build the shed with.

So Li Qingzheng had a discussion with Ren Xiaosu about making a trip to town.

This was what Ren Xiaosu thought as well. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.

Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi to not let Hu Shuo leave the outpost. If he left the outpost, Chen Wudi would have to follow him and find out what he was up to.

When Hu Shuo heard Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng were going back to town today and might have to stay there for a night, he was nearly moved to tears.

Honestly speaking, it was not easy for Hu Shuo to be moved at his age. After all, he had been through so much in life, so what kinds of situations had he not seen before?

But today, he really felt a lingering sense of emotion. Hu Shuo said to Ren Xiaosu, “Purchase a lot of New Year supplies. There’s no rush to come back too soon.”

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu found it a little surprising that everyone had gotten used to having this strange old man living at the outpost, and even Hu Shuo himself seemed like he had gotten used to it too.

How did all of these changes happen…

It would take more than three hours to drive from the outpost to town. The distance was neither near nor far. The factory nearby was still operating late into the night as the vast and sophisticated war machine that was the Li Consortium ran at full gear, though no one knew where its chariots of war were headed.

Throughout the journey, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng saw supply trucks frequently driving between the stronghold and the factories, all bustling with activity.

Although the vehicle broke down once during the journey, Li Qingzheng was really good at fixing vehicles. He simply lifted the hood and tinkered around for a while before the run-down military transport truck was running smoothly again.

Ren Xiaosu had been separated from Yan Liuyuan and the others for more than a fortnight. Right now, he just wanted to quickly find Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others in town and get an update on their recent situation to see if they had encountered any difficulties.

Li Qingzheng was even more excited. It was as though he was an exiled prisoner who was finally returning to a prosperous city. He kept mumbling during the journey, saying he would definitely look for his old flame for a rendezvous in town tonight after they sold off the meat.

When they arrived in town, Ren Xiaosu saw some refugees heading home after buying some pork rind and fatty meat from a butcher’s shop. When he saw some children receiving some cheap sweets from the adults, he could feel the air of festivity approaching.

Even the people who could barely survive by working hard every day in these wastelands would still try their best to get some new clothes, buy a handful of sweets, and make some delicious dumplings for their children during the holiday.

Although the world had been destroyed before, it did not mean that people in the wastelands did not have a right to be happy.

Humans were always the best at finding joy amid hardship among all living things as they were a tough and tenacious species.

The people who had predicted that humans would descend into a completely cold and cruel world after the apocalypse did not actually understand humanity at all.

Of course, it was still unsafe in town at night. There would always be people who wanted to get something without putting in the effort for it, but this was not something that was contradictory to happiness.

When they arrived at the entrance of the town, Ren Xiaosu saw Yan Liuyuan crouching there with a blank stare. He quickly leaned out of the window and called out to him, “Liuyuan! Why are you crouching there?!”

When Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu, his eyes lit up. “Bro, you’re finally back. Haha, when a magpie flew into the yard this morning, I had a feeling[1] that you would definitely come back to town. That’s why I was waiting for you here.”

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that probably wasn’t the truth. To hell with the magpie—as if there were really such coincidences in the world like that!

Yan Liuyuan must have been waiting here every day since he left for the outpost, so that was probably why there was such a “coincidence” today.

Ren Xiaosu opened the door and pulled Yan Liuyuan up into the passenger seat. As the passenger seat in the truck was very wide, it wouldn’t be an issue for three people to fit in it.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Where are y’all living now?”

Yan Liuyuan beamed and said, “We bought two brick townhouses near the gate of the stronghold, so we’re currently living there. Uncle Fugui also reopened his grocery store. He said that he’s already found some business contacts in the stronghold and has also struck up a good relationship with the town’s administrators.”

“Old Wang is so talented.” Ren Xiaosu was really glad to hear that and his praise was sincere. No matter where Wang Fugui went, he could always strike up good interpersonal relationships and bring great convenience to their lives.

[1] A Chinese saying goes: When the magpie arrives, good fortune will follow. It is regarded as a happy messenger.

Chapter 218: Yan Liuyuan

Li Qingzheng was a little puzzled as he drove the truck towards town based on the directions given by Yan Liuyuan. How could this group of refugees from another town gain a foothold in this town so quickly? They managed to buy a brick townhouse nearest to the stronghold gate? 1

And they even bought two of them!

But he remembered when Wang Fugui bribed him, he was offered a 100 antibiotics and several watches in one go. These things were still in Li Qingzheng’s bag, and he had not sold them for cash yet. How could a normal person possibly afford to fork out such a large sum of money as bribery?

Li Qingzheng was thinking that since he and Ren Xiaosu were now friends, and that they were also leading a legitimately good life at the outpost, maybe he should return the bribes he collected from them back to Ren Xiaosu? However, Li Qingzheng still felt a little reluctant upon realizing he would have to give up such a large sum of money at once….

Along the way, a woman saw Yan Liuyuan through the truck’s window and said cheerfully, “Liuyuan, is that boy next to you your brother that you’ve always been talking about? You haven’t waited in vain by crouching at the entrance of town for so many days. He’s finally back. Here are three eggs for you. You can cook them for your brother when you get back home this evening.”

Yan Liuyuan accepted the eggs with a smile. However, he handed one egg back to her and only kept two of them. “Yes, this is my brother, but the one driving is not, so there’s no need to give him an egg.” Li Qingzheng was speechless. “Am I not a person? Why am I the only one who doesn’t get an egg!’

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “You seem to be quite popular in this town.”

In truth, Yan Liuyuan was especially popular with the women when they were living back in the town of Stronghold 113. Now that his face was always clean, he looked handsome and smart. It became natural that he would become a friend of the women.

Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, “I’ve asked around with the townspeople and found out a lot of information lately. After getting here, Uncle Fugui has done a lot of small favors for many people and gained a foothold in town. That’s why we are quite popular around here. Of course, there are still many ungrateful people around as well.”

The “small favors” were things like helping others repair their furniture, giving away snacks and sweets, and paying a slightly higher price when receiving goods. Wang Fugui did all of those in moderation and never went beyond doing small favors.

In Wang Fugui’s opinion, doing big favors would not only make it hard to make friends, but it would also offend people easily. Furthermore, it was pointless to do big favors for others. If he were really in danger, most would not return the favor. Instead, they would more likely kick him while he was down.

Wang Fugui was only doing so for the sake of getting things easily accomplished in town and was not expecting anyone to give him any assistance when he got into trouble. It was better to rely on oneself than on others… no, it was better to rely on Ren Xiaosu than on others.

When Ren Xiaosu heard that Yan Liuyuan had gathered a lot of information, he asked curiously, “What have you found out?”

Currently, there were military camps stationed all around the area not far outside of town as different troops continually rotated shifts between themselves.

Yan Liuyuan said, “I heard that the Li Consortium’s combat troops that went to Stronghold 109 to eliminate the Experimentals had failed in their mission. The initial batch of troops has been recalled and at least half of them had died.”

“How did you know about that?” Ren Xiaosu frowned.

“The soldiers stationed near town can’t help themselves from seeking thrills, and those single women were also happy to have a soldier from the organization as their backer.” Yan Liuyuan said, “They would sometimes share with their women these matters and said that their assault went very smoothly at the beginning. However, they were immediately defeated once the Experimentals dragged it out into urban warfare. Furthermore, the forward operating base was destroyed by the Experimentals. Now they plan to continue sending troops over there and resort to using heavy weapons in battle. Even if they destroy the stronghold, they have to eliminate the Experimentals.”

This outcome was quite in line with Ren Xiaosu’s prediction. When he saw the combat troops deployed to Stronghold 109 in a hurry had not brought any heavy weapons with them. It seemed like they wanted to keep the buildings in the stronghold as intact as possible so they could avoid spending too much on rebuilding.

But if they engaged something like the Experimentals in urban warfare, it would be as good as digging their own graves. Their speed and strength, several times that of the average person, gave them a huge advantage when fighting in built-up areas. Unless the organization fought against the Experimentals with troops consisting of supernatural beings, using automatic rifles at close range would not be effective. It resulted in the combat troops made up of normal humans suffering a devastating defeat.

But now that the Li Consortium was extremely determined to eliminate the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu felt those creatures were likely going to face a tough battle soon. As a human, Ren Xiaosu certainly hoped the Li Consortium could wipe out a tumor like the Experimentals.

No matter how evil a person was, they would still have some humanity in them. The Experimentals had none left.

“There’s something else.” Yan Liuyuan said, “When the school in town learned of Ms. Jiang’s identity, they wanted to ask her to be a substitute teacher at the school. However, she rejected the offer because she said that as the only supernatural being at home, she had to take care of the family.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. From this point alone, it seemed Jiang Wu was still worthy of their trust. “Any other news?”

Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and said, “Oh yes, it seems like there are also members of the Pyro Company lurking around here. Although I don’t know where they are, there’s usually leaflets scattered around town overnight. They’re the same ones we saw in Stronghold 109.”

The Pyro Company? Ren Xiaosu frowned. They could not get into too much detail as Li Qingzheng was around.

But he had witnessed the Pyro Company’s behavior before, and if they knew there was a supernatural being nearby, they would definitely spare no effort in catching them.

However, he wasn’t too afraid of that. After all, he felt the Pyro Company was really quite weak after crossing swords with them… but it would be dangerous if Jiang Wu exposed her identity.

“Here we are,” Yan Liuyuan shouted cheerfully while pointing at two stone courtyards. “This is the place.”

When the truck came to a stop, Yan Liuyuan jumped out and rushed off. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, Ms. Jiang, look who’s back.”

With this shout from Yan Liuyuan, everyone came rushing out into the courtyard, including Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the female students before Ren Xiaosu could even get out of the truck.

Li Qingzheng stared at the sight of this. He felt that Ren Xiaosu was a blessed man and a role model for other men!

Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Fugui with a smile, “We brought some game down from the mountains. They’re loaded in the back of the truck. Calculate the prices and settle the bill with Platoon Commander Li. A portion of it is free as I brought it as a gift to y’all for the New Year.”

Wang Fugui and the others froze for a moment. As expected of Ren Xiaosu. Although he was now a sentry at a faraway outpost, he still managed to bring back meat for them on his return.

Wang Fugui smiled and said, “It happens that there are many troops stationed nearby and they have a shortage of meat as well. I can definitely sell this meat for a good price.” Wang Fugui then walked to the back of the military transport truck and looked inside. When he saw everything, he was stunned. “There’s this much meat?”

Ren Xiaosu handed him a list. “These are the items that we need. Help us get them, as well as salt, seasonings, and clothes!”

“OK, you can count on me. Go inside and rest up.” Wang Fugui said with a smile, “You don’t have to personally worry yourself over such things.”

Li Qingzheng, who was beside them, was watching the entire conversation. He had thought that Wang Fugui was the backbone of this group. But now it seemed like everyone was under the command of Ren Xiaosu.

How old was this young man? Why would a shrewd businessman like Wang Fugui even listen to him?

Chapter 219: Li Shentan’s gift

When they entered the courtyard, Xiaoyu circled Ren Xiaosu and took a careful look at him. She had wanted to say things like “Ren Xiaosu, you’ve gotten thinner.” But when she looked at him, she realized he seemed to have put on some weight instead.

She pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and said, “I’ve made a lot of delicious food for y’all and new clothes for everyone for the New Year as well. It’s getting cold these days, so y’all should switch to heavy quilts. There’s no need to worry about us. We don’t lack anything here…”

Ren Xiaosu smiled as he followed her and did not say anything in response. Actually, Xiaoyu was the most soft-spoken person in the group and did not usually have much of a presence in the family. However, it would be less warm at home if she wasn’t around.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Did anything happen at home recently? Anyone give you any trouble?”

Now that Ren Xiaosu was back, he thought that if Yan Liuyuan and the others had encountered any trouble, he would handle it for them before leaving again.

“There isn’t too much trouble. It’s currently very chaotic in town, and the organization’s soldiers are keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings. So it’s usually only Old Wang who heads out to handle any matters. The rest of us don’t go out at all,” Xiaoyu explained. “We can also prevent any bad guys from getting ideas about us this way.”

“Mhm, I suppose that’s the only way now.” Ren Xiaosu realized Xiaoyu and the rest of the group were still quite cautious. He also told the female students around him, “Y’all should learn from Big Sister Xiaoyu. Equip yourselves in the next few days with a knife each so that y’all can defend yourselves. If anyone harasses you, just stab them with the knife.”

A female student hesitated before saying, “But we’re girls…”

Ren Xiaosu had to give this some thought before saying, “I’ll get Old Wang to paint the knives pink for y’all then.”

The female students were taken aback for a bit before breaking out into laughter. They said, “Alright, Monitor!”

But at this moment, someone knocked on the door. Xiaoyu muttered, “Who could be knocking on our door at this time?”

But when she went to open the door, she heard a sonorous male voice say from outside, “Hello, I’m looking for Ren Xiaosu.”

Ren Xiaosu immediately turned his head to the door. Only a handful of people would know to find him here at this time. Furthermore… this person’s voice sounded extremely familiar!

It was Li Shentan!

Li Shentan was smartly dressed in the Li Consortium’s military uniform as he stood at the door. Ren Xiaosu hesitated, so Li Shentan smiled first and said, “What’s up? Am I not welcome here?”

“Please come in.” Ren Xiaosu signaled to Xiaoyu, who was blocking the door, to let him in. Following which, he whispered to the others, “Everyone, go inside the house.”

Everyone noticed that something was wrong and knew this was an uninvited guest. Fortunately, Old Wang and Li Qingzheng were still outside tallying the goods. Otherwise, it would be difficult for Ren Xiaosu to come up with an excuse to send Li Qingzheng away.

Li Shentan walked into the courtyard and looked around his surroundings curiously. Then he sat on the stone bench in the courtyard and said, “What a warm and homey place this is.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at his uniform and asked, “How did you learn I’m here?”

“Ah!” It was as though Li Shentan recalled something at this moment. “I hypnotized the residents in the surrounding area so they would inform me when they saw an unfamiliar young man entering the courtyard here.”

Li Shentan did not avoid the topic of hypnosis when he spoke. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Don’t you think it’s inappropriate to do something like that?”

“Superpowers are meant to be used.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “It’s not like I hindered their day-to-day lives anyway.”

Wearing the military uniform, Li Shentan looked just like a handsome, young, and promising boy next door. However, others would definitely not be able to imagine the disaster he had wrought upon Stronghold 109.

“Then what are you looking for me for?” Ren Xiaosu gave him a look.

At this moment, Xiaoyu came out of the house and placed a pot of tea and two cups on the stone table. Li Shentan smiled and said graciously, “Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.”

“I’m warning you. Don’t you dare hypnotize the people around me,” Ren Xiaosu said in an unfriendly manner.

“I won’t.” Li Shentan held up a teacup and said with a smile, “We’re friends, after all. How can I possibly hypnotize my friend’s friends?”

He gently held the teacup and warmed his hands. As steam wafted up from the teacup, the scene in the courtyard was exceptionally harmonious and peaceful.

“I heard you were sent to a faraway outpost, so how have you been lately?” Li Shentan said with a smile. His tone sounded like he really was an old friend of Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly, “Not too bad, I guess.”

But in the next moment, Li Shentan said, “I heard two nanosoldiers went missing out there, and they were even the family members of the Li Consortium. When I checked the list of that outpost later and saw your name on it, I knew you must’ve been the one behind it.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned but did not answer him. There was no need for any explanation between intelligent people, and no evidence was necessary to prove their suspicion either. Ren Xiaosu only wanted to know now what Li Shentan was planning.

Then Li Shentan continued, “When we parted ways at Stronghold 109, I thought we would only get to see each other again in another few years. I didn’t expect to meet you again so soon. I also heard a neighboring outpost near yours was attacked by the wolves and another nanosoldier went missing. I thought that might have been done by you. I have control over humans while you can control wolves. It seems like we were really fated to meet after all.”

Ren Xiaosu was amused. “Why don’t you just state your purpose? There’s no need to beat around the bush.”

He knew there was no point in defending himself. There was nothing wrong with Li Shentan’s reconstruction of events. If the Li Consortium found out there was an extremely dangerous supernatural being over there, they would probably focus their attention on him immediately.

For example, Hu Shuo had probably discovered something about him.

But now Li Shentan turned serious. “You’re probably still a little misunderstood. I actually came here today to catch up with an old friend. After all, I’ve got too few friends to go around.”

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why do you always think that I’m your friend?”

Li Shentan smiled and said, “Because I always feel a sense of endearment whenever I see you.”

“Alright then,” Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, “Why are you dressed in military attire?”

“I’m an active serviceman of the Li Consortium now.” Li Shentan appraised his military uniform. “Does it look fitting? Our 4th Brigade will be heading to the front line of Stronghold 109 tomorrow. There are still many Experimentals active over there.”

Ren Xiaosu thought the Experimentals were doomed after the Li Consortium decided on using heavy weapons against them. However, Li Shentan’s appearance had put huge uncertainty on this battle. Ren Xiaosu could already sense that the Li Consortium’s combat troops heading to Stronghold 109 this time would probably perish.

Right from the beginning, Li Shentan had never intended to target any particular stronghold. He sought to destroy the entire Li Consortium. Even if he were to perish with everyone, he would not hesitate to do it.

Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. There really was nothing wrong with the Li Consortium’s previous decision to send this guy to a psychiatric hospital. Comparing Chen Wudi to him, Chen Wudi was just like a normal person.

Li Shentan stood up and walked to the door. “It’s time to say goodbye now. After this farewell, I’m afraid it will be a really long time before I see you again. Please take care of yourself. The people in this neighborhood who harbor dirty thoughts on the ladies living here will commit suicide after you leave town tomorrow. You won’t need to worry about that. Please consider it a small gift from me and accept it kindly.”

Chapter 220: Encountering the Pyro Company again!

Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised by this gift of Li Shentan’s. When he previously asked Xiaoyu whether they had any trouble, she said no. But he knew well that she must have been lying to him. How could there be no one in town getting any ideas on a house with over a dozen women in it?

This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu was worried about Jiang Wu exposing her identity as a supernatural being. If someone started getting ideas about them, it was very likely that Jiang Wu would be forced to use her superpower. It would be a major crisis if she attracted the attention of the Pyro Company.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Shentan. “I’m grateful for your gift.”

Li Shentan dismissed it with a smile. “You don’t have to be so polite. There’s one more thing, though. The Li Consortium is planning to send their elite nanosoldiers to eliminate the wolves. They’re also considering it a training exercise using the wolves as opponents. You should have your wolf buddies lie low. Some of the nanosoldiers can be… really strong.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. He could collect more nanomachines!

Suddenly, Li Shentan was unsure of if he had seen a look of anticipation in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes.

“Do you know where the Pyro Company’s members around here are hiding?” Ren Xiaosu switched the topic.

Li Shentan said, “They just left this afternoon, but I don’t know where they were heading. Maybe they went off somewhere to try their luck at catching supernatural beings? Don’t worry, they don’t know about you.” He then walked out the door.

This demon was about to head for the front lines with the Li Consortium’s combat troops. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that if there were more people like Li Shentan in this world, war really might not be too far off.

There was always a state of balance between the organizations as everyone slowly plundered resources to strengthen themselves. This was a process of gaining power as part of a larger group. But if a crack suddenly appeared in one organization, the others would definitely be more than happy to get a greater share of the spoils, right?

After Li Shentan left, Xiaoyu came out of the house and said in curiosity, “That’s Li Shentan, right? I saw him at the shop back in Stronghold 109.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu frowned as he thought about something else. He suddenly said, “I might have to go back now. I feel like there’s a hidden meaning to Li Shentan’s words.”

Initially, Ren Xiaosu had planned to stay in town for the night. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and many things still needed to be discussed. But when he asked for news of the Pyro Company, Li Shentan told him that they had left that afternoon. This made Ren Xiaosu a little uneasy.

Yan Liuyuan asked in a stunned manner next to him, “You’re leaving already?”

“Yes,” Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Since there’s still a month before the Lunar New Year, I’ll definitely have a chance to come back again. Or… I can take y’all to the outpost to celebrate the New Year?”

“Really?” Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up as he wanted to have a look at what the place Ren Xiaosu went to be a sentry looked like.

With that, Ren Xiaosu went outside. By this time, Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng were just about wrapped up with handing over the money and goods to each other. Looking at their expressions, they both seemed happy with the deal.

“Lord of Wolves, we have to leave now. Something urgent came up, so we have to go back immediately,” Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng.

Li Qingzheng wondered, “We have to leave now? Aren’t we gonna stay a little longer? I still haven’t-“

“We have to go now,” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.

Li Qingzheng thought for a moment and said, “Alright then, let’s head back
now.”

When Li Qingzheng and Ren Xiaosu got into the truck, Wang Fugui said, “Xiaosu, you must take care of yourself. The whole family is depending on you now, so nothing must happen to you.”

“Don’t worry.” Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, “Nothing has happened to me even after two strongholds were destroyed. I’m hardy.”

Wang Fugui said with a smile, “That’s true. As long as you’re here, our days will definitely get better and better.”

After that exchange, Li Qingzheng started the truck and drove out of town.

There were two grocery stores near the gate. One of them belonged to a woman, and the other was recently opened by Wang Fugui. Ever since Wang Fugui arrived, business at the grocery store next door plummeted and caused the neighbor to despise him.

While Wang Fugui was seeing Ren Xiaosu off, the fat woman next door leaned against the doorframe of her shop and munched on sunflower seeds while looking at Wang Fugui scornfully. After Ren Xiaosu left, she suddenly shouted at Old Wang, “Why? Is that one of your family members?”

Wang Fugui smiled and said, “That’s our boss! He’s the greatest!”

The woman spat out the sunflower seed hull at the entrance of her shop with disdain. “What’s the big deal about a crappy soldier from the private army?”

In the eyes of the town’s refugees, the private troops were no longer worth much in the present day. It was still the organization’s own soldiers who were more powerful. It wasn’t only this woman who thought this way. Some people also used to believe there was an influential man in Wang Fugui’s family backing him. But now they were a little disappointed when they found out he was just a private soldier.

Wang Fugui just smiled without saying a word. They were from two different worlds, and it was impossible to speak with someone who had limited experience.

As Li Qingzheng drove on the road, he did not ask Ren Xiaosu why he wanted to return to the outpost so urgently. Ren Xiaosu also discovered at this moment that Li Qingzheng might have realized something based on his attitude.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng and said, “You—”

“I don’t know anything,” interrupted Li Qingzheng.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Thinking back to the time the wolves attacked the military transport truck, Li Qingzheng took the initiative to get everyone to go back into their houses. At that time, Li Qingzheng might have realized something.

He heard Li Qingzheng say, “When I was still a child, my father took me to a fortune teller in town. When he said that my entire life would be a tough one, my father almost beat him up. But he also added that I had one chance to turn things around in this life.”

“What was the chance?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“He said I would meet my benefactor at the age of 29, and I turned 29 on the day I met you.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. “Superstitions can be really harmful.”

The journey back only took three hours since Li Qingzheng drove a little faster as Ren Xiaosu said it was urgent. When they arrived at the beginning of the mountain road leading to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu noticed some tire tracks on the ground. His face turned to one of alarm. “Hurry up! Trespassers have gone up!”

This dirt road was the only path to the outpost. The snow had just melted and the ground had become muddy. If a vehicle drove on it, its tires would definitely leave marks on the ground. This sight set off alarm bells in Ren Xiaosu’s head.

Based on what Li Shentan had said, the Pyro Company was only coming out to try their luck. Perhaps they thought the disappearance of the two officers might have something to do with a supernatural being when they learned about it. So they came to the nearby outpost to see if they could find any supernatural beings hiding here.

The truck drove all the way up to the outpost. But when Ren Xiaosu, who was initially extremely anxious, was greeted by the sight of the open space in front of the outpost, he froze.

He saw Hu Shuo sitting in a relaxed position next to the campfire and eating barbecue with the others. Five strangers knelt next in a row to them with injuries covering their bodies. One of them was even coughing up blood as he knelt there.

The moment Hu Shuo saw Ren Xiaosu, his expression shifted. “Why are you back so soon?!”

Chapter 221: Hu Shuo’s true strength

It was a really strange sight at the campfire next to the outpost’s entrance. On one side, there were people barbecuing meat and enjoying themselves. On the other side, five people were kneeling in a row and too afraid to move a muscle.

How pathetic! These five people were way too pathetic.

When Ren Xiaosu got out of the truck and went over to have a look, it was just as he had expected. Those five people all had a small logo of the Pyro Company embroidered on their clothes.

In reality, there wasn’t any problem with the direction of the Pyro Company’s investigations. They speculated that the disappearance of those two nanosoldiers might have something to do with supernatural beings, so they came here to try their luck to see if they could find that person. This speculation was extremely accurate.

Ren Xiaosu was not wrong either. After Li Shentan informed him about the situation with the Pyro Company, he rushed back during the night as he was worried they would harm the students at the outpost. There wasn’t anything wrong with that either.

The only surprise that neither the Pyro Company nor Ren Xiaosu had expected was that Hu Shuo was powerful beyond measure.

The reason Hu Shuo was surprised when he saw Ren Xiaosu was because he would have to teach Ren Xiaosu again now that he was back. It was just like how office workers finally had the weekend off only for their bosses to suddenly demand they work overtime. This immediately spoiled the mood.

Ren Xiaosu explained, “Can’t you see that I really missed all of you? That’s why we rushed back to the outpost. So what’s going on here?”

In truth, Ren Xiaosu already knew Hu Shuo was definitely not a simple person from the beginning. How could a normal old man head up to the mountains alone in the middle of the night to investigate a case? Wasn’t he afraid of getting killed by the criminal as well? So he must have had something that gave him the confidence.

Moreover, Chen Wudi mentioned he was the Earth Deity. Based on Ren Xiaosu’s deductions, what Chen Wudi probably meant was: This man has a superpower.

Perhaps mental patients possessed some sort of unique perception that enabled Chen Wudi to identify the true nature of someone simply by their appearance, as he was spot on in his observations.

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Quickly come and have some meat.”

All five of the Pyro Company members looked back at Ren Xiaosu, but none of them dared to speak. Hu Shuo said, “They’re from the Pyro Company. I was searching for them some time ago, but they managed to hide themselves really well. As some other disturbances were going on at that time, I haven’t been able to locate them at all. Who knew they would actually send themselves to our doorstep just as I was planning to spend the New Year here….”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘So you are really here to spend the New Year! You really don’t consider yourself an outsider, do you?’

However, now was not the time to think about that.

Ren Xiaosu had realized most people would usually be afraid or disgusted if they encountered members of the Pyro Company. But when Hu Shuo encountered these five members of the Pyro Company, he got a vague sense of surprise.

“What are they doing here?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Hu Shuo smiled ambiguously at him and said, “These are probably the main culprits in the killing of those two Li Consortium officers.”

When the members of the Pyro Company heard that, they started panicking. “We’re also here to investigate this case. They weren’t killed by us!”

“Did I say that you all could speak?” Hu Shuo said as he stared at them.

The five Pyro Company members quickly shut their mouths. Ren Xiaosu asked the people around him in a whisper, “Who witnessed their fight?”

The students shook their heads and said, “Only Big Brother Wudi was outside at the time. We were all studying by ourselves in our houses.”

As such, Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi, “What happened between them just now? Can you describe it to me?” He was trying to deduce how strong Hu Shuo was based on the description of the battle with this question,

When Chen Wudi recalled the battle, he could only say, “Holy shit!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. As Ren Xiaosu waited for him to relate the rest of the incident, he realized Chen Wudi had already lowered his head back down to eat. So Chen Wudi’s description of the entire battle was simply “Holy shit!”? ‘Can’t you be more cultured!’

Ren Xiaosu was saddened. How could he judge the strength of Hu Shuo through a description like that? However, the little information he could get from this was that when Hu Shuo made his move, his strength even surprised Chen Wudi.

“Is he stronger than you?” Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi.

Chen Wudi thought for a while. “No, he’s not.”

“You seem quite confident in yourself,” Ren Xiaosu lamented. Asking Chen Wudi about such serious matters would probably just make himself even more confused.

During this recent period, he had always seen Hu Shuo getting up early to practice tai chi. Could his boxing really be that powerful?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo and asked, “They were the ones who murdered those two officers?”

Hu Shuo said earnestly, “That’s right. The Li Consortium has given me until tomorrow as the deadline to investigate the case. Since we’ve been searching extensively for the murderer and were still unable to capture anyone even though we have been working so hard, they must be considered the murderers.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised. When did Hu Shuo ever work hard while he was here? He was obviously just here on vacation to eat meat. This old man had never seriously gone after the murderer at all!

However, Ren Xiaosu was definitely glad this Pyro Company team would be made the scapegoat. It was fine as long as he did not get himself caught.

But Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Hu Shuo had already made some discoveries. Neither of them were fools. Just the fact that he had the runs for six hours when Hu Shuo first arrived was unacceptable. Moreover, the Wolf King had been sending all that game to them. Even an idiot would notice that something was going on between this outpost and the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu was not going to assume he had gotten lucky. The two of them just had a tacit agreement with each other for now.

But when Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he suddenly wondered what Hu Shuo’s motives were. Was it just so that he could eat all the meat he wanted without worry? But how could that be!

“But there should definitely be an interrogation process, right?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What if they would rather die than admit to the crime?”

“If they die, they wouldn’t be able to not admit to it.” Hu Shuo said calmly, “Isn’t that what ‘rather die than admit to it’ really means?”

When the soldiers of the Pyro Company heard that, they knew they had no chance to survive! How could they be willing to stay here and wait for their deaths when they possessed strength that surpassed normal humans?!

In that instant, those five people got up at the same time and fled down the mountain. They had never thought about fighting against Hu Shuo and Ren Xiaosu. They couldn’t even defeat Hu Shuo alone, and now, there was another unknown factor in Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, their only way to survive was to escape.

While the Pyro members escaped, Hu Shuo sat there without moving. When Ren Xiaosu saw that Hu Shuo did not make a move, he also stayed still.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Aren’t you gonna pursue them?”

Hu Shuo was amused. “How can I pursue them with these old limbs of mine? Why don’t you go after them instead?”

“The members of the Pyro Company are all supernatural beings. Why would I go after them when I’m just a normal person?” Ren Xiaosu said with a grimace.

They watched as the members of the Pyro Company got further and further away.

The two of them sat there with neither giving chase. When the members of the Pyro Company turned around and saw this, they were overjoyed. They were so surprised no one was pursuing them!

When they ran down to the hillside, a part of the turf on the mountain path suddenly shifted. In the blink of an eye, an entire platoon rushed out from the shadows of the forest as gunshots rang out from trenches. The five exhausted people were caught off guard!

When Ren Xiaosu heard those gunshots on the hillside, he realized he didn’t even know when the ambush was laid.

Chapter 222: Rather die than admit to it

Hearing the gunshots ring out on the hillside, the rest of the group was unable to sit still any longer. They ran to the far edge of the outpost and looked down. Meanwhile, Hu Shuo was still sitting there calmly and enjoying the meat. He asked, “Did you get enough seasonings and other supplies since you came back in such a hurry? Although this exotic meat is delicious, it gets too salty if we only use salt on it. What we need is a greater variety of seasoning options!”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “Don’t worry, we bought everything that we needed.”

This time, Li Qingzheng had made a rather successful deal with Old Wang. He not only managed to bring back enough salt to preserve the rest of the meat, but also procured rice vinegar, star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, and some other spices too. Although, they could just grab a handful of Sichuan peppercorns from the wilderness since they were commonly found there.

While conducting the trade, Li Qingzheng realized it was much easier to do business with Old Wang than to slowly sell the cured meat by himself.

At this moment, someone from the other platoon walked over and said to Hu Shuo, “We’ve gunned down all five of them.”

“Alright.” Hu Shuo nodded. “Take them back to the stronghold and report the mission status to the higher-ups. Tell them to be careful and stay wary of the Pyro Company. There is absolutely no mistake in killing anyone who is from the Pyro Company.”

“Roger.” After the soldier received the order, he led his men away.

But Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled as he looked at this group of people. They were not wearing the combat uniform of the Li Consortium, yet they were much stronger than the private troops. Which fighting force did they belong to?

Hu Shuo said with a smile as he ate, “I feel so relieved now that I’ve finally completed the assignment. You all might know, but I was so worried about this matter for the past few days that I couldn’t eat or sleep well.”

Ren Xiaosu asked the students next to him, “What did the teacher talk about today? Let me have a look at your notes so that I can catch up with the lectures and clarify my doubts with Mr. Hu before he goes to bed.”

But when he said this, Hu Shuo immediately stood up and said, “Hahahaha, I’m sleepy. I’m off to bed!”

After Hu Shuo went back into his house, Ren Xiaosu had the students unload everything from the truck into the house. He also distributed to them the winter clothing that Xiaoyu had procured.

Chen Wudi went back into the house and happily put on his new clothes. These things were all provided for Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and the eight other students. When Li Qingzheng saw this, he felt sad. “How nice it is to have a family.”

When it got late into the night, Ren Xiaosu quietly headed to the depths of the mountains. He wanted to give the wolves another reminder to not get ambushed by the nanosoldiers that were going to be sent in.

After all, the wolves were burdened with their young right now. It would be upsetting if the Li Consortium’s elite soldiers attacked them and the wolves did not have enough time to bring their wolf cubs with them when they fled.

Before he could get deep into the mountains, he saw the Wolf King waiting for him on the mountain path. When the Wolf King saw Ren Xiaosu, it led him straight to the wolf den without having to communicate it to him.

Ren Xiaosu kept muttering, “Have they fully recovered from their injuries yet? Did they eat their food according to my advice as a doctor?”

The Wolf King did not even bother replying to his questions. When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the wolf den, the wolves seemed to be much friendlier towards him than last time. Ren Xiaosu first checked on the wounds of the injured wolves and only felt at ease after seeing they had already healed.

He sat on a large rock and said, “Seems the Li Consortium is sending their elite soldiers to ‘spar’ with y’all. Are you confident with handling them?”

The Wolf King looked at him with apparent disdain. Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “But those are supersoldiers with nanomachines. They’ve been specially assigned to eliminate y’all. The Li Consortium isn’t stupid either. If they’re willing to attack you, they must have a certain confidence in their plan.”

The Wolf King was still giving him a disdainful look.

“Alright then,” Ren Xiaosu sighed. “But you better not eat them after they’re dead. They have nanomachines in them, so y’all might get diarrhea if you eat them. When the time comes, hide their corpses for me. I’ll use the black medicine to make a deal with you.”

When the Wolf King heard the words “black medicine,” its eyes seemed to light up.

“But you definitely have to move your wolf den further away.” Ren Xiaosu said, “After all, your wolf cubs can’t run fast enough. If a stray bullet hit them, that’d be bad.”

On his way back, Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he could get his hands on the nanomachines at a faster rate with the wolves’ assistance. Ren Xiaosu was even starting to get a little excited at the thought.

The next morning, everyone was busy taking out the meat they had hidden away to continue curing the meat. They had to stop the process temporarily due to the lack of salt.

The group of men set up several tables at the entrance of the outpost and worked tirelessly, sweating profusely. But when they thought about how this was the source of better food, everyone felt exceptionally accomplished.

If those who did not know the truth went up the mountain and saw this place, they would probably mistake it for a cured meat delicatessen and not an outpost. Everyone had left their guns inside the houses, and some of them had not even touched them for several days.

To be honest, no one would be willing to be a soldier in a godforsaken place like this if it weren’t for survival. These people did not feel a sense of belonging to the Li Consortium anyway. In the present day, nobody had any faith or feelings to speak of. It would be good enough to survive. So having meat to eat was far more important than anything else.

Someone said with a smile, “It’s almost the start of spring. We should find some grape seeds in the mountains and plant them here in the open space behind the outpost. When we harvest the grapes in summer, we can even make our own wine.”

“Yeah, let’s build a grape trellis. We can also plant some garlic, onions, cucumbers, and carrots next to it. During summer, we can mix the cucumber with minced garlic and some shredded carrots to pair with the wine. That will truly be a comfy life!”

With all the laughter at the entrance of the outpost, the cold of the winter seemed to be more bearable. Everyone’s mentality was different with the Lunar New Year approaching, and they were only thinking about how to celebrate the joyous occasion.

Ren Xiaosu said, “There’s something that I want to announce. I still have some family members who are staying in town that I was thinking of bringing over with the truck for the New Year. But we definitely don’t have enough houses for all of them to live in. Let’s work a little harder for the next few days so we can build another wooden house for them. Is anyone here good at carpentry?”

“Me!” Li Qingzheng said with a smile, “I worked as a carpenter for two years. I’m really good at it.”

“Alright, let’s help Ren Xiaosu build a house once we finish curing the meat,” a man said with a smile.

This man was an escapee who had fled with Ren Xiaosu’s group here. He was constantly bullied by Li Qingzheng when he first arrived at the outpost. But after everyone integrated into the group, the animosity faded.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought it was actually quite good for the group to live here in the mountains and be self-sufficient.

All of a sudden, the voice from the palace said, “A side quest has been unlocked. Ensure there are no deaths within the wolf pack for seven days to unlock a new product in the vending machine: seeds.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he froze for a second. Did the palace unlock the side quest with seeds as the reward because he thought about wanting to be self-sufficient in the mountains?

But the palace didn’t mention what the seeds would grow into. Could they have magical effects?

Chapter 223: Encircling the wolves!

The quest rewards given by the palace had always been extraordinary. The first quest reward he received was the black saber, while the second one was Explosive Poker. By now, Ren Xiaosu’s gratitude tokens had slowly increased to 460 coins. However, he had exchanged some of them for Explosive Poker cards in between, although nobody knew how many of those handy explosives he now carried.

And now that the palace issued yet another quest to him, the quest reward did not seem related to any type of lethal weapon. It was just some small “seeds.” However, Ren Xiaosu placed a great deal of importance to it.

These “seeds” represented a dream, and Ren Xiaosu could only hope that it would live up to the rewards the side quest gave.

If these seeds turned out to be something magical, Ren Xiaosu could find a plot of land and become self-sufficient!

The only problem was that it might not be so easy to ensure that there would be no deaths in the wolf pack over the next seven days.

It looked like Ren Xiaosu would have to pay extra attention to the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers. If he couldn’t complete this quest, what should he do if the palace decided not to issue another seeds-related side quest to him?

While everyone was processing the cured meat, Hu Shuo was practicing tai chi off to the side. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something, so he asked, “Are you practicing tai chi as a form of cultivation?”

“Cultivation?” Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a laugh, “I’m only doing it as a form of exercise and discipline, so don’t be overthinking things.”

Ren Xiaosu really wanted to know what powers Hu Shuo had. In fact, Hu Shuo didn’t dodge any questions, but the one who witnessed Hu Shuo fight was Chen Wudi. This rendered Ren Xiaosu speechless.

When Li Qingzheng mentioned he had been learning boxing styles since he was a child, Ren Xiaosu brushed it off like it was some kind of superstition. But seeing Hu Shuo practice tai chi every day with so much vigor, Ren Xiaosu could not help but think that Li Qingzheng also knew a powerful boxing style.

Right at this moment, over a dozen off-road vehicles suddenly roared up from the foot of the mountain. When everyone here saw the off-road vehicles, they immediately stopped working

“Put everything away,” Li Qingzheng instructed quietly.

The cured meat they were making was definitely not going to be considered official business around here. After all, their primary duty was to keep a lookout for enemies. If those people were here for an inspection, they would definitely fail them.

However, Ren Xiaosu already knew they couldn’t be the inspection personnel.

The dozen off-road vehicles arrived in such a hurry with an overbearing manner.

It looked like it was going to get really busy at this outpost.

Everyone had thought they wouldn’t have much contact with people after getting posted to this faraway outpost. But in the end, all these different people came here every few days.

What was going on here?

Ren Xiaosu quietly observed the situation. He realized Hu Shuo had gone into a house at some point. It was as though he didn’t want to come face to face with these people.

When the off-road vehicles came to a stop at the entrance of the outpost, four people stepped out from each of them. They were all dressed in combat uniforms and held the rank of officer.

On this topic, Ren Xiaosu and the others were soldiers as well, but they were all irregularly dressed with only a few of them in their military uniforms. On the other hand, the soldiers who had just arrived were all smartly dressed, resulting in a stark contrast between the two sides.

From appearances alone, Ren Xiaosu and the others looked more like they were on chow duty. All they were lacking were some aprons.

But what surprised Ren Xiaosu and the others was that there was actually someone they knew among these officers!

To be precise, it was someone the refugees knew. Back when these randomly assembled soldiers were undergoing their physicals, one of them in the group managed to pass the synchronization test!

But now, that person had moved on up to become a proper officer of the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu vaguely remembered that this refugee who had been elevated in status was called Lin Qi.

When Lin Qi got out of the vehicle, he was taken aback when he saw Ren Xiaosu and the other refugees. But right after, he laughed. “Oh, I didn’t expect to see these familiar faces.”

Ren Xiaosu and the others did not say anything. Lin Qi’s dignified look today would not give away the awful state he was in while fleeing from Stronghold 109. His polished combat boots fit him very well, as did his uniform.

Someone behind Lin Qi asked, “You actually know these people?”

Lin Qi hesitated for a moment before saying, “We came together to Stronghold 108 from Stronghold 109. Now that I’ve met them again at this remote outpost, I’ll definitely need to take care of these little brothers of mine.”

Coming from Lin Qi’s mouth, Ren Xiaosu and the others had suddenly become his little brothers.

Lin Qi was feeling a great sense of superiority. During their escape, Ren Xiaosu’s group had it so easy the entire journey. But look at how the tables had turned. Ren Xiaosu could only remain as a refugee while he had become an officer of the Li Consortium. He was even a first lieutenant!

The gulf that was the stronghold separated Lin Qi from Ren Xiaosu at this moment. Their statuses were as different as that of the heavens and the Earth.

Ren Xiaosu’s group did not really find Lin Qi to be that great. In the past, Ren Xiaosu might be envious of the stronghold residents. But now, he wasn’t the least bit envious at all.

But the other refugees who used to walk alongside Lin Qi were feeling somewhat embarrassed. When they saw Lin Qi in his uniform, they did not even dare to come forward to speak with him.

Lin Qi was getting conceited. He laughed and said, “How are you doing here at the outpost? It must be really difficult, right? If I had known that all of you were here, I would have brought over the pound of pork allocated to me by the troops so that you can have a taste of some meat. After all, it’s not easy for you all to get any meat in a place like this, unlike me who gets to have it every day.”

If he had mentioned anything else but this, it would have been fine. But when it came to the topic of having meat to eat, Ren Xiaosu and the others started looking a little funny. Honestly speaking, they would prefer having more vegetables in their diets right now. Having too much meat really did not help with their digestion.

But Ren Xiaosu felt that if Lin Qi were really willing to share some meat with them, it would mean he was still kind at heart even though he was a little showy. They would just treat it as someone giving them compensation so they could look good, something that wouldn’t hurt them at all.

But Lin Qi’s tone took a turn at this moment. “Forget it, it wouldn’t be good if I brought meat for you refugees. If I let you have a taste of meat, I’d be bringing harm to you if you don’t have the appetite for anything else in the future.”

Ren Xiaosu nearly burst out laughing. Beside him, Li Qingzheng stood up and laughed along humbly. “Dear sirs, to what do we owe your distinguished visitation?”

Lin Qi’s expression turned a little dark when his words were cut off by Li Qingzheng who changed the topic. However, he still answered very quickly, “We’re here to offer fire support to our comrades to rein in the threat of the wolves in these mountains. But this area is not going to be the main battlefield. That will be the next outpost where even more troops are currently waiting.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. Surely there was a problem with the intel the Li Consortium received, right? But he soon understood. The previous wolf attack had taken place in the vicinity of the next outpost, which was why the Li Consortium’s troops thought the wolves’ area of activity was closer to the mountain range over there.

It was no wonder more than 40 nanosoldiers had gathered here. Based on his fight with the nanosoldiers, and assuming these nanosoldiers here were at the same level as those he had faced, he felt they wouldn’t amount to any threat to the wolf pack.

However, he could not dismiss these nanosoldiers either, because he had recently realized the nanomachines might still have a lot of functions he hadn’t discovered yet. He was using it purely as external armor right now.

This was the perfect opportunity for him to observe how these nanosoldiers did battle.

Chapter 211: Investigation Division

Chapter 211: Investigation Division

They barely managed to turn a goat into cured meat with all the salt available at the outpost. Li Qingzheng was a little excited as he seemed to have discovered a new business opportunity.

“It’s almost the Lunar New Year, right? Every household, including the refugees, will want to enjoy themselves for a few days. Since we get our meat for nothing, we can keep selling them in town as long as the Wolf King continues sending their game to us,” Li Qingzheng said. Thinking of this, Li Qingzheng seemed to already be dreaming of becoming an esquire in town.

Ren Xiaosu looked at him as he rubbed the salt onto the meat. “Wouldn’t the Li Consortium’s forces do something if you try that?”

“I’ll sell them secretly,” Li Qingzheng said with a chuckle.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are you familiar with any of the shops?”

“No.” Li Qingzheng said, “But since meat is quite scarce, I think it should be easy to sell.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed, “Have you ever eaten meat during the Lunar New Year before? Everyone just makes do with some lard in their cooking and considers that a New Year celebration. The meat will only be valuable if you can sell them in the stronghold. I’ll introduce you to a friend of mine. He’s called Wang Fugui, and it won’t be difficult to get to know some people in the stronghold with his skills.”

Li Qingzheng’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

He also knew what Ren Xiaosu said was true. All of a sudden, this outpost had become a wholesale market for meat. However, the town’s purchasing power was too low for them to make much of a profit, and they might not be able to sell the meat off easily unless he was willing to reduce the price. Therefore, it was extremely important to have a qualified distributor.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu still needed to stay undercover in this outpost and wait for more opportunities to get more nanomachines… so he needed Li Qingzheng to front the dealings.

By acting as the intermediary between Li Qingzheng and Wang Fugui, he could travel frequently between the outpost and town. Moreover, they would also be able to rake in the majority of the profits.

Old Wang was still quite capable in this aspect.

But at this moment, Li Qingzheng felt a little puzzled. “Aren’t you a student from the stronghold? How did you know about life in town?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him and said, “I’m a refugee too.”

When it came to the day for the supplies to be delivered, Li Qingzheng instructed everyone to hide the cured meat and everything else in case the ruffians delivering the supplies got any ideas. “We must hide everything. If not, those bastards will for sure seize a lot of the meat when they see them.”

The truck carrying the goods and supplies came up via the mountain road. But they only unloaded a bag of rice and a bag of noodles without giving them any salt. Li Qingzheng was stunned. He asked, “What about the salt?”

“You’re already very fortunate to have rice and noodles.” The two soldiers said as they smoked their cigarettes, “Hurry up and sign for it. Otherwise, you won’t even get rice and noodles.”

“You should at least give us some salt,” Li Qingzheng said after hesitating for a moment.

“Do you want it or not? If you don’t, we’ll bring it back with us,” said one of the soldiers delivering the supplies.

Li Qingzheng said through his teeth, “Yes, I want it!”

“You’re still so picky, huh? Do you know how many refugees don’t even get to eat?!” After he said that, they got back into the truck and left. Li Qingzheng did not dare say anything else in front of them.

After the truck left, he cursed out loud, “Those bastards must have embezzled our provisions for themselves. Are they trying to force us to dig for wild vegetables in the mountains to pair with rice and noodles?”

When they opened up the bags of rice and noodles, they were shocked to discover that sand had been mixed into them!

“They are not treating us as people!” someone said indignantly.

Ren Xiaosu sighed to the students, “This is the world that y’all have never come into contact with before.”

Just after the resupply truck departed, another military transport truck drove up from the bottom of the mountain. Everyone watched quietly as they waited for the vehicle to arrive without knowing what they were here for.

When they saw a platoon with loaded guns getting out of the truck, everyone realized this was probably the combat troops of the Li Consortium. Li Qingzheng calmed himself down and put on a placating smile. “Sirs, may I know the purpose of you coming to our outpost?”

The officer in charge sneered, “Did anyone come by to inspect the outpost a few days ago?”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was thrilled. He had been waiting for the past few days for these people to come and investigate the incident, and they had finally arrived!

At first, he wondered if he could bait a few more people who had these nanomachines to come to the outpost through this incident. But he never expected that they were not stupid either as they sent over a full-strength platoon.

Of course, this was reasonable. After all, two elite members of the organization had mysteriously gone missing, so they would definitely have to take extra precautions.

Ren Xiaosu felt that this officer would probably be carrying nanomachines as well, but he could not possibly take such a big risk as attacking them now.

Li Qingzheng explained, “Yes, they’ve been here. The two of them were very young officers, but they just stayed for ten minutes before leaving.”

“Is that so?” The officer paced around the front of the outpost when he suddenly asked, “I can smell the scent of blood. Did a battle break out here?”

Everyone was stunned as they did not expect this guy to have such a keen nose. After all, several days had passed since they had skinned and cut up the meat. The scent of blood should have already dissipated from around here.

Immediately, all the soldiers behind the officer cocked their weapons and pointed them at Ren Xiaosu and the others. Li Qingzheng quickly put on a placating smile and said, “We hunted some game with our guns, and we haven’t had the time to take the cured meat we preserved out to dry.”

Then Li Qingzheng hurriedly went to open the kitchen door and revealed the cured meat on the kitchen stove.

The officer raised his eyebrows and said, “It’s no wonder there’s the gamy smell of goat in the air.” Then the officer said, “Search the outpost.”

Five soldiers stayed behind while the rest swarmed into the houses to conduct a search. Ren Xiaosu and the others did not dare move.

After a while, the soldiers trickled back to report, “We found nothing out of the ordinary.”

The officer said coldly, “It’s just a routine inspection. Please do not mind, my fellow colleagues.”

Actually, he did not feel that anything was off with this outpost. Hunting was also common at several of the other outposts, except they did not have as abundant a harvest as here.

He was mainly concerned with finding the vehicle, corpses, and belongings of the two officers. After all, it would not be easy to hide the vehicle after killing them. If anyone coveted the belongings of the two missing officers, they would surely leave behind some clues.

As he had not found any signs of a battle taking place or an abandoned vehicle on the road, he had already lowered his guard.

Based on the two officers’ patrol route and schedule, they should have been in the vicinity of these few outposts located nearby when something happened to them. However, the officer in charge of the search did not find anything unusual here.

While he questioned the outpost’s soldiers one by one, someone would make detailed notes next to him. During the questioning, he did not even notice any unusual behavior from anyone.

After questioning for a long time, he found that the people here were either obedient students who had escaped from a disaster or former refugees and hooligans. They did not even have enough sets of uniforms and weapons, so how could they possibly kill two elite soldiers?

The officer said coldly, “Let’s head to the next outpost.” He decided to have a look nearby at the other outposts first.

Ren Xiaosu felt a little sorry when he saw this great harvest of nanomachines leaving.

However, he knew the investigation would not end so easily. They would definitely come back with a more rigorous investigation, especially when the two people who had died were… the family members of the organization.

But as the military transport truck started driving down the mountain, everyone saw some wolves lurking in the forest. It seemed like the wolves were planning on following the truck.

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Were the wolves planning to kill the Li Consortium’s combat troops?

Chapter 224: Meat is our staple food

When normal soldiers came to this outpost, they would be ferried in military transport trucks. But these nanosoldiers who were all at least first lieutenants had arrived in over a dozen off-road vehicles.

Ren Xiaosu checked out how many of them there were and counted 48. If this number of nanosoldiers who had gathered here was only serving as support for those at the next outpost, then how many people were in the main force over there?

The outpost’s soldiers stood at the side, not daring to utter a word. Only Li Qingzheng went over to the officers to ask if they needed any assistance and if they wanted to eat lunch here.

However, Lin Qi proudly laughed and said, “We’re on official duty here, so how could we have time to eat lunch here? We usually carry our own rations when we’re out on a mission. If we eat anything unhygienic here at your place and get the runs, none of you will be able to answer for it.”

“Yes, that’s right.” Li Qingzheng pretended to smile and said, “You’re absolutely correct.”

In reality, Lin Qi’s resentment was mainly focused on Ren Xiaosu. After all, he did not have anything against the rest of the refugees. Just based on the difference of their statuses, he was quite satisfied.

But during their escape, Ren Xiaosu’s group really had it too easy while the rest of them had to endure starvation. Now that he was elevated in status, he naturally wanted to compare.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu could also understand this.

At this moment, Lin Qi said, “I heard that the rice supply sent here was mixed with sand. I had heard about how the living conditions of those of you who were recruited by the private army during the expansion isn’t too good. Do you usually have enough to eat?”

“It’s not too bad.” Li Qingzheng said with a smile, “We’re still able to pick some wild vegetables to add to our meals sometimes.”

He couldn’t possibly tell them that they had meat to eat, right? There was no such thing as not having enough to eat around here, but it would definitely intensify the conflict if he said that now.

However, Lin Qi continued, “You won’t have enough strength if you just eat wild vegetables and not have a staple food. Don’t let it get in the way of performing your sentry duty.”

Chen Wudi asked Ren Xiaosu at the side, “Master, what does a staple food mean?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before giving him a short answer. “Food that you always eat.”

When Lin Qi heard the conversation between Chen Wudi and Ren Xiaosu, he said to Chen Wudi with a laugh, “You’re such a crazy fool. A staple food refers to food like rice and noodles.”

Chen Wudi shook his head. “That’s not right, our staple food is meat.”

Lin Qi: “???”

Li Qingzheng and Ren Xiaosu realized this was going to be bad. That fool of a kid had somehow spilled the beans. However, they then discovered that Lin Qi did not seem to believe what Chen Wudi had said. They heard Lin Qi say with a sigh, “You’re even turning to lying in order to boost your pitiful self-esteem, I see.”

But even though Lin Qi did not believe it, the other officers started getting suspicious. “You all have meat here?”

Ren Xiaosu’s heart sank. Some of these people were quite astute. Li Qingzheng laughed and replied, “Haha, he was just kidding. How could we possibly have any meat here?”

But that soldier did not let go of the matter just because of Li Qingzheng’s explanation. He went towards outpost. “There’s something off about your outpost.”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “So you’ve found out?” Ren Xiaosu then headed to one of the houses in the outpost. He opened the door of that house with everyone looking… only to reveal Hu Shuo inside!

It was obvious that Hu Shuo was a high-ranking official in the stronghold. How else could he command a group of elite soldiers comparable to those the consortium had?

Since this old man was planning to spend the Lunar New Year here, Ren Xiaosu brought him out to shield them from any further trouble during a crisis!

Hu Shuo looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu, and Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Hu Shuo as well. Hu Shuo got so angry he almost laughed. He had specifically gone into the house to avoid meeting these people!

One of the officers said in surprise, “S-Sir, what are you doing here?”

Hu Shuo slowly stepped out. “Oh, I’m here to investigate something, so my little friends here at the outpost are providing me with some assistance.”

“Sorry, we didn’t expect you to be here. I’m a soldier of the 7th Brigade and have been assigned to the Divine Arms Battalion,” the soldier said humbly while bowing deeply.

For a refugee like Lin Qi who had only recently been recruited into the combat troops, he definitely would not know who Hu Shuo was. But this officer had been a soldier of the Li Consortium for a while and recognized Hu Shuo immediately.

When Ren Xiaosu saw this unfold, he nearly gasped. Just who was this Hu Shuo supposed to be? This nanosoldier was behaving so arrogantly just now, so what made him become so humble all of a sudden?

If only Chen Wudi could explain it more clearly; then Ren Xiaosu could have at least figured out how strong this Hu Shuo was.

Hu Shuo smiled amiably at the officers and said, “You guys have work to do, so I won’t waste your time.”

That soldier immediately stood to attention. “Yes, sir!” Then he ordered the others to quickly unload their gear from the vehicles and wear it.

Ren Xiaosu observed them and discovered there wasn’t much of a difference between these nanosoldiers’ gear and what the ordinary soldiers wore. They were all standard-issue combat uniforms and individual weapons of war, while one of the officers was carrying a portable radio transceiver. After all, the distance between the outposts were some dozens of kilometers away from each other, so they needed to use the radios to communicate and share intel.

The only difference was that these soldiers were each equipped with a long saber that was sheathed in a black leather scabbard. Ren Xiaosu could not tell what kind of material this sword was made of. But if it was something the nanosoldiers carried, it probably wasn’t any ordinary weapon.

Someone asked that soldier while they were donning their gear, “Who’s that old man?”

That soldier’s expression changed. “Don’t ask. Let’s head into the mountains and get out of here.” He sounded terrified of Hu Shuo.

When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he couldn’t figure out what was so scary about Hu Shuo.

Everyone at the outpost watched as these officers fell silent en masse before hurrying off deep into Mount Kun. After they left, Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “I won’t ask you any questions for the next three days.”

When Hu Shuo heard this, the annoyance of getting “betrayed” by Ren Xiaosu lessened a little…

Ren Xiaosu followed up with a smile and said, “You see, it can’t get out that we have all this meat here. Otherwise, you’re not going to have a peaceful New Year either.”

“Don’t take this undeserved gain for granted,” Hu Shuo snapped at him.

“But I’m curious about something.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “I know that Lin Qi too, and he didn’t used to be a soldier. He only joined the army for a few days, but they’re already sending him out on a mission?”

Hu Shuo shot him a look. “What are you trying to ask?”

“Soldiers are required to train for a long time before being deployed.” Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “Whether it be their discipline or combat skills, those are not qualities that can be instilled quickly. So I’m curious why the Li Consortium is so anxious to deploy them. They can’t even be considered recruits, right?”

Chapter 225: Ren Xiaosu, the snake catcher

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, whether a soldier was capable of going into combat was absolutely not only dependent on their capability. There was also the instinctive sense for combat they had and their skills.

If a normal person gained newfound strength, that person might not even know how to wield or control it.

Even though Lin Qi and the other officers were fully geared and were even equipped with special close quarters combat weapons, did they really know how to use them?

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt that if he could anticipate such a problem, the Li Consortium would definitely have also thought of it.

“Because they need to gather actual combat data and collect the data of nanomachine use in battle.” Hu Shuo did not hide it from Ren Xiaosu. “Ever since the breakthrough in neurotech that made it possible for nanomachines to interface with neurons, there hasn’t been any actual combat testing by the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers. So they’re curious about how effective these nanosoldiers are.”

“Aren’t they afraid of taking huge losses?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“What losses?” Hu Shuo laughed. “It’s only a few lives, that’s all. The ratio of nanosoldiers selected from the screening isn’t as low as you might imagine. Don’t tell me you haven’t realized that, other than the one experienced soldier leading the group, the rest of the troops were made up of refugees? To them, soldiers trained with their money are like gold, while refugees only serve as a tool. Did you really think they lack candidates with high synchronization rates?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So these people… they were all sent here to die for the sake of collecting data! Was the Li Consortium that vicious?!

“Wait, isn’t a requirement of 80% synchronization very high?” Ren Xiaosu could not understand this. “What exactly does this synchronization rate refer to?”

“The synchronization rate is the degree to which you can perfectly control the nanomachines.” Hu Shuo explained, “But this isn’t set in stone. By undergoing physical training and responsiveness coaching, it can be steadily improved. Of course, there’s also a limit to everyone’s improvement potential. It’s just like how some people naturally have better athleticism than others. It’s also down to one’s talent as well.”

That meant that even those with a low synchronization rate might still be able to control the nanomachines. It was only a matter of how efficiently they could do it. For example, even though you might order it to turn into external armor now, it only turned into external armor a year later.

If that was the case, then what was the point of having the nanomachines turn into armor?! Wouldn’t it be more efficient to turn it straight into a coffin instead? The user would have already died anyway!

However, even though Ren Xiaosu’s synchronization was 0%, he sensed that the nanomachines were very obedient to his commands. They would do whatever he needed them to do without any delay.

He asked, “Then what does having an extremely low synchronization rate mean? Does it mean that the user is a vegetable?”

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu meaningfully and said, “There are special cases too. After a person becomes a supernatural being, their independent consciousness will reject the nanomachines, thus leading to a low synchronization rate. That means that person has an extremely powerful consciousness.”

Ren Xiaosu froze at the words. However, he soon got around it when he realized Hu Shuo was bluffing!

If the Li Consortium already knew this from the research, he and Chen Wudi, who had gotten a synchronization rate of 0% and 1% respectively, would have been targeted by the Li Consortium! Hah! Who would have thought Hu Shuo was quite cunning!

However, Ren Xiaosu still had doubts about the Li Consortium’s decision to send in recruits like Lin Qi and the others to take on the wolves. “Don’t the nanomachines cost anything? The nanomachines they have in them should be worth a lot of money too,
right?”

“Nanomachines can be recycled.” Hu Shuo said calmly, “Even if the soldiers die, the nanomachines won’t die. When the real elite troops get here, they’ll be able to retrieve all the nanomachines scattered in the wilderness.”

That did sound quite logical. And thus, Ren Xiaosu had nothing more to say.

However, he did not think that Hu Shuo was totally correct. At the very least, this group of soldiers’ nanomachines were not going to be retrievable by the Li Consortium anymore.

The snowy mountain was covered in fog.

Lin Qi and the rest of the troops were walking in the wilderness at this time and using the radio to maintain communications with the main force at the neighboring outpost. This coordination made it feel like it was a military exercise.

The main man of the group was the soldier who spoke to Hu Shuo, while the rest of the troops were just as Hu Shuo had said, recruits who had just joined the Li Consortium’s combat troops.

They had thought that after joining the army, they would be subject to very rigorous training as recruits, as well as undergo military-style training on how to operate the nanomachines. But that wasn’t the case at all. After undergoing just some brief training, they were immediately assigned on their first ever mission.

But of course, no one rejected this. After all, they heard of how tough the training was for recruits, so it was best that they did not have to suffer through any of that.

No one felt suspicious of anything. The joy of having their statuses elevated had blunted their judgment. Even though there was a mismatch in the information they knew, it left them with no opportunity to be judgmental.

Lin Qi only thought that since they met the synchronization standard, it meant they were special.

“Captain Zhou, who was that old man?” Lin Qi asked.

“Don’t ask,” Captain Zhou answered. “Just don’t provoke him. In the entire Li Consortium army, he’s one you should not offend most of
all.”

“What should we do next?” someone asked.

Captain Zhou thought for a bit before saying, “Scout ahead!”

One of the officers suddenly stepped forward. A silvery liquid metal started seeping out from underneath his skin and landed on the ground.

In an instant, that silvery liquid metal suddenly turned into five small, silvery snakes that slithered towards the depths of the mountain.

Captain Zhou asked, “What’s the furthest range of your control?”

“It was assessed at 418 meters during the previous test,” the platoon member replied.

“Alright, that’s good enough for our purposes.” Captain Zhou said, “Keep a careful lookout on the surroundings and maintain the range so you don’t lose control of the nanomachines. The key is to not be careless. Once you discover anything odd with the nanomachines, inform me.”

“Roger,” answered the platoon member.

Lin Qi suddenly said, “But Captain, this isn’t where the wolves were active. Besides, we have five squads conducting a simultaneous search. There shouldn’t be any danger, right?”

Honestly, if a battle were to break out, it would be really difficult to depend on Lin Qi and the others even if they had nanomachines in them, because they did not have any actual combat experience.

Captain Zhou looked at him and said, “Just listen to my orders and everything will be fine.”

But right at this moment, the soldier controlling the nanorobotic, silver snakes suddenly exclaimed, “This is bad!”

Captain Zhou was startled. “What’s the matter? Is it the wolves?”

“No… I don’t think so.” The soldier hesitated for a moment before saying, “A shadow just flashed by up ahead and stole away one of my silver snakes.”

Captain Zhou froze for a moment. “It didn’t do anything else and only took your silver snake away?”

“That’s right. It ran off after catching it.”

Everyone was starting to get suspicious. What the fuck just happened?!

Chapter 226: Stealing nanomachines for fun!

Was it the wolves? No.

The soldier’s silver snakes were fitted with extra camera equipment that could send back an image feed via the nanomachines’ neural connection. So even though that shadow was extremely fast and the image was blurry, the soldier was very sure it wasn’t a wolf.

Captain Zhou looked at him and wondered, “If it’s not a wolf, what is it?”

“It looked more like a… shadow,” the platoon member said. But at this moment, he exclaimed again, “Oh no, my silver snake is getting out of my range!”

He then chased after it and tried to keep within the control range of the nanorobotic, silver snake. However, his speed was way lower than his opponent’s. Before he could even cover two steps, his neural connection to that silver snake was completely cut off!

Captain Zhou’s expression sank. He had not believed they would encounter any danger out here. But who could have thought they would lose a portion of their nanomachines less than three hours after entering the mountain!

And they didn’t even know who did it! And for what motive!

If the opponent were a human, why did they want to steal the nanorobotic snake? As if they could use it after stealing it?!

“Captain, what do we do now?” someone asked.

Captain Zhou said with a cold expression, “Where did he run off to?”

“To the southwest!” that platoon member said.

“Give chase!” Captain Zhou said, “It’s only one person, isn’t it? Make a call to the next outpost with the radio. Tell them we’ve discovered a new target that might be even more important than the wolves. Let them know we’ll be pursuing this target with everything we’ve got and will be disengaging from Operation: Wolf Encirclement.”

In truth, this Captain Zhou was the only person in the platoon who knew why they had been deployed to the mountains. There was no hurry in trying to encircle the wolves. What was more important was to ensure they did not lose the nanomachines.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had just received the nanorobotic snake, already in an idle state, from his shadow clone. He had thought it would take a nasty battle for him to get his hands on the nanomachines. But that would not have been worth it at all, and he still preferred picking them off the nanosoldiers who had gotten separated from their groups…

But sometimes, luck could even make a person hand you a pillow right when you were feeling sleepy. Someone had actually volunteered to send some nanomachines his way.

In just two seconds, the palace reset the nanomachines back to their factory settings by clearing the remote access protocol and executing a series of other instructions. The tiny, nanorobotic silver snake transformed back into liquid metal and melded together with the rest of the nanomachines within Ren Xiaosu’s body.

It was like the newly gained nanomachines had been handed to him on a silver platter.

However, Ren Xiaosu was sad. The size of this silver snake was too small. It wasn’t easy for him to control the shadow clone before finding this one snake. If he had to go and continue searching for more of them, how many years would that take him?

No! A glimmer suddenly appeared in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes!

Lin Qi and the others kept going deeper and deeper into the forested mountains. However, they did not head up and were instead walking along the mountain pass down towards the valley.

“Captain, why don’t we give up on the chase?” Lin Qi said, a little worried. “It’s only a silver snake. I’m afraid something bad will happen if we walk too far.”

Captain Zhou shot him a look and said, “If you’re so afraid of death, why be a soldier? The wolf pack isn’t in our direction, so what’s there to be afraid of? Keep marching!”

As that was being said, a platoon member whisper-shouted, “Captain, look over there in the valley!”

Everyone turned to look at the valley and noticed a shadow dash by. That “person” looked like he had been resting over there and wasn’t expecting Captain Zhou and the others to chase him all the way here!

“Don’t let him get out of our pursuit range!” Captain Zhou ordered ruthlessly.

In an instant, the remaining four nanorobotic snakes slithered towards where the shadow had disappeared. Simultaneously, the other soldiers rushed towards the forested wilderness as a silvery glow emanated from the blood vessels in their skin.

Could the nanomachines be constantly running in their bodies and only needed a thought from their owners to instantly form into sophisticated support machinery that could aid them in achieving an even greater strength? Strictly speaking, these nanosoldiers’ strength and speed had already exceeded that of normal people. They were basically superhumans created through technology!

These nanosoldiers rushed across the uneven terrain as though it was flat ground. There were even some people who could leap across distances of more than ten meters with a single leap!

Endless gunfire rang out as they chased the shadow clone while concentrating their firepower on it. It was as though they were attempting to blast the shadow clone to shreds with their overwhelming firepower.

But even if they were physically strong, they were still recruits who had not gone through firearms training. While moving at a high speed, they could not even manage the most basic of aiming.

“Don’t waste your ammo.” Captain Zhou sneered. “Catch him first and take it from there.”

But during the pursuit, only the soldier controlling the nanorobotic snakes had suspicions. It felt like this shadow’s speed was slower than when it escaped after taking away the snake.

But since he had precious little combat experience, he wasn’t willing to casually pass judgment on the situation.

As they were closing the distance between themselves and the shadow clone, the silver snakes had already closed the gap. However, the shadow clone suddenly reached behind and took a swipe. No one knew what it was swiping at, but the shadow clone immediately picked up its pace and disappeared!

The speed at which it ran off stunned Captain Zhou and the others. ‘How can that be a fucking human?! Just what are you after? If you’re so good at running, why didn’t you run faster just now?’

But a second later, the nanosoldier controlling the silver snakes caught up to the rest. He panted out, “This is bad!”

His nanomachines had been used to form the nanorobotic snakes for scouting ahead, so when the group gave chase with all their might, he fell behind their pace.

Captain Zhou frowned and said, “What’s the matter?”

The nanosoldier said, sounding devastated, “The silver snakes have all been taken away….”

It was only at this moment that everyone realized it. Their supernatural opponent had only used this as a tactic to slowly pull the silver snakes closer to him so he could capture them all at once.

Their opponent had been targeting the nanorobotic snakes from the very beginning!

What the hell? Was he unsatisfied with how long it took to capture them one by one? Was that not enough to satisfy him?

Captain Zhou stood atop a rock looking resigned

At present, before they even encountered any of the wolves, one of the nanosoldiers had already had their nanomachines forcefully taken away. Was it even acceptable for a nanosoldier to not have any nanomachines in them?

Previously, he felt that using the nanomachines as external scouting equipment was a really good idea since it could vastly raise the efficiency of their reconnaissance.

After this incident, Captain Zhou felt he would have to go back to the general staff to report to them that this method wasn’t going to work anymore. There was someone who specialized in stealing nanomachines for fun.

“Let’s retreat.” Captain Zhou said coldly, “We can’t continue chasing him.”

After weighing the pros and cons, he felt they might suffer even greater losses if they continued the chase. They were obviously not on the same level as their opponent, so it was necessary to cut their losses as soon as possible.

But right at this moment, wolves howled from a hillside not far from them. Captain Zhou’s face turned gloomy.

Chapter 227: Well, I don’t care!

When the howling sounded, Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and every one of the officers could feel their hearts sink. During the chase, none of them had considered the wolf pack a threat.

To them, the wolf pack should have been very far away, near where most of the troops had gathered to encircle them. But they realized now to their horror that the wolves’ area of activity was actually close to them!

How did it turn out like this? The outpost the wolf pack attacked was very far from here. If this was where the wolf pack was active, then why was Ren Xiaosu’s outpost unharmed?

Captain Zhou thought about it for two seconds before saying coldly, “I’m afraid the scale of the operation at the neighboring outpost must’ve been too big. That’s why the wolves were alarmed and came over here. We underestimated how strongly they can smell danger and keep clear of it.”

“That could be possible.” Lin Qi said, sounding afraid, “So what should we do now?”

“What else can we do? Rapidly retreat!” Captain Zhou whisper-shouted, “If you don’t want to die, hurry up and get out of here. We’ll head to the outpost. Who knows, the wolves might get attracted to those people. That’s our only hope of survival!”

As they were talking, Captain Zhou reactivated his nanomachines and became as quick and powerful as a mech. When the others saw this, they stopped caring about other things and hastily followed suit.

But not everyone in the platoon was equipped with nanomachines. The soldier who had been controlling the nanorobotic snakes roared from behind them, “Take me with you!”

Without any nanomachines, he was just a normal person. He had absolutely no chance to escape the pursuit of the wolves. As such, he required someone to help him if he did not want to die.

But his comrades who had been addressing each other as brothers did not even turn around to look at him when they heard his shouts.

This was the result of not having undergone any formal military training. In the face of danger, they were no different from refugees!

Looking at his platoon mates running further and further away, this abandoned nanosoldier started getting desperate. He could already hear the wolves moving in the forested hill behind him!

For some reason, he regretted becoming a nanosoldier. Although he would have become a refugee if he didn’t become a nanosoldier, he might have been able to live a little longer. But right at this moment, he looked back and was stunned, because he saw not only the wolf pack; a young man was with them as well!

The young man and the wolves were coming towards him together. The young man and the Wolf King were walking side by side while the rest of the wolves followed them. It looked like his standing in the group was very high.

But wasn’t this young man that Ren Xiaosu they met earlier at the outpost?

Then Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry about them getting away. I’ve already calculated their speed and used the shadow clone to lead them here into the depths of the mountain. They’re running for their lives right now with everything they have, but those nanomachines will run out of power in approximately ten minutes. After that, those few dozen people will revert back to normal humans.”

Just as Ren Xiaosu had speculated, the most lethal limitation the nanomachines had right now was its energy source. By depending on a bioenergy source to charge, they were utterly unable to keep up with the rate of power consumption. Therefore, nanosoldiers were best suited for blitzkrieg, not conventional warfare. Of course, Ren Xiaosu was unsure if the Li Consortium had solved this problem internally yet.

The Wolf King and Ren Xiaosu came before that nanosoldier, and the two of them communicated by guessing each other’s intentions. That nanosoldier suddenly felt like he had already been forgotten by them at this moment. ‘Aren’t you two looking down on me too much?’

But why was this young man in front of him able to stand with the wolf pack without being harmed? Wasn’t this unbelievable? Wait! Could the attack on the neighboring outpost have something to do with this young man?

Suddenly, the Wolf King took a look at this nanosoldier and then raised its paw to prod at Ren Xiaosu like it wanted something.

Ren Xiaosu’s expression changed. “He doesn’t have any more nanomachines in him, so I’m not going to trade him to you. Besides, I took the nanomachines that he used to have with my own method!”

The nanosoldier was stunned as he listened to Ren Xiaosu. He realized the shadow was Ren Xiaosu’s doing. So that meant this young man was also a supernatural being!

However, the Wolf King shook its head. “Well, I don’t care!”

Ren Xiaosu took out a vial of black medicine and handed it to the Wolf King unhappily. “Whatever, I’m not going to argue with a wolf.”

When the Wolf King saw the black medicine, it became happier. Ren Xiaosu said, “Alright, I’ll go on ahead to give chase. Come to me after you’ve dealt with him.” Ren Xiaosu then got ready to leave.

The nanosoldier who was about to get left behind was terrified. “Don’t go, we’re both humans. How can you let the wolves eat me?”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said with a smile, “I’d rather dance with wolves than associate with people like you.”

After saying that, Ren Xiaosu left and headed into the forested hills. The nanosoldier could see the solitude and determination on the young man’s back. In this moment, the nanosoldier figured out a lot of things. So when they said their staple food at the outpost was meat, they weren’t actually lying about it.

So the wolf pack had not attacked the outpost over here because Ren Xiaosu was there. That was all there was to it!

And he noticed this person called Ren Xiaosu knew a great deal about the nanomachines.

They had been wondering why that shadow was trying to steal the nanomachines. It wasn’t like it could use them anyway.

But he wasn’t so sure anymore!

As Ren Xiaosu walked forward, he heard a scream coming from behind him. However, his expression did not change much.

Including the five silver snakes, they were enough to allow his hand to be covered with the nanomachines up to his wrist. There was still a long way to go before he could gather enough nanomachines to piece together a full set of armor.

Lin Qi and the others were running with all their might through the forested hill. They didn’t even care about their faces getting cut by protruding tree branches anymore. The nanomachines they had in their bodies were still not enough to support the entirety of their structure. So their skin was not that different from that of normal people.

As they ran, Captain Zhou slowed down a little. “Seems like the wolf pack isn’t coming after

US?”

“Yeah.” Lin Qi said with a look of consternation, “Could it be that they didn’t realize we were there?”

“That’s impossible!” Captain Zhou coldly rebuked. “There must be some other reason for it.”

A hypothesis came to Captain Zhou at this moment. He wondered if the wolf pack somehow knew the nanomachines had a limited duration of charge and was waiting until their power ran out before making their move.

However, he immediately brushed off this idea. After all, how could the wolves possibly know something like that? There were not even many people within the Li Consortium’s military that knew about this other than the nanosoldiers themselves.

Lin Qi and the others had already discarded some of their supplies. They were not so stupid as to throw away their weapons. Instead, they got rid of their combat rations.

But Lin Qi suddenly realized something. Right from the beginning, Captain Zhou had never opened his backpack. Currently, the silvery glow from everyone else’s blood vessels was starting to dim. But that was not the case for Captain Zhou’s blood vessels.

Lin Qi asked, “Captain, is there some sort of charger in your backpack?”

Captain Zhou gave him a look. “Don’t ask if it’s none of your business.”

Chapter 228: The wolves turn intelligent

It wasn’t until when Lin Qi and the other soldiers noticed a problem with Captain Zhou that they finally realized he might be carrying a wireless charging pack for his nanomachines.

It was precisely because of this equipment that Captain Zhou’s nanomachines were still at full power while everyone else’s nanomachines were close to dying.

In this time of danger, Lin Qi and the others were all hoping to charge their nanomachines as well. If they could, their chances of survival would be higher. So Lin Qi and a few others decided to ask Captain Zhou for his backpack after exchanging looks with each other.

But before they could ask, chaos broke out in the forest behind them. Huge beasts seemed to be moving within it.

“Damn, the wolf pack has caught up!” Captain Zhou shouted, “Run!”

Who could have the chance to say anything at such a time? They could only continue fleeing for their lives!

But when they realized the wolves had caught up to them and were already flanking them, everyone forced themselves to run even faster at the sight of this in fear of getting caught by the wolves.

Several nanosoldiers whose nanomachines were almost dead started falling behind. However, none of their comrades intended to help them.

They just got more and more desperate as they ran, to the point that some even forgot they had guns they could use to protect themselves with from the wolves’ attacks.

Ren Xiaosu hid somewhere on the hillside and watched, sighing. The Li Consortium had indeed sent them out here to die. If this group of nanosoldiers were made up of the Li Consortium’s combat troops, there would have at least been some order even if they were retreating, not a total rout like what was happening

At the end of the day, these were just normal people who happened to be able to control the nanomachines.

Some of them might not even have willpower on par with most people.

However, Ren Xiaosu was actually more curious about what an elite nanosoldier of the Li Consortium was like.

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu noticed something different about Captain Zhou. He discovered the power of his nanomachines did not seem to be weakening.

Why was that?

A moment later, the wolves suddenly converged from both flanks for the attack. They forcefully separated the group of fleeing nanosoldiers in two. Only now did the nanosoldiers who were under attack finally remember that they were still carrying guns. They immediately thought to shoot the wolves. But they turned out to be so stupid they even forgot how to disengage the safety on their guns!

Some of them drew their sabers from their waists. The sword was a melee weapon the Li Consortium had specially issued the nanosoldiers so they could make use of their superstrength when it became necessary.

To these nanosoldiers, a sword was far more useful than a gun when the battle became a close quarters fight.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the saber in their hands from nearby and saw the blade was orange. However, the edge of the blade was silver just like the nanomachines.

When the blade was swung at the wolves, the silver edge of the blade pulsed and felt like a ripple spreading outwards.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if the edge was also composed of nanomachines.

When one of the soldiers’ sabers cut into a wolf’s body, that wolf’s abdomen was split open like it encountered a burning blade!

When the wolf pack saw the power of this weapon, they stopped pushing for a frontal assault. Rather, they went in from behind to sneak attack!

Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and the others did not even turn around and continued fleeing for their lives. If they didn’t think of something, they would die as well. This was also the case for Captain Zhou whose nanomachines were still at full power as he wouldn’t be able to outrun the wolves!

“Who has the cluster grenades? Hand them to me!” Captain Zhou roared. His life dangling by a thread, his commanding voice was even starting to sound a little hoarse.

Someone’s expression changed when he heard that. “But our comrades are still behind us!”

Some people were still firing their guns within the wolf pack. This indicated that some of the people surrounded by the wolves were still alive!

Captain Zhou sneered, “If you want to sympathize with them, go ahead and save them. Otherwise, don’t put on a false front with me. Didn’t we already leave our other comrades behind to escape?”.

No one made a sound. Still, someone could not help but comment, “You’re trying to blow up our comrades.”

“Comrades?” Captain Zhou gave a snort of disgust and said, “You people are not fit to be called my comrades! Our platoon still has ten cluster grenades. Hand them all over.”

With that, a few people took out several grenades from their backpacks.

When Ren Xiaosu saw this from a distance, he looked disturbed. These people had actually brought cluster grenades with them?!

Although the wolves could withstand bullets pretty well, they wouldn’t stand a chance against these grenades. If some of the wolves got blown up, wouldn’t Ren Xiaosu fail his side
quest?

When he thought about that, he ordered his shadow clone into the battlefield. Ren Xiaosu also rushed towards the Wolf King at the back and whisper-shouted, “Stop giving chase! It’s too dangerous!”

The majority of the wolves immediately stopped in their tracks. However, one of the wolves was in bloodlust mode. After biting several of the nanosoldiers dead, it was about to rush forward again. This wolf’s social standing was second only to that of the Wolf King, and Ren Xiaosu often saw it standing guard by the Wolf King as well. It was basically the second-in-command.

As a result, the shadow clone rushed in front of the wolf just as it tried to charge forward. The shadow clone picked it up and ran back to the wolf pack. That wolf got angry and kept roaring frantically. However, the shadow clone did not even care and just carried it away!

The Wolf King’s appearance changed when it saw the shadow clone carrying the wolf. This thing was that strong?!

Captain Zhou and the soldiers pulled the safety pins out of the cluster grenades all at once and were about to throw them at the wolf pack behind them. However, they were shocked to discover the wolves had already stopped in their tracks and were no longer chasing them. In addition, one of the wolves that had been bounding towards them was being carried away in the opposite direction by the corporeal shadow.

Lin Qi and the others were all dumbfounded by the sight. What was the meaning of this? Why had they given up the chase?

And why was that shadow stopping that wolf from charging?

It wasn’t that they were inexperienced and had not seen the world yet, but this sight before them was too ridiculous. Some of the soldiers were looking at the cluster grenades with smoke coming out of them and asked, “Should we still throw them?”

“Throw them!” Captain Zhou then tossed the grenade in his hand at the wolves. If they didn’t, they would blow themselves up.

But by throwing the grenades, they couldn’t even blow up any of the wolves! Had these wolves turned intelligent?

Loud booms thundered through the wilderness of the mountains, and birds scattered into the sky like a spiraling, dark cloud.

The Wolf King silently watched as smoke, branches, and leaves were sent flying by the blasts. It knew about the firearms and explosives humans used and wasn’t all that surprised.

It looked at Ren Xiaosu and nodded its head at him as though to convey its gratitude. If not for Ren Xiaosu stopping them just in time, the wolf pack would probably have suffered major casualties.

But of course, Ren Xiaosu could not say he had interfered only because of the quest. But actually, even without it, Ren Xiaosu would still not have stood by and watched. They were partners, after all.

He looked at the nanosoldiers who had already been killed by the wolf pack. The silvery nanomachines were already starting to seep out from under the skins of the bodies. Ren Xiaosu counted up nine nanosoldiers who’d died from the encirclement by the wolves in what was a fairly efficient attack. It was just a pity that they had allowed Lin Qi and the rest of the soldiers to get away due to the cluster grenades being thrown.

Chapter 229: Chen Wudi’s question

Ren Xiaosu looked at the Wolf King and said, “Don’t continue giving chase. We’re not far from the outpost anymore. Besides, they still have some cluster grenades left. I saw them take out eight, but they only threw three at us.”

The Wolf King nodded and expressed that it wouldn’t be giving further chase.

Ren Xiaosu took out nine vials of the black medicine for the Wolf King and said in a serious tone, “Don’t use it too frequently.”

The Wolf King was silent.

“It’s time to go. Head deeper into the mountains this time. After this group of people get back, there will be a large number of troops coming here. When that happens, there will be real danger,” Ren Xiaosu said.

The wolf pack would only be safe if they hid deep in the mountains. Beyond the quest, Ren Xiaosu was also hoping that no harm would befall the wolves.

Although the nanomachines were a priority, he believed he would still find a lot of chances to get his hands on them.

On top of that nanosoldier who had been killed earlier, a total of ten nanosoldiers had died this time. Ren Xiaosu took their sabers and put them away in his storage space. He was in no hurry to inspect them since he had to run back to the outpost.

When Ren Xiaosu took a detour and returned to the outpost, everyone there had already been startled by the explosions caused by the cluster grenades. They were all standing out in the open space in front of the outpost and discussing what might have just happened. Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the chaos and went over to the group to join the discussion with everyone else.

By the time Ren Xiaosu got back, Lin Qi and the other officers had still not made it back to the outpost yet. The off-road vehicles they arrived in were still parked there quietly.

But it wasn’t long before the originally dignified-looking nanosoldiers sprinted out of the mountain path. They all looked miserable and pathetic.

They saw the outpost’s soldiers chatting, and Ren Xiaosu was the first to rush over and ask, “What happened in the mountains just now? Are you all OK?”

Although Ren Xiaosu looked extremely sincere, why would Lin Qi and the officers care to answer a refugee like him?

“Make way.” Lin Qi sneered as Ren Xiaosu stepped aside for him.

The outpost’s soldiers watched as these nanosoldiers got back into their off-road vehicles and drove back down the mountain. Even though they didn’t show it on their faces, people like Li Qingzheng could still sense the fear in them.

“There were more of them when they went into the mountains.” Wang Yuchi said, “I counted 48 of them earlier when they went in, but they only have 38 people now.”

Li Qingzheng nodded and said, “It looks like a battle broke out after they headed into the mountains. Was it with the wolf pack? Everyone, remember this carefully. We don’t know anything about the wolf pack lurking around here, understand? All of us ate the meat the wolves brought to us, so it won’t do any of us any good if this gets out.”

“Understood!” everyone at the outpost said in unison. They had somehow become a group that shared a secret.

In fact, psychologists had conducted studies into this a long time ago and came to the conclusion that people got closer if they shared a common secret.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized Hu Shuo had not stepped out of his house all this while. It was as though he wasn’t interested in the goings-on of the outside world.

But of course, there could also be another possibility, and that was Hu Shuo not wanting to break the status quo with everyone at the outpost.

Actually, any smart person who stayed here for a few days would surely know there was something fishy about this outpost. How else could the matter of the wolves sending meat over be explained?

What? Did the wolf pack have to pay a property tax to the outpost? That wouldn’t be believable at all!

But Hu Shuo did not seem too concerned about this and looked like he just wanted to spend the Lunar New Year here in peace.

After Lin Qi and the officers left, no one else came to the outpost again for the next two days. If it was really as Hu Shuo had said about the Li Consortium wanting to gather real combat data. The Li Consortium’s research laboratory was most likely working around the clock to analyze Captain Zhou and his platoon’s data.

But Ren Xiaosu knew that whatever would come could not be avoided. It was just a matter of time. He only hoped that the wolves had already taken the rest of their pack far away from here.

Hu Shuo continued holding classes as usual for Ren Xiaosu and the others during these two days. Everything was calm, as though nothing at all had happened. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu also kept his promise to not ask any questions in class for three days. This made Hu Shuo feel like there really was an air of festivity.

As for what this air of festivity was, it was probably being comfortable in both mind and body, the feeling of not having to work.

During dinner, Hu Shuo reminded Ren Xiaosu, “When you say you won’t ask questions for three days, that doesn’t mean you can save three days’ worth of questions to ask me on the fourth day. Don’t try any tricks, understand? It won’t work!”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had not expected Hu Shuo to anticipate this and shut down his plan. Experience really did come with
age.

At this moment, Chen Wudi, who was eating next to them, asked, “I have a question I’d like your help with.”

Hu Shuo looked to Chen Wudi and said kindly, “You’re different from Ren Xiaosu, so ask
away.”

Chen Wudi nodded and said, “The height and diameter of a cone, SC, are equal, and the radius of SC and a cylinder, OM…” Chen Wudi then looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Master, I don’t remember the rest of the question.”

Ren Xiaosu patiently reminded him, “And the radius of SC and a cylinder, OM, are also equivalent, as are their volumes. What is the ratio of the curved surface area of SC and OM?”

Hu Shuo looked up into the starry sky and said with a sigh, “You’re… just… great…”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “If you don’t want to answer this question, then fine, I can ask a different question.”

When Hu Shuo saw Ren Xiaosu being so serious, he turned around and looked at him. “Let me hear what you have to ask first.”

“Who exactly are you?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Hu Shuo was a little taken aback. He suddenly realized this question was much simpler to answer than the other questions Ren Xiaosu had. Besides, he had not shied away from anything either. It wasn’t like he couldn’t say
it.

“I, Hu Shuo, served as director of the Li Consortium’s 1st Army Group’s Office of Special Investigations. My rank is lieutenant general, and I’m the interim overseer of Stronghold 108,” Hu Shuo answered.

Ever since the incident at Stronghold 109, the Li Consortium quickly took over control of all the strongholds under them. The original stronghold overseers outside the organization had only remained in power because of an agreement between the corporations.

At that time, the organizations had only just started out and were not as powerful as now. They tried all sorts of ways to infiltrate into the strongholds and slowly grew their own armies. It wasn’t until several decades later that the consortiums slowly became the true controllers of the various strongholds. But even after that happened, no one was willing to break the status quo.

Now that the Li Consortium had taken over all their various strongholds, they became the official owners of 11 strongholds. Moreover, the banks in these 11 strongholds started completely rejecting the currencies of the other organizations. All of a sudden, the other organizations’ currencies depreciated within these 11 strongholds.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he understood why Hu Shuo had maintained his neutrality all this while. Could it be that, as the current overseer of Stronghold 108, Hu Shuo was thinking of using other forces to weaken the Li Consortium’s grip on power and achieve the goal of true authority for himself?

However, Hu Shuo looked at him and said with a smile, “I can guess what you’re thinking. But the truth is that what you’re looking at is just the surface. Perhaps you’ll come to understand it one day. I’m looking forward to seeing your face when that happens.”

Chapter 230: Another image down the drain

Chapter 230 Another image down the drain

Based on the organizations’ understanding of this world, superpowers were unique abilities that were like the DNA of each supernatural being. By matching superpowers, they could identify which supernatural being the power belonged to.

As a result, following the rescinding of the arrest warrant issued by the Qing Consortium, the Li Consortium had put Xu Xianchu on its wanted list.

Xu Xianchu’s power was no secret, after all. Besides, back when Luo Lan was at Stronghold 109, he even enlisted Lu Yuan’s help specifically to capture Xu Xianchu. As such, when Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and the rest of the platoon returned to Stronghold 108 and debriefed, the head of the Li Consortium’s army immediately realized that all of what had happened in the mountains must have been caused by Xu Xianchu!

As for why the wolf pack had moved from their original location, it was obvious that they must have sensed danger and shifted elsewhere in advance!

Furthermore, they could have been originally targeting the outpost Li Qingzheng was commanding, but it just so happened that the nanosoldiers inadvertently protected the outpost from disaster.

Thinking of it that way, everything started to make sense.

However, some officers in command of the Li Consortium’s fighting forces realized from Captain Zhou’s written statement that “Xu Xianchu” seemed to be gathering their Li Consortium’s nanomachines!

The higher-ups of the organization were very clear about one thing. If anyone wanted to use the nanomachines, an encrypted pairing process would have to be carried out internally by the organization first. So why would Xu Xianchu, a supernatural being, want to get his hands on the nanomachines?

At this time, the powerful think tank of the organization began to analyze the situation. According to the existing intelligence they had, the Qing Consortium had issued arrest warrants for the trio of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu. Yang Xiaojin was confirmed as belonging to the Yang Consortium and the Saboteurs. She was from the bloodline of the Yang Consortium, while her status was that of a Saboteurs’ member. The issue surrounding her status was slightly more complicated.

Since Xu Xianchu was wanted at the same time as Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu, there was a high chance that Xu Xianchu was also affiliated with the Yang Consortium or the Saboteurs. However, all of the identified members of the Saboteurs so far were females. As such, Xu Xianchu was tentatively identified as a field agent of the Yang Consortium.

This information was very important as the Li Consortium had intel that proved their neurotech had fallen into the hands of the Yang Consortium after Stronghold 109 was brought down. That meant the Yang Consortium was also conducting full-scale tests and coordination on the usage of nanomachines on their end.

Now that Xu Xianchu had suddenly appeared in the vicinity of the Li Consortium’s controlled area and was stealing their nanomachines, what did that entail? It meant the Yang Consortium might start a war against their Li Consortium!

In the vast room of the command center, dozens of the Li Consortium’s officers were standing by and listening. When this conclusion came to light, everyone looked somber.

Seated at the round table was a middle-aged general. “We intended to strike first, but who could’ve guessed the Yang Consortium had even more urgency? Gentlemen, you represent the glory of the Li Consortium, so go back to your respective posts and prepare yourselves.”

Someone asked, “What do we do about Xu Xianchu and the wolf pack?”

“Xu Xianchu probably ran far away from here after the previous attack. They’re only after the samples of the nanomachines, so it isn’t necessary for them to hang around after getting their hands on some,” another person said. “The most important thing for us is still to clear out the Experimentals from Stronghold 109. Only by doing so can we stabilize the region behind us.”

“Where’s the combat brigade that was recently deployed there?” asked a white-haired general of the Li Consortium.

“They just arrived at the newly established forward operating base yesterday. But they haven’t checked in with us yet today,” a staff officer said.

“Get in touch with them,” the general calmly ordered.

That staff officer immediately went out. But ten minutes later, he suddenly came running back and pushing open the door of the command center. “We’ve lost contact with the entire 4th Combat Brigade. We haven’t been able to contact them since they left the FOB.”

It fell silent in the command center. How could 4,500 people just disappear like that?

Ren Xiaosu, far away at the outpost, did not know anything of what had happened. Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu, further away at Stronghold 178, was even more unaware of the developments.

There was an air of joy at the outpost currently. As the Lunar New Year approached, the former refugees who did not even know when their next meal would come were suddenly treated with an abundance of meat every day. This was probably the best Lunar New Year every one of them had had.

After Lin Qi and the officers left, Ren Xiaosu thought a large force would come up the mountains to lay siege on the wolf pack again. But in the end, there were no signs of them at all.

However, there was a small group that headed into the mountains to try to recover the lost nanomachines. But just as the Li Consortium had expected, they discovered that the nanomachines were most likely already taken away by “Xu Xianchu.”

The only other people who came up to the mountains were Hu Shuo’s men. These people had not come here to report about work to him but to deliver some red paper, ink brushes, and ink.

When everyone first talked about putting up couplet decorations for the New Year, Hu Shuo had refused to write any, saying he had never written couplets before.

But surely they had to put up some couplets, right? There wouldn’t be any New Year festivities if there were no couplet decorations!

In the past, people would always put up couplets to celebrate the Lunar New Year. In the entire town, there were probably only one or two people who knew how to do calligraphy, or rather, only one or two people could get their hands on an ink brush.

Whenever the Lunar New Year rolled around, almost everyone in town would buy their own red paper and approach these “calligraphers” to help them write a couplet. It wasn’t expensive to do so, and payment would probably amount to only enough to buy one meal.

In this season, no one cared about such a small amount of money no matter how poor they were.

Here in the outpost, Hu Shuo was the only one who looked like a cultured person. If they didn’t get Hu Shuo to write the couplets, who else could they ask?

In the end, Hu Shuo could not refuse their constant requests. Thus, he ordered his men to send over some items that were used for writing couplets.

Hu Shuo set down a table in front of the outpost and put a precut piece of red paper on it. Everyone in the outpost surrounded the table to watch. For the refugees, an ink brush felt really distant to them.

Next to Hu Shuo, someone said with a laugh, “Sir, you won’t charge us to write this couplet, right?”

Hu Shuo shot him a glance. “There’s no need to pay.”

“Your writing must look really nice,” someone flattered. Hu Shuo’s image on most days was a sagacious demeanor, and he looked like someone who excelled in the four arts[1].

Hu Shuo did not respond. He deliberated in front of the table for a very long time before writing: “To get rich, / Build roads first.[2]”

Ren Xiaosu silently looked at the ugly cursive words on the paper and lamented, “Never judge a book by its cover. These words you wrote and the image you portray don’t match
at all.”

Hu Shuo was unhappy to hear that. “I already said that I didn’t want to write, but you all still made me do it. I’m already not charging for this. What more do you want?”

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “If you wrote this and wanted to put it up in my previous town, you’d have to pay others to do so.”

Hu Shuo stared at him. “All you know is how to criticize. Would it kill you to not speak?”

However, Ren Xiaosu was very puzzled. “You’re pretty learned and can teach rather well in math, physics, and chemistry. At the least, you’re much better than that Mr. Zhang in my previous town. But who would write something like ‘To get rich, / Build roads first’ for a couplet? What’s more, your handwriting… looks a little crooked!”

Hu Shuo felt wronged and speechless. His image had gone down the drain!

[1] zither, weiqi (Go), calligraphy, and painting

[2] A Chinese proverb. This is a fair way of representing China’s 30 years of economic development: invest in infrastructure by building roads and railroads to power GDP growth

Chapter 231: Captain Ren Xiaosu

Even though they despised it, everyone still felt obligated to put up the couplets since they had begged Grandpa Hu Shuo to write them, and this was especially so after he had already written them down.

Actually, couplets were only a representation of hopes for the New Year. It didn’t matter what they were as long as everyone was happy.

A basic wooden house had already been built. To keep the inside of the house warm, everyone skinned the wild animals the wolves had sent over and washed them clean. They then line the outside wall of the house with the skins after drying them so the wind wouldn’t get in.

After the house was completed, the duo of Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng wanted to drive back to town. They were going there to bring Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, Jiang Wu, and the rest over to the outpost.

But Hu Shuo stopped them this time. “It’s no longer the same outside of town. If you two go back there to bring your friends back, something could go wrong. Wait another two days before going.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled. “Did something bad happen?”

“The Li Consortium lost an entire combat brigade,” Hu Shuo replied.

This time, everyone else at the outpost was startled. “There should be several thousand people in a combat brigade, right? How could they be lost just like that?”

Hu Shuo was amused. “But they really were lost just like that. Therefore, full martial law has been enforced outside of Stronghold 108, and even trenches have been dug too. If you two go back at this time, you might not be able to get out of the town even if you got in.”

in eve

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “Then what can we do?”

“Wait a day.” Hu Shuo laughed. “I’ll handle things for you.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not say anything else. He was curious to see how Hu Shuo would resolve this matter.

As it got closer to the New Year during these two days, Hu Shuo started speaking less.

Everyone would often see Hu Shuo sitting on the cliff next to the outpost all day without doing anything other than looking out into the distance.

Ren Xiaosu walked up to Hu Shuo and asked, “Are you thinking of your family?”

Hu Shuo ignored him, but Ren Xiaosu asked again, “Other than that grandson of yours, don’t you have any other family?”.

Hu Shuo gave him a look. “No, why?”

“I’ve seen you in a strange mood of melancholy these past few days.” Ren Xiaosu said in worry, “If you don’t mind, we can become blood brothers. Since I have another younger brother, we can recreate something along the lines of the Oath of the Peach Garden[1].”

“Get lost!” Hu Shuo snapped at him. “Are you trying to take advantage of me? My grandson is older than you!”

Ren Xiaosu said rather sadly, “It’s almost the New Year, but he isn’t reuniting with you?”

“He has something more important to handle,” Hu Shuo said.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt that Hu Shuo could be planning something big. That grandson he was talking about was probably a key figure in this entire plan. “Wait, is your grandson a Li?”

Hu Shuo looked at him with a half-smile. “Lots of people share the surname Li. Which one are you talking about?”

Ren Xiaosu froze. He should have thought of this long ago. If that grandson was the person he was guessing it to be, much of Hu Shuo’s behavior would be explainable.

The next morning, an off-road vehicle drove up to the outpost. Ren Xiaosu guessed it was probably here to look for Hu Shuo.

But when two officers got out of the vehicle, they were holding two additional sets of military uniforms in their hands. Hu Shuo, who was sitting in the front yard, pointed them to Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng and said, “Give them to the two of them.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What is it?”

“If you wish to go through town, you’ll have to don this uniform,” Hu Shuo said.

“But this is the Li Consortium’s military uniform!” Ren Xiaosu said in shock. “Won’t they require IDs when passing through town? If we get caught, won’t we get into big trouble?”

However, those two officers said, “We’ve prepared for that as well.” They then handed Ren Xiaosu a blue booklet.

Ren Xiaosu opened it up immediately and saw an officer’s ID of the Li Consortium. There was a serial number, a stamp, and even Ren Xiaosu’s photo in it. He did not even know when his picture had been taken without his knowledge!

Hu Shuo laughed and said, “The negatives have already been destroyed, so don’t worry The serial number is real, the rank of captain is also real, all of it is real. You’re now my subordinates, so whoever checks on you won’t be able to find any trouble with you at all. But I doubt that anyone would dare to stop our staff for checks anyway. After all, normal soldiers are all pretty afraid of the Office of Special Investigations.”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. This old man’s influence within the Li Consortium seemed huge. Reaching the status of regular Li Consortium soldier was such a sought after dream by many people. But in this person’s hands, it was nothing more than a small gift he could present to anyone he wanted.

Besides, this man probably had some other motives by granting him this status, right? Why would a sly old fox like Hu Shuo do so much for him? If he had to go through all this trouble to make him a Li Consortium officer, he might as well just send some of his own people to bring Xiaoyu and the others over.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll use this position to do other stuff?”

Hu Shuo was amused. “You? What could you possibly do?”

After lunch that day, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng drove back to town in their Li Consortium military uniforms. Li Qingzheng looked very excited. “So I’ve become a regular officer of the Li Consortium just like that? I can get into the stronghold now?”

“Are you that desperate to get into the stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

Li Qingzheng laughed and said without any hesitation, “Who doesn’t? I heard you don’t even need to close the doors at night in the stronghold. There aren’t even any burglars around.”

“Then I’m afraid that I’ll have to disappoint you,” Ren Xiaosu said while looking out of the window. “I don’t find it that great in the stronghold. In fact, I think it’s much nicer living in town.”

Li Qingzheng responded, “I don’t believe you. You must be lying. In any case, the fortune teller told me I would get into the stronghold when I met my benefactor, and I’ll only believe that.”

Ren Xiaosu just smiled but did not say anything. If you chose to believe in fortune telling, you might as well depend on yourself.

When they reached the town’s checkpoint, the two of them produced their IDs. When the sentry guard saw the words “Military: Office of Special Investigations,” he looked astounded, and he hurriedly let Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng through.

Meanwhile, Wang Fugui and the others had already packed their belongings and were waiting for Ren Xiaosu to arrive.

When Ren Xiaosu said he was going to take them to the outpost to spend the New Year, no one doubted if Ren Xiaosu could do it. Now that Ren Xiaosu had really come to pick them up, they were all carrying big and small bags like they were going on an outing. It was in complete contrast with the tense atmosphere in town.

When the woman from the grocery store next door saw Ren Xiaosu dressed in a military uniform, she froze. ‘Since when did he become a soldier of the Li Consortium? Wasn’t he still just a private army soldier the last time?’

At that time, she treated Ren Xiaosu with derision due to his status as a private army soldier. As a matter of fact, her lover was a true blue soldier of the Li Consortium.

She knew how difficult it was to enter into regular service as a soldier of the Li Consortium’s army. During this time, her business at the grocery store had plunged due to Wang Fugui’s grocery store opening next to hers. In the past, people would beg her to sell things to them. But now, Wang Fugui would kindly do business with anyone, so of course everyone was more willing to buy from his shop instead. So she became angrier and angrier by the day seeing how busy it had become over at Wang Fugui’s shop.

While Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others were packing their things, this woman secretly ran towards the military base stationed just outside of town.

[1] A fictional event, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took an oath of fraternity in a ceremony in the Peach Garden (believed to be in present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei) in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and became blood brothers. |

Chapter 232: Complications arise

Other people might not have noticed that woman leaving her shop, but Yan Liuyuan noticed. Of their entire family, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were the wariest of their surroundings. Ren Xiaosu could feel most reassured of Yan Liuyuan on this aspect.

He quietly said to Ren Xiaosu, “Bro, I think that woman next door might be up to no good.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the woman’s receding figure. He thought for a moment before saying, “It’s alright, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

While they were packing, Wang Fugui cheerfully brought over the store’s ledger to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Our grocery store’s income has been really steady. The town’s residents from near and far are all coming to our place to make their purchases. Here, Xiaosu, please check the transactions.”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and shot Old Wang a glance. “Hey now, it’s the New Year! Why are we checking the accounts? I have nothing to worry about with you taking care of things here. Get in the truck already. I’ll take all y’all to the outpost to have a look-see and then take y’all back on the eighth day of the New Year.”

Although the outpost was a nice place, it was still a location with defensive duties. There shouldn’t be any inspections during the New Year, but if anyone discovered they had brought over their family members when the festivities finished up, it could get pretty troublesome.

Besides, Wang Fugui and the others were also living good in town now. The impish Yan Liuyuan had even become a friend of the women and used those relationships to find out a lot of information.

Yan Liuyuan whispered from next to him, “Bro, why has the Li Consortium also issued an arrest warrant for Xu Xianchu? Was it you
again?”

“Ahem!” Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded cleverly. “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.”

Right at this moment, the woman from the grocery store next door led a group of soldiers in a hurry back to the store. Even from far away, she was already pointing at Ren Xiaosu and shouting, “It’s those two. When they came to town last month, that older guy was still wearing the uniform of the private army. But this time around, he’s dressed in the military uniform of the Li Consortium. What’s more, he’s even a captain!”

Most people would not recognize what ranks the soldiers were from their shoulder marks. But anyone who ran a grocery store at the entrance of the stronghold would definitely be observant of people, so how could she not know about such things?

That group of soldiers surrounded Ren Xiaosu and company. A lieutenant walked forward and faced Ren Xiaosu. “Which division are you two from? Produce your military IDs.”

Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng exchanged a glance. When Ren Xiaosu reached for his military ID, the sound of guns being cocked rang out and more than a dozen black barrels were suddenly pointed at them.

The woman from the grocery store smiled joyfully. If there were any problems with this young man’s military ID, Wang Fugui’s shop would surely not be able to continue operating, right?

Ren Xiaosu smiled as he produced his military ID from his pocket and handed it to these soldiers before him. He said calmly, “Not too many people dare conduct a spot check on those of us in the Office of Special Investigations these days.”

Li Qingzheng gasped at this. He realized Ren Xiaosu was not panicking one bit. Moreover, he even learned to speak in the same condescending tone Hu Shuo used when he spoke. It was way too similar.

When the officer facing Ren Xiaosu heard the words “Office of Special Investigations,” he frowned. He opened up the military ID book and was indeed greeted by Ren Xiaosu’s photo, the stamp, the serial number, as well as the striking words that said “Military: Office of Special Investigations.”

If these were normal times, he would definitely be panicking by now. If anyone were hauled to the Office of Special Investigations, they would never be seen again!

But after considering everything, there were far too many suspicious aspects to Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng. Regulars had a different bearing and posture while standing after they went through training. The sloppy way Li Qingzheng was wearing his uniform made it seem like they were imposters.

The officer said coldly, “We need to verify it first before we can confirm whether you’re really from the Office of Special Investigations.”

He then ordered his subordinate to take out a palm-sized device. That soldier inputted Ren Xiaosu’s military identification number into it, and a picture of Ren Xiaosu was displayed.

The officer gasped, spun around, and gave that grocery store woman a slap that sent her flying to the ground. Following this, he turned around and bowed to Ren Xiaosu, “My apologies, sir!”

Ren Xiaosu took back his military ID and examined him. “I now suspect that you’re a double agent who’s trying to persecute our Li Consortium’s officers. Is that watch on your wrist a comms device you use with other spies?”

In response, the officer immediately removed his watch and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. “Sir, please take this back for investigation. Consider it a little souvenir from me.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu’s gaze swept over the others. “Are there any suspicious items on the rest of you? I suspect you might be smugglers.”

This time, one of the soldiers said hesitantly, “Sir, I don’t think the Office of Special Investigations covers smuggling, right?”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent for a moment. “We’re going to start investigating that now!”

When Li Qingzheng witnessed this from nearby, he remembered how he was the one who was recently receiving bribes. But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu was even better at
it.

This group of soldiers had approached them so aggressively at the beginning, but they were now standing in a row with their heads down. All of the money in their pockets had been confiscated by Ren Xiaosu for evidence.

“Alright,” Ren Xiaosu waved them off. “You may go back now. I suddenly think that you do not look suspicious anymore.”

Truly, this position Hu Shuo arranged for them was really useful.

The woman who had been smacked to the ground was still a little dizzy. After coming back around, the officer slapped her again. “Bring this insolent woman back with us!”

The group of soldiers carried the woman away. When Ren Xiaosu saw them leaving, he said with a sigh, “How nice of them to bring us so many souvenirs. They’re such honest people!”

With that, he handed the watches to Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui had given away his own watch to Li Qingzheng in order to waive the manual labor obligations of the girls.

Li Qingzheng hesitated for a long time before saying, “I already sold off the watches you guys gave me. Why don’t I pay y’all back?”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Then wouldn’t you have helped us for nothing? Just keep it for yourself. We’re not that petty.”

“Oh, alright!” Li Qingzheng said happily. However, why did something feel wrong? Why did it suddenly feel like Ren Xiaosu was the platoon commander instead of him?

On the way back to the outpost, Yan Liuyuan laid down in the back of the truck and said excitedly, “Bro, is it any fun at your outpost?”

“It’s pretty fun,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“What do y’all do every day?”

“We get to attend classes and eat meat daily. Occasionally, we’ll take a stroll into the mountains where we can pick wild vegetables and mushrooms or catch some rabbits.” Ren Xiaosu said, “There are a lot of rabbits in the mountains. When we get there, I’ll teach you how to build snares to catch some.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of something. Even though Yan Liuyuan was also a supernatural being, he did not have any skills to defend himself with. He thought that maybe he should also gather some nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan to use.

When they got back to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu saw Hu Shuo cradling a satellite phone and explaining into it, “Our Office of Special Investigations does not investigate smuggling. Yes, yes, that’s right, we really do not investigate that. It must be a misunderstanding. We don’t intend to seize authority from the Audit Department…”

Chapter 233: On the brink of war
day.

Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Hu Shuo could have sent someone else to fetch Yan Liuyuan and the others instead. If he had done that, it would have saved him a great deal of trouble. But of course, he had his motives for doing it this way.

If he had brought back Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the rest of them himself, how could he have sent Ren Xiaosu away with an excuse?

All other reasons aside, it was totally worth the effort to grant Ren Xiaosu the status of officer of the Li Consortium if he could send him away from the outpost for the rest of the day.

As expected, Ren Xiaosu was busy almost all day. The return journey to town alone already took six hours and could even go up to eight hours if there were any delays.

This was as good as being given a day off!

But he couldn’t have expected that someone would bring a satellite phone to him by the afternoon, saying that there was a call from the head of the Audit Department who was stamping with fury.

At first, Hu Shuo did not understand the issue. But after he took the call, he realized Ren Xiaosu had involved himself with investigating smuggling in town! Within a system, there was a clear division of duty. If you encroached on other people’s authority, that wouldn’t be acceptable at all.

Hu Shuo was shocked to hear that. ‘Didn’t you go back to town to fetch your family? So why did you get yourself involved in investigating smuggling?!’

When he hung up, he looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Did you investigate smuggling?”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “I was just helping your department expand into new areas. Aren’t I great?”

Hu Shuo said bitterly, “When did I ask you to help us expand our area of activity? Why didn’t you take on the duties of the Public Order Division as well then!”

Ren Xiaosu was not happy to hear that. “You didn’t say that I couldn’t do that. Before I departed, what did I ask you? You even asked me what I could possibly be capable of doing when I asked if you were afraid that I would abuse the position.”

Hu Shuo’s eyes looked like he was about to fly into a rage. But at this moment, Yan Liuyuan came over and smartly said, “Hello, Grandpa Hu Shuo, nice to meet you.”

When Hu Shuo saw a clean-cut Yan Liuyuan speaking to him, he held back his anger and said with a smile, “Hello, nice to meet you.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I’ve heard about you from my brother. He said that you’re a really great man who is so learned that you can tackle any questions that they pose to you during classes. When I grow up, I wanna be as educated as you!”

“Hahahaha, is that so?” Hu Shuo’s anger immediately dissipated. “Did that kid really say that?”

“Yeah,” Yan Liuyuan said, “so please don’t be angry anymore. He didn’t do it on purpose anyway.”

“Forget it then, I won’t be angry.” Hu Shuo said with a cheerful smile, “Hurry up and bring your belongings into the house. We’re going to start preparing meals for everyone. Oh, there are so many young ladies here as well?”

“Then let me thank you first, Grandpa Hu Shuo,” Yan Liuyuan said as he turned around and gave Ren Xiaosu a wink. The argument was resolved just like that. Ren Xiaosu did not even know whether to laugh or cry at this. That Yan Liuyuan was able to become a friend of the women in town was really a testament to his talent.

Then Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Your younger brother is much smarter than you. Go and clean up the house. I don’t want to see you right now!”

Meanwhile, Chen Wudi took Xiaoyu and the others around on a tour of the outpost. It wasn’t a big place, and after Xiaoyu had seen all of their houses, she said with a frown, “Why is it so dirty in the houses? Don’t you big boys know to clean the place on most days?”

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “Big Sister Xiaoyu has been particularly fussy about cleanliness recently. All of us at home are quite afraid of her and we would never think to start eating without washing our hands first. Even Uncle Fugui feels the same.”

“C’mon, girls, get your hands on some cleaning tools. We’ll get these houses cleaned up first.” Xiaoyu coordinated the female students like a steward would. The female students were also particularly obedient to her.

This outpost was occupied by a group of men. Half of them were even former refugees who had not gone through any military training and had no concept of how to keep their quarters clean. But half an hour later, the entire place looked like new again. Even Li Qingzheng and his men could not believe this was where they used to live.

Xiaoyu and the female students had even cleaned the glass windows, which led to the inside of the houses becoming brighter. Everything was in perfect order.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. Xiaoyu was becoming more and more like a housewife.

When Li Qingzheng and his men saw this group of women walking in and out of their houses to clean them up, they couldn’t take their eyes off them.

Meanwhile, the female students kept showing sweet smiles whenever they saw Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.

As the group of men sat around the campfire to barbecue the meat, Li Qingzheng lamented, “Brother Xiaosu is really too capable!”

Their eyes were brimming with tears of envy.

At this time, Xiaoyu stood in a doorway and exhaled. “We’re finally done cleaning.” She looked at the campfire. “How can y’all only eat barbecue? Let me cook some veggies for y’all.”

Wang Fugui said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, “Our entire family is tied together by Xiaoyu now. Without her, it would be such a mess. Xiaosu, it looks like the Li Consortium is preparing for war. Will it affect us badly?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Have you found out where Stronghold 88 is yet?”

“Not yet.” Wang Fugui shook his head and said, “But why don’t you ask that elderly man? It seems to me that he should know a lot.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo. He used to be worried that Hu Shuo would believe him to be an enemy if he asked that question. After all, he thought that since Hu Shuo was a high-ranking officer of the Li Consortium, he would definitely take their side. But since Ren Xiaosu had obtained more information that he could judge him with, he thought he could safely ask Hu Shuo the question.

Ren Xiaosu beckoned everyone else to the campfire. Then he sat down beside Hu Shuo and asked, “Do you know where Stronghold 88
is?”

“The Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88?” Hu Shuo gave Ren Xiaosu a look. “Why’re you asking?”

“I’ll get straight to the point. We were actually heading to Stronghold 88 at first, but we got conscripted and ended up here instead,” Ren Xiaosu explained.

“My advice to you is not to think so much for now.” Hu Shuo said, “Stronghold 88 is northeast of Stronghold 108. The Li Consortium has already stationed a large force in that direction, the Yang Consortium as well. Three other strongholds lie between Stronghold 88 and Stronghold 108. If you’re thinking of going there alone, you might be able to do so. But what about those with you? How are they going to make it there? This something you can rely on with your status as a member of the Office of Special Investigations.”

“Is there really going to be a war?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“Not only that, even the Qing Consortium has deployed their troops to the borders of the three corporations.” Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “The Li Consortium is trying handle the Experimentals at Stronghold 109, but we’re already on the brink of a massive war. If you want to cross the battlefields and get to Stronghold 88 at this time, you had better be prepared for the death of your companions. Stray shells and bullets on the battlefield have no eyes. They couldn’t care less about who you are.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “Then will we be safe at the outpost? We can hide out here until it’s over.”

Hu Shuo sighed and said, “The Li Consortium does not have enough military strength yet and could deploy the private troops at the outposts to the front line as cannon fodder.”

Chapter 234: Each other’s secret

The outpost that Ren Xiaosu was at was somewhat cut off from outside news. Even if Yan Liuyuan had been constantly going around to gather information, the news he could find out was still only the tip of the iceberg. So they had no idea that war was on the verge of breaking out between the Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium.

There hadn’t been a war for a long time in these wastelands. Humanity had been struggling along in an increasingly difficult world and finally got a chance to recover a little, but war was descending upon them again.

Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu would wonder why everyone kept trying to kill one another even though they had clearly survived against the odds during the Post-Cataclysm.

Based on Hu Shuo’s explanation, the Li Consortium intended to clear the Experimentals from Stronghold 109 before they began the war. They had even sent a combat brigade over to carry out that mission. However, time would not wait for the Li Consortium, and neither would the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium wait for them.

Not only were the Experimentals at Stronghold 109 a threat to the Li Consortium, but they were similarly close to the Qing Consortium’s Stronghold 111. Therefore, since war was about to break out, the two consortiums might as well make a bet on which way the Experimentals might go.

And now, the most dangerous thing that could happen was that Ren Xiaosu and company might also get sent to the battlefield. As they had too many things that hadn’t been taken care of yet, they couldn’t just drop everything and leave for good.

Even if they hid deep in the mountains, it would be equally dangerous, because the forested hills were a path the Experimentals would definitely take if they were coming here. Why else would the Li Consortium waste all that manpower by sending troops to these outposts?

“What if the Experimentals come and attack the Li Consortium’s stronghold?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Actually, there isn’t much danger around Stronghold 108. You can even consider sending your family into Stronghold 108 first. If there are defenses in place, the Experimentals won’t be able to force their way into the stronghold. What happened at Stronghold 109 was due to a lapse in its defense.”

Although Stronghold 109 was destroyed, the Experimentals would still find it hard to get close to Stronghold 108 if the Li Consortium installed heavy weapons atop the stronghold walls.

After all, the Experimentals were still flesh and blood. Their muscles might be able to block normal bullets, but they wouldn’t stand up to artillery fire. Even the metal storm “Mountain Obliterator” that Qing Zhen brought was enough to make them retreat.

It was just as Qing Zhen had said. Only a child would be afraid of these Experimentals. Qing Zhen understood full well how terrifying humanity’s firearms and explosives were.

So the only worry everyone had was if the Experimentals ambushed them in these wastelands during a battle. But there wasn’t much to worry about if it were just a stronghold defense.

Ren Xiaosu asked Hu Shuo, “Can you help me send them into the stronghold? I’d like for them to live there temporarily.”

Hu Shuo laughed. “That’s something you can also do now. A captain of the Office of Special Investigations has… great authority…” All of a sudden, Hu Shuo added, “Make sure you don’t abuse your authority, though….”

“Uh-huh, don’t worry. I won’t be investigating smuggling anymore.” Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find out that the Office of Special Investigations could actually send people into the stronghold. That really was a lot of authority.

However, it seemed like this old man was not on the Li Consortium’s side on this matter. He wondered how the higher-ups of the Li Consortium would feel if they knew the truth.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll snitch?”

Hu Shuo gave a half-smile and said, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell the Li Consortium that you’re hunting down their nanosoldiers?”

The two of them fell silent. Ren Xiaosu knew Hu Shuo was a sly old fox and that his odd behavior must have been noticed by him. However, he had not expected Hu Shuo to lay it all bare so abruptly.

But since they both knew each other’s secret, no one could snitch on the other.

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, Hu Shuo was more trying to establish a friendship or alliance with him. The foundation of this trust would be based upon their knowledge of each other’s secret, as well as the fact that the other party’s grandson was… Li Shentan.

Hu Shuo had always been a high-ranking officer in the Office of Special Investigations all these years. In order not to implicate his family back then, he had kept the fact that he had a daughter a secret. Furthermore, he did not even concern himself with her. However, the Li Consortium forced his daughter to her death many years later.

The Li Consortium was too powerful. It was so powerful he could do nothing about it even though he was a supernatural being, as well as a high-ranking officer within the Office of Special Investigations. After all, his subordinates were all loyal to the Li Consortium, not him. But this situation completely reversed after Li Shentan became a Demon Whisperer. The young man who had escaped from the psychiatric hospital had an incredibly destructive power.

The female students started singing by the campfire while the group of roughnecks did not even dare to make a sound as if afraid of ending the girls’ dulcet singing.

Xiaoyu was wearing an apron and stir-frying some vegetables in the kitchen. When they made the trip here, they had brought along quite a bit of supplies for the New Year. Old Wang had even managed to get ahold of a box of fish and shrimp from someone in the stronghold.

Suddenly, Li Qingzheng emotionally said, “This is probably the most proper Lunar New Year I’ve celebrated in the 29 years of my life.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look and laughed. “To be honest, we also spent our Lunar New Years very miserably in the past.”

“That’s not true.” Yan Liuyuan giggled and said, “We were clearly very happy. We used to run off to a hill somewhere far away where we would view the fireworks set off from the stronghold. The fireworks were beautiful to watch.”

But at this moment, an off-road vehicle drove up to the outpost. An officer came over to Hu Shuo and whispered something to him for a while. Hu Shuo’s expression grew even more solemn than before.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo and asked, “What is it?”

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and replied, “Get ready to send your family back to the stronghold after the New Year has passed. War has broken out.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised to hear that. It was just another hour until the Lunar New Year. Who would have thought a war would erupt on New Year’s Eve?

Hu Shuo said, “The Li Consortium’s commander has already given the order to start the assault. The frontline troops have already started advancing towards the area controlled by the Yang Consortium. In another few hours, it will be blanketed by the flames of
war.”

“Aren’t you going to eat before you leave?” Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.

Hu Shuo laughed. “I’d thought we could celebrate the New Year, but we didn’t even get to eat the reunion dinner. What a pity, the thing I was most afraid of still arrived.”

In this world, things never turned out the way people wanted them to.

At this moment, Xiaoyu came out of the kitchen with several boxed meals in her hands. “Uncle Hu Shuo, I’ve filled these up with dinner. Eat them while y’all are on the road.

Hu Shuo was taken aback. He broke out into a smile and said, “Thank you.”

Suddenly, Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Ren Xiaosu, have you ever heard of Murphy’s Law? Anything that can go wrong, no matter how unlikely, will go wrong. To put it simply, that just means that whatever we’re afraid of will somehow happen.”

Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. “Why are you talking about this?”

“Do you think we’re in a dream right now or living in reality?” Hu Shuo laughed and said.

“We’re definitely in reality. If you don’t believe me, I can pinch you,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“But isn’t reality based on probability? It’s only in dreams that things you’re most afraid of will somehow come true, isn’t that so?” After that, Hu Shuo laughed and turned around to leave. “I’d rather this be a dream.”

Ren Xiaosu could sense a hint of sorrow within this old man.

Chapter 235: Qing Zhen’s crosstalk performance

The Qing Consortium, Stronghold 111.

At the stroke of midnight, the copper bell in the middle of the stronghold was struck by someone working for the Qing Consortium

The sound of the bell that symbolized peace in the new year resonated across the stronghold. Soon after, firecrackers, of which many of the rich could afford, started popping in front of their houses. The children had also come out onto the streets and were excitedly taking in the sights. They were all wearing their new clothes and even holding little firecracker tubes that they picked off from the main bunch.

Qing Zhen was standing out in the yard of his villa. His hair had grown much longer since he wasn’t even able to get a barber to come over after being put under house arrest here with

Luo Lan.

Suddenly, a crow flew over in the dark of the night. It soared between the sound of the firecrackers going off and did not seem one bit affected by it.

Qing Zhen raised his hand, and the crow shrewdly landed on his arm. Qing Zhen picked up a tiny piece of bread and said with a laugh, “I hope you won’t mind this. We don’t have much food around here either. Luo Lan has almost been starved thin as well.”

The crow lowered its head and pecked the bread into its mouth. Qing Zhen helped it ruffle its feathers straight with a smile.

The black crow was always an ominous symbol in the eyes of many people, because it loved flying to wherever there were dead people. But Qing Zhen did not shy away from the crow at all. Rather, he seemed to love it.

His gaze shifted to the crow’s legs where a tiny bamboo tube was attached. Qing Zhen detached it and removed a slip of paper from it. The more he read it, the bigger his smile grew.

“Alright, I got the letter. You may return to your owner and have him feed you something nice. It’s the New Year, but he didn’t let you get any rest,” Qing Zhen said as he threw his forearm up and released the large crow that spread its wings and flew into the night sky.

When Qing Zhen walked back into the villa, Luo Lan was lying down on the sofa and saying, “Don’t you agree that those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium are too much? It’s the New Year, but they won’t even give us a full meal to eat, let us get a haircut, and our water and electricity keep getting cut off as well. We’re accomplished servants of the Qing Consortium. How can they do this to us!”

Qing Zhen smiled and said, “You can have my share of the bread. I guess we can only blame it on ourselves for losing the strongholds we were put in charge of.”

“Was that our fault?” Luo Lan said unhappily, “Who could have predicted that there would be an earthquake? Besides, it’s the New Year now. Surely they can’t make us go hungry during the New Year, right?!”

“Don’t worry.” Qing Zhen smiled and said, “These days will be over soon.”

At this moment, the doorbell rang. Luo Lan stood up from the sofa, his fat rolls bouncing. “Could they be sending us food?”

“That uncle of yours isn’t that kind. He did everything in his power to ride on the coattails of the Qing Consortium, so why would he risk all of that to help us?” Qing Zhen said calmly, “This is an especially good time to draw the line against us.”

The infighting of the consortiums had always been downright dirty and nasty.

The Qing Consortium had not only imprisoned Qing Zhen and Luo Lan in this isolated villa, it even sent Luo Lan’s uncle to watch over them.

Perhaps it was because the directors of the Board suspected that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had betrayed the clan, so they decided to let the two of them have a taste of being betrayed by their own family as well.

Luo Lan and Qing Zhen shared the same father but different mothers. This uncle of Luo Lan’s had obtained some status within the consortium with Luo Lan’s aid in the past. And now he had been sent to watch over Luo Lan.

However, this uncle was not one for old times’ sake. Instead, he was even harsher when it came to watching over the two. He even tried to express his stance and drew a line between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan by persecuting them.

Cutting their food rations, cutting off their water and electricity, refusing Qing Zhen and Luo Lan’s demands, all of that was done by Luo Lan’s uncle.

Sometimes, people found it hard to imagine what a person would do to play up to those in power.

Luo Lan went to open the door while mumbling, “My relationship with him isn’t good either, so don’t keep ridiculing me with those words of yours. The same goes for that uncle of yours…”

He opened the door and saw a middle-aged man standing at the entrance. He was holding a plate in his hand and smiling as he looked at Luo Lan.

Behind this middle-aged man were two rows of soldiers. Ever since Qing Zhen slipped away the last time, the consortium had deployed even more troops in the vicinity surrounding the villa. Even on New Year’s Eve, they did not let their guard down.

Luo Lan looked at the middle-aged man at the door and said, “Is something the matter?”

The middle-aged man smiled and said, “Aren’t you gonna greet your uncle?”

Luo Lan said disdainfully, “Are you fit to be my uncle?”

But the middle-aged man was not bothered. He smiled and said, “It’s New Year’s Eve. I came to see you two and also brought along some food.”

“What food?” Luo Lan asked.

The middle-aged man smiled and said, “I had some leftovers from my dinner at home, and I knew that you two would definitely be hungry, so I quickly sent it over for you.”

Luo Lan laughed. “Am I, Luo Lan, someone who would eat leftovers?”

The middle-aged man threw the plate in his hand onto the floor. “Since you don’t want to eat it, I won’t force you.”

Luo Lan’s face turned dark. He kept staring at the middle-aged man who was a blood relative.

Qing Zhen suddenly said to the middle-aged man, “Hey, go outside and wait for a while.”

The middle-aged man was startled. But it was Qing Zhen who had spoken. Whatever influence this silent tiger of the Qing Consortium had left was still enough to strike some fear in him. The middle-aged man stayed silent for a long while before finally stepping out of the villa in the end.

As he stood outside and watched the fireworks bursting above the stronghold’s sky, he was overjoyed.

But at this moment, the two rows of soldiers raised their guns when the villa’s front door opened and took aim at it. They watched Qing Zhen lead Luo Lan out of the villa and stand still.

Qing Zhen said to everyone with a smile, “Because of us two, we’ve made it so that everyone can’t go home to spend time with your families on New Year’s Day. As such, we would like to extend our condolences to you.”

Luo Lan said, “That’s right, we just want to extend our condolences.”

Qing Zhen smiled and said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Qing Zhen, and standing next to me is Teacher Luo.”

“Right, that’s who I am.”

Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan and said, “Since we’re expressing our condolences, we definitely have to put on a performance for everyone.”

“What are we going to perform then?”

Qing Zhen looked at the middle-aged man and said, “Let’s perform… a haircut on the first day of the New Year where the uncle dies!”

“Alright!”

The middle-aged man was so angry that he laughed. “Are you two still kids? What kind of dumbass games are you still playing?”.

“Shh…” Qing Zhen put his index finger over his lips. Then he raised his right hand that was holding a pair of scissors and snipped off a bit of Luo Lan’s hair.

The middle-aged man sneered. “Arrest them and lock them up!”

Qing Zhen looked at him and said with a smile, “Happy New Year.”

A bright firework suddenly shot up into the sky above the stronghold. That shining, bright light illuminated Qing Zhen’s smile as a sniper’s bullet fired out of a gun several hundred meters away. In an instant, a bloody mist burst from the middle-aged man’s chest in front of Qing Zhen. His body was even sent flying back by the inertia of the bullet!

Qing Zhen’s gaze turned from the fireworks back to those two rows of soldiers. He smiled and said, “Did you all… enjoy this performance?”

Everyone was frightened. They had thought Qing Zhen was only trying to provoke them. But they never expected him to really do as he said he would

A soldier trembled as he said, “Mr. Qing Zhen, aren’t you afraid the Board will mete out punishment on you?!”

Qing Zhen stood still and said with a sunny disposition, “They won’t. After all, they need me now.”

Right at this moment, a car whizzed down from the end of the street, with the white ginkgo leaf symbol becoming visible under the glow of the fireworks.

The car came to a stop outside the villa, and Secretary Zhou from the Board jumped out. When he saw Qing Zhen, he said coldly, “The Board has ordered that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan immediately head for the front lines to serve as military advisors!”

After saying that, he noticed the bloodstains in front of the villa’s door. He looked at the soldiers and asked, “What happened here?”

The soldiers said, “They killed the commander.”

Secretary Zhou looked at the broken corpse on the ground and said in contempt, “Dumbass.”

Chapter 236: The beginning of a disagreement

In these wastelands, there stood 178 strongholds. Stronghold 178 in the northwest was the westernmost one in all the territory controlled by the strongholds. The weather was extreme in that locale.

If you stood on the rampart walls of Stronghold 178 and looked into the distance, all you would see would be an endless stretch of devastated loess, and even the river that ran east was murky yellow too.

The Qing Consortium, the Li Consortium, and the Yang Consortium were situated in the southwest of the territory. Due to their geography, these three organizations were always the most intricately linked in the southwest. As for the territories of the other organizations, they had always found it difficult to expand southwest due to the region being inaccessible to them.

Of the southwestern region, the Li Consortium was farthest south. Reportedly, if you headed south from there, you would reach a rainforest you would very likely get lost in. In it were countless venomous insects, and legend had it that no one had ever managed to trek through this forest to get even further south.

But due to the effects of tectonics, the weather in the region of these three organizations was becoming much colder. In recent years, the rainforest’s ecology had also changed dramatically. The Li Consortium had even once planned to draw this rainforest into its own territorial lines and build a new stronghold within it.

The Qing Consortium was northeast of the Li Consortium on terrain that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Stronghold 111 was even hailed as a mountain city due to it being built next to a mountain, and it acted as an extremely important land and water hub in the southwestern region.

The Yang Consortium was inside a huge basin with Longnan’s[1] Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to its north. But in recent years, the Zong Consortium had been constantly plotting to usurp the northwestern territory that was controlled by Stronghold 178, although they didn’t have much of a conflict with the Yang Consortium.

This geography meant the southwestern region was a tripartite division where a power struggle was ongoing. The three organizations did not share their resources, and whatever the Li Consortium had, the Yang Consortium didn’t. Whatever the Yang Consortium had, the Qing Consortium didn’t.

There would always be a reason for war, and resources tended to be the true motivation.

But there used to be people who said they had visited the Central Plains to the east before and described it as a very prosperous place. There were even large human settlements that existed outside of strongholds too.

But in the Post-Cataclysm world, the world they knew was no longer around.

As New Year’s Eve passed, Hu Shuo probably arrived back inside Stronghold 108. The three war machines of the consortiums had already deployed their forces to hold their borders, where they waited within dozens of kilometers of each other for the real war to break out.

Yan Liuyuan and the others were very excited at first. But as it got later, they couldn’t endure anymore and fell sleep. Ren Xiaosu was sitting by the campfire alone as he thought about their future plans. He was thinking of what he could do to ensure that everyone would survive the ravages of war this time.

According to Hu Shuo, he could send Yan Liuyuan and the others to live in Stronghold 108. Even if the Experimentals attacked, they wouldn’t be able to break through the tight defenses of a stronghold. Besides, the effects of the war between the three consortiums wouldn’t affect the stronghold so quickly either.

Fighting a war was like playing a game. Nobody smart enough would go all-in at the very beginning

It started snowing. One of the house’s doors suddenly opened, and Yan Liuyuan came walking out wearing a coat. He sat down beside Ren Xiaosu. “Bro, are you worried about the war?”

“Mhm,” Ren Xiaosu acknowledged.

“Why don’t we leave this place?” Yan Liuyuan whispered, “Even if we have to head deep into the forested mountains, we could live very well there.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look and said, “And not have any more contact with the outside world ever again?”

“Bro, I know that you want to go to Stronghold 88 to look for Big Sister Xiaojin. But why didn’t she come and look for you instead?” Yan Liuyuan said, “Actually, I’ve already found out where Stronghold 88 is, but I don’t want to tell you. That’s because I don’t think it will be any different for us there. She’s an important figure of the Yang Consortium and we’re just refugees.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. They often had disagreements in the past as well, for instance, when Yan Liuyuan did not want to attend school and learn how to hunt instead. Ren Xiaosu used to reject his requests, and it led to them quarreling.

But this time, Ren Xiaosu realized Yan Liuyuan was really resistant to the word “stronghold” from the bottom of his heart. This made him hate those who lived in the strongholds as well.

Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, the stronghold doesn’t welcome people like us.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “It looks like you were lying to me when you said that you were getting along with your classmates quite well back at Stronghold 109.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, “No one wanted to talk to me and Wang Dalong. In fact, they even avoided us like the plague. Their parents were always nagging them as though they were afraid their children would make friends with us. When the teacher asked a question in class and I couldn’t answer it because I’d never learned it before, the teacher would say that it was only normal that we refugees did not how to study and that we were stupid. Once, a classmate of mine lost something, and everyone immediately suspected me and Wang Dalong of stealing…”

Ren Xiaosu was silent. That was the stereotype the people in the strongholds had of refugees. It was a mindset that had built up within them over several decades.

Yan Liuyuan continued, “They searched both our desks and found nothing in the end. But at that time, Big Sister Xiaoyu often gave me pocket money for school, and it was a lot too, much more than what the other students would get. When the teacher saw the money, I was accused of stealing it, because they felt that a refugee couldn’t possibly have so much money.

“I tried to explain it to them, but it was of no use. Wang Dalong was so scared that he cried. But, Bro, don’t worry, I didn’t cry. You’ve mentioned before that this world doesn’t trust tears.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, I don’t like it in the stronghold, nor do I like those who live inside of it. Maybe Big Sister Yang Xiaojin is different, but what about her family and friends?”

Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “I don’t know.”

“So, Bro,”—Yan Liuyuan suddenly sounded resolute—”wait for her to come and look for you instead. If she doesn’t come, then it’s meaningless for you to travel all the way north to Stronghold 88. You once told me not to let the sorrows of our era become my sorrow as well, but this era’s sorrows have already become a cancer that’s ingrained within the stronghold’s residents.”

“You should have let me explain it to the teacher on your behalf,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“How would you have dealt with it?” Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu.

“I’d kill whoever dared to wrong you.” Ren Xiaosu said with a laugh, “We can’t go the north now anyway, so I’ll send y’all back to Stronghold 108 early tomorrow morning. You don’t have to attend school anymore. Just get Ms. Jiang to teach you. She might be a Chinese teacher, but she’s had formal training in education. That should be more than enough to teach y’all math, physics, and chemistry.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up at the words. “I like Ms. Jiang Wu. I think she’s quite suitable for

you.”

“You little rascal!” Ren Xiaosu shot him a look.

Then Yan Liuyuan suddenly looked up at the hill. Ren Xiaosu followed his gaze and looked as well. He discovered the Wolf King standing there alone and looking straight back at Yan Liuyuan.

Ren Xiaosu was very certain the Wolf King was not looking at him but Yan Liuyuan. This was an event that had happened before when they were fleeing the previous time. However, Ren Xiaosu had some doubts in this moment. The Wolf King should have already led the wolf pack deep into the mountains. But on this night when Yan Liuyuan came to the outpost, it actually risked its own safety and came out just to have a look at Yan Liuyuan?

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Have you ever crossed paths with the Wolf King?”

“No.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head.

[1] Longnan Prefecture in south Gansu (bordering Shaanxi and Sichuan)

Chapter 237: Massing for war

“Bro, can I go and see the Wolf King in the mountains?” Yan Liuyuan asked. “It somehow feels like it knows me.”

Ren Xiaosu had already told Yan Liuyuan in private of the dealings he had with the wolf pack. So Yan Liuyuan was also privy to the fact that Ren Xiaosu and the wolves were cooperating in some way. They had even joined forces to hunt and kill the nanosoldiers. While it might sound bizarre, Yan Liuyuan was used to the strange things that happened with Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, “Sure, but you have to stay behind me.”

Although he had been working with the wolves for a long time, Ren Xiaosu was still a little worried. What if the Wolf King suddenly went crazy and decided it wanted to hurt Yan Liuyuan?

With that, the both of them decided to head into the mountains. But all of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw the headlights of a vehicle speeding up the mountain. He frowned and said, “Go back into the house first. Wake Li Qingzheng and get him out here.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan went to wake Li Qingzheng up.

Shortly, Li Qingzheng walked out of the house wearing a military overcoat. “Xiaosu, you called for me?”

“Someone’s heading up the mountain. It should be the Li Consortium’s people.” Ren Xiaosu said.

“It’s the New Year now. Who has the time to head up here into the mountains?” Li Qingzheng was surprised to hear that. The two of them stood at the entrance of the outpost and waited. An off-road vehicle came to a stop at the outpost entrance. Then a soldier got out and tossed a manila envelope to them. “We’re massing the private troops. This is the paperwork stating that you all must gather by 0700. Anyone who turns up with less than a full platoon will be investigated and held liable as deserters.”

The punishment for deserters was extremely harsh within the Li Consortium’s military. Not only would the person be arrested and charged with a crime, but their families would also get implicated as well and lose their eligibility to receive their portion of potable water as refugees of the town. In this era, not having a source of potable water meant certain death.

Some people might be able to find water in the wilderness, but there were still risks attached to that.

The soldier who came to send the documents got ready to get back into the vehicle to leave. But Li Qingzheng calculated that since it was already 2 AM, that meant they had five hours to gather and report to the outside of the stronghold. Otherwise, they would be treated as deserters.

He looked at that soldier and said, “We’re guarding the outpost here. What will happen to it if we leave? Can’t you make an exception for
us?”

The soldier sneered as he got back into the vehicle. “It’s useless telling me that. If you don’t wish to assemble, you can choose not to.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng. “Do you have any family in town? If you don’t, you can choose to run away.”

Li Qingzheng said bitterly, “How can I? I might not have any family left, but more than a dozen people in our platoon still have family members living in town. If a single person runs away from our platoon, the entire platoon will be subjected to the same punishment.”

This was the Li Consortium’s cruel way of meting out punishment. It was done this way to make comrades watch over each other so that they wouldn’t run away. As long as a single person ran away, the entire platoon would be done for.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng in surprise. Even though he knew they were going to end up as cannon fodder, he still chose not to run away for other people’s sakes.

Hu Shuo had already said before the reunion dinner that they all might end up becoming cannon fodder in the war.

Everyone also had their own verdict regarding this. What other reason could there be for sending private troops to the front line? Could they tackle the tough situations? No, they would only be fit enough to serve as cannon fodder.

But this Li Qingzheng was also quite a strange one. Before getting to know him, he would look to take as much advantage of someone as possible. But once they became friends, he became someone who was extremely loyal and dependable.

The regular officer status Hu Shuo had gotten for them was basically a permanent role. If Li Qingzheng made use of this status to run away, it wouldn’t take any effort at all.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu had initially planned on bringing Yan Liuyuan and the others into the stronghold with him. After all, it would be incredibly easy to get that done with his status as an officer of the Office of Special Investigations.

But from the looks of it, the platoon would be done for if he brought his family into the stronghold and hid with them.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before sighing, “Then let’s wake everyone up. We have to set off now, but let me send my family back to town first. After that, we’ll go and assemble.”

“Deal,” Li Qingzheng said.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. “Can you teach me how to drive?”

If they were to leave the Li Consortium’s territory in the future, whether it be for Stronghold 88 or Stronghold 178, driving there would be the most comfortable option. So Ren Xiaosu started thinking about learning how to drive.

Besides, after the troops assembled this time, they would definitely have to head north. If it were only Li Qingzheng who could drive, he would definitely be worn out driving all the way there.

Ren Xiaosu thought that since he couldn’t master the bicycle, why not just jump straight to learning how to drive a car.

It wouldn’t be worth wasting a Skill Duplication Scroll to learn a life skill like that. Moreover, he did not have any Skill Duplication Scrolls right now either. Even if he had one, he would definitely be better off using it on someone like Hu Shuo.

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. “Sure, I’ll teach you along the way. We still have enough time! Driving isn’t difficult at all, although you shouldn’t drive on the mountain paths. Once we descend down the mountain and get onto the straight roads, you’ll pick it up very quickly.”

That was exactly how it was. For driving, if you didn’t need to follow the traffic rules like within the stronghold, you could quickly understand it if you just drove around for a bit.

The people at the outpost all looked bleary-eyed when they got awoken. Li Qingzheng shouted at the top of his voice, “Stop fucking sleeping. Hurry up and pack all of the supplies we have at the outpost into your personal field packs. Don’t load them up onto the truck. If they discover we’re carrying all that cured meat during an inspection, we’ll bear consequences.”

Someone asked, “Lord of Wolves, what are we packing up for?”

Li Qingzheng swept his eyes over them and said, “To get ready to join the war…”

Everyone was stunned. “Now? Aren’t we going to wait until the Spring Festival is over?”

“As if a war would wait for you to celebrate the New Year first.” Li Qingzheng sighed and said, “Go and pack your stuff. We’ll gather out here again in 15 minutes.”

The outpost’s troops’ faces fell. Everyone had been getting on with each other like family recently and talking about living at the outpost from now on. But all of a sudden, they were about to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

“Can we not go?” someone asked. “It’s much better here at the outpost.”

When they first got here, everyone felt working at the outpost was a really tough job. But as time passed, they discovered it wasn’t difficult living here at all. In fact, it was even more comfortable than living in town.

Li Qingzheng turned strict at this moment and said, “If we don’t assemble, some of our comrades’ families in town will not survive. Moreover, the Li Consortium will definitely arrest us, so we won’t be able to run away.”

Ren Xiaosu was observing this group of people from off to the side. There were only a total of 11 automatic rifles in the entire outpost and not even a single grenade, much less improvised mortars, anti-personnel mines, etc. They also did not have the most basic radio set for communication purposes. If they actually fought in the war, they wouldn’t even be able to call for support in the large battlefield that could span two mountain ranges.

At that time, their enemies on the battlefield would learn these private troops were the weakest point where they could easily breach the defense.

Of course, if the enemies thought the platoon that Ren Xiaosu was in would be the same as the other private troops, Ren Xiaosu alone would be enough to teach them all a lesson.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if the wolf pack would follow as well. He turned around to look at the top of the hill and saw that the Wolf King was no longer there.

At this moment, Chen Wudi came over to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Master, are we also going to join the war?”

“Let’s observe the situation before deciding whether to take part in the war or not.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Go and help everyone carry their belongings. I’ll go and get ready as well.”

“Sure!” Chen Wudi replied.

Chapter 238: Treachery

After Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi to go and pack up, he went inside an unoccupied house by himself. He was planning on dismantling the nanosoldiers’ weapons he had gained to retrieve the nanomachines within them.

Ever since hunting down the nanosoldiers with the wolf pack, the amount of Ren Xiaosu’s nanomachines had increased severalfold. In fact, he was already able to cover both hands up to his biceps with the suit of armor. So he had been wondering all this while whether he should dismantle the weapons to get his hands on the nanomachines.

The principle behind how these weapons worked was probably by using a program to set the nanomachines to create an incision effect through high-frequency particle cutting action. Even though this concept sounded difficult to grasp, it was actually similar in logic with waterjet cutting.

Most high-frequency particle cutters tend to be heavy machineries. Due to the “blade” not having plasticity[1], these cutters couldn’t be molded into swords.

But the nanomachines allowed the Li Consortium to overcome this problem, and they were able to create even sharper melee weapons for close quarters combat.

This weapon was definitely not better than the black saber for Ren Xiaosu. But if the students could be equipped with the nanoarmor in the future, it might prove useful for them.

But Ren Xiaosu couldn’t afford to think that much about the future right now. He wasn’t retrieving these nanomachines for his own use. They were going to be for Yan Liuyuan!

After resetting the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu called Yan Liuyuan into the house. Yan Liuyuan asked curiously after closing the door behind him, “Bro, what’s the matter?”

“Put your hand out,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yan Liuyuan stuck his hand out and watched as Ren Xiaosu grabbed his arm tightly. Following that, a silvery stream permeated out of Ren Xiaosu’s skin and spread over to Yan Liuyuan.

“These are the Li Consortium’s nanomachines. Since you’re slightly smaller in build, this amount of nanomachines might already be enough to form a thin layer of armor around you. It can also help to increase your musculoskeletal strength when it resides in your body. I’m giving it to you so that you may use it to keep yourself alive. Don’t ever reveal them to anyone under normal circumstances.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If the situation becomes dangerous, you can use it to kill your opponents.”

Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. “Bro, what are you going to do if you give all of your nanomachines away to me?” He wanted to retract his hand to stop the nanomachines from transferring over to him. However, he couldn’t pull his hand away as he was much weaker than Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu held Yan Liuyuan’s hand tightly, gripping him so hard his arm ached. He enunciated each and every one of his words to Yan Liuyuan. “When it becomes necessary, you can use these nanomachines to protect everyone.”

There wasn’t any sentimental talk as Ren Xiaosu only spoke about the most practical of matters at this moment.

Just like Yan Liuyuan was willing to sacrifice his life to make a wish for Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu was also willing to give away all of his hard-earned nanomachines to Yan Liuyuan in one fell swoop. It was also precisely because of this that they made it through hard times in the past.

Ren Xiaosu did not have a habit of depending on these nanomachines, anyway, since he was already strong enough by himself. Besides, Ren Xiaosu believed there would be plenty more nanomachines waiting for him on the battlefield ahead. After all, the Li Consortium was pretty generous in that sense. He might even assemble enough nanomachines for the eight students after he got to the front lines.

Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Palace, pair the nanomachines again.”

The palace replied, “A fee of 20,000 yuan will be charged.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Didn’t he have exactly 20,000 yuan on him right now? Why was the palace even charging a processing fee to newly pair the nanomachines?!

But Ren Xiaosu could only eat the loss at this time. “Hurry up and pair. You can collect the money whenever.”

After he finished speaking with his mind palace, the 20,000 yuan in his storage space disappeared. Meanwhile, the nanomachines that were originally connected to his neurons started disconnecting from him. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, “Allow the nanomachines to pair with you, then try to see if you can control them.”

When the nanomachines fully integrated into Yan Liuyuan’s body, the veins and arteries in his body turned silver. Yan Liuyuan said with some uncertainty, “They’re really easy to control and seem very obedient to my commands. It feels the same as controlling my fingers.”

Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. He was most worried that Yan Liuyuan’s synchronization rate would be too low and that he would be unable to put the nanomachines to good use.

But from the looks of it now, Yan Liuyuan’s synchronization rate seemed really high.

“Don’t use them in normal circumstances.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If you use them recklessly, it will definitely attract the attention of the Li Consortium.”

“Alright.” Yan Liuyuan nodded in agreement.

All of a sudden, a cry came from outside. “Where’s Liu Zhaojiang?!”

Ren Xiaosu pushed the door open and went out. “What’s the matter?”

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu with a terrified expression and said with great difficulty, “Liu Zhaojiang took some salt and cured meat and disappeared. He even took a rifle and half of the ammo we had.”

“He disappeared?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. This outpost was on top of the mountain, and there was only one path leading to the bottom. If Liu Zhaojiang had disappeared, then it could only mean that he had gone into the mountains.

Liu Zhaojiang was formerly a refugee who had escaped to Stronghold 109 with Ren Xiaosu and the others. As he had no relatives here, he started getting thoughts of running away when he realized he would be going into battle as cannon fodder.

Not only did Liu Zhaojiang run away, he even took some supplies with him for his own survival.

Li Qingzheng turned ashen. “How could he run away! What will happen to the rest of us now that he’s fled!”

Li Qingzheng had only stayed behind because he regarded the soldiers at the outpost as his brothers. But he ended up getting betrayed by one of them.

Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Master, why are there such people in the world?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “They’re the darkness that’s trying to devour the light that you are.”

“What should we do now?” Li Qingzheng mumbled, “With one less person, all of us are going to get punished.”

Someone suddenly said, “Why don’t we flee as well? We’ll die on the battlefield anyway.”

But someone else started pleading with everyone else. “My wife and daughter are still in town. Please, we mustn’t flee. Who knows, we might escape being punished with only one soldier missing?”

Another man also begged, “Please, everyone, we can’t run away. If you run away, what are those of us with families here going to do?”

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu, and everyone else’s gaze followed his. In reality, everyone understood that the decision maker in the platoon was Ren Xiaosu, not Li Qingzheng.

Ren Xiaosu met their eyes and considered it for a couple seconds before saying, “Let’s go and assemble. I have a plan.”

“Really?” Someone asked, “Platoon Commander, you aren’t joking, right?”

Li Qingzheng felt reassured by Ren Xiaosu. “When has our Platoon Commander Xiaosu ever not been serious? It won’t go wrong as long as we listen to him!”

Finally, Ren Xiaosu became the real leader in everyone’s hearts.

[1] Plasticity: the quality of being easily shaped or molded. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic _machining

Chapter 239: Ren Xiaosu’s plan

As they drove down the mountain, Ren Xiaosu realized Chen Wudi was a little sullen. Actually, whenever such betrayals happened in the past, Chen Wudi’s inner world would always be rocked to the core.

He was like a naïve, kind, and innocent child who was more than happy to help others. But slowly, he discovered that the kindness he had for this world was just like a triangle within his heart. Whenever this triangle turned, it would hurt his heart and cause him a lot of anguish.

Until the triangle’s edges were milled round.

Ren Xiaosu did not try to enlighten Chen Wudi anymore. He had to experience for himself his inner demons and think it through before he would be able to step out of his predicament.

The military transport truck did not head straight for town after it arrived at the bottom of the mountain. The journey to town would only take three hours, or even two and a half hours if they drove a little faster. They still had about two hours or so now to burn.

Ren Xiaosu took them by another route, to which Li Qingzheng wondered, “What are we doing?”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “You’ll know when we get there.”

On the side of the road, Ren Xiaosu had Li Qingzheng set up an ambush. He also requested that Li Qingzheng change into his Li Consortium military uniform and have his Office of Special Investigations identification with him.

At this moment, a military transport truck drove over from afar. Ren Xiaosu calmly walked to the middle of the road and blocked the path of the vehicle.

When the people in it saw Ren Xiaosu in his Li Consortium military uniform, they came to a stop. This truck was filled with the full platoon of another outpost. Their platoon commander jumped out and said with a fawning smile, “Sir, what is the matter?”

Ren Xiaosu flashed his ID and said, “The Office of Special Investigations is conducting an investigation. I suspect that there’s a spy in the truck. Get everyone out.”

The platoon commander was startled. He hurriedly claimed innocence and cried out, “Sir, could there be a misunderstanding? We’re only soldiers of the private army.”

“Don’t fucking bullshit me!” Ren Xiaosu said with a cold expression, “Don’t tell me you’re the spy?”

The platoon commander immediately shut his mouth and beckoned for the other soldiers to get out of the truck. “Hurry up and get out. Cooperate with this officer’s investigation.”

After the group of soldiers stepped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Who still has family back in town?”

A man raised his hand weakly. “Sir, my family is still in town.”

Ren Xiaosu said to that platoon commander, “It’s him, come with me!”

Li Qingzheng led a group of soldiers over and tied that man up before taking him back to their own truck.

Li Qingzheng was startled when he realized that Ren Xiaosu’s so-called plan was to actually kidnap someone into their group!

Actually, the Li Consortium was only worried that there would be deserters. As long as they showed up with a full-strength platoon of 30 soldiers, they would definitely not say anything about it. However, Li Qingzheng never expected that Ren Xiaosu would come up with something like that!

How ruthless!

But better you than me! As if Li Qingzheng and the others cared about the life and death of another platoon. In these times, it was already great to survive. It didn’t matter how they did it!

When the platoon commander saw the uniforms of the soldiers beside Li Qingzheng, he felt that something was wrong. Why were some of them dressed in casual wear and others dressed in the uniform of the private army?

The platoon commander asked suspiciously, “Sir, are your men in the private army?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. “That’s right, I’ve been hiding with the private troops for a very long time to find the spy!”

The platoon commander did not dare say anything. After all, the Office of Special Investigations had a reputation. Without any blood relations to the Li Consortium, no one would dare to offend the Office of Special Investigations.

Ren Xiaosu cast him a glance before saying to Li Qingzheng, “Set off!”

After he said that, their military transport truck turned around in the direction of town and drove off. Ren Xiaosu was looking at that man who had been tied up. He said to Chen Wudi, “Untie him”

The man nearly cried from fear. “Sir, I’m really not a spy.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Starting from today, you’re now a part of this platoon.”

That man was stunned. “But, sir, I’m not from your platoon.”

All the private soldiers next to him pointed their guns at him. Ren Xiaosu said, “You are now!”

It was also at this moment that the dazed platoon commander behind them managed to react. “Fuck, they were here to steal our people! What fucking Office of Special Investigations? How despicable!”

The soldiers beside him were panicking a little. “Platoon Commander, what do we do now?”

That platoon commander clenched his teeth. “I doubt we’ll be able to chase after them. Besides, I also can’t be sure whether his Office of Special Investigations identity is real or not. Let’s… go and steal someone from the other platoons!”

There were several dozen outposts around the area, which meant there were several dozen platoons as well.

Ren Xiaosu was still unaware of what he had sparked. All of these platoons were about to tussle trying to steal soldiers from each other to fill up their rosters.

Some of the platoons were at full strength and did not consider the possibility of something like this happening. But there were a lot more platoons that had a person missing just like Ren Xiaosu’s platoon. All of them were still wondering what they should do, but with Ren Xiaosu doing what he just did, it was as though a new world had opened up for them.

After the platoons from the outposts got out of the mountains and headed for town, there were only two or three major roads that they could take. As such, this scenario would probably be best described with the saying, “The brave win when rivals cross paths.”

As Ren Xiaosu’s group sped towards town, the sun was rising. Then they were surprised to see several military transport trucks of the Li Consortium driving in the direction they had come from.

When those vehicles saw Ren Xiaosu’s group, they stopped. One of the drivers in the Li Consortium group rolled down his window and shouted, “Are you all the private troops that came from the outposts?”

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. “That’s right.”

“Did you see any groups fighting on your way here?” the driver asked.

“No, we set off very early,” Li Qingzheng said calmly.

The driver cursed as he rolled the window back up, “Fuck, I heard a riot broke out over there! It’s so troublesome to have to go out there to look at what’s happening!”

Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng sat in the front of the truck without saying a word. However, they could guess what had happened.

Li Qingzheng asked softly, “It should be fine,
right?”

Ren Xiaosu also felt a little guilty. “I guess it won’t really be much of a problem….”

Ren Xiaosu sent Yan Liuyuan and the others back to town and instructed them to be cautious of the circumstances before heading to the assembly point to report in.

In the morning, Hu Shuo had just finished a short meeting at the Office of Special Investigations when he received a satellite call from a deputy of his. “Lieutenant General, the commanding officer of the private army forces is looking for you.”

Hu Shuo was taken aback for a moment. “Why’s he looking for me?”

Hu Shuo then answered the phone. “This is Hu Shuo speaking.”

As a result, he was met with a barrage of complaints on the other end of the call. Although the private troops were made up of refugees, their commanding officer was still a family member of the Li Consortium. The person on the other end of the line was complaining so much that it made Hu Shuo unhappy. “Why the fuck would I want to meddle in the affairs of your private troops? Even if you gave those lousy troops of yours to me for free, I wouldn’t take them in. Stop trying to accuse me of something!” And with that, Hu Shuo hung up.

However, he immediately got a headache over this matter. He was quite certain Ren Xiaosu caused trouble for him again!

Chapter 240: The law is unenforceable when everyone is a criminal

Ren Xiaosu had thought there wouldn’t be too many soldiers in the private troops, but he was wrong. After assembling, the soldiers even outnumbered a combat brigade of the organization. Li Qingzheng asked around and discovered that all of these private troops were actually gathered from the various Li Consortium strongholds.

The private troops of the various strongholds were currently under the command of an officer named Li Anjun. He was a family member of the Li Consortium and was also concurrently serving as the overseer of Stronghold 107. And the officer in charge of Stronghold 108’s private troops was called Liu Taiyu.

By this moment, the private troops of the other strongholds had fully assembled. Liu Taiyu was looking disconsolately at the sole platoon in front of him that was made up of Ren Xiaosu’s group. The rest of his soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

Liu Taiyu looked at Li Qingzheng. “Did anything happen on your way here?”

Li Qingzheng stood to attention and answered, “Sir, there were no incidents along the way. Our Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second Battalion has assembled on time. Awaiting your instructions, sir! I—”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Liu Taiyu waved his hand in frustration and dismissed him. “Do you think it’s not chaotic enough? Just stand right here and be quiet!”

With that, Liu Taiyu left. No one knew where he went.

Someone in the platoon whispered, “Did everyone else that was behind us get into a
spat?”

“Seems so. They’re probably stealing from each other’s platoons,” Li Qingzheng said in embarrassment.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. “That could turn out to be a good thing. As y’all should know, they can’t enforce the law on us if everyone is a criminal. If a fight breaks out between all of the outposts, there won’t be a need for any punishment.”

Actually, the soldiers from other outposts only dared to do so because they also understood this fact. Since the Li Consortium needed people to fight the war now, surely they wouldn’t waste their efforts to hold them all accountable, right?

At this moment, someone looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Platoon Commander, could you have expected this too? So you only wanted to create chaos that would lead to a situation where the law would not apply to all those in the wrong?”

Ren Xiaosu cleared his throat. “Not bad, right? Everything is well within my control.”

But at this moment, Chen Wudi said, “My master is not that smart.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi speechlessly.

Actually, the management of the private troops had always been a mess. It became even more chaotic now that the private troops had recently expanded.

Ren Xiaosu and his group had never been to other outposts before. If they had, they would know that many of the outposts did not have the required full strength. The platoon commanders of the platoons would even deliberately lie about the number of soldiers under them as they wanted to freeload off of the consortium’s supplies. But in the end, they were all caught off guard when they were suddenly requested to assemble for war.

If the higher-ups knew they were freeloading off them, they wouldn’t be let off with just a simple punishment. Perhaps some people would even get executed as a warning to the others. So some people deliberately continued stirring up the pot even further amid the chaos.

While Liu Taiyu personally went to bring the rest of the private troops back, the other strongholds’ private troops set out. Only Stronghold 108’s platoons remained behind.

They were supposed to assemble and report at 7 AM, but it was almost evening now.

During this period, no one bothered with Ren Xiaosu and his group. Their entire platoon was allowed to roam freely like grazing sheep. Ren Xiaosu even had time to take everyone to town where he bought an egg-stuffed flatbread for each of them. This was a treat from Li Qingzheng.

In the evening, Liu Taiyu returned with a large number of troops. These private soldiers all had bruised and swollen faces. But the most shocking thing was that several of the established platoons had completely disappeared.

Many of them had their clothes torn, and some even lost their shoes. Only Ren Xiaosu’s platoon was still looking somewhat dignified.

Ren Xiaosu’s group was the Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second. There should have been seven platoons ahead of them. However, the Sixth Platoon ceased to exist, with all of their soldiers stolen away by the other platoons. Even the platoon commander himself had been taken away.

At this time, Liu Taiyu no longer talked about meting out punishment. On normal days, he would also do all he could to embezzle everyone’s provisions and never really cared about his military responsibilities. This time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine.

Ren Xiaosu did a rough count. Currently, there were still 33 full-strength platoons of the private army remaining. In effect, the number of soldiers here was around 1000 or so.

Liu Taiyu stood before everyone and said, “You’ve all been taken care of by the organization during peacetime. As the saying goes, armies are trained for a 1,000 days only to be used for a single battle. Now is the time for you to serve the organization. We’ll advance to the front lines at Mt. Tantou, Mt. Fengyi, and Mt. Shuanglong where we’ll construct bases on the high ground to prevent an invasion by the Qing Consortium’s troops.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Getting the private troops to construct bases on the high ground? They really intended to send them to their deaths.

Although there were still huge advantages in selecting the right terrain to fight on, artillery shells that could impact with extremely high accuracy over a very long range were a problem. Even if they managed to occupy the high ground, their enemies could simply bombard the entire area with artillery shells if they had enough funding.

In a time like this, anyone guarding the high ground would surely die.

Generally, such situations required the construction of extremely strong defensive fortifications that would help play a strategic role on the high ground. But was there time for Ren Xiaosu and the others to build any defensive fortifications?

Everyone in the private troops burst into an uproar since no one was willing to give up their lives for nothing. But even as they protested, no one dared to run away.

Liu Taiyu was surrounded by a reinforced company made up of his trusted troops. There were 180 of them in total, and their weapons and equipment were much better than those that Ren Xiaosu and the others carried.

But these troops were not used to fighting in battle. On one hand, they were responsible for the security of Liu Taiyu. On the other hand, they were to supervise the platoons of the private troops and ensure that they carried out their orders properly.

Liu Taiyu said with a smile, “However, there’s a big reward for taking on a responsibility as great as this. Those who perform well at the end of the war can gain direct entry into the Li Consortium’s troops. Not only that, but you’ll also be handsomely rewarded as well. At the very least, you’ll be ensured the status of legal resident and get to live in the stronghold.”

Some of the soldiers became excited and eager on the spot. “We can get into the stronghold and be recognized as legal residents?”

“Are you serious?”

Liu Taiyu smiled and said, “As the commander of the Iron Second, would I make such jokes with you? The higher-ups of the organization have already issued an official notice. You can rest assured.”

A lot of people were moved by the thought of that as most refugees were not knowledgeable. Historically, this group of people were always cheated by others. Now that they were in a group together, it was even easier to fool them all.

But Ren Xiaosu knew exactly why Liu Taiyu dared to make such a grand promise. It was because he thought that none of these close to a 1,000 private soldiers would make it back alive!

Many others among the troops were well-aware of this too, but they did not dare speak out. They could only leave their comrades to discuss it excitedly.

Suddenly, Liu Taiyu clapped his hands and signaled for everyone to be quiet. “Get into the trucks. It’s time to set out!”

Liu Taiyu’s off-road vehicle and the reinforced company’s military transport trucks did not drive at the front but stayed in a supervisory role at the back of the convoy. They were watching to see if anyone would try to escape midway.

Ren Xiaosu was watching this through the rearview mirror of the truck and said to Li Qingzheng, “That Liu Taiyu is a coward. When the time comes, he’ll definitely be too scared to get onto the battlefield personally. Since that’s the case, we’ll have more leeway to do what we want.”

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. “What are you playing at? Xiaosu, don’t be rash.”

Chapter 241: Encountering the nanosoldiers

With Liu Taiyu staying in the rear, they could easily find somewhere to hide or move from their original positions on the front line.

Someone leaned forward and asked through the gap between the driver’s cabin and truck bed, “Platoon Commander, Platoon Sergeant, what if we really end up as cannon fodder on the battlefield?”

“Yeah, Liu Zhaojiang took half of all our ammo with him. When we defend the strategic high ground, we’ll definitely run out of ammo in no time. Surely we aren’t gonna have to resort to biting the enemy with our teeth, right?”

Even now, everyone was still resenting Liu Zhaojiang. They could understand why he chose to be a deserter since all of them had thoughts of running away as well. But by taking away so much cured meat and ammunition when he left, that was as good as condemning everyone else to their deaths.

The current situation for their platoon was almost no different from having to fight barehanded.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng and asked, “If you knew that someone would run away, would you still have stayed behind?”

“Yes, there are still others in the platoon who have families to protect, after all,” Li Qingzheng said.

What upset Li Qingzheng the most was that he had treated everyone like brothers, yet one of them ran away with his weapon and provisions without even saying a word of goodbye. Fortunately for them, there were enough provisions left for the rest, and they would not have to go hungry as a result.

Li Qingzheng sighed. “If someone offers y’all a 1,000,000 yuan, would any of you sell me out?”

“Don’t think too much.” Ren Xiaosu comforted him, “You aren’t worth that much. We won’t accept the money if it goes against our conscience.”

Li Qingzheng was speechless.

The soldiers at the back of the truck started laughing at this. However, someone still said worriedly, “Jokes aside, what if we really end up becoming cannon fodder?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll come up with something when we get there.”

Everyone felt relieved by Ren Xiaosu’s answer. If Ren Xiaosu could come up with a plan, they would not have to end up becoming cannon fodder.

When they arrived at the forward operating base in the afternoon, all vehicles passing through here were required to get refueled. Otherwise, they would not be able to continue the long-distance journey.

However, this forward operating base was not required to provide meals and provisions to the private troops. Some of the private troops were starving since the beginning and thought they would surely be fed first before heading out to the battlefield. After all, superiors should not let their soldiers go hungry in the face of battle.

But who could have thought the Li Consortium’s combat troops wouldn’t treat the private troops as human beings!

However, these private soldiers of Stronghold 108 were unaware that the other private troops were still entitled to the usual military benefits. It was just that those benefits for them had been stopped by Liu Taiyu.

When it was mealtime, the soldiers in Ren Xiaosu’s group hid in the military transport truck and secretly ate their rations they had brought from the outpost. Although Liu Zhaojiang took away quite a lot of cured meat, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng had bought a lot of wheat flour to make into buns and flatbread.

When the soldiers under Ren Xiaosu hiding in the back of the truck saw the other private soldiers enduring starvation, they suddenly felt they had followed the right leader.

After refueling the truck, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Platoon Sergeant, teach me how to drive.”

Li Qingzheng was taken aback for a moment. “Alright.”

Currently, Liu Taiyu was at the FOB eating his meal. Officers like him were all served good food, and there would be people fawning upon him and showing him good hospitality upon reaching the FOB. As such, these officers didn’t usually resume their journey quickly.

As for addressing him as “Platoon Sergeant,” even Li Qingzheng himself did not feel anything wrong with it.

Li Qingzheng was teaching Ren Xiaosu how to drive in the open area. “You just need to remember to step on the clutch when you change gears when driving stick. It’s not that difficult to change gears once you reach a certain speed.”

About an hour later, Ren Xiaosu could somewhat manage to drive on the road. As long as he did not have to shift gears, he could drive very smoothly.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt bad. He hadn’t been able to learn how to ride the bicycle no matter how hard he tried. At the time, he kept blaming the palace. He thought it could be due to his ability to copy other people’s skills that made him unable to learn a skill through his own means.

After all, he had to make some sacrifices in order to gain something, right? Ren Xiaosu understood this very well. So it occurred to him that it was not because he was stupid that he couldn’t master the bicycle, but that the palace had limited him. But right now, it seemed like… not being able to master the bicycle had totally nothing to do with the palace! It was just him!

Ren Xiaosu found this difficult to accept.

In the afternoon, Liu Taiyu even secretly had some wine at the FOB before setting off again. Ren Xiaosu thought that if even the officer in charge of the private army was drinking during the wartime, what kind of combat effectiveness would the Li Consortium’s combat troops be capable of?

Upon setting off again, Ren Xiaosu insisted on driving the truck. As the saying went, “Strike while the iron is hot.” He was determined to master this skill while he had the chance.

When they got here in the morning, everyone was still laughing happily in the truck bed. But by the afternoon, no one spoke as they were all trembling in fear in the back of the truck. All of them were tightly grasping the handrails in the bed.

Ren Xiaosu was driving so fast that he reached the front of the convoy in just a short while. He sat in the cab while controlling the steering wheel in high spirits. This was the first time in his life that he was driving a vehicle. It was a wonderful feeling.

Li Qingzheng who was next to him had already turned pale. He said, “Platoon Commander, the road is slippery during winter. If you drive so fast, the truck might flip over when you step on the brakes.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, “Then won’t it be fine as long as I don’t step on the brakes?”

Li Qingzheng was speechless. After Li Qingzheng took five minutes to calm himself down, he said in seriousness, “Platoon Commander, why don’t I drive instead? I’m worried that you’ll exhaust yourself.”

Ren Xiaosu was finally persuaded to sit in the front passenger seat after the rest of his comrades on board strongly expressed their concerns. However, he was still very happy. After all, knowing how to drive in these wastelands was also considered as having a life-saving skill.

Ren Xiaosu said to the palace in his mind, “What’s the proficiency of my driving? It should be at advanced or intermediate level since I can drive so well, right?”

The voice from the palace said, “It has been detected that the host does not possess any driving skills.”

Ren Xiaosu was unhappy to hear that. “Who are you bluffing here? How can I not have any driving skills when I’ve already driven on the road? Can you at least have some logic in your judgment…. It’s fine even if you just judge that I’m at a basic level!”

All of a sudden, Li Qingzheng said, “Platoon Commander, there’s a situation up ahead.”

Ren Xiaosu looked and saw some officers wearing the Li Consortium’s military uniform standing in their way. It looked like there were quite a few of their soldiers there.

“Just stay in the vehicle.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Let Liu Taiyu handle them since we’re just normal soldiers.”

Liu Taiyu’s off-road vehicle sped over from behind. The officer in front of Liu Taiyu maintained his high and mighty attitude as he said, “All of your trucks have been commandeered. Have all of the men in the vehicles get out.”

Liu Taiyu was dumbfounded. “We were ordered to quickly head to the front lines at Mt. Fengyi. If we hand over all of our military transport trucks to you, how are we supposed to get there?”

“Why should I care?” The officer sneered. During their conversation, the blood vessels in his face became silvery strands. It was as though something was glowing inside his blood vessels. “All of you, get out of the trucks now!”

Chapter 242: Triple identity, Ren Xiaosu!

When the silvery strands appeared on the officer, the Iron Second Battalion’s commander, Liu Taiyu, froze. He lowered his head and did not dare to refute him further. Because he knew this was the most elite unit of the Li Consortium. They were the nanosoldiers of the organization!

The Li Consortium’s main battlefield was divided into two areas, with one at the front line at Mt. Fengyi facing the Qing Consortium, and the other at the front line at Mt. Ping facing the Yang Consortium. The distance between the two battlefields was several hundred kilometers.

Liu Taiyu received news earlier that those nanosoldiers were already heading towards Mt. Ping because the Yang Consortium was the Li Consortium’s main opponent, while the Qing Consortium was just here to take advantage of the situation. However, Liu Taiyu was not expecting the nanosoldiers to appear here.

Did they intend to catch the Qing Consortium off guard? Was that why the organization had even withheld this information internally?

Liu Taiyu grew cold with fear when he realized the situation was worse than he had expected. The front line at Mt. Fengyi where he was being deployed to would definitely end up as ground zero for this war!

But how could the nanosoldiers not have their own vehicles? The nanosoldiers were always given the best equipment. They did not even need to take military transport trucks as they were all issued with off-road vehicles.

Liu Taiyu asked in a whisper, “Sir, where are your vehicles?” While saying that, he took a look at the officer’s shoulder patch that displayed the words “Divine Arms Battalion.” There was also the white logo of a nanospider on it.

This was the legendary Divine Arms Battalion of the Li Consortium.

The Divine Arms officer looked at Liu Taiyu out of the corner of his eye and said, “Our vehicles are parked right up ahead. I want your soldiers to get out of the trucks and take our off-road vehicles instead. On top of that, have all your private troops take off their uniforms.”

“We’ll freeze to death if we take off our clothes in this cold weather,” Liu Taiyu said anxiously.

In response, the officer of the Divine Arms Battalion lunged over and punched Liu Taiyu in the abdomen. He left Liu Taiyu in such pain that he laid on the ground in the fetal position and could not even make a sound!

The Divine Arms officer said calmly, “Why must you speak so much?”

The truck Ren Xiaosu’s platoon was in was the closest to the Divine Arms officers, so he could hear their entire conversation. When the officer said they wanted the private troops to take off their uniforms, Ren Xiaosu realized these nanosoldiers might be planning to pose as private troops on the march.

The Li Consortium’s nanotechnology had always been the subject of much attention. Now that it had been fully put into practical use on the battlefield, it would definitely be regarded as a great threat by the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium.

The Li Consortium knew there were spies in their military. Therefore, the Divine Arms Battalion would have to hide their whereabouts if they wanted to spring a surprise on the Qing Consortium.

As the soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion walked over to the trucks, the lead soldier shouted to Ren Xiaosu and his platoon, “Get out here and change out of your uniforms—” The person speaking froze when he realized Ren Xiaosu and his platoon were not in uniform.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. Wasn’t this such a coincidence? They had not even been issued with uniforms.

The Divine Arms officer wondered, “Where are your uniforms?”

Disgruntled, Ren Xiaosu explained, “We were never issued with uniforms. Not only that, we weren’t even equipped with guns.”

The Divine Arms officers were stunned for a while. Since they did not have much contact with the private troops before, this problem never once crossed their minds!

The officer who beat up Liu Taiyu got so angry he laughed. He looked at Liu Taiyu, who was lying on the ground, and said, “Aren’t you too rampant with your embezzlement of their pay and equipment?! Do you think our Li Consortium is raising you all as parasites?” He then angrily kicked Liu Taiyu’s head so hard that Liu Taiyu fainted.

To be honest, this commander of the Divine Arms Battalion believed his plan was well thought out. They would first pretend to be private troops and get close to the battlefield while avoiding the spies’ attention. Afterwards, they would head into the mountains and flank the Qing Consortium to deal them the fatal blow.

The fitness of these nanosoldiers was fantastic, and they could take routes that normal soldiers couldn’t. So they could reach places the Qing Consortium wouldn’t expect.

This plan was also approved of by Headquarters. They felt that everyone would think they would target the Yang Consortium now, so sneak attacking the Qing Consortium would catch them by surprise and lead to a victory.

If any weak points appeared in the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium would also be very happy to seize any gains from them.

Ultimately, the reason for the war between the three organizations was mainly influence. Whoever became the weakest link on the battlefield first would definitely end up facing the most violent attacks from the other sides.

So even though this plan was not considered perfect, it was still a great plan. But the Divine Arms officer never expected their plan would be screwed up right off the bat.

By looking at their uniforms, everyone could tell they were from the Divine Arms Battalion. Even if they drove the private troops’ vehicles, they would not be able to hide that fact from the more observant people.

“What do we do now then?” one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion asked.

The commander of the Divine Arms Battalion clenched his teeth and said, “Let’s put on their civilian clothes and have them wear our uniforms instead. Let them continue advancing to the front line at Mt. Fengyi and have the enemy’s spies in our military focus on them.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. At this moment, he was considered to be holding three different identities—that of a private soldier, a member of the Office of Special Investigations, and a member of the Divine Arms Battalion-all at the same time! However, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of taking on too many identities. After all, it would be easier for him to get things done with these identities.

When the Divine Arms soldiers slapped Liu Taiyu awake, one of them whispered to him, “Continue marching to the front line at Mt. Fengyi and get there within ten days. If you don’t get there in ten days, you’ll be brought in for a court martial. I’ll send five nanosoldiers with you, so don’t try any tricks.”

The commander of the Divine Arms Battalion even placed an electronic ankle monitor on Liu Taiyu. A red light was flashing on the shackle, and it seemed like it would be used for tracking Liu Taiyu’s location. But its functionality was probably not just as simple as tracking him. Why else would they rest easy that Liu Taiyu would carry out their orders accordingly?

They not only had surveillance equipment on him, but also sent their nanosoldiers to follow the private troops as they headed to the front line at Mt. Fengyi together. This could be considered as a dual-layered security measure for the plan.

The Divine Arms Battalion’s decision to temporarily take over the role of the private troops was also a part of the plan. Everyone in the organization knew what the private troops’ behavior was like, so most people would not generally care to plant spies within the private troops.

Besides, even if they were to abruptly disrupt the battle plans of a battalion of private troops, it would have little impact on the big picture.

The commander of the Divine Arms Battalion said coldly, “All of you will camp here for the day before setting off again tomorrow.”

However, Ren Xiaosu was very curious. This group of people in front of him were definitely not the entire strength of the Divine Arms Battalion. After all, he had not even seen Lin Qi and that Captain Zhou around. He wondered if there would be a chance to collect some more of the nanomachines.

At this moment, Li Qingzheng asked, “So are we going to change into the uniform of the Divine Arms?”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “It’s a good thing.”

Li Qingzheng saw the enthusiastic look in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. “Xiaosu, did you think of a plan? Tell us about it.”

“After we change into the uniform of the Divine Arms,” Ren Xiaosu said, “let’s first go back to the FOB that we just left from and have a good meal there!”

Everyone was shocked. So the first thing to do after changing into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion was to return to the forward operating base to steal their meals?!

Li Qingzheng realized that no matter what identity Ren Xiaosu was given, he could always make use of them like it was fully within his rights to do so…

Chapter 243: Mooching

“Xiaosu, is it really OK to do that?” Li Qingzheng asked flusteredly in a low voice.

Ren Xiaosu led the way as they walked off into the wilderness. They had already changed into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion while the nanosoldiers had already left the campsite for some time. Only five of the nanosoldiers stayed behind to supervise the private troops to ensure they reach the front line at Mt Fengyi on time.

All of the private troops had changed into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion. However, the five nanosoldiers put on the maintenance uniform of the private troops and blended into the group. These uniforms were originally made for mechanics and were also standard issue for every formation of the private troops of the organization.

The wages of the maintenance personnel had always been relatively higher, and since some soldiers within the troops were also slightly skilled in repairing vehicles, Liu Taiyu chose to direct the salary for this job into his own pockets. As the uniforms were issued by the organization, there was no need to pay for them. But if they were sold separately, Liu Taiyu would probably embezzle the soldiers’ allowance for it as well.

The private soldiers had already accumulated a lot of resentment for Liu Taiyu. After all, they could not even afford to eat enough to fill their stomachs. Back when the soldiers were still at the outposts, wasn’t it Liu Taiyu who ordered his subordinates to mix sand into the bags of rice?

As Ren Xiaosu led Li Qingzheng and the others to the forward operating base, he said, “What are you afraid of?”.

“We still have those Divine Arms soldiers back at the campsite. What if they find out that we left the place without permission?” Li Qingzheng said in a halting fashion.

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Ren Xiaosu said totally unafraid. “How do you expect five people to watch over nearly a thousand people? It’s only possible if we’re in a dream. Since they still can’t recognize everyone at the moment, it’s a good opportunity for us to move around on our own. Once they understand the private troops’ situation better after some time, it won’t be that easy to move around on our own.”

Li Qingzheng realized that Ren Xiaosu was really ballsy. But Ren Xiaosu’s analysis was quite reasonable.

Ren Xiaosu continued, “And think about it, we’re just going for a meal. Since there’s no rations back at our campsite, why aren’t we allowed to find food for ourselves? We’re helping the officers relieve their burden!”

“That’s true.” Li Qingzheng echoed, “But what if the people at the FOB discover our identities?”

“We’ll be fine. Don’t say anything later and just let me handle them.” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

All of his teammates next to him looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence and remembered that they had really never seen him afraid of any situation before…

The private troops’ campsite was only several kilometers away from the FOB. They had encountered the Divine Arms Battalion not long after they left the FOB. If it weren’t for the close distance, Ren Xiaosu would not have decided to take them there for a free meal.

When Ren Xiaosu’s group arrived at the FOB, the person at the sentry post immediately stopped them. Just as Li Qingzheng was about to step forward to negotiate peacefully, he watched Ren Xiaosu go up to him and kick him aside. “How dare you stop the Divine Arms Battalion? Getting ballsy, eh?”

Earlier in the afternoon, they had also thought of eating at the FOB. However, they ended up getting mocked by the FOB’s staff who said that refugees were not fit to eat here.

Now that Ren Xiaosu had the opportunity to return the favor, he would not pull any punches.

When the soldier at the sentry post saw the Divine Arms Battalion’s shoulder patch on Ren Xiaosu’s arm, he didn’t even dare to lodge a protest. Ren Xiaosu swaggered straight into the base.

Li Qingzheng and the others were still a little afraid at the beginning. But as they walked in, they also started swaggering like Ren Xiaosu.

When they entered the FOB’s chow hall, Ren Xiaosu’s group immediately smelled the aroma of food.

Many of the Li Consortium’s troops were heading to the front lines. But they weren’t the only ones, as there were also troops returning from the front lines. So meals at the FOB were served around the clock, and even the hot water supply in the barracks was available throughout the day.

While a group of cooks were busy cooking in the kitchen, Ren Xiaosu’s group casually went to collect their food with stainless steel meal trays.

The manager of the chow hall came over when he saw this. He said cautiously, “I’m sorry, but we haven’t received advance notice of your group’s arrival.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he did not understand military regulations. As a result, he did not know that troops needed something like advance notice to enter the FOB. In that instant, Li Qingzheng and the others started sweating.

However, Ren Xiaosu said coldly, “Our Divine Arms Battalion is just here to eat. Why is there a need to give you all advance notice? Are you looking down on our Divine Arms Battalion?”

The group of soldiers around Ren Xiaosu looked at him in adoration. No one knew how Ren Xiaosu could say something like that so confidently.

The manager of the chow hall said humbly, “No, I wouldn’t dare. But can I have a look at your military ID?”

Sporadic groups of soldiers were already starting to gather around them amid the commotion. Ren Xiaosu sneered and took out his Office of Special Investigations military ID. He went up to the manager of the chow hall and said, “You’re the only one who can see this. Feel free to check the ID number, but watch out if you dare to leak it.”

When the manager of the chow hall read his military ID, he was stunned. Why was this person showing a military ID of the Office of Special Investigations while dressed in the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion? This was getting too strange. He surreptitiously got his subordinate to do a quick check on the ID number. However, all the details displayed on the machine turned out to be genuine.

The manager of the chow hall was dumbfounded. He went to inform the commander of the FOB of this matter. However, his superior was also dumbfounded. They thought this might be a very special situation, so it was better to not provoke him. Since it was just a meal, wouldn’t it be better to let them finish and wash their hands of this matter?

Ren Xiaosu sighed as he ate. He felt that his dual identity as member of the Divine Arms Battalion and Office of Special Investigations was really quite useful.

The food in the chow hall was sumptuous and delicious. Just counting the meat dishes alone, there were more than ten varieties. After eating and before they left the place, they even stuffed more than ten buns into their arms. The sight of this left the chow staff in a daze. This was the fucking Divine Arms Battalion? Didn’t people say the Divine Arms Battalion was treated very well?

The manager of the chow hall comforted himself, ‘It’s only 30 of them. Surely they won’t take away much even if they can’t finish their food, right?’

As Ren Xiaosu led platoon back to the campsite, Li Qingzheng and the others were burping from the feast. “There should be another four or five FOBs ahead of us, so we definitely won’t have to go hungry anymore.”

“Platoon Commander is almighty. The buns that we took are enough for us to eat for several days.” With the soldiers in his platoon flattering him nonstop, Ren Xiaosu’s vanity shot through the roof.

When they got back to camp, they happened to bump into the other soldiers. When those soldiers from the other platoons saw Ren Xiaosu’s group looking all energetic and in high spirits with their arms stuffed full of buns, a platoon commander got so envious he almost cried. “Can you share some of your buns with us? We’ve not eaten all day.”

Suddenly, the palace assigned a quest: Help a comrade ease their hunger pangs.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He looked at the platoon commander before him and said kindly, “Let me recommend you a good place where I guarantee you can eat your fill…”

Chapter 244: An excellent harvest of gratitude tokens

The platoon commander was stunned. “What place is that?”

Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and said to him, “The FOB. It’s at most four kilometers away from us. Not only can you eat your fill while in this uniform, but you can also take some food back with you as well.”

When the platoon commander heard Ren Xiaosu telling him that he could eat at the forward operating base, he hesitated for a moment. What if someone at the FOB discovered their true identity?

But when he looked at Ren Xiaosu’s group again, he thought, ‘Isn’t this a successful example right in front of me?’ If Ren Xiaosu’s group already had their fill, anyone else wearing the Divine Arms uniform would also be able to do the same.

The platoon commander said sincerely, “Thank you, my brother!”

“Gratitude received from Wang Dingguo, +1!

“Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

When Ren Xiaosu received this gratitude token on top of the notification from the palace for the quest’s completion, an idea suddenly came to him!

Just as that platoon commander was about to take his men to get food, they were stopped by Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “Aren’t the rest of you going to thank me?”

The platoon commander was stunned at first, but he hurriedly got his men to thank Ren Xiaosu. The private soldiers were starving badly. As the information provided by Ren Xiaosu really helped with their survival issues, most of their gratitude was expressed sincerely.

It was so sincere that it could not get any more sincere than this!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu received a total of 18 gratitude tokens!

As a matter of fact, he had more than 400 gratitude tokens as of this moment. If he could make the others in the camp thank him as well, this new weapon might just be unlocked in the blink of an eye!

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Li Qingzheng. “You guys head back to the tent first and rest. There’s something I need to do.”

Li Qingzheng wondered, “Platoon Commander, what are you gonna do?”

Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “Although we’ve had our fill, many people in our Iron Second Battalion are still hungry. We can’t be this selfish. We have to let them know about this!”

Li Qingzheng was a little ashamed when he heard that from Ren Xiaosu. He suddenly felt that he couldn’t compare to Ren Xiaosu as he wasn’t as noble as him!

Li Qingzheng took the initiative and said, “Then let’s split up so that we can inform everyone a little quicker.”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression immediately changed. “No, y’all’ve been working hard all day, so you should get some rest quickly! Hurry up and go to sleep. Don’t tire yourselves out further!”

The soldiers in the platoon were almost moved to tears. They didn’t realize in the past that Ren Xiaosu actually cared this much about them. Li Qingzheng thought the reason he had been relegated to the role of platoon sergeant was because he wasn’t as enlightened as Ren Xiaosu was.

After Ren Xiaosu compelled Li Qingzheng and the others to quickly go and rest, he started going around to each tent to inform the other platoons. The tents issued by the Supply Division were all large tents and were big enough for a platoon to sleep in.

Ren Xiaosu went around patiently to inform the rest of the private troops. Everyone was still quite doubtful at the beginning, but when Ren Xiaosu showed them the buns in his arms, they were convinced!

The platoons informed by Ren Xiaosu felt that he was such a good person…Although, they did find it a little strange that he insisted they thank him.

As Ren Xiaosu counted his gratitude tokens, he saw they had increased to over 900 in just an hour. This harvest of gratitude tokens was much greater than he had ever received in the
past!

Sure enough, in times of hunger, people’s feelings for food would become especially sincere…

com

Ren Xiaosu lifted the next tent’s flap and asked, “Are you all hungry? I know a place—”

The five nanosoldiers in the tent quietly looked to Ren Xiaosu. Then Ren Xiaosu calmly replied with a smile, “Haha, sorry for the disturbance.”

He had been too careless!

Every tent at this campsite looked identical to Ren Xiaosu, so how could he could tell who was in them?

Immediately, the nanosoldiers rushed out of the tent and shouted, “Stop right there! What was the meaning of that?!”

But as they had finished speaking, they discovered that many of the tent flaps on the outside were open with no one inside them.

The nanosoldiers quickly went around the camp to check before gasping at the discovery that they had not even noticed that the camp was already half empty!

Just then, the private soldiers who had finished eating their fill returned from the FOB in groups, and some of them were even picking their teeth with toothpicks. Not only that, it was clear at a glance that they were carrying a lot of things in their arms.

But the returning private soldiers were all petrified when they saw the nanosoldiers walking up to them. A nanosoldier from the Divine Arms Battalion asked coldly, “Where have you all been?”

One of them answered while trembling, “We went to the FOB to eat.”

The nanosoldier was stunned by his answer. “Was it as simple as just eating?”

Gradually, more and more people returned after eating at the FOB. In the end, all of them were punished to stand at attention in the camp.

The nanosoldiers paced around these people and sneered, “Do you know what the crime is if you leave the barracks without permission?”

He then slapped some of the private soldiers’ buns they were carrying in their arms onto the ground, and stomped on them. “You, you,
you!”

The nanosoldier pointed at three of the private soldiers. “Eat the buns on the ground!”

The private soldiers who were singled out were afraid to backtalk. They immediately picked up the flattened buns and stuffed them into their mouths.

The nanosoldier looked at them. “Who said you all could go to the FOB to eat?”

As soon as he finished saying that, he was shocked to find that almost everyone’s gaze had landed on Ren Xiaosu. Not only that, someone even pointed out Ren Xiaosu.

So did this mean that all the soldiers at the camp who went to the FOB to eat were all told to do so by Ren Xiaosu?

This should be easy to handle then. By punishing Ren Xiaosu alone, that would help avoid a mutiny.

Actually, the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion felt helpless. If only one or two people had broken the law, they would be severely punished for it. But too many had committed the crime. What if they punished too many people and that resulted in a mutiny breaking out at the camp? Hence, the best thing to do would be to punish only one person as a warning to the others.

But one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion could not figure out something. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered, “Why did you tell the others they could eat at the FOB?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it a bit of thought. “Because the braised chicken cuts at the FOB are delicious.”

The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion was speechless.

While Ren Xiaosu spoke, the expression of one of the Divine Arms officers changed. He decided he would use Ren Xiaosu as a warning to the others tonight!

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu whispered to one of the Divine Arms nanosoldiers, “Can we step aside to have a word?”

Puzzled, the nanosoldier went with Ren Xiaosu a ways away where Ren Xiaosu flashed his Office of Special Investigations’ military ID without hesitation. “I suspect that there’s a spy from the Qing Consortium within our ranks, so y’all will have to cooperate with me to identify him. However, I have no clue who it might be. No one else can know about this other than the two of us.”

The nanosoldier stayed silent.

Ren Xiaosu thought that since Hu Shuo and Li Shentan were plotting something major, they would definitely be more than OK to help him resolve a small matter like this. If that were the case, he might as well just pass the buck since he could do it.

Tonight’s turn of events upset the nanosoldier. He felt that he had to give it more careful thought.

A captain of the Office of Special Investigations telling everyone to go to the FOB to eat in order to flush out the Qing Consortium’s spy?

That didn’t make any fucking sense!

The Office of Special Investigations was a military unit that even the Divine Arms Battalion was afraid of. After all, not even the Divine Arms Battalion was confident enough to proclaim that no spy could infiltrate their ranks.

Meanwhile, espionage was one of the most serious crimes that could happen in wartime.

Chapter 245: Abandoning vehicles and entering the mountains on foot!

Ren Xiaosu asked pleasantly, “What’s your name and rank?”

The nanosoldier answered, “I’m First Lieutenant Dong Mingshuai.”

Ren Xiaosu patted the nanosoldier on his shoulder and said, “Well, I’m a captain. You’ve performed pretty well. Hurry back and get some rest quickly.”

The nanosoldier nodded in a daze. He silently memorized Ren Xiaosu’s military ID number and planned on checking it after returning to his tent. He wanted to know if this guy was really from the Office of Special Investigations.

Meanwhile, the commander of the FOB was speechless when he saw the mess in the chow hall. The manager of the chow hall broke the silence. “Sir, there is something off about this Divine Arms Battalion. Their appetite is a little too large.”

It wasn’t only their appetite that was a little too large, but that their habit of taking some food away with them when leaving made the chow staff a little uncomfortable.

When Ren Xiaosu’s group came to eat, they felt a group of 30 people wouldn’t eat much anyway, so they just let them have what they wanted. However, a strange turn of events happened after that. Weren’t they just here to have supper? How did it end up with all their friends coming over for supper as well?

Suddenly, a soldier ran into the chow hall from outside. The commander of the FOB asked, “Have you found out what happened yet?”

That soldier hesitated before saying, “I’ve reported the matter to both the Divine Arms Battalion and Office of Special Investigations. As it turns out, both sides said… We have no right to question whatever goes on here.”

If they were told they couldn’t question the matter, then it was as good as tacitly admitting to it. If the people who came to eat were really imposters, the higher-ups would have already kicked up a fuss and demanded them to investigate thoroughly.

The commander of the FOB was unaware that the Divine Arms Battalion immediately knew upon receiving their information that the people who went to eat were only the private troops in disguise. But in order not to expose their plans, they had no choice but to admit they were their people.

As for Hu Shuo, he was used to it.

Actually, the commander of the Divine Arms Battalion did not care how much food these private soldiers had eaten since they were not eating into their battalion’s quota of rations anyway. What they were more bothered about was the fact that the Office of Special Investigations was actually investigating if there was a spy within their battalion’s ranks.

Hu Shuo had also gotten used to this.

When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned to their tents, everyone wondered why he did not receive any punishment. However, no one dared to ask him about it.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu had been very kind to inform them of where they could go to eat at, but they ended up betraying him in return. This made everyone feel somewhat guilty.

Chen Wudi sat down in the tent and asked Ren Xiaosu, “Master, don’t you blame them? You clearly helped them eat their fill, yet no one was willing to step forward and speak up for you.”

At the time, Chen Wudi was prepared to fight their way out together with Ren Xiaosu. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu used his Office of Special Investigations identity to defuse the situation.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Of course I blame them, but I also expected
it.”

“But, Master, I couldn’t feel any anger from you.” Chen Wudi said softly, “I was infuriated, and I’m still infuriated. I’ll probably still get infuriated whenever I think about this in the future. And those things that happened in the past too and those evil people as well.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s alright, they can’t hurt us.”

“Mhm.” Chen Wudi nodded. “Master, please sleep. I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night.”

“Alright.” Then Ren Xiaosu went straight to sleep. He did not have to worry about getting attacked with Chen Wudi keeping watch. In this tent, he only trusted Chen Wudi and the eight students. Not even Li Qingzheng was trustworthy to him.

The trust between him, Chen Wudi, and the students had built up little by little over time. None of them had betrayed him since the time in Stronghold 109. Of course, the most trustworthy person was still Chen Wudi.

Li Qingzheng and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. After all of tonight’s events, he could still fall asleep so quickly?

Chen Wudi sat cross-legged next to Ren Xiaosu and forbade anyone from approaching him. He did not allow anyone to get close to him.

After daybreak, the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion continued on their journey with the entire battalion of private troops as though nothing had happened last night.

The front lines at Mt. Fengyi, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Shuanglong were very deep. If a battle really broke out, there was a mountain path there the Qing Consortium would have to pass through to invade the heart of the Li Consortium. Therefore, the Li Consortium had sent a large number of private troops there to fill their defensive gap and act as cannon fodder.

It was said that there used to be a city north of Mt. Shuanglong in the Pre-Cataclysm times. It was located at the intersection of three rivers where a dam used to exist upstream.

However, that dam was neglected after The Cataclysm. As a result, no one opened the floodgates to release the excess water until it finally burst its banks. That caused the river to change its course, turning the once prosperous city into a floodplain.

In summer, the entire area would get covered by clouds and experience continuous rain due to the water cycle.

Fortunately, it was winter right now. Winter had gotten colder over the days, causing some of the smaller tributaries to freeze as a result.

But upon setting off, they encountered yet another problem.

The real Divine Arms Battalion had already driven off in all of their military transport trucks. They had only thought about switching their vehicles and forgot the private soldiers were not trained to drive. The private soldiers here who could drive were the minority.

While they were traveling by the truck, 30 of them could get in at once. If there were others on board who could drive, they could occasionally take turns at the wheel.

But now that they had switched to the off-road vehicles… there were not enough drivers to go around.

One of the Divine Arms officers was a little dumbfounded as he stood in front of the numerous off-road vehicles. Why were problems constantly messing up his plan?

However, this Divine Arms Battalion officer was also a decisive guy. He resolutely said, “Abandon the vehicles. We’ll enter the mountains on foot. Don’t take the main road so that it’ll look like we’re trying to cover our tracks on purpose!”

Ren Xiaosu understood this decision. By trekking through the wilderness of the mountains, it would create a sense of secrecy. If a spy discovered these troops wearing the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion were trying to move under the cover of the wilderness of the mountains by deliberately avoiding the main road, they might get more interested in tracking their whereabouts.

But didn’t he just learn how to drive? And now they were just going to abandon the vehicles on the side of the road and not use them anymore?

Moreover, based on the physical fitness of these private soldiers, at least half of them were probably not going to make it to the specified destination if they really had to walk there via the wilderness of these mountains.

At this moment, Chen Wudi asked, “What if we don’t get discovered by the spy when we go into the wilderness of the mountains?”

Ren Xiaosu nearly applauded that. “That’s a good question.”

A spy would not wander into the mountains for no good reason. They would definitely travel on the main road with the main force, so the other possibility would be that the spy could be unaware of troops marching secretly in the mountain wilderness… due to them being too well-hidden….

The officer of the Divine Arms Battalion was speechless for a while. “Just do as I say!”

Even if Ren Xiaosu were from the Office of Special Investigations, he could not influence the Divine Arms Battalion’s battle plans. He could investigate the spy, but they would still have the final say on how to fight the war!

Even though the Divine Arms Battalion did not wish to offend the Office of Special Investigations, if something made their plan to fail, should the blame fall on the Office of Special Investigations or the Divine Arms Battalion?

Naturally, Ren Xiaosu did not actually care about whether the Office of Special Investigations would take the blame or not.

Chapter 246: The Qing base

Countless Qing Consortium troops were already garrisoned on the front lines at Mt. Daping and Mt. Xianlin, and black tents could be seen scattered throughout the clearings in the valley. This place had become the internal transportation hub of this entire mountain range.

The roads in the mountains were no longer dirt roads but concrete surfaces that the Qing Consortium had constructed beforehand. Just by looking at the structure of the roads, it was clear that the Qing Consortium had been operating here for a long time.

This was the only path to reach the Li Consortium in the south. If they wanted to attack the Li Consortium, they would definitely have to pass through here.

The conflict between the three organizations in the southwestern region was not something new at all. The Qing Consortium was extraordinarily well-prepared as they had constructed a forward operating base and defensive fortifications in the mountains way in advance.

Two off-road vehicles were driving over from northeast of the mountains. Qing Zhen and Luo Lan sat in one of the vehicles and looked at the scenery outside. Qing Zhen said with a smile, ‘This place has to be defended well. If we lose our position here, the roads will have been built for nothing. Our enemies can simply drive straight in without any obstacles.”

“Rest easy, we won’t lose this place.” Secretary Zhou sat in the front passenger seat and said coldly, “Qing Zhen, you can say we’re letting you atone for your crimes by having you act as a military advisor. I hope that you will carefully consider the Board’s decision and stop acting recklessly.”

Qing Zhen said calmly with a smile, “Atone for my crimes? What crimes have I committed?”

The soldier driving the vehicle acted as though he were deaf. He only focused on driving and did not dare to react unusually. Meanwhile, Secretary Zhou frowned, thinking about something.

After the off-road vehicle traveled for dozens of kilometers in the mountains, it finally arrived at a huge base. When they came to the sentry post, Secretary Zhou flashed his ID, and they were allowed to pass through.

Qing Zhen looked at the layout of the surrounding barracks and commented, “The security here is a little lax.”

“We’ve arrived. Get out.” Secretary Zhou looked at Qing Zhen and said, “You probably know the combat commander here. I think he can be considered a younger brother of yours? His name is Qing Yun.”

“Oh.” Qing Zhen nodded. “That snotty brat? He cried a lot when we were young.’

Qing Yun was the person who discovered the Experimentals had disappeared from Stronghold 113.

After getting out of the vehicle, Qing Zhen started walking towards the command post tent. “Since I’m here as a military advisor, what happens if Qing Yun does not heed my advice? Have you ever considered this problem? If he insists on doing things his way, am I supposed to take the fall along with him?”

Secretary Zhou’s frown grew deeper as he said, “Don’t try anything, Qing Zhen. Since he’s the commanding officer of the troops, he’ll definitely bear the main responsibility if something goes wrong. But as the military advisor, would you dare say that you won’t be liable if any battles are lost? Both of you are working for the Qing Consortium, so I hope you can be more serious and not deliberately play a passive role.”

Actually, this was the most worrisome matter for the Qing Consortium Board of Directors. They felt uneasy in letting Qing Yun face the other two organizations by himself. After all, Qing Yun’s combat experience was far less than Qing Zhen’s. Moreover, no one in the entire Qing Consortium could match Qing Zhen when it came to wisdom in warfare.

For an organization that large and filled with so many people, it was natural to think that powerful leadership figures abounded. But even throughout history, only a handful of famous leaders had ever existed in this world. And sometimes, some people were really just that exceptionally talented.

But what they were more worried about was that they had been suppressing Qing Zhen too much recently. If Qing Zhen just showed up at the front lines and did not put in any effort for the war, that would also affect the overall situation.

It was not that the Board was being stupid by insisting on suppressing skilled people, but that they had long been accustomed to skilled people yielding to the huge machine that was the organization. An arrogant Shadow had wanted to place himself above the organization. But what happened to him in the end? Didn’t he also become a tool for the Board after admitting defeat?

But the Qing Consortium Board could never have expected Qing Zhen to be so unyielding!

Qing Zhen walked into the tent with a smile. Officers were trotting back and forth within the command post tent. They were all either holding intel of the latest military updates in their hands or about to carry out orders issued by Qing Yun.

Everyone in the tent was stunned for a moment when they saw Qing Zhen walk in. It was like the air in the command post solidified the instant he went in.

Qing Zhen greeted everyone, “There’s no need to get nervous. Just get back to whatever you were doing. Luo Lan and I are just here to see all of you.”

When Qing Yun, who was standing next to the sand table[1] in the command post, saw Qing Zhen, his expression darkened. He looked at Secretary Zhou. “Why did you bring him here?”

Secretary Zhou said calmly, “Your Second Uncle wanted him to come and assist you.”

“Assist me?” Qing Yun sneered, “I don’t need a prisoner to assist me.”

Luo Lan smiled and said, “Qing Yun, do you still remember the days when you used to stick to our behinds and play in the dirt? When I was out on campaign, you were probably still wetting the bed.”

Secretary Zhou said angrily, “That’s enough! A great change will be sweeping over the southwestern region soon, and you’re still in the mood to quarrel like children here? Qing Yun, the two of them will serve as your military advisors. Brief them first, then hold a military meeting.”

Qing Yun gave them a look and said to his second-in-command next to him, “Inform all the commanders of the fighting forces to attend the meeting!”

Ultimately, Qing Yun still did not dare to disobey the Board’s order. Since the Board sent Qing Zhen here as the military advisor, he would have to somehow cooperate with him on the surface. This way, no one could point their fingers at him even if something went wrong.

During the meeting, Qing Zhen sat at the table with his eyes closed throughout. No one knew whether he was listening to the updates given by the commanders of the fighting forces. Meanwhile, Luo Lan sprawled out on the table and openly slept.

An officer said, “We’re currently garrisoned on the front lines at Mt. Daping and Mt. Xianlin. The Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium won’t be so reckless to come and attack us since this war is still mainly a conflict between their two organizations-“.

“How stupid!” interrupted Qing Zhen as his eyes shot open.

The command post fell silent. Qing Zhen bluntly said, “The philosophy on this battlefield is that anyone involved in the war is an enemy, other than our own. Why do you think the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium won’t take the initiative and attack us just because their grudge is with each other?”

Qing Yun said coldly, “Because the Yang Consortium stole the Li Consortium’s—”

Qing Zhen was guffawed. “That was not stolen by the Yang Consortium. It was I who stole it and gave it to the Yang Consortium. Mark my words, since we’ve already come all the way out here, we’ll certainly be targeted by the Li Consortium. If our defenses slip up, we could very well end up becoming the priority target of the other two organizations. When that happens, they might even be willing to put aside their feud temporarily. The possibility of gaining the Qing Consortium’s interests for themselves would be more than enough to tempt them.”

Qing Yun glared at Qing Zhen as he had been living in Qing Zhen’s shadow for more than 20 years now. When he was in preschool, everyone said there was a person better than him, and that person was called Qing Zhen. When he got to elementary school, high school, or university, it was still the same. Even after entering the military, everyone was still saying that Qing Zhen was better at waging war than anyone else in the organization.

But even if he hated Qing Zhen to the core, he would still sit at the same table with Qing Zhen to discuss the war as he wanted to let the Board know that he was more obedient than Qing Zhen.

Chapter 247: Qing Zhen seizes command

Qing Yun looked at Qing Zhen. “I hope you can understand that I’m the commanding officer here. You can offer advice, but don’t think you’re the only smart one at the command
post.”

Qing Zhen glanced at Qing Yun, startled. “I never claimed I was the only smart one around. Luo Lan is also quite smart as well.”

Luo Lan was awoken by the noise. He asked sleepily, “What? What’d you say?”

Qing Zhen smiled and said, “I was saying that other than you and me, everyone else in this command post is stupid.”

Luo Lan sat bolt upright. “Qing Zhen is right!”

Qing Yun’s face grew ugly in an instant. “Smartass. But aren’t you still just a prisoner?”

But as soon as he finished speaking, Qing Zhen smiled at him and said. “If you’re allowed to continue being the commanding officer here, the Qing Consortium will be done for. With immediate effect, I shall take over command of all the fighting forces on the front lines. Secretary Zhou, you can go back and tell those old fogies to wait until after the war has ended if they have any opinions on this.”

As his voice trailed off, the second-in-command next to Qing Yun suddenly unholstered his pistol and pulled the trigger while pointing it at Qing Yun’s head.

The gunshot was so loud that the other officers in the tent nearly screamed in fright! However, their screams didn’t even make it out of their mouths before they swallowed them down.

Qing Yun’s trusted aides immediately unholstered their pistols to fight back, but they realized five people in the tent had already drawn their pistols at the same time and were pointing them at them!

Everyone in the tent fell silent. At this moment, they remembered the atrocities Qing Zhen had committed in the past.

This was the craziest person of all in the Qing Consortium!

Qing Yun had carefully played his every card on the table to earn the appreciation of the Board.

But he could never have expected that Qing Zhen would just flip the table.

The silent tiger of the Qing Consortium had finally returned to the mountains.

Secretary Zhou was in shock. “Qing Zhen! How dare you murder the commanding officer of the fighting forces? And how dare you plant your people around Qing Yun!”

Qing Zhen grinned and remarked, “Secretary Zhou, I might have planted some of my people around you too.”

Secretary Zhou was so frightened he ran out of the command post and jumped into the off-road vehicle. He did not even dare to take his driver with him and just drove off by himself.

“It’s peaceful again.” Luo Lan stretched and laughed heartily. “So how are we going to fight this war?”

Qing Zhen said, “Let’s straighten out our internal affairs first.” After taking a look at the sand table, he said, “Concentrate the defensive lines and don’t scatter our troops out to Mt. Daping. The recon forces are to continue doing their job on the battlefield to prevent any ambushes by the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium. Heavy weapons will not be of much use if their usage is restricted to the mountains, and they’re not as good as us when it comes to paving roads. However, we should still be careful of the nanosoldiers these two organizations have.”

Qing Zhen continued giving out instructions. “Although we haven’t seen what a nanosoldier looks like, we’re likely going to be considered a vulnerable target since we’re the only combatant among the three organizations without nanosoldiers. If we reveal any signs of weakness first, this war could get a little tricky. So what we should do now isn’t to invade the others; rather, don’t make any mistakes.”

As this chessboard was too big, only the players that made the least mistakes would last until the end.

Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan. “I want you to go to the Yang Consortium tomorrow and negotiate with them. Tell them we’ll be eliminating the Li Consortium first.”

Luo Lan nodded, but he heard Qing Zhen say to another person, “I want you to go to the Li Consortium and negotiate with them. Tell them we can help them take out the Yang Consortium’s defenses at Mt. Ping. You’ll have to set off immediately. If you’re successful in the negotiations, I’ll make sure you get recognized for your meritorious service upon returning.”

Although this person was Qing Yun’s trusted aide, Qing Zhen did not kill him and even entrusted him with an important responsibility.

After this person left, Luo Lan lowered his voice and asked curiously, “Why didn’t you have me approach the Li Consortium?”

“Because the Li Consortium is already out of their minds.” Qing Zhen said softly, “Besides, they do have a real lunatic there, so anyone who goes will die.”

Luo Lan finally understood. It turned out Qing Zhen knew right from the start they would not be able to join forces with the Li Consortium. By sending Qing Yun’s trusted aide to the Li Consortium, it was as good as sending him to his death.

Qing Zhen said, “Furthermore, he’s probably scared to the bone right now, so the forces he took with him will definitely be those he trusts most and are likely to be a part of Qing Yun’s inner circle. By sending them to the Li Consortium, the problem will take care of itself.”

Luo Lan’s eyes lit up. “Brilliant!”

Qing Zhen suddenly said with a sigh, “I was wrong just now.”

Luo Lan was taken aback. “What were you wrong about?”

Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan. “Actually, I’m the only smart one around here. You don’t count.”

Luo Lan was confused.

Then Qing Zhen looked at the other officers and said, “Start thinking about how we should concentrate our defensive lines. I want to see a new strategy in place on the sand table tomorrow morning.”

Someone hesitated for a moment before saying, “An elite troop of soldiers have already been sent to the Li Consortium’s territory. Qing Yun was planning on intercepting the Li Consortium’s Divine Arms Battalion based on the intel they relayed back. This Divine Arms Battalion is being too careless by acting independently without coordinating with their other fighting forces. Therefore, Qing Yun thought this would be an opportunity to nip the threat in the bud.”

Qing Zhen was taken aback. “When did he send our troops out? And where are they now?”

“It’s been a week since they set off. They were headed to the front lines at Mt. Fengyi and Mt. Shuanglong,” that officer said.

Qing Zhen said, “Recall them. There’s no need for such an unnecessary move at this moment.”

That officer hesitated before saying, “I’m afraid it’s too late.”

Ren Xiaosu and the others were trekking in the mountains on foot at this moment. The snow on the ground had not melted yet because of the low temperatures in the mountains. It was very difficult for them to march in such conditions, yet it started snowing yet again.

Sniffing back mucus, Li Qingzheng said, “If I knew it would be like this, I would’ve gone into hiding back then. I thought I could enjoy my days after joining the private army, but life now is even worse than before…. I really miss the days when we were at the outpost where we led a carefree life!”

Next to him, a soldier from another platoon asked curiously, “Was it very comfortable at the outpost for y’all? Why did it feel so miserable for us?”

Li Qingzheng immediately shut his mouth after hearing someone else chip in with this question. He couldn’t possibly tell them they had wolves sending all that game to them at their outpost, right?

As the snowstorm got heavier, Ren Xiaosu looked up at the sky. “When snowfall becomes this heavy in the wilderness of the mountains, it tends to keep snowing for at least a week. We can’t march any further. I’m afraid that if we keep moving, we’ll end up losing our way.”

The Divine Arms officer in front turned around and said, “What’s there to be afraid of? We’re equipped with GPS devices, so we won’t lose our way! Everyone is to obey our orders right now! We’re going to keep marching forward!”

After Liu Taiyu, the commander of the Iron Second Battalion, was punched and kicked, he fell into a coma and then started running a high fever. Without him, no one in the Iron Second could call the shots. So everyone had no choice but to follow the Divine Arms Battalion’s orders and continue marching.

Although Ren Xiaosu’s identity was very unique, the soldiers from the Divine Arms Battalion had spoken to him about this before. If their plans were affected, no one would be able to bear the consequences. In such situations, even being a member of the Office of Special Investigations would not allow him to violate this military order. For a moment, Ren Xiaosu even wanted to convince himself that since he had already infringed on the Custom Division’s authority by investigating smuggling, it wouldn’t be a big deal if he also took over the role of the Divine Arms Battalion.

However, this was still not the right time.

Chapter 248: The Office of Special Investigations guards against spies!

“The snow’s getting even heavier.” Ren Xiaosu sighed as he observed the weather.

“It’s said that it was even colder than this right after The Cataclysm occurred.” Li Qingzheng was panting as he trudged through the snow. “Some of the older people said they had to store enough food to last them the entire winter during those years. If there wasn’t enough food, they would even resort to stocking up with tree roots. No one could go outside in the winter at all.”

The snow in the mountains gradually reached their feet, then their ankles, and finally, their knees.

This heavy snowfall came so fast and unexpectedly that the Divine Arms officer even started to waver on whether they should continue marching. When he looked at his GPS device and saw it was still functioning normally, he felt a little reassured.

However, there was only a narrow dirt road in the mountains, and it was currently covered in snow. Someone who was not careful enough sprained their ankle when they accidentally stepped onto a rock. Fortunately, the sprain was not too serious as the snow was relatively soft.

Ren Xiaosu walked against the blizzard to get to the front of the troops and shouted to the officer of the Divine Arms Battalion, “We can’t walk any further. The snow is too deep for everyone to move.”

But that Divine Arms officer didn’t care. Since the nanomachines in their bodies were constantly providing them with powered assistance, they did not have much difficulty walking in the snow. Besides, the nanomachines’ battery life would definitely be sufficient to support them for the entire way if they were going to slowly walk like this. Moreover, they were carrying wireless chargers on their backs.

The wireless chargers were standard issue for the combat troops of the Divine Arms Battalion and had to be carried around during a war.

Awhile ago, the Divine Arms officer was adamant about marching even though it was snowing heavily. If he suddenly changed his mind, wouldn’t he be embarrassing himself?

One of the other Divine Arms officers said coldly, “If we can’t get to the specified destination on time, are you going to shoulder the responsibility?”

Ren Xiaosu did not bother contending with them and just said, “Have y’all seen how a wolf pack moves in the snow? We need to keep rotating the people at the front to create a trail so that it’ll be much easier for those at the back to walk. It’ll be easier to advance if every platoon takes turns creating a path in the
snow!”

After hearing this, the Divine Arms officers turned around and looked at the exhausted private soldiers behind them.

The officers looked at one another until one of them said, “We’ll do as you described. Every platoon is to walk at the front for 15 minutes each. No one is allowed to slack off!”

After the order was passed down, the entire group of marching troops went from moving in a swarm to forming a single long and narrow file in the snow.

Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. By doing this, it would at least relieve some of their burdens and help the troops march in a more orderly fashion.

Suddenly, the voice from the palace in his mind said, “Quest: Help your comrades who have fallen behind keep up with the troops.”

This quest dumbfounded Ren Xiaosu as no one had fallen behind yet. Besides, these bastards had betrayed him before, so why should he help them?

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw someone in the troops behind him run off towards the mountain. He knew something was not right. This was a deserter who could no longer bear it and was trying to run away!

Before now, Liu Taiyu had the support of the reinforced company to help him oversee the private troops and prevent anyone from becoming deserters. But now that Liu Taiyu was in a coma, the soldiers of the reinforced company couldn’t care less about maintaining order. Furthermore, they still had to take turns carrying Liu Taiyu. Ren Xiaosu felt that these people might even abandon him along the way and become deserters themselves.

As Ren Xiaosu watched that man run off to the nearby mountains, he could only think of one thing. ‘Would a deserter count as someone who’s fallen behind?’

Of course it fucking would!

A lot of people noticed that deserter as well. Before the others felt tempted to follow suit, they saw Ren Xiaosu dash over. His speed in the snow was unhindered and as fast as running on flat ground!

Within half a minute, Ren Xiaosu caught the deserter and even took his weapons away from him.

As Ren Xiaosu dragged this deserter back by his legs, he earnestly tried to comfort him. “It’s not safe in the mountains. What if something happens to you after you’ve escaped into the mountains?”

The deserter was in despair. “I won’t try to escape anymore, so please let go of me. I’ll stand up and walk by myself!”

A deep trail was carved out in the snow when Ren Xiaosu dragged the deserter back by his legs. Actually, Ren Xiaosu had not meant to get rough with him. Although the deserter had outed him yesterday, it wasn’t worthwhile for Ren Xiaosu to do anything to him.

And there was nothing wrong with being a deserter either. All the soldier wanted was to live!

So Ren Xiaosu only took away the deserter’s weapons when he caught him and did not hit him at all.

But was Ren Xiaosu in the wrong for wanting to complete his quest? He wasn’t in the wrong either!

There was another point that Ren Xiaosu was not lying about. If anyone ventured into the mountains alone in such heavy snowfall, they would die. At the very least, he would never have ventured into the mountains during a violent blizzard.

Ren Xiaosu said to the others, “Everyone, keep walking. Don’t be a deserter, ya hear me!”

Then Ren Xiaosu went over to the reinforced company and said, “Although the Iron Second’s commander is in a coma, y’all have to assume your duties, understand?”

The soldiers of the reinforced company who were carrying Liu Taiyu were a little dumbfounded. Why had this refugee taken control of them?

Ren Xiaosu looked at the Divine Arms officer and said, “If anyone escapes at this time and your plans get discovered by enemy troops, all that you’ve done up til now will have been for naught.”

The Divine Arms officer also thought what he said was true. They turned to the reinforced company’s soldiers and said, “Go keep an eye on the troops. If anyone attempts to desert, shoot them on the spot!”

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back and said with emotion, “Although I don’t know what our platoon commander is up to, his ability to sway people is amazing.”

But at this moment, someone in the troops suddenly fell down in the snow looking utterly exhausted. The people who passed by did not even bother looking at him. Even his comrades from the same platoon were not planning on helping him.

Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. He had thought his quest would be completed after he had caught the deserter, but he had not expected this quest to turn out more difficult than the ones he had before.

Before he could finish lamenting, another person in the troops fainted.

These people were not pretending. After all, the Divine Arms Battalion had just given the order that if anyone deliberately tried to delay the mission, they would be shot.

Ren Xiaosu walked over and fireman-carried the man who had fainted. He said to Chen Wudi, “I guess we’re helping people in need. Piggyback the other person and walk ahead.”

Ren Xiaosu had been waiting for the palace to confirm that he had completed the quest, but it did not say anything even after a long time.

However, Chen Wudi appeared to be quite happy. Doing good deeds together and being a hero with his master felt quite good and fun to him.

After a while, Chen Wudi was even carrying two people on his shoulders. Ren Xiaosu could only explain to the others that his friend was born with great strength.

Although it was rare to see people who could carry two people at once, quite a few refugees at the coal mines outside the stronghold could do it, so it was still explainable.

But if he carried more than that, Ren Xiaosu would probably not be able to explain it.

When the lead officer of the Divine Arms Battalion saw this, he said in surprise, “The Office of Special Investigations is really doing all it can just to guard against spies. No wonder all the other fighting forces in the military are afraid of them!”

Chapter 249: Standing up for Chen Wudi

At noon, the group found a slope downwind and decided to take a short break there. The buns everyone was carrying had frozen hard. But they had no other choice as this was what it was like in the wilderness.

Based on what the private soldiers were saying, it was quite good that they had buns to eat at all.

While the soldiers ate their field rations, someone suddenly complained, “They’re really inhumane for making us march in such accursed weather!”

“But what can you do ’bout it?” One of the soldiers took a bite of the cold, hard bun and said, “If I hadn’t stocked up on some buns last night, I would’ve starved to death along the way today. It’s impossible to keep moving in this weather if we have no food to eat.”

“Hey, you don’t say! Seeing Liu Taiyu’s current plight can’t make me any happier.” Someone said, “All of our pay and entitlements must have been embezzled by that bastard, Liu Taiyu!”

“But I still feel like it isn’t enough. Why didn’t that Divine Arms officer just kick him to death?” one of the soldiers said angrily.

“We’re still dozens of klicks away from the nearest mountain, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi and Mt. Shuanglong are even further north. I wonder when we’ll reach our destination since it’s snowing so heavily now,” someone said in total despair. “Moreover, those bastards from the reinforced company are even starting to keep an eye on us now, so there’s no chance that we can escape.”

“Forget about it,” one of them said. “Escape? It requires tremendous courage in this weather just to head into the mountains alone to seek a quick death. There’s still a chance of survival if we stick with everyone. But once you become a deserter, death is certain.”

“Let me give y’all a suggestion.” Someone chuckled. “When we set off again later, just pretend you’ve fainted. As soon as you faint, that idiot called Chen Wudi will come over and carry you. We can walk much less that way!” But as soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill creep up behind his back, causing him to shudder even more in this already cold weather. But when he turned around to look, everything seemed perfectly normal. ‘That’s strange! What’s going on?’

As Ren Xiaosu was furtively cutting pieces of cured meat to share with Chen Wudi and the students, he noticed Chen Wudi looked dismayed. “Wudi, what’s the matter?”

Chen Wudi whispered, “Master, I’ve regained my super hearing.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “But Wudi, the Great Sage doesn’t have that power.”

Chen Wudi replied, “Well, the version of the Great Sage that I am does.”

“Hm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. ‘Alright, whatever you say.’ Honestly, Ren Xiaosu did not even know which version of the Great Sage Chen Wudi was anymore. How amazing it was to be able to “patch” oneself like that.

“Master,” Chen Wudi said dejectedly, “I don’t want to help them anymore.”

“Why’s that?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “What did you hear?”

“They said that they’re going to pretend to faint when we set off again so that the idiotic Chen Wudi will carry them,” Chen Wudi answered.

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes narrowed at the answer. “Who said that?”

Chen Wudi did not mention the man. “Master, you’d kill the man if I told you.”

“What’s the big deal with killing some people?” Ren Xiaosu sneered.

“Master,” Chen Wudi said, “I just don’t understand why some people in this world are so evil?”

“They’ll get their comeuppance,” Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the private soldiers around him with a dark expression. For the first time in recent days, he was keen to kill someone.

When they resumed their journey in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu was silent as he walked along with the troops. Suddenly, five people dropped to the ground at the same time. Ren Xiaosu slowly walked up to these people and seemingly stepped on the back of a person’s hand accidentally. The man trembled in pain but pretended to remain unconscious and did not open his eyes no matter what.

Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng with a smile, “Get me a rope. We have some in our field
packs.”

“OK.” Li Qingzheng did not know why Ren Xiaosu wanted a rope, but he still got it for him.

He watched Ren Xiaosu tie the rope around the calves of these five people who were on the ground. Then, he started dragging them forward in the snow!

When one of those people on the ground sensed something was wrong, he wanted to quickly get up and say that he had regained his consciousness. But as soon as he got up, Ren Xiaosu kicked his chest. The man coughed up blood on the spot!

Everyone turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back as he stood in the snow. Snowflakes in the air swirled around him, and he was full of killing intent.

He said calmly, “Did I say that you could get
up?”

In response, someone on the ground got up and shouted, “We’re going to die if we get dragged like this in the snow by him. Let’s fight him!”

But when they tried to stand up, Ren Xiaosu kicked all of them back into the snow. These people could only feel a foot as hard as steel when the kicks landed on their chests, while the people watching could not even see how fast Ren Xiaosu’s movements were. But they only thought the snowfall blurred their vision.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and grinned at the others. “You’re all adults, so walk on your own, got it?”

Chen Wudi stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu while standing in the snow. “Master…”

As the young man’s figure faced the blizzard in the wilderness of the mountains, he smiled at Chen Wudi and said, “Master will help you get back at them.”

Then Ren Xiaosu dragged the five of them behind him through the snow with the rope. Li Qingzheng went up to him. “I’ll help you
pull.”

Jiang Wu’s eight students also came over. “Monitor, we’ll help too.”

In this moment, no one in the troops dared to speak up for these five men. Those in the know all knew Ren Xiaosu had probably realized the five of them were deliberately trying to take advantage of Chen Wudi’s kindness.

Sometimes, there were just some people who stood head and shoulders above millions of others. Before Ren Xiaosu had revealed himself, everyone thought he was just a normal young man. But in this moment, his ruthlessness made everyone terrified of him. They knew Ren Xiaosu was going to drag all five of them through the snow until they died!

When the Divine Arms officer standing furthest ahead of the troops watched this occur, he was a little dumbfounded. “I heard there were many ruthless people in the Office of Special Investigations. I didn’t believe it before, but I do now.”

Another Divine Arms officer muttered, “When we meet up with the others after the war ends, we must tell them not to ever mess with those from the Office of Special Investigations. Their ways are extremely cruel.”

In fact, Ren Xiaosu had never openly admitted to his master-disciple relationship with Chen Wudi. After all, he had never taught him anything before, and the way he became his disciple was also inexplicable.

But Ren Xiaosu really liked Chen Wudi addressing him as master. Chen Wudi was just like a pure, flawless crystal. Who wouldn’t enjoy getting along with someone like that? As a result, Ren Xiaosu had long since acknowledged this master-disciple relationship in his mind.

But today, Ren Xiaosu was not actually that insistent on standing up for Chen Wudi. All he wanted was to help Chen Wudi hold on to his last ray of light.

Chapter 250: Side quest unlocked: Seeds!

On the same afternoon, the blizzard had become so heavy that even the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion were finding it unbearable. The private soldiers with the responsibility of forging a path in the snow had to lift their legs high each time they took a step forward.

In this accursed weather, even though everyone was taking turns to create a path in the snow, it was still extremely taxing, even though the terrain was flat.

However, no one else dared to faint for the rest of the afternoon as they were all afraid they would get dragged to their deaths in the snow by Ren Xiaosu.

“Let’s set up camp here.” One of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion said, “We’ll continue on our march after the snow has stopped.”

It was not the time to think about saving face. If they continued marching, all of them might just end up dying in the snow.

If that happened, they would similarly not be able to accomplish their mission since they wouldn’t even be able to get to Mt. Shuanglong.

That officer of the Divine Arms Battalion felt he could still keep marching, but the private soldiers were simply not fit enough to go on.

When they learned they could finally set up camp and get some rest, all of the private soldiers seemed like they had been injected with a new lease on life. They were trembling in the cold weather and even wanted to sit down in the snow, but Ren Xiaosu roared at them, “Get up and set up your tents. How can y’all think of resting when you don’t have a tent to take shelter in? Do you want to die out here in the snow?”

Actually, they could also rest in the snow without setting up a tent. All they had to do was dig a snow pit and bury themselves in it. This wasn’t some derisive suggestion but a genuine solution if tents were not available while trekking through deep snow. Most people would think it would be colder in a snow pit, but being in one actually helps keep a person warm, because the surroundings outside of a snow pit are even colder than the inside.

Ren Xiaosu had heard from Zhang Jinglin that some human settlements in the far north would build igloos to keep themselves warm in the winter.

Everyone struggled to get up and were using their last bit of strength to set up their tents when faced with the threat of death. However, some of the platoons were in terrible shape. In order to conserve their energy along the way, they had even thrown away their tents at some point. If they could manage to squeeze into other people’s tents, it wouldn’t be so bad. But if the others did not share their tents, they would have to dig snow pits and gamble on whether they would be able to endure the cold in there.

Ren Xiaosu ordered Li Qingzheng and the others, “I’ll set up the tent while y’all go and gather some firewood from the ground. If you can’t find any, tree branches will do too. We have to get a campfire going so that we can keep ourselves warm. Have a bowl of hot porridge, each of you. Otherwise, we won’t be able to bear it for much longer.”

“Alright.” Li Qingzheng’s face was flushed from the cold. “Leave it to me. Follow me, brothers. Let’s go and collect some firewood.”

Branches that were collected from trees would produce a lot of choking smoke when burned. But this was nothing compared to having a campfire to warm themselves with.

At this moment, the voice from the palace in Ren Xiaosu’s mind said, “Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

It wasn’t until this moment that his quest was finally completed. This was probably the hardest standard quest he had ever done.

At present, Ren Xiaosu had two Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls on him. But he didn’t intend to use them since there was no target nearby for him to learn from. But if he met Hu Shuo again, he could probably give it a try. Although the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll couldn’t copy superpowers, Hu Shuo must have some skills that would prove useful for Ren Xiaosu. Even if he was just trying his luck, he could probably still get something good from him.

But the palace was not finished as it continued, “Side quest complete. A new product, Seeds, has been unlocked for purchase in the vending machine!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. His patience for this side quest had finally paid off. It felt like it had taken such a long time for it to be completed. But upon recounting the days carefully, he realized it was only the second day of the new year today.

He had a look inside the palace and saw the vending machine standing quietly within it. A new transparent window had appeared next to the Explosive Poker slot.

There were some seeds scattered within the window. But to Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, they all looked somewhat different from each other. Could it be that different plants would grow from different seeds?

The newly unlocked window slot was just like a candy box in a grocery store. The colorful packaging represented different flavors while different colors of seeds represented different
uses.

He placed a gratitude token into the slot and watched a crimson seed about the size of a thumb get dispensed into the pick-up compartment at the bottom. As Ren Xiaosu held it in his hand, the palace did not explain what this item was for.

“Do I have to plant it before I know what it does?” Ren Xiaosu wondered. ‘But more importantly, shouldn’t the palace at least tell me what kind of environment it grows in?’

It had to have magical properties since it was a product of the palace. However, he would have to test it for himself.

For example, Ren Xiaosu also had to discover how to activate Explosive Poker by himself. If he had not managed to do so, they would have remained bog-standard playing cards.

What should he do now? Should he try planting it in the ground? What if this seed could germinate and sprout immediately? In this winter weather, how great would it be if the plant that grew from the seed bore fruit or something immediately?

Ren Xiaosu had always had great expectations of the side quest rewards awarded by the palace. They were items that basically ignored the laws of nature!

Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, “Keep watch here at the tent. When they get back, tell them that I spotted a small wild boar and that I’m planning to catch it for our dinner tonight. If I come back late, just improvise and make up an excuse.”

“OK.” Chen Wudi nodded.

Ren Xiaosu headed out into the snow alone. As he walked further and further, he felt that he might have been too hasty to tell Chen Wudi to improvise a reason for his disappearance.

He headed further north to look for a suitable location to experiment with the seed and find out just how magical it was.

He kept heading north until he found a spot that was slightly downwind. Then he started digging up the snow and soil before planting the crimson seed.

SOOV

As Ren Xiaosu patiently waited, he saw the seed he had just planted suddenly sprout. Bramble grew outwards as the thorny vines spread out dozens of meters across the snow before gradually stopping.

If Ren Xiaosu cleared away the snow on the ground, he would see the red bramble spread out on the ground like a spiderweb where it laid in wait for its prey.

At this moment, the plant connected with Ren Xiaosu’s consciousness like it did for Explosive Poker. Ren Xiaosu was shocked when he realized that this plant was extremely aggressive. If it were not controlled by him, it would attack any creature that came near to it!

What was this? Ren Xiaosu had thought this plant could bear fruit that could be eaten, but it turned out to be an attack plant.

No, rather than an attack plant, it was more appropriate to call it a defensive type.

If Ren Xiaosu and the others went and lived in the forested mountains in the future, they would not have to be afraid of any wild animals as long as he planted this thing in their surroundings.

As Ren Xiaosu looked at the other colored seeds in the palace, he wondered what kind of abilities they had. Surely one of them had to be edible, right?

After some thought, he placed an additional five gratitude tokens into the vending machine to trade for five seeds all at once. Then he planted them in the soil at long distance from each other.

As Chen Wudi sat in the tent and waited, Li Qingzheng asked, “Wudi, where did your master go?”

Chen Wudi thought for a moment and said, “My master went out to catch a wild boar for our dinner.”

Li Qingzheng asked, “Then why isn’t he back
yet?”

Chen Wudi gave it some thought. “The boar probably doesn’t agree to it.”

Chapter 251: Crazy plants!

Ren Xiaosu was squatting in the snow. The blizzard had become terrifyingly heavy. However, he did not at all care because he was fully focused on the seeds he had just planted into the ground.

After planting the Bramble, Ren Xiaosu had traded for another five seeds.

There were about ten different types of seeds in the window slot of the vending machine. But after inserting the gratitude tokens, the vending machine dispensed another four Bramble seeds and one khaki-colored seed.

It seemed that Seeds was similar to the Explosive Poker item that he had. It was easier for him to get his hands on the more common seeds. When he traded for Explosive Poker, three and four were the most common cards dispensed by the vending machine. Occasionally, it would also dispense out one or two 5s, but Ren Xiaosu had never seen any higher-numbered cards than that.

The Brambles behaved in a very aggressive manner. Ren Xiaosu reckoned that if supernatural beings entered its attack range, few people would survive an attack. So Ren Xiaosu was still quite satisfied with this new product.

But what use did this khaki-colored seed have?

After this seed was planted, it sprouted at a much slower rate. It wasn’t until ten minutes later that green buds started sprouting out of the ground.

He could see the buds starting to grow. But even at this point, the plant did not seem like anything special.

A moment later, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He watched a pocketlike structure form at the top of the plant. His mental consciousness then connected with it.

When Ren Xiaosu focused his mind, a potato about the size of a fist shot out at high speed from the pocketlike structure of the plant. It was just like firing an artillery shell.

This was… a potato shooter!

What the hell! Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He already understood how this plant worked through its connection with his consciousness. It turned out to be an automatic rifle of the plant kingdom that could shoot up to 30 potatoes each day.

Ren Xiaosu felt that it couldn’t get any more useless than this. Any automatic rifle would be more powerful than this thing, alright? Guns could not only shoot faster, they were also more lethal than this.

It seemed like other than being automatically alert to its surroundings, there was nothing else good about it.

Moreover, wouldn’t it be a waste to spit out all those potatoes? They were food after all!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked at the Potato Shooter: “Spit out the potatoes for me.’

The Potato Shooter spat out the remaining 29 potatoes that it had stored underground. Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. “High-speed food production, that’s pretty useful. We can have potatoes for dinner tonight.”

Even the palace did not expect Ren Xiaosu to use an offensive plant like this as a food crop.

But all of a sudden, he heard the crunching of snow coming from across the way. Ren Xiaosu immediately raised his guard. Someone was walking over from the opposite side!

Currently, the rest of the Li Consortium’s regular forces were garrisoned at the front line at Mt. Fengyi. What regular force would venture out into these mountains for no apparent reason? Everyone would travel by the main roads, and only special forces like the Divine Arms Battalion would trek through mountains and rivers.

Could they be from the Divine Arms Battalion as well? But they were not moving in the same direction.

If so… they must be enemies!

Ren Xiaosu quietly withdrew. When he stepped on the snowy ground, he used the tiptoes so he would not make a sound.

He retreated to a distance far away and hid behind a large tree. There shouldn’t be that many enemy troops and they were most probably just a scouting party. The only thing he did not know was whether they were from the Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium.

He saw 30 people walking cautiously in the snow in a long single file. They had people taking turns to forge a path in the snow as they moved along like wolves.

Ren Xiaosu waited for them to enter the range of the Brambles. This way he could also observe how the plant actually worked.

But the enemy was pretty astute too. The snowfall was not heavy enough to conceal Ren Xiaosu’s footprints in the time it took for him to hide. So the advance party immediately stopped in their tracks when they saw his footprints.

The entire troop immediately fanned out in the snow so they could take control of their surroundings.

“Be careful, someone was here just now!”

“Judging by the tracks in the snow, they must have decided to leave after hearing our footsteps.”

“Did our plan get leaked?”

“I’m not sure, but look for the tango’s trail. It should only be one person!”

Ren Xiaosu was a little disappointed. They just needed to come a little closer and they would have stepped into the attack radius of the Brambles. The Brambles had an attack range of dozens of meters.

However, Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. Although the Brambles were in a fixed spot, he could control the Potato Shooter to initiate an attack!

Ren Xiaosu focused his mind and controlled the Potato Shooter to attack in an attempt to test its power, but he found it did not respond to him.

Was this a fucking fake? Why wasn’t it shooting any potatoes?

Oh wait, he had already taken all the potatoes and put them into his backpack. So it wasn’t the Potato Shooter that was to blame…

Ren Xiaosu was certain by now that these were the combat troops of the Qing Consortium after watching them from afar. Although he was on familiar terms with Fatty Luo, neither of them would hold back if they bumped into each other on the battlefield. War is war.

Furthermore, weren’t Qing Zhen and Luo Lan under house arrest now? So these soldiers wouldn’t have anything to do with them, right?

Suddenly, the Qing Consortium’s combat troops switched on the flashlights attached to their automatic rifles. With the light illuminating the snow, they followed Ren Xiaosu’s footprints and locked onto a large tree he was taking cover behind.

In the deep snow, there was no way of hiding those footprints. Unless Ren Xiaosu could fly.

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu did not expect the Qing Consortium’s troops to be so careful and vigilant. The Qing Consortium’s troops looked at one another and said, “Affirmative, it’s only one person.”

“Don’t let him escape in case he exposes our whereabouts by reporting it,” the platoon commander said calmly. As long as they were certain it was only one person, it would be easy to handle.

“Don’t shoot yet. There might be troops nearby. This isn’t a place where refugees would appear. It could be a nanosoldier from the Divine Arms Battalion that we’re facing.”

The Qing Consortium’s combat troops carefully analyzed Ren Xiaosu’s possible identity and motives in order to determine their next course of action.

They only came here after receiving intel that suggested the Divine Arms Battalion had disappeared shortly after setting off for this location. They expected the enemy would appear in these forested mountains.

As they discussed, someone attached a silencer to their muzzle. As the advance party, they couldn’t alert their enemies. The battle would have to be fought quickly in secret.

“Advance!” The platoon commander said, “Adopt Offensive Approach Formation.”

Under normal circumstances, the advance guard would generally only adopt three types of battle formations. One was the basic approach formation where the entire platoon would stand in a straight line with the lead person holding his gun up at full alert and aiming ahead, while the rest of the rear platoon members would keep their guards up and point their guns at the left and right flanks. The other was the defensive approach formation where one combatant would guard the platoon’s rear by aiming their rifle in the opposite direction of advance.

Meanwhile, the offensive approach formation would have all the members advance in a staggered manner where the first, second, and third combatants would be at full alert and aim ahead. The second and third members would stand at staggered positions to the left and right rear behind the first member to provide covering fire.

Chapter 252: An old friend, Tang Zhou!

The Qing Consortium’s troops advanced in a tactical formation. However, Ren Xiaosu still did not come out from behind the large tree as he was waiting

Although the campsite was about 500 meters to his rear, Ren Xiaosu didn’t want to go back to call for reinforcements. After all, there was no one there he could count on other than Chen Wudi.

Jiang Wu’s students would definitely be more than willing to help him, but the key thing was that the eight of them were intellectuals and they might not even know how to hold a rifle.

As for a group like the private troops, how could he possibly count on those incompetent people?

But what Ren Xiaosu was waiting for was for the Qing Consortium’s troops to come a little closer!

When the Qing Consortium’s combat troops stepped into the range of the Brambles, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to make the vines attack. Instead, he waited quietly for this entire platoon to get into range.

Other than the spot Ren Xiaosu had dug up for the seed to sprout, the rest of the vines were concealed under the thick snow.

Just as the Qing Consortium’s troops entered the attack radius, someone realized something was wrong. “Hang on, it feels like we’re stepping on something.”

Someone crouched down and cleared away the snow to reveal the brambles on the ground. “These crimson brambles look a little strange. I’ve never seen a plant like it before.”

“Strange plants like this one are increasing by the day, so nothing is surprising about them. Don’t tell me they can even attack people?” a soldier said as he cast a glance at it before resuming his watch on the surroundings.

However, the platoon commander frowned. “There’s something odd about this. Don’t move any further. We’re withdrawing!”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised while hiding behind a tree that was a few dozen meters away. He did not expect the Qing Consortium troops to be so careful. Weren’t they being overly cautious? Weren’t they just some plants found in the wilderness? ‘What are y’all so afraid of!’

Ren Xiaosu found it a little pitiful. The enemies had presented themselves to him, yet he did not even manage to kill a single one of them.

But what Ren Xiaosu didn’t know was that these were the elite troops sent by Qing Yun to intercept the Divine Arms Battalion and that they were also very well-known throughout the entire Qing Consortium. These were just the scouting party, while the main force behind them were currently reorganizing.

How could a fighting force confident enough to inflict heavy damage upon the Divine Arms’ nanosoldiers fall for a trap so easily?

If he had not incapcitated the Potato Shooter, he could have tested its capabilities.

The commander of the platoon suddenly said, “Friend, are you part of the Li Consortium’s troops?”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this voice, he was stunned. “Tang Zhou?!”

The platoon commander was stunned as well. “Ren Xiaosu?!”

If there had been no interaction, then so be it. But now that the enemy had said something, it turned out to be someone he knew?

Previously, Tang Zhou had sent Qing Zhen and Luo Lan back to Stronghold 111 with the off-road vehicle. As soon as they got back there, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were placed under house arrest by the Board. Meanwhile, Tang Zhou was deployed to the frontline troops where he reported directly to the forward operating base at Mt. Daping.

After he was reassigned to work under Qing Yun’s troops, Qing Yun knew he still remained loyal to Luo Lan. So Qing Yun demoted him from the rank of captain to platoon commander and sent him to this elite force as a scout.

Many of the soldiers in this force used to be under Qing Zhen’s command. Qing Yun had sent them here on the pretext of “intercepting” the Divine Arms Battalion, but how were they supposed to retreat from this place after successfully intercepting the Divine Arms Battalion?

Importantly, the Li Consortium had stationed their combat troops at the front lines of Mt. Fengyi, Mt. Shuanglong, and Mt. Tantou. Once the Divine Arms Battalion got involved in a battle there, the entire Li Consortium would launch an unbridled counterattack on these troops of the Qing Consortium.

Even if they ended up becoming heroes in the Qing Consortium’s history books, they definitely wouldn’t walk out of this mountain range alive!

So Qing Zhen immediately sent Qing Yun’s trusted troops to negotiate with the Li Consortium after seizing command from him. What everyone was doing was essentially the same thing: removing dissidents from around them.

It was not to say that it was a cruel thing to do, but that war itself was very cruel anyway. If they could not maintain control of their leadership over the military, they could not win the war.

At this moment, Tang Zhou was still unaware that Qing Zhen had seized command of the military. When they were sent out here, Qing Yun did not even equip them with satellite phones or radio sets for communicating with headquarters. That was why when Qing Zhen asked if he could recall this platoon, the second-in-command had said, “It’s too late.”

Ren Xiaosu and Tang Zhou were on pretty good terms when they were still at Stronghold 109, and Tang Zhou also helped them out a lot. Since it was Tang Zhou who was here, this created an immediate opportunity for negotiations to ease the current situation.

Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was wondering why this platoon was so difficult to deal with. Just a few brambles on the ground was all it took to attract their attention? Now that he realized they were Luo Lan and Qing Zhen’s troops, he suddenly felt “enlightened.”

In his opinion, the men under Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were all elite soldiers with no cowards among them.

Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Come over here alone, let’s talk!”

He wasn’t willing to go over. After all, Tang Zhou was not the only person on their side. What if the others decided to shoot at him indiscriminately?

When Tang Zhou heard that, he was ready to step over the brambles to Ren Xiaosu when someone next to him whisper-shouted, “Platoon Commander, you mustn’t go over! What if he’s tricking you to get you over there?”

Tang Zhou shook his head. “Don’t worry, we’re old friends.”

“Even old friends can change,” someone reminded him anxiously. “Don’t believe him so easily.”

Tang Zhou smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I trust him. Didn’t I tell you guys before that Boss Luo and I were saved by someone while escaping from Stronghold 113 after it collapsed? He’s the person who saved us. He and Boss Luo are good friends too… uh, I’m not exactly sure if they can be considered good friends.”

Everyone around him was stunned by the impact of this twist as it proved a little too much for them to handle. So the other party was Tang Zhou’s savior? But the real question was, why had he appeared at this place? What was he doing here squatting in the snow in the middle of the night by himself? Playing in the snow?

Tang Zhou carefully avoided stepping on the brambles and walked towards the large tree where Ren Xiaosu was. Ren Xiaosu got a little emotional as it felt rather nice to be trusted by others. Tang Zhou actually dared to come over by himself!

“Long time no see, what are you doing here?” When Tang Zhou reached the tree, he saw Ren Xiaosu standing there. He chuckled. “Is that the Divine Arms uniform you’re wearing?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at him. “Let’s sit down and talk.”

Tang Zhou and Ren Xiaosu sat down crossed-legged on the snow. Tang Zhou placed his rifle aside and said, “Does this mean you’ve joined the Li Consortium?”

“Join them? My ass!” Ren Xiaosu said, “I fled with the escapees from Stronghold 109 and ended up getting conscripted into their military.”

“Hahaha,” Tang Zhou laughed. “But you’re not yet as miserable as me. I’ve been sent here to die.”

“Sent here to die?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What do you mean?”

“Currently, someone called Qing Yun is in charge of our military forces. Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo have been placed under house arrest at the villa in Stronghold 111 and are stuck there for the time being. I was immediately demoted after transferring to Qing Yun’s forces, and he also placed many of Mr. Qing Zhen’s former men in the force and made us come to intercept your Divine Arms Battalion.”

Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. “Then y’all are heading in the wrong direction. I’m not from the Divine Arms Battalion; I’m just a part of the private troops…”

Chapter 253: Quadruple identity, Ren Xiaosu!

Ren Xiaosu explained patiently to Tang Zhou, “I was conscripted into the private army. On the way here, those bastards from the Divine Arms Battalion suddenly stopped us and demanded to exchange their uniforms with us. They even took the trucks we were traveling in, leaving us with no choice but to trek through the wilderness of the mountains on foot. They’re also making us hurry on with the journey in such heavy snowfall…”

Ren Xiaosu related all that had happened, dumbfounding Tang Zhou. “So it was like that? It seems like the intel we received was wrong. But it’s already a little too late to pursue them now. We’d have to cross several military zones to get to them, but we can’t possibly get past those places.”

“Why do you still want to go there then?” Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly. “Shouldn’t you already know that even if you manage to intercept the Divine Arms Battalion, you’re unlikely to return alive regardless of whether y’all can emerge victorious against them?”

Tang Zhou said with a serious look, “It’s my duty to obey orders. As frontline soldiers, we can’t have such thoughts. We might not return alive, but as long as it’s for the sake of victory in war…”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. “I can’t understand this sense of belonging that you have, but it isn’t like the Qing Consortium is treating you that well either.”

“No, it would be humiliating for Boss Luo if I suffer a defeat at the front line and news gets out that it was his soldiers who messed up the mission.” Tang Zhou said, “Since they have been confined in Stronghold 111, I have to do well on their behalf.”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu lamented, “It looks like your relationship with Fatty Luo is pretty sincere. But since there’s no way to attack the Divine Arms Battalion, why don’t you just withdraw from here? Go back and talk to the Qing Consortium’s commanding officer. Tell them not to send over any more of the remaining troops to Mt. Fengyi, lest I get hurt.”

Tang Zhou was stunned. “We can’t get in contact with HQ right now. When we came out here, we were prepared to die. If we can’t complete the mission, we won’t have the dignity to go back.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that if there were more people like Tang Zhou in the Qing Consortium, they would probably win any battle they participated in.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How many people are there in your force?”

“300 or so.” Tang Zhou said, “It wouldn’t be convenient to move around in the mountains if we had too many people. Otherwise, we could easily get discovered by enemies.”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “Then why the fuck are y’all even planning to fight the Divine Arms Battalion? They have over a 1,000 people there!”

“That can’t be right.” Tang Zhou was stunned for a while. “Didn’t they say the Divine Arms’ main force has been deployed to the front line at Mt. Ping to face the Yang Consortium? Our intel says there’s only over a 100 of them out here.”

“I think that was also part of their plans. The commander of the private troops was also surprised by this fact.” Ren Xiaosu replied, “Your intel is definitely not accurate. I’ve seen them with my own eyes, so I’m certain.”

“Then we’re done for.” Tang Zhou sighed and said, “We can’t complete our mission.”

However, Ren Xiaosu felt a tinge of regret as he chatted with Tang Zhou. He had been harping on how he was here to investigate spies as a part of his Office of Special Investigations duties, but in the end, he was the one who exposed the Divine Arms Battalion’s plans in an instant…

Ren Xiaosu pondered this. From the Li Consortium’s point of view, wasn’t he doing what a spy would do?

He could not have expected he would have to bear the burden of all these unwanted identities at his young age. He was a member of the Divine Arms Battalion, the private army, the Office of Special Investigations, and also a spy of the Qing Consortium…

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Can everyone in your platoon be trusted?”

“Don’t worry.” Tang Zhou whispered, “They’re all our people. It’s not only this platoon, but all of the elite troops who’re on our side, other than the commander, second-in-command, and a few of their men. Besides, the commander was also sent here just because Qing Yun doesn’t like him.”

“Our people” was probably referring to those who were loyal to Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Why don’t we do it this way? Y’all wait and take cover here in the mountains. I’ll lead some of the Li Consortium’s troops over when I encounter those who I think you might be capable of defeating.”

Tang Zhou’s eyes lit up. “You can do that?”

Currently, Ren Xiaosu’s plan was to see whether the Divine Arms Battalion could be beaten to retreat from the main battlefield to reorganize if the Qing Consortium knew their whereabouts. If the Divine Arms Battalion’s numbers were abruptly reduced after suffering heavy casualties, he could have a chance at collecting their nanomachines.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Tang Zhou. “If you have a satellite phone, can you get in touch with HQ and relay the intel?”

Tang Zhou hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yes, but we don’t have one.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “That’s fine, I have one.”

To be exact, Ren Xiaosu was not saying that he had one, but that the five officers from the Divine Arms Battalion had one.

Ren Xiaosu felt that he was really going further and further down the path of colluding with the enemy this time.

At night, it was quite lively at the private troops’ campsite. Li Qingzheng and the others took quite a bit of effort to start the campfire. Although a lot of smoke was produced at the beginning, it was nothing compared to keeping themselves warm.

If no one started a campfire, the entire campsite would have just gotten through the night as it was. But after Li Qingzheng and company set up a campfire, the others got so envious they also went to build one. Suddenly, the entire campsite began to light up.

Not only could they keep themselves warm with the campfire, but they were also able to roast the buns they had brought with them. If they still continued to eat their food cold in this sort of weather, it would really make them feel cold on both the inside and outside.

When Ren Xiaosu returned, Li Qingzheng and the others were chatting by the campfire. Li Qingzheng’s first reaction when he saw Ren Xiaosu was to ask, “Xiaosu, where’s the wild boar? You didn’t manage to catch it?”

“Wild boar?” Ren Xiaosu then recalled the reason he had given Chen Wudi. “Oh, right, I didn’t manage to catch it. It was too fast and I didn’t want to venture out too far.”

“Here, have a bite.” Li Qingzheng handed Ren Xiaosu a burnt bun and said, “Earlier on, the people from Divine Arms said we’ll be setting up camp here. We’ll resume our journey northwards to Mt. Fengyi after the snow stops falling.”

“OK,” Ren Xiaosu acknowledged absentmindedly. The thing going through his mind right now was how to get his hands on the satellite phone from the Divine Arms Battalion. It wouldn’t be easy to obtain it from them. The Divine Arms soldiers kept the satellite phone close to them and never let it out of their sights.

It looked like there was no other choice but to kill these officers of the Divine Arms Battalion. It wouldn’t be a bad solution since he had been eyeing the nanomachines in their bodies for some time now. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt these regular troops of the Divine Arms Battalion would have more nanomachines in them than Lin Qi’s group!

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu called some of Jiang Wu’s students over to the side and asked, “What have y’all been studying recently? Have you learned anything related to mechanics? If —and I’m just saying if-y’all are required to design some simple armor, could you do it?”.

Ren Xiaosu disliked the idea of having nanomachines inside his body to support himself like the Divine Arms soldiers did. His own body was strong enough, but he lacked a defense system. So he only used the nanomachines in his body to form a simple armor that covered his body. There were no complexities he adopted for the structure of the armor. But now Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should start relying on the power of knowledge.

Didn’t Zhang Jinglin always used to say that knowledge could change one’s fate?

The student named Wang Yuchi gave it some thought before saying, “It’s a little beyond what we know since it could involve mechanical belt drives, screw drives, chain drives, worm drives, hydraulic drives, pneumatic drives—”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t understand,” interrupted Ren Xiaosu.”All I’m asking is whether y’all know or not?”

Wang Yuchi said calmly, “Yes.”

Chapter 254: Hunting nanosoldiers

Ren Xiaosu knew Wang Yuchi and his classmates were all top students. In order to get into university, they had long since started picking up knowledge beyond their level. But he constantly wondered what a few high school students were capable of. However, Ren Xiaosu realized now that he had underestimated Jiang Wu’s students. Jiang Wu had used her life, dignity, and principles to protect them, and they had not embarrassed her.

Wang Yuchi thought for a moment and said, “It’s impossible to ask us to design something too intricate. All we can do is try to reduce drag as much as possible and do our best to further improve on the design of the mechanical transmission structure—”

“You don’t have to explain it, that’ll be enough!” Ren Xiaosu gave a wave of his hand. “Design a rough draft first, then improve on it after y’all get the chance to further your studies!”

“But, Monitor, I don’t really understand you. Why do you want such a thing?” Wang Yuchi raised his doubts, “First, we don’t have the materials. Second, the power source of this armor—”

Ren Xiaosu gave another wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll definitely have it!”

Ren Xiaosu knew very well that the problems raised by Wang Yuchi were actually solvable with the use of the nanomachines. However, he could not tell Wang Yuchi the truth as of yet.

Wang Yuchi and the other students just stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu. Forget it, there was no need to explain any further.

The students could guess their class monitor had probably discovered something good again. Was he going to take advantage of someone again?

When Ren Xiaosu looked at the nearby officers of the Divine Arms Battalion again, it felt as though he was looking at his brand-new armor.

Ren Xiaosu had already come up with a new plan. If Tang Zhou could relay the news back successfully, there would only be a few routes from the main battlefield that the Divine Arms Battalion could retreat by. He would need to figure out the situation in these coming days before making his move so that he could successfully collect enough nanomachines for his armor. But he wondered how strong Tang Zhou and his men’s combat capabilities were. They shouldn’t be too weak, right?

The heavy snow had been falling nonstop in the forested mountains. It wasn’t only snowing on the Li Consortium’s side; all three organizations were stranded in their various battlefields by the heavy snowfall.

As the roads were blocked by the deep snow, no vehicles could pass through. In some places, the snow even reached crotch level on the soldiers. It was impossible to fight a war in these conditions.

The snow was the true weapon of mass destruction here.

The impasse on the battlefield that had been like the hot barrel of a just fired machine gun was suddenly cooled down by the snow.

Ren Xiaosu and everyone else at the campsite were taking shelter in their tents. No one was willing to go outside to make a trail in the snow, not even the Divine Arms officers.

Ren Xiaosu was the only person who went out every night until the morning when he came back to sleep. While he slept, Chen Wudi would keep watch by his side. No one was able to get close to him.

Over the past few days, many people eat all their rations of buns. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu would return carrying a lot of potatoes with him every day. He would bring back 28 or 29 potatoes each time. In any case, their group would definitely have something to eat every day. However, no one knew where Ren Xiaosu had dug the potatoes up from.

As a matter of fact, their platoon did not seem like they had ever lacked any food.

When Ren Xiaosu woke up, Li Qingzheng asked curiously, “Xiaosu, what have you been busy with for the past few days? Why are you always going out when evening comes?”

Ren Xiaosu said tiredly, “I’ve been digging for potatoes for y’all. We can’t just rest on our laurels, now can we?”

When he said that, the entire platoon of soldiers was moved to tears. “Platoon Commander, you are such a good person! Thank you, Platoon Commander!”

As Ren Xiaosu watched his number of gratitude tokens increase again, he knew he was getting closer to unlocking his new weapon.

In reality, he had not been going out to dig up potatoes. Instead, he was meeting up with Tang Zhou every night to discuss their upcoming plans.

Tang Zhou and his men had a detailed map of the battlefield, which saved Ren Xiaosu a lot of trouble. But after looking at the map, Ren Xiaosu still thought it would be safer if he personally made a trip to check out the locations. As such, he had been going around for the past two days to the best ambush sites located near two routes they identified the Divine Arms Battalion would retreat by.

This action moved Tang Zhou to tears. “Xiaosu, you’re really a good friend of our Qing Consortium!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Tang Zhou and said, “I’m going to steal the satellite phone for y’all tomorrow. Do you think Qing Zhen and Luo Lan still stand a chance of making a comeback? I found that it was pretty nice being friends with Luo Lan.”

“They will.” Tang Zhou replied decisively, “Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo definitely won’t remain under house arrest for long. We’re all waiting for that day.”

“Fatty Luo will be very touched if he hears you say that.” Ren Xiaosu said, “We’ll meet here again tomorrow evening. I’ll give you the satellite phone then.”

The meeting place they had chosen was a little further away from where Ren Xiaosu had planted the Brambles as he feared he would get seen.

“Didn’t you say there’s five of those nanosoldiers?” Tang Zhou asked, “Do you need us to assist you?”

As Ren Xiaosu turned to leave, he said, “No need, I have Chen Wudi by my side.”

Ren Xiaosu was not actually planning on letting Chen Wudi do anything this time, but he had to say that to Tang Zhou. After all, it would not be easy to deal with five nanosoldiers. Even though he had a good relationship with the Qing Consortium, he still did not want them to gain a clear idea of his powers.

When the next morning arrived, Ren Xiaosu walked back to the campsite with a rabbit held tightly in his arms. Everyone could see Ren Xiaosu’s figure from afar.

Someone stood at the entrance of the campsite and exclaimed, “Where did he catch that rabbit? It’s so big!”

The Divine Arms officers were also starting to run out of field rations. Besides, how could eating field rations every day be better than barbecue? So when these officers saw the rabbit in Ren Xiaosu’s arms, their eyes popped out of their skulls.

But all of a sudden, the huge rabbit in Ren Xiaosu’s arms started struggling. Then Ren Xiaosu fell to his ass in the snow as though overwhelmed by its struggle. The rabbit leaped and bounded away!

A Divine Arms officer said anxiously, “Why didn’t you hold it more tightly!?”

Ren Xiaosu anxiously said, “Chase after it, quick! If you don’t, I’ll have caught it in vain!”

When the five officers of the Divine Arms Battalion heard that, they didn’t think too much and just activated the nanomachines in their bodies. Their explosive speed was even faster than that of the rabbit!

Ren Xiaosu watched from behind with eyes narrowed. These troops truly had more nanomachines in their bodies, judging by the fact that Lin Qi could not even reach such a speed.

A large group of people at the campsite pursued in the direction of the fleeing rabbit against the falling snow. But at this moment, a surprising turn of events took place. They saw a big, red net of brambles suddenly enclosing on the spot where the five officers were standing and trapping them!

The thorns of the brambles immediately pierced their skin. But more terrifying was the officers seemingly having their blood sucked out by the thorns into the vines!

The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion gave their all and tore through the red net. The five of them fell out of it and gasped violently for air. But before they could recover from their shock, another wave of crimson vines on the ground attacked!

There was seemingly no end to the number of crimson vines!

All of those who were following in pursuit behind them retreated in fright when they saw this terrifying sight!

Chapter 255: Cooperating for a win-win situation

The crimson vines were savage and horrifying. These Divine Arms nanosoldiers were resorting to using the strength of their nanomachines to tear themselves out of this terrifying plant’s grasp. But every time they broke free from some of the vines, new ones would wrap around them again. The sharp thorns on the vines pricked into these officers’ bodies and attempted to suck out every last drop of blood from them.

But the most frightening thing about these brambles was the endlessness. It felt as though there was no end to them regardless of how they tried to tear through it all.

None of the private soldiers who caught up dared to go forward and rescue them. The moment they saw those brambles, they started to back off together. Some of them even fell into the snow in their panic.

Only Ren Xiaosu knew that these Brambles were not as strong as they looked. Although they were weakening the Divine Arms officers by drawing out their blood, they didn’t have an infinite number of branches.

At this moment, one of the Brambles had all of its branches completely torn away.

However, Ren Xiaosu had planted four seeds all in the same location just for assurance.

When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion felt their strength getting sapped, they shouted to the private soldiers, “Come and save us!”

But how would a mob like the private troops be willing to go forward to help? It was more likely they would run away than help!

When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he heaved a sigh of relief. He was most worried that some of the private troops would go and attempt to save them. After all, no matter how strong the four Brambles were, they couldn’t possibly stand up to nearly a 1,000 people ripping at them.

The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion only had themselves to blame as they did not once help the private troops during the entire journey. So everyone watched from the sidelines when they saw the officers in distress. Some people were even gloating in their fear.

Ren Xiaosu blended into the crowd and watched impassively. This incident could be considered a test of the Brambles’ power. He believed they would definitely come out on top if facing a single, lone nanosoldier.

Although the Brambles were effectively fixed to a spot and could only be used as a trap, it was cost-effective enough since it only took one gratitude token to get a chance at finishing off a nanosoldier.

The only thing that Ren Xiaosu was unsure of was whether there were even more powerful nanosoldiers within the ranks of the Li Consortium’s military.

Yes, there would certainly be more.

But in terms of their ranks, these five officers were not high ranking at all. As such, there had to be even stronger nanosoldiers in the Li Consortium.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted within the crowd, “Run! Head back to the campsite and take cover!”

Although he did not shout very loudly, it seemed like the “run” he uttered had some sort of a magic to it. It made everyone run back to the campsite as fast as they could, as though they would be safe if they just hid there.

Ren Xiaosu did not hang around since he would have plenty of time to collect the nanomachines later on in the night. As of this moment, he didn’t need to rush things. It would be bad if he somehow revealed his intentions here.

Meanwhile, the GPS device and satellite phone were also being held onto by one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion. When Ren Xiaosu collected the nanomachines later, he could take them together and give them to Tang Zhou.

When they got back to their tent, Li Qingzheng was still in a state of shock. “Xiaosu, what the hell was that? It was way too scary!”

Ren Xiaosu panted, “Yeah, I was scared to death too!”

“Do you think those Divine Arms officers will survive?” Li Qingzheng asked.

“I think it unlikely. When I was running back here, I saw them already running out of strength when I turned around to look. It won’t be possible for them to break free from those vines,” a member of the platoon said.

At this moment, everyone was not really concerned about whether the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion survived. Or rather, most people at the campsite couldn’t wish more for the Divine Arms officers to get killed by the brambles. Their relationship had started on bad terms. Furthermore, if the officers managed to survive, they would definitely blame them for not trying to rescue them.

Everyone at the campsite was sticking their heads in the sand. When night fell, some soldiers from the reinforced company went to everyone’s tents to force collusion.

The soldiers from the reinforced company came to Ren Xiaosu and his platoon’s tent and threatened, “When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion went chasing after the rabbit, they were so fast that we couldn’t catch up to them. After we arrived at their location, it was too late.”

This group of people were afraid of getting punished by the Li Consortium. As such, they chose to collude with nearly a 1,000 other people in grand fashion. Not only that, the soldiers of the reinforced company even threatened them by saying, “If anyone mentions a word about this, it will not end well for everyone here. So if you’re smart, you better keep your trap shut!”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to thank the soldiers of the reinforced company.

The Divine Arms officer who knew Ren Xiaosu’s true identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations was dead, but the soldiers of the reinforced company were unaware. Otherwise, they would not have dared to threaten him like this.

On the very same night, Ren Xiaosu secretly went to where the Divine Arms Battalion soldiers had died. This time, the amount of nanomachines he harvested was far beyond his expectations. Just from the five of them, he gathered enough nanomachines to complete the armor on two of his arms.

Indeed, the regulars of the Divine Arms Battalion were incomparable with Lin Qi and his group of cannon fodder.

When Ren Xiaosu headed north with the satellite phone, Tang Zhou was waiting there for him. The first thing Ren Xiaosu did when he saw Tang Zhou was to remind him, “Remember to only talk about the Divine Arms Battalion after getting in touch with your HQ. Don’t mention anything about me. I’ll be in deep trouble if the Li Consortium has a spy planted on your Qing Consortium’s side!”

“Yes, yes.” Tang Zhou nodded happily and said, “I definitely won’t reveal anything about you. I still know about the principles of protecting our spies.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong with his wording. When did he become a spy of the Qing Consortium?

He reminded again, “Remember to tell your HQ to not kill all of the Divine Arms soldiers. Otherwise, our cooperation ends here.”

Ren Xiaosu could not handle the Divine Arms Battalion by himself. After all, they had a 1,000 people in total. Therefore, if he wanted to get his hands on more nanomachines, he would have to first wear down the entire formation of the Divine Arms Battalion with the help of the Qing Consortium.

This was his true purpose in cooperating with Tang Zhou. As for whether they could continue cooperating in the future, that would have to depend on whether the cooperation with the Qing Consortium goes well this time.

At this moment, Tang Zhou said with some hesitation, “You know that I was banished out here, so Qing Yun might not listen to me. He would wish for nothing more than to kill the entire Divine Arms Battalion since that would bring him great honors. It’s a good opportunity for him to establish his credibility in the military.”

“Then can we lie to him a little?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can’t we just tell him that there are only a 100 people in the Divine Arms Battalion?”

Tang Zhou shook his head and said, “If I said it in that manner, there would be Qing Consortium soldiers who would die for nothing. Those soldiers are innocent. And if Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen learned of this, they certainly wouldn’t spare me.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered this before saying, “Or you can just tell me where the Divine Arms Battalion will meet their end in battle?”

Tang Zhou was stunned. “Why do you want to know?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “As comrades, I would like to mourn their deaths.”

Tang Zhou was speechless. What nonsense was this? Mourning for his comrades after sending them to their deaths? Tang Zhou was not convinced by what Ren Xiaosu just said at all. He was not stupid!

Chapter 256: Ambushing the Divine Arms Battalion

After agreeing on what time to meet the next day, they went their separate ways.

Some people at the private troops’ campsite did not even dare to step out of their tents after seeing how the Divine Arms officers were killed by the Brambles. None of them were willing to go out and look for food even though they were starving.

At this moment, the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow. They did not know whether there were still more of the Brambles buried under it. If they took a wrong step, it would result in their deaths.

But this was exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted so it would be more convenient for him to act alone.

When Ren Xiaosu went out to meet Tang Zhou the next night, Tang Zhou said ecstatically the moment they met, “Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen have succeeded in seizing command of the military. They’re the ones calling the shots in the military now!”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Didn’t you say they were under house arrest at Stronghold 111?”

“It’s like this,” Tang Zhou explained, “Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen were sent to serve as military advisors. When they got there, they killed Qing Yun, and Mr. Qing Zhen took over as commanding officer of the Qing Consortium’s military on the front lines.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “That can happen? Is no one going to oppose them?”

“If they send someone else to replace Qing Yun at this time, the Qing Consortium would probably not be able to take part in the war anymore,” Tang Zhou analyzed. “If the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium take advantage of the situation, the entire Qing Consortium will be in grave danger.”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu believed Qing Zhen had probably been eyeing this opportunity before he dared to act so recklessly. But still, Qing Zhen was… really ruthless.

Tang Zhou said, “Mr. Qing Zhen agreed to cooperate with you. Their fighting forces have already gone on ahead to the ambush location to wait for the arrival of the Divine Arms Battalion. Furthermore, Mr. Qing Zhen has expressed that he will not wipe out the Divine Arms Battalion as agreed and hopes that our cooperation will proceed smoothly.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. Qing Zhen was quite a dependable person. At least he was better than that Qing Yun Tang Zhou had mentioned. However, Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t just tell me all that. Shouldn’t the Qing Consortium be promising me something more practical?”

Tang Zhou was stunned for a moment. “I didn’t bring that up, but I can tell Mr. Qing Zhen about it. He’s never been petty about such things before.”

“That’s more like it.” Ren Xiaosu broke into a smile.

But Tang Zhou asked in wonder, “Why are you stopping us from killing everyone in the Divine Arms Battalion? After all, there shouldn’t be much of a relationship between you and them since you were conscripted into their military.”

Ren Xiaosu patiently explained, “I want to help the Yang Consortium collect some samples of the Li Consortium’s nanomachines.”

Tang Zhou seemed to figure something out and smiled ambiguously. “Oh, I see. When I left Stronghold 109, I felt like there was something special between you and Yang Xiaojin. She even carried you on her back back then. Say, why didn’t you go to the Yang Consortium then? Although you were conscripted, there should’ve been opportunities for you to leave. Our intel tells us the Li Consortium does not enforce strict controls at the beginning.”

Ren Xiaosu did not explain much and let Tang Zhou assume whatever he wanted…

Tang Zhou would never figure out that the reason he did not go to Stronghold 88 was because he did not know where it was.

…

The next day, the expected time of the Divine Arms Battalion’s surprise raid against the Qing Consortium was coming. Although the roads had been sealed off by the heavy snow, the Divine Arms Battalion was still pushing on with their journey.

In the eyes of the Divine Arms Battalion, their purpose here was to sneak attack their enemies.

People outside did not know how mobile the Divine Arms Battalion was, nor how their soldiers’ physical fitness was greatly enhanced with the use of nanomachines. Therefore, if no one expected them to be able to continue trekking in the heavy snowfall, it would be their best opportunity to strike.

The Divine Arms Battalion’s major looked at his GPS as he led his troops in forging a path in the snow. He said, “We’ll be arriving at the Qing Consortium’s logistics base in half a day. I want everyone to be extremely careful. After we destroy the Qing Consortium’s baggage train, we’ll evacuate from there immediately. We’ll then wait for our nanomachines to recharge before we launch another surprise attack on their other forces!”

But as he finished, a loud explosion boomed in the distance. After getting stunned for a moment, the Divine Arms Battalion’s major shouted, “Retreat! Avoid the arty fire!”

The major of the Divine Arms Battalion had immense amounts of combat experience. In an instant, he realized they had been ambushed by the Qing Consortium and that the loud explosion was from the Qing Consortium’s artillery fire!

The first thing he shouted was for his troops to retreat, not throw themselves prone, because the Divine Arms Battalion was an ultra mobile force. If they retreated immediately, they would still have a chance to outrun the range of the artillery fire. But if they went prone here, only death awaited them.

Since the Qing Consortium had come prepared, could they escape these attacks by just going prone?

But still, his words were too late.

They could hear the faraway artillery fire crackling like firecrackers followed by successive explosions within the forested mountain!

The snowy ground around the Divine Arms troops was breaking apart as artillery shells plowed down on them. Qing Zhen wasn’t planning on giving them a chance to get close.

The Divine Arms soldiers traveled within the forested mountains at high speed. Some of them were even quick enough to avoid getting caught in the trajectory of the artillery shells and got clear of the maximum kill radius of howitzers.

But the barrage of artillery fire was too numerous. With just a single volley of artillery fire, more than half of the Divine Arms soldiers got killed or wounded! Even if they had the nanomachines, it didn’t mean they could withstand shelling. When a 120 mm HE shell containing 3.5 kilograms of TNT was launched out of a howitzer, it could wipe out all life within a four-meter radius in a flash! In addition, all of the Divine Arms soldiers within a 25-meter radius of an artillery shell’s landing spot would get hit by a huge blast wave and shrapnel, resulting in an effective kill zone!

The gods had never once bestowed weapons on humans, but humans still forged their own sword that could even kill gods.

Fortunately for the Divine Arms major, he did not die from the bombardment. But all he felt was despair. No matter how well-trained they were, they still could not match the Qing Consortium’s preparedness in this battle. But the Divine Arms major could not understand why the Qing Consortium would be waiting here in ambush.

They had been very cautious in their movements. At the start, they pretended they were heading for the Yang Consortium’s front line before secretly rerouting to here. They even swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops.

After changing their identities, they had not met any friendly forces, but disaster still struck in the end.

Just how was the news leaked?!

Seeing that fewer and fewer soldiers were still alive around him, the Divine Arms major knew they were done for. Even his status as a family member of the Li Consortium would not protect him from punishment for losing this battle.

At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing in front of the Qing Consortium’s defensive line and looking calmly in the direction of the Divine Arms Battalion. He put up his hand. “Alright, stop firing.”

The soldiers around him did not inquire why. At a time like this, they should have obviously been pursuing their enemies in victory.

Besides, Qing Zhen had even specifically had them change the 152 mm shells to the 120 mm ones. No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like he was showing mercy to their enemies. However, the soldiers under Qing Zhen’s command would never doubt his decisions.

But nobody understood how Qing Zhen had managed to find out the Divine Arms Battalion would be coming here. Could it be that Qing Zhen’s moles had already infiltrated deep into the Li Consortium? He even knew the whereabouts of the most mysterious Divine Arms Battalion? That was too terrifying!

Suddenly, Qing Zhen laughed and said, “I think the Li Consortium has not fought a war for too long. They don’t even know how to take advantage of the good weapon they have in their hands. Even when dealt good cards, they all go to waste in their hands.”

Chapter 257: Finding the spy within three days!

The Qing Consortium’s soldiers were getting pumped up from having just defeated the legendary Divine Arms Battalion of the Li Consortium. However, Qing Zhen immediately gathered from this ambush that the nanosoldiers were actually not that weak. If they hadn’t received the intel in time, the Li Consortium would have really caused them a great deal of trouble.

Qing Zhen did not underestimate the Divine Arms Battalion’s nanosoldiers and placed an unusual amount of emphasis on them.

Next to him, Qing Zhen’s trusted aide asked, “Do you mean the nanosoldiers shouldn’t be deployed in such a fashion?”

Qing Zhen said, “If these nanosoldiers were commanded by me, I would deploy each platoon separately to infiltrate through the forested mountains. They only need the intel supplied by personnel planted within the Li Consortium to easily coordinate a decapitation strike[1].”

His aide nodded and said, “I see. Sir, you are indeed wise.”

Qing Zhen looked at him calmly. “I’m not telling you this so you can suck up to me but to arrange for more people to protect me.”

“Ah?” The aide was taken aback and could not understand why Qing Zhen was saying this.

Qing Zhen sighed and said, “The Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers might be arriving soon. They’re much smarter than the Li Consortium, so we have to strengthen our defense forces immediately.”

Then Qing Zhen looked out into the distant snowy lands that had just been plowed by the artillery fire. He wondered, “Why is he everywhere?”

The soldiers around him were even more confused by this. Who was he referring to?

The atmosphere in the Li Consortium’s command center was extremely depressing. A middle-aged general sat at the end of the long table in the room with a somber and sullen expression. Although all the seats at the table were filled, no one was saying anything.

“The Divine Arms Battalion has suffered a crushing defeat.” The middle-aged general said, “All I want to know is why the Qing Consortium was aware of our Divine Arms Battalion’s operations beforehand.”

Still, no one spoke.

In reality, a lot of the others were also puzzled by this. The Divine Arms Battalion had to keep the command center updated every day of matters like their battle plans’ execution and current location. Everything had been proceeding smoothly, but a disaster still happened when they got close to the Qing Consortium’s territory.

Based on the description of the Divine Arms officer, the Qing Consortium clearly knew which direction the Divine Arms Battalion would approach from, so they set up an ambush in advance. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to inflict such a large number of casualties on the Divine Arms Battalion.

The Li Consortium had been concealing their strength and biding their time over the years. But now that war had suddenly broken out, everyone was looking forward to seeing the Divine Arms Battalion’s capabilities. In the end, they were almost wiped out by the Qing Consortium even before the battle had begun!

Why? Where did it all go wrong!

The middle-aged general looked to Hu Shuo on his left and said, “A spy must have leaked the information. As Director of the Office of Special Investigations, you did not sniff out the spy in time. So you’ll be bearing the main responsibility. However, this isn’t the time to mete out punishment. You must sort out the issues in your Office of Special Investigations to make amends for your mistakes.”

Hu Shuo kept quiet as he looked calmly at the table in front of him. Honestly speaking, he was very puzzled as well.

Although he had other motives for staying in the Li Consortium, the Office of Special Investigations had always been functioning normally. An espionage battle would prove to be the most critical component during wartime. Sometimes, having the right intelligence could even influence the outcome of a war.

Although Hu Shuo had sniffed out quite a few spies recently in his course of duty, he kept some of them around in preparation for his future plans. But keeping them around did not mean he did not care about them. The identified spies remained under the surveillance of his Office of Special Investigations and were earmarked for greater use in the future. However, none of these spies could gain access to the secrets of the Divine Arms Battalion.

Suddenly, someone said, “The private troops who swapped uniforms and vehicles with the Divine Arms Battalion haven’t arrived at the assigned strategic location yet. I suspect this incident could be related to them.”

The middle-aged general frowned. “Why didn’t anyone report about an important matter like this earlier?”

“Previously, the Divine Arms officers who were assigned and traveled together with them would report their whereabouts daily. However, we suddenly lost contact with them yesterday,” the officer said.

“Search for this group of private troops immediately and confirm their location within the next three days!” the middle-aged general ordered.

“Yes, sir!” the officer answered.

The middle-aged general said, “Meeting adjourned. The strategy must be put into place ASAP. The news of the Divine Arms Battalion’s heavy losses will spread to the Yang Consortium very soon. We have to be prepared for the Qing Consortium’s and the Yang Consortium’s counterattacks. General Hu, remain behind.”

After everyone else dispersed, only Hu Shuo remained seated. The middle-aged general said, “The leaking of the Divine Arms Battalion’s operations is of great importance. The spy is likely to hold a high rank within the organization, so I’ll give you three days to find out who it is!”

Hu Shuo looked up and said, “OK.”

The middle-aged general did not bring this up earlier because he suspected the spy was among those attending the meeting. The reason why he did not punish Hu Shuo was that, first, he was the Director of the Office of Special Investigations and had been working for the Li Consortium for decades with few mistakes made, earning merit and toiling hard for the organization. Second, this war was intricately linked with Hu Shuo as well. If they replaced the Director of the Office of Special Investigations at this time, chaos would probably be caused down the road.

But the middle-aged general was probably not expecting that trouble would originate from Hu Shuo himself.

Two days later, Ren Xiaosu, the perpetrator of the Divine Arms Battalion’s defeat, was hidden somewhere in an ambush in the snowy ground. There was a dirt road beside him that was paved by the Li Consortium just before the war broke out.

After Qing Zhen had driven the Divine Arms Battalion to retreat, he not only informed Tang Zhou of their victory, he also told him which route of retreat the Divine Arms Battalion was taking

Ren Xiaosu used this information for basis that the Divine Arms Battalion would likely use the road in front of him.

As the Divine Arms Battalion had suffered heavy losses, they would definitely need to retreat to the forward operating base behind them to reorganize. That would then be a chance for Ren Xiaosu.

He did not include Tang Zhou in his plan. On one hand, there were too many people on Tang Zhou’s side and their presence would easily be sensed. On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu did not want Tang Zhou to know what actions he would take and his true reason for keeping some of the Divine Arms Battalion alive.

Ren Xiaosu went through the plan in his mind. Since the Divine Arms Battalion was in such a pathetic state, the trump cards he left behind should be enough to deal with the remaining defeated soldiers, right?

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of footsteps on snow and got excited. Here they come!

As Ren Xiaosu hid in the thick snow next to the road, he nearly stopped breathing.

He left a tiny hole in the surface of the snow to observe the outside world. But a moment later when Ren Xiaosu saw the Divine Arms Battalion’s soldiers, he was shocked!

He saw two of the Divine Arms Battalion’s soldiers limping towards the ambush site he had set up. Ren Xiaosu felt unwell at the sight. He had requested Qing Zhen leave some of the Divine Arms Battalion alive, but he only left two of them for him in the end?

Ren Xiaosu was a little confused by this. Why didn’t he just leave one soldier alive then? Was he purposely trying to gross him out?

Eh?

Ren Xiaosu had been lying in the snow for the past two days. Probably, few people in this world had as much resolve as him. But Ren Xiaosu realized this was what he had been waiting for after lying in the snow for the past two days.

‘No, that can’t be right.’ Ren Xiaosu thought that something else unexpected must have happened. Qing Zhen couldn’t possibly have spared only two of the Divine Arms soldiers.

Chapter 258: A mysterious sniper

Ren Xiaosu carefully recalled the information Tang Zhou had told him. Tang Zhou mentioned that the Qing Consortium defeated the Divine Arms Battalion two days ago, but he did not say how many of them were pushed back in defeat.

But since their cooperation was going so well, there was no reason for Qing Zhen and Tang Zhou to trick him. And even though Qing Zhen was arrogant, he had always been reliable and trustworthy. Something must have gone wrong in between this period.

As Ren Xiaosu watched the two nanosoldiers walking towards him, he was surprised to see them looking all out of sorts. This didn’t make any sense.

They were back in the farthest stretches of the Li Consortium’s territory where different groups of Li Consortium troops were stationed every dozen or so kilometers apart. So the Divine Arms Battalion should not be this frightened when they had already made it back to here.

Could they have encountered other enemies along the way?

Wait a minute, could it be Li Shentan? Ren Xiaosu knew that Li Shentan had led an entire combat brigade and disappeared with them, and that he also held a grudge against the Li Consortium. He might have really led that combat brigade to the battlefield and slain the Divine Arms Battalion from the rear.

The moment these two wounded soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion walked onto the Brambles, Ren Xiaosu wrapped the vines around them tightly. The two wounded soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion were already severely injured and couldn’t put up a fight.

When Ren Xiaosu was sure that no one else was around, he jumped out of the snow. The two Divine Arms officers were shocked to see someone emerge from the snow. The terrifying Brambles seemed to have been manipulated by someone!

Ren Xiaosu did not kill them immediately but came up to them with a frown and asked, “Where’s the rest of the Divine Arms Battalion?”

One of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion endured his pain and said through clenched teeth, “Who are you! Who on earth are you! Why are you wearing the uniform of our Divine Arms Battalion?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the uniform he was wearing, then snapped, “Weren’t y’all the ones who forced us to swap?”

The two Divine Arms officers were stunned. What did he mean? Wait, they suddenly remembered this. So this young man standing before them was actually a soldier from the private army?! But why was there someone hidden among the private troops who could control these terrifying plants? He had to be a spy! This young man had to be a spy!

The two Divine Arms officers realized something. One of them roared, “The Qing Consortium only ambushed us because you revealed our whereabouts to them!”

“Ahem, what are you talking about? Why can’t I understand what you’re saying?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Let me ask again, where’s the rest of the Divine Arms? Were they attacked by a strange force? If no one wants to answer, I’ll ask again later.”

“They’re about 20 kilometers behind us. If you have the balls, go and look for yourself,” one of the Divine Arms officers said fiercely.

Ren Xiaosu acknowledged them before decisively killing them with the Brambles. He was rather suspicious about why these two men were acting alone. He would probably have to head further north before he could finally learn what had happened.

He collected the nanomachines from the two men, looted the belongings in their pockets, and placed the rifles into his storage space.

His storage space was emptier now after much of the food had been consumed during the time they were back at the outpost.

However, Ren Xiaosu wasn’t in a hurry to leave yet. He dug around in the snow for some time before he found the dozen or so playing cards he had hidden.

He had thought that many of the Divine Arms Battalion’s soldiers would pass by on this route, so he even resorted to using the Explosive Poker cards. But as it turned out, he had wasted all his efforts and also wasted quite a few gratitude tokens by planting more than ten Bramble seeds in the area.

Although he could retrieve the Explosive Poker cards, he could not pull the Brambles out of the ground after they had been planted.

After Ren Xiaosu recollected all of his Explosive Poker cards, he headed north. He was still in the area of Mt. Tantou and would reach the boundary of Mt. Fengyi by heading further north. Walking in the snow was not exactly difficult for him, but he had to be careful in case he revealed his presence.

When Ren Xiaosu set off, it was morning. By the time he arrived at Mt. Fengyi, it was already afternoon. But soon after cresting a hill, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He saw an officer of the Divine Arms Battalion lying on the ground in front of him. A large area of the snow was tainted pink by his blood. The blood did not look like it had flowed out of him but splattered instead!

Ren Xiaosu finally understood the strangeness of this. As the Divine Arms officers were retreating, they encountered a sniper. Everyone else in the Divine Arms Battalion was dead except for the two he saw earlier!

Before they died, the two Divine Arms officers had even wanted to dupe Ren Xiaosu, who they realized was a spy, into heading to the battlefield where a sniper was lying in ambush. Because Ren Xiaosu was wearing the Divine Arms uniform, he would also end up as a target for the sniper by coming here.

These Divine Arms officers were pretty unrelenting. The first thing they wanted to do before they died was not to beg for mercy but to lure Ren Xiaosu here into a trap.

But the sniper should have already left. The time that Ren Xiaosu spent here in the snow concluding what had happened was definitely enough for a skilled sniper to kill him. However, no one opened fire at him even after so much time had passed.

And it should have already been a while since the sniper conducted his mission here. There was no reason why the sniper would stay around when the mission to eliminate the Divine Arms Battalion was completed.

But why would a sniper mysteriously appear here? Could it be a Qing Consortium sniper? No, it shouldn’t be. The only Qing Consortium soldiers behind enemy lines were Tang Zhou and his men, which Tang Zhou had confirmed.

Then who else could it be? The Yang Consortium!

Ren Xiaosu searched around in the snow for some time, but he was a little disappointed when he found the sniper’s bullet. It wasn’t the silver-gray bullet the Saboteurs used. This bullet also did not have the special pattern engraved on it that the Saboteurs carried around.

But of course, this was to be expected. There had to be a lot of troops and snipers from the Yang Consortium out on the front lines. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin, who was also a family member of the organization, had only just returned to the organization to recover, so how could she possibly return to the battlefield so soon?

Yang Xiaojin should still be at Stronghold 88.

Ren Xiaosu went around to look for any traces of the Divine Arms officers. He could gather a few more nanomachines for every one of them he found.

It was a fantastic harvest this time around, seeing how his armor was near to completion.

But then he heard the sound of engines coming from the mountain roads in the south before he could locate all the corpses of the Divine Arms officers. Ren Xiaosu frowned as the sound grew closer. It had to be the Li Consortium’s people if they were heading north at this time. They must have seen the Brambles and the two dead Divine Arms officers.

Ren Xiaosu immediately tossed greed aside and ran towards the snowy mountain. He would still have many opportunities to collect nanomachines in the future. But if his identity were exposed, that would be very troublesome.

One of Ren Xiaosu’s greatest strengths was that he could always maintain his rationality when faced with huge temptation, like the time when he had to give up on the gold back in the Jing Mountains.

The ambush on the Divine Arms Battalion went much smoother than Ren Xiaosu had expected. He did not even have to do much since the mysterious sniper had already helped him kill 99% of his enemies.

But the sudden appearance of this mysterious sniper had also made the situation weirder.

Chapter 259: The Office of Special Investigations probe

While running towards the mountain, Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated that even though he only had time to gather 14 of the Divine Arms officers’ nanomachines, it was more than what Lin Qi and his group had. If he created an armor to protect himself now, he would have enough nanomachines to cover every part of him except for an area the size of one of his calves.

In a battle, he would definitely not fuss over the form of the armor and just aim to protect his vital parts as much as possible. But by estimating this way, it would facilitate his understanding of how many nanomachines he had obtained so far.

As Ren Xiaosu fled from the battlefield, there was something on his mind. While collecting the nanomachines just now, he saw many dead Divine Arms officers lying in the snow. He had counted several dozen dead Divine Arms officers. If it were a normal sniper who killed them, surely they wouldn’t be so incredibly lethal, right?

Furthermore, once the sniper fired a shot at these nanosoldiers, the rest of the Divine Arms officers would have quickly moved away. Judging by the speed of the Divine Arms officers, it would be impossible to kill so many of them if the sniper was not a crack shot.

Ren Xiaosu was certain these people had attacked the sniper’s position just by observing the way they died. They had tried to dodge the sniper’s bullets with their speed and attempted to locate and kill the sniper. They failed, however.

Meanwhile, the two Divine Arms officers who had fortunately survived were probably already wounded in the first place, so the others allowed them to retreat first. This was why they managed to survive while the others were all killed!

These were the Divine Arms soldiers, after all. Even if they were demoralized after their strategy failed, and they were defeated by the Qing Consortium, they were still a highly regarded unit of the Li Consortium. How could a sniper kill over a 100 of them so easily as they retreated?

Could the sniper also possess a Perfect Firearms Proficiency like Yang Xiaojin? But how could there be so many expert marksmen in the world?

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that the sniper could very well be Yang Xiaojin. However, the evidence proved otherwise. Moreover, there was no reason why Yang Xiaojin would appear here.

Ren Xiaosu went to look for the Potato Shooter and collected the allocated quantity of potatoes for the day before returning to camp.

“Xiaosu, you’re back?” Li Qingzheng happily took the potatoes from Ren Xiaosu’s arms. “We’ve got to be careful when we make our meals. I heard that those in other tents have already run out of food. Some of them are so hungry they went out to look for food even though they’re afraid.”

“They should have done so earlier.” Ren Xiaosu said as he dusted off the snow from his body, “Now that their physical strength and energy have reached their lowest points, I’m afraid they won’t even have enough strength to look for food.”

Chen Wudi went to Ren Xiaosu and helped him dust off the snow he couldn’t reach. He even handed him a piping hot potato and said, “Master, have some.”

Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky outside. “We’ve already camped here for four days. I’m afraid that everyone has already run out of food except for us. If we continue wasting our time here, everyone will die.”

“It’s not only us.” Li Qingzheng sighed and said, “We have only a 1,000 of us here, but more than 20,000 private soldiers are starving across the entire battlefield, and they were all done in by the private troops’ commander. If everyone had enough to eat, it wouldn’t be so difficult to endure this. But it’s different now since thousands of people might die of starvation once the blizzard passes.”

Then a commotion broke out in the camp. Ren Xiaosu lifted the tent flap to see what was going on. But he could not see what was happening due to the tents blocking his view.

“Y’all remain in the tent. I’ll go and have a look outside.” Ren Xiaosu then walked out of the tent. He noticed many of the others in the camp had also come out of their tents. It seemed like a commotion had broken out at the southernmost side of the camp behind them.

“What is going on?” someone asked.

“I don’t know. I just came out here after hearing the commotion. Could a fight have broken out over there?”

Someone said indifferently, “They still have the energy to fight when everyone is starving?”

Ren Xiaosu ignored them and continued walking south. When he almost reached the end of the camp, he saw others not from the private army!

An unusual-looking platoon was standing there and questioning someone at the border of the camp. As Ren Xiaosu approached, he heard their conversation. “Why’re you all stationed here? Why didn’t you reach the strategic location at the indicated time? Where is the commanding officer? Get him out here to answer our questions!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. These people were not wearing the uniforms of the combat troops but the Office of Special Investigations’ uniforms!

He quickly realized they were probably here to investigate the incident involving the Divine Arms Battalion. A series of chain reactions must have started after the Divine Arms Battalion was ambushed by the Qing Consortium.

Since their group of private troops had swapped vehicles and uniforms with the Divine Arms Battalion, they would definitely be the prime suspects of the Office of Special Investigations’ probe.

After Ren Xiaosu figured the situation out, he blended back into the crowd as he did not wish to interact with the Office of Special Investigations yet.

The commander of Liu Taiyu’s reinforced company came over and said, “Our commander is still semiconscious after getting kicked by one of the Divine Arms officers. When he regained consciousness, he started running a fever. It was also the Divine Arms Battalion’s decision to encamp here.”

The commander of the reinforced company practically pushed all responsibility to the Divine Arms Battalion. After all, dead men tell no tales.

A person from the Office of Special Investigations frowned. “Where are the Divine Arms? Tell them to come out for questioning.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he thought that the Office of Special Investigations’ tone was way too arrogant. He was yelling for the Divine Arms Battalion as though he were ordering his subordinates around. It was no wonder no one thought it was unfair when he used his identity as a member of the Office Special Investigations to reprimand others.

However, the company commander explained, “The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion stubbornly chased after a rabbit in a hunt two mornings ago. In the end, they got attacked by some unknown vegetation. All five of the Divine Arms officers died as a result. If you don’t believe it, go ahead and question the others.”

The people from the Office of Special Investigations looked around, bewildered. The private soldiers surrounding them quickly nodded and said, “We couldn’t catch up no matter how hard we chased after them. When we finally got there, we saw them already dead.”

These people had agreed to collude on this event as they felt a little guilty for not attempting to rescue those officers.

The platoon commander of the Office of Special Investigations frowned and said, “Bring me to your commander. After that, we’ll head to the place where you said the Divine Arms officers died!”

Ren Xiaosu was not exactly panicking at this moment. Since all of the private soldiers here were trying so hard to cover up for him, what did he have to worry about?

The commander of the reinforced company led the Office of Special Investigations into the camp. They first checked on Liu Taiyu’s condition and the person charged with inspecting him nodded to the platoon commander and said, “He does still have a high fever. His body probably got inflammation after suffering internal bleeding from the kick.”

The platoon commander of the Office of Special Investigations said to the reinforced company’s commander, “Hand over the private troops’ roster to me. We’ll head over to the spot where the Divine Arms officers met their demise right now.”

Chapter 260: Gaining yet another identity

Upon reaching the location of the trap, the Office of Special Investigations’ people frowned. They saw the Divine Arms officers tangled up and dead in the vines. “They were attacked by this strange plant after pursuing the rabbit here?”

They had wanted to check their wounds to see if there was anything unusual about the deaths. After all, this was the first time they’d heard of plants attacking humans. At the beginning, they didn’t quite believe it.

But when they saw the brambles, they all believed it as the plant looked savage and ferocious. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was controlling the Brambles and moving them in a threatening manner the moment they approached a little. It looked extremely terrifying!

Someone from the Office of Special Investigations said, “You all will continue to encamp here. Do not act without permission.”

After giving those orders, they left. In truth, they did not have a better way of handling this either. They could not go around and question over a 1,000 private troops as that would take too much time and effort.

Furthermore, they were just here to find out the private troops’ location. As for investigating the spy, that would be left for later. Right now, they needed to quickly relay the situation back to the Office of Special Investigations.

Ren Xiaosu looked on as they left. It seemed like the Li Consortium was also aware there was a spy among them, but they didn’t know how to approach the investigation.

After the people from the Office of Special Investigations left, Ren Xiaosu went out at night to meet Tang Zhou as previously agreed. When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the meeting place, he bluntly asked, “Did the Qing Consortium send out any snipers here?”

Tang Zhou was taken back. “No, and we don’t even have a sniper in our troops either.”

“Something is odd.” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “When I went to search for what was left of the Divine Arms Battalion, I discovered roughly several dozen of them killed by the same sniper.”

“Are you exaggerating? There aren’t too many snipers who’re capable of that.” Tang Zhou gave his analysis. “Your friend, Yang Xiaojin, possesses such an ability. Could it be her?”

“Ahem.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s probably not her since the bullets aren’t marked as Saboteurs. Are there any even more skilled snipers in the Yang Consortium?”

“No.” Tang Zhou shook his head. But then he remembered something. “Eh, that’s not right. Over a decade ago, there was precisely someone that skilled. Yang Xiaojin probably learned her marksmanship from him too, but I think he’s quite old now. I think he might be Yang Xiaojin’s uncle based on their relationship? He’s no longer as physically able to move around freely as he likes on the battlefield, so I doubt it would be him.”

“Could there be other forces that have joined in the war as well?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“Unlikely.” Tang Zhou thought for a while and said, “There’s no reason why other forces would get involved in this war. It’s very difficult for foreign forces to reap any benefits here in our southwestern region. Only the Pyro Company would take advantage of this event to seek out any supernatural beings under the guise of acquiring their blood.”

“Is no one going to do anything about them?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Of course they will. The three organizations in the southwestern region have already reached a consensus to kill anyone from the Pyro Company when they encounter them. However, the Pyro Company has resorted to conducting their business secretly and will only distribute leaflets to normal people wherever they can,” Tang Zhou replied.

“Have they caught any supernatural beings yet?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“There’s a few. Most supernatural beings who have just gained their superpowers haven’t experience a change in their mindsets yet. Since they want to make money, the Pyro Company’s offer is the fastest way for them to get rich.” Tang Zhou said, “The Pyro Company is specifically targeting the sort of person who has just awakened their powers but have zero experience in combat.”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “I guess there really are idiots like that.”

“But the Pyro Company won’t join the battlefield for sure. They will only hide behind the stronghold walls,” Tang Zhou said.

Ren Xiaosu was starting to feel that it was very likely that Yang Xiaojin was the sniper. Everything but the bullet seemed to suggest it was her who did it.

Although many snipers existed in this world, only a few were capable of killing that many Divine Arms officers.

But what was Yang Xiaojin doing behind enemy lines by herself? Was it just for the sake of destroying the Divine Arms Battalion?

Suddenly, Tang Zhou said, “Mr. Qing Zhen called me to say that he’s sent over a group of Qing Yun’s people as envoys to discuss an alliance with the Li Consortium, and that if you are interested, you can finish them off.”

Ren Xiaosu kept quiet for a long time. So after the Qing Consortium helped him defeat the Divine Arms Battalion, he was supposed to help Qing Zhen get rid of his dissidents in
return?

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Isn’t Qing Yun already dead? Why does he still want to kill this group of people?”

Tang Zhou explained, “After our combat brigade was disbanded, many of our men were assigned to various different forces and ended up getting bullied by Qing Yun’s troops very often. Moreover, the methods they used to push our people around were horribly mean. So Mr. Qing Zhen doesn’t want these people to return to the Qing Consortium’s territory. Even if you don’t want to kill them, Mr. Qing Zhen would still have them killed.”

Ren Xiaosu remarked, “Then just let him kill them.”

“We were thinking the Li Consortium would consider it your merit if you killed them instead. The higher your position in the organization is, the more beneficial it’ll be to all of us,” Tang Zhou said with a smile.

“How many of them are there?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“400,” Tang Zhou replied.

“Then how am I suppose to fight them?” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner, “Headbutt them? Never mind that our private troops have hardly any combat strength, I’m also not their commander either.”

Tang Zhou suddenly whispered, “Mr. Qing Zhen said that as long as you’re willing, he can help you become the private army’s commander. The management of the private army has always been extremely lax and promotion within is always based on how much one can pay.”

Ren Xiaosu kept getting the feeling that the battlefield was about to get more chaotic. What the hell was even going on anyway?

But it seemed that Qing Zhen already had a high-ranking spy within the Li Consortium who could actually manipulate the appointment and removal of officers within the private troops!

This was not going to be as simple as Tang Zhou had proposed. No matter how lax the management of the troops was, it wouldn’t be possible to simply use money to buy such a high-ranking position. The Qing Consortium had to have a very influential person inside the Li Consortium before he dared to make such boastful claims. At the very least, this person was able to make changes to the private army’s database of officers.

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll compromise your secret agent?”

“Mr. Qing Zhen said that you’re much more important than the agent now.” Tang Zhou said, “Of course, we’ll arrange for him to leave the Li Consortium secretly to avoid any potential issues if something happens to you.”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu accepted it reluctantly.

Tang Zhou said, “However, his evacuation is going to be difficult as well. Since the Office of Special Investigations is investigating the spy now, he might not be able to escape.”

Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. “Why not let me take care of that?”

“What?” Tang Zhou was stunned.

“You might not believe it when I tell you this,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly. “I’ve only told you about my identity as a private soldier. However, I’m actually also a captain in the Office of Special Investigations.”

Tang Zhou was dumbfounded right then and there. Weren’t you supposed to be helping the Yang Consortium collect samples of the nanomachines from the Divine Arms Battalion? How did you become an Office of Special Investigations officer as well?! Could the Yang Consortium have already infiltrated the Office of Special Investigations?!

Ren Xiaosu explained, “I can’t go into too much detail with you as the current state of affairs is a little complicated.”

Honestly, even Ren Xiaosu thought he had too many identities. And the way he got them was very strange as well.

Chapter 261: Ren Xiaosu’s promotion

While heading back, they even saw the corpses of the Divine Arms officers being transported back to Stronghold 108. However, this had little to do with them. Their mission was considered complete since they had already located the whereabouts of the private troops.

The command center was constantly being shifted further north since nothing could be done if the generals kept remaining behind at the rear.

Currently, the command center was located 30 kilometers behind Mt. Tantou and was only around 80 kilometers from where Ren Xiaosu and the private troops were stationed.

When they got to the command center to look for Hu Shuo, they handed over the private troops’ roster before reporting on the current situation of the private soldiers. They also expressed their doubts over how the five Divine Arms Battalion officers were supposedly killed by plants.

Hu Shuo sat in the tent and flipped through the roster. But after flipping through just a few pages, he noticed a familiar name. He instantly figured out a lot of things. He did not have to reason or think it through since that name was as good as the answer.

Hu Shuo let out a sigh. As it turned out, the Divine Arms Battalion had swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops that guy was in…. In that case, they could only blame themselves for being unlucky. If they had exchanged their vehicles with any other private troops, an incident like this would have been avoided.

A Special Investigations officer asked when he saw Hu Shuo frowning, “Sir, what’s the matter? Is there a problem with the roster?”

Hu Shuo came back to his senses and said with a smile, “No, I was thinking of something else.”

“Oh.” The Special Investigations officer heaved a sigh of relief. He thought he had missed out on some details. “Then should we conduct a thorough investigation of these private troops again? I feel like there’s something off about them.”

Hu Shuo said sternly, “These private troops already have their wages and benefits mostly withheld from them, and they don’t have any means of communication with the outside world, so the problem shouldn’t lie with them. There aren’t too many people who know about the Divine Arms Battalion’s secrets either, so we should still start investigating from the higher-ups.”

“Yes, sir.” The Special Investigations officer replied, “We’ll focus on investigating the spy among those in the higher-ups then.”

“Mhm.” Hu Shuo nodded. “But don’t touch anyone from the Li Consortium.”

With the tone set, they would thoroughly investigate all higher-ups and leaders, except those who were family members of the Li Consortium.

Thinking about this, Hu Shuo couldn’t help feeling somber. Who knew what other trouble Ren Xiaosu would cause?

At this moment, another Special Investigations officer came in from the outside and walked up to Hu Shuo. He reported in a whisper, “Sir, we found something unusual.”

“What did you find?” Hu Shuo was taken aback.

meo

“An officer from the Supply Division has suddenly nominated someone for a promotion. It’s like he’s skipping the chain of command to promote a private soldier,” the Special Investigations officer said.

Hu Shuo paused. “What’s the name of the soldier who was nominated?”

“Ren Xiaosu.” The Special Investigations officer asked, “Should we investigate them?”

Melancholic, Hu Shuo waved it off. “There’s no need. Our Office of Special Investigations has to follow up on the big case that’s the Divine Arms Battalion, so there’s no need to trouble ourselves with such a trivial matter. There will definitely be issues of bribery and corruption within the private troops, so don’t waste your energy on such matters.”

The Special Investigations officer bowed his head. “Yes, sir.”

After all the officers of the Office of Special Investigations left, Hu Shuo almost flipped the table. Ren Xiaosu was fucking running rampant! He had to be doing whatever he liked because he was banking on Hu Shuo not daring to touch him!

The private troops Ren Xiaosu was with were still encamped at the same spot. Even though a lot of them were close to starving to death, none of them dared to move outside in the face of a threat like the Brambles.

In the evening, a group of officers from the Personnel Division suddenly came to the camp. On the way here, they were grumbling, “We had to travel all the way here into these forested mountains just so that we could appoint an officer? Does this private troops’ officer have no conscience? How dare he sell the comms radio in exchange for money!”

When they arrived, the private soldiers lifted the flaps of their tents and sized them up. “You people are?”

“I’m Tang Wanyi from the Personnel Division. Everyone, gather over here,” Tang Wanyi said.

The private soldiers all lined up in front of Tang Wanyi with confused expressions on their faces.

Tang Wanyi asked, “Who is Ren Xiaosu?”

Ren Xiaosu walked out of the formation and said, “Reporting in, sir. I’m Ren Xiaosu.”

“OK.” Tang Wanyi glanced at Ren Xiaosu out of the corner of his eye. “Congratulations. As Liu Taiyu, the commander of the Iron Second Battalion, is still injured and unconscious, we are specially appointing Ren Xiaosu as the acting commander of the Iron Second Battalion to lead the troops and carry out operational orders.”

Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, “Really, sir?”

“Why would I be lying? Come and sign your appointment letter,” Tang Wanyi said disdainfully.

Ren Xiaosu hurried over to sign it and prepared to go back into camp after that. However, Tang Wanyi suddenly pulled him back. “Aren’t you going to celebrate with us?”

“Celebrate?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “How should we celebrate? Why don’t I do the splits for you, sir?”

Tang Wanyi was dumbfounded. ‘Why would I want to watch you do the splits?’

Actually, this was something the private army practiced. Promoted officers were required to reward those from the Personnel Division with some kickbacks as a form of celebration. Tang Wanyi was aware that someone had spent more than 100,000 yuan just so that Ren Xiaosu would be promoted. It was obvious how much of a cash cow Ren Xiaosu was!

Why else would Tang Wanyi be willing to run all the way here? His legs were almost broken from traveling here!

If a promoted officer was not sensible and did not know how to honor his seniors, he could forget about getting promoted again in the future.

Naturally, Ren Xiaosu knew about this. However, he didn’t plan on giving a single cent to this guy in front of him. Who knew if he would have an opportunity to run away from here soon? In that case, how could he possibly waste money on something like that!

Tang Wanyi said coldly, “Think about it carefully.”

Ren Xiaosu played dumb. “What are you talking about?”

If there were not so many people around, Ren Xiaosu would have used his identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations to arrest Tang Wanyi for being a spy. But thinking about it carefully, he knew that he shouldn’t always be causing trouble for Hu Shuo. What if Hu Shuo really got annoyed?

Tang Wanyi was livid as he led his men away. This was the first time in many years that the Li Consortium’s Personnel Division had encountered such a blockhead. He ordered those around him, “After we get back, put this Ren Xiaosu on the blacklist. Make sure he never ever gets promoted again in this life. When the war ends, I want him stripped of his rank!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi and asked softly, “Wudi, what are they muttering about?”

Chen Wudi lowered his voice and said, “Master, they said they want you stripped of your rank at the end of the war.”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Li Consortium was so confident of themselves that they kicked off the war, yet the men under them were all a bunch of good-for-nothings. They were definitely not going to be a match for Qing Zhen.

In addition to that, the Yang Consortium’s soldiers were also biding their time at the border while Li Shentan and Hu Shuo were stirring up trouble internally. It would be really difficult to say what would become of the Li Consortium at the end of the war.

Besides, it wasn’t like Ren Xiaosu was planning on living here under the Li Consortium’s rule anyway, so as if he cared about what happened to them after the war!

Chapter 262: Leading the troops out of a predicament

After Tang Wanyi and the others left, Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to everyone in the private troops, “I was fortunate to be promoted to commander of the Iron Second Battalion. I won’t use empty talk, but some of you probably already know about my capability. I’m the best at surviving in this wilderness. None of you will starve to death or end up getting killed by the plants for no reason if you follow me!”

Everyone looked at one another. How could he make such boastful claims the moment he got appointed as the new commander? Everyone knew that Ren Xiaosu was just a normal soldier. But now that he had gained such a huge promotion, everyone couldn’t accept it.

Naturally, no one dared protest either. The sight of Ren Xiaosu dragging people around in the snow awhile ago was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Their impression of Ren Xiaosu was that he was a relentless person.

But even though he was unrelenting, they did not believe the words he just said.

Everyone had already been starving for several days, and they also faced the threat of the Brambles outside. Some people felt that Ren Xiaosu becoming the battalion commander at this moment was no different from asking for trouble.

Someone from the reinforced company couldn’t help but ask coldly, “Since you say that, and we’ve been starving for several days already, how are you going to help everyone look for food? We’ll believe you if you can get us out of here alive and find food as well.”

As these people from the reinforced company were originally Liu Taiyu’s cronies, the sudden change in leadership was definitely going to be a little uncomfortable for them.

But anyone here could be the leader as long as they were capable enough.

Someone added, “Yeah, we don’t even dare to walk too far. What if we encounter that plant again?”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he gave an impassioned speech. “Since I’ve promised all y’all, I’ll definitely bring everyone out of this place. How about this? I’ll walk ahead, and y’all can follow behind me. As long as I remain unharmed, nothing will happen to you guys behind me, right?”

Everyone was at a loss for words. Some people were instantly moved when Ren Xiaosu said he would lead the way personally. They didn’t expect he would have such courage!

If there really were those terrifying plants along the way, Ren Xiaosu would surely suffer the misfortune first since he would be walking ahead. If Liu Taiyu had been conscious, he would probably have ordered other people to lead the way instead of himself. He would definitely not lead by example like Ren Xiaosu!

Although none of them believed someone this good still existed in these wastelands, wasn’t there a living example standing right in front of them?

Ren Xiaosu said righteously, “Everyone, pack up all of your belongings and tents quickly. We’ll set off in an hour. I’ll walk ahead while you follow me! I’ll help everyone search for something to eat!”

The private troops who were all made up of refugees were not cultured people. History had proven that the less cultured a person was, the less likely they would question people and matters around them. Once they got herd mentality, they ould be more prone to blindly following orders.

They could never have guessed the plant was actually planted there by Ren Xiaosu…

If it were other people leading the way, they might really end up getting into trouble with the plant. However, Ren Xiaosu would definitely be safe doing so.

After the troops set off, Ren Xiaosu led them northwards and avoided all of the Brambles. Some of the vines suddenly emerged from under the snow and started moving threateningly at Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu just stood clear of its attack range.

In the eyes of these private soldiers, it was as though Ren Xiaosu was imbued with the power of the gods!

Someone shouted from behind for him to be careful, but Ren Xiaosu just turned around and said compassionately to them, “In order to lead you to safety, my sacrifice is nothing in the big picture.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that he was a great person. He was actually leading these private troops out of the predicament he had created!

Tears were streaming from someone behind Ren Xiaosu. “Thank you, Battalion Commander!”

“Thank you, Battalion Commander!”

Ren Xiaosu continued advancing while counting the gratitude tokens he received. Good, he had gained yet a few more gratitude tokens. Although there were several dozen private soldiers thanking him, only a few people’s gratitudes were sincere.

Someone from the reinforced company whispered, “It looks like he really is competent. It might be a good idea if we follow a good leader like him in these current times.”

The company commander said calmly, “Let’s observe the situation for now. It isn’t such a big deal if he just gets us out of here. I’ll only be convinced if he can successfully lead us to some food as well.”

In reality, it did not matter to Ren Xiaosu whether he could convince them since he wasn’t planning on doing so in the first place. His priority was to bring them to the designated location he had discussed with Tang Zhou.

The people behind him were not even sincere when they thanked him. He had helped them find a way to sneak into the forward operating base to dine, but he was still immediately betrayed by them. Chen Wudi, who was kind-hearted enough to help someone in need, was described as a fool as well.

Ren Xiaosu neither sympathized with these people nor did he intend to become true comrades with them.

By this time, they had left the Brambles “plantation.” Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to everyone, “Those vines very likely only grew in that small patch there, so there’s no need to worry about them anymore.”

Everyone heaved sighs of relief in response. Someone said, “Then can we rest now?”

Some of them were about to sit right down in the snow. The private troops were lazy like that.

But Ren Xiaosu continued, “We still can’t rest. I promised that I’d search for food for y’all, so let’s overcome the difficulties ahead of us first! And I have already come up with a good plan!”

When they heard they might get something to eat, everyone became excited. Even the reinforced company’s soldiers had run out of food a day ago. Everyone was so hungry they were lightheaded.

Ren Xiaosu headed into the mountains. But before he could even take two steps, he saw a hollow high in a tall tree next to him. He climbed the tree and reached into the hollow.

Everyone was wondering what Ren Xiaosu was doing. But when Ren Xiaosu withdrew his hand from the inside, a squirrel escaped from within in a flurry while Ren Xiaosu held a fistful of pine nuts and dried fruits they had never seen before!

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Everyone, go around and look for similar hollows in the trees like this one. There should be enough food for everyone to fill their stomachs a little. Tell me if anyone discovers a cave or a rock cleft. That’s where our dinner for tonight is going to be!”

“What’s going to be in the cave?” someone asked curiously.

Ren Xiaosu jumped down from the tree. As he stuffed a pine nut into his mouth, he said, “After snakes store enough fat in the bodies, they start hibernating(1) for the winter. When that happens, they become very vulnerable to humans. Also, they prefer to be in groups when they hibernate. If we can find a cave, we’ll basically have found a den of snakes, and we can eat roasted snake for our dinner tonight!”

A ton of venomous snakes, bugs, and ants could be found in the southwestern region. Whenever Ren Xiaosu ventured into the wilderness in the past, he would always be exceptionally alert to this.

But most snakes usually ended up as food during their hibernation process. This was further helped by the fact that snakes preferred hibernating in groups. They did this to coil together to keep warm and reduce water loss in their bodies.

30% of snakes that did not hibernate in groups did not survive the winter.

So some of the braver refugees would head into the mountains to search for snake dens during the winter. If they found one, it would be a great harvest for them, and they would be able to live more comfortably for the entire winter.

And Ren Xiaosu was the bravest person in this group of refugees.

[1] Snakes do not actually hibernate. The term for cold blooded animals that “hibernate” is brumate (brumation).

Chapter 263: Ren Xiaosu’s first battle!

Under Ren Xiaosu’s leadership, the large group of private troops swept through the forested mountains like a swarm of locusts. As long as there was something edible, they did not miss any of it.

During this period, Ren Xiaosu found three snake dens and caught over 200 hibernating snakes. In addition, some of the snakes were particularly fat. Ren Xiaosu and his men killed all of them before they could even wake up.

This time, everyone was convinced they would get fed as long as they followed this Iron Second commander. This had essentially become a conviction in all of their hearts.

Li Qingzheng chuckled and said, “Xiaosu, you’re really resourceful. There’s no lack of food wherever you go.”

In this wilderness, it was an incredibly exceptional skill to be able to find food wherever one went.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu turned around to the reinforced company and was taken aback. “Eh? Where’s Liu Taiyu?”.

The reinforced company’s soldiers had been taking turns to carry Liu Taiyu. But as they walked on, Liu Taiyu suddenly disappeared.

Li Qingzheng said softly to Ren Xiaosu, “I saw them secretly dump Liu Taiyu on the side of the road just now. I think they’re finding you more reliable than Liu Taiyu, so they’re pledging their loyalty to you now.”

Ren Xiaosu found this rather lamentable. As the former Iron Second Battalion commander, Liu Taiyu had been “dumped” just like that. If the reinforced company could dump Liu Taiyu today, they could also dump Ren Xiaosu tomorrow in the same manner. Who would dare to desire such “loyalty”?

This incident reminded Ren Xiaosu once again that hardly anyone in the Iron Second was good. So he should not take his role as battalion commander too seriously.

The commander of the reinforced company walked up to Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Battalion Commander, why don’t we set up camp here tonight? I think we already have more than enough food.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s been hard on you guys, but we still have to walk a little further since it isn’t safe here.”

“Alright then, I’ll get everyone to endure it a little more.” The reinforced company’s commander walked away with a smile. As long as they had food to eat, everything else could be discussed.

The reason why Ren Xiaosu did not want to set up camp here was not that it was unsafe, but that he still had not led the private troops to the designated location yet.

The troops continued marching. Although they still had not eaten yet, everyone was very energetic and motivated.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw some smoke spiraling up in the valley ahead of them. He called the reinforced company’s commander over and said, “Could friendly forces be up ahead? Let’s go and have a look. We can say hi to them and ask for directions to see if we’re heading the right direction to Mt. Fengyi.”

“OK,” the reinforced company’s commander replied.

Then Ren Xiaosu quietly ordered Li Qingzheng and the rest of the platoon, “I want all of you to head to the back of the troops. Watch the others and ensure that no one leaves the group. If anyone attempts to run away, deal with them as you would with deserters and shoot them on the spot. If a fight breaks out, I want all of you to take cover somewhere in case you get hit by stray gunfire.”

Li Qingzheng was stunned. Since Ren Xiaosu was saying this, it was clear he already knew who was in the mountains on the opposite side. He was deliberately trying to lead these private soldiers over there! Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu seemed absolutely sure that an intense battle was going to take place!

What was going on? Why did Ren Xiaosu know that?

Li Qingzheng suddenly remembered that Ren Xiaosu had been going outside very often during the past few days. Could something have happened over that period?

After another half an hour’s walk, the private troops arrived at the entrance of the valley. The reinforced company’s commander said with a smile as he walked in, “I wonder what troops would camp in a ravine like this. They could be another group of private soldiers just like us.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I guess so.”

In reality, Qing Yun’s trusted troops could easily travel on the main mountain paths here. As long as they were willing to place their weapons down when negotiating with the Li Consortium, no one would have them killed. However, Qing Zhen requested for them to keep their movements a secret in case a spy from a third party found out about their negotiations.

After all, it wouldn’t be good if either of the other two organizations found out that the Qing Consortium was negotiating with both of them at the same time.

Therefore, the troops who had been sent here to negotiate could only make their way over in secret. When they reached the designated location, Qing Zhen would get in touch with the Li Consortium’s higher-ups and arrange for a meeting where they would personally come down into the mountains for secret negotiation talks.

However, Qing Zhen had no intention of negotiating with the Li Consortium. Right from the beginning, he was only thinking of leaving Qing Yun’s trusted troops here to die in the Li Consortium’s territory.

When the private troops went into the mountains, the commander of the reinforced company stunned. He saw the other party dressed in the Qing Consortium’s black military uniform and instantly realized they were not the Li Consortium’s private troops at all. So the Qing Consortium’s troops had infiltrated their territory!

When the Qing Consortium soldiers saw the soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion coming over, their instincts were to raise their hands. “We’re the representatives of the Qing Consortium who have come to negotiate!”

Hundreds of others gradually walked over from the Qing Consortium’s camp as well. Ren Xiaosu saw they had already raised their guns and were ready to shoot at any moment.

However, they remained very suspicious of the situation. Were these a thousand of the Divine Arms Battalion’s soldiers in front of them? Why would they encounter the main force of the Divine Arms Battalion here?

Ren Xiaosu asked suspiciously, “How can you prove that you’re here for negotiations? Why haven’t we received any notification?”

“Our frontline commander, Qing Zhen, is currently in talks with your higher-ups. If you don’t believe it, you can check with them,” the Qing Consortium soldier said.

Ren Xiaosu sneered, “Put down your weapons to express your sincerity. Don’t worry, our Divine Arms Battalion won’t harm any unarmed troops.”

The Qing Consortium’s soldiers looked at one another while their officer clenched his teeth and considered the proposal. To be honest, he didn’t expect to encounter the Divine Arms Battalion here, and he knew very well that they would not stand a chance against a 1,000 of their soldiers with only 400 of them.

Since they were here to negotiate, they would only return alive if the talks proceeded smoothly. Even if they managed to defeat them and run away at this moment, could they escape the Li Consortium’s territory? But even So, would a proper military unit like them just place down their weapons after a few words from their enemies?!

The atmosphere got even more tense!

The reinforced company’s commander was already trembling. It was not only him; all the private soldiers were also feeling the same.

How could any of them imagine that their Iron Second commander would be so ballsy as to even impersonate the Divine Arms Battalion to force the enemy to capitulate! So what if they were wearing the uniforms of the Divine Arms Battalion?

While they were stuck in a stalemate, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Why don’t we each take a step back? I’ll hand over our reinforced company’s commander to you as hostage to show our sincerity.”

The reinforced company’s commander was speechless. When did he become an offer of sincerity?! Whoever wanted to volunteer could go instead!

But before he could react, he was pushed out by Ren Xiaosu and stumbled across to the Qing Consortium’s camp. When a group of their people pointed their guns at him, he was dumbfounded!

Ren Xiaosu said coldly, “If y’all still think that’s not enough, I suspect that you aren’t sincere at all and that you aren’t here to negotiate!”

The Qing Consortium’s officer slowly replied, “Attention, put down your weapons!”

But while the Qing Consortium’s troops were putting down their weapons, Ren Xiaosu took out a pistol and shot the Qing Consortium’s officer dead. Everyone was dumbfounded as the crack of the gunshot reverberated through the valley!

How could he go back on his words?!

Ren Xiaosu roared, “They’re defenseless now! Those who kill the Qing Consortium’s troops will have rendered a great service. Follow my lead!”

The people behind him were dazed. Some of them followed right after him and rushed forward as well. Although some of the soldiers tried to run away, Li Qingzheng’s group was watching them from behind with their guns. Li Qingzheng raised his firearm and said with a grin, “Let’s see who dares to escape!”

.

Their entire group was suddenly forced to fight as they rushed forward with their guns The battle descended into chaos and some people did not even know what was going on.

Seeing Ren Xiaosu rushing forward so fearlessly, they subconsciously followed him and started shooting mercilessly!

When the Qing Consortium’s soldiers saw this, they immediately pulled out the pistols they had hidden up their sleeves. In fact, they were only willing to put down their weapons earlier because they still had guns hidden. They were not really unarmed!

When Ren Xiaosu who was furthest in front flicked his wrist, a reinforced company soldier went in front of Ren Xiaosu and shielded him.

The wrist flick was so concealed it looked like the soldier had decided to block the bullet for Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu shouted in distress, “Don’t!”

At this moment, the reinforced company’s commander was lying on the ground with blood oozing from his mouth. He was the only person who saw what Ren Xiaosu did.

He mumbled, “What the fuck…”

No one heard what the company commander said amid the intense gunfire.

Chapter 264: Heroes

“What? A battalion of private troops has wiped out a group of troops from the Qing Special Forces?!” a general exclaimed in a command center. “You aren’t joking, right? Has it been confirmed yet?”

The staff officer in front of the general said, “It’s absolutely true. It just happened yesterday. We had our people rush to the scene to confirm it after getting the news from a soldier called Chen Wudi they sent back to give a sitrep. The soldiers they killed should be from the Qing Special Forces. It’s just that we do not know why this group of Qing troops would enter our military’s hinterlands or how they got in.”

“How could you allow our enemies to infiltrate so easily? You might as well wait until they arrive at our HQ’s doorstep before you realize they’re here!” the general roared.

The staff officer hemmed and hawed before saying, “We suspect they were sent here to carry out a decapitation strike, so they deliberately traveled in the mountains. They did not bring a full-strength force with them because they wanted to travel quickly and quietly to avoid detection.”

“How did all of them get wiped out then?” the general asked in a composed voice after calming down.

“We have written statements from the private troops who mentioned they were from the Iron Second Battalion. They said they were able to wipe out their enemies this time because their battalion commander is wise and courageous. He took advantage of the Divine Arms Battalion’s uniforms they were wearing to fool the Qing Consortium soldiers into believing him and then immediately launched an assault after forcing them to disarm,” the staff officer said.

“Why does this account sound so weird?” the general wondered. He felt that something was amiss, but he did not know where the problem lay.

“I also find it quite weird. However, it does make sense that the Qing soldiers were aware they wouldn’t be able to defeat the Divine Arms Battalion.” The staff officer said, “How should we handle this matter?”

“How many people from this battalion of private troops died in the battle?” the general asked.

“400. It’s equivalent to the number of deaths our enemies suffered,” the staff officer said.

The general said with heartfelt emotion, “A battalion of private troops was actually able to wipe out the Qing Special Forces and their casualties did not even exceed our expectations? This is a great triumph! This is exactly the triumph we need now!”

The staff officer immediately understood what the general meant. Everyone had been very optimistic about the Divine Arms Battalion’s mission and hoped they would lead them to their first victory in the war. It would have boosted the morale of the military.

However, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. The Li Consortium’s higher-ups and generals were crestfallen at the defeat of the Divine Arms Battalion. In the combat meetings held over the past two days, everyone in the command center seemed overwhelmed by a sense of defeat. The combat staff officers did not even dare to cough openly in fear of getting reprimanded.

But now it was great news that they heard a battalion of private troops had wiped out the troops of their enemy’s Special Forces.

At their level, they did not actually care about how many soldiers died in the battle. All they were concerned about was how this result would affect the overall situation!

The general said, “Report this to the Board immediately, and request for the battalion of private troops involved to be commended. I want to rename the Iron Second Battalion to the Heroes Battalion. The active battalion commander will be officially appointed as a major as part of the Li Consortium’s combat troops. On top of that, I want them to be equipped with the best gear we have.”

The staff officer was stunned for a moment. This was going to set a precedent for their entire military organization!

Even though there were military ranks in the private army, their soldiers were never officially appointed any rank. Therefore, the officers of the private army were just like regular employees, and they could even pay bribes to get appointed to certain positions in the organization. However, the Li Consortium had never considered the private soldiers as their people before.

But with an official appointment now, everything was going to be different. Someday Ren Xiaosu might even get transferred to the Li Consortium’s regular troops and hold an important position!

As for reporting to the Board, that was only standard protocol. At a time like this, the Board would not interfere with decisions regarding the appointment or removal of an officer. As long as the move was beneficial to the war, they would not stop it from happening

But suddenly the general said, “After these private troops have been equipped with their gear, deploy them to our most impregnable defensive line. I’ve received intel that the overall commander of the Qing Consortium military has changed to Qing Zhen.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the staff officer asked after a slight hesitation.

“Qing Zhen is an extremely prideful man. It would be really embarrassing if word of his Special Forces getting wiped out by our private troops got out. How could a proud person like him possibly tolerate a failure like that?” The general tapped his fingers on the table and sneered, “Send these private troops to our most impregnable defensive line to let Qing Zhen fight them. Let’s wear out his military forces!”

The staff officer finally understood that the general was planning on using these private troops to lure Qing Zhen into a battle at their most robust position on the battlefield.

The battlefield was a large chessboard, and the players involved could not show any emotion. So what if they were the Heroes Battalion? They were still just chess pieces. The sacrifice of the Heroes Battalion would make them martyrs for others.

When the staff officer left, he suddenly thought of a saying: “The merciful cannot control the military; the fair cannot manage wealth.” The ancients had always been right in such regards.

Full of pent-up anger towards Ren Xiaosu, Tang Wanyi of the Personnel Division had just returned to the command center. When he came back, he was ready to write up some dirt about Ren Xiaosu so that he could deal him a fatal blow at a critical point in the future. Heh, how could he expect to survive in the military after offending someone in the Personnel Division? How nonsensical!

But at this moment, someone lifted the Personnel Division’s tent flap. A combat staff officer came in with a document tucked under his arm and said, “Who’s in the Personnel Division?”

Tang Wanyi immediately put on a placating smile and said, “Over here!”

Everyone used to say that other than the chief of staff, normal staff officers held no real authority. But in wartime, these staff officers had the most presence around the generals. If any of them badmouthed you in front of the higher-ups, you would probably not survive the backlash. And it would be even worse if the staff officer was a favorite of the leaders!

Although the staff officer was submissive before the generals, he was not so polite with those in the Personnel Division. “Execute the order on this appointment document. The private troops’ Iron Second Battalion will be renamed the Heroes Battalion, and Ren Xiaosu will be appointed with the rank of major. Equip the battalion with supplies and then deploy them to the designated battlefield at the indicated time.”

Tang Wanyi was stunned. “What? Ren Xiaosu? Appointed to major?”

Tang Wanyi was a smart person and knew what was going on!

The staff officer gave Tang Wanyi a look from the corner of his eyes and said, “What? You have a problem with that?”

“No, I wouldn’t dare. I’ll get to it immediately,” Tang Wanyi said bitterly. What the fuck? He had to travel all the way back there again after just returning?!

Before the staff officer left, he said, “It seems like you have a grudge against this Ren Xiaosu. But let me remind you, his rank is higher than yours now. Besides, he’s now a war hero who will be the role model for our entire military. If you’ve offended him before, you had better reconcile with him quickly. Know what your priorities are.”

Tang Wanyi even wondered if Ren Xiaosu and him were destined to be at odds with each other!

On that very night, Tang Wanyi arrived at the private army’s camp once again. This time, his attitude was much better. He not only brought the appointment document but also five truckloads of food rations and another five truckloads of weapons!

But that was not all. Even the trucks were left behind for Ren Xiaosu and his men so they could use them to get to the front line quickly.

Tang Wanyi looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Sir, I’m sorry if I offended you last time. You’re a magnanimous person. If there’s anything else about me you’re unhappy with, please tell me clearly. Tell me, what can I do to get your forgiveness?”.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. “Why don’t you do the splits for me?”

Tang Wanyi was speechless.

Chapter 265: Previously kept secret

The pedestrians in Stronghold 108 were all rapidly walking down the street. There were no signs of prosperity in this place anymore. Instead, a depressing atmosphere had set in.

Some noodle shops on the sides of the streets were already closed for the night. A lot of people were lining up in jewelry shops to purchase gold bars. However, the price of gold in the stronghold was already skyrocketing.

Military vehicles often drove past on the roads, as if the atmosphere of war was still not distinct enough.

A curfew had already been implemented in the stronghold. After 10 PM, any pedestrians found on the street would get sent to the Public Order Division to be detained without room for negotiation.

In peacetime, the stronghold residents liked relying on “connections” to get things done. If someone committed a misdemeanor, everything would be alright if they could find an acquaintance to sort out the matter.

But it was different now. It would be tough for those who got sent the Public Order Division to get out until after the war was over.

Connections had suddenly become useless.

Before the curfew time, a thin girl wearing a cap went into a hardware shop. As her hair was short, her long and beautiful neck could glimpsed under her shoulder-length hair that covered it. She was dressed in well-fitting athletic wear. When she raised her arm, the attire emphasized the outline of her slim waist.

She gently knocked on the roller shutter door six times in a row, then paused for two seconds before rapping harder once more.

Someone immediately raised the roller shutter, and the girl bent down to get into the shop.

The owner of the shop was balding. He smiled and said, “You came from the north?”

“Mhm.” The girl said, “Update me on the current situation.”

“Nothing special has happened. It’s rumored that the Divine Arms Battalion suffered a disaster while retreating from the Qing Consortium’s territory. They were attacked by a mysterious sniper on their way back,”

“Next piece of news, I already know about this incident,” interrupted the girl before the shop owner finished.

The shop owner was surprised to hear that but did not probe further. “There’s something else. A battalion of private troops wiped out the Qing Special Forces at Mt. Tantou’s front line yesterday. That was quite sensational news. After all, everyone knows what the private army is capable of. Who would have expected them to defeat the Qing Special Forces? And there’s something else. I haven’t gotten my hands on the Li Consortium’s defensive deployment map yet. Once I have it, I’ll send it in to the higher-ups immediately.”

Half of the girl’s face was hidden under the shadow of her cap. She replied, “There’s no need to update me about things like the defensive deployment map, I won’t be participating in this war. Right now, I need you to help me look for a young man called Ren Xiaosu.”

“OK, I’ll keep it in mind.” The owner said softly, “Do you have any clues on where to start looking?”

The girl thought for a moment before answering, “You can start with wherever something unusual has happened.”

“Unusual?” The owner said, “Nothing unusual has happened recently.”

“That can’t be.” The girl seemed to remember something and said, “Bring me the list for that group of private soldiers.”

The shop owner was stunned. Did this girl suspect that the young man named Ren Xiaosu was among these private soldiers? Because it was somewhat unusual that these private troops were able to defeat the Qing Special Forces? Who was that young man? Why was this girl placing such a great deal of importance on him?

Concurrently, in the Li Consortium’s Research Facility 613, a middle-aged man in a white coat came out of a research laboratory. He said, “Bring in the next batch of samples.”

With those words, the pretty secretary immediately called the sample storage room to inform them. Then the manager of the sample storage room checked on the time the samples were delivered here. He counted out a 100 bottles of nanomachine samples before sending them over to the lab.

One of the bottles was labeled with a note: “Nanomachines started behaving abnormally after tested on a candidate with 0% sync rate.”

Elsewhere, several operators were looking at the corpses of some nanosoldiers in a nanomachine reclamation factory. They were preparing to reclaim the nanomachines in these corpses before proceeding to unlock and reset them.

Huge robotic arms hovered over the bodies as the operators controlled them. The operators were already numb from facing corpses like these all day long.

Outsiders might not know what experiments the Li Consortium was carrying out, but the staff here had been doing the same reclamation operations on a large number of corpses every day. They were not concerned about how these corpses came about, where they came from, or where they would go.

They were only concerned about whether too many corpses would get delivered here tonight and affect the time they finished their shift.

Of course, they were only allowed to return to their closed-door dorms after work since this was a top-secret job. There was even an entire company of soldiers that watched over them.

But it was still much better than having to face these corpses. At the very least, they could still drink free beer or watch videotapes or the like after returning to their dorms. In a way, their daily lives were not exactly that boring.

At this moment, the robotic arm buzzed and vertically descended to a corpse lying flat on a stainless steel bed. There was a needle-like catheter attached to the front of the robotic arm that could be inserted under the skin.

The operator pressed a key on the control panel. But a second later he was stunned. “Why isn’t it reclaiming the nanomachines?”

A coworker next to him said calmly, “There could be some problems. Try again.”

“OK.” After that, the operator on the control panel tried to extract the nanomachines again. But still, nothing happened. “Should we manually operate it? Team leader, please authorize me. I need permission for the manual operation process.”

A middle-aged man came over and entered a long password into the control panel. He instructed, “Try using the C2 remote access protocol.”

When the robotic arm remained motionless, the middle-aged man frowned and said, “It’s still not working? There’s only the C1 remote access protocol left to try? But I don’t have the permissions to access it. I’ll need to seek approval from the Board first.”

But the operator froze. “Team leader, nothing’s gonna work. The nanomachines in his body… are gone!”

The military trucks were humming noisily as they made their way north on the mountain roads. Li Qingzheng sat in the driver’s seat and roared in high spirits, “Xiaosu, you’re amazing. How did you end up becoming a major in the Li Consortium’s regular troops in the blink of an eye? You’re gonna have such a bright future! Do you know that being a regular soldier of the Li Consortium is completely different in status from being in the private troops?”

Ren Xiaosu pulled a long face next to him. “Enough bullshit, I’ll take over driving for a while…”

“That won’t do. There are still other soldiers in the back of the truck, and we’re driving next to a cliff as well.” Li Qingzheng turned down his battalion commander’s request as he was really afraid of an accident happening. It would be alright to let Ren Xiaosu drive on a flat road, but he did not dare to let him touch the steering wheel while they were traveling on a mountain road. This was even after Ren Xiaosu had been promoted to battalion commander.

Their lives were more important!

The private troops had had their weapons upgraded. Although their total strength had been reduced to 511 people after the previous battle, everyone was now equipped with automatic rifles. Moreover, they were also given plenty of ammunition and even had four heavy machine guns attached to the battalion.

Although their equipment was still inferior to the Li Consortium’s combat troops and they were not even given any rocket launchers, it was much better than what the other private troops had.

Li Qingzheng rubbed the steering wheel as he said with a chuckle, “It wasn’t until today that I finally feel kinda like a soldier! This feels just like a dream. I never could’ve expected we’d wipe out the Qing Special Forces!”

Chapter 266: Live targets on the battlefield

Li Qingzheng was in a joyous mood. Not only did they upgrade their gear, but they were also given a resupply of rations. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu had immediately promoted him to commander of the reinforced company after being appointed major. As such, Li Qingzheng had even more soldiers under his command now.

180 people used to be in the reinforced company. But after the battle, the entire reinforced company had nearly been wiped out by the Qing Consortium.

That was mainly because Ren Xiaosu had deliberately arranged for the reinforced company to follow close to him and made them the main fighting force in that battle. How could there be no casualties in a war? After all, bullets are blind!

At the time, everyone realized that Ren Xiaosu had also rushed out furthest to the front. So why had all the people around him died, yet he was left unscathed?

After the battle ended, Ren Xiaosu even led everyone to mourn for their dead comrades. He said with a very sorrowful look, “Our brothers in arms led a great life and died such a glorious death. Some of them fought bravely, and others even died saving me…”

How could those soldiers from the reinforced company possibly give up their lives to save Ren Xiaosu? The others might believe it, but Li Qingzheng and Jiang Wu’s students were not convinced.

But nobody minded. In this era, the living had no time to grieve for the dead.

Besides, it wasn’t like they had a foundation of friendship with them to begin with.

This time, they were under orders of command headquarters to head northwards and had been requested to join up with the garrison at Position 313 where a large group of the Li Consortium’s combat troops were also stationed.

Usually, private troops would not get deployed to important strategic locations like Position 313 to provide support. But the situation with the Heroes Battalion was a little different. No one could say for sure if they were still considered as private troops or not.

After all, none of the battalion commanders in the private army had been given official appointments before, and no private army had ever defeated any of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops either.

Let alone the private troops, not even the Li Consortium’s regular troops were a match for the Qing Consortium’s regular troops.

On their way there, they passed two forward operating bases. The treatment they received when they entered the FOBs was different this time. The commanders of the FOBs even welcomed them with great hospitality when they arrived, and they were served good food that included delectable meat dishes.

Not only did they have food to eat when they arrived, but they also found it unnecessary to pack some buns to take with them on departure. The people from the FOBs would load up baskets of buns onto the vehicles and even gave them beef jerky to bring along!

This made Ren Xiaosu feel somewhat uncomfortable. There was no room for him to make use of his street smarts!

When the commander of the FOB sent them off, he said with a smile, “I wish you all the best going forward. When you get to Position 313, we hope to hear about the glory of our Li Consortium’s combat troops again…”

He took 20 minutes just to bid farewell to them. It was undeniable that he was fawning upon them.

Actually, this was just how the Li Consortium’s system was structured. When a new star rose, the sycophants would always think this would be a good opportunity to pander to those above them. If they did not do it now, it would be too late when the new star reached the top!

But after they resumed their journey, even Li Qingzheng noticed something was off. “Xiaosu, I’ve realized that everyone seems to know we’re heading to Position 313. Something doesn’t feel right.”

The movement of a fighting force was generally kept confidential, and it was the same even for the private troops. Friendly forces were not allowed to ask about each other’s battle plans without authorization from the higher-ups!

But it was really odd this time. It seemed that someone was deliberately telling everyone that the Heroes Battalion was headed for Position

313!

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “What do you think is the reason for that?”

“Are they using us to bait the Qing Consortium?” Li Qingzheng wondered. He was taking a shot in the dark as he wasn’t certain about it either. After all, his views were the same as any other refugee’s. It was very sharp of him that he was able to guess this.

Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “So that’s how the Li Consortium treats their heroes. I suppose they’re too smart for their own good.”

“What do you mean?” Li Qingzheng asked curiously.

Next to them, Chen Wudi piped up, “What my master meant was, how could anyone not have guessed it when even you were able to think of it?”

Li Qingzheng was speechless.

However, Ren Xiaosu was also aware that this was a very obvious move. The Li Consortium was openly telling the Qing Consortium that the private troops who had humiliated them would be at Position 313 and was challenging them to go there.

If they did not dare to go, it would also be considered a blow to the Qing Consortium’s morale. But if they did, they would have a fierce battle on their hands.

Actually, the Heroes Battalion was only a pawn on the overall battlefield. They were a drop in the ocean.

Position 313 was located on the sunlit slope of Mt. Shuanglong. Tens of thousands of the Li Consortium’s combat troops were garrisoned on the front lines that stretched all the way from Mt. Tantou to Mt. Shuanglong, passing through Mt. Fengyi in the middle.

Meanwhile, the front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the west that faced the Yang Consortium was even more heavily garrisoned with soldiers. Just at this location alone, tens of thousands of soldiers were traveling to and from the front line on a daily basis.

So their 500-strong battalion was nothing compared to that!

But fighting a war would never be as simple as solving an equation. The generals needed to play every move carefully and fight for every point that was up for grabs.

But the general who made this strategic decision could never have expected that Ren Xiaosu had already discussed matters with the Qing Consortium.

Li Qingzheng was getting extremely worried, but Ren Xiaosu was not one bit worried. He acted like he was just heading north for a holiday getaway.

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Xiaosu, aren’t you worried?”

Chen Wudi corrected, “It’s ‘Battalion Commander!’”

Li Qingzheng snapped, “You’re really worthy of being your master’s lackey!”

By now, everyone knew that Chen Wudi was a little mentally ill. He called himself the reincarnation of the Great Sage while Ren Xiaosu was the reincarnation of Tripitaka.

However, they did not have any issues with him. If anyone in the troops had any difficulties, Chen Wudi would definitely help them as long as they were sincere in asking for help.

It was really rare for a good person like that to appear in a world like this.

When they thought about it sometimes, it was really ironic how only those who were mentally ill were willing to be good people.

Ren Xiaosu, who was resting next to Li Qingzheng, opened his eyes and looked at him. “You can rest easy. With me around, nothing will happen.”

He could not just say to Li Qingzheng, “Don’t worry, I’m the Qing Consortium’s head spy planted in the Li Consortium. They won’t attack the place I’m at.”

He could only beat around the bush.

Although Li Qingzheng admired Ren Xiaosu a lot, he still could not help but ask, “What if they focus their forces on attacking us for the sake of getting revenge?”

Ren Xiaosu got impatient. “If you let me drive for a while, I’ll answer you right away!”

Li Qingzheng immediately gripped the steering wheel tight. “In that case, I don’t want to know.”

Ren Xiaosu was annoyed.

Suddenly, a hawk skimmed over their vehicle at low altitude. Ren Xiaosu looked out of the window and saw the bird probably had a wingspan of more than four meters. What an awe-inspiring sight!

These days, it would be challenging for any air forces to engage in aerial activities with those ferocious flying beasts up in the skies. The main difficulty laid in taking off since they would easily be targeted by these flying beasts.

Wars between humans in the past were a little more diverse than this current era. Then was a time when “those that could fly were not necessarily birds, and those that could swim were not necessarily fish.”

But now armored brigades and artillery units were the keys to victory since only land battlefields were left to fight on. Meanwhile, nanomachines had become the most significant variable in current wars.

The Yang Consortium’s armored brigade quietly arrived at the front line of Mt. Ping at this moment.

In the Yang Consortium’s battle plans, the armored brigade would work with two infantry brigades to tear apart the Li Consortium’s defensive line with a 40-kilometer-wide breach within three days once the war broke out. That would leave all of the Li Consortium’s defensive anchor points at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng ineffective.

But of course, the Li Consortium were not sitting ducks either.

Since everyone still had their trump cards hidden, no one would know what the outcome would be until after the curtain was lifted.

Chapter 267: No harm in having more skills

Li Qingzheng had expected soldiers to welcome them when they arrived at Position 313. He even thought they would volunteer to serve them warm meals. After all, that was always the treatment they were getting throughout the journey.

But when Ren Xiaosu led the private troops and arrived at Position 313, Li Qingzheng realized that the soldiers in this military camp did not seem welcoming of them. Their attitude was clearly different from those at the FOBs they had stopped by before coming here.

The soldiers in the transport trucks passing by were looking at them coldly. When the private troops reached the camp, not even a single person was there to welcome them.

Li Qingzheng scratched his head at the entrance of the camp. “What’s going on? Are we not welcome here?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Anyone but the soldiers at Position 313 would be welcoming of us. Just as Chen Wudi mentioned earlier, if even you could guess that we got sent here to become live targets on the battlefield, surely the commanding officer at Position 313 also reached the same conclusion.”

Li Qingzheng finally realized why they were so welcomed at the FOBs. It was because everyone was looking forward to their upcoming performance here on the battlefield. But they were not welcome at Position 313 because their arrival meant that Qing Zhen would most likely send a large force here.

How could the soldiers at Position 313 be in a good mood when they knew they would probably have to fight their toughest battle soon?

But Ren Xiaosu did not care about this in the slightest. He went straight through the camp entry procedures at the sentry post and strolled in with his force of 500-odd private soldiers.

At this moment, an officer blocked Ren Xiaosu’s path. When he looked at the soldiers behind Ren Xiaosu, he saw them all standing ungainly and without proper bearing. How was this supposed to be a unit capable of participating in a battle?

Although Ren Xiaosu and his men had defeated the Qing Special Forces, the nature of the refugees in the troops remained unchanged. Not only were their postures unsightly, but they were also wearing their uniforms sloppily.

Initially, the officer at Position 313’s campsite had been thinking, ‘Since they’re already coming over, so be it. It’s not so bad if a group of truly elite troops got deployed here anyway.’

But from the looks of it now, this “Heroes” Battalion must have gotten really lucky in their previous battle!

The officer frowned at Ren Xiaosu and said, “You’re Ren Xiaosu, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“How do you lead your soldiers?” The officer sneered. “They aren’t even standing in an orderly fashion. Don’t you normally drill?”

“Who are you?” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Are you looking down on our Heroes Battalion?”

The officer choked a little before saying, “I’m Ma Kai, the commanding officer at Position 313. I’m a senior colonel! I personally oversaw Position 313 getting built from the ground up, so I know the defensive fortifications here like the back of my hand!”

Ren Xiaosu quickly grabbed his hand tightly and said, “Great job. You’re exactly the kind of down-to-earth person who can get things done that the organization needs!”

Ma Kai was speechless. The reason why Ma Kai had said that was to make Ren Xiaosu understand that he was the one who called the shots at Position 313. Even if the fucking Heroes Battalion had to come here, they would still have to listen to his command. So how did it end up with Ren Xiaosu extending his regards to him?!

Ma Kai said with a dark expression, “Don’t play dumb with me. I don’t know how you managed to defeat the Qing Special Forces, but in my eyes, you people are just pieces of dog shit sent here by the higher-ups to implicate us. I hope that you all will know your place and don’t think that you are really heroes. Adjutant Zhang, bring them to where they will be holding. Don’t come out here and make trouble for us if it’s no business of yours.”

No one in the private troops dared to say a word. Although they had been basking in glory on their way here, they were immediately brought back down to earth once they arrived at this place. But Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He just observed the surrounding terrain as he followed Adjutant Zhang and walked north.

Position 313 was the general name given to this defensive front. It was a defensive anchor point for the entire front line at Mt. Shuanglong and was located in the northernmost part of the whole battlefield. It was also the closest to where the Qing Consortium’s combat troops were.

The entire defensive front covered an area of over 66 hectares[1] and extended into the hinterlands of Mt. Shuanglong. In modern-day battles, it wouldn’t be enough to just defend the high ground. If anyone were foolish enough to only do that, they would easily die to an enemy’s artillery bombardment.

However, it would be a huge mistake if anyone thought that a defensive front was helpless in the face of modern-day artillery attacks.

Sometimes, normal people in the stronghold would often have conversations over drinks about the “Theory of the Omnipotence of Missile Weapons.” But only those who had actual combat experience would understand that for a missile to hit its target accurately, it would require the sacrifice of many human lives in order to pinpoint the precise location of the enemies.

Additionally, there were also vehicle-mounted short-range air defense (SHORAD) systems deployed at strategic defensive positions that worked very well against subsonic missile weapons such as grenades, mortars, and rockets, which were not guided and would not be able to get past these air defense systems.

Humans did not purely focus on studying the different means of attacks. In the current day, whoever possessed a more advanced defense system would gain a greater advantage with the same level of firepower.

It might be possible for the Qing Consortium to bombard the area with artillery fire, but who could afford to shell an area as large as the whole battlefield? Every single artillery shell cost money!

The purpose of war is to plunder benefits. If the expenditure outstretched the benefits gained at the end of this war, it would not be considered a victory at all.

As Ren Xiaosu kept walking, he looked at the unfamiliar-looking midsize military trucks. They were parked behind the bunkers, but he did not know what their purpose was.

After all, he did not gain any knowledge in this area back when he copied Yang Xiaojin’s skills. As Ren Xiaosu still had an unused Skill Duplication Scroll on hand, he was considering whether he should use it on Colonel Ma Kai to gain some solid war expertise.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.”

The voice from the palace in his mind intoned, “One of the target’s skills will be randomly copied.”

“Randomly copied target’s amateur Morra skill. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. What the fuck is this Morra skill about?

The Five Greats, the Six Obediences!?[2]

Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch in his heart. The Li Consortium’s prohibition of alcohol was not being seriously enforced at all. They even had a Li Consortium officer that played Morra? Was no one going to do anything about that?

Never mind that he ended up copying something like the Morra skill, but it was even an amateur skill? If he were going to depend on this skill in a drinking competition, he would probably end up losing really badly!

However, Ren Xiaosu was already aware that the probability of learning something useful was relatively low when using the Skill Duplication Scroll. Successfully copying and learning Luo Xinyu’s superpower most probably exhausted all of his luck in recent years. So he was not particularly disappointed about not learning any useful skills this time.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked the palace, “What is Ma Kai’s proficiency in leadership command?”

“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. He has advanced proficiency in Army Warfare Leadership,” replied the voice from the palace.

Ren Xiaosu was rather startled to learn that he was actually an expert in this field. It was no surprise then that he was appointed as the commanding officer of Position 313.

In the end, Ren Xiaosu still went ahead and learned the Morra skill.

After all, it would be a waste not to learn it. There was no harm in having more skills.

He had even learned the jumping rope skill, so would it harm him to learn an amateur Morra skill? After all, there was no disgrace in being passionate about wanting to learn something!

[1] 1 hectare is roughly equivalent to a rugby union field.

[2] Instead of calling out pure numbers, they are expressed with longer phrases matching the numbers. | http://benmojo.blogspot.com/2010/06/you -can-be-my-lucky-scar.html

Chapter 268: On the verge of war

As Position 313 Covered a very large area, those who were unfamiliar with the place might even get lost here.

Ren Xiaosu said to Adjutant Zhang, who was leading the way, “Um… can you bring us a map so we can choose where to establish our defensive position?”

Adjutant Zhang turned back around and looked at him. He said, “The commander has already chosen a spot for you all. All you need to do is to defend your position well. Soldiers on the battlefield only have to obey their orders and shouldn’t be questioning them.”

Ren Xiaosu curled his lips but did not say anything. In truth, it did not really matter to him. Since Tang Zhou had already informed Qing Zhen that he would be deployed to Position 313, the Qing Consortium would attack anyone but him now.

He had only made that remark as he wanted to see if he could choose a convenient spot to leave the camp from to get in contact with Tang Zhou.

It didn’t matter even if he was not allowed to. That was not a big issue.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that Chen Wudi had been rather quiet. He asked, “What’s the matter?”

Chen Wudi said, “Master, I heard a lot of people in the camp saying that they want to send us to our deaths.”

“Oh, that?” Ren Xiaosu replied, “Don’t worry, even if all of them get wiped out, we’ll still be fine.”

Chen Wudi had already awoken his super hearing. Ren Xiaosu tested it out with Chen Wudi before and discovered that he could hear what was being said even if he was just speaking in a whisper from a kilometer away.

But this power had its effects on Chen Wudi, because he could hear the “evilness” in this world.

The ancients were particular about being strait-laced. As the saying went, one should pay restrain themselves even while in private.

But most people couldn’t conduct themselves that way. People were used to talking behind others’ backs as dark sides got amplified when in private. The opinions they could not express openly intensified in the shadows.

And Chen Wudi could hear all of those things now.

If Ren Xiaosu had this power, he would definitely not be burdened by it. After all, he was not innocent himself.

But it was different for Chen Wudi.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi and asked, “Can you ignore it?”

“No.” Chen Wudi shook his head and said, “They’re saying the troops here have already chosen the most dangerous position for us to guard. As long as Qing Zhen’s troops come attacking, we’ll be the first to die.”

“What else did they say?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“They also said that we deserve to die as it would save them from getting roped in.” Chen Wudi said dejectedly, “But it wasn’t our decision to come here. We didn’t even offend them.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said, “They’re the ones at
fault.”

“Master, what is our purpose in seeking scriptures from the Western Paradise?” Chen Wudi asked.

Ren Xiaosu pondered the question for a moment. “So that we can lead a comfortable life?”

Chen Wudi was stunned for a moment. “Master, are you being serious? Shouldn’t it be for the deliverance of all living creatures?”

Ren Xiaosu patiently advised, “You must save yourself before you can save others. Isn’t there a saying that goes ‘don’t judge others by your own metric’? In simple terms, that means you should get rich first before helping others get rich with you. Only by doing it first can you—”

Chen Wudi put his head in his hands and interrupted, “Master, can you stop explaining for a moment? Let me process this for a moment…”

On the same night Ren Xiaosu arrived at Position 313, Luo Lan secretly arrived at the Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88. Furthermore, Luo Lan was also being unusually low-key as he only brought two orderlies with him this time.

Although the Yang Consortium’s higher-ups held secret talks with Luo Lan, no one in the outside world even knew he had gone there or what they discussed.

But at midnight that night, the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and two infantry brigades suddenly started pushing south and were expected to arrive at the Li Consortium’s front line at Mt. Qingsheng within the next two days. They had actually taken the initiative to kick off the war.

The Yang Consortium’s armored brigade moved out from the front line of Mt. Ping and led the advance. Meanwhile, the infantry division on the flank closed down on Mt. Qingsheng from the north with the intention of containing the enemy’s firepower. As long as this defensive line was broken, the Li Consortium’s defenses in the west would no longer be effective.

Meanwhile, the Qing Consortium also made a move on their side. It was as though they had discussed it beforehand. That night, a group of mechanized infantry suddenly rolled in from the north.

As the long stretch of mechanized infantry column meandered along on the mountain paths, the lights on the vehicles looked like torches shining in the night. Several engineering battalions were quickly building bridges and paving roads as they moved on the paths. Their speed was so fast it was unbelievable.

Meanwhile, special forces had already been deployed onto the battlefield to scout ahead for enemies.

Some of the Li Consortium’s troops had still been holding at the FOBs to reorganize their forces, but all of them got deployed to the front lines by the evening.

The 13 defensive positions at Mt. Qingsheng were brightly lit as the entire camp was illuminated by huge spotlights. Meanwhile, the military camp was filled with the angry voices of the Li Consortium’s officers shouting.

When a military truck drove in, the soldiers jumped out from the back of the vehicle and rushed to their assigned spots without stopping

Ren Xiaosu was sitting on a hill and looking behind him. The spot their battalion was assigned to was at the northernmost area of Position 313. Just as Chen Wudi had heard, it was Colonel Ma Kai who had arranged for them to guard this position and send them to their deaths.

All they had were four machine guns. They were not even issued a rocket launcher, much less being given any mortars. It would be a miracle if they could defend their position with the weapons they had.

So when the soldiers at Position 313 met Ren Xiaosu and his men, they looked at them as though they were looking at the dead. No one believed they would survive.

When Chen Wudi sat down next to Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu said to him, “Immediately let me know if you hear anything unusual. We should also have our guards up against Qing Zhen in case he goes back on his word.”

“OK.” Chen Wudi nodded vigorously.

While sitting at this relatively elevated position, Ren Xiaosu could vaguely spot the soldiers at the camp running back and forth a kilometer or two behind them. There were people directing the vehicles with glowing red batons. People were also constantly walking in and out of the command center at the rear.

However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was odd about the three huge tents that were standing quietly in the camp. While there were people busily going in and out of the other tents, those three tents remained idle, undisturbed by anyone. There weren’t even any soldiers who went near it.

What was with this? Could it be the Li Consortium’s classified zone?

At this moment, Li Qingzheng walked up with an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. “Xiaosu, I’m feeling a little panicky…”

“Don’t panic, there’s nothing to panic about.” Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “At most, we’ll just run away when the Qing Consortium’s combat troops start attacking us.”

“You’re taking it so lightly. How can we run away just like that?” Li Qingzheng shrugged as he sat next to Ren Xiaosu and whispered, “A group of scouts have just been deployed from here. I heard them saying that it seemed like the Qing Consortium’s troops are coming here to get their revenge.”

Ren Xiaosu started frowning. Could there be a change of plans?

He turned around and looked at the camp behind him. Suddenly, he had an inkling that a lot of people there were subconsciously looking at them at this moment.

As the war was on the verge of breaking out, everyone at the camp bore a grudge against this “Heroes” Battalion. Even the rearguard troops who had just arrived at Position 313 were horrified when they heard the Heroes Battalion was here. Everyone had the feeling that the Qing Consortium would definitely attack this place first.

Although it was difficult to predict who would win the war, no one felt that the Heroes Battalion could survive this battle.

Chapter 269: The Heroes Battalion requests battle!

Ren Xiaosu had tasked Li Qingzheng and Chen Wudi with setting up the defenses. The Qing Consortium’s troops would definitely have to construct some basic defensive fortifications first after arriving here and would not attack immediately.

The attackers would need to build up their defensive front as well. After all, retreating soldiers would still have to have someplace to treat their wounds and rest at.

Ren Xiaosu had been observing the three suspicious tents and even had Li Qingzheng bring a pair of binoculars to him. The binoculars thing had come with their newly issued equipment, and Ren Xiaosu found it extremely handy.

After all, a supernatural being’s hearing and vision did not improve significantly after awakening their powers. The change to their vision was mainly in how it processed movement, not the distance they could see up to.

But that general who was so determined to appoint Ren Xiaosu could probably not have expected him to use it to observe their Li Consortium rather than the Qing Consortium.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw a small group of people emerging from one of those tents. However, these people were keeping a very low profile. They were dressed in the uniforms of normal soldiers and did not interact with anyone.

But Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find he actually knew someone from this group. Wasn’t one of them that posturing Lin Qi who had been to their outpost previously? Wait, so were these three military tents all hiding the nanosoldiers from the Divine Arms Battalion?!

Ren Xiaosu had found it a little regrettable that one of the “legs” of his armor was still missing. However, it looked like it had shown up when he least expected it.

Ren Xiaosu looked around and headed into the mountains alone when he noticed no one was paying attention to him. The soldiers at Position 313 were all avoiding their location like the plague. But it also made it more convenient for Ren Xiaosu to head out.

He had just trekked a kilometer west when someone suddenly whispered from behind a large tree in front of him, “From the north comes a monk.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “From the south comes a mute. Come on out.”

After Ren Xiaosu said that, Tang Zhou emerged from behind the tree.

Tang Zhou asked, “Have you all settled down at Position 313 yet? I can only move around on my own for now. There are scouts patrolling the vicinity, so we’ll get discovered if we move in larger groups.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “So are y’all planning to attack Position 313?”

Tang Zhou said frankly, “Actually, it might look like we’re preparing to launch an aggressive attack on this place, but we’re just trying to attract the main forces of the Li Consortium from the front lines of Mt. Shuanglong and Mt. Fengyi to here. We aren’t planning on sacrificing too many of our people here.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. From the looks of it, the Li Consortium and the Qing Consortium would get caught in a deadlock here for quite a while. Even if they were going to engage in a battle, it wasn’t going to get serious. But why did they want to attract the Li Consortium’s main forces over? He could not understand what was going on.

Qing Zhen had to have some other plans.

Tang Zhou continued, “But we’ll launch an attack on Position 313 and Position 319 at the same time after midnight. The Li Consortium’s main forces at the rear will only come over if we attack more aggressively. Of course, we’ll definitely only be feinting an attack on your Position 313. We’ll be sending some of Qing Yun’s remaining soldiers your way too. They aren’t well-equipped and will not pose any threat to the defensive front you’re guarding.”

Tang Zhou said this in order to dispel Ren Xiaosu’s concerns. After all, they still had opportunities for further cooperation.

But Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “Y’all can just launch an attack on Position 313 without worrying about me. Attack it to your heart’s content. I’ll draw a simple map of our defensive deployment for you, but go easy on our Heroes Battalion when you attack us!”

The defensive deployment map was very crucial. Without it, the Qing Consortium would have to pay the price of an infantry brigade if they wanted to figure out how the heavy firepower was distributed at Position 313.

But Tang Zhou became very confused by this. What had gotten into Ren Xiaosu? He was even requesting a battle now?

“Did we succeed?” Ma Kai asked as he knitted his eyebrows in the command center.

A combat staff officer said, “We attempted to blow up the temporary bridge they had constructed, but our men were discovered by them before they could even get close to it. As our spies have been thoroughly cleaned out from the Qing Consortium, we can only hold our ground for now. Based on the intel relayed by the scouts, the Qing Consortium has divided their troops to head in separate directions.”

“They’re coming in separately?” Ma Kai asked, “Where are they headed?”

“One of them is headed here to Position 313, while the other is headed to Position 319.” The combat staff officer said, “But we can’t ascertain how their forces are distributed.”

Position 313, where they were located, and Position 319 were the defensive anchor points of the entire battlefield’s front line. These two locations closely supported each other, and as long as they remained standing, the entire battlefront would be stable.

Hence, the Qing Consortium would not be able to avoid these two fronts if they wanted to break through the defensive lines at Mt. Shuanglong.

The combat staff officer said, “The only weakness that Qing Zhen has is that he bears grudges and values the morale of his army too much. That’s also the reason why the higher-ups have sent the fucking Heroes Battalion to Position 313. Therefore, I feel that he will still send his main forces here to Position 313.”

“No.” Colonel Ma Kai shook his head and said, “You’re wrong about that. I’ve studied the intelligence of the battles that Qing Zhen has waged. Although his military strategy on the battlefield might look like it varies a lot, which in turn confuses people, he will never take risks or be greedy for success. A few years ago, Qing Zhen faced the Pyro Company at Mt. Taifu when he was still an inexperienced combat commander. He could obviously chase victory by pursuing his enemies, but he suddenly chose to retreat. It requires a lot of courage and wisdom for a young man in his early twenties to do that. It was also proven later that the Pyro Company indeed had a backup plan at that time, but they couldn’t do anything when the Qing Consortium’s troops started retreating.”

Everyone seemed to think that Qing Zhen’s behavior was unpredictable and full of tricks. He tended to like using unconventional methods to fight his battles. But Ma Kai felt that Qing Zhen was projecting a false image.

The combat staff officer was taken aback for a bit. “What do you mean?”

“I think that it’s very likely they will feint an attack here at Position 313 to throw us off before focusing their attacks on Position 319.” Ma Kai analyzed, “Qing Zhen is not someone who is blinded by hatred. Moreover, he only lost a group of his Special Forces this time, so it shouldn’t even be tantamount to him seeking vengeance.”

The combat staff officer echoed, “Colonel Ma Kai, you’re really discerning of the situation on the battlefield. I’m in agreement with your opinion.”

Ma Kai said, “Tell our fighting forces to get ready. Once we confirm that the Qing Consortium is only faking an attack on Position 313, we’ll have to be ready to support Position 319 at immediate notice.”

The combat staff officer nodded and said, “Any further instructions?”

Ma Kai replied, “The position where the fucking Heroes Battalion is defending is unimportant to the overall situation, so if the Qing Consortium does feign an attack here, I don’t want the other fighting forces to give them any support.”

The combat staff officer was shocked. Was he thinking of just leaving the Heroes Battalion to die?!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

A few consecutive explosions blasted and shook the ground. Everyone in the command center was stunned. That was the sound of artillery fire!

Immediately after, intense gunfire rang out through the night sky as war broke out in an instant!

What was going on? Why did the Qing Consortium suddenly launch an attack?! Had they gone crazy?

A soldier rushed in from outside and shouted, “The Qing Consortium’s main forces are approaching Position 313! Although our vehicle-mounted SHORADs have managed to intercept their mortar shelling, it seems like they’ve gotten their hands on our defensive deployment map and are concentrating their firepower on where our heavy weapons are deployed!”

Ma Kai wore a solemn look. Wasn’t this slap to the face delivered a little too quickly?!

Chapter 270: Qing Zhen set me up!

Sometimes when enemies made their attacks, they would have to rack their brains for several days just to find a breakthrough point. Even with heavy firepower, they still would not know where to start attacking. Even if they wanted to carry out a full coverage attack, they would not be able to do it.

In normal circumstances, the more ruthless commanders would just send in cannon fodder to get an understanding of the actual situation. Thousands of lives would be wasted just to find out where the heavy weapons were located on the defensive grounds.

But it seemed like the Qing Consortium was fully aware of that right from the beginning. They even knew where the SHORADs at Position 313 were deployed. The SHORADS were very expensive and should only be deployed at strategic locations in case the front got bombarded with artillery fire.

But the moment Qing Zhen began his attack, he ordered a barrage of mortars to be fired at the strategic locations like they didn’t cost money, effectively making a “one-for-one exchange” by destroying the Li Consortium’s SHORADs with his cheap mortar shells.

If Ma Kai and his men had known their defensive deployment map had been leaked, they would have been more conservative in their deployment of the SHORADs. But they didn’t know!

How could they have known that the so-called commander of the Heroes Battalion would turn out to be the most important spy of the Qing Consortium? He even gave away the defensive deployment map just like that.

Just one round of unexpected mortar bombardment had nearly destroyed all the SHORADs at Position 313!

This move by Qing Zhen was disgustingly effective.

The defensive deployment map was simply too important. Qing Zhen had intended to break through the defensive line at Position 319. But with the emergence of this deployment map, he immediately changed his strategy.

If Qing Zhen did not have the defensive deployment map, a large quantity of those mortar shells would have been wasted. But with it, he could achieve a closer and more accurate strike, forcing the SHORAD forces to be up to their ears in work.

Although the Li Consortium’s development of armaments had been going well and their talent pool was bulging, they had basically not fought in any large-scale battles in recent years. Even a talent like Ma Kai, who had a thorough understanding of warfare, was nothing but a novice.

No matter how much theoretical knowledge a person had, it would still take some time to put this knowledge into practice and gain valuable lessons.

It was unfortunate that they were facing Qing Zhen who did not have any intention of affording them time to grow.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu led the Heroes Battalion to their position located on a small hill on the mountain. There was a small bunker with heavy fortifications around it, while a 43-degree slope laid in front of them.

As Ren Xiaosu looked down from up here while lying prone behind the defensive fortifications, the soldiers of the Heroes Battalion were trembling next to him while holding their guns.

Listening to the continuous artillery fire that was booming in the distance, Li Qingzheng asked in a quavering voice, “Battalion Commander, will the Qing Consortium bombard us with their mortars? We won’t be able to hold them off!”

“What are you afraid of?” Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s not like they’ve started bombarding us!”

At this moment, the Qing Consortium’s soldiers could faintly be seen approaching at the foot of the mountain where their battalion was positioned. Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated there to be over a 1,000 of them. This was an infantry regiment!

“Are we going to fight them?” Li Qingzheng asked.

“Yes, of course we’re going to fight. Why shouldn’t we fight when we have the terrain advantage?” Ren Xiaosu said, “Let’s wait for them to get a little closer!”

“Any closer and they’ll be within distance of hurling their grenades over,” Li Qingzheng said anxiously.

“There’s no need to panic. Everything is well within my control,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

When the Qing Consortium’s infantry regiment got halfway up the mountain, Ren Xiaosu suddenly shouted, “Open fire!”

The four heavy machine guns in the bunker spewed tongues of flame. The machine gun bullets hit the mountainside and splashed mud all around. When one of the soldiers got hit by a bullet in the arm, his arm broke!

Although the Qing Consortium soldiers wanted to rush up, they could not do so. They tried shooting at Ren Xiaosu and his men’s location, but the advantage of the defensive fortifications was simply too great.

In order to tackle this kind of high ground in modern warfare, the most common method was for troops to charge forward until they were within distance of the enemy. Then they could choose to bombard the target accurately with artillery fire using precision laser guidance.

This laser guidance was used to point out the target’s location accurately so that the supporting troops could send in missiles from the rear.

They had already tried their best to charge up the mountain. A soldier was holding up a laser guidance device, but no supporting fire came from behind even after he pointed it at the bunker for a long time.

The regimental commander lost all hope and lamented, “Qing Zhen set me up!”

Actually, he understood that Qing Zhen definitely wanted to get rid of him quickly since he was in Qing Yun’s camp and was not cooperative with Qing Zhen in his battle plans either.

But he did not expect Qing Zhen to be this treacherous. He was brave enough to use the outcome of the war to trap him? If they could not secure this front, what would happen if it affected the big picture?

But what he did not know was that Qing Zhen had absolutely no intention of securing this front, because he had already made a deal with Ren Xiaosu!

“Regimental Commander, what should we do now?” a soldier shouted out amid the heavy fire coming from the mountain.

“Use the rocket launcher!” the regimental commander roared.

With a loud boom, a soldier who was carrying the rocket launcher was blown away by an explosion. The rocket had exploded before it could even be launched!

“Regimental Commander, what are we gonna do now?!”

“Charge!” The regimental commander clenched his teeth and said, “After we charge up, we’re gonna blow up this position with our grenades. That’s the only way we can survive. There shouldn’t be too many soldiers defending this position, so we still have hope!”

A stupid way to storm high ground was by throwing hand grenades. After the attacking soldiers advanced to a close enough distance, they would throw the grenades to blow up the defensive position. When that was successful, the soldiers at the defensive position would no longer be able to stand.

So grenadiers in the military used to play an extremely important role. Whoever could throw grenades most accurately would survive and enjoy the spoils of war.

Of course, this method was gradually eliminated with the advancement in firepower. Unless it was a desperate situation, no one would do it this way anymore.

They had been issued with an unserviceable rocket launcher, and after charging halfway up the mountain, they realized they had no supporting fire.

This left the regimental commander in despair. Qing Zhen had even pushed him to the point where he had to resort to such an obsolete tactic.

Several of the brave grenadiers in the troops immediately continued to advance. After they got to the designated distance, they threw their grenades over!

Everyone midway up the mountain became quite excited. It seemed like the troops who were guarding this position on the mountain were quite inexperienced for them to get close enough to throw their grenades!

After waiting for a short while, the grenades that were thrown over detonated. However, the explosion sounded very soft.

The regimental commander was a smart person. So when he heard the sounds of the explosions, he growled, “Qing Zhen, you treacherous fool, you’ve gone too far! How could you issue us with dummy grenades!”

Although the training grenades were not dummy grenades, their explosive power was extremely weak. The explosions would only produce a sound but were not enough to kill anyone. Moreover, they looked exactly the same as a real grenade.

The regimental commander was nearly in tears. It was only then that he realized how unscrupulous Qing Zhen really was. He did not even leave a way out for them!

As Ren Xiaosu kept firing on the hill, he was treating this as practice for his Advanced Firearms Proficiency. He was using the automatic rifle in such a way that it felt like a sniper rifle in his hand. One shot, one kill, that was how accurate he was!

Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng at this moment, “See, we’re the Heroes Battalion after all. The opposing Qing troops are not a threat to us at all.”

Li Qingzheng believed it immediately. That was because he also felt very relaxed when dealing with the enemy.

At this moment, the other soldiers of the Heroes Battalion also realized that war did not seem that terrifying after all.

Chapter 271: The lifesaving Heroes Battalion!

Ren Xiaosu and his men had expended their ammunition very quickly. The main reason for this was that everyone was inexperienced in fighting a battle. They had only fought once during the battle with the Qing Special Forces, and it even ended chaotically.

They did not even know how they had won against them. The post-battle conclusion was that the battalion commander was wise and outstanding enough to dupe their enemies to put down their weapons.

Now that they were in yet another battle, it was against a full-strength infantry regiment of 1,500 soldiers. Meanwhile, they only had around 500 people on their side.

No one other than Ren Xiaosu was aware that this infantry regiment was actually sent here to their deaths by Qing Zhen. So everyone would definitely feel a little flustered at the sight of them.

In their panic, their hands trembled, and they fired off their ammunition like it didn’t cost a thing. They just kept their fingers on the trigger without letting go.

The troops at the other positions on the defensive front could only hear continuous gunfire and loud explosions coming from this side of the battlefield, but they did not know the actual situation of the battle over here.

Gradually, the infantry regiment below got so overwhelmed they lost all morale. When Ren Xiaosu noticed the barrels of the heavy machine guns turning red-hot, he scolded, “Why are all y’all so fucking stupid? Piss on the gun barrels to cool them!”

When the soldier who was responsible for feeding more ammunition into the heavy machine guns heard that, he immediately took off his pants and peed on a gun barrel. However, the heavy machine gunner ended up swearing, “Fuck, it’s splashing all over my face!”

With the help of the Qing Consortium, a group of panicky amateurs had successfully defended the Li Consortium’s high ground.

Many people would play down the power of heavy machine guns as they felt that it was just a gun no matter what. How could it be as powerful as artillery?

But war was never about specifications alone. The role of heavy machine guns in positional warfare was even more significant than one could imagine. In the history of humanity’s wars, there was someone who had killed 3,200 people in a single day using only a heavy machine gun!

Seeing that the infantry regiment had been badly battered, Ren Xiaosu could finally use his binoculars to observe the other defensive positions.

But he was surprised by what he saw. Some of the Qing Consortium’s soldiers had already penetrated the other elevated locations with the support of artillery fire. Meanwhile, the majority of the Li Consortium’s Position 313 had been bombarded into a mess, and the heavy fire positions deployed on the high ground were forcefully broken through by the Qing Consortium. This was a situation no one had expected before the battle began.

The camp’s ground at the rear was no longer smooth but looked like it had been bombarded quite heavily as well.

However, it seemed that the Qing Consortium did not want to take out Position 313 in its entirety. Qing Zhen was well-versed in military tactics and knew well that they would definitely face the Li Consortium’s frenzied counterattack if they seized Position 313.

The occupation of some hills often changed hands hundreds of times during a war. By the end of the war, the slopes would even get painted crimson red. Some people would even slip and fall when they stepped on the slopes as blood seeped deep into the ground.

Therefore, it did not mean a battle would end after the high ground was seized successfully. Immediately after the Qing Consortium occupied one of the hills, the Li Consortium would bombard them back with heavy artillery fire. At that moment, a large number of the Qing Consortium’s soldiers who had just charged up would perish in an instant.

War is cruel. It doesn’t care whether you have parents to support or if your son is waiting for you at home.

Everything that happened in war was to determine the final victory.

Ren Xiaosu raised his binoculars and gazed at the rear. His only focus was on the three mysterious tents. Or to put it better, he only cared about the movements of the nanosoldiers.

The defensive deployment map he had given away earlier was not considered particularly detailed. After all, Ren Xiaosu did not get to fully walk around Position 313, so he could only draw whatever he had seen.

But he had specially marked the tents the nanosoldiers were in and reminded Tang Zhou that they must bombard the area there with their artillery fire.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect an accurate attack on the rear without any laser-guided weapons or detailed mapping. But as per their agreement, Qing Zhen put in even more money in order to fully bombard the area where the three tents were located.

Ren Xiaosu saw that the three tents no longer stood. There was only a pile of corpses and a pool of fresh blood on the ground. Seeing that, Ren Xiaosu got all excited.

Suddenly, the voice from the palace in his mind said, “Quest: Save a 100 people. You will receive five allocatable attribute points.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He was wondering what excuse he could make to return to the rear. However, the palace immediately came up with a reason for him.

He took a look at the remaining few soldiers of the infantry regiment below them before shouting to Chen Wudi, “Wudi, follow me back to the camp to save the others. There are many wounded soldiers there!”

Then Ren Xiaosu even pointed to the combat platoon that included Jiang Wu’s students to go with him.

Chen Wudi’s eyes lit up. “OK, Master!”

The two of them turned around and rushed back towards the rear. Li Qingzheng was nearly scared out of his wits and said, “Battalion Commander, don’t go! How are we going to handle this if you leave now!”

“Don’t worry, just keep a careful watch on our position. The remainder of the infantry regiment won’t be able to cause any trouble to us now!” Ren Xiaosu did not even turn around as he shouted to Li Qingzheng.

Li Qingzheng was dazed for a moment. He had thought they would have a tough fight here. But as it stood, they still had enough energy to go back to save the wounded.

Before this, everyone at Position 313 felt that Ren Xiaosu and his men were doomed.

But so far in this battle, even after some of the troops had entirely perished, the Heroes Battalion only suffered around a 100 casualties.

Although this number of casualties accounted for one-fifth of their total strength, there had been bullets and artillery shells flying all around on the battlefield. It was a miracle they had taken so few casualties!

With only a 100 casualties, they were able to annihilate the enemy’s infantry regiment of 1,500. If news of this spread back to the Li Consortium’s generals at the rear, they would be shocked!

Of course, saying that it was an annihilation would definitely be an exaggeration. But Ren Xiaosu would definitely brag like that.

Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and his men rushed all the way back to the rear of Position 313. At this moment, the camp was a mess. The command center’s tent had collapsed and no one knew the whereabouts of Ma Kai.

Medics were running around in a bid to save the injured, but there were just too many casualties. How could they possibly save everyone?

But Ren Xiaosu’s goal was clear. When he rushed back to the camp, he led Chen Wudi and the others to where the nanosoldiers used to be. Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Wudi, bring the others along and carry the wounded to get them treatment!”

Ren Xiaosu was already looking for any nanosoldiers who’d died. As smoke was lingering over the battlefield, he could not clearly see where the dead nanosoldiers were.

However, Ren Xiaosu’s sense of direction was pretty good, so he quickly located the spot where the three tents were. Each time he encountered a nanosoldier, he would immediately get the palace to unlock and reset the nanomachines in them. After the process was completed, he quickly stored the nanomachines in his storage space.

There was a limit to the number of nanomachines a human body could hold. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had harvested so many nanomachines by now that he could not hide them in himself anymore. He could only store them in his storage space.

The wounded were wailing in agony on the ground. Someone tried to pull Ren Xiaosu to a stop as he passed by, but he didn’t even look at the person.

The wounded soldier was dumbfounded. ‘Aren’t you here to rescue the injured?’

Wait a minute. The wounded soldier recognized Ren Xiaosu and called out to him, “Ren Xiaosu! You’re Ren Xiaosu! Save me, quickly!”

Ren Xiaosu, who had already made a circuit and collected all the nanomachines he could find, was still a little unsatisfied. When he turned around and heard the cry for help, he was stunned. ‘Eh, isn’t that Lin Qi lying on the ground?!

He chuckled and said, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice you just now. How’s your injury?”

Lin Qi struggled to say, “It’s not the time to reminisce. You-“.

But before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu picked up a piece of shrapnel from the ground and stabbed it into Lin Qi’s neck. Lin Qi looked up at Ren Xiaosu and only saw a stone-cold look in his eyes.

Ren Xiaosu lamented, “When I think back, it’s such a pity the wolves failed to kill you last time.”

Lin Qi’s eyes widened, but he could not make a sound. So the wolves also had something to do with Ren Xiaosu? He fully understood now that this Ren Xiaosu was actually much stronger than he had thought at the beginning.

This was the last conscious thought Lin Qi had in this world before he succumbed to endless darkness.

Chapter 272: Quest complete!

The Li Consortium was really unlucky. Even with a hidden trump card like the nanomachines, they were unable to use it to maximum effect.

The Li Consortium lacked war experience, which resulted in some mistakes on the usage of the nanomachines. As Qing Zhen had mentioned before, combat troops like the nanosoldiers who possessed great strength and mobility should be deployed separately so that they could infiltrate the enemy’s rear and carry out precision strikes.

For example, they could execute attacks on the enemies’ power stations and arsenals or perform decapitation strikes. They should have used the Divine Arms Battalion separately so that the nanosoldiers would be more effective in their might.

But actually, it wasn’t impossible to deploy the nanosoldiers together. If not for the existence of Ren Xiaosu, who was also the head spy of the Qing Consortium, the Divine Arms Battalion would still trouble the Qing Consortium greatly even if they were not at their full strength.

However, they were all killed.

Meanwhile, the situation at Position 319 right now was a little better. The Qing Consortium was only planning on feigning an attack there, so they were a little surprised when concealed nanosoldiers suddenly appeared at the rear of the battlefield. It caught the Qing Consortium off guard and the nanosoldiers nearly even destroyed their heavy firepower in the rear.

But it was different at Position 313. The Li Consortium’s secret weapon would remain a secret since the nanosoldiers were all dead before they could even come out of their tents.

In addition, the greatest advantage of the nanomachines was that they could be recycled. The first batch of nanosoldiers did not matter at all as the nanomachines in them could be recycled by the organization after they died. The recycled nanomachines would then be used to put together another group of nanosoldiers.

But after Ren Xiaosu came to the Li Consortium, there were fewer and fewer nanomachines that could be recycled. Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly turned a renewable weapon into an expendable weapon.

This time, Ren Xiaosu had harvested a considerable amount of nanomachines. Not counting the external armor for his leg, he might even be able to share the remaining nanomachines with Jiang Wu’s students after giving some of them to Yan Liuyuan.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw some of the nanosoldiers’ field packs scattered on the ground. He opened one of them and found a heavy, metallic, black box inside. He wondered what it was used for.

Eh? Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. Could it be possible that this thing was used for wireless charging?

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu picked up three of the intact boxes and stuffed them into his storage space. Whether they were useful or not, he would just take them.

He wasn’t going to take any chances!

Today, Ren Xiaosu had given the defensive deployment map to the Qing Consortium that enabled them to take out Position 313 successfully while eliminating Qing Zhen’s dissidents at the same time.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was also able to harvest a lot of nanomachines thanks to the Qing Consortium. It could essentially be described as a win-win scenario.

Only the Li Consortium ended up as the loser.

At this moment, the Li Consortium troops stationed at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng was up against the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and infantry division. The battle over there was even more intense than the battle here between the Qing Consortium and the Li Consortium. The Yang Consortium had yet to breach the Li Consortium’s defensive line because there wasn’t a character like Ren Xiaosu over there.

Chen Wudi and the others had already located quite a few wounded and were carrying them towards the medical center. Ren Xiaosu casually picked up a wounded soldier in the camp and placed him over his shoulder before catching up with the rest of the group.

When they arrived at the medical center, the nurses and doctors were all covered in blood. Ren Xiaosu spotted Colonel Ma Kai lying here as well, but he was unconscious.

When the nurses saw Ren Xiaosu and his men, they were all stunned. These people were not medics, so why were they helping to carry the wounded here?

The doctor asked, “Which ORBAT are you
from?”

Chen Wudi said proudly, “We’re from the Heroes Battalion!”

When one of the wounded soldiers heard that, he was stunned. “Weren’t y’all at the front line? Why do you look totally unaffected?”

Ma Kai was awoken by the noise. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he flew into a rage. “Did you abandon your posts?”

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “How can you say that? Our Heroes Battalion is an honorable unit, so how could we do something like abandoning our posts? We’ve already wiped out the enemy’s infantry regiment. That’s why we can help out our fellow comrades!”

“What?” Ma Kai exclaimed. “Even if you want to lie, you should at least make up something sensible. How could you have wiped out the infantry regiment with only fucking refugees in your troops!”

Ma Kai had studied the Qing Consortium’s troops a lot. He knew the infantry regiment was not only made up of infantry troops. Without mentioning their heavy weapons like RPGs and mortars, the defensive front would still have crumbled once the enemy broke through and deployed their laser-guided weapons!

The fucking Heroes Battalion was made up of refugees and issued with only four heavy machine guns, yet they claimed to have wiped out an entire infantry regiment? Were they dreaming or something?

Everyone thought the Heroes Battalion would get annihilated on the battlefield. But they were all still alive and kicking by the end of the battle. It was as though they were completely unaffected by the attack!

Everyone in the medical center found this outcome unacceptable!

Ren Xiaosu giggled. “You’ll understand if you go outside and have a look at the battlefield. I don’t have time to waste with you now. There are still other people waiting to be saved by
me.”

Since Ren Xiaosu had finished collecting the nanomachines, he would have to start doing the quest seriously. As the requirement of the quest was to save a 100 people, he was still far from completing it, having only saved one person just now.

This was the first time the palace had informed him in advance about the reward when assigning him a quest. Furthermore, the reward this time was for five allocatable attribute points.

Previously, the quests only rewarded him with either 1.0 Strength or 1.0 Dexterity each time. But for this quest, he could choose the allocation of the points himself and would even be awarded with five points. It could be said that the reward this time was rather generous.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu rushed outside. Two medics happened to just be carrying a stretcher back. When Ren Xiaosu saw them, he immediately shouted, “Put that down, I’ll carry it!”

The medics were startled. “It’s fine, you don’t have to. We can carry it by ourselves.”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression darkened. He pointed his pistol at the medics. “I said let me carry it. Don’t you understand what I’m saying?!”

Chen Wudi sighed from behind. “Master’s killing intent is so strong even when saving people.”

All of a sudden, reinforcements sent from the rear arrived at Position 313. Just as Qing Zhen had predicted, additional troops would be deployed here from the rear to engage in a seesaw battle with the Qing Consortium after Position 313 and Position 319 were subjected to fierce attacks.

And this was exactly what Qing Zhen wanted to see.

Ren Xiaosu carried the wounded soldier into the medical center and watched the newly arrived troops at the same time. He discovered a very strange group of soldiers among them. The soldiers were extremely disciplined and orderly in their movements and gave Ren Xiaosu an odd feeling.

But he had no time to care about this as he carried on fulfilling his quest requirements by snatching even more wounded soldiers to save.

This quest alone delayed Ren Xiaosu for about an hour. When Ren Xiaosu heard the palace informing him he’d completed the quest, he immediately allocated 4.0 points to his Dexterity and 1.0 point to his Strength.

Ren Xiaosu’s current Strength was now as high as 10.5, and even his Dexterity had reached the level of 10.1. Ren Xiaosu’s muscles were further refined once more, and his entire body became leaner again. He now looked like a young man who did not exercise much, but he actually possessed amazing strength.

The voice from the palace said, “Due to your Strength and Dexterity attributes exceeding the threshold…”

Just as Ren Xiaosu tried to listen to what the palace had to say, a surprising turn of events occurred in the medical center. As such, he lost interest in what the palace was saying and looked at the medical center instead.

He saw someone in the medical center yelling angrily at Chen Wudi, “Get lost! If not for the presence of your Heroes Battalion here at Position 313, would Qing Zhen deploy his main forces to attack us? I don’t need your hypocritical help to save people here!”

When Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi, he saw Chen Wudi walking out of the medical center quietly without saying a word.

Ren Xiaosu patted him calmly on the shoulder. “Let’s go, we’ll head back to our position for now.”

“OK,” Chen Wudi replied in a low voice.

“I wonder if the infantry regiment attacking our position has been fully defeated yet.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If they’re all dead, we can go and loot some equipment off them or something.”

“OK.” Chen Wudi still replied simply.

“What do you want to eat tonight?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Master, can we have some fried rice with sausage?”

Everyone in the medical center watched as the two walked away. They didn’t even know what to say.

Chapter 273: A thorough investigation of the missing nanomachines

The battle was not over yet. After Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi made their way back from the rear, the intense battle at the front line was still ongoing. But once the Qing Consortium’s soldiers charged the high ground, the battle reached an impasse.

While the soldiers at the other positions battled for their lives, Ren Xiaosu lit a fire and got ready to cook after returning to their elevated position. It was time for dinner, and he had brought along pots and pans, after all.

Ren Xiaosu felt that they could not skip meals even though they were fighting a war. Furthermore, Chen Wudi was even craving fried rice with sausages.

Hearing artillery fire blasting the high ground next to them, Li Qingzheng hesitated before asking, “Is it really alright for us to start eating at a time like this?”

“What’s wrong with that?” After Ren Xiaosu lit the firewood, he placed the metal pot over it. “Didn’t we already complete our mission? Besides, we’re still fighting the battle anyway. We’re still pinning down that infantry regiment halfway up the mountain.”

Even though the regimental commander was still alive, he no longer wanted to attack this high ground. More importantly, they had rushed halfway up the mountain in a single breath all for the sake of providing laser guidance for a missile attack from the rear. In the end, Qing Zhen stranded them here where they could see bullets whizzing past their heads whenever they looked up. Without any supporting firepower from the rear to cover them, they could not escape even if they wanted to!

This battle made the regimental commander want to give up!

At this moment, Li Qingzheng said, “There aren’t many soldiers still standing in that infantry regiment. Why don’t we charge down and surprise attack them?”.

Ren Xiaosu decisively rejected his suggestion. “Our mission is to defend this high ground properly, and that’s all we have to do!”

Regardless of whether they would suffer any casualties from charging down at the enemy, Ren Xiaosu was unwilling to take this risk. After all, Ren Xiaosu was already annoyed and unhappy about the fact that they had been deployed to the most dangerous position of all.

When Chen Wudi got scolded at the medical center, did they stop to think for a moment if it was the Heroes Battalion’s decision to come to the front line?!

Even without Ren Xiaosu, the Qing Consortium would still have made a feint attack on Position 313. But even a feint attack would still be carried out with real bullets, albeit with a little less firepower. A lot of people would still have died in the end.

It was not as though everyone would just be standing there and taunting during a feint attack!

As they were discussing this, Ren Xiaosu was cooking the rice and dicing the sausages.

A group of soldiers from the Heroes Battalion went to defend the high ground while another group squatted down beside the large pot and waited to eat.

Ren Xiaosu split his focus while cooking and looked into the palace at the same time. He remembered that the palace was trying to explain something earlier on, but as Chen Wudi was getting yelled at then, he did not manage to hear the explanation.

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when he read the record of what was typed on the palace’s brass typewriter. The line of words was written as such: “Strength and Dexterity attributes have exceeded the threshold point. ‘City Buster’ has now been enabled. Upon activation, the ability will double the host’s Strength and Dexterity for 30 seconds. There will be a cooldown time of one day before the next usage.”

What was this about?

Why would an ability like that appear all of a sudden? Although the duration of usage seemed a little short, Ren Xiaosu would have an equivalent of 21.0 Strength and 20.2 Dexterity after activating it.

If this ability were used well, it would be extremely effective. He might even be able to catch his enemies off guard with it.

But what was the threshold point the palace was talking about? Was it reaching 10 points in his attributes? Did it mean that he would gain another ability every time he exceeded 10 attribute points?

So it turned out that there would be additional rewards whenever his physical fitness surpasses a certain level!

Thinking of all this, Ren Xiaosu added the sausages into the pot and gave it a few stirs with a ladle.

Li Qingzheng was watching from close by. The fried rice was still not ready yet, but the high ground next to their position had already changed hands twice in this period. Such an intense battle was going on over there.

But something felt strange. The Qing Consortium was no longer sending any more troops to attack them at this position.

When the fried rice with sausages was done, Ren Xiaosu immediately scooped out a bowl for Chen Wudi. This bowl of fried rice was scooped in a particular way for him. After Chen Wudi took it from Ren Xiaosu, he realized the bottom of the bowl was full of meat!

Ren Xiaosu left the ladle into the pot and said, “Alright, you guys help yourself. The battalion commander isn’t going to serve you all!”

After saying that, Ren Xiaosu went and sat next to Chen Wudi. “How does it taste?”

“It’s delicious.” Chen Wudi smiled brightly, his lips glistening with oil. “Master, why do you treat me so well?”

Ren Xiaosu already realized that the more Chen Wudi came into contact with the evilness of this world, the more clearheaded he became.

Chen Wudi no longer addressed Luo Lan as Benbo’erba like before when he saw him and would often keep silent and even remain so for long periods. As a result, Chen Wudi was now beginning to sound more like a normal person whenever he spoke.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether it was a good or a bad thing. He sighed and said, “When I listened to Mr. Zhang’s lessons in the past, I once thought about being a good person. But I gave up after realizing that it was not easy to be good.”

When Chen Wudi heard that, he got back to eating and did not say another word.

Ren Xiaosu continued to lament, “Sometimes, I feel a little ashamed whenever I see you. That’s because the light in my heart has probably already been extinguished. So even though I’m clearly not a good person, I still hope that you’ll be a good person. Perhaps that makes me a little hypocritical. But it’s only when I’m trying to protect you that I get this misconception. It’s like the light in me hasn’t been snuffed out yet.”

Somewhere in Stronghold 108, there was a huge secret base deep in the basement of a garment factory. Hu Shuo had attempted to thoroughly investigate this place, but his people had never been able to infiltrate it.

This place was under the direct jurisdiction of the Li Consortium’s Board of Directors, and it was only responsible for matters related to the nanomachines.

Very few people knew there was still a small armed force here in the basement of the garment factory.

An incandescent white light was hanging from the ceiling in a room underground. A middle-aged man was sitting in front of a blackboard and thinking about something. He was holding a dossier regarding the recent theft of the nanomachines.

The middle-aged man’s name was Li Dingding, and very few people knew of his existence. He was a Li Consortium Shadow, and like Qing Zhen, carried out all shady business dealings for the organization.

But unlike Qing Zhen who always put himself out in the open and even had control of the military, Li Dingding always remained hidden in the shadows.

Li Dingding was going through the dossier at this moment. A lot of the evidence in it was pointing to a supernatural being named Xu Xianchu, a suspected spy of the Yang Consortium, who had probably come here to gather nanomachine samples for the Yang Consortium.

However, Li Dingding felt that something was amiss after reading the file. If he was just collecting some samples, why did he end up obtaining so much?

Importantly, the nanomachines were stolen from dozens of corpses that had been recovered by the organization. This was not just about stealing samples! He wondered what the hell the previous investigator had been doing

Li Dingding sneered, “Buncha fools.”

The dossier in his hands was very detailed, and it even included the entire timeline from when Lin Qi and his group entered the mountains, to the Divine Arms Battalion’s preparations for the attack on the Qing Consortium, as well as the daily updates given by the Divine Arms Battalion, etc.

But even after browsing through the documents for a long time, he still couldn’t figure out anything.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door. Li Dingding said, “Come in.”

The person handed him a new set of documents. “Sir, the higher-ups have assigned us a new case. There’s been a batch of nanomachines that were damaged, and it seems that it was caused by someone whose synchronization rate was 0%.”

Chapter 274: Separately interrogated

The nanomachines were damaged?

Li Dingding frowned and asked, “What’s going on? That person with the 0% synchronization rate couldn’t be found?”

“No, there were a lot of people who did the synchronization test that day. Many of them were even refugees—that’s why the lab staff didn’t record everyone’s test results other than those who scored above 80%.” The subordinate said softly, “However, we have the roster of the troops who did the test that day. Here it is…”

Li Dingding got so angry he almost laughed. Looking at the thick roster in his hand, he said, “What a fucking bunch of slackers! How can they be so lazy about such matters? But why did a case like that get transferred to me? Can’t you all handle it yourselves?”

“It’s not like that.” The subordinate lowered his head and said, “The Board has specifically instructed for you to handle the case. They said the nanomachines have had their installed protocols removed.”

Li Dingding was stunned by the words.

He knew all about these nanomachines because he mainly dealt with matters related to them in his usual work. But as far as he knew, it was impossible for an installed protocol on the nanomachines to be removed. This kind of operation could only be done after the nanomachines were reclaimed at the factory for confidential processing, and that even required authorization from the board to grant access to the C1 remote access protocol.

It was no wonder the Board was entrusting this matter to him. It was a case that involved the Li Consortium’s top secrets!

Li Dingding said, “Alright, you may leave.”

He then browsed through the files alone. He had not expected he would need to handle another case when the previous case was still not finished.

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After he was read through a file, Li Dingding started getting a headache. Other than the thick roster, there was nothing here that could provide him with any useful clues.

Li Dingding picked up another file and read through it quickly. But about 10 minutes after he started, he was stunned. ‘No, that’s not right! Something is fishy here!’

He promptly picked up the previous file and read it quickly and thoroughly. Within two minutes, Li Dingding broke into a smile.

He had noticed something unusual while looking through the roster: repeated names.

Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and Wang Yuchi…

The names of those people in this platoon had appeared three times in these two sets of documents!

The first instance was in the roster of the outpost.

The second instance was in the roster of the private troops that switched uniforms with the Divine Arms Battalion.

The third instance was in the roster of the physical examination that day.

Li Dingding always believed frequent coincidences could turn out to be the answer.

Something was fishy about this platoon. Or at least, there was something off about those who belonged to this platoon.

Li Dingding picked up the phone and said, “Arrest Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng’s Eighth Platoon from the private army’s Iron Second Battalion.”

But the person on the other end of the line said, “Are… you sure you want to arrest them?”

Li Dingding frowned and said, “Do my words not hold authority anymore?”

“It’s not that.” The person on the other end of the line said, “I know those people. Ren Xiaosu is now the role model for the entire military. The Iron Second Battalion has also been renamed to the Heroes Battalion, and Ren Xiaosu is even its battalion commander….”

Li Dingding was dumbfounded. What kind of a fucking twist was this?!

The person in the call continued, “If you’re sure he’s guilty, we’ll arrest him right away. But if you only suspect him, we have to keep a low profile. Currently, they’re the only ones in the military who have won a battle and wiped out the Qing Special Forces. Furthermore, they’re fighting in the battle at Position 313.”

In fact, being hailed as an example for the military had created a really good protective umbrella around those in the Heroes Battalion. Normal people would not dare to lay a finger on role models like them so easily. Besides, they were engaged in battle as well. If something happened to these role models, who would be responsible for the morale of the troops?

Even Li Dingding wouldn’t say he could bear the consequences.

Li Dingding laughed. “I’ll personally make a trip to Position 313 and handle this matter in secret.”

By nightfall, the battle at Position 313 stopped. After the arrival of the Li Consortium’s reinforcements, they immediately recaptured the positions on the high ground they lost earlier. It was almost as though they were doing whatever it took to push back the Qing Consortium’s troops.

In the evening, a wave of cheers reverberated across Position 313. However, Ren Xiaosu felt that the Li Consortium was celebrating their victory too early.

Although he did not know why Qing Zhen wanted to attract all of the Li Consortium’s frontline troops here, the Qing Consortium’s temporary retreat was not proof of who had won.

War had never been this simple.

In the night, a convoy of off-road vehicles suddenly drove to Position 313. After a brief interaction with the highest-ranking general at Position 313, they headed straight for the defensive position where Ren Xiaosu and his men were.

Ren Xiaosu had been constantly observing the rear with his binoculars. As such, his attention was already on these noteworthy vehicles when they drove in earlier. Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling about this. He even had the feeling that they were specifically here for him.

When the convoy got to the high ground, none of their people mentioned what they were here for. Instead, an officer holding a list of names called out, “Ren Xiaosu, Li Qingzheng, Chen Wudi… all 16 of you, get in the vehicles and follow us back Position 313’s camp!”

Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng looked at each other. He was startled as he realized the names the officer called out were all the members of their platoon.

Before they assembled for the war, the outpost’s platoon strength was at 30 soldiers. One of the soldiers was even forcibly taken from another platoon.

But now, there were only 16 members left in their platoon after fighting two battles.

Ren Xiaosu was tempted to force his way out of this situation. But since they had already named him explicitly, it would be too easy for them to locate Yan Liuyuan and the others in the stronghold by following the clues. If Yan Liuyuan got caught, the situation might turn out even worse than it already was.

Right now, the soldiers around them were lowkey aiming their guns at them. If Ren Xiaosu ran away at this time, all eight of Jiang Wu’s students would probably perish here.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu realized that the 30 soldiers who tried to surround them all looked like nanosoldiers.

Li Qingzheng whispered, “Xiaosu, what’s going on?”

“Don’t worry, let’s go with them for now.” Ren Xiaosu decided to follow these people back to the camp at Position 313 first. He needed to wait for an opportunity, but he could not tell the others about his plan yet!

Back at Position 313’s camp, two military tents had been specially vacated. It seemed like those who had just arrived were very high-ranking officials of the organization. Even Position 313’s recently assigned general behaved very politely to them.

After these people arranged for Ren Xiaosu and his men to sit in a tent, a middle-aged man smiled and introduced himself. “Good evening, everyone. My name is Li Dingding. I’m just here to investigate some matters, so please don’t panic too much. After all, you’re our Li Consortium’s war heroes. If there are any misunderstandings during this period, please forgive me.”

Even though Li Dingding spoke in a polite manner, Ren Xiaosu felt that his intentions were not good. Furthermore, he had singled out their platoon for the investigation, so there was a high chance they had already found out something. It was just that Ren Xiaosu did not know how much information had already been revealed.

But that didn’t matter to him. Ren Xiaosu was just waiting for an opportunity.

Chapter 275: Treachery and loyalty

Li Dingding glanced at the roster and said, “Wei Jiangyu, please come with me to the other tent. I have some questions for you.”

More than 10 soldiers armed with guns were keeping guard inside the military tent Ren Xiaosu and the others were in. Although Li Dingding had expressed that he was just going to ask some questions, he had actually confined all of them in here. Furthermore, these soldiers might even be nanosoldiers.

Li Qingzheng asked softly, “Xiaosu, will we get betrayed?”

“I don’t know.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head calmly. Although he did not know what Li Dingding was trying to investigate, he wasn’t sure if anyone would betray him even though all of them had supported each other so far along the way.

Wei Jiangyu was taken to the other tent where a table and chairs had already been set up.

Li Dingding asked, “Has anything strange happened in your platoon recently?”

Wei Jiangyu shook his head. “No, sir.”

“Let me refresh your memory a little,” Li Dingding smiled and said, “The wolf pack, the nanosoldiers, Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu…”

At this moment, something interesting happened. Li Dingding was only testing him by throwing out some unrelated words. But when he brought up “the wolf pack,” Wei Jiangyu’s pupils constricted. When he mentioned “the nanosoldiers” and “Li Qingzheng,” his pupils went back to normal. Then when he said “Ren Xiaosu,” his pupils constricted again.

Pupillary response is usually caused by a reaction to light. When there is a greater intensity of light, the pupils constrict to decrease the amount of light entering the eye to protect it from damage.

But pupillary constriction can also be affected by one’s emotions. When a person is nervous, the pupils will shrink in size. Similarly, the pupils will dilate if a person gets excited.

As for pupils that became fully dilated, that would mean the person died.

Just like Li Shentan had said, the subconscious was in control of too many secrets of the human body, yet the subconsciousness could not be controlled by humans.

Li Dingding smiled as he switched to a comfortable sitting position and said to Wei Jiangyu, “How about this? I’ll put it another way. If you can tell me about all the strange goings-on in your platoon, I’ll reward you with a 100,000 yuan and a stronghold resident status as well. I can even find a job for you so you’ll have nothing to worry about for the rest of your life.”

Wei Jiangyu covered his mouth and refused to say anything. How could he know whether Li Dingding was speaking the truth?

Li Dingding called for someone to bring in a bag of items. “I’ve already prepared a 100,000 yuan in cash and a stronghold ID card for you. Check for yourself.”

Wei Jiangyu was stunned for a moment. This was the real thing! This person must have quite the authority if he could even create the ID card!

All of a sudden, Li Dingding grabbed the bag back from Wei Jiangyu’s hands. “You’re really fortunate. Since you’re the first to be interrogated, you can seize on this opportunity. If you tell the truth, those that come after you will not be as lucky. But even if you don’t speak, I’m sure someone else will be willing to. When that happens, not only are you not going to get the money, but you’ll also face jail time.”

Li Dingding was already prepared with the carrot and the stick.

Wei Jiangyu said in a low voice, “Fine, I’ll talk. Ren Xiaosu secretly left the outpost on many occasions. After we got deployed here to Position 313 in the north, he would also always go out during the night before returning in the morning. Wang Yuchi and the other students all knew Ren Xiaosu from before as they had escaped from Stronghold 109 together, and Chen Wudi is also Ren Xiaosu’s disciple…”

In the other tent, Chen Wudi suddenly sighed and whispered, “Master, we’ve been betrayed.”

‘Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu expressed that this was within his expectations.

“Should we force our way out now?” Chen Wudi asked quietly.

“Wait awhile longer.”

At this moment, Li Dingding had a broad smile on his face. It was simply too easy to gain a breakthrough when it came to these refugees. Money and status as a stronghold resident had always been his go-to weapons when it came to interrogating them!

With this breakthrough, he was no longer afraid the others would not speak.

After Wei Jiangyu left the tent, Li Dingding called for another person to get interrogated. As a result, he received even more information!

“When we were at the outpost, the wolves would send food over.”

“I saw Ren Xiaosu leaving the outpost secretly on the night before the disappearance of the two officers.”

“Before those five Divine Arms Battalion officers leading the private troops died, Ren Xiaosu was also always leaving the campsite.”

“Before the Qing Consortium’s attack last night, Ren Xiaosu also left the defensive position that we were guarding.”

All of the claims were pointing at Ren Xiaosu, the commander of the Heroes Battalion. Li Dingding did not need to have any evidence. Since he was not a judge, it would be unnecessary for him to gather evidence to prove something.

The people around Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were called away one after another. Li Dingding looked at Li Qingzheng in front of him. “The others have already confessed, so you might as well confess too. If you do, you can even get some money…”

Li Qingzheng said with an obsequious smile, “I can even get some money? Sir, I love money the most.”

Li Dingding smiled even more. “Alright, start speaking then.”

“But I don’t know anything. There’s nothing strange about our platoon. Don’t listen to their lies.” Li Qingzheng said, feeling insulted.

“I’m warning you, don’t force my hand.” Li Dingding sneered. “Do you think I really need your statement? I suppose you prefer going to prison for the rest of your life, huh?”

Li Qingzheng took a deep breath and said in seriousness, “It doesn’t sound too bad. At least I’ll have my meals provided for me.”

Li Dingding started clapping. “I’ve finally met a brave man. Not bad, not bad at all. You probably don’t even know what fate is awaiting you. Take him back and bring the eight students over together.”

Throughout the interrogation, Ren Xiaosu had been all smiles. Meanwhile, Chen Wudi would whisper things to him from time to time. However, Chen Wudi was not as happy as him because he had thought that everyone would be better than this having been comrades for such a long time.

After Li Qingzheng returned to the tent, he remained silent. Ren Xiaosu did not say anything to him either and just smiled at him. When the eight students returned, Wang Yuchi stood inside the tent and sneered at his other comrades. “Even dogs are more loyal than you people, you buncha garbage!”

“That’s enough, sit down,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. What did not disappoint him ultimately was still how Jiang Wu’s students were as tough as they appeared to be. Jiang Wu had not made her sacrifices for them in vain.

Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were the only two people who were not interrogated yet. Li Dingding seemed to have deliberately arranged for them to be interrogated last.

Li Dingding already knew where the problem lay.

Suddenly, Li Dingding lifted the tent flap and came in. Looking at Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi, he said with a smile, “You’re the only two left. Is there anything you wish to say?”

“Wait awhile more,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“What are you waiting for?” Li Dingding was stunned.

As he finished speaking, a sharp and ear-piercing noise rang out in the air. Then a loud explosion shook the ground.

It was the sound of artillery fire. In the early morning, the war had been escalated again! The Qing Consortium was back!

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu sprang into action and charged at Li Dingding. “It’s time!”

If he had made his move earlier, the commotion here would have attracted the many soldiers who were guarding Position 313. So Ren Xiaosu was waiting for an opportunity when no one would notice what was going on here, and that opportunity was when the Qing Consortium restarted the attack!

At this moment, the soldiers at Position 313 could hardly even look after themselves. Who would have the time to pay attention to them?

“Die!” Ren Xiaosu roared.

Ren Xiaosu’s armor immediately covered his entire body as he grabbed Li Dingding by the neck with one hand and slammed him into the ground.

A silvery glow flared up all over Li Dingding’s body in his blood vessels. He already had his guard up against Ren Xiaosu as he had guessed that he was a supernatural being!

But the moment the two of them exchanged blows, Li Dingding realized with despair that Ren Xiaosu seemed to have an overwhelming advantage over him!

Chapter 276: City Crusher!

Chapter 276 City Crusher!

Li Dingding had come prepared. Unlike Lin Qi, the test subject, he was one of those in the Li Consortium with the largest amount of nanomachines in their bodies. His synchronization rate was as high as 94%!

Although there were a lot of people with a synchronization rate above 80%, only a rare few would come close to a 100% synchronization rate.

Besides that, Li Dingding had also brought 30 elite nanosoldiers with him, and these people were much stronger than the average nanosoldier of the Divine Arms Battalion.

But when Ren Xiaosu jumped in front of him, Li Dingding suddenly found that he did not even have time to dodge. It was not because he was too slow, but that his opponent was too fast!

Moreover, the appearance of the armor really shocked him. Although Li Dingding knew it was made of nanomachines, he wondered just how many nanomachines were needed in order to create a strong armor like it?

Previously, he could not figure out where all the nanomachines had disappeared to. But now he finally understood. Just how many nanosoldiers did he have to kill to get them? Could it be that all the dead nanosoldiers were killed by Ren Xiaosu right from the beginning?

Just as expected, the answer had laid in the many coincidences!

But what shocked him the most was the time it took for Ren Xiaosu to finish covering his body with the armor. It had only taken him a moment!

The insiders of the Li Consortium knew well that since the synchronization rate went from low to high, it meant there was a difference in the efficiency of controlling the nanomachines. The lower the synchronization rate, the slower the nanomachines could be operated after receiving a command.

But for Ren Xiaosu?

The time it took for his opponent’s armor to be formed was remarkably fast. Even Li Dingding knew he would absolutely not be able to achieve such a speed.

But he was already at a synchronization rate of 94%. If even he could not achieve that, then just how high could Ren Xiaosu’s synchronization rate be?!

It was already too late to think about that. Ren Xiaosu had Li Dingding’s neck firmly in his hands through the cold and menacing armor. Li Dingding could feel his entire body being lifted up into the air. Then that hand tightened its grip and slammed him right into the hard ground. In that instant, Li Dingding felt like he was being wrapped in a strange sense of weightlessness!

He attempted to break free from the grasp but found that the nanomachines he was so proud of were totally useless in the face of his opponent’s strength!

All his struggles were in vain. His opponent was simply too fast and too strong!

How could a human being reach a speed like that?!

With a loud crash, Li Dingding’s head, neck, and back were slammed into the ground. He could even feel all his bones getting utterly smashed while the nanomachines that were being used to strengthen his musculoskeletal frame were disintegrated.

Li Dingding was sprawled out on the ground facing up. The empty gaze in his eyes could only see Ren Xiaosu’s face hidden behind a mask of armor. He was exuding a look of menace and resolve.

It only took a split second for all this to happen, and the surrounding nanosoldiers that were standing guard did not even have time to react. They had not expected Ren Xiaosu to actually try to kill someone with so many of them surrounding him!

Furthermore, they had not even seen anything like that menacing armor before! The Li Consortium had only taught them how to use the nanomachine as an assistive tech, but they never told them the nanomachines could be used that way!

The nanosoldiers raised their guns and started shooting at Ren Xiaosu. Wang Yuchi shouted in a low voice to the other students, “Get down!”

It was as though they had discussed this beforehand as Wang Yuchi, Li Qingzheng, and the students all dropped to the ground at the same time. The bullets that hit Ren Xiaosu’s armor only making clinks on impact. They did not cause any effective damage at all!

As the nanosoldiers fired their weapons, a gold-and-black staff suddenly came swinging in. Chen Wudi yelled, “Whoever dares hurt my master shall die!”

The front end of the Golden-Hooped Rod suddenly grew in size and length. It hit the three nanosoldiers right in the waist like a club. When the cudgel was swinging in the air, it made a terrifying whooshing sound and created a vortex of air behind it!

Based on previous tests, nanosoldiers were definitely enough to deal with typical supernatural beings. However, Li Dingding and his men had not expected that the two supernatural beings in this tent were not the usual supernatural beings!

Li Qingzheng was lying on the ground with his hands protecting his head and muttering, “I knew it… I just knew it…”

In the blink of an eye, the nanosoldiers lost the rhythm of their attacks. As they had too little combat experience against supernatural beings, they couldn’t tell who the bigger threat was between Chen Wudi and Ren Xiaosu.

Moreover, as the tent was not that big, this environment ended up being even more suited for Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi to unleash their superpowers in.

Some of the nanosoldiers turned their guns on Chen Wudi. But after firing half a magazine of bullets at him, Chen Wudi was still totally unscathed!

A golden glow kept shimmering around Chen Wudi’s body. When a bullet hit his shoulder, traces of the golden armor would become visible there before disappearing again. When the other nanosoldiers concentrated their firepower on him, a wave of bullets rained down on Chen Wudi and caused his golden armor to become completely visible.

It was the toughest armor in the world, so tough that not even a 100,000 lightning strikes from the Heavenly Palace could destroy it. Chen Wudi said calmly, “Are you all done shooting? It’s my turn now!”

Then Chen Wudi disappeared from the nanosoldiers’ view. Only Ren Xiaosu’s voice could be heard in the tent. “Cover the left while I take the right!”

Ren Xiaosu charged over and rammed into the nanosoldiers without any fanciful moves. It was as though a mountain had hit them. Two totally helpless nanosoldiers were sent flying out of the tent, and they even tore a large hole in the tent as they flew out!

In a normal situation, other people would probably have already noticed that something strange was going on here. However, with the Qing Consortium coming back for another attack, it had created an excellent opportunity for Ren Xiaosu.

The nanosoldiers landed on the ground outside and couldn’t get up anymore. It felt like all of their bones were broken.

If they only suffered a few broken bones, the nanomachines in their bodies could have filled the fractures and mended them quickly.

But they had broken too many bones!

The artillery fire outside was even more intense than the earlier wave the Qing Consortium had carried out. The tent with a hole in it was flapping hard in the strong winds created by the bombardment.

Ren Xiaosu stood next to the hole and looked behind him. Only these 20 nanosoldiers remained standing in front of him, while the night sky behind him was abuzz with noise.

The nanosoldiers knew their guns were useless against this armor. One by one, the nanosoldiers discarded their guns and drew their nanoswords from their waists!

Ren Xiaosu drew his black saber from out of thin air and broke into a smile with the pattern on the face armor also seemingly revealing a smile. “Whatever you have, I have too. But whatever I have is much more than all of you combined! Let’s start counting down: 30 seconds!”

“What do you mean, ’30 seconds?”” The nanosoldiers got even more uneasy when they heard that. They did not even dare to take the initiative to attack him now.

Ren Xiaosu said, “The last 30 seconds of your lives.”

The next moment, he muttered silently in his mind, “City Crusher!”

His pupils hidden behind the face armor turned crimson in color.

Chapter 277: I don’t have a choice

When strength was like the magma in a volcano’s crater, any creature that fell into it would melt straight away in its scarlet flames.

Humans had never stopped yearning for power. Otherwise, the Li Consortium would not have created something like the nanomachines and put them to military use.

Ren Xiaosu could feel a raging fire in his body. As he raised his saber and stepped forward, the nanosoldiers could only watch him move past them with shocked expressions on their faces. They had wanted to raise their nanoswords and slash Ren Xiaosu, but his overwhelming speed at this moment made them feel like they were moving in slow motion.

When that black saber slashed across one of the nanosoldier’s chest, it smoothly cut through the nanosword he was holding in front of him, and his body was also cleanly severed in two.

One of the nanosoldiers couldn’t dodge in time and was rammed into by Ren Xiaosu with his armor. The nanosoldier could feel his chest collapsing, and his blood felt like it was being compressed inside with no outlet of escape. As a result, it ruptured out of his blood vessels.

Over a dozen nanosoldiers had surrounded Ren Xiaosu. When a nanosword slashed his back, it only left a scratch on the armor without causing any damage to his skin.

The scratch on the armor rippled outwards in a horrifyingly hideous fashion.

In this instant, the nanosoldiers realized this was how the nanomachines should be used!

When Ren Xiaosu’s strong physical fitness was paired with the armor, it made him into a battering ram as he barged his way around intimidatingly.

One of the nanosoldiers was beginning to feel scared. He did not know what he could do to defeat this strong and powerful “machine” in front of him. He was overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessness!

He picked up a gun from off the ground and began shooting indiscriminately within the tent while shouting, as though that would eliminate the fear he was feeling.

But a second later, his shouts abruptly stopped. The black saber Ren Xiaosu had plunged into his chest caused his lungs to quickly fill up with bloody foam.

Ren Xiaosu slowly pulled the black saber out. “Wudi, how you doing?”

Chen Wudi swung the Golden-Hooped Rod over his shoulder. “Done!”

Only then did Ren Xiaosu return his armor and store the black saber back into the palace. He looked at the mess he had created around him, though the tent remained standing.

However, it seemed like the situation was not good. Ren Xiaosu looked over at his “comrades” lying on the ground. Some of them had been shot dead when the nanosoldiers started firing wildly, while others were crying with their heads in their arms.

But Ren Xiaosu did not care about how they were doing. He looked at Li Qingzheng, Wang Yuchi, and the others. “Anyone hurt?”

Ren Xiaosu frowned when he discovered bloodstains on Wang Yuchi’s leg. Several of the students were also wounded, but Li Qingzheng was fine.

Wang Yuchi’s face was covered in sweat. “My leg got hit by a bullet. I think it might be broken. Monitor, go and check on others. I think they’re also injured.”

Ren Xiaosu counted them. Five students were injured, and they were even injured quite badly. He would have to remove the bullets in their bodies first.

“We can’t stay here any longer.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Let’s grab a truck and escape from here. We’ll take this chance to head back to Stronghold 108 while the others are busy with the battle out there!”

This crisis made Ren Xiaosu realize there were already people who could link together all of what had happened so far. It would be even more dangerous if he continued to stay in the Li Consortium’s territory.

Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, “Carry the wounded out and wait for me there.”

Li Qingzheng automatically helped to carry the wounded out as well. After everyone was outside, Ren Xiaosu broke the necks of the remaining “comrades” one by one. He could not keep them alive as they knew too many of his secrets.

He took out everything like pots and pans, shovels, hammers, and whatnot from his storage space, leaving only the gold and food. Then he placed all of the nanomachines he had gathered from the nanosoldiers into the storage space.

After doing so, Ren Xiaosu walked out of the tent and carried the wounded together with the others.

Position 313 had descended into chaos by now. No one would notice them, as the Qing Consortium’s artillery fire was so intense it was unimaginable. Even the other fighting forces that passed them by had thought they were the wounded returning from the front line.

“There’s a vehicle over there!” Ren Xiaosu whispered, “The driver is still in it, so we’ll have to steal it!”

They were now very close to the entrance of the camp at Position 313. As long as they could grab a vehicle, they would be able to get out of here. No one would discover their whereabouts in this chaos.

But at this moment, a group of strange soldiers ran in from outside the camp. Ren Xiaosu got a bad feeling as these soldiers were moving too orderly, and their eyes looked unfeeling.

This was a full-strength battalion that consisted of 500 people!

Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and tried to lead Chen Wudi and the others past this battalion of troops quietly. However, the officer at the very front called out to them, “Which ORBAT do you all belong to?”

His voice was mechanical and calm. Li Qingzheng immediately went up and explained, “We’re from the 7th Infantry Regiment. We’ve just returned from the front line after getting injured, and we’re heading to the medical center.”

The officer glanced at Ren Xiaosu and the others before saying, “Bring me to the location the Heroes Battalion is guarding.”

Ren Xiaosu clenched his fists tightly. These people were also targeting him?!

What could he do? If there were really 500 nanosoldiers here like Ren Xiaosu had thought, he and Chen Wudi would not be able to defeat them even if they were demigods.

Moreover, it would be too eye-catching if they fought out here in this open area!

While Ren Xiaosu was urgently trying to come up with something, he heard Li Qingzheng say with a laugh, “Sure, I’ll bring you all there.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Then he watched Li Qingzheng turn around and smile wryly at him. “Quickly get to the medical center and don’t delay your treatments. I’ll join up with you guys after I bring these officers to the Heroes Battalion.”

Dumbfounded, Ren Xiaosu said, “You…”

“Don’t worry about me.” Li Qingzheng said with a smile, “I couldn’t be happier to do this. Enough, go on ahead.”

Then Li Qingzheng turned around and headed resolutely for the high ground where the Heroes Battalion was located without looking back.

It was the same for life as in war. There wouldn’t usually be time to give a heroic speech or have any sentimental talks since unexpected things could happen at any moment. And then familiar people and familiar smiles would get taken away from you.

Ren Xiaosu decisively turned and walked towards the truck. “Don’t anyone look back.”

Wang Yuchi struggled to say, “Monitor…”

Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted, “I’ve already said that I’m not a good person! That light of mine has already fucking gone out!”

Wang Yuchi and the others were at a momentary loss for words. They did not even know what light Ren Xiaosu was referring to.

Only Chen Wudi understood what he was talking about. He remembered what his master had said to him in the afternoon: “If I’d had the option, I’d’ve liked to be a person with a light in his heart, but I don’t have a choice.”

It was not that he did not want to choose, but rather that life had never given him this option before. He could only see two ways forward. One was to live, the other was to die.

This was what the wastelands were.

Chapter 278: The depreciated Qing Consortium currency

As the rear of Position 313 was a vast emptiness, Ren Xiaosu drove all the way south to Stronghold 108 without having any trouble after stealing the truck.

When they were going the other way earlier, it had taken them half an hour just to get their identities verified. Now that all of the soldiers had been deployed to the front lines, only the sentries guarding the firearms and logistics remained behind to prevent spies from sneaking in.

However, this frontline head spy of the Qing Consortium was about to leave instead. He did not even have time to inform Tang Zhou about it.

It was all quiet in the truck. Ren Xiaosu just stepped on the gas the entire way while Chen Wudi, Wang Yuchi, and the others said nothing

On the road back to Stronghold 108, Ren Xiaosu nearly broke into a cold sweat when they arrived at a checkpoint, in fear that the soldiers here would stop them.

He straight-up flashed his Office of Special Investigations ID at them. With that, no one dared to stop him from passing through.

Ren Xiaosu realized that his arrest warrant was still under wraps. Otherwise, Li Dingding would not have had to keep his investigations so secretive.

What he wanted to do now was to quickly rush back to the stronghold before the Li Consortium issued orders to go after him. Then he would find an opportunity to take Yan Liuyuan and the others away!

As for where they could go, they could think about it later.

Currently, the flames of war had also engulfed the roads in the north leading to the Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88. Although the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade had just made headway at Mt. Qingsheng’s front line during the night, they were cut off from the rear by a mysterious group of nanosoldiers before they could stabilize the battlegrounds. This made the battle reach even more of an impasse.

Therefore, even if Ren Xiaosu were to head north, it wouldn’t be feasible for him to go either to the Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium.

But if there were really no other way, Ren Xiaosu would just have everyone hide out in the wilderness. Although wild animals and poisonous bugs in the southwestern region were rampant, he had the Brambles in his possession now. Who knew if he could trade for other types of seeds someday? If that happened, they would not have to face such tremendous pressure while living in the wilderness.

It only took Ren Xiaosu about four hours to return to the stronghold. If not for the uneven mountainous terrain that was difficult to travel through, he could have driven even faster.

Ren Xiaosu flashed his ID when he reached the stronghold gate. He kept an eye on the guards’ expressions in case something unexpected happened.

However, the garrison soldiers did not say anything. They were very polite and just let them through, and there was nothing unusual about their expressions.

Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. The Li Consortium would probably not have expected that the person they wanted to arrest would actually return to the stronghold at such a time.

But they needed to be even more careful here. If the Li Consortium discovered them, they would have nowhere to escape to.

After getting into the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu parked the truck. “Change into your own clothes and get some rest. I’ll think about how to locate Liuyuan and the others.”

Chen Wudi calmly got out of the truck. “Blargh!”

“Wudi, what’s the matter?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.

“Master, I’m OK… blargh!” Chen Wudi, the self-proclaimed reincarnation of the Great Sage, had boasted he was not afraid of anything was now only fearful of his master’s driving!

Bullets and whatnot were only physical attacks; his master’s driving was a magical attack. It was different.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Wudi, this won’t do. How can you get motion sickness so easily? Look at the others, they’re all fine.”

He turned around to look and saw one of the students vomiting so hard he almost fainted. With that, Ren Xiaosu did not continue speaking. He asked the palace, “What’s my driving proficiency?”

The voice from the palace said, “Unable to detect any driving skills.”

“…Alright…”

Their plan was to locate Yan Liuyuan first. But after thinking for a long time, Ren Xiaosu still couldn’t come up with any ideas. After all, this was such a huge stronghold. When they were hurrying to the front line, they did not talk about how to contact each other again. So now the only way was to get Hu Shuo to solve that problem for them.

But how was he supposed to find Hu Shuo?

When Ren Xiaosu started asking around for directions on the streets, he flat-out asked how to get to the Office of Special Investigations. However, no one was able to answer. It seemed that the Office of Special Investigations was a really secretive unit.

At this moment, Chen Wudi said, “Master, even though the bullets in them have already been taken out, we don’t know how to set their bones. If we drag this out any longer, they likely aren’t gonna be able to walk normally again.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. All of Wang Yuchi and the others’ injuries were gunshot wounds. Although Chen Wudi had already helped them remove the bullets and applied the black medicine to their wounds, anyone could easily recognize these as gunshot wounds if they were sent to the hospital. It would be even more troublesome if they attracted the attention of Stronghold 108’s garrison troops!

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Since they could not find Hu Shuo, they had to make Hu Shuo find them.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone quarreling in a provisions store nearby. “We don’t accept the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium’s currency here. Their money is as worthless as paper now. If you don’t have our Li Consortium’s currency, don’t come here and shop.”

A woman got down on her knees in the provisions store and started crying. “My family hasn’t had anything to eat for the past two days. Can’t you just sell me some rice? This is the money my family used for their investments in the past. It’ll definitely appreciate again after the war is over!”

Ren Xiaosu watched all of this quietly. However, he did not say anything.

After the war broke out, all provisions would get supplied to the military with priority. This led to the shortage of food in Stronghold 108, which was closest to the front lines.

Ren Xiaosu realized that even the stronghold residents would not get to lead a comfortable life when there was a war.

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “Quest: Help 10 stronghold residents who are suffering from the war.”

Hardy har har. Ren Xiaosu ignored it when he saw this quest. As he was still on the run, how the fuck would he have the capacity to help others?!

But Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He turned around and said to Chen Wudi, “Let’s go, I got an idea.”

After he said that, he got in the truck. He stepped on the gas pedal and started driving around the stronghold. He only came to a stop when he found a gold shop. Ren Xiaosu entered the gold shop and bluntly asked, “Do you accept gold?”

The shop owner’s eyes lit up. “Sir, how much gold would you like to exchange?”

Since the war was still ongoing, the most valuable item was gold. Moreover, gold was still appreciating in value. It used to go for several hundred yuan per gram in the stronghold, but the price of a gram now had almost appreciated to over a thousand yuan.

“Don’t ask me how much I want to exchange.” Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the shop owner, “Let me ask you this: Do you have any Yang Consortium currency here?”

“Ah?” The boss got overjoyed. The gold shops in the stronghold usually performed some financial services as well. For example, they used to allow businessmen to convert currencies of the various organizations. Some businessmen were willing to convert them here as long as the transaction fee was lower than what the Li Consortium’s banks charged.

Unfortunately, a war had broken out, and he was holding both the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium currencies with him. Their money was currently even more worthless than paper!

But the young man in front of him actually wanted to trade for the Yang Consortium’s currency at this juncture? Had he lost his mind?

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Do you want to exchange it or not?”

“Yes! Of course I want to! Why wouldn’t I want to exchange it!” The owner of the gold shop had been holding onto the Yang Consortium’s currency for some time now and hadn’t been able to get rid of it. If someone wanted to trade for it now, of course he would gladly accept it.

He did not care whether Ren Xiaosu would suffer a great loss because of this. How many people were already suffering because of the war? One more person wouldn’t make a difference at all!

Chapter 279: Make money, make money, make money!

What the owner of the gold shop did not know was that Ren Xiaosu did not care whether the Yang Consortium’s currency had depreciated here or not. That was because the palace only required officially issued currencies. It was all the same no matter which organization’s currency it was!

It could be said that the currently devalued Yang Consortium currency was just right for Ren Xiaosu’s requirements. Moreover, the money he traded for would also be useful if he really went to the Yang Consortium’s territory in the future.

After all, the Yang Consortium’s currency would not depreciate in its own territory. Only the Qing Consortium and the Li Consortium currency would depreciate there.

Ren Xiaosu had not expected that the war would still bring him a windfall like that when they came back to the stronghold. He did not even know how he should thank the Li Consortium for this.

With the chaos going on outside during the war, no one would really care if he was just selling off a little bit of gold. So this was a good opportunity to get some of it off his hands.

It was no wonder some people often said that those who made money during a war were filthy rich. Ren Xiaosu could deeply understand the meaning of this now. When war broke out, much of the order that was in place would get disrupted.

The shop owner said with a smile, “Young man, how much gold do you have? I’ll take however much you have.”

He asked the owner, “How much of the Yang Consortium’s currency do you have! I’ll trade for however much you have!”

He was that generous!

The shop owner lowered his voice and said, “I have 240,000 yuan here. Right now, a gram of gold can be exchanged for 8,000 yuan of the Yang currency!”

“240,000 yuan is kinda low…” Ren Xiaosu was already so rich that 240,000 yuan no longer interested him.

After all, his gold stash would hardly look any different if he took out 30 grams of gold to exchange for this amount.

No, Ren Xiaosu felt he had missed out on something very important.

He suddenly thought of something and asked, “How much of the Qing currency do you have then? I’ll trade for both of them!”

The shop owner was ecstatic. “Young man, you’re doing a good deed. I really have you to thank! I still have 310,000 yuan of the Qing currency!”

“Gratitude received from Liao Yizhong, +1!”

The voice from the palace said, “Quest is 10% complete.”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. The palace had mentioned a quest to help ten stronghold residents who were suffering from the war. As it turned out, the owner of the gold shop fell under this category as well.

After thinking about it carefully, it did seem like that was the case. With all that money stuck on hand, this fellow had been suffering from insomnia for several days.

With that, Ren Xiaosu knew how he should complete the quest.

Ren Xiaosu immediately convinced himself from the bottom of his heart that he was not a war profiteer. He was only helping out the stronghold residents that were suffering in the war!

Ren Xiaosu knew that he was twisting words and logic, but how else could he make himself feel better?

Well, he could just convince himself!

Ren Xiaosu did not immediately head to the other gold shops but went back to the military truck first. He pulled down the tarp to cover the back of the vehicle so that no one outside could see what was going on within.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi and the others and said, “What I’m about to do is absolutely confidential. You cannot tell anyone about it, including your female classmates.”

“Can we tell Ms. Jiang, though?” Wang Yuchi asked. Wang Yuchi still hadn’t recovered from his injuries. But his pain went away after the black medicine was applied.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “Yes, you may.”

Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had thought of a way to treat the broken bones Wang Yuchi and the others had gotten. The method was to distribute some of the nanomachines to them so they could use them to help set and mend their broken bones.

That would be the best way for now. It was better than having to go to the hospital.

Ren Xiaosu was willing to escape with these students because they had not betrayed him during Li Dingding’s interrogation. Since Chen Wudi had super hearing, he couldn’t be wrong about this.

If this were the past, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not have revealed to them the nanomachine secret. But now, the situation had changed. Ren Xiaosu was willing to share more about it with them.

Furthermore, he had a few too many nanomachines in his storage space now and couldn’t use all of them on himself. If the Li Consortium found out about this, they would probably be grossed out by it as many of their soldiers still hadn’t been allocated any nanomachines. However, this guy had robbed them of so many nanomachines, and he could even reset, unlock, and pair them again all by himself!

However, he was required to pay 20,000 yuan as a processing fee to the palace in order to transfer the nanomachines to Wang Yuchi and the others. That was why Ren Xiaosu had to go straight to the gold shop to exchange his gold for money. Otherwise, he couldn’t have afforded the fee.

Wang Yuchi and the others looked at each other and said, “Monitor, don’t worry. We’ll never tell anyone about the secret we’ll hear today.”

“Put out your hands.” Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m giving y’all some nanomachines!”

Wang Yuchi and the rest were stunned. Although they did not understand much about nanomachines, was it really possible to just give it to them like that? Shouldn’t there be some encryption or something like that?

But when they looked at Ren Xiaosu’s expression, it seemed to suggest it wouldn’t be a problem.

But as the nanomachines were too precious, Wang Yuchi pulled his hand back. “Monitor, the nanomachines are more useful for you. What will you have if you give those nanomachines to us?”

Ren Xiaosu was getting impatient. He grabbed Wang Yuchi’s hand and said, “Why are you so slow? I have plenty!”

Wang Yuchi and the others were stunned. Since when did their class monitor become so generous?

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu had already estimated the amount of nanomachines he had in his storage space. Even if he gave away some of them to these eight students, he would probably still have more than enough left for Yan Liuyuan.

Although Yan Liuyuan already had enough nanomachines to cover his entire body, he was still young. He would still grow in the future.

It almost felt like how parents would think when getting new clothes for their children. As they would always plan for the long term, parents tended to choose loose-fitting clothes for their children so they could wear them for a longer time.

The voice from the palace said, “Total: Eight people. A fee of 160,000 yuan will be charged.”

Ren Xiaosu felt the pinch in his heart. He said in his mind, “Don’t use the Yang currency. Charge it to the Qing currency instead.”

After all, they might be going to the Yang Consortium after this, so it would be better to use the Qing Consortium’s currency first and save the Yang Consortium’s currency for the future.

The nanomachines started moving from Ren Xiaosu to Wang Yuchi through their connected hands.

After the transfer finished, Wang Yuchi and the others were already attempting to control their nanomachines. Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can y’all command them at will?”

Wang Yuchi shook his head. “Every time I try to control them, there’s a delay of about half a second before it executes my command. It feels very awkward.”

“Mhm, that’s because your sync rate is a bit low.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “But y’all should keep exercising and training your reaction speed. That should help to decrease the time delay. As long as it’s within point-two seconds, I don’t think you’ll have many problems when dealing with normal supernatural beings.

“OK.” Wang Yuchi nodded. He then started to use the nanomachines to heal his bones, but the process was excruciatingly painful. The nanomachines had to piece the fragmented bones back to their original position.

However, Ren Xiaosu watched these students not even make a sound while they were setting their bones back in place.

Chapter 280: Encountering Hu Shuo again

Ren Xiaosu got back into the driver’s seat and continued to look for the next gold shop. Of course, he was not entirely doing this for money. There was something more to his plan.

When Ren Xiaosu entered the gold shop this time, he bluntly asked to sell his gold for the inflated banknotes with a sense of familiarity. As these gold shops did not have that many bills on hand, Ren Xiaosu could only trade for an average of 500,000 yuan per shop with a mixture of Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium currency.

But since he could exchange for the currencies, receive gratitude tokens, and even help out the stronghold residents that were suffering because of the war, it was basically killing three birds with one stone. So why not?

When Ren Xiaosu finished visiting the tenth gold shop, the voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little disappointed. He was hoping he could get a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll to use on Chen Wudi. After all, his disciple’s superpower looked really strong.

Unfortunately, it would be pointless to use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll on Chen Wudi. This disciple of his had no other outstanding abilities other than his superpower.

The moment the quest was completed, Ren Xiaosu counted that he was left with 5.41 million yuan. The piles of money he hoarded in the storage space dazzled him a little. The money seemed to glow.

In the past, he could never have imagined he would have so much money.

“C’mon, Wudi, let’s find a restaurant to eat at.” Ren Xiaosu said generously, “It’ll be my treat, so please eat whatever you want. Those of you who aren’t injured can come along as well, but those who are injured will have to bear with it. We’ll bring back some food for y’all after dining.”

However, they could not find a restaurant even after looking around for a while. When they came to a sit-down restaurant, Ren Xiaosu went in after looking at the menu and said, “I want everything on the menu except for this, this, and this!”

Chen Wudi said, sounding worried, “Has Master’s sickness gotten worse?”

But at this moment, the voice from the palace suddenly said, “It’s been detected that the host is carrying a large amount of money. Confirm unlock of higher tiers of storage rights?”

Ren Xiaosu felt the pinch. The palace was really seizing every opportunity to use up his money. But he still stuck by what he had said before, that money was meant for purchasing things to strengthen himself with. After all, there was nothing else that he could use the money on for now. In that case, how could money that couldn’t be used be worth more than having a portable storage space?

Currently, he only had 15 cubic meters of storage space, which wasn’t even enough to store his supplies sometimes.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Unlock! Wait…”

However, he saw more than half of the money he had in his storage space suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, the storage space expanded rapidly. Ren Xiaosu’s soul ached as he asked, “How many storage tiers did you unlock in one go?”

He had wanted to tell the palace not to unlock so many tiers of storage space, but it was too late! Ren Xiaosu even suspected that the palace was deliberately doing it quickly so that he would not have the chance to save any money!

The voice from the palace said, “240 cubic meters have been unlocked at a total cost of 4.8 million yuan. On top of the original storage space, the host now has access to a total of 255 cubic meters.”

Unlocking 16 cubic meters of storage space: 320,000 yuan.

Unlocking 32 cubic meters of storage space: 640,000 yuan.

Unlocking 64 cubic meters of storage space: 1,280,000 yuan.

Unlocking 128 cubic meters of storage space: 2,560,000 yuan.

After unlocking a total of four storage tiers, the cash Ren Xiaosu had left on hand was only 610,000 yuan.

C17

Then he heard the palace say, “Confirm unlock of the vacuum preservation function? A vacuum preservation area will be zoned out at a cost of 200,000 yuan.”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression darkened in response. “Hah, unlock.”

“Confirm unlock of the plant cultivation function? A—”

“Unlock, unlock, unlock!” Ren Xiaosu retorted, “Is money the only thing you fucking know? Don’t you think you’re charging for way too many items?!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized he only had 10,000 yuan left. The plant cultivation function actually cost him 400,000 yuan?!

What do you call being knocked back to square one? This was what you call being knocked back to square one!

Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu sitting quietly at the table with his face flushing and blanching. Then he asked, “Master, are you feeling unwell?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Chen Wudi before turning around and shouting to the shopkeep, “Boss, I was just joking when I ordered the dishes just now, please don’t mind. We’ll just have a bowl of white rice each.”

Chen Wudi was confused.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu could not be so stingy either. In the end, he still ordered some dishes.

But halfway through their meal, several people wearing the uniforms of the Public Order Division suddenly entered the restaurant. One of them said loudly, “Who does that military truck parked outside belong to? Someone has reported you for exchanging a large sum of other organizations’ currencies and are in unlawful possession of oxidized gold. Your gold must have been obtained illegally, right?”

Ren Xiaosu thought, ‘They’re finally here.’ He held up his Office of Special Investigations ID and said to the people from the Public Order Division, “Come here.”

The people from the Public Order Division were dumbfounded right then and there. How unlucky could they be to bump into the Office of Special Investigations here?!

The three of them walked over fearfully. “Please don’t take it wrong, it’s just a misunderstanding…”

Ren Xiaosu said as he ate, “You guys from the Public Order Division are really trying to blackmail me for my gold, huh?”

The people from the Public Order Division were shocked. They had indeed come here in an attempt to get the gold for themselves upon finding out about it. When one of the gold shop’s owners reported the matter to them, he mentioned the young man must still have a lot of gold in his possession.

But they had not expected to clash with a member of the Office of Special Investigations.

However, one of the Public Order Division’s people explained with an obsequious smile, “You’ve misunderstood, we’re only carrying out our duty.”

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Y’all don’t have to worry yourselves over such matters in the future. Our Office of Special Investigations will be taking over from here on out.”

“Is the Office of Special Investigations in charge of that?” The people from the Public Order Division were dumbfounded.

“Yes, from now on, anything that your Public Order Division cannot handle will be handled by our Office of Special Investigations. Anything that your Public Order Division might be able to handle will also be handled by our Office of Special Investigations.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Go back and repeat word for word what I just said to your superior.”

The three members of the Public Order Division turned around and left. This was a big deal. The Office of Special Investigations was attempting to seize their authority!

Half an hour later, someone pushed open the restaurant’s door again. When Ren Xiaosu saw the person coming in, he was amused. It turned out to be Hu Shuo!

Hu Shuo sat down across from Ren Xiaosu with a dark expression. When he saw Ren Xiaosu’s relaxed look, he said angrily, “I’ve only just gotten back to the stronghold, so what’s this I hear about my Office of Special Investigations taking charge of the Public Order Division?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I’m just expanding our business!”

“You must be looking for me, right?” Hu Shuo snapped, “What do you want from me? You’re still in the mood to eat now? Do you know that the covert unit has already arrested Li Qingzheng and is on the way back to the stronghold?”

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment in response. “When will he reach the stronghold? Where will he be held? And what’s with those mysterious troops you’re talking about?”

“The Li Consortium has gone crazy.” Hu Shuo let out a sigh. “Those mysterious troops are very likely to be soldiers fully under the control of the nanomachines and have extremely strong combat capabilities. When the same group of mysterious troops were deployed to the battlefield at Mt. Qingsheng’s front line, the Yang Consortium’s troops there were immediately defeated. This group of soldiers is fearless and unafraid of death.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “The nanomachines actually have an effect like that?”

Chapter 281: An explosive rescue

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu recalled that every time the palace reset the nanomachines, it would always say “removing remote access protocol” while doing so. Could the problem lie with the remote access program?

The soldiers who were hell bent on becoming nanosoldiers could never have expected they would end up like this, right?

It was no wonder Hu Shuo said the Li Consortium were out of their minds. They were so cruel to treat their own soldiers this way!

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Your brother, Yan Liuyuan, and the others are living on Baoyuan Alley. It’s about 10 kilometers away from here. Go and look for them, then get out of this place.”

“You haven’t answered my question yet.” Ren Xiaosu said, “When will Li Qingzheng be escorted back to Stronghold 108, and where will he be held?”

Hu Shuo seemed a little surprised. “You want to save him? You’re that type of person?”

Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “It’s true that I’m not a good person, so I’ll have to think about it a little more. But I don’t deny the possibility exists.”

“You won’t get a chance to save him while they’re on their way back here.” Hu Shuo said while looking at Ren Xiaosu, “But I know where he’ll be detained to be interrogated. However, you better think it over carefully. That place is heavily guarded, so I don’t think you’ll stand much of a chance.”

“You don’t have to worry about me.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If I’m not confident, I won’t sacrifice myself for nothing since I’m not that kind of person. Just tell me when he’ll be escorted back and where he’ll be held.”

“The basement of the garment factory.”

Hu Shuo did not take back Ren Xiaosu’s Office of Special Investigations ID. Although Ren Xiaosu had caused him quite a bit of trouble, he was still willing to continue helping out this kid a little.

Before leaving, Hu Shuo even had someone send over a drawing of the Li Consortium’s secret hideout below the garment factory.

“Master, are we going to save the Lord of Wolves?” Chen Wudi asked curiously.

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything and sat there in silence. After a while, he sighed and said, “Let’s go and locate Yan Liuyuan and the others first.”

Ren Xiaosu started the truck after paying the bill. Chen Wudi followed and said, “Master…”

“Don’t try to persuade me. I have to think about it more.” Ren Xiaosu frowned as he clearly knew it would not be easy to save Li Qingzheng, and he might even end up dying. Was Ren Xiaosu someone who would do something like that?

Chen Wudi said, “It’s not that, Master. I just want to say that I’m not full yet…”

Ren Xiaosu said, “…It’s alright, we’ll have Big Sister Xiaoyu make you some food when we get to Baoyuan Alley.”

Chen Wudi got into the truck happily. He sat in the passenger’s seat and hesitated for a moment before saying, “Master, you actually wish to be a good person too, right?”

“Don’t talk about that anymore. I’m not suited to be a good person,” Ren Xiaosu said, peeved. When he stepped on the gas, Chen Wudi nearly threw up the lunch he just had!

While driving, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “I doubt Li Qingzheng has spilled the beans on us yet, dontcha think? Otherwise, everyone in the stronghold would’ve already come after us by now.”

Chen Wudi was not sure what point his master was trying to make. “Mhm.”

Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself, “Li Qingzheng is also quite pitiful. He could’ve run away, but he still chose to help us lure those fucking mysterious troops away when they suddenly appeared.”

Chen Wudi nodded. “Mhm.”

Ren Xiaosu got more frustrated the more he thought about it. With a sudden spin of the steering wheel, the large truck completed a beautiful drift on the streets of the stronghold. Wang Yuchi and the others were nearly thrown out of the truck.

The truck made a U-turn and headed back from where they came. Everyone in the truck was wondering where they were speeding to.

Five trucks were zooming back down from Position 313 in the north like a violent storm. Along the way, not one single checkpoint dared to stop them from passing.

Li Qingzheng was sitting in the back of the truck that was traveling in the middle of the convoy. These mysterious troops had not even cuffed him. It was like they were not afraid that he’d try to escape.

Li Qingzheng looked at the officer sitting opposite him and said with a smile, “Sir, where are we heading?”

“The stronghold.” The officer said with an impassive expression, “I suggest you quickly tell us about Ren Xiaosu’s whereabouts and everything strange that’s going on around him. Otherwise, you’ll regret not cooperating with us when we get back to the stronghold.”

Li Qingzheng faked a smile and said, “I really don’t know anything. That Ren Xiaosu is such a jerk. He didn’t even tell me, the platoon commander, about anything when he got into trouble. Let me go. I’ll definitely give him a good scolding for you all when I see him!”

The officer still looked at Li Qingzheng expressionlessly but did not waste any more time talking to him.

While sitting in the back of the truck, Li Qingzheng saw the view of the outside slowly recede from his sight. The snow-capped mountains were beautiful and magnificent. A giant hawk was hovering near the distant mountains. However, he was not in the mood to enjoy it.

“A fortune teller said I would get into the stronghold after meeting my benefactor this year, and I was told I would become a successful and well-known person in the future too.” Li Qingzheng said with a wry smile, “At the time, my father was extremely delighted and specially went out to the market to buy me some meat to eat. I even remember that he drank a little that night. He was really proud that his son was going to become a brave person with a bright future.”

Li Qingzheng lamented, “But I didn’t expect to be coming into the stronghold under such circumstances.”

All of a sudden, a young officer who was sitting diagonally across him laughed. “Where is this fortune teller now? Can I look for him to have my fortune told?”

Li Qingzheng was stunned by his question. “The fortune teller left town long ago. No one knows where he went.”

“Oh.” The young officer did not seem to be particularly disappointed. “I thought of finding out my fate after my revenge is done. Let’s get to know each other. I’m Li Shentan, a friend of Ren Xiaosu’s. Pleased to meet you.”

“You…” Li Qingzheng was at a loss. He still could not understand what was happening, nor did he know who the hell Li Shentan was. But he realized the officers around him did not seem to have heard Li Shentan’s words as all of them sat there unmoving.

Li Shentan laughed happily and said, “I was just kidding with you. I really envy Ren Xiaosu for having a friend like you. You must also be very envious of Ren Xiaosu for having a friend like me, right?”

Li Qingzheng was confused by Li Shentan’s words. Was this young man named Li Shentan acting confident or being narcissistic? What sort of crap was that?

Li Shentan said, “Right now, Ren Xiaosu believes you’re going to be sent to the garment factory in Stronghold 108. To be clearer, it’s the Li Consortium’s secret hideout located under the garment factory. He’s still hesitating about going there to rescue you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Li Qingzheng was even more confused now. “Don’t try anything stupid! Aren’t you his friend? Why would you want to lure him to the secret hideout?”

“Because… it’s fun.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “I want to find out how that friend of mine treats his friends.”

Behind that smile seemed to be a crazy and restless soul that had no place to call home. It was chaotic and temperamental.

But when all of those complexities came together, they suddenly became calm.

If Ren Xiaosu were here, he would have realized it was actually Li Shentan’s idea for Hu Shuo to deliberately reveal all that information to him.

The troops who captured Li Qingzheng were not the Li Consortium’s mysterious nanosoldiers but the troops Li Shentan controlled. However, no one knew where the remainder of the forces were hiding as there were only 500 of them here.

This was a game. Li Shentan had decided to let Ren Xiaosu lift the curtain in what would be the destruction of the Li Consortium.

But at this moment, a shocking explosion erupted at the head of the convoy. It was as though an extremely powerful bomb had been detonated!

Immediately after, Li Shentan’s expression changed. “How careless of me. He’s actually come to intercept the convoy!”

He grabbed Li Qingzheng and jumped out of the truck, but a shout echoed in the wilderness, “Old Li, your old bro is here to save you!”

When Hu Shuo relayed the information to Ren Xiaosu, he mentioned the armed forces escorting Li Qingzheng were extremely powerful, so it would be unrealistic to intercept the convoy along the way.

He had said that because he wanted to lure Ren Xiaosu to the underground hideout and make him believe it would be impossible to intercept the convoy.

But Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong the more he thought about it. There was a logical problem somewhere. If he could not intercept them along the way, how could he possibly save Li Qingzheng after he was brought to a place with even tighter security?

Furthermore, Hu Shuo had even prepared a drawing of that hideout for him. This caused Ren Xiaosu to suspect that the old man didn’t have good intentions!

That was why Ren Xiaosu suddenly drove out of the stronghold after having lunch and ended up rushing all the way here into the wilderness!

After Li Shentan jumped out of the truck, he rolled twice on the ground. When he looked up with his face covered in dirt, he saw Ren Xiaosu dashing towards him while covered fully in his armor.

Li Shentan was in a pathetic state. But for some reason, he was laughing very happily. “Interesting! Hahaha, how interesting!”

Chapter 282: Nearly beaten up!

In the end, Ren Xiaosu still came to rescue Li Qingzheng. However, the process was much easier than he had imagined.

He had planned to blow up the lead truck and throw the entire convoy into disarray by using the Explosive Poker cards he had buried in the ground beforehand.

He and Chen Wudi would then rely on their overpowering individual strength to snatch Li Qingzheng back from the mysterious troops. After that, he would quickly create chaos again with the Explosive Poker cards and escape from the battlefield before luring their enemies to where he had planted the Brambles in order to finish them off!

Although this plan was not very well thought out, he could only make do with it in their haste.

However, he was met by Li Shentan instead of the nanosoldiers he had anticipated seeing!

Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on. The so-called rescue of Li Qingzheng from the secret hideout was just a trap set up for him by Hu Shuo and Li Shentan.

The troops who had arrested Li Qingzheng were not mysterious at all. They were from the combat brigade Li Shentan had abducted!

Although Ren Xiaosu did not know what Li Shentan’s motives were, he heaved a sigh of relief. It was still much better than having to face 500 nanosoldiers!

However, it did not feel good to be set up by others. Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the moment Li Shentan was still lying on the ground. His legs tensed up as the heavy armor cracked the ground. He jumped a distance of over 20 meters like he was leaping over a mountain, coming to a rest in front of Li Shentan.

Ren Xiaosu clenched his fists and punched hard at the young man who was smiling at him.

But at this moment, a little girl descended rapidly from the sky. Before Ren Xiaosu could hit Li Shentan, she was already standing in front of him.

She raised her delicate fist and collided it into Ren Xiaosu’s metallic fist. When the force of the collision erupted, a large cloud of dust swept up around them!

Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to take a step back. In the cloud of dust, Li Shentan’s voice could be heard as he spat on the ground. “I ate a bunch of dust!”

When the dust cloud dissipated, Li Shentan was standing and smiling at Ren Xiaosu with a dirty face. “My friend, long time no see.”

“Is this how friends get along?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown. He looked at Chen Wudi next to him and thought of beating this guy to death with him.

Although Si Liren just took a powerful punch from him, Ren Xiaosu hadn’t wanted to kill just now. So he had not used all his strength.

But the problem was that even though Ren Xiaosu had already encountered quite a few supernatural beings, this little girl was the only one who could fly. Therefore, uncertain of how strong this little girl was, he would have to join forces with Chen Wudi and attempt to kill them.

The soldiers under the control of Li Shentan did not attack them and just stood in a trance in the same spot as they waited for Li Shentan’s commands.

Li Shentan smiled and said, “You badly want to beat me up to vent, don’t you?”

“Seems like you’re quite good at fortune telling yourself, arentcha?” Li Qingzheng had just gotten off the ground. As his physical fitness was not as good as Li Shentan’s, he almost broke his leg from the fall.

When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu, it was as though he had reunited with a family member. “Xiaosu, give him a good beating!”

Li Shentan’s smile turned even broader. “I think you may not have the time to beat me.”

“Whaddya mean?” Ren Xiaosu got a bad feeling

“The Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers who are responsible for infiltration, carrying out decapitation strikes, and destruction at the rear, are about to reach Stronghold 108. They might even have arrived already. Meanwhile, my troops will start attacking Stronghold 108 in an hour too.” Li Shentan said, “No matter which side starts attacking first, the entire stronghold will be caught in the ravages of war soon. Your friends are still in the stronghold, right? I wonder if they can survive without your help.”

“If I just kill you, wouldn’t your troops stop attacking?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“It seems that you don’t understand what hypnosis is. Once the hypnotic command is formed in the subconsciousness, the hypnotized subject will still carry out the order even if the hypnotist is no longer around,” Li Shentan explained with a smile. “Furthermore, the Yang Consortium is going to attack even without me. I actually came up with my plan based on their plans.”

Ren Xiaosu remained silent. He was calculating the time frame!

Li Shentan asked, “Do you still want to fight me?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu decisively turned around to leave. “Wudi, Old Li, let’s go!”

Ren Xiaosu had to find Yan Liuyuan before the war reached the stronghold!

Li Shentan watched as Ren Xiaosu left. After Ren Xiaosu walked away, Li Shentan heaved a long sigh of relief. “What a close shave! I was nearly beaten up.

Si Liren floated beside Li Shentan and asked, “Brother Shentan, didn’t you say your troops would arrive two hours later?”

“If I had said that, I would really have been beaten up just now. Since we aren’t sure we can defeat him and Chen Wudi, we had to lie to make him leave,” Li Shentan said with a smile.

Si Liren wrinkled her nose. “I can defeat him though.”

Li Shentan patted Si Liren on her little head and said, “When a battle is being fought to its most dangerous point, the winner is not decided by who has more power.”

“What decides it then?” Si Liren asked curiously.

“It depends on a person’s will to survive, the rage that stems from the unwillingness to die, the desire to protect one’s family, and the instincts accumulated in the face of the dangerous world. All of that will give him strength.” Li Shentan sighed.

“Bro, you seem to be a little unhappy,” Si Liren asked.

“Mhm.” Li Shentan said as he looked in the direction of where Ren Xiaosu and the other two were going, “Back when I was hiding in the crowd and while I was in the asylum, I kept thinking what if someone were to shout to me, ‘Li Shentan, your old bro is here to save you…’

Li Shentan said calmly, “How great would that be.”

Si Liren blinked at him and said, “I can say that too in the future.”

Li Shentan smiled and said, “But you’re a girl, so you can’t address yourself as old bro.”

“Then I shall address myself as old sis,” Si Liren said in seriousness.

“But you’re still young!”

At a villa in the stronghold, blood was flowing all the way from the yard to the road. Someone in the yard had just cried out for help, but no one came to their rescue. That was because the guards standing outside had already been killed by someone.

Hu Shuo was standing quietly in the living room of the villa and looking at the magnificent decorations in the house. It was as though he had not noticed an injured old man struggling to crawl away. As the old man slowly crawled his way over, the pool of blood seemed to make the marble floor a little more slippery.

But the old man did not give up because a gun was hidden under the couch in front of him!

Hu Shuo said, sounding preoccupied, “What has my daughter done wrong? She only wanted to marry another person, that’s all.”

The old man who was crawling on the ground roared, “How would I know she was your daughter?! Hu Shuo, if you kill me, the entire Li Consortium will not tolerate you!”

At this moment, the old man finally got his hands on the pistol under the couch. He desperately pulled the pistol out and pointed it at Hu Shuo. But when he pulled the trigger, he could only hear the click of an empty chamber. There were no bullets in it.

Hu Shuo looked at him and said, “The Li Consortium? The Li Consortium will cease to exist very soon.”

Hu Shuo had been waiting for this day for nine years.

His daughter was paraded through the streets while his grandson was sent to a psychiatric hospital!

That rage in him would not be satisfied by sacrificing just a few dozen lives. He wanted everyone from the Li Consortium to go down to the Underworld to apologize to his daughter.

Chapter 283: Breaking in

As they drove back to the stronghold, Wang Yuchi and the others could finally let out sighs of relief. That was because Li Qingzheng was the one driving now.

Previously, everyone did not realize how important Li Qingzheng was. It wasn’t until they were tortured by Ren Xiaosu’s crazy driving that they began to miss Li Qingzheng.

Upon thinking about it carefully, everyone felt that it was truly necessary to rescue Li Qingzheng. With Ren Xiaosu’s wild driving, who knew when they would get into an accident.

Ren Xiaosu calculated the time and said to Li Qingzheng, “It should take us about 40 minutes to return to the stronghold. That was how long it took for us to get here. But since your driving isn’t as good as mine, you’ll definitely take longer.”

Li Qingzheng turned his head and looked at Ren Xiaosu blankly. He wondered where Ren Xiaosu found the confidence to even say such words.

He heard Ren Xiaosu add, “Li Shentan said that his troops will attack in an hour. We should be able to get back to the stronghold by then.”

When Li Qingzheng heard that, he stepped harder on the accelerator and asked, “Why didn’t you dissuade that lunatic from attacking the stronghold?”

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. Yang Xiaojin had mentioned Li Shentan’s background to him after they escaped from Stronghold 109. He knew very well why Li Shentan was so against the Li Consortium.

Ren Xiaosu related the entire story to Li Qingzheng and then said, “If I could’ve dissuaded him, I’d’ve already done so. However, no one can stop him since he’s really determined to have his revenge. Besides, his mother died because of the Li Consortium, so who has the right to persuade him to stop his revenge? Putting myself in his shoes, if the situation had happened to me, I would’ve destroyed the Li Consortium a long time ago.”

What Li Shentan wanted to achieve was not only getting his revenge. He wanted to drag the entire Li Consortium down into Hell.

Although Ren Xiaosu did not agree with Li Shentan’s approach, nor was he on the same side as Li Shentan, he understood how he felt.

“But no matter what, I’ll still beat him up if I get a chance,” Ren Xiaosu added seriously.

The truck arrived back in the stronghold 50 minutes later. Just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted, Li Qingzheng’s driving was a little slower than his.

After getting into the stronghold, it would take at least another 40 minutes to drive from the north gate to Baoyuan Alley where Yan Liuyuan and the others were staying.

Ren Xiaosu kept urging Li Qingzheng to drive faster. “Hurry up, or we’re not going to make it in time!”

Ren Xiaosu was getting really worried. If they could not get to Baoyuan Alley when the stronghold descended into chaos, it would become even more difficult to find Yan Liuyuan and the others.

Even though Ren Xiaosu knew that it was already too late, he was still unwilling to give up.

But as the truck sped through the streets, Ren Xiaosu suddenly started wondering about the time. “This isn’t right! It’s already been an hour, but why has nothing happened yet?”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized something. “Fuck, that bastard lied to me!”

If it were really as Li Shentan had said regarding the will of the hypnotized subjects not getting disrupted by anything after hypnosis, Li Shentan’s combat brigade should have already launched their attack. However, they did not.

“It seems that time isn’t as tight as we thought.” Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief and said, “But we still have to quickly get Liuyuan and the others out of this place. Stronghold 108 has become a dangerous place, and who knows when it will turn into purgatory?”

Since they were new to Stronghold 108, they did not know the way around very well. Fortunately, a student had bought a map of the stronghold from the grocery store next door when they were eating lunch. Ren Xiaosu gave directions from the passenger seat while Li Qingzheng drove without any distractions.

“We’ve arrived, this is the place!” Ren Xiaosu shouted. After the truck came to a stop, he immediately jumped out and went into Baoyuan Alley to look for them. He saw a sign in a yard that had a “Ren” and a “Yan” written on it. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Yan Liuyuan had made the sign so he could find them easily.

Knock, knock, knock. Ren Xiaosu knocked on the door worriedly while shouting, “Open the door, it’s me!”

He heard someone in the yard trot over to open the door. When it opened, Ren Xiaosu saw Yan Liuyuan standing inside. But before he could step in, Yan Liuyuan calmly said, “Who are you looking for?”

Ren Xiaosu was not stupid. It was impossible that Yan Liuyuan did not recognize him. Unforeseen circumstances must have caused him to say that. There were enemies around!

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Is there anyone home? I’m looking for a friend called Xinfeng.”

“You must have gotten the wrong place. We don’t have anyone by that name here. Maybe you can try next door,” Yan Liuyuan said.

Ren Xiaosu was trying to ask if there were enemies around in the yard by asking if there was anyone at home, and Yan Liuyuan expressed they were not here but next door!

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Alright then, I’ll go next door and ask.”

He then went to the yard next door and knocked on the door. The door immediately opened, as though the person behind it had been standing there all along.

The moment it opened, Ren Xiaosu reached in and grasped the person by the neck through the gap. He tightened his grip and heard a loud crack!

In that instant, the enemy had probably not expected Ren Xiaosu to not give him any time to react. He was simply too efficient with his actions.

The sound of guns being cocked could be heard from the yard. Ren Xiaosu immediately covered his whole body with his armor. Concentrated gunfire rang out as the wooden door in the yard got shattered by the bullets!

Ren Xiaosu charged the gunfire and saw three people inside. All of them were nanosoldiers, and there were a man and a woman tied up in a corner as well. Those two were probably the rightful owners of the house.

Ren Xiaosu barged his way forward and slammed into a nanosoldier, sending him flying into the wall and shattering it with just a single motion!

One of the nanosoldiers pulled out his sword and slashed at Ren Xiaosu. The other nanosoldier shouted into his radio, “Reinforcements! We request reinforcements!”

They were not dumb. When they saw a beast covered in mechanical armor barge in, the nanosoldiers immediately knew it was not a situation they could handle!

Although they had sent out a request for help, it was a little too late for them to be saved. With his black saber in hand, Ren Xiaosu went forward and cut the oncoming nanosword in half. Right after, he pierced the saber through the chest of the nanosoldier in front of him.

When he exerted more power in his feet again, Ren Xiaosu even saved on the action of pulling out the saber from the body. He forcefully charged forward with the saber in the corpse and stabbed the last nanosoldier dead, pinning him to the wall.

Ren Xiaosu stowed his armor and let out a sigh of relief. When he turned around, he saw Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others had quietly watched him kill all the people from behind the crumbling walls of the yard.

Everyone was surprised by what was going on with this armored man in front of them. But a second later, they realized it was actually Ren Xiaosu. In fact, not even Yan Liuyuan had seen him in that armor before.

But the way Ren Xiaosu had just killed those people was so slick. During the battle, he showed off a strength that shocked everyone.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Stop watching and pack your belongings! We must leave Stronghold 108 immediately!”

Chapter 284: The stronghold gets destroyed

“Bro, what the hell is going on?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

During the period they were living in the stronghold, they did not really have any access to news from the front lines. There was a clampdown on information across the entire stronghold as the radios stopped broadcasting, while the newspapers also did not mention the war.

But Yan Liuyuan realized the tenants next door changed. Usually, the man and the woman who owned the house would head out to work at 7 AM every day, but they did not do so today. This aroused Yan Liuyuan’s suspicions. It was not that he was overly paranoid but that they were currently living in an environment that required them to be cautious. They had to pay attention to all “irregularities.”

However, Ren Xiaosu did not have the time to explain. As the nanosoldiers had already sent a request for help, the “mysterious troops” would probably be arriving very soon. He beckoned to Yan Liuyuan and said, “I don’t have time to explain. Quick, get in the truck.”

The truck was currently parked on the side of the road. No one in the yard said another word and just followed Ren Xiaosu’s instructions. Their luggage were already packed, as though they were expecting to leave at any moment.

Ren Xiaosu jumped into the truck and asked, “Where’s the garment factory?”

“It’s in the west,” Wang Yuchi shouted.

“Then we’ll drive east!”

Li Qingzheng stomped on the gas, and the truck’s engine roared as they sped eastward. Usually, no one drove at such speeds inside the stronghold, so the pedestrians could not help but turn their heads to look when the truck passed by.

Someone muttered, “Are they rushing to get reincarnated?” He then headed home as usual after knocking off. He was wondering if he should buy a bit more rice this evening since the grains in the porridge he boiled for the past two days were so tiny they were almost invisible.

While in the truck, Ren Xiaosu paired a batch of nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan once again. Wang Fugui was holding a large backpack as he asked, “Xiaosu, what’s going on?”

“A battle is going to break out in the stronghold soon. We have to leave this place quickly.” Ren Xiaosu said, “How have y’all been recently?”

“We’ve been doing pretty fine. A lot of people have already run out of food to eat, and since they don’t have much savings, they can’t afford to get any food the moment prices go up. However, our family still has quite a bit of money left.” Wang Fugui said with a chuckle, “So where are we going this time?”

Of the refugees who entered the stronghold, Wang Fugui and company were probably the ones who led the most comfortable life since they were rich.

But for some reason, Wang Fugui felt that he had already gotten used to running around. In order to survive in this chaotic world, it seemed like they would have to keep escaping over and over again.

But they would eventually get tired of running like this. Sometimes, Wang Fugui thought of asking Ren Xiaosu, “Why don’t we just find a place to settle down in the wilderness so that we don’t have to get involved with all the troubles of the outside world?”

Meanwhile, Xiaoyu only wanted to make sure that Ren Xiaosu was alright by checking up on him. She was only able to set her mind at ease after confirming he was not injured anywhere. “Did y’all run into any danger while fighting the war on the front lines?”

Chen Wudi chuckled and said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, my master is the ‘danger.’ Wherever we go, there will be great danger there.”

Xiaoyu broke into a smile. “Everything’s good as long as y’all’re fine.”

To Xiaoyu, everything would be fine as long as nothing happened to Ren Xiaosu and the others. As for what happened to the rest of the people, that wasn’t her business. A refugee’s most basic thought would only be how to take care of themselves.

But at this moment, a shocking explosion suddenly went off somewhere in the stronghold. Following that, huge plumes of black smoke filled the sky like a big fire had broken out there.

Ren Xiaosu looked outside from the back of the truck and wondered if it was the Yang Consortium or the Li Consortium’s troops that did it. As of now, he couldn’t determine who the culprit was.

The stronghold residents on the streets all stopped in their tracks and looked into the distance. They still did not realize this disaster was related to the war. Most of the people were still thinking it might have been a boiler or transformer that had exploded somewhere.

Although it was wartime, the residents in Stronghold 108 had not been affected by the flames of war. Only the prices of food had gone up.

On most days, the radio and the newspapers would not mention the situation at the front lines either. As such, the stronghold residents thought they would not be affected by the war.

But following the explosion, gunshots rang out. It wasn’t until this moment that the stronghold residents started panicking. Was the war coming here?

Before they could react, they saw a missile with a long trail of smoke flying towards the stronghold from the southern sky. The long and thin missile was zooming through the air and heading east.

As it plunged, another explosion came from the east of the stronghold. That was the direction Ren Xiaosu and the others were heading. Cracks started appearing in the stronghold walls, and a large amount of smoke billowed up into the sky. Someone was bombarding the stronghold walls with artillery fire from outside!

It had to be Li Shentan’s troops. Ren Xiaosu did not expect that Li Shentan had even planned on destroying all of Stronghold 108 as well.

Similar scenes were happening throughout the stronghold. The walls that the stronghold residents had relied upon for survival were starting to get attacked with firearms and explosives. Ren Xiaosu made a mental note of the direction of the artillery firing and determined they should be coming from three different directions.

A second later, the city walls in the east suddenly started to collapse. Large pieces of debris from the stronghold walls came crumbling down. All of the stronghold residents on the streets looked over there in a daze with horror in their eyes.

They were dazed not because they did not care about the walls but because their nerves could not bear the intensity of this event. They did not know how to react when faced with such a great shock.

Everyone looked at the crumbling walls at almost the same time. The people on the streets were petrified like statues. Some people were looking out of their windows while their homes were plunged into an eerie silence.

The wall was a protective circle that the stronghold residents relied upon for survival, and it was the source of their innate sense of superiority and belief. Most of these people were born in the stronghold, so the world they lived in had always been surrounded by a wall.

This was where they lived and worked, and got married and had children as well. Most of them had not even thought about what would happen if the wall were to collapse.

Now that the wall had collapsed, the fundamental values that existed in their lives also crumbled along with it.

Ren Xiaosu yelled in the truck, “Just keep driving east. Since the wall has collapsed, it makes it easier for us to escape. It’s no wonder Li Shentan dared to attack the stronghold with just a single combat brigade. It’s because he’s fucking controlling the artillery!”

But since the east had already been breached, that saved Ren Xiaosu the trouble of blowing up the stronghold gate there.

But when the vehicle drove east, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was wrong, because the residents from the east were fleeing in their direction!

“No, something’s not right. I must’ve missed something.” Ren Xiaosu thought that even if the stronghold was collapsing, these people should not be running so far away from the walls!

As they were still very far from the east end of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu could not see what was happening behind the crowd.

The east! What was in the east?

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu yelled at Li Qingzheng, “Turn around! Fuck, I’ve forgotten all about the Experimentals. How could they possibly be absent from this big mess that’s happening here!”

As per Ren Xiaosu’s expectations, the Experimentals had laid an ambush around the stronghold. Now that the humans were infighting, this was their best opportunity to strike.

Chapter 285: My reinforcements have arrived!

Ren Xiaosu initially fled east as the Li Consortium’s mysterious nanosoldiers were chasing after them from the west. Furthermore, the eastern wall had been breached by missiles just now.

But he felt something amiss when he fled here. Judging by the size of the fleeing crowd, something terrifying had to be chasing after them.

Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi, “Can you hear the commotion ahead of us? Are there any strange roars there?”

Chen Wudi nodded. “Yes, I hear some!”

“Sounds like it’s really the Experimentals. Old Li, hurry up and turn around!” Ren Xiaosu shouted.

Ren Xiaosu and his group had to turn back now. If they could find any main road leading in any other direction, they would have to take it and see whether they could shake off the mysterious troops that were pursuing them.

Ren Xiaosu would much rather face the Li Consortium’s troops than the vast number of Experimentals.

When they were at Stronghold 109, the number of Experimentals had already reached over a 1,000. Now that they had absorbed even more people into their ranks from Stronghold 109, Ren Xiaosu would believe it even if someone said there were 3,000 of them!

There were probably only several hundred nanosoldiers pursuing them, so it really wasn’t too difficult to choose between several hundred and several thousand.

“When it rains, it pours.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. This huge stronghold had suddenly become a cage filled with desperate stronghold residents fleeing for their lives.

Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that the stronghold’s air defense system did not play any effective role this time. After all, even someone like Hu Shuo had rebelled against the organization, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the defense system of the Li Consortium had become as fragile as paper.

The Li Consortium had originally been guarding against the Experimentals, but how could they have expected missiles to descend down on their walls and destroy the stronghold!

A couple was strolling on the streets at this time. When they saw the ferocious Experimentals behind them, they started running desperately with the crowd.

As they ran, the girl suddenly fell down. The boy who had promised to protect her for the rest of his life suddenly let go of her hand and continued running ahead by himself.

The girl screamed her boyfriend’s name but he still did not turn around.

A middle-aged man was pushing his father in a wheelchair in the streets. Some years earlier, his lower body had been paralyzed due to a construction accident.

When the Experimentals arrived, the middle-aged man suddenly abandoned his father in the wheelchair and escaped by himself. The old man who was left behind sat there calmly and looked at the ferocious faces of the Experimentals. In reality, this old man wasn’t keen on living anymore either. He had been getting scolded quite often by his own family members over the years, and even his daughter-in-law called him an old coot right to his face.

The ugliness that existed in the belly of the stronghold and the indifference concealed within the prosperous city had suddenly been exposed.

But in this crowd, there was also a mother who suffered a sprain who pushed her child away. “Go on ahead, darling! Don’t look back! Mommy will catch up with you soon!”

The child kept crying and refused to leave. The mother broke into tears and cried, “Will someone save my child?”

Some people were shivering in fear as they hid inside their houses. It was as though they thought they could escape the pursuit of those humanoid monsters by doing so. When they realized the monsters did not break into their houses, they felt a sense of exaltation. It was only a matter of time before the Li Consortium’s troops would eliminate these monsters.

Then they would be saved.

What they did not know was that these Experimentals were only letting them off for the time being. Prey that did not run away would not need to be hunted down immediately. They could slowly seek them out afterwards.

As for the Li Consortium’s troops, they would not be coming to save them.

Less than two minutes after Ren Xiaosu’s truck had turned around, and before they could even find a road to turn off into to escape, he could already see the mysterious troops approaching! Even with the most conservative estimate, there were still over a 100 of them!

It was too late! This battle was unavoidable!

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Wudi, follow me! Cover me!”

As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu jumped off from the back of the truck. In that instant, he covered his entire body with his armor. When he landed, the entire ground seemed to shake.

When jumping out of a moving vehicle, people tend to lose their balance easily due to inertia. But as soon as Ren Xiaosu’s foot armor touched the ground, he kicked forward and shot out like a cannonball.

With this kick, his speed momentarily allowed him to get ahead of the truck that Li Qingzheng was driving. By the time the mysterious troops came face to face with them, Ren Xiaosu was already charging diagonally into the front of the enemy’s vehicle with his body. “Fuck off!”

Ren Xiaosu met the vehicle head-on using his shoulder and knocked it onto its side in an instant!

Even though Ren Xiaosu was wearing his armor, his physique still appeared minute in front of the military transport truck. But it was exactly this minute figure’s strength that somehow toppled the vehicle!

The nanosoldiers in the vehicle were not expecting such a turn of events. Then Ren Xiaosu flung his hand out and threw out four Explosive Poker cards at the next vehicle in an instant.

Time seemed to slow down.

The driver in the other vehicle saw the exquisite playing cards spinning in the air and flying towards his windshield. When they were almost touching it, he saw the cards emit a golden glow resembling the burning sun!

With a loud boom, the four “threes” exploded with such force that it sent half of the truck’s hood flying off! The entire vehicle tilted and rammed straight into a building next to the road!

The passersby were stunned. They had not expected to see such a shocking sight while they were fleeing. The armor-wearing “robot” was like a godly presence as the stronghold residents had never come across such individual power that went beyond their common knowledge and understanding!

It was as though they were living in the future.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not come out unscathed. Although his armor could dampen the collision force, it still proved quite unbearable for him. His entire shoulder was in
pain.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu knew that even though the overturned truck could cause some damage to the nanosoldiers inside, it would not be enough to kill them. After this, he would be facing an attack from over a hundred nanosoldiers.

Ren Xiaosu took a quick breather. He did not know if he could defeat them, but Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and Wang Fugui were behind him.

Between life and death, he had no other choice!

Dozens of nanosoldiers got out from the overturned military transport truck and surrounded Ren Xiaosu in only three seconds. They were all holding brand-new nanoswords in their hands. If Ren Xiaosu were not careful, he could get slashed by them.

When a nanosoldier slashed his nanosword at Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu’s right hand suddenly reacted and grabbed the spine of the blade. Then he slashed his black saber at the nanosoldier, cutting across from the right of his neck to his chest. The nanosoldier’s life was over.

However, there were too many of them. When Ren Xiaosu attacked, someone took advantage and sneak attacked him from behind. The edge of the nanosword suddenly pulsated with a rippling effect.

This slash left a large crack in Ren Xiaosu’s armor.

Chen Wudi bravely opened up a path from the rear and came to Ren Xiaosu’s side. But there were still another two military transport trucks that were speeding towards them from behind.

What could he do now? Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily. If any more of these nanosoldiers arrived, he would have to seriously consider running away.

But all of a sudden, the fuel tank of a truck behind them exploded. The entire truck conflagrated into a huge fireball that burned up together with the nanosoldiers in it.

Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. It was only at this moment that he heard a sniper rifle going off.

He looked into the distance in surprise. A girl with a cap was waving at him from a tall building as though she were saying, “Since you didn’t come and look for me, I had to come and look for you.”

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and charged the nanosoldiers on the outside edge of the encirclement at high speed. The nanosoldiers who were just getting ready to establish an effective defensive perimeter were immediately thrown into disarray by the collision.

Whenever anyone tried to deal an effective blow to Ren Xiaosu, a sniper’s bullet could be expected to fly in from the sky and deal devastating damage!

Ren Xiaosu was violently gasping as he fought his enemies. Although he had no choice, at least his reinforcements had arrived!

Chapter 286: Will of iron!

Ren Xiaosu’s Strength was at 10.5, while his Dexterity was at 10.1. Honestly, these stats weren’t that high.

But since he gained the external armor, he had turned into an utter “land beast” in the eyes of others. He did not even need to use any fanciful moves to kill his enemies. He only needed to use his absolute strength to have an overwhelming advantage over them.

But even so, he would still get drained if he had to deal with over a 100 nanosoldiers. After all, when his strength was used up, even the power of the armor would become extremely limited.

Fortunately, Yang Xiaojin was here. With her Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she did not miss any of her shots from hundreds of meters away, even if Ren Xiaosu and the nanosoldiers were moving around at high speed!

Sniper rifles had an extremely high standing in infantry combat operations. It represented a super frightening destructive power that all enemies had to be afraid of, and its existence was the absolute authority in a war between infantry.

Usually, snipers would choose to fire a single shot when carrying out a decapitation strike. But at the moment, Yang Xiaojin was using her sniper rifle like a long-distance artillery cannon that she kept firing.

With a sniper supporting Ren Xiaosu, his attacks became even stronger. This gave him more confidence to effectively kill and cut open a path past the nanosoldiers. The nanosoldiers were trying to surround them, but all their efforts turned out to be futile in the face of Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu’s cooperation.

One of the nanosoldiers raised his nanosword and went to slash at Ren Xiaosu from behind. But just as he raised his arm, he was killed by a powerful shot from the sniper.

Whenever anyone tried to attack from behind, the sniper’s bullets were bound to arrive. All of a sudden, none of the nanosoldiers dared to stand behind Ren Xiaosu!

Meanwhile, Chen Wudi was swinging his Golden-Hooped Rod next to Ren Xiaosu at their enemies. No one knew how heavy it was, but every hit the nanosoldiers took from it would leave them with broken bones and tendons!

All the fleeing stronghold residents were extremely shocked when they saw this. It was a fight that only existed in their imaginations. When the “mechanical beast” moved, even the ground under it crumbled.

But all of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized the Experimentals behind them were about to catch up!

He noticed in his peripheral vision that there were also Experimentals scrambling up the building Yang Xiaojin was on. Suddenly, a Shadow Door opened in the shadows of the rooftop.

Yang Xiaojin wielded the sniper rifle and continued shooting. Luo Xinyu’s voice came through the Shadow Door, “Xiaojin, hurry up. Stop trying to save him. It’s gonna be too late if you don’t leave now!”

But Yang Xiaojin did not say anything and just kept shooting, reloading, cocking the rifle, and continuously firing at the enemy. Even with her strong physical fitness, she was starting to get hurt by the sniper rifle’s recoil. But she could not stop shooting. If she stopped, what would happen to Ren Xiaosu?

Luo Xinyu was freaking out. “Hurry up, the Experimentals have almost climbed to the top of the roof. Girl, I’m begging you, time is running out!”

“Hold on.” Yang Xiaojin calmly tossed aside another magazine and replaced it with a new one. She had already discarded a lot of expended mags around her, though she still had about a dozen mags left in her backpack.

What normal sniper would carry so many bullets like her? No other sniper would do that. Only a Perfect Firearms Proficiency wielder could turn a sniper rifle into a 100% effective fire support control weapon.

Luo Xinyu was burning with worry. She did not know what had gotten into Yang Xiaojin for her to disregard her own safety!

Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin continued looking through the scope as she wanted to help Ren Xiaosu eliminate any potential threats!

The next moment, the Experimentals climbed onto the rooftop and pounced at Yang Xiaojin!

Even while the Experimentals were in midair, Yang Xiaojin was still pulling the trigger!

Just as the tip of the claw of an Experimental was about to touch Yang Xiaojin’s hair, she grabbed Luo Xinyu’s hand and disappeared in a flash!

Several Experimentals collided midair on the rooftop with angry roars!

Without any covering fire from the sniper, Ren Xiaosu gradually found it very strenuous. The nanosoldiers also realized the sniper had retreated, so they immediately formed a circle to kill Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi in this spot.

Ren Xiaosu noticed the power for his armor was about to run out, and the distance between them and the Experimentals was only several hundred meters. He let out a sigh when he saw there was no way out for them.

But just as Li Shentan had said, in the moment between life and death, the rage and strength that stemmed from the unwillingness to die decided whether one would survive or not!

Although Ren Xiaosu was exhausted, he still had a trump card.

Even though 10.5 Strength was not all that high, it would be a whole new world with “City Crusher” activated.

The City Crusher power-up could only last 30 seconds. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu regarded it as his greatest trump card. Ren Xiaosu placed a great deal of importance on it. It wasn’t how great a change City Crusher could give him, but how significant a change it could give the shadow clone!

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes turned crimson and the world seemed to tint red. With the arrival of a new world, the old one was about to get destroyed.

Immediately after Ren Xiaosu activated City Crusher, he summoned his shadow clone!

The formula for calculating the power of the shadow clone was very straightforward. It was twice as strong as Ren Xiaosu, so after he activated City Crusher, the shadow clone would become four times as strong as him!

The moment the shadow clone separated from Ren Xiaosu, it jumped into the air and leaped towards the group of nanosoldiers in front of it. It slashed at them with its black saber, moving as gracefully as a dancer.

The nanosoldiers were dying off one by one in front of the shadow clone.

When one of the nanosoldiers raised his nanosword and slashed at the shadow clone, he did not know the shadow clone had already moved past him. The black saber also cut through the nanosoldier, and his body was split in two.

This so-called City Crusher was a power that could really rock the entire city!

The shadow clone held a nanosoldier up by his neck and used him as a human shield. As it dashed forward, the buildings collapsed upon collision and cracks appeared in the ground with every step it took.

The dense black figure was like a swimming dragon that had descended onto the world.

The shadow clone of the young man was killing people within the panicking crowd in the boundless streets of the stronghold!

When the black saber, City Crusher, and shadow clone were used together, it became a real power that could surpass the ordinary.

Even if it could only last 30 seconds!

Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily.

None of the dozens of nanosoldiers could hold out for even half a second when facing the shadow clone.

The shadow clone stood at the far end of the street, surrounded by neon lights and a prosperity that was about to be shattered. This was a world that was going to be destroyed.

The shadow clone stood there quietly and pointed at the nanosoldiers in front of it with its black saber, as though to convey its iron will to the world.

The nanosoldiers would still have the heart to fight if the difference in strength was not that great, but the shadow clone was simply too terrifying. They felt that it would be very difficult to take on a power like it even if the armored forces were here.

Of course, they were unaware that City Crusher would only last for 30 seconds.

The nanosoldiers began to retreat at this time. They had also noticed the Experimentals closing in. Since they couldn’t defeat Ren Xiaosu, they could only retreat.

Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he saw them retreating. The effective duration for City Crusher was almost over. His strength was running out as well. Even the battery of his armor had nearly been used up.

He was at his limits.

All of a sudden, a nanosoldier carrying a rocket launcher pulled the trigger from the shadows!

However, he had aimed it at Chen Wudi instead of Ren Xiaosu!

“Wudi!” Ren Xiaosu roared.

“Ah?” Chen Wudi, who had just killed a nanosoldier, turned around when he heard his master calling his name.

But when he turned around, he saw Ren Xiaosu leaping towards him. His master who always claimed that he was not a good person was like a hero who had descended from above to protect a mentally ill child’s fragile dreams. That was because the child’s dream was to be a hero and a good person.

‘But, Master, you’re clearly a good person, the best in the world.’

All of the armor on Ren Xiaosu’s body formed up in front of him. It was like he was holding up a shield bestowed by the heavens as he stood in front of Chen Wudi!

He attempted to block the RPG with all the power the nanoarmor could give!

With a boom, Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were sent flying by the massive shockwave while the armor was blown to pieces by the explosion.

Chen Wudi got up from the ground and shouted, “Master!”

The scattered armor suddenly liquefied and gathered back towards Ren Xiaosu, who was lying unconscious on the ground.

Chapter 287: A world without the Great Sage

Chen Wudi rushed over frantically when he saw that Ren Xiaosu had become unconscious. He checked Ren Xiaosu’s breathing and found that his master was still alive. Come to think of it, the armor had borne the brunt of the damage for his master, so it probably did not cause any fatal injuries to him. But it still proved a bit too much for Ren Xiaosu to withstand an RPG attack as the huge blast left him unconscious.

Firearms were one of the essences of humanity’s intelligence over thousands of years as human civilization developed. It was strong enough to even kill gods.

Chen Wudi thought of carrying Ren Xiaosu, but the Experimentals behind them were approaching. He shouted to Li Qingzheng, “Get over here and help carry Master onto the truck!”

However, Li Qingzheng said bitterly, “The front side engine of the truck was hit by a stray bullet just now, so it’s no longer drivable!”

Seeing that the Experimentals were approaching, they were now faced with more and more difficulties. Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, “Everyone, help carry the injured students. Ms. Jiang, you and I will each take turns carrying my brother.”

Although Yan Liuyuan had nanomachines in his body now, there wasn’t enough power for them to last long. So he couldn’t carry Ren Xiaosu by himself for too long. He needed Jiang Wu’s help.

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Fugui was the first to act and carried an injured student out of the truck. Wang Yuchi and some of the other students had still not recovered from their injuries yet. There were five students who were injured, and now, Ren Xiaosu was added to the list as well.

The dozen or so female students were helping out on the side. They frantically carried the wounded students and continued moving forward. Everyone was at a loss. What should they do now that Ren Xiaosu had fallen unconscious?

In the past, Ren Xiaosu was the backbone of the group when he was around. Even if the sky were to collapse, Ren Xiaosu would be there to hold it up.

But now, Ren Xiaosu was in a coma and needed to be taken care of by the others!

This huge stronghold city was going to perish in the war along with the people in it. Prosperity would cease to exist, and the civilization here would become a thing of the past.

As a fleeing crowd of people passed them by, the neon lights in the distance fell one by one.

Even the sky looked like it was falling.

They had no way out. No one could survive this gray tide of Experimentals that were chasing after them.

The Experimentals started getting closer and closer. But Yan Liuyuan acted as though he did not see them and carried Ren Xiaosu on his back!

It would be impossible to escape the Experimentals if they had to carry the wounded with them. That was without a doubt.

But they could not defeat several thousand Experimentals either.

Looking at the oncoming crowd of ferocious Experimentals, everyone was faced with a choice: leave, or stay behind and die together.

When Yan Liuyuan saw the hesitation on the others, he said coldly, “If y’all want to leave, you can leave now.”

However, Yan Liuyuan was going to stay together with Ren Xiaosu even if he had to die.

Seeing how the Experimentals had already come within a 100 meters of them, a girl cried out and bowed to Jiang Wu. “Teacher, I’m so sorry.”

She then ran ahead by herself and left everyone behind.

Chen Wudi silently watched her disappear. He opened his mouth and tried to say something but did not manage to utter a sound.

No one blamed the girl. In the face of death, there was no other choice.

Jiang Wu silently took Ren Xiaosu from Yan Liuyuan’s back. “We’ve tested it out before. Your nanomachines won’t last for long. Since I’ve got more strength now, let me carry him.”

Then another two girls ran away after apologizing to Jiang Wu, but she did not blame them. As of now, she only needed to answer to herself.

The injured Wang Yuchi fell to the ground because no one was supporting him. He said with a wry smile, “You all can go ahead, take the monitor with you. I won’t be able to get away. Old Li, pass me a grenade. I know that you still have two left.”

Another student smiled and let go of his classmate who was supporting him. “That’s just as well, give the other one to me. You guys, go ahead.”

These students were supposed to be sitting in a classroom with transparent windows while their teacher lectured to them. They should also be secretly passing around notes under their desks. After their classes, they would play basketball in the schoolyard, then stroll along in the sunset with their backpacks after school.

If they could qualify for university in the future, they might even get to gain more knowledge. There, they would meet the girl of their dreams and then live happily ever after.

But the life they were supposed to live was suddenly interrupted at the age of 18. There was no future for them.

This “long street” that stretched into the future seemed to have no end to it. That “schoolyard” where young men should be sweating it out also collapsed into the abyss.

A determined will that was ready to die manifested itself in Wang Yuchi. He said with a smile, “Remember to live well, guys.”

Chen Wudi looked back at the pursuing Experimentals, then looked at Wang Yuchi and said, “None of you are going to die. I’ll cover everyone while you all retreat.”

“Huh?” Li Qingzheng said anxiously, “Let’s leave together.”

“There’s no need.” Chen Wudi said with a smile, “Have you all forgotten that I’m the reincarnation of the Great Sage?”

Everyone fell silent. But even if the Great Sage was here, he couldn’t defeat this many Experimentals, right?

Chen Wudi said, “Other disciples always protect their masters, but my master has been protecting me ever since I joined him.”

‘Master, you always lied and pretended to be the bad guy to protect me, so let it be my turn to protect you. I’m the Great Sage after all! How can the Great Sage be afraid of monsters? Even if I am to die, I have to drag those monsters down with me!’

Chen Wudi walked step by step towards the countless Experimentals. His tiny figure among the gray tidal wave made him look like a lone island facing a towering tsunami.

The afterglow of the sunset suddenly cast a ray of light through the clouds, and it somehow shone down on Chen Wudi.

His master had mentioned before that he was that ray of light!

He was the brightest, the most brilliant, and the most invincible ray of light in this world!

All of a sudden, Chen Wudi sprinted towards the Experimentals as fine beads of blood started seeping out from all over his body. That was the price to pay for his life force being set aflame.

Hints of the golden armor appeared on Chen Wudi, but he was unsuccessful in materializing it fully.

Chen Wudi roared, “That’s not enough! More!”

“I said! More!”

His life force started burning so strongly it was draining his life away!

His soul bent on achieving ruling the world was turbulent, as if fluctuating between past and present!

Who was I in my previous incarnation?

Handsome Monkey King of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit?[1]

No.

Keeper of the Horses of the Heavenly Palace? [2]

That’s not it either.

Yes, I’m the Great Sage.

I’ve already been to the Western Paradise.

I’m the invincible “Victorious Fighting Buddha” of this world!

I’ve already been to the Western Paradise!

I’ve already been to the Western Paradise!

A moment later, Chen Wudi’s phoenix-feather cap appeared on his head out of thin air. The two striped feathers pointed skyward and touched the clouds. Another moment later, his golden armor also appeared out of thin air. The golden glow was like the burning sun competing for glory with the Heavens. His cloud-walking boots also appeared at the same time, trampling the lands under his feet.

Chen Wudi laughed heartily in the shimmering twilight. “The Great Sage is here, who dares fight me?!”

The gray tsunami finally reached him, but Chen Wudi plunged his Golden-Hooped Rod into the ground, then flipped it upwards. The power of the staff raised a wave of earth over 30 meters high and buried the Experimentals at the very front alive!

The mighty wave of earth was like the wrath of an angry god. The Experimentals buried under the ground struggled as they tried to climb out of it, but the earth had become as hard as metal, and those Experimentals suffocated alive underneath it!

The Experimentals at the back continued rushing forward fearlessly!

Chen Wudi plucked a handful of hairs from behind his ear and blew lightly on them. “Where are you, my little monkeys!”

Hundreds of monkeys appeared in the blink of an eye. “We’re here!”

“Subdue the demons with me.” Chen Wudi belly laughed as he charged towards the Experimentals.

The monkeys pounced at the ferocious Experimentals and smashed them with their staves!

The originally ferocious Experimentals were unable to stand up to the monkeys. When the staves were smashed into them, their flesh and bones shattered!

Earlier, Chen Wudi had said he would stop the incoming gray tide and cut off their path so that everyone could retreat.

This was what he meant by cutting their path off!

Chen Wudi suddenly felt that the Experimentals in front of him had turned into fiendish demons that attacked from all directions. His entire world was filled with black smoke as evil spirits enveloped the sky!

The intelligent being behind the Experimentals remained hidden throughout. It commanded the large number of Experimentals and attempted to surround Chen Wudi completely. He was the most powerful enemy it had encountered since it ventured out of the Jing Mountains, and it had not expected such a powerful and invincible enemy among the humans.

There were still some humans hiding in the building next to the road. When they heard the commotion, they quietly looked out their windows and saw Chen Wudi dressed in shining golden armor, fighting like an unparalleled hero!

But the Experimentals had already surrounded him!

Chen Wudi spat out a mouthful of blood, but he wanted to ask his master with a smile, “Master, do you think I’m powerful? Master, you should hold on to your ray of light and protect it from now on. It hasn’t gone out yet.”

In that instant, he raised the Golden-Hooped Rod and pointed it to the sky. “Sky Breaker!”

Then he plunged the Golden-Hooped Rod into the ground with a furious roar. A circle of golden light emitted outwards from the epicenter of the Golden-Hooped Rod.

The golden light was a ripple, the lands a lake, and the Experimentals mosquitoes. In an instant, all the mosquitoes near the center of the lake were reduced to dust!

After that, none of the Experimentals dared to attack Chen Wudi anymore. The gray tsunami of Experimentals quickly fled the stronghold and ran madly for their lives!

This was the first time the Experimentals had been defeated since they headed out of the Jing Mountains!

By burning up his life force, Chen Wudi had reversed an overwhelming situation of adversity. It was like preventing a gigantic building from collapsing at the last critical moment!

But at this moment, Chen Wudi’s life also reached its end. He slumped to the ground and sat there with a stupid grin without any hint of sadness in his eyes.

He was thinking that if his master was here, he would definitely praise him, right? Thinking of this, Chen Wudi became even happier. He might even prepare a bowl of fried rice with sausage for him, one that had a lot of meat bits hidden at the bottom of the bowl.

At this moment, the stronghold residents who were hiding in the nearby building came running out. “Hero, are you alright?”

Chen Wudi ignored them as he was already at the end of his life. He was recalling the beautiful moments he had with his master.

He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital as a child. He heard his mother ran away with someone because of his mental illness, and that his father went missing as well.

He did not have any friends there and had nothing to look forward to most of the time. He felt that life was always gloomy.

Actually, Chen Wudi’s memories had always remained in the summer when he was eight years old. In that summer, he had vowed to become the Great Sage.

But many interesting things happened since meeting his master, and he even got the chance to eat delicious food too. Everyone protected him and no one called him a fool anymore.

He really wanted to tell his master, “You’re such a bad driver. Can you please never drive again? Master, you look like a cow when you wear that armor. Can’t you make it look better? Master, is that cap-wearing girl at the top of the tall building the girl you like? She’s much better than that Zixia. Master, your cooking is delicious. Master, you’re the one who is that ray of light.”

Chen Wudi started grinning.

But then he turned his head and looked to his side. He saw a middle-aged man secretly grabbing a handful of soil stained with Chen Wudi’s blood.

Startled, Chen Wudi asked, “What are you doing?”

The middle-aged man hemmed and hawed but was too afraid to speak. Chen Wudi shouted, “I’m asking you, what are you doing?”

The middle-aged man got so scared he almost cried. When he saw he had been discovered by Chen Wudi, he immediately knelt down. “The Pyro Company is purchasing blood samples of supernatural beings…”

The Pyro Company’s far-reaching advertisements had proven to be effective. Since he was not a supernatural being, he could not sell his blood. All he needed to do was to sell the blood of someone who was one.

As long as he managed to sell a blood sample one time, he would become a millionaire. Then he would lead a very comfortable life.

Chen Wudi laughed silently. So this was what the world was really like.

He remembered the middle-aged person who had incited others to steal his food even though he had saved him along the way while escaping from Stronghold 109. He remembered Liu Zhaojiang, who had secretly run away with everyone’s food supplies even though they had spent their days together and helped each other back at the outpost. He remembered that soldier who said that the idiot would offer to carry them if they deliberately acted like they had fainted. He remembered the soldiers who cursed at him even though he helped bring them to the medical center.

Chen Wudi suddenly remembered everything that happened in this world and laughed silently.

He gripped his Golden-Hooped Rod again, and the golden light rippled out around him once more. This time, he reduced all of the stronghold residents who tried to obtain his blood into dust.

Even as the middle-aged man slowly turned to dust, he still held the bloody soil in his hand tightly and did not let go.

This was the first time Chen Wudi had taken the initiative to kill someone, and it would also be the last time.

He remembered his master’s words: If you constantly feel like you’re being devoured by the darkness, wouldn’t it mean that you’re the light?

‘But, Master, this world is full of darkness. And now, my light has been extinguished.’

Chen Wudi sat cross-legged and gently placed the Golden-Hooped Rod between his knees. The striped feathers on his head dazzled like new and the golden armor on him shone as brightly as before.

Then Chen Wudi started turning into stone bit by bit from his feet. The petrification process moved up his legs like two dragons climbing up towards his neck, until his entire person turned into a statue.

When Chen Wudi first arrived at the psychiatric hospital, his mental illness was still not that severe. He would always ask the nurse there, “Sister, where are my parents?”

The nurse said coldly as she carried the medicine tray, “You don’t have any parents since you were born from a rock.”

Since he was born from a rock, he should go back to being a rock.

The monkeys gathered around him and vanished after bowing to him. The clouds in the sky scattered and a rainbow emerged.

It was so dazzling it could be seen from ten kilometers away, like a huge rainbow forming after the rain.

A smile touched the corners of Chen Wudi’s mouth for the last time.

“Master, I’m leaving now.

“This world no longer needs the Great Sage.”

[1] According to Journey to the West, the Monkey King is born from a magic stone that sits atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. |

[2] After angering several gods and coming to the attention of the Jade Emperor, Sun Wukong was given a minor position in heaven as the Keeper of Horses (37559) so they can keep an eye on him.

Chapter 288: A glass of wine

The destruction of Stronghold 108 had far-reaching effects. Over the widespread battlefield, this spacious stronghold itself was the largest forward operating base of the Li Consortium’s combat troops.

The troops from the other Li Consortium strongholds in the rear that were heading to the front lines would resupply at Stronghold 108 before continuing to advance northwards. This was also the reason for the sudden shortage of food in Stronghold 108.

The Li Consortium lacked experience as they have never fought any large-scale wars before. Many generals even thought that war was a very simple matter, and all they needed to do was to ensure that the war machine kept operating smoothly. For this, they had been planning for all kinds of possible scenarios and drawing up backup plans over the years.

But the moment war broke out, they realized warfare was unpredictable, with no constant shape or constant conditions. Unexpected situations were the most common events in wartime.

After Stronghold 108 was destroyed, the frontline troops of the Li Consortium immediately lost an entire supply line. The Yang Consortium’s armored forces continued to attack Mt. Qingsheng so that they could force an opening for their infiltration troops, and this was undoubtedly a massively successful strategy.

After the Experimentals retreated, the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers continued to carry out their demolition missions at the enemy’s rear and destroyed their main strategic facilities.

However, Yang Xiaojin had already disappeared. As one of the Yang Consortium’s core figures, she did not seem to be interested in the war itself, and even the nanosoldiers were unaware that she had arrived.

It was rumored that the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium were at odds, but no one knew what the truth was.

Major differences wouldn’t be felt for a short while after the Li Consortium’s supply line has been cut off. But if their rear troops couldn’t rebuild the supply line, it would definitely prove to be a disastrous blow

But after the Li Consortium was dealt such a disastrous blow, they decided they would unleash a full retaliation against the Yang Consortium at all costs.

In the southwestern battlefield, the war combatants cared more about things like the supply line and whatnot. But for the supernatural realm, Chen Wudi’s appearance could be considered a milestone event.

The Saboteurs had previously termed the current era “The Dawn of Gods.” That was because no being in the entire supernatural realm had really surpassed the ordinary yet.

They were all still afraid of firearms and explosives, and everyone preferred remaining hidden in the shadows of the organizations. The power of the ordinary was constraining the entire supernatural realm.

However, the emergence of Chen Wudi put an end to that era. Those who waited silently in the supernatural realm termed the era after Chen Wudi’s appearance as “The Rise of Gods.”

This was because they could already see the upper limits of a supernatural being reached, and hoped they themselves could get to that level as well.

But throughout the “Dawn” era, Li Shentan was the only person who could be considered a demigod. And Chen Wudi seemed to be the only one who could reach the threshold to be considered a god. He possessed what one would call, in the true sense of the meaning, a power that only gods could possess.

On the empty and run-down streets of Stronghold 108, old newspapers that were scattered on the ground swirled into the air when a cold gust of wind blew.

Dead leaves littered the ground. In the past, cleaners would be working in the stronghold. But now, every stronghold resident had fled from here. Only a few people remained hiding in their houses as they waited for the Li Consortium to come and rescue them. However, Li Shentan’s artillery troops had already intercepted all of the Li Consortium’s rear troops in the south, so they would not get here for a while.

Li Shentan was walking down the boulevard alone. As he looked at the depressing scene around him, his eyes were calm.

The little girl, Si Liren, hovered next to him in a white robe. She did not say anything and could feel the sadness and loneliness in Li Shentan.

Li Shentan came to the place where Chen Wudi had battled the Experimentals earlier. He quietly looked at Chen Wudi’s body that had turned into stone and sat down cross-legged across from him with a sigh.

He sat there for an entire day and night as though he no longer cared about everything that was happening in the rest of the world. He even laid aside his hatred for a brief moment.

The artillery fire in the south and north was still continuing. Meanwhile, the buffer zone of Stronghold 108 had suddenly become a quiet and peaceful land.

As Li Shentan sat there, Si Liren stayed put and waited by his side quietly.

Suddenly, Li Shentan said with a sigh, “I’m a little envious of Ren Xiaosu.”

Si Liren asked, “Bro, do you feel guilty?”

“No, I’m not.” Li Shentan shook his head and said in a firm voice, “And I wasn’t wrong either.”

How could someone like a Demon Whisperer with such a strong personality show any signs of wavering? Since he began his revenge, he’d never wanted to have any discussion of what was right or wrong with anyone.

Even if he was in the wrong, so what?

Li Shentan looked at Chen Wudi and said, “We both came out of an asylum.”

What he was trying to say was that among those who came out of a psychiatric hospital during times like these, he and Chen Wudi represented two extremes. One of them was pure of heart and always did the right things, while the other willingly sank into Hell.

Li Shentan loved being called the Demon Whisperer. That was because the demons in him were enough to devour this entire world.

But when Chen Wudi died, Li Shentan was a little moved as well.

He wanted to jump off from the edge of the dark and endless abyss where he stood, but someone always seemed to be calling his name from behind. When Li Shentan turned around, he could not see anything at all.

Li Shentan said as he sat across from Chen Wudi, “I don’t seem like I’ll have goals after getting my revenge. If I’m still alive by then, I’ll protect your master on your behalf.”

But then Li Shentan froze. He turned around and looked at Si Liren, who was dozing off in midair.

He suddenly laughed and said, “Stop sleeping. The Li Consortium still has several strongholds standing. Those old fogies must’ve gone into hiding, so we’ll have to seek them out.”

…

Inside Stronghold 88, Luo Lan was feasting. After all, he was fully hosted by the Yang Consortium, so it wasn’t like he had to pay for it.

Before the alliance between the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium ended, he would not be allowed to leave Stronghold 88. The reason why the Yang Consortium was willing to establish a platform of trust and cooperation with Qing Zhen was that Luo Lan had personally offered to come into their territory, which showed the sincerity of Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.

Any organization with sophisticated enough intelligence gathering knew that as long as Luo Lan were here, Qing Zhen would not rip up the alliance between the two sides without a valid reason.

Of course, Luo Lan knew he was a hostage. However, he remained very calm since he had already decided that he would be freeloading off them.

Although he couldn’t leave Stronghold 88, the Yang Consortium had given him the highest form of treatment.

But at this moment, a crow suddenly landed on the dining table in front of him. Luo Lan untied the small bamboo tube on the crow’s leg and extracted the slip of paper from the tube.

Luo Lan unfurled the rolled-up paper with his stubby fingers and was dumbfounded when he read the contents.

Luo Lan’s trusted aide asked, “Boss, what’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing.” Luo Lan sighed as he poured the wine in his glass onto the ground in memoriam. The friend who had saved his life before and always accused him of being Benbo’erba was no longer around.

Chapter 289: Humans do not relate to each others joys and sorrows

When Ren Xiaosu first heard of the term “The Dawn of Gods,” he felt that the Saboteurs had decided on using this name too hastily.

Most people would inextricably link the term “The Dawn of Gods” to “The Twilight of Gods,” but that made it sound a little inauspicious. But that raised the question of how it should be named to make it sound better.

By calling it the “The Early Morning of Gods”? That sounded really unsuitable.

“The Noon of Gods”? Didn’t sound right either.

And what comes after “The Twilight of Gods”? “The Latter Night of Gods”?

When Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan first started discussing this topic seriously, they were still operating a clinic in Stronghold 109 while Luo Lan was scurrying around in the sewers.

When Yan Liuyuan heard Ren Xiaosu say those words back then, he almost died from the hilariousness of it. But now, the young man who used to crack lame jokes with Yan Liuyuan remained unconscious on Jiang Wu’s back. He did not even have any awareness of where he was.

Yan Liuyuan led the group and blended in with the fleeing crowd as they left Stronghold 108. Now that Ren Xiaosu was in no condition to lead them, it was only natural that he, as his younger brother, would step forward.

T

They had to leave since the Li Consortium’s forces in Stronghold 108 had not been completely wiped out yet. Currently, the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers were fighting each other out in the wilderness. The Yang Consortium’s troops had wanted to withdraw after completing their mission, but it was not going to be that easy.

But if they waited here until the battle was over, they might end up having to face a pursuit by the reorganized Li Consortium forces.

Ren Xiaosu had not held back when he used his shadow clone in battle. Therefore, there was the danger that some of Ren Xiaosu’s secrets might have been exposed. After all, some of the nanosoldiers managed to flee from the scene.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was covered entirely with the armor and did not even show his face when they were fighting. It would still be justifiable if they said it was Xu Xianchu.

Although he had reformed the entire armor into a shield at the end, the Li Consortium had no time to pay any attention to who Ren Xiaosu was amid the chaos, nor did they have any visual references to identify him with.

Furthermore, the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers that participated in that battle might not have survived. When Yan Liuyuan and the others fled from the scene, the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers arrived and immediately engaged in battle with the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers.

Of course, that was only what Yan Liuyuan thought. Whether anyone discovered Ren Xiaosu’s secret was still yet to be confirmed. But for now, the most important thing that Yan Liuyuan had to consider was not Ren Xiaosu’s secrets. What he needed to think about was how to stabilize Ren Xiaosu’s injury and lead everyone to safety.

As the truck had broken down, they could only travel north on foot with the other escapees. Along the way, Yan Liuyuan was also hoping to get his hands on a vehicle, but any vehicles that they found by the roadside were damaged and could not be operated.

W

Without Ren Xiaosu leading them, they did not even have enough food prepared this time. It was quite different from the previous times when they were always prepared for their escape. This time, Yan Liuyuan and company were just as pathetic as the other escapees.

Even though Xiaoyu had made a lot of preparations, they had six members, including Ren Xiaosu, who were wounded. Just taking care of the wounded was enough to overwhelm them, but they even had to take turns to carry them as well. Therefore, they abandoned some of their supplies along the way and only kept some basic food and necessities like matchsticks for survival in the wilderness. It was not to say that those supplies were not essential, but they felt that their lives were more important.

Yan Liuyuan wore a pair of gloves and concealed himself everywhere below the neck. That was because the entire group would have to rely on Yan Liuyuan’s nanomachines in case they fought with the escapees.

Wang Fugui, Li Qingzheng, and Xiaoyu had no combat capabilities at all, so they could only rely on their handguns for the time being. As for the rest, needless to say, all of the nanomachines the few male students had were even less than what Yan Liuyuan had.

Furthermore, they would still experience a delay of about half a second when trying to control the nanomachines. If they got in a fight, their opponents’ fists would have already landed onto their faces before the nanomachines could even react.

However, Yan Liuyuan was quite talented at controlling his nanomachines. He could even gather the nanomachines to cover specific parts of his body. As long as he wore gloves while fighting, the silvery strands would not appear on his face.

Previously, Ren Xiaosu was always the one responsible for leading the way within the group of escapees. This was to ensure that the rear of his group would not get lost in the crowd. However, Yan Liuyuan became the person to lead the way this time.

“Liuyuan,” Wang Fugui said, “why don’t you rest for a while? Li Qingzheng and I will take over from you.”

Yan Liuyuan looked back and said, “There’s no need to. However my brother did it in the past, I’ll do the same as well.”

The group of escapees continued heading north. As it was a cold winter with snowdrifts on the ground, they could not travel far in a day.

But they did not dare to turn back around. Who knew if those terrifying Experimentals could still be following them? Although the commotion in the stronghold was rather big, most of the escapees who fled did not even know what actually happened there, nor did they know who saved them.

A minority knew the monsters might have been driven away by someone, but wasn’t that person dead? What if those monsters came back again?

On that same night, the escapees stopped at a spot that was not too far north of the stronghold. They stared blankly into the distance at the destroyed stronghold.

Yan Liuyuan headed into the wilderness alone with a pot, a rope, and some dried buns brought by Xiaoyu.

They only had enough food to last them two days. If they wanted to survive longer, Yan Liuyuan would have to go hunting like Ren Xiaosu. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was injured and needed meat instead of only dried food.

Yan Liuyuan recalled that Ren Xiaosu only taught him how to catch sparrows. That was because catching sparrows was considered the most basic hunting skill.

Sparrows were not migratory birds. So some sparrows would have already run out of food for some time by winter. That made this the best time to catch them.

But after Yan Liuyuan set up the trap with the large pot, he did not even see any sparrows coming to peck at the crumbs below the pot after lying in the snow for four hours.

During this time, Yan Liuyuan did see several sparrows land on the snowy ground. But each time there was a slight change in his breathing, the sparrows would get frightened off.

Birds were one of the most alert animals. After The Cataclysm, the birds became even more alert to their surroundings.

But Yan Liuyuan was not discouraged as he readjusted his breathing. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always share with him how easy it was to catch sparrows after he got home. But now that it was his turn to try, he realized Ren Xiaosu had only pretended it was easy.

It was extremely tough for a person to lie in the snow like this. Keeping his body hidden in the snow, the bone-chilling wind penetrated through the gaps in his clothes and cut his skin like knives.

Furthermore, with no one around him out in the wilderness, he could not talk to anyone, nor did he have any forms of entertainment. All he had was the feeling of loneliness.

Throughout the night, Yan Liuyuan laid prone in the snow without moving until his hands and feet went numb.

One time, when a sparrow did come and peck on the crumbs under the pot, Yan Liuyuan wanted to pounce on it only to realize that he had lost his ability to move. By then, the large sparrow had already tipped over the metal pot and flown away.

Chapter 290: Yan Liuyuan the hunter

As it turned out, he could not just lie there and not move an inch. He still had to adjust his posture from time to time to prevent his joints from going stiff.

It wasn’t until early next morning that another sparrow flew under the pot. This happened when Yan Liuyuan was getting so sleepy that his eyes were about to close!

Yan Liuyuan immediately pulled on the rope, and the metal pot held up by a stick fell to the snowy ground with a thud.

Yan Liuyuan could feel that his joints were all stiff as he clenched his teeth and pounced on the pot. Fortunately for him, he had the nanomachines.

He pinned the metal pot with his entire mass and only dared to put his hand in after he was sure that the sparrow was not struggling anymore. But when he put his hand in, he got nipped by the sparrow so hard he could feel a searing pain!

This was different from what Ren Xiaosu had told him! Yan Liuyuan let out a low growl. After much effort, he finally wrung the sparrow’s neck and broke it.

But after breaking its neck, he was left with three bloody punctures on the back of his hand! Yan Liuyuan sat down on the ground with the sparrow in his arms and immediately started crying. With no one around in the vicinity, he cried even harder.

He did not feel grief for himself but rather for Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu had always told him how fun the wilderness was and that hunting was extremely easy. Yan Liuyuan knew all along that he was lying.

But humans could not relate to other people’s joys and sorrows. Yan Liuyuan initially thought he could understand how much hardship Ren Xiaosu had suffered during the most challenging time of their lives. But he didn’t expect to realize that Ren Xiaosu had actually suffered much more at that time than he could imagine.

He finally realized the burden that Ren Xiaosu had to bear for him all those years after his own experience, and why Ren Xiaosu never allowed him to go out and hunt in the wilderness.

The young man who was his brother did not even have any nanomachines or gloves he could use during those times.

Yan Liuyuan wiped his tears and headed back towards the campsite. When Xiaoyu saw the blood flowing down his hand, she quickly dressed his wounds with her heart aching.

“Is my brother awake yet?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

Wang Fugui frowned and shook his head. “Since there’s no doctor around, we don’t even know where he’s hurt. We can only deduce that some parts of his body are fractured. But we don’t know what other internal injuries he might have sustained.”

Earlier, Xiaoyu had crushed some antibiotics and mixed it into a solution before feeding it to Ren Xiaosu. This would prevent his wounds from getting inflamed, or stop him from getting a fever, cold, or cough if his immune system resistance dropped.

At first, everyone was worried about Ren Xiaosu being unable to open his mouth for them to feed him the medicine. They thought of having Jiang Wu feed him mouth-to-mouth, and she had no objections either. After all, saving his life was the priority.

Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu did not close his mouth tightly. He swallowed the solution from the spoon when it was placed in his mouth.

Yan Liuyuan handed the sparrow to Xiaoyu and said, “Big Sis, can you boil some soup for my brother?” He then sat down in a daze next to Ren Xiaosu.

Wang Fugui said to Yan Liuyuan, “You don’t have to worry too much, your brother’s hardy, so he’ll be alright.”

Yan Liuyuan also firmly believed that. Since Ren Xiaosu had the physical fitness of a supernatural being, he would not get tortured to death by an illness as long as he did not suffer a fatal injury. Besides, he also made a wish for Ren Xiaosu to recover. For now, he could only wait and see what backlash he would suffer. Usually, Yan Liuyuan would determine whether Ren Xiaosu was safe based on the severity of the backlash he suffered.

Xiaoyu finished plucking off the sparrow’s feathers and even placed the offal off to the side. When this woman first started living together with Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, she would scream in fright when she had to kill a chicken, and Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan kept making fun of her for it.

But these days, she had become very proficient in handling food. Life really made one grow up. Xiaoyu was willing to change herself for Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.

After the water boiled, she placed the sparrow into the pot. As soon as the sparrow was inside the pot, the aroma wafted out, carried by the boiling steam.

As it was early in the morning, many of the escapees were suddenly awakened by the smell. They looked over with surprised looks on their faces.

When these escapees fled the stronghold, they only thought of bringing their valuables, such as watches, jewelry, gold and silver, as well as cash.

On the other hand, Xiaoyu and company were very experienced in escaping. They knew exactly what they needed most in the wilderness. Old Wang had already exchanged his money for medicine that was easier to exchange for cash and only had a small amount of gold and cash on him.

In war, gold was not as precious as medicine.

At this moment, someone strolled over to Xiaoyu and her group. The escapees had been hungry for the whole day, so their stomachs were rumbling now.

The middle-aged man said, “Why don’t you give me a bowl of soup too?”

The man did not even bother asking nicely. Xiaoyu shot him a glance and said, “Get lost.”

Yan Liuyuan stared coldly at the stronghold residents as he knew well the kind of people they were. All who dared to approach their group were shameless people. The honest and kind would remain seated where they were, because they knew how precious the soup was at this time, and they would be too embarrassed to ask for some.

A plump, middle-aged man came over with some other people following behind him. When he saw Jiang Wu and the others, his eyes lit up. Jiang Wu was a beautiful woman, and those around her were all her female students.

Furthermore, the people in this group were either old men like Wang Fugui or the wounded like Wang Yuchi and Ren Xiaosu. Since Yan Liuyuan looked really young, their group looked like pushovers.

The fatso said haughtily, “I’m a director at Stronghold 108’s Logistics Division. My name is Xu Shiduan.”

Yan Liuyuan sneered as he stood up and walked over to Xu Shiduan. “You aren’t welcome here.”

Xu Shiduan got so angry he laughed. “Where did this little kid come from? Get out of the way. We’re under wartime regulations, so your food has been expropriated “

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Shiduan stared blankly at the dagger in his chest. He had not expected this young man before him to stab him without any warning.

Yan Liuyuan slowly pulled the dagger out and let the blood from Xu Shiduan’s wound splatter onto his face. Everyone around him was stunned, then they retreated in fear.

Yan Liuyuan said calmly, “I’ll only say it once. No one else is to come near us.”

Ren Xiaosu once told him not to be afraid of causing trouble while they were still living back in town. In this wilderness, you could only live longer if everyone was fearful of you. But he also needed to have some discretion when making trouble. He should identify the culprit first and not get too many people involved. In that way, the culprit would be abandoned by the others, and they would not take revenge on him either.

The nature of people was such that they cherished their lives. When the residents who were used to leading a comfortable life in the stronghold realized that some people were capable of killing others and were more ruthless than them, they would subconsciously choose to step back.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu was the one to do such things. Now that he was unconscious, Yan Liuyuan would do the same on his behalf, just like what Ren Xiaosu did for him.

The escapees started retreating far away. Xiaoyu walked up to Yan Liuyuan and helped him wipe the bloodstains off his face with her sleeve.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly sighed and said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, today has made me fully understand the burden that my brother has been shouldering all along.”

Chapter 291: Regaining consciousness

Although the sparrow was large in size, its meat was not enough for 30 people to share.

Jiang Wu had originally brought along 28 students with her, but now that three of them had left, only 25 remained.

Including Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Yan Liuyuan, Li Xiaoyu, and Ren Xiaosu, how could the sparrow be enough for all of them? While Xiaoyu cooked the sparrow, she counted their supplies. Then she sighed and said, “I’m afraid that our dried food will only last us another two days.”

Yan Liuyuan pursed his lips. If Ren Xiaosu were conscious right now, would they have to worry about such problems?

At this moment, someone whispered, “I saw them…”

That person who spoke was a student. Yan Liuyuan froze for a moment before asking, “Who did you see?”

“Our classmates.” Wang Yuchi said gloomily, “They must have seen us too, but they’re probably too scared to come over.”

Yan Liuyuan finally realized they were talking about the three female students who had left them behind.

Yan Liuyuan turned around and looked at Jiang Wu. However, he found her sitting in a daze next to Ren Xiaosu and not saying anything.

“Ms. Jiang?” Yan Liuyuan called out.

Jiang Wu smiled bitterly and said, “I don’t blame them, let them be.”

It seemed like Jiang Wu never thought about getting those three female students to come back either. Yan Liuyuan saw Jiang Wu clenching her fists so tightly that her fingernails dug into her palms until she was nearly bleeding. Suddenly, Jiang Wu said, “Can I give them my share of the dried food? I don’t mind going hungry instead.”

Yan Liuyuan had a realization at this moment. Even though he was reluctant, this was probably the reason why his brother was willing to save Jiang Wu, wasn’t it? If Ren Xiaosu were awake, what would he do?

“Alright then.” Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh, “But, Ms. Jiang, you don’t have to go hungry. Since you’ve made the decision, everyone in the group will bear this together.”

With that, Yan Liuyuan had a male student take a small bag of dried food over to their female classmates. The male student stuffed the bag into a female classmate’s hands and walked off without saying a word to them.

The three girls sat on the ground-hugging their knees and wailed. Yan Liuyuan turned his head back and didn’t look at them anymore.

Right now, no one blamed them for what they did. When facing the threat of the Experimentals in these wastelands, and with Ren Xiaosu unconscious, it was only natural for them to make that decision at that time.

Although everyone was very upset, those female students did not exactly do any wrong. What was more important in this world than their own lives?

But even though they understood why they did that, it was impossible to accept them back into the group.

“Just leave them be,” Yan Liuyuan said calmly.

Those female students had made their choice, and there was nothing that they could do about it. Furthermore, the group was in a rather bad state themselves and could face the Li Consortium’s threat again at any moment. So it was better for the two groups to go their separate ways.

At this moment, Xiaoyu reminded, “Since there are so many escapees here, could there be a doctor among them? If there is one, we could get them to check on Xiaosu and see how his condition is.”

Yan Liuyuan jolted upright. “That’s right!”

Then Yan Liuyuan walked into the group of escapees with a dagger and shouted, “Is anyone here a doctor? Step forward now! You’ll be given a bun to eat after treating my brother!”

Immediately, several people in the group of escapees raised their hands. That was mainly because it was too tempting when they heard they would be given a bun to eat!

Having food in the wilderness was as precious as having gold. As this was just the beginning of their escape, it could even be possible to use a bun in exchange for a beautiful woman in two more days.

Yan Liuyuan swept his gaze over them and said in a cold voice, “Don’t claim to be one if you’re not. If I find out that someone is impersonating a doctor and causes a delay in the treatment of my brother’s injury, don’t blame me for hurting you.”

Several people immediately put down their hands. After all, they could still remember how Yan Liuyuan had just killed a person. Who would dare to go against him after the director of the Logistics Division had died by his hands a short while ago?

Yan Liuyuan asked, “What kind of medicine do you practice?”

A middle-aged man with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses walked forward and said, “I’m from the stronghold’s orthopedic hospital. I’ve noticed your brother’s condition earlier. He should have fractures.”

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Quickly come and attend to my brother then.”

Yan Liuyuan was amused when the middle-aged man remained standing there. Only when he stuffed a wrinkled bun into the doctor’s hands did the doctor start moving again.

The doctor went to Ren Xiaosu and squatted next to him. Yan Liuyuan asked, “If it’s just fractured, why is my brother still unconscious?”

The doctor briefly checked Ren Xiaosu with his fingers. Then he said, “He has too many fractures. Did he receive a strong impact to his body?”

“Take a look at the wounds first,” Yan Liuyuan said.

After a while, the doctor said, “I can estimate more than ten areas where he has fractures, and some of them are even comminuted fractures. Having received such a huge impact, it must have affected his brain as well. Therefore, he won’t be coming around anytime soon.”

“Then can you set his bones first?” Yan Liuyuan said.

The doctor shook his head. “I can only correct the fracture-dislocation at the joints of the limbs. As for the other affected parts, I need professional auxiliary equipment to deal with it and might even have to drive steel nails into the bones to ensure that he recovers. But even so, he definitely won’t be able to recover fully. I’m afraid that his quality of life will be compromised compared to other people.”

The doctor was trying to be as euphemistic as he could. To put it bluntly, he was not confident of perfectly fixing Ren Xiaosu’s condition. Moreover, how was he supposed to set his bones when he was showing signs of comminuted fractures? He did not even have access to any X-rays right now, but even if he did, he still wouldn’t be able to fix Ren Xiaosu.

Yan Liuyuan’s expression turned dark. Was Ren Xiaosu going to end up disabled? He refused to believe it! He wasn’t going to accept that!

At this moment, Xiaoyu asked with a frown, “Is his brain going to be OK? Will he suffer from amnesia?”

The doctor explained, “Although I’m not a neurologist, I’ve not come across too many cases of amnesia in such situations. So we don’t have to consider the possibility of that for the time being. But if his broken bones do not get set soon, it will likely lead to necrosis. When that happens, it will be impossible to save him. Or at least, it will be impossible here in this wilderness.”

Yan Liuyuan stayed silent. To be honest, he would rather that Ren Xiaosu forget about some people and some events.

He knew that Ren Xiaosu placed a lot of importance on friendship. Otherwise, he would not have accepted Chen Wudi into the group or gone to save Li Qingzheng. As such, Yan Liuyuan wondered how sad Ren Xiaosu would be when he woke up.

If Ren Xiaosu came around and realized that Chen Wudi was no longer around, what would be his reaction? In that case, Yan Liuyuan would rather Ren Xiaosu suffer from amnesia.

Suddenly, a weak voice spoke up. “Have him leave. I don’t need anyone to treat my injuries.”

Yan Liuyuan turned around in surprise and found that Ren Xiaosu had opened his eyes. However, there was a deep fatigue in his eyes.

“Bro, why don’t you let the doctor set your bones?” Yan Liuyuan whispered.

“No, I can do it myself.” Ren Xiaosu forced a smile with some difficulty. He tried to look around and realized that even moving his neck was difficult. But then he froze. “Where’s Wudi? Have y’all seen Wudi?”

Chapter 292: Self-treatment and setting of bones

Everyone around him fell silent. They did not know how to explain it to Ren Xiaosu, nor did they even want to explain it to him. They only hoped that he could be kept in the dark forever.

Wang Fugui said, “Senior Apprentice Brother said that he has something to attend to and had to leave for a while….”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui in a daze. He was not an idiot, or rather, he was a little smarter than most people. There was no need to say anything else. He could guess the truth.

So when Wang Fugui said this, Ren Xiaosu, who was lying down, started tearing up. “How did he depart?”

After Yan Liuyuan got the doctor to leave, he sat down beside Ren Xiaosu and said, “When Big Brother Wudi departed, he totally drubbed those demons and monsters all around him. He trampled over a million of them with clouds of rainbow blooming in the sky. A bright light shone down upon him from the sky like it was opening the heavenly gates for him. I guessed that someone from the Heavens must have come to pick him up.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything, and everyone around him fell silent again.

However, Yan Liuyuan realized that Ren Xiaosu was trembling all over, and even his face was turning red. Yan Liuyuan pulled up Ren Xiaosu’s pants and sleeves and saw that the blood vessels in his legs and arms had turned silver.

Yan Liuyuan also had the nanomachines, so he knew what was going on. Ren Xiaosu was forcibly using the nanomachines to straighten his bones without any use of anesthetics.

There were always people who would describe their pain to be down to the bone, but that was mostly an exaggeration on their part.

However, it would not be an exaggeration to describe Ren Xiaosu’s pain to be deep within his bones at this moment.

His bones had been shattered to pieces and were stuck within his flesh. He needed to use the nanomachines to constantly remove the fragments of bones and reattach them onto his broken bones.

It was just like completing a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes, the fragments would have to be removed and reattached again if they were fitted back wrong.

With that kind of pain, Ren Xiaosu fainted right after he finished fixing an arm.

After a while, Ren Xiaosu woke up again. After coming to, he continued to use the nanomachines to set his bones without any complaints.

Next to him, Yan Liuyuan was sobbing so hard he could not speak properly. “Bro, why don’t you rest for a bit? I beg of you, please stop for a while.”

However, Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and did not say anything.

He could not stop now. He had to set his bones as quickly as possible, then fix them securely with the nanomachines so that he would not have any complications in the future

It was simply too dangerous in these wastelands. If he became disabled, how was he going to face unknown danger?

After falling in and out of consciousness for an umpteen number of times, Yan Liuyuan suddenly understood that Ren Xiaosu was using the physical pain to suppress his mental anguish. The anguish was like getting stabbed in the heart by someone, and there was a sense of emptiness within.

When Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng realized what Ren Xiaosu was doing, they were shocked. If they did not witness it with their own eyes, they would find it very difficult to believe that someone could actually bear the pain of fixing their own bones.

Normal people would probably cry out in pain even if they were slashed just once. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was performing countless cuts on his own body. Only by doing so could he retrieve the fragments of bones stuck within his flesh.

It wasn’t until Ren Xiaosu had finally repaired all his broken bones and secured them with the nanomachines that he fell asleep groggily. His clothes were completely drenched with sweat.

Xiaoyu dried her tears while wiping off his sweat at the same time. Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, “When my brother did not know how to hunt in the past, we would just eat some wild vegetables.”

The others were stunned. They did not know why Yan Liuyuan was saying this.

Yan Liuyuan continued, “No one taught him which type of wild vegetables were inedible and which were edible. Some wild vegetables can taste super bitter, while some are slightly poisonous. How do you think he knows which type can be eaten? He left the edible ones for me after tasting them himself. Uncle Fugui is right about my brother being hardy. If he weren’t, he would’ve already been poisoned to death in the wilderness.”

For the moment, the escapees decided to stay put at the campsite and wait for the Li Consortium to come rescue them, because they felt they were no longer in any danger. They firmly believed the Li Consortium would come to save them since they were legal residents of the stronghold, after all.

During the day, Yan Liuyuan took a short nap. There were no stronghold residents who dared to approach them again during the day.

Furthermore, the refugees who escaped from Stronghold 108’s town noticed a sense of familiarity for Yan Liuyuan. It was the same ferocity they used to have while trying to earn a living in the wilderness.

In the evening, Yan Liuyuan stayed by Ren Xiaosu’s side without stepping away once. In the past, he used to keep watch for them during the night, and he still did the same now.

In the middle of the night, everyone was jolted awake by a scream. They looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yan Liuyuan’s hands covered in blood as he stood next to Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, two adults were lying at his feet, and one of them looked like he was barely clinging to life.

Yan Liuyuan grabbed the man by his hair and lifted him. He calmly sliced his neck with the dagger and said, “This is the outcome you’ll suffer if you try to sneak up on us again. If you want to find food, go and look for it yourselves in the wilderness!”

Previously, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan wondered why Yan Liuyuan’s physical strength did not seem to have increased much even though he was also a supernatural being.

Based on the progression of other supernatural beings who had awakened their powers for some time, their physical fitness should be much better than the average adult’s. But Yan Liuyuan was different. It was as though his identity as a supernatural being was not real since he could not even withstand the simple backlash of his power.

But now, Ren Xiaosu had helped him mitigate his shortcomings with the nanomachines.

The stronghold residents looked at Yan Liuyuan in fear when they realized the child was about to go crazy. He would not hesitate to kill as long as someone might pose a threat to the unconscious young man next to him. Moreover, they could feel Yan Liuyuan’s deep-seated hatred for them.

Someone who was standing very far away whispered, “When the troops return, let’s report all their evil deeds. Severe punishments will await them!”

“That’s right, the Li Consortium’s troops should be here soon!”

But even as they said these words, they felt a little unsure. Why wasn’t the Li Consortium’s troops here yet even though a day had already passed?

Even if there was a war going on at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng, there should still be some troops at the strongholds in the rear. So why didn’t anyone come?

But at this moment, the lights from some vehicles in the north could vaguely be seen approaching. All the escapees got excited at the sight. “The Li Consortium’s troops have finally arrived!”

“We’re saved!”

However, as the convoy approached, they did not look like they were going to stop even after the soldiers saw the escapees. The long convoy of vehicles just continued heading straight for the south!

By the time the rearmost infantry units passed by, someone finally stopped one of the soldiers and shouted, “Sir, where are you heading? Please help us!”

“Please save us! Give us some food!”

Chapter 293: The Yang Consortium’s refugee camp

The soldier sneered, “Save you? Then who will come and save us? The front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the north has already fallen. The Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and infantry division will arrive soon. We’re retreating to Mt. Guangying at the rear!”

“Then what about us? There’s someone here who has committed a crime…” someone choked out

But at this moment, an officer of the Li Consortium’s troops shouted, “Raise your guns and keep your guard up. Have you all forgotten what you should be doing just because we’ve been defeated in a battle? Ensure that no spies have sneaked into their group and forbid them from getting near us!”

The sound of guns being cocked rang out. The Li Consortium’s troops pointed their weapons at the escapees and forced them to retreat by shouting at them.

The escapees could never imagine the Li Consortium troops they had been waiting for the entire day would treat them like this!

They said anxiously, “You can’t treat the legal residents of the stronghold like this. I’m going to lodge a complaint against you!”

But when the Li Consortium troops heard this, someone laughed and said, “A complaint? Who are you going to complain to? We’ll see about that if you manage to survive!”

Then the Li Consortium’s troops continued to retreat. Some of the escapees tried to chase after them, but they heard a gunshot ring out. The Li Consortium’s troops had fired a bullet at their feet to warn them not to move!

Some of the escapees broke down on the spot. When the stronghold collapsed, their fundamental values in life had been impacted once. Now came another severe blow to them when the rescuers they had been expecting abandoned them.

Yan Liuyuan and his group had a different thought from the rest of the escapees. At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was actually more worried that the Li Consortium’s troops would take them away. The last thing he wanted was to have any contact with the Li Consortium’s troops.

After all, Ren Xiaosu’s current identity was somewhat awkward.

In the evening, Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness again eight hours after the Li Consortium’s troops had left.

This time, there was a calmness in his eyes. “Let’s head to the mountains. We should not stay here any longer.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu had a vague idea of retreating into the forested mountains. Of course, it was also because of the Seeds that he had the confidence to bring everyone to live in the forested mountains.

The Seeds would be enough for him to establish a simple land in the wilderness where they could live in peace and quietness.

The only bad thing was that it would require a 100 days for his injured muscles and bones to heal. Even though Ren Xiaosu possessed a physical fitness that was totally different from normal people, it would probably still take him several weeks to recover.

But suddenly, the unique sound of armored vehicles driving in the forested mountains came from the north. As the armored vehicles moved across the snowy ground, their tracks would flip over pieces of soil to expose the black layer of earth below.

Ren Xiaosu just laid there and could not move. He frowned and said with a sigh, “Too late.”

It was all because he had been in a coma for too long. It had delayed their best opportunity to get away.

They saw the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and infantry division quickly arriving. The escapees forced themselves to calm down and said, “The Yang Consortium will not do anything to us since we’re just civilians. We didn’t even participate in the war.”

Someone said, “That’s right, the war was initiated by the Li Consortium and had nothing to do with us. Even if the Yang Consortium occupies Stronghold 108, we’re still the legal residents of Stronghold 108.”

When the Yang Consortium’s troops arrived, an officer in an armored vehicle frowned as he looked at the escapees. He signaled for the soldiers to stop. “These people should be from Stronghold 108. Keep your guard up in case they attack our troops! Send out two reinforced companies and seize all of their weapons!”

As the officer jumped down from the armored vehicle, two of the Yang Consortium’s reinforced companies rushed into the crowd. Upon meeting resistance from the escapees, they would fire off warning shots or use their rifle butts to knock them over.

“Are you all escapees from Stronghold 108?” The officer clearly knew what had happened to Stronghold 108, so he understood what was going on when he saw them.

One of the escapees replied, “Yes, we’re the residents of Stronghold 108. Sir, we will submit to the Yang Consortium’s orders unconditionally and support the Yang Consortium wholeheartedly in the occupation of Stronghold 108. But, sir, can you help us eliminate the threats in Stronghold 108 so that we can return to our homes?”

The escapees immediately switched their allegiance without any struggle. Deep down, they did not have any sense of belonging to any organization, so they just listened to whoever was in charge.

However, the officer did not appreciate it. “Return to Stronghold 108? Who knows if there are spies hidden among you people? What if you all make trouble at the rear while we’re battling at Mt. Guangying?”

Then the officer told the deputy commander next to him, “Have the two reinforced companies stay behind here. Let these escapees build a refugee camp here. Keep a close eye on them.”

Every organization required people. With people, there would be productivity. Who else would mine or be responsible for ensuring production in the factories? Therefore, people were also considered a type of resource to the organizations. So of course they would not kill them indiscriminately.

But before the war ended, none of these people would be able to leave the refugee camp.

The Li Consortium’s troops had already been defeated at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng by the Yang Consortium. They had also lost to the Qing Consortium at the front lines of Mt. Shuanglong, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi in the east. With the Li Consortium completely defeated, they could only retreat to the farthest south point to defend their last bit of territory by relying on their natural defenses.

The three organizations would still have to fight a fierce battle at that place.

The Yang Consortium’s troops continued advancing south while the two reinforced companies armed with loaded guns remained behind to supervise the construction of a refugee camp.

The reinforced companies’ commander said, “I’ll be assigning everyone the work you’ll need to perform every day and the workload you’ll need to complete. If you can’t meet the quotas, don’t blame me for being harsh with
you.”

To build a refugee camp, they first had to chop down the trees in the area. Then they would use the harvested wood and tools supplied by the reinforced troops to construct some barracks. The two reinforced companies happened to be from the engineering battalion that was specially tasked to build roads for the armored troops.

But now the engineering battalion would not have much work to do since most of the road ahead was flat terrain. So they were able to split off two reinforced companies to remain behind here.

The Yang Consortium’s troops were extremely efficient. It only took them an hour to count the number of escapees and assign tasks to every one of them.

But Yan Liuyuan realized that even the wounded were assigned tasks to perform, and they would have to complete their share of the workload as well.

Ren Xiaosu had not recovered from his injuries yet and would still fall unconscious from time to time. How could he meet his quota in his state? If he had recovered from his injuries, they could have forced their way out of the refugee camp. With Ren Xiaosu’s armor, these normal soldiers couldn’t have stopped him. However, there were no “what ifs” to speak of in their situation.

“What should we do now?” Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu, who had passed out again.

“We can only hide here for now.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Fortunately, we aren’t wanted by the Yang Consortium.”

“But we have six injured people.” Wang Fugui said, “We won’t be able to complete all the work assigned to us.”

Yan Liuyuan frowned as he walked up to the reinforced troops’ commander and said politely, “Sir, do you know Yang Xiaojin?”

The reinforced troops’ commander barked at him, “Don’t try to slack off by pulling some random connection. I don’t know the person you mentioned. Hurry up and get to work! And those friends of yours who are lying on the ground, no slacking!”

Yan Liuyuan stared at him coldly, but he did not argue with him. Then he said, “Are we allowed to help them complete their workload?”

The commander said, “Of course you can! Why not? As long as you can complete it!”

Chapter 294: Liuyuan has matured

Yan Liuyuan stood there quietly. They currently had six people who were wounded, so it would be an extremely terrifying amount of work if he had to complete it for the six of them all by himself.

When the reinforced troops assigned the tasks to everyone, they would definitely set it after accounting for the maximum workload a person could perform. That would mean it was already not going to be easy to complete one’s own task, so how could they possibly complete the tasks for the others as well?

At this moment, Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng came over to him and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll share the burden with you. Let’s work together to overcome this difficult situation.”

The three other male students who were not injured also stood up. “There’s us as well.”

Even the female students raised their hands. “We can share some of the workload too.”

The injured Wang Yuchi also stood up while struggling. “I’ve almost recovered from my injuries, so I can start working as well.”

Yan Liuyuan smiled. “Sit down. I don’t want you to end up becoming disabled. You don’t have to make it sound so noble. It’s only a bit of work, that’s all.”

Yan Liuyuan felt rather warm inside. The people around him had gone through the test of time and were comrades who would go through thick and thin for each other. They had built a foundation of trust.

Looking at the other escapees around them, they did not even have anyone they could mutually depend on.

In the past, Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu had always been on their own. But now, Yan Liuyuan felt a sense of unity.

Xiaoyu took a handful of mud and smeared it onto the faces of the female students and Jiang Wu. “In this wilderness, we have to guard against others who might be eyeing us since Xiaosu isn’t around. All of you have such beautiful and fair skin, so there will definitely be some people with dirty thoughts. Find an empty spot later to change clothes. Put on some loose-fitting clothes so that you won’t have to show your figures.”

The female students were caught in a dilemma. Wouldn’t smearing mud on their faces make them look really ugly? But the female students who’d survived until now were not stupid either, so they let Xiaoyu apply the mud on them.

After being smeared with mud, they all looked at each other and giggled upon realizing that they looked equally ugly.

Then Xiaoyu said, “Remember to carry a rock in your pockets. If someone is truly up to no good, you can hit them with it. Remember to hit them on the back of their head one inch below the eyebrows. If you use enough strength, you can even kill them. That’s what Xiaosu taught me.”

This was the philosophy of survival that Xiaoyu had learned from Ren Xiaosu. They would lay low and only kill if they could not keep a low profile anymore.

Building a refugee camp was no small task. The process involved tamping the ground, excavating the earth, cutting down trees, and building the barracks. All of these processes required plenty of manpower to complete.

If a group of well-trained troops built the refugee camp, they could probably finish it in just a few days.

But it was clear that the reinforced troops were only planning on supervising the escapees and did not intend to build it themselves.

When they found someone slacking off, they would even mercilessly hit them with the butt of their rifles. An old man was hit in the waist by a soldier until he couldn’t stand anymore.

Some of the Stronghold 108 residents who wanted to protest ended up getting beaten to the ground by the soldiers as soon as they tried.

All of the escapees were performing their tasks in a trance. They realized that when war broke out, their fates would change.

In a war, no one was unaffected.

In reality, the Yang Consortium had another purpose for building the refugee camp. They wanted the escapees to expend all of their energy in the process of building it so they would be too exhausted to cause any trouble.

This was their usual way of dealing with their veterans. When a batch of veterans were close to retiring, the officers would have them plant trees to prevent them from causing trouble.

They would have to dig countless planting holes for trees and then cover them again every day until they worked themselves to the bone. Afterwards, no one had the energy to make trouble.

Yan Liuyuan and his group were assigned to carry logs. Their daily task was to transport ten wooden logs each. Two people had to carry a log that was as thick as a thigh.

The logs were extremely dense and heavy, especially for Yan Liuyuan who was a little short. Whenever the log tilted down on his side, it felt like most of the log’s weight was pressing down on him.

At first, they thought it would not be a big deal to carry ten logs every day. But when they actually started carrying them, they discovered the logs were way heavier than they imagined.

Fortunately, Yan Liuyuan could use the nanomachines. He concentrated them at his shoulders, arms, and legs, which made it easier for him.

Not only did he have to carry ten logs, but he also had to complete the task for Ren Xiaosu and the wounded members. Gradually, the nanomachines started running out of power. The area around his shoulders was hurting from abrasions, and blisters also formed on his hands.

Other people could take a short break after transporting a log back, but Yan Liuyuan’s group could not. The Yang Consortium’s troops had created a register in which the refugees had to write their names on whenever they carried a log back. Only by doing so could they avoid getting punished, and there were no shortcuts around it.

Moreover, these troops did not care if they were men, women, the elderly, or children. Everyone was assigned the same heavy workload and would get beaten up if they failed to meet their quota.

Yan Liuyuan once told Ren Xiaosu that he hated the strongholds, the organizations, and the stronghold residents.

He even told Ren Xiaosu that if Yang Xiaojin did not come and look for them, they should not go to Stronghold 88.

When Yang Xiaojin had come to Stronghold 108, Yan Liuyuan felt a little happy on the inside. He always felt that Yang Xiaojin was different from the others who came from the strongholds.

Furthermore, Yan Liuyuan hoped that the Yang Consortium that Yang Xiaojin was from would be different from the others and not treat human lives lightly.

But it turned out the organizations in this world were all the same. There was essentially no difference between them.

The only difference was Yang Xiaojin.

In the afternoon, Xiaoyu and the girls were exhausted after completing their workload. However, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the other guys still had to continue carrying logs.

Poor Wang Fugui, who was already an old man, felt like half his life had been taken away after working all day.

Xiaoyu and the girls took a short break before standing up to help Yan Liuyuan and the men with their remaining workload. However, Yan Liuyuan persuaded them to go back since the girls were more limited in physical strength.

When Yan Liuyuan came back again in the evening, Xiaoyu said anxiously, “Liuyuan, get some rest! You don’t look too good!”

Yan Liuyuan’s face was pale, and his lips had turned slightly purple.

Yan Liuyuan put the log down. Xiaoyu quickly pulled aside his clothes at the shoulder and saw it was badly bruised.

Xiaoyu said softly with heartache, “Why didn’t you make use of the nanomachines to help?”

“They’re dead,” Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh. He would have liked to use them too, but the workload for an entire day was simply too much. Other people only had to carry ten logs, but he, Wang Fugui, and the rest of the guys had to carry more than 20 logs daily.

“Go back and get some rest.” Xiaoyu said, “How many more logs do you have left to transport? Let me carry them instead.”

Yan Liuyuan tugged on Xiaoyu’s arm and said with a smile, “It’s fine, I can still endure it. Comparing my minor injuries to my brother’s injuries, it’s no big deal at all.”

Chapter 295: Yan Liuyuan’s Curse Manipulation power

Today, Yan Liuyuan realized that physical pain could really mask mental anguish. He began to wonder just how distressed Ren Xiaosu was if he needed the pain of his broken bones to suppress his sadness.

Nearby, some refugees who had just finished their work were laughing at Yan Liuyuan. These refugees had thought that Yan Liuyuan’s group was very tough, but look at the state they were in now.

When faced with the Yang Consortium’s troops, didn’t they still have to work all the same? And with injured people among them, they even had to perform a greater workload than normal.

Yan Liuyuan looked at a middle-aged man who was gloating at their misfortune. He said to Xiaoyu, “How I wish I had my brother’s power so I could kill these people.”

Xiaoyu wiped the sweat off his forehead and smiled. “When I disliked someone in the past, I cursed them to suffer a horrible death in my mind. Sometimes, I would even imagine several ways for them to die. Some would fall to their deaths while walking and others would get torn to pieces by wolves. It blows off a lot of steam just thinking about it. Maybe you can try that as well?”

Yan Liuyuan forced a smile and said, “Alright, I’ll try it.”

Right at this moment, the middle-aged man stood up to go relieve himself. However, before he could even take two steps, he slipped on some packed snow and fell forwards. The middle-aged man lost his balance and flailed his arms in the air helplessly. If he had just fallen down, he would have been fine. But to his dismay, he noticed a small rock in front of him. The moment he fell down, his head hit a protruding rock that made him bleed profusely!

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. It wasn’t like he hadn’t cursed others before, but just that he never did it so specifically in the past.

But this time, he had cursed the middle-aged man to fall and hit his head on a rock just as Xiaoyu had told him to. As a result, the middle-aged man really fell and hit his head on a rock!

However, Yan Liuyuan did not curse him to die. After a while, the middle-aged man slowly got up and swore, “Fuck, how did I slip?!”

Yan Liuyuan did not say anything and just went back to carrying the logs. Xiaoyu didn’t say anything either and went back to caring for Ren Xiaosu.

Both of them guessed what the problem was. Xiaoyu had figured out a while ago that Yan Liuyuan might also be a supernatural being. But since he and Ren Xiaosu never spoke about it explicitly, she never asked either.

Whenever Ren Xiaosu went away for a long time, Yan Liuyuan would always get a high fever. Xiaoyu suspected it was too much of a coincidence. And now the accident that befell this middle-aged man confirmed some of Xiaoyu’s thoughts.

But what she did not know was that even Yan Liuyuan himself was very surprised. How could there be such a coincidence?

That couldn’t be right. It wasn’t a coincidence at all!

So his power did not only allow him to make wishes to increase Ren Xiaosu’s luck, but he could also use it to curse others and kill them!

The power in itself could be used in two different ways. It was just that he had never used it to curse others specifically before, so he didn’t realize it. But now he discovered another way to use his superpower.

Yan Liuyuan stepped onto some packed snow at this moment as well. However, he lost his balance and fell forwards.

In that instant, Yan Liuyuan felt that something was not right. He quickly activated the recently charged nanomachines in his body to change the direction of his fall with the tip of his toes and landed in the snowy ground on the side.

Yan Liuyuan was a little shaken. He realized with shock that there was also a backlash when cursing others!

If he didn’t have the nanomachines Ren Xiaosu gave to him, he would probably have gotten badly injured as well.

This power was too strange. It could even cause him to suffer a similar backlash after cursing others!

Eh? Yan Liuyuan looked over at the spot where he was supposed to have fallen down and saw there were no rocks there.

When he was falling over, he thought he would end up with the same fate as that middle-aged man. However, it seemed to him that the backlash was not exactly the same but a reduced effect of the curse.

The difference was that the middle-aged man had rocks in front of him when he fell while Yan Liuyuan did not. The danger of the situation was greatly reduced as a result.

Although cursing people had its backlash, the result seemed to be rather acceptable to him. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had already helped him mitigate his shortcomings, so his capacity to take risks was higher than the average person’s.

For example, he could curse someone to get shot in the third rib by a stray bullet from the southwest. If he was prepared, he could easily use the nanomachines to shield himself in advance.

Of course, it would take too much effort to kill someone like that. But it was practically undiscoverable if he did it that way!

When someone died in an accident, who could possibly link it to him? Who would believe that even curses could kill in this day and age?

Yan Liuyuan was unlike other supernatural beings in that he was not blessed with a strong physique. It was as though the world had chained his power to prevent him from using it recklessly. But the nanomachines Ren Xiaosu gave him helped him change his fate.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly realized that his power might have even more uses than he knew. It was just that he hadn’t discovered them yet.

At night, Yan Liuyuan came back to Ren Xiaosu’s side exhausted. Ren Xiaosu, who had come around once again, asked, “Are you tired?”

Yan Liuyuan smiled. “No.”

Ren Xiaosu could see blood seeping out of Yan Liuyuan’s clothes at his shoulders, so he said, “I have three wireless chargers here that I took from the Li Consortium, but I don’t know how much longer they can be used for. It would be too conspicuous if you carry it around with you, so starting tomorrow, come back here when your nanomachines die and charge them before going outside. It should be enough to last you a few days.”

These devices were picked up from the front line at Position 313. At that time, the tent that Lin Qi and the other nanosoldiers were in had been blown up and only these three were still in working condition.

Ren Xiaosu raised his hand with difficulty and handed Xiaoyu two vials of black medicine. “Apply this on those of us who are wounded, and their injuries will heal very quickly.”

Everyone was sitting next to the campfire and breathing in the cold air. The injuries on their shoulders and hands would hurt the moment they touched them, but no one seemed to know what to do about it.

Now that Ren Xiaosu had come around, he helped them solve their biggest problem.

Everyone was hoping Ren Xiaosu would get better quickly. Without him in the group, it was really difficult for them to get by.

Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “Bro, I’ve discovered my new power. I can manipulate curses.”

A wish and a curse were two sides of the same coin. One of them could be used to bless others while the other could be used to bring mishap unto others, and these two powers were embodied within Yan Liuyuan. Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Explain it in detail.”

“When I’m trying to curse others, I have to think of it quite specifically in my mind. For example, I have to describe how certain factors create a certain outcome, and they have to be logical as well.” Yan Liuyuan said, “The logic has to be clear enough for it to work.”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “Then try this. Curse me to cough after choking on some potatoes.

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. “But we don’t have any potatoes.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Just try it.”

Yan Liuyuan closed his eyes and cursed Ren Xiaosu. Then someone a distance away exclaimed, “Someone dug up a lot of potatoes! I think they might have stumbled onto a potato field!”

Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. “It can even be used like that?”

“What are you waiting for? Go dig up some potatoes!” Ren Xiaosu urged.

Chapter 296: Willpower

In the evening, all of the refugees gathered around the campfire and waited for the potatoes to be roasted. The smell of roasted potatoes was emanating from the fire. When the Yang Consortium’s troops saw this, they said in surprise, “These people are pretty lucky. How did they manage to stumble upon a patch of potatoes?”

Only Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu knew this was probably due to Yan Liuyuan’s Luck and Curse Manipulation power. As for the specific principles behind it, neither of them knew anything

Other people’s powers were much more concrete to speak of. For example, Ren Xiaosu could see the palace in his mind and could even take the Seeds, the black medicine, the black saber, and the Explosive Poker cards out of it.

Xu Xianchu’s power was also very concrete in that he could summon a physical shadow clone. Even Luo Xinyu’s power allowed her to open up a visible Shadow Door.

Only Yan Liuyuan’s power was something that could not be seen or touched. If it weren’t for the many times they had tested it, they wouldn’t even know what exactly his power could do. Furthermore, this power could not be used on himself, and that made it extremely strange.

Therefore, this power could only be slowly studied. But even the direction to try to understand it from was difficult to identify.

But now, Ren Xiaosu had used a reverse method of this Curse Manipulation to help them find a potato field. It essentially solved their problem of having something to eat.

For the past two days, Xiaoyu and the rest had to try to eat as little as possible because their food supply was not going to last them much longer.

But after Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness, all of them could have something to eat again, and it was even a lot of food!

Yan Liuyuan was feeding Ren Xiaosu and saying, “Bro, try to get better soon. Without you around, we’re all a mess.”

Ren Xiaosu checked on how much his bones had healed, then thought for a moment before saying, “I’ll need another 20 to 30 days to recover.”

Most people would have to wait at least 90 days for their bones to heal, but Ren Xiaosu, whose physical fitness was three times that of the average person, seemed to also be able to heal three times as fast.

Yan Liuyuan heaved a sigh of relief. They would only have to endure for another twenty days or so at this refugee camp before they could leave.

Then Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, it doesn’t seem like the Yang Consortium is any different from the other organizations at all. Their soldiers also treat human life really lightly, so I doubt the residents in their strongholds are any better than those at the Li Consortium.”

“There’s good and bad people everywhere.” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “Just take a look at these refugees here. Lots of them don’t have any hate for us and have resigned themselves to the hardship we’re facing.”

“I still don’t like the strongholds,” Yan Liuyuan muttered.

“Actually, what you dislike are not the stronghold residents,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “but the rules that exist within the strongholds. The organizations have placed everyone inside that cage and then used their rules to restrain the people living in it. You yearn for freedom, so of course you wouldn’t like living under such rules.”

Yan Liuyuan grunted. Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Well, I dislike it too.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “Then after your injuries heal, we won’t have to go to the Yang Consortium’s stronghold?”

The roads leading to the north had been won by the Yang Consortium’s forces. However, Ren Xiaosu’s group did not have the proper IDs that would allow them to travel there. Surely they could not say to the Yang Consortium’s troops that they had the head spy of the Qing Consortium with them and that they wanted to travel to the Yang Consortium’s stronghold to have a look, right?

That wouldn’t convince anyone!

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. “Let’s wait until my injuries get better before deciding on that.”

He ate some potato just as a cold wind started blowing. That cold air flowed into Ren Xiaosu’s mouth and made him choke for a long while on a piece of potato that got stuck in his throat before he finally swallowed.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. “I guess that was your Curse Manipulation, right?”

Yan Liuyuan chowed down on a potato and choked on it as well. But he was fine after drinking some water.

Be it a wish or a curse, the backlash would always be slightly less adverse than the original. That was probably a concession given to the user. However, the power had to be used carefully as the backlash could not be controlled.

But in any case, Ren Xiaosu was still very happy. That was because the stronger his and Yan Liuyuan’s powers were, the less rocky their future paths would be.

At night, Yan Liuyuan continued testing out his powers by the campfire. From time to time, there would be people either shouting or slipping and falling down at the campsite Yan Liuyuan suffered quite a bit from the backlash as well. The curses were made on those who had come to ask them for food, though the curses themselves were insignificant. As such, there was nothing to fear about the backlash.

Gradually, Yan Liuyuan became familiar with his newfound power.

He stayed by Ren Xiaosu’s side and said, “Everyone has suffered a lot today to complete the workload required due to our injured members. I feel that the others in the group can be trusted.”

“Mhm,” Ren Xiaosu acknowledged softly as though he had thought of something.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly sensed that Ren Xiaosu’s heart was still aching. However, Ren Xiaosu seemed to be hiding the pain deep down inside him.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu called over the other students and asked, “Y’all’ve been training for a day now. Has your control over the nanomachines improved yet?”

The students were taken aback by the question. They then attempted to manipulate their nanomachines before Wang Yuchi said, “It seems to be responding a tad faster now, but if we don’t get a good feeling for it and try it out a few more times, the difference can’t really be detected.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “You’ve only trained for a day. This is something that will require a lot of time and effort to improve.”

Hu Shuo had said there were actually a lot of the Li Consortium’s regular troops who had a synchronization rate above 80%. For the average person, the rate was slightly lower.

This made Ren Xiaosu realize that the synchronization rate might not be set in stone for everyone and could still change. How else could there be such a special phenomenon within a specific group of people? So what was the difference between the regular troops and other people?

Regular soldiers would have received systematic training within the military. They were not only trained in military duties but also physical exercise. Soldiers dying during cross-country training was also not unheard of. Although the culture within the Li Consortium’s army had been declining over the past two years, their training standards did not drop.

The reason for the decline in culture was due to the military expanding too fast, with too many family members of the Li Consortium entering the ranks without getting properly trained.

So Ren Xiaosu wondered if the synchronization rate had anything to do with the physical exercise that was conducted in the military.

Of course, it could also be due to one’s willpower.

For example, a lot of high-intensity training would depend on a person having enough mental strength to get through it. So after such training, the regular soldier’s willpower would also become stronger. That in turn would determine whether their synchronization rates were high.

Be it their physical fitness or their willpower, Ren Xiaosu felt that these students would definitely be able to increase their synchronization rates through hard work. That included Li Qingzheng, Wang Dalong, and Wang Fugui as well.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something Yang Xiaojin once said to him. “When a disaster comes, mental strength becomes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.”

Chapter 297: Family

Manipulating the nanomachines with a delay was a very frustrating experience. Sometimes, even when the brain’s thoughts were clearly ahead, the nanomachines would still have a moment’s delay before they reacted to the commands.

The hands would not listen to the head, and that made Wang Yuchi and the other students feel like they were mentally impaired.

If they could control the nanomachines better, they would probably be of great help to the group. But in reality, they were powerless.

So when Ren Xiaosu told them that physical exercise could help increase their synchronization rates, the students who were not injured started taking the initiative to do more work, while those who were injured thought of ways to train themselves. For example, those who had leg injuries would train their upper limbs, while those whose arms were injured would train their abdominals. If a person really wanted to succeed, they would think of a thousand ways to achieve it.

Yan Liuyuan was initially under a lot of pressure due to the workload he had to complete. Even with Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng helping out, they were but normal people. As such, there was a limit to how much of the burden they could share.

But now, when the students heard what Ren Xiaosu said, they all started thinking of ways to break past their limits in the hope that they could help the group out in the future.

Their group had been through a lot of ups and downs together. Those who remained with the group despite all the calamities could be considered precious team members. They all knew exactly how difficult it was to survive in these wastelands.

But outsiders would think this group of people were on steroids or something.

Ren Xiaosu had constantly been waiting for a chance to leave this place. The first opportunity he was hoping for was for the wolves to show up. However, it had already been several days, and with the refugee camp almost completed, the wolves still did not appear.

At this time, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered something. Wasn’t it about time for the female wolves to give birth?

Back when they were at the outpost, many of the female wolves became pregnant. A wolf’s gestation period was 63 days, and counting the days, that seemed to be around now.

Thus, it would be most logical for the wolf pack to hide away while they waited for their pack to grow stronger and bigger. They would have to raise the cubs to become the main force of the pack.

At such times, it wouldn’t be possible for the wolf pack to still be wandering around. The Wolf King would even start stocking up on food for them in case any accidents happened while hunting

What a pity! If the wolf pack were here, these two reinforced companies of the Yang Consortium would definitely not be a match for them.

As such, Ren Xiaosu’s group could only wait for him to fully recover.

The fences around the refugee camp were nearly complete and were a full two meters high. The perimeter of the refugee camp even had wooden watchtowers erected and fitted with searchlights too.

Soldiers from the Yang Consortium’s reinforced troops were patrolling around the campsite. There were also troops working in shifts who stood guard near the construction site. All of them were equipped with live ammo in case anyone tried to escape. These soldiers were also acting as supervisors to the refugees and were responsible for teaching them how to build the barracks with lumber.

The two reinforced companies were rotating shifts, so those who were off-duty could head back to their own tents to play cards. But those who were on active duty were never lackadaisical. They were not going to give anyone a chance to escape.

If Ren Xiaosu and company were planning on leaving this place, they would have to first consider how to get through the blockade set up by these two reinforced companies.

During this period, Wang Fugui would take the opportunity to get close to the reinforced troops by sending things to them during his evening rest hours. He sent over many gifts, with things like watches, jewelry, and so on. This eagerness suited his refugee image very well.

When the troops were playing cards and chatting, he would be there to serve them drinks. But even though he showed so much sincerity, the reinforced troops still ordered him around as they liked and even hurled insults at him. But Old Wang did not get angry and kept a smile on his face.

When it was time to eat, the Yang Consortium soldiers would not even head out to pack their meals and let Wang Fugui run their errands for them. After eating, Wang Fugui would still have to wash their crockery for them. He couldn’t get any more lowly than that.

While the reinforced troops were playing cards at night, Wang Fugui brought over several cups of hot water for them. As a result, one of the soldiers who was not paying attention took an immediate sip and scalded his tongue.

He flew into a rage on the spot and pushed Wang Fugui over. “Shouldn’t you at least remind me that the water is hot?”

Wang Fugui let him pour the water over him before jumping back on his feet. He smiled and said, “It was my fault. I’ll go and pour you some warm water right away.”

Gradually, Wang Fugui turned into the representative of the refugees in the eyes of the reinforced troops. Whatever instructions they had for the refugees would be relayed through him.

When the first barrack in the refugee camp was completed, Wang Fugui immediately arranged for Ren Xiaosu and the others to move in first. The reinforced troops did not say anything even though they knew about it. This was the outcome that Wang Fugui had been striving for.

Although the barrack was pretty badly constructed, it was not easy to have a place where they could take shelter from the winter weather. Since their group had so many wounded, they definitely had to think of ways to move in here.

After the reinforced troops left, some of the escapees stood outside the barrack and started scolding, “Does it feel good to be at the beck and call of the Yang Consortium’s people? What gives you the right to move into the barracks first? We all finished building it together!”

But then Yan Liuyuan rushed out of the building. He kicked the person who had been speaking and stomped on him, making him cradle his stomach and cry out in pain.

How could anyone put up a resistance against Yan Liuyuan who was equipped with the nanomachines? Yan Liuyuan was holding a dagger in his hand and looking around coldly like he could kill someone at any moment.

Xiaoyu stood behind him at the barrack door and pointed at the crowd while scolding them, “If anyone dares to make up stories about Old Wang behind his back again, don’t blame us for not being polite. We’ll make sure you die for it!”

All of a sudden, the escapees remembered that this group of people were really ruthless and cold-blooded!

While resting at night, Ren Xiaosu called Wang Fugui over and said to him, “Old Wang, you don’t have to do this. It’s fine even if we have to sleep outside in the wilderness. You don’t have to put yourself down like that.”

Ren Xiaosu had already spoken to Wang Fugui about this several times. However, no one could stop him.

At night, Wang Fugui would agree not to do so anymore, but he would still go to the Yang Consortium’s soldiers again the next day and subserviently pour drinks for them.

Ren Xiaosu clearly sensed that Wang Fugui was suffering on the inside, but Wang Fugui did not complain once about it.

Wang Fugui smiled cheerfully and said, “It’s fine, this is what I’m good at.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “It’s not a matter of you being good at it or not. Although we have been through a lot of hardship together, we don’t need anyone sacrificing their dignity like that.”

Wang Fugui said calmly, “In order to escape, all of you ended up getting hurt so badly. Back when we were fleeing, even the students were willing to step forward with grenades to fight the Experimentals. But I treasure my life too much since I can’t die as I still have Dalong to take care of. So then, what can I do? In our group, I’m the only one who can do the things I did. Xiaosu, you don’t have to feel bad about it, I’m only doing what I have to. I can’t do the things that y’all did for the group. So in turn, let me do what y’all can’t do.”

There was silence in the barrack. Everyone suddenly had the same thought at the same time. They were all thinking this was a family.

Chapter 298: A unique way of using curses

Chapter 298 A unique way of using curses

Construction work at the campsite still went on. Yan Liuyuan and the others who had been carrying logs during the day returned to the barracks exhausted again.

After several of the students that went to work returned, the first thing they did was to check how well they could control the nanomachines. As a matter of fact, physical exercise could really raise their synchronization rate. It might not be possible to see it after one or two days of exercise, but now that a week had passed, the difference was much more obvious.

And in just a week, their bodies had gotten much stronger as well.

Yan Liuyuan said while lying in the barracks, “Bro, although physical exercise can help us raise our synchronization rates, there’s simply too much work for us to perform. It won’t be good if we break down from fatigue either, so please help us think of a solution. The potatoes from the field ran out yesterday Meanwhile, the grains the Yang Consortium have provided are only enough to cook a very thin porridge. If we don’t have enough food, it’s gonna be really dangerous for us.

The rations at the refugee camp were provided by the Yang Consortium. But how kind could the Yang Consortium be? It was enough that they allowed everyone here to cook their own porridge.

Fortunately, they had discovered a potato field a while ago, or the majority of the escapees would have already died of hunger.

But now, the potato field had also been fully harvested, as there were several thousand people in this refugee camp. All it took was two days for them to clear out an entire potato field. Many of the escapees started starving again yesterday.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “When you get to the construction site tomorrow, curse Li Qingzheng to get hit in the face by squirrel shit.”

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. “Bro, what’s the point?”

“Then follow the squirrel and empty its nest out. I believe that will be enough for us to eat for a while.” Ren Xiaosu patiently guided Yan Liuyuan on how to phrase his curses. “Remember, this curse of yours will definitely have backlash, so there will be two squirrels. You can empty the nest of two squirrels.”

Yan Liuyuan went out to the site to work the next day feeling skeptical. But after he made the curse, a squirrel really shat onto Li Qingzheng’s head two hours later.

Then another squirrel’s feces dropped down towards Yan Liuyuan, but he managed to dodge it.

Li Qingzheng swore at the tree trunk while Yan Liuyuan activated his nanomachines and chased after the squirrels.

When he located the two squirrels’ nests, he knew they wouldn’t have it too difficult for the next two days. Squirrels stored a large amount of food for winter.

In the wilderness, plants and animals were all evolving. Gifts from nature often surpassed what humans were capable of imagining. With luck, one could even find peanuts that grew as long as two adult fingers.

Yan Liuyuan even wanted to catch the squirrel as well, but it got away as he was too inexperienced at hunting.

He took his jacket off and bundled up the dry fruit and carried it back to the construction site.

A woman immediately came over and said, “Handsome young man, can you share some of it with me? Let me have some to eat and I’ll do whatever you want me to.” She leaned towards Yan Liuyuan as she spoke.

However, Yan Liuyuan avoided her advances. Yan Liuyuan said coldly, “You’ll do whatever I want?”

The woman smiled. “Of course!”

“Alright then,” Yan Liuyuan said. “Go and carry the wooden logs for us. When you carry them back to the campsite, register it under Wang Yuchi’s name. After that, you can come back here to collect the peanuts.”

The woman was confused.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan said loudly, “Whoever helps us carry one log can collect five large peanuts from me! There’s limited stocks, so first come, first served!”

This was the plan Ren Xiaosu thought up for them. Since the workload was too great, they should let others do the work for them.

At times like this, the escapees would do anything just to have something to eat.

In this wilderness, whoever had food could do as they pleased.

But Ren Xiaosu specifically instructed that they were only allowed to reduce their workloads and could not take the opportunity to slack off. It might be possible that all of them would need to depend on the nanomachines in the future, so increasing their synchronization rates was a very important task.

As a result, Yan Liuyuan strictly implemented Ren Xiaosu’s orders. Xiaoyu was smiling from nearby. “You two brothers still have the best solutions.”

Ever since Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness, everyone’s lives got better again. This was probably why a head of the family needed to exist.

Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan had helped Ren Xiaosu endure through the most difficult days when he was unconscious.

Only under great pressure would there be growth.

Some people came over to Yan Liuyuan and tried to pull a fast one on him for some peanuts. But for a person as clever as Yan Liuyuan, how could he possibly get tricked so easily?

Some people came over and tried to snatch the peanuts from Yan Liuyuan only to find out that although Yan Liuyuan looked rather young, he could get extremely ruthless, and no one could beat him!

Anyone who tried to steal his food would be left lying on the ground for a long time. These people probably had the Yang Consortium’s troops to thank for their supervision. Otherwise, they would probably have died.

Every night, Yan Liuyuan would go back to seek advice from Ren Xiaosu on how to curse his teammates the following day.

Ren Xiaosu also patiently guided him. “Just curse Li Qingzheng to trip over some radish leaves while walking.”

“You can curse Li Qingzheng to get hit on the head by wild dates falling from trees while peeing.”

“Curse Li Qingzheng to…”

In any case, nobody lacked food to eat since Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness.

Moreover, their heavy workload problem was also dealt with. The laborious work they did had now become a way for them to train their bodies. They no longer needed to toil away to complete their quota.

However, while the girls did not have to work as hard anymore, the students insisted on not reducing their work. They felt they might be able to increase their willpower by pushing themselves to a certain extent.

The refugee campsite was being constructed very fast. Several dozen barracks would get built in the matter of a day, and it was also during this process that the escapees started forming cliques.

After all, were several dozen barracks enough for all of them to live in? There were still many more of them who could not be housed.

Ren Xiaosu’s group had kicked off the practice of calling dibs on moving into the barracks. After the first barrack was completed, the rest of the barracks that were finished would go to those who were more ruthless and had more power.

The reinforced troops would watch from the sidelines as two groups of escapees started fighting. They would even start betting among themselves on which side would end up getting the barracks.

For a while, these reinforced troops found a new source of entertainment.

After all, if the escapees started fighting among themselves, they wouldn’t have the energy to cause any more trouble, and that was something the Yang Consortium’s soldiers felt was good.

Yan Liuyuan said to Ren Xiaosu, “The escapees are now split between several groups of people. One group consists of those who are more ruthless, so they managed to gain a foothold rather quickly and the other escapees are all afraid of them. Another group consists of those who were former officials in the stronghold. Many of the escapees think that as long as they support them, they’ll stand to gain something once the Li Consortium comes back into power. The last group is made up of normal refugees who are just honest people sticking together for their own safety.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “There’s no need to be afraid of them, but don’t go around picking on them either.”

Yan Liuyuan mumbled quietly, “They’re all from the stronghold, so why can’t we pick on… Alright, alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chapter 299: The might of poker!

Yan Liuyuan’s Curse Manipulation had somehow been turned into a unique production method by Ren Xiaosu. That caused Yan Liuyuan to subconsciously get the idea that he had to arrange for some food to be found whenever he wanted to curse the other refugees.

Under these circumstances where everyone else was unaware of what was really going on, Li Qingzheng had suddenly become their group’s mascot.

Regarding Yan Liuyuan’s power, Ren Xiaosu decided that it was still better to keep it from everyone for now, because this power was simply too strange. Even he couldn’t understand it.

Sometimes, such abstract powers would make people even more fearful. So Ren Xiaosu reminded Yan Liuyuan to keep it a secret. This matter would only be known to Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu, and Xiaoyu.

As such, Li Qingzheng was rather puzzled. Could he really be the legendary lucky charm of the group? How else could he always end up getting associated with finding food after suffering from some bad luck events?

Logically speaking, if a supernatural being discovered they could manipulate curses, they would definitely use it offensively.

Even Yan Liuyuan thought so, as that was only logical. However, he had underestimated Ren Xiaosu’s way of thinking…

When he returned to the barracks after work at night, a leader of the refugees came around to look for Yan Liuyuan and said, “You’re very good at finding food. Have you considered joining us?”

Yan Liuyuan became unhappy right there and then. “You’re the fucking one who’s good at finding food!”

What he had was clearly a terrifying power to manipulate curses, alright? So how did it suddenly turn into a wilderness survival skill instead?

That leader of the refugees choked in shock. If it were any of the stronghold’s escapees, they would definitely choose to avoid Yan Liuyuan. However, the refugees were different. They had been fighting for survival all their lives, so they could feel that Yan Liuyuan was one of them when they saw him and were not really afraid to approach him. In fact, this leader of the refugees was famous for his ruthlessness back in town.

The refugee leader smiled and said, “I am Cao Junpeng, so you can call me Brother Cao. In times like these, we have to stick together in order to survive. You have so many women in your group, and you’re even saddled with wounded as well, so how long do you expect you can keep going on for? Surely they’re not going to rely on you alone to get through everything, right?”

To outsiders, Ren Xiaosu’s group seemed to be relying on Yan Liuyuan for support. This was because Yan Liuyuan was the one handling all the dirty work that required him to be ruthless.

However, Yan Liuyuan sneered and said, “Brother Cao? Do you think you’re worthy of me calling you that? There’s only one person in this world who is fit to be my brother.”

Cao Junpeng said calmly, “You’re talking about that crippled brother of yours? He might have been very strong in the past, but I heard from the doctor that there are several places where his bones are fractured. Do you still expect him to stand up in the future? Even if he does, he will still be a good-for-nothing in life. Listen to me, you can’t be impulsive in a world like this. You will get dragged down by him.”

Then Cao Junpeng jumped five or six steps back when he saw Yan Liuyuan pull out a dagger from his sleeve.

Yan Liuyuan calmly said, “Bastard, how can you be so ignorant? You don’t look like a good person anyway. Don’t think that just because the refugees look up to you it means that you’re really some important person!”

Yan Liuyuan hated hearing others badmouth Ren Xiaosu the most in his life. In his mind, he had already sentenced Cao Junpeng to death. Ren Xiaosu was inside the barracks all this while, so he could definitely hear what Cao Junpeng said. So how could Yan Liuyuan allow others to speak badly of Ren Xiaosu like that?

Everyone knew that Ren Xiaosu was Yan Liuyuan’s brother. The doctor who had treated Ren Xiaosu was a gossip, so the other refugees were probably aware that Ren Xiaosu was going to be crippled.

But only Ren Xiaosu and the others knew who the actual person in charge of their group was. Would Ren Xiaosu become disabled? Of course not!

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said from inside the barracks, “Liuyuan, how can you speak to others like that? Apologize.”

Yan Liuyuan smiled at Cao Junpeng and said, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that you don’t look like a good person. You look pretty
good.”

But just as he finished saying that, he heard Ren Xiaosu say, “I told you to apologize; I didn’t ask you to lie.”

“Oh.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I was mistaken.”

Cao Junpeng sneered. “How many of you are there? Do you really think we won’t dare to touch you? You’re already behaving so disrespectfully at such a young age. We’ll see each other on the construction site tomorrow. After you’re dead, let’s see what happens to your brother. And those girls in your group?

They’ll probably lead a life worse than death when the time comes!”

Although the troops did not intervene with fights that took place at the campsite, killing people was prohibited. If anyone killed someone, they would be severely beaten up and have their workload doubled as a punishment. But there was no such rule at the construction site!

When Yan Liuyuan returned to the barracks, Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback for a moment. He knew the other party’s threatening words had crossed Ren Xiaosu’s bottom line. If it were the past, Cao Junpeng would have died on the spot. But how was Ren Xiaosu going to solve this matter?

Ren Xiaosu moved his hands and feet to loosen up a little. Although it had only been less than ten days, his fractured bones had already started healing. While he could not exercise vigorously yet, he could just barely walk with assistance from the nanomachines.

Ren Xiaosu said, “When I cause some chaos later tonight, we’ll find an opportunity to leave this place. Liuyuan, keep an eye on the situation outside.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “Sure!”

During the night, Cao Junpeng and the others were plotting something. A few refugees were seated together and playing Fight the Landlord with playing cards handed down to them by the reinforced troops. It was unknown how long the reinforced troops had been using the cards as they were in a very tattered state.

But to the refugees, it was good enough that they could play cards during such times.

If they wanted to form an alliance within the refugee camp, they had to first have a good relationship with the Yang Consortium’s soldiers. Otherwise, it would be considered an unlawful assembly and they would be punished for causing trouble. A few days ago, Cao Junpeng had caught two pheasants and sent them to the reinforced troops as a tribute. That was why he was allowed to form his own group, while the playing cards were also given to him at that time. It was like he was bestowed a gift by them.

Cao Junpeng said, “When we get to the construction site tomorrow, we’ll drag that kid into the forest and kill him while the soldiers aren’t paying attention. Remember, cover his mouth and don’t let him call for help. Wang Fugui is on very good terms with the soldiers too, so we don’t want any trouble.”

“Isn’t that Wang Fugui just a lackey who serves tea to the soldiers? What’s there to be afraid of?” A man shouted out loudly, “One ‘three’!”

Only three people could play at once, so the rest of the followers sat around to watch and listen to them. The inside of the barracks was filled with the stench of feet.

“One ‘four.’” Cao Junpeng drew a card and played it onto the table.

But at this moment, a hand suddenly reached in from the side and threw out four “threes’ onto the table.

Cao Junpeng immediately cursed. “I only played a four, but you actually played four ‘threes’?! Do you even know how to play? Huh? And didn’t three already get played? So where did these four ‘threes’ come from? You’re freaking cheating!”

“Eh, something’s not right. I wasn’t the one who played these cards,” someone said.

Cao Junpeng looked around and asked, “Who threw out these four ‘threes’?”

But at this moment, the four “threes” on the table suddenly turned brighter and hotter as well!

With a loud boom, the newly built wooden barracks had its ceiling blown sky high. It was like they were chicken casserole baking in a pot. No one could get away from the explosion!

When Ren Xiaosu heard the voices outside, he suddenly said to Wang Fugui and the others around him, “Get ready to run!”

Chapter 300: We were only playing Fight the Landlord!

According to Ren Xiaosu’s plan, he would create some chaos on the refugees’ side while they took the opportunity to escape.

After all, it was no longer safe to stay at this place. Ren Xiaosu had already planned on leaving the moment he could start walking again.

They could not head north now since they did not have any status. With the roads to the north full of the Yang Consortium’s troops, they would not be able to pass through the checkpoints for sure. They couldn’t head east either as the Experimentals were still there. It was even more impossible to go south. That place had now become the main battlefield for the Yang Consortium, Li Consortium, and Qing Consortium!

After the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium successfully broke through the first layer of defense, they immediately joined forces and closed down on the south. That left the Li Consortium in a sorry state.

Therefore, they could only head west where there was a mountain range that stretched for hundreds of kilometers. It was said that very few people could pass through it, and no one knew what was in there. But that was the only direction left for Ren Xiaosu and company to take. At least, they should be able to rely on the power of the Brambles and survive there for a few years.

But when the sound of the explosion rang out, the Yang Consortium’s troops arrived at the scene too quickly. The two reinforced companies seemed to have already prepared a contingency plan for such situations. The perimeter spotlights instantly lit up around the entire camp, and the soldiers that were patrolling immediately placed the campsite under strict lockdown.

Ren Xiaosu stood at the door and frowned. The Yang Consortium’s military standard was much better than he had imagined. It was no wonder they could win against the Li Consortium head-on in battle.

It looked like the Yang Consortium had been preparing for this war for a long time.

At this moment, the Yang Consortium’s officers arrived at the site of the explosion. Ren Xiaosu quietly observed from the periphery while the other refugees stood far away and did not dare to get close. It had been very peaceful at the campsite, so who could have expected such an accident to suddenly occur?

However, what surprised Ren Xiaosu was that not all of the people in their barracks had died. There was still one person who was lying on the ground gasping and shouting for help!

It seemed that the power of the four “threes” was still somewhat limited. Ren Xiaosu sighed. However, he was not worried about anyone linking him to the incident just because there was a fortunate survivor who might be able to offer some clues.

The combination of the Shadow Door and Explosive Poker cards was simply a super stealthy explosive weapon. Within a radius of a kilometer, he could cause an explosion to whoever or whatever he disliked.

The precision of which the Shadow Door could be controlled had been reduced to a distance of less than a meter by Ren Xiaosu, so there was practically no margin of error anymore.

Counting all the powers that he had now, the combination of his shadow clone and the City Crusher would allow him to execute head-on attacks. The Shadow Door and the Explosive Poker cards were useful for carrying out long-distance sneak attacks. Then there was the technique of stabbing people in the back too. On the whole, there were no obvious shortcomings.

A Yang Consortium officer stood next to the survivor and asked, “Why was there an explosion? Were you all secretly hiding weapons from us? Out with it, are you all enemy spies?”

The power of the explosion just now was comparable to two hand grenades. Although the explosion did not sound like it, it could mean that it was some other explosive weapon.

Since this was wartime, the Yang Consortium soldiers linked the incident to foreign spies, although they did not understand why the bomb would explode.

The survivor shouted, claiming innocence, “Sir, we’re not spies. I was just watching them play Fight the Landlord just now. But suddenly, someone played a ‘bomb’ made of four ‘threes’ and it ended up exploding.”

The survivor felt like something was not right with the officer’s expression. The officer got so angry he laughed. “You’re saying you were watching the others play Fight the Landlord, and then a ‘quad three’ bomb was played and it ended up exploding?”

The survivor nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, yes! That’s exactly what happened. In fact, someone already played a three earlier, so I don’t know where the four ‘threes’ came from….”

“Would you like to tell me all the cards that were played?” the officer said expressionlessly.

“I can’t remember…”

“Hah!” The officer said with a dark expression, “Do you think I’m easy to bluff? Drag him away and interrogate him through the night. Find out if he still has accomplices in the camp! As for all of the other refugees, get them to lay where the sentries can see them and have them start doing push-ups!”

Ren Xiaosu listened to everything from the sidelines. He knew what the survivor had said sounded absurd, but it was truly what happened.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan said, “what should we do?”

“If there’s no chance, we’ll just have to wait for one. You should also make observations of the terrain around the construction site these next few days.” Ren Xiaosu said, “There might be an opportunity if we go through there.”

The construction site was in the wilderness. If it were only Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, they would have fled long ago. But many more others were in the group, with over 30 of them in total. If they were to escape together, the size of their group would be too noticeable, while the girls and the wounded might also get caught at any moment.

Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and said, “The chances of escaping through the construction site are slim as well. That is, unless you fully recover; then we can kill our way out with everyone.”

“That will be our last resort,” Ren Xiaosu said. Ren Xiaosu then went back to the barracks and continued lying down pretending to be injured. Well, it wasn’t actually pretending since he was really injured.

Although they couldn’t get a chance to escape this time, it was still good that they got rid of a latent problem. After all, those refugees were wild in nature and had developed an aggressiveness brought on by the wilderness, so there was really a chance they could threaten the people around Ren Xiaosu.

Then that survivor was taken away by the Yang Consortium’s soldiers to see the reinforced companies’ commander. The survivor suddenly shouted, “Sir, I suspect that it was Yan Liuyuan and the others who did it. Our boss got into an argument with him earlier tonight and was thinking of killing them at the construction site tomorrow, but we allowed them to gain the upper hand in the end. That must be what happened.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment in the barracks. That guy was not stupid since he managed to guess the truth. Oh, that shouldn’t be it. It must have been his fear kicking in that caused him to senselessly start accusing others, while Ren Xiaosu and company were indeed the prime suspects for this matter.

The Yang Consortium’s officer looked suspiciously at Yan Liuyuan and the others. When he saw Wang Fugui, he froze and said, “So you all did it?”

Wang Fugui quickly faked a smile and said, “Sir, he’s slandering us. We didn’t even leave the building. You can ask those around us. We’re so far away from their barracks, so if it was us who did it, we would’ve been seen moving around there.”

The officer looked around and said, “Did anyone see them near the explosion? Be honest and you’ll be rewarded. You won’t have to perform hard labor in the future!”

However, the offer was met with the sound of silence all around, although someone did say that they only saw Wang Fugui and the others coming out of their barracks when the explosion happened.

Wang Fugui was someone the soldiers were familiar with. No matter how cold they were, they would still trust a person they knew. Furthermore, others also testified for him, so Wang Fugui’s credibility greatly increased.

The officer sneered at the survivor. “I don’t care how many lies you’re telling right now. There’ll be plenty of ways to make you tell the truth later!”

The survivor was almost in tears. All he had done was to watch others play Fight the Landlord!

However, after the officer brought the survivor back, he gave the matter a bit more thought and instructed, “Keep a closer eye on Wang Fugui and his group. Inform me immediately if there’s anything suspicious.”

Chapter 301: Creating chaos

The interrogation of the survivor got very intense right off the bat. That refugee insisted that someone had thrown out a “quad three” bomb that caused the explosion in the barracks.

But how could anyone believe that? After the soldiers in charge of the interrogation finished, they felt their intelligence had been insulted and became even more aggressive with the questioning.

Slowly, confusion started setting in and the refugee admitted to being a spy.

Most people in this world would not be able to endure an interrogation where they would force a confession from the suspect. The Public Order Division was actually the department that specialized in this area. According to them, unless one had the belief, no one would be tough enough to withstand the use of torture and force.

After the refugee admitted he was a spy, the Yang Consortium’s soldiers and officers could finally put their minds at ease knowing they had found the spy. But during this entire process, they could also vaguely feel something was not right.

At first, the officer had instinctively judged by the explosion that a spy could possibly be among the refugees. But it wasn’t like he was stupid. After he calmed down, he could naturally tell that something was amiss.

The officer asked, “But if the refugees were really spies, why would they blow themselves up? That doesn’t make sense at all. Besides, spies shouldn’t be gathering together like that.”

A soldier asked doubtfully, “Those refugees might have found something out about the spy’s plan, so they got silenced?”

“That’s very possible.” The officer said, “I asked you to keep a close eye on Wang Fugui and the others. Did you notice anything about them yet?”

“There’s really something about them.” The moment the soldier spoke about Yan Liuyuan and the others, he got excited. “I realized that there’s something wrong with one of their members.”

“Who?” The officer looked over.

“It’s a refugee called Li Qingzheng.” The soldier said excitedly, “Hahahaha, he’s too unlucky. Once he starts moving around… hahahaha…”

The moment he started, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing for more than ten minutes. The officer’s face darkened as he slapped the soldier. “Are you done laughing?”

The soldier stopped laughing abruptly. He realized the officer was starting to get a little angry, so he quickly added, “This Li Qingzheng is really unlucky, but he’s also very lucky at the same time. The unfortunate things that happen to him are trivial, but he always stumbles upon some food sources after suffering from his bad luck.”

This was not what the officer wanted to hear. There was already someone who inexplicably found a potato field anyway. Anything that happened in the wilderness wouldn’t be considered strange.

Then the officer asked, “Anyone else acting strangely in that group?”

“Oh, yes.” The soldier said, “The strange thing about them is that their group has a lot of injured people.”

“What’s so strange about that?” the officer asked puzzledly.

“Actually, there aren’t that many injured people among the refugees at our campsite.” The soldier explained, “That’s because those who were injured back then could not get out of the stronghold. But as these people were quite united, they managed to bring all of their injured along and escaped. I’ve checked with the others. They said this group’s members were already wounded when they left the stronghold. They took turns carrying the injured and ended up bringing them all the way here.”

“That just means they’ve got a good relationship with each other in their group.” The officer said, “I’ve heard that Ren Xiaosu’s injuries are quite serious?”

The soldier said, “That’s right. The doctor said he has fractures in more than a dozen places, and they’re even comminuted fractures. He was previously in a coma until recently.”

“Wait!” The officer was stunned. “Fractures in more than a dozen places? But there aren’t any gunshots on his body. There’s no signs of his hair being burnt or any other external injuries either, so how did those fractures come about?”

The soldier was also taken aback. For fractures as serious as that without any signs of any external injuries, how could that be possible?

“Go,” The officer said, “Check on the wounds of those people and see if they have any gunshot wounds! I want to reinterrogate that survivor. Bring him to me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the soldier led a platoon over to Ren Xiaosu’s group and pushed open the door to their barrack.

Wang Fugui went up and tried to make conversation with them but got pushed away by a soldier.

The soldiers came to the front of Wang Yuchi and lifted his pants at the ankle, only to find some shallow bruises on his legs. There were still some wounds that were oozing blood.

The soldier was taken aback and thought for a moment before getting someone to bring over a pen and paper. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu and the others, “Without communicating with each other, write down the reason for your injuries.”

In the end, after the six of them finished writing, including Ren Xiaosu, the soldier collected the paper and had a look at them. Although the descriptions were different, they all said they had been knocked down by other vehicles while trying to escape from the stronghold.

The soldier frowned as he lifted Ren Xiaosu’s shirt. However, he discovered that Ren Xiaosu’s injuries were also mainly bruises and some external wounds. It just looked more serious than the injuries Wang Yuchi and the others had.

The soldier said nonchalantly, “So it was a car accident. Rest well then.”

With that said, he led his platoon away. Indeed, he had no other questions for them.

Ren Xiaosu watched calmly as the soldiers left. Wang Yuchi whispered, “Monitor, how did you know that they would come and check on our wounds?”

Originally, Wang Yuchi and the others had suffered gunshot wounds. But after using the black medicine, they recovered within three days, so the soldiers were unable to find anything suspicious.

And the bruises on their bodies were purposely inflicted by Ren Xiaosu a few days ago, including those on his own. This was so that it would prevent anyone from suspecting them if they checked.

Ren Xiaosu said, “I wasn’t sure either. It was just a precaution.”

Wang Yuchi and the others were stunned. They had thought that Ren Xiaosu was too cautious. Two days ago, when Ren Xiaosu forged those injuries on himself, they were wondering if he had overthought things. After all, the bruises he had created would still be quite painful.

But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu was right. There was nothing wrong with being more cautious.

“Bro, they’re starting to suspect us,” Yan Liuyuan said in a low voice.

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “It’s not a big problem. Everything is still under control.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu gave a sigh. It looked like he would have to resort to his trump card.

That night, the officer interrogated the refugee again. “Tell me, how did Cao Junpeng and Yan Liuyuan’s feud start?”

“Cao Junpeng felt that Yan Liuyuan was very good at finding food, so he wanted to take the kid in and use him. But Yan Liuyuan scolded him instead.” The refugee prisoner said, “Before y’all arrived and subjugated us, Yan Liuyuan had already killed several people because of his brother. He was extremely ruthless and fierce, so Cao Junpeng decided that he would just kill the kid if he didn’t want to join us.”

“Oh?” The officer nodded. “Then something happened to you all that night? Where did those playing cards come from?”

The refugee said, “Sir, we got the cards from y’all as a hand-me-down…”

The officer raised his eyebrows. “So you’re saying that I was the one who blew you all up?”

“No, no.” The refugee shook his head and said, “The four ‘threes’ were very new and looked different from the cards that you all gave us—”

And then at this moment, a hand suddenly threw out four “threes” onto the table between the two of them before disappearing.

The officer froze. “Were they cards like these?”

The refugee hurriedly nodded. “Yes, yes,
yes!”

The officer said, “Fuck…”

With a loud boom, the reinforced companies’ commander’s tent was sent flying into the sky. At the same time, loud explosions rang out from many places in the refugee camp. The refugees were all screaming and fleeing outwards!

Chapter 302: A dangerous situation, a rescue by Yang Xiaojin

The escapees were a group scarred by their recent experiences. Some of them would even get nightmares and wake up with night terrors.

So when the explosions went off, someone among the escapees thought that war was breaking out again and cried out for everyone to quickly run. As such, all of the other escapees mindlessly followed suit.

They could not even tell where the explosions were coming from!

Truly, the Shadow Door and Explosive Poker was a really stealthy combination that could catch people by surprise. No one knew where the next explosion was going to happen.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu could have used this method to cause chaos long ago. It was just that he had always felt a little unwilling to part with his gratitude tokens and could not bear to use them like this.

His gratitude tokens had reached more than 900 coins and he was so close to unlocking the new weapon.

But now his gratitude tokens slipped back down to slightly over 800 coins.

Ren Xiaosu threw out the Explosive Poker cards consisting of more than ten sets of “quad threes” in one go. As for the more powerful sets, he kept them on hand.

While he was preparing to throw them out, he planned to throw them at random places to cause some casualties. That way, more chaos could be created. But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of Chen Wudi for some reason and decided to throw the “bombs” into the uninhabited areas and near the Yang Consortium’s guard post as well.

If it were the past, would Ren Xiaosu have hesitated for even half a second?

At the end of the day, that beam of light still shone.

Ren Xiaosu’s group blended into the crowd and tried to head westward. Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium’s soldiers were all rushing back to their tents to save their own people and did not have time to care about where the escapees were fleeing.

When the escapees rushed out of the refugee camp, the soldiers on guard duty only fired a warning shot or two before giving up. They knew they wouldn’t be able to stop the escapees who had already lost all control due to their fear of death.

Yan Liuyuan stayed by Ren Xiaosu’s side throughout as Ren Xiaosu was still very weak. He had to make sure that no one would knock him down accidentally.

It was not easy for Ren Xiaosu to fix his bones. If they were to get broken again, it would be much more painful to have to set them again. So whenever anyone came near to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan would push them away.

“Bro, where are we going?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“The forested mountains in the west.” Ren Xiaosu said, “We will hide in the forest.”

But at this moment, engines roared from the south. Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks and looked in that direction to see dozens of military transport trucks returning from the front lines.

This convoy was definitely not here for them. Although the soldiers had called for reinforcements after the explosions went off at the refugee camp, they couldn’t have arrived this quickly no matter how well-trained they were by the Yang Consortium. Hence, this was the Yang Consortium troops that were returning from the front lines of the battlefield!

“How damn unlucky!” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

He had wasted so many gratitude tokens just to create a chance for them to leave. But unfortunately, the plan did not go according to his wishes and he had to encounter the Yang Consortium troops who happened to be returning from the front lines!

Ren Xiaosu turned around and led his group back since it would be impossible for them to go head-to-head against the Yang Consortium’s combat troops.

They noticed the convoy had discovered the chaos going on in the refugee camp, and their troops immediately split up into several groups to intercept the escapees from fleeing by stopping them in their tracks.

These escapees were just like docile lambs that had been tamed. When they saw the shepherd arriving, they subconsciously obeyed him.

The soldiers who jumped out of the vehicles forced the escapees back into their barracks with their guns. “Go back to your own barracks! Those who disobey orders will be executed!”

The escapees turned back. At this moment, they realized the explosions had stopped.

An officer wearing the rank of lieutenant colonel said loudly, “Who’s the one in charge of the refugee camp? Why was there a riot happening?!”

A soldier from the reinforced company ran out and reported, “Sir, I don’t know what happened, but explosions suddenly went off everywhere in the refugee camp. The escapees were fleeing only because they got frightened. Our commander died in the line of duty.”

The lieutenant colonel was stunned. “Didn’t you all make sure to seize all of their weapons? You should know that you’ll have to be careful of spies mixed among these people, right?”

“We made sure we seized all of their weapons, but we don’t know where the bombs came from.” The soldier replied, “I think there’s something fishy about this. There was also an explosion I suspect has something to do with this matter.”

“Tell me what happened,” the lieutenant colonel said.

The escapees stood in a trance outside the barracks and listened to the exchange. There was dust everywhere in the refugee camp, and some of the barracks had caught fire. Fortunately, the distance between the barracks was not too close, so there wasn’t too big of a fire.

The soldier looked around and said, “There was a group of escapees who were suddenly blown up inside their barracks, so we were investigating their murderer. But in the end, even we got blown up as well. Although we don’t know how they managed to do it, I can’t help but feel that the two incidents are related.”

“Have you all identified any suspects?” the lieutenant colonel asked.

“Yes.” The soldier said, “We only got targeted after we started investigating this group of suspects.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu’s nanomachines were buzzing in his body as he quickly prepared himself for a fight.

If the situation really got out of hand, he would have to kill his way out. His life was saved by someone who gave up his, so no one was going to just take it away like that!

Ren Xiaosu said, “Actually, this was my fault.”

Ren Xiaosu was good at self-reflection. From when he first killed the refugees to the chaos he had just created, even though it might look like he had been very cautious and well-prepared, it was not actually the case upon further consideration.

Even if the refugees wanted to kill Yan Liuyuan and threatened the safety of the women in their group, or the fact that Yan Liuyuan might get ambushed at the construction site a day later, Ren Xiaosu should still have used a more stealthy method to resolve the matter instead of resorting to using the Explosive Poker cards.

But of course, he had only chosen to do so due to the inconvenience of his immobility. If he had been able to go to work at the construction site, he would have a 1,001 ways to make sure the refugees died outside in the wilderness. That way, they wouldn’t be in such a tight spot right now.

He would have to be more careful in the future. Ren Xiaosu was not thinking about whether or not he should kill anyone, but rather, how to be more cautious when killing them.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan asked, “what should we do?”

“Return to the barracks and stay put there. Don’t go out!” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

Wang Fugui and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back. When the critical moment arrived, it was still Ren Xiaosu who had to bear the pressure for everyone.

“Bro…” Yan Liuyuan said anxiously. He knew well that with Ren Xiaosu’s injuries, he would not be able to sustain himself in such an intense battle.

“Liuyuan,” Ren Xiaosu said firmly, “curse me

But before he could finish speaking, an off-road vehicle drove in from outside the refugee camp. It looked like that vehicle was driven here from the north.

The vehicle came to a stop in front of the crowd. A girl wearing a cap jumped out of it and said, “Where is the person-in-charge? Have him come and see me.”

That lieutenant colonel frowned and walked over. “What’s your name?”

The lieutenant colonel had already seen the license plate of the other party’s vehicle. It was black with red lettering, and such license plates were only used by the core members of the Yang Consortium. Thus, his tone became more polite.

The girl flashed her ID, and the lieutenant colonel said respectfully, “So it’s you. I’ve only heard about you but never had the chance to meet you until now.”

“Mhm.” The girl nodded calmly. “Have you all seen a young man named Ren Xiaosu around here? I’m looking for him.”

Chapter 303: Heading north to Stronghold 88

Nobody in the refugee camp could understand what had just happened. Why did a girl suddenly come here looking for someone? Moreover, it even looked like that Yang Consortium lieutenant colonel had to speak politely to her. This seemed to subvert all common sense. Could she be the core member of the Yang Consortium? But what was the name that the girl mentioned just now? Ren Xiaosu?

Then they heard Yang Xiaojin repeat, “Do you have someone here named Ren Xiaosu or Yan Liuyuan? I’m here to take them away.”

The escapees could only feel envy. She was actually here to take those people away? From the way she spoke, it seemed like it would be a good thing to get taken away by her.

Hold on a minute! The escapees were not familiar with Ren Xiaosu’s name because he had been lying down and recuperating from his injuries all this while, so he did not have much of a presence in their minds. But they were all too familiar with Yan Liuyuan’s name!

“Big Sister Xiaojin, we’re here,” Yan Liuyuan shouted and raised his hand.

Yang Xiaojin’s eyes lit up. She did not really expect to find Ren Xiaosu and the others here.

Yang Xiaojin had no choice but to follow Luo Xinyu and leave the battlefield when she got surrounded by the Experimentals in Stronghold 108. When she went back to look for Ren Xiaosu, she couldn’t find him anymore. She didn’t know where Ren Xiaosu and the others had fled to.

After traveling north for some time, Yang Xiaojin was still indignant about the matter. When she heard that there was a refugee camp being built here, she decided to come over to try her luck.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and asked in a low voice, “You didn’t make the wish or curse, right?”

“No.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head.

At a critical moment like this, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu suddenly arrived here after driving through the darkness of the night in an off-road vehicle.

A lot of people were in between Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. But when Yang Xiaojin walked over to Ren Xiaosu, the escapees parted like the sea. It was like this was a stage, and the two individuals at both ends of the stage were the stars of the night.

Yang Xiaojin walked up to Ren Xiaosu and sized him up from top to toe. She was still wearing her cap as usual, and the form-fitting sports outfit remained unchanged as well. “You’re injured?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “I accidentally took a blast from an RPG that was fired by the Li Consortium.”

The lieutenant colonel’s jaw dropped. He thought to himself, ‘You must be bragging, right? How could anyone still be standing after taking damage from an RPG? Who do you think you are?’ However, he reminded himself of Yang Xiaojin’s identity, so Ren Xiaosu’s account sounded somewhat understandable.

Then Yang Xiaojin said to the lieutenant colonel, “I want to take these people away. Please process the paperwork.”

The lieutenant colonel said, “We’re currently investigating a case of spying, and these people are the main suspects.” Although he was very polite to Yang Xiaojin, business was still business.

Yang Xiaojin calmly asked, “Are you implying that my friend is a spy? Then what does that make me? They’re from the Yang Consortium as well. It’s just that you don’t know about it at your level. So are you still going to arrest them?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” The lieutenant colonel’s tone softened. He turned to the soldier beside him and said, “Release them!”

Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. Well, it looked like he had gained yet another identity as part of the Yang Consortium. He had completed the full set.

He reckoned that his identities were just like a top-secret file. In 50 years when the confidential records of the Yang, Li, and Qing consortiums were declassified, everyone would definitely be astonished.

Of course, the Li Consortium wouldn’t exist anymore by then.

The nearby refugees were all shocked. Who was this big shot from the Yang Consortium? Their jealousy of Ren Xiaosu was reaching a fever pitch. Weren’t they all supposed to be refugees? So why had he suddenly become a core member of the Yang Consortium? There was even a beautiful young lady who specially came to pick him up in the middle of the night!

While they were fleeing, the escapees were already very jealous of Ren Xiaosu’s group for having food to eat. Later on at the refugee camp, that jealousy was alleviated when they thought about how they were all fellow captives. But everyone realized at this moment that that had not been the case at all!

Yang Xiaojin counted the number of people in Ren Xiaosu’s group and then said to the lieutenant colonel, “I’ll be taking one of your transport trucks.”

The lieutenant colonel hurriedly said to a soldier next to him, “Go and drive a truck over!”

Then the lieutenant colonel asked, “Where do you plan on going?”

Yang Xiaojin replied, “Stronghold 88.”

The lieutenant colonel shouted, “Fuel the tank to full!”

Apparently, the journey from here to Stronghold 88 was a long distance, so much so that they had to fill the gas tank all the way up for the trip.

Yang Xiaojin did not take the off-road vehicle but followed Ren Xiaosu and the others onto the military transport truck. Luo Xinyu pouted as she sat in the driver’s seat of the off-road vehicle alone. However, she did not say anything in the end.

In the back of the truck, Yang Xiaojin asked again, “Are your injuries serious?”

Beside them, Yan Liuyuan said, “He suffered 17 fractures all over his body, and four areas are even comminuted fractures.”

Yang Xiaojin was stunned. She had thought that Ren Xiaosu wasn’t too seriously injured when she saw that he was able to move about freely. But upon taking a closer look, she realized his forehead was covered in sweat.

Although Ren Xiaosu used the nanomachines to set his broken bones and had already healed a little, it still hurt to move. This was unavoidable.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and said, “I’m fine. I’ll recover in another 20 days or So.”

Of course, what Ren Xiaosu did not say was that even after a hundred days, broken bones would still be a little more brittle than other places. Therefore, he would still have to recuperate for another month or two before he would fully recover.

Yang Xiaojin said, “There won’t be any danger in heading north, so just rest well and recuperate.”

Silence fell, as nobody knew what to say.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “What’s the relationship between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium?”

This matter had puzzled Ren Xiaosu for a very long time. Yang Xiaojin had said that Lu Yuan was not from the Saboteurs but was a member of the Yang Consortium. However, the Saboteurs and Lu Yuan had carried out a mission together. Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin herself was also from the Yang Consortium. So it seemed like there was nothing wrong with saying that the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium originated from the same group.

However, the problem was that the Saboteurs did not seem to have any intention of interfering with this war. He had never heard any news that the Saboteurs had appeared on the battlefield based on what Tang Zhou shared with him.

Yang Xiaojin explained, “The founder of the Saboteurs is my aunt. However, with the Yang Consortium’s intent to invade foreign lands getting stronger and stronger in recent years, the ideological differences between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium have splintered even further. There are those within the Yang Consortium who are supportive of the Saboteurs’ cause, but there aren’t many. So the Saboteurs no longer have any involvement with the internal affairs of the Yang Consortium, nor do we take part in their wars.”

Ren Xiaosu understood something with this explanation. The Saboteurs had probably been set up after Yang Xiaojin’s aunt became a supernatural being. Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium also gave her some support in the setting up of the Saboteurs.

But now that the main faction of the Yang Consortium had expanded their influence, the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium had reached the point where they would have to part ways.

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Is the ideology behind the Saboteurs really to uphold peace?”

Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “We’re not looking to uphold peace but to prevent anything that can destroy the world from reemerging in society. Over the years, we’ve destroyed 17 nuclear test sites, but we’ve not been able to locate any of those controlled by Qing Zhen.”

Chapter 304: Cast aside

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized he had misunderstood. Before the war, he was wondering why the Saboteurs did not come forward to stop the war or sabotage it. However, he now realized the Saboteurs were merely targeting the nuclear test sites and did not involve themselves with other matters.

It was probably just as Yang Xiaojin had said. The apocalypse had struck the world because of nuclear technology, so humans should not be trying to control it again.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu said, “But I think what Qing Zhen said makes sense. It’s the fault of humanity, not the fault of nuclear technology.”

Yang Xiaojin said, “That’s what I thought at the beginning too, but the 17 nuclear test sites that were destroyed had all been performing military research. And then gradually, people stopped questioning the motivation behind such research.”

“But the Qing Consortium was the one who started the war this time. If Qing Zhen really had such a weapon in his arsenal, the Li Consortium would probably have already been decimated, right?” Ren Xiaosu said.

“I don’t know.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not take any side on this matter. This “important” issue just did not seem to have anything to do with him since he was only a refugee trying to survive.

Qing Zhen had his reasons, while the Saboteurs also made their judgment based on facts. Until the very end, who was to decide who was right or wrong?

Ren Xiaosu asked, “17 nuclear test sites? Where are they? Do they all belong to the Qing Consortium?”

“No.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head again. “Actually, the main focus of the Saboteurs’ activities has already shifted to the Central Plains in recent years. The 17 nuclear test sites were also destroyed there. Very few members of the Saboteurs are still in the Southwest. It’s a much bigger world over there in the Central Plains.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This was the second time he heard others mention the term “Central Plains.” After The Cataclysm, human society was kept within the strongholds while information and traffic flow got shut down.

So ever since Ren Xiaosu was young, he had always thought that the world was only this big. In the northeast was the Qing Consortium, while the Yang Consortium was in the north, Stronghold 178 was in the northwest, and the Li Consortium was in the south.

This used to be the entire world map that existed in Ren Xiaosu’s mind. However, he later realized this was not the case. Zhang Jinglin had mentioned it before but did not get into a deep discussion about it. He only said that it would not be easy to get from the Southwest to the Central Plains. After tectonic activity destroyed the roads and mountain paths and elevated entire territories, the events had formed into natural barriers for the Southwest.

Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, “What do the Central Plains look like?”

Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “I’ve never been there either. I heard from my aunt before that it’s much more prosperous and glorious over there. There are even roads connecting the strongholds that allow residents to travel freely between them while some people drive to faraway places for vacation. The stronghold gates are kept open during the day and only close at night. She once said that Stronghold 1 is like a miracle of human civilization. When night falls, that place becomes a permanently lit galaxy.”

“Do you want to go to the Central Plains?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, “No.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised. Based on what Yang Xiaojin had said earlier, the Saboteurs’ activities were localized to the Central Plains. Logically speaking, Yang Xiaojin would have to be there as well, so why didn’t she go?

“Oh, right,” Yang Xiaojin said, “Luo Lan should be leaving Stronghold 88 soon. If everything goes well on our way there, you should still be in time to meet him.”

“Luo Lan is leaving Stronghold 88 already?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when he heard that. He knew from Tang Zhou that Luo Lan had been sent to Stronghold 88 by Qing Zhen and that this arrangement was due to the cooperation between the two organizations. As such, Luo Lan headed there as a representative of the Qing Consortium.

But now that Luo Lan was leaving, it meant that the cooperation between the two consortiums was about to end.

After these two consortiums had weakened the Li Consortium to a certain extent, the alliance between them would start losing meaning.

…

At this moment, Luo Lan was instructing his subordinates to pack up their things in Stronghold 88. “Be gentler, take good care when moving the items onto the vehicle. These are all souvenirs that I spent a lot of money on. If they break, you won’t be able to compensate for them!”

The subordinate chuckled and said, “Boss, are we going back now? Did Mr. Qing Zhen win?”

“Listen to what you’re saying!” Luo Lan said with a smile, “How can there be any battles that Qing Zhen can’t win? Those old fogeys from the Li Consortium are doomed for sure!”

In this war, other than negotiating with the Yang Consortium, Luo Lan had basically done nothing else. All he did was stay at the Yang Consortium to eat and drink, and eat and drink some more.

Now that he was going back, he might even be able to make it in time for the final round of battles with the Li Consortium. When he thought of this, Luo Lan became excited. For some reason, he liked fighting in battle a lot. Although fighting in battle meant hard days, and he would not get to eat or sleep well, he still liked it very much.

But right at this moment, the sound of a car engine came from the streets of the stronghold. The soldiers beside Luo Lan wanted to pick up their weapons. However, Luo Lan waved his hand and said with a smile, “Don’t worry, who would dare to touch us here in Stronghold 88? They’re probably here to send us off.”

Then they saw three military transport trucks approaching them. When the convoy stopped in front of Luo Lan and the others, a large group of soldiers jumped out of the vehicle. Luo Lan mumbled, “This doesn’t look like a fucking send-off….”

As he said that, an officer came up to Luo Lan and calmly said, “No one is to leave yet.”

“Why’s that?” Luo Lan was taken aback. “Has your Yang Consortium gone crazy?”

“It’s not us who’s crazy.” The officer sneered and said, “It’s your Qing Consortium that has gone crazy. Or, to be precise, Qing Zhen is the one who’s gone crazy!”

“What happened?” Luo Lan frowned.

“We were supposed to attack the front line at Mount Guangying last night based on the agreement made between both us and the Qing Consortium. However, when our Yang Consortium arrived at the battlefield, the Qing Consortium’s troops suddenly retreated and left us to face the Li Consortium’s firepower alone. We suffered heavy casualties as a result!” The officer sneered. “Since you all can back out of an alliance, there won’t be a need for you all to leave this place. Men, place them under house arrest and guard them 24/7!”

Luo Lan was taken aback. “Is that news true?”

The officer said, “It seems that your brother doesn’t really care about your life.”

A group of soldiers raised their guns and forced Luo Lan and his men back into the house. Luo Lan raised his hands and said, “Don’t push, don’t push. We’ll go in by ourselves. Everything can be talked about calmly.”

When he retreated into the house, his large body even crashed into the door as he stepped back inside.

A soldier whispered to Luo Lan, “Boss, has Mr. Qing Zhen given up on us?”

“What a fucking load of bullshit.” Luo Lan snapped, “Qing Zhen would never do something like that!”

“Then this is…” the soldier said hesitantly.

Luo Lan sighed and said, “I’m afraid Qing Zhen is no longer the person with the final say in our military.”

Luo Lan understood Qing Zhen the best. He knew Qing Zhen would never walk out on him. In that case, there was only one possibility left: The person who made the decision to withdraw the troops was not Qing Zhen.

Previously, the Qing Consortium had not done anything to Qing Zhen because they were unwilling to accommodate any last-minute change in the military leadership so as not to delay their war opportunities.

But now that the Li Consortium had been defeated, Qing Zhen naturally was of no use anymore. He had served his purpose and was cast aside.

Chapter 305: A 21-kilometer-long mountain road

The troops that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan controlled were only two brigades originally. But with Luo Lan’s troops hidden where nobody knew, the Qing Consortium couldn’t incorporate them into their own forces.

As such, for the entire frontline troops, there were not many true supporters of Qing Zhen as one would imagine. A portion of the troops supported Qing Zhen while a portion supported Qing Yun. Most of them were neutral and only followed orders and fought battles.

This was also the reason why Qing Zhen wanted to get rid of Qing Yun’s supporters in the organization. If he didn’t chase away the people who harbored other motives, his orders could end up getting secretly disobeyed.

But even after Qing Zhen finished “cleaning up” those elements, he still could not defy the orders of the Qing Consortium’s Board of Directors. They were the true core of the Qing Consortium, after all.

If they gave Qing Zhen more time, he might even be able to turn the entire frontline army into his own people. However, the Qing Consortium’s Board would definitely not give him that time.

As a matter of fact, the timing of the Board was just right. There would not be too much of an adverse effect if they changed the leadership at the front lines at this time. And Qing Zhen had fulfilled his final role for them.

It was still Secretary Zhou who had come to escort Qing Zhen. Secretary Zhou stood at the entrance of the camp while Qing Zhen turned around and looked at the snowy mountains behind him.

Some of the soldiers wanted to stage a mutiny to save Qing Zhen, but they were stopped by him with a smile. “Don’t be rash. Your families are still in the stronghold.”

This was also the reason why the Board still had control over the military. If the entire military camp were to act rashly at this time, their families would probably die horrible deaths on that very night. So even though Qing Zhen had Qing Yun killed, the Board remained fearless of him. In their opinion, Qing Zhen was not so charismatic that he could make these soldiers abandon their families and children. But even if he did, Qing Zhen would not allow it.

It seemed like the Board already had Qing Zhen in the palm of their hands.

“Sir,” an officer said, “let us return together with you.”

Qing Zhen was amused. “Don’t be silly. Fight the war well with Qing Yi. I’ll still say the same thing: Don’t embarrass me.”

All the frontline troops had been taken control of by a commander named Qing Yi. This Qing Yi was also a core member of the Qing Consortium. However, as he had still been being groomed for a leadership post, the Qing Consortium had not really allowed him to step onto the battlefield yet.

“What about Mr. Luo Lan? He’s still at the Yang Consortium,” the officer said. “Last night…”

Qing Zhen waved it off and said, “I’m already prepared for that, don’t worry.”

After saying that, Qing Zhen followed Secretary Zhou into the car. Secretary Zhou ordered someone to put Qing Zhen in handcuffs. Qing Zhen smiled and said, “Are you that afraid of me? I’m not a supernatural being, so I won’t do anything to you.”

Secretary Zhou snorted in disgust and did not say anything. This time, he had even brought along many troops with him to escort Qing Zhen.

If Secretary Zhou had not been ordered by the Board to come, he would not have been willing to come here and face Qing Zhen, to be honest. The previous time when Qing Zhen killed someone at the command center without warning seemed to have given him bad trauma.

Secretary Zhou sat in the car and said calmly, “Qing Zhen, should I praise you for being smart? Or should I say that you’re stupid?”

Qing Zhen smiled. “What do you mean?”

The driver in the car did not dare to even blink and just stared straight ahead at the road.

Secretary Zhou said, “Well, you’re really smart; there’s no argument about that. A war that Qing Yun wasn’t able to win was turned around the moment you joined forces with the Yang Consortium at the front lines and destroyed the Li Consortium. Even I admire you. You’re truly a genius.”

Qing Zhen smiled. “You flatter me.”

“But if I say that you’re stupid, it’s not wrong either. If you didn’t attack the Li Consortium, the Board wouldn’t have dared to make their move on you so quickly. That’s why you’re only good at military affairs and don’t know how to handle politics.”

Qing Zhen laughed and said, “Then is Secretary Zhou implying that I should have allowed the Li soldiers to live and made them into my own mercenary troops at the front line?”

Secretary Zhou looked at the driver. “I didn’t say that.”

“Look at how cowardly you are. You dared to say that but you won’t admit it?” Qing Zhen said, “Even if I didn’t attack the Li Consortium, they would have come and attacked us all the same. When that happens, would I have to sacrifice my troops’ lives just to carry on with the act? That’s something that I, Qing Zhen, cannot do.”

On the battlefield, putting on an act would require people to sacrifice their lives.

And what Qing Zhen wanted was to incur the least casualties possible and fight the perfect battles. Then the surviving soldiers would be able to return home.

Secretary Zhou asked hesitantly, “Have you not considered yourself before?”

“Consider what?” Qing Zhen laughed and said, “Isn’t this just about going back and being placed under house arrest?”

“Did you think you’d still be placed under house arrest after killing Qing Yun? This time… it’s not going to be as simple as that.” Secretary Zhou sneered.

“I see.” Qing Zhen sighed.

…

The vehicle escorting Qing Zhen was speeding northwards. Following the off-road vehicle were many other soldiers also escorting it. From this, it was clear that the Qing Consortium’s Board thought very highly of Qing Zhen. They were worried that something would happen during the process of escorting him back.

When the convoy drove back into Stronghold 111 two days later, Qing Zhen rolled down the window with his handcuffed hands. “Such a familiar smell. I’m finally home.”

Secretary Zhou looked a little tired. As a civilian employee, he had been sitting in a car for two straight days and had barely gotten any shut-eye. He could not take it anymore.

On the other hand, Qing Zhen still looked very energetic. He wasn’t even like a prisoner coming back to stand trial.

Secretary Zhou yawned and said, “You’re still in the mood to appreciate all this?”

“Wait, why are the theaters all closed?” Qing Zhen suddenly asked.

When the convoy passed by a few theaters, Qing Zhen was surprised to find that all of them had been sealed shut.

Secretary Zhou looked out the window and said, “These are the theaters you usually enjoy going to. Since they don’t know which singer you actually like, they just arrested all of the ladies.”

In the past, when Qing Zhen visited the theaters, he would never go to a fixed place, nor did he ever reveal which singer he liked. It was precisely because he was worried that he would implicate the other party.

However, Qing Zhen did not expect the Qing Consortium to be so ruthless.

Qing Zhen looked out the window and fell silent. No one knew what he was thinking.

Secretary Zhou asked, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Qing Zhen suddenly said, “The flowers I’ve been cultivating at home should probably have withered by now, right? I wonder if anyone has been caring for the vegetables I planted in the backyard.”

Secretary Zhou laughed in anger. “You’re still in the mood to talk about this?”

“What else should I talk about then?” Qing Zhen said calmly, “If this were a peaceful and prosperous era, I would probably have become a flower farmer instead. The military and politics can’t be more interesting than cultivating flowers.”

“It’s a pity this isn’t a peaceful era then,” Secretary Zhou said calmly.

At this moment, the car came to a stop.

The Qing Consortium’s headquarters were halfway up the mountain, and the vehicle was parked at the entrance to the winding, switchback road.

Secretary Zhou got out of the car and said, “The Board has ordered that you make your way up the mountain on foot.”

Qing Zhen glanced at him. “This mountain road is 21 kilometers long.”

“That’s right.” Secretary Zhou adjusted his glasses and said, “The Board wants you to think carefully when you’re walking up. Who gave you everything you have today? Take off your shoes and get moving.”

There were soldiers standing guard on both sides of the mountain road. When they heard this, they could not bear to look at Qing Zhen anymore.

A lot of people probably would not expect that the Qing Consortium’s silent tiger would actually end up in this state.

Chapter 306

The mountain located in Stronghold 111 was known as Mt. Ginkgo. In autumn, the mountain would shimmer golden. But in winter, the ginkgo leaves would fall and litter the valley, leaving behind only naked tree branches.

The prosperity was coming to an end and would be buried in mud.

Qing Zhen stood in his spot and looked at the withered scenery in the valley. He suddenly laughed and said, “What a pity.”

These were probably the three words that Qing Zhen liked to utter the most.

Next to him, Secretary Zhou frowned and said, “Men, remove Qing Zhen’s shoes and escort him up Mt. Gingko!”

But the soldiers responsible for guarding Mt. Ginkgo’s mountain roads did not move. Secretary Zhou was enraged. “How dare you disobey my orders.”

However, the two soldiers remained still. It was as if they could not bear to do what they were told.

Qing Zhen smiled as he looked at the slightly younger soldier and said, “I remember you. You’re Zhang Yuge, and you used to be under me. After you killed a member of the Pyro Company, you were recognized and awarded for your contribution.”

The soldier named Zhang Yuge got excited. He stood to attention and shouted, “I am Zhang Yuge from the 5th Combat Brigade. I didn’t expect you to still remember me, sir.”

Qing Zhen turned to look at the other soldier and said with a smile, “You’re Wang Hang, one of my soldiers as well. Is your mother feeling better yet?”

Wang Hang’s eyes reddened. “Thank you, sir. I didn’t expect you would still remember a small matter like that.”

Qing Zhen sighed to Secretary Zhou and said, “They’re all elite soldiers and should be out fighting the war, but due to their relationship with me, they were left behind here to act as watchdogs for the organization. What a pity. Let’s not make things difficult for them. I’ll head up myself.”

Secretary Zhou said coldly behind Qing Zhen, “Do you know that no Shadows in the history of the Qing Consortium have ever acted like you? All of them have bowed their heads to the organization!”

Qing Zhen smiled and said, “But I’m Qing Zhen.”

It was as if Qing Zhen’s name was supposed to have some magical ring to it. He had a pride that was embedded to the bone, and he would never yield to anyone.

Then Qing Zhen took off his shoes and socks and started walking up the mountain road littered with dead ginkgo leaves.

The cold winter wind howled down the mountain road, making the ground as cold as steel.

However, no one could see any pain or frustration on Qing Zhen’s face. After walking for a while, Qing Zhen suddenly pointed to a ridge on the mountain and said, “When I was young, I used to play in the mud there with Luo Lan. Back then, the river was very cold, so we would dip the persimmons we stole into the icy waters. It’s delicious to eat them after taking them out of the river. Back then, Qing Yun was always following us around, but I always had the feeling he hated me.”

Following him, Secretary Zhou remained silent. No one expected Qing Zhen would still be so carefree when he was on the brink of death.

“But there’s a hidden guard post over there now, so that place is probably sealed off, right?” Qing Zhen said with a smile.

Snowflakes suddenly floated down from the sky. Qing Zhen’s clean feet stepped on the thin layer of snow and left a line of footprints on the mountain road.

At the beginning, the snow was white while the footprints were black. Every step revealed the ground beneath the snow.

Secretary Zhou shouted from behind him in the snow, “Have you thought it through?!”

The snow gradually fell heavier, and Qing Zhen turned a deaf ear on him.

As he walked, the footprints in the snow on the mountain road started turning red. As he walked up step by step, it was as if he could not see the end of the road at all. However, Qing Zhen’s posture was still straight.

As Qing Zhen walked past the sentry guards along the way, they all turned away to look beyond the mountain.

As he walked, Qing Zhen’s feet numbed. He could not remember how far he had been walking. With every step he took, he seemed to be thinking about something.

From beside him, Secretary Zhou suddenly asked, “Why did you withdraw the troops last night and leave the Yang Consortium hanging?”

“Oh, you’re talking about that?” Qing Zhen said with a smile.

“Back then, Qing Yi clearly had not taken over the power of the military yet. You clearly know that Luo Lan is still in the hands of the Yang Consortium.” Secretary Zhou frowned and said, “The Yang Consortium must have placed Luo Lan under arrest now. A lot of people must also have caught wind of you being summoned back to Stronghold 111 by now, so they’ll probably think it was Qing Yi’s order to withdraw the troops.”

Qing Zhen laughed and said, “That’s because I knew you all were gonna come after me.”

“What do you mean?”

“When our father passed away, he insisted on having Luo Lan protect me. But you should also know what kind of person he is.” Qing Zhen chuckled. “He’s always eating and sleeping, and really rash as well, so why would I need him to protect me? It is likelier that I’d have to protect him instead.”

“So you allowed the Yang Consortium to arrest him then?” Secretary Zhou frowned and said. He actually did not understand the logic behind this, but Qing Zhen’s planning had always been a little more effective than other people’s.

“If I didn’t get someone else to arrest him, he would probably have rushed up Mt. Ginkgo to fight the old fogeys.” Qing Zhen sighed and said, “The Yang Consortium will not kill him. A fatty that’s alive is worth more than a dead one. Before they get anything valuable out of him, the Yang Consortium won’t take his life. It’s better than having him come charging back here.”

“But they’ll still kill him in the future,” Secretary Zhou said calmly.

“I’ve already prepared a way out for him,” Qing Zhen said.

Qing Zhen had turned on the alliance with the Yang Consortium, not for anything else, but so that he could make Luo Lan stay in Stronghold 88 and not come back here to die. That was because even Qing Zhen himself was not confident he could survive today.

Qing Zhen stood barefooted near the cliff of the winding, switchback road and looked out at the drifting snow. He said, “That fool, Luo Lan, if I were to die today, he would definitely weep his heart out for me. Our damned old man always said that a family needs to be harmonious. We can only exist if our family remains around.”

Secretary Zhou asked, “Then why are you still going against the Qing clan’s patriarch?”

Qing Zhen looked at the mountains in the distance, having figured out something. He said, “Now that I think about it, our family consists only of Luo Lan and me. The others don’t count.”

Then Qing Zhen turned back around and looked up in front of him. He suddenly laughed and said, “I didn’t even notice, but we’re almost there! Come on, let’s go!”

Qing Zhen walked in front with Secretary Zhou asking loudly again from the back, “It’s almost time! Have you seriously thought it through yet?!”

The snow fell heavy as the wind howled.

Qing Zhen said softly in the snowstorm, “I’ve thought it over.”

In front of him, he could see the Qing Consortium’s manor on the mountainside of Mt. Ginkgo. This place was still as brightly lit as he remembered. Qing Zhen stood outside the vermillion gate and said with a smile, “Now that I think about it, I haven’t been here but a few times.”

Secretary Zhou escorted him into the main lobby. Qing Zhen’s feet left bloodstains on the clean and extravagant marble floor. The servants in the hallway remained silent, and no one dared to go over to clean off the bloodstains.

Qing Zhen walked further inside. The door to the conference room was already open, and the Qing Consortium’s board members were all seated inside.

Qing Zhen walked down the long hallway and past a long hall. He walked by himself in front while the others behind him followed from afar.

Suddenly, someone realized that Qing Zhen’s back had remained straight even until now. Not once did he ever slouch.

When Qing Zhen walked into the conference room, he headed straight to the end of the table and sat down.

There was no one next to Qing Zhen. All the members of the Board were seated across from him, as though he were taking on the entire Qing Consortium.

The elder in the seat of honor said calmly, “Do you know what you did wrong?”

Qing Zhen also said calmly, “What wrong did I do?”

The elder’s eyes narrowed slightly. He never expected that the 21-kilometer-long mountain road would be unable to make Qing Zhen lower his head.

“Murder, mutiny, privately raising an army, and being disrespectful.” The elder said, “All of these crimes are enough to sentence you to death.”

Qing Zhen asked, “And I must die for that?”

“If you don’t die, I will not be at ease.”

These words were the true thoughts of everyone on the Qing Consortium’s Board. This Shadow who never respected the rules was starting to make them afraid.

They had never been so afraid of a Shadow before, so this Shadow had to die.

…

Qing Zhen’s troops had already been disbanded. Some of them had been tamed after getting incorporated into the various fighting forces, while others who were stubbornly loyal were chained up like dogs in the stronghold. As such, Qing Zhen’s influence in the military seemed to have been weakened to almost nothing.

Luo Lan had been placed under house arrest in Stronghold 88.

It seemed like Qing Zhen had even lost his last beam of support.

So when the plan was revealed, the Board was confident of their victory. They were pulling out all stops to ensure Qing Zhen’s death.

Qing Zhen got up and walked to the window on one side of the conference room barefooted. Someone shouted angrily, “Qing Zhen, how dare you still act so arrogantly at this time!”

But Qing Zhen whirled around and asked Secretary Zhou loudly, “Zhou Qi, I’ve already thought it through. How about you?”

While on the 21-kilometer-long mountain road, Secretary Zhou had asked Qing Zhen twice in a loud voice. But now, it was Qing Zhen who was asking him back.

The world outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was vast and wide!

He did not want to be a Shadow anymore. He wanted to be the CEO of the Qing Consortium. ‘Breaking custom, I’ll shatter positions and destroy countries for me; without the turning of the world, there is no recovery!’

Qing Zhen asked again loudly, “Have you thought it through yet?!”

Secretary Zhou smiled. “I’m glad to be of service to you.”

Secretary Zhou, who had at some point placed himself behind the elder, grabbed a stream of thin air. The transparent stream split and flowed towards the necks of the members of the Board.

A cry of surprise from someone startled the security troops stationed outside the conference room, but Secretary Zhou was already prepared. The transparent stream further split itself and shot through the conference room’s solid wood door. Screams came from outside and then it went silent.

Continuous gunfire rang out on the mountainside as though to suggest an intense battle was taking place.

At the foot of the mountain, the soldier named Zhang Yuge shouted, “Everyone, today is the day we succeed!”

With that, a large group of soldiers emerged from the wilderness. Although he rushed up with them, the blood he spilled in battle flowed down the mountain road and melted away the thin layer of snow.

Meanwhile, in Stronghold 111, the manhole covers on the street were suddenly pushed up as troops dressed in black rushed out and headed for all the key military zones in the stronghold. When they encountered the regular troops of the stronghold, this army dressed in black was surprisingly brave and fearless in battle!

One of the soldiers in black sat down on the ground slowly after being shot. One of his comrades tried to help him up, only for him to grab his comrade’s hand and say with a smile, “The day has finally arrived. Don’t worry about me. Tell our commander that we’ve been waiting for this day for too long!”

…

Secretary Zhou smiled at Qing Zhen and said, “Was it because you weren’t sure about me that you didn’t want Luo Lan coming back here? We were friends who played in the mud together when we were young. You’ve made me really sad.”

On the mountainside, Qing Zhen had said he and Luo Lan used to play in the mud next to the river and ate frozen persimmons. But what he didn’t say was that Zhou Qi was also among those that played together with them.

Many people thought that Secretary Zhou had always treated Qing Zhen as a thorn in his side. This was also why the Qing Consortium’s Board liked to get Secretary Zhou to target Qing Zhen.

However, Qing Zhen and Zhou Qi had never been on bad terms. In the early years, they already had thoughts of changing the world.

After being questioned by Zhou Qi, Qing Zhen also smiled. “I really was a little worried about you. After all, when you were young, a fortune teller once said you had rebelliousness written in your stars.”

Zhou Qi choked. “Fuck that bullshit!”

The previously cultured and respectable Secretary Zhou suddenly did not look that cultured and respectable anymore.

The elder in the conference room said coldly, “Aren’t you afraid that Qing Yi will deploy the troops back here and kill you?”

Qing Zhen said, “What a coincidence. Qing Yi is also one of mine.”

“What do we do now?” Zhou Qi asked, “We’ve revolted, so we can’t leave any loose ends.”

Qing Zhen said, “Just kill them all. I was planning on making them walk that 21-kilometer-long road in the snow. But now that I think about it, there’s no need to be angry with them anymore.”

Victors should be magnanimous.

As soon as he finished speaking, the “fluid rope” on the necks of the board members tightened. They were shackled to death.

Zhou Qi looked at Qing Zhen, who was standing in a trance by the window, and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Qing Zhen came back to his senses. “Oh, I was just thinking that I might not have time to cultivate flowers anymore in the future.”

Zhou Qi listened to the gunshots coming from the mountainside and adjusted his glasses. “You and your flowers…”

The board members did not die immediately. They wanted to rip off the “rope” around their neck but realized they couldn’t do anything about a supernatural being’s powers. The fluid rope felt just like a physical cable.

Winner takes all!

The Qing Consortium had changed hands!

Chapter 307: Arriving at Stronghold 88!

A civil war had erupted within the dozen or so strongholds controlled by the Qing Consortium. It had come without any warning, and there were no precautions against it.

At this moment, the Qing Consortium’s combat troops and soldiers were all thinking that war would only be happening externally. They never expected that in just one night, there would be a changing of the guard and the Board would get taken down entirely.

Qing Zhen’s supporters, who had been scattered across the various fighting forces, had either successfully rebelled against the leaders of their troops or carried out decapitation strikes against them. This left the military without any leaders and created a situation of chaos.

Many people sacrificed themselves that night. They were all willing to die for Qing Zhen’s glory. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen had sent out a large number of people to take control of the strongholds, as well as amalgamate the fighting forces.

New political orders were starting to be issued from Stronghold 111. It took Qing Zhen a fortnight to complete the cleaning up and purging of the previous regime’s elements.

Many of the Qing Consortium’s supporters had no choice but to escape out into the wilderness, but what awaited them was a harsh winter and extreme hunger.

Inside the manor on the mountainside of Mt. Ginkgo, Zhou Qi asked, “Where’s the money you promised me? Pay up! Pay up! Pay up!”

Qing Zhen looked at him in amusement and wrote him a check. “Go cash it at the Qing Consortium’s bank. It’s enough to last you a lifetime.”

Zhou Qi happily held the check in his hand. “Look, you just don’t trust me. And see what happened? Luo Lan has been locked up in Stronghold 88 as a bargaining chip as a result. Let’s see how you’re gonna deal with that!”

“You want me to trust you?” Qing Zhen snapped, “You’re already asking for your payment as soon as this episode ended, so how can I trust someone like you?”

Zhou Qi was unhappy to hear that. “Although I like money a lot, I could have gotten some from the Board too. So why did I choose to accept your money instead of taking it from the Board? It’s all down to our relationship!”

“Like hell I’d believe you.” Qing Zhen sat calmly in his seat. The reason for his worries was because he was afraid that Zhou Qi would turn against him at the last minute.

Outsiders would only think that this was Qing Zhen’s planned move, but Qing Zhen himself was also sweating over it.

In reality, it was still unknown whether he or the Board would end up as the victor that night. It was indeed a very risky decision to place a portion of the bet on Zhou Qi because Zhou Qi loved money way too much ever since childhood.

Qing Zhen understood very well that a portion of the reason Zhou Qi was on his side was that his money was easier to earn and safer as well.

If he accepted any money from the Board, it might be possible that they would get even with him at a later time.

Of course, a portion of it also involved some complicated relationships. This group of people who had known each other since childhood would still consider the friendship they had.

Zhou Qi said, “Then what do we do about Luo Lan now? Why don’t you pay me some money and I’ll go rescue him?”

Qing Zhen looked up at him. “There’s no need to. I have my own plans.”

…

At this moment, a military transport truck was speeding towards Stronghold 88. Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said, “We’re here!”

Ren Xiaosu looked up ahead through the windshield and saw a towering stronghold located in the wilderness. This stronghold was extremely large. It was way larger than Stronghold 108, 109, and 113.

Stronghold 88’s location was very special. To the north were the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178, while the Qing Consortium was to its west, and the Li Consortium was to the south. Some years ago when it was still possible for independent merchants to freely come to the stronghold, this place was a very important distribution center of goods. This was also how the Yang Consortium started.

While in the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu could already see the town of Stronghold 88 from afar. At this moment, a group of refugees were returning home from work. Some of them had cigarettes dangling from their mouths and looked extremely satisfied.

Just as Yan Liuyuan had said, the Yang Consortium was no different from the other organizations. It was only Yang Xiaojin who was different.

When their vehicles drove past, the refugees hurriedly made way for them. They were all afraid that they would be the unlucky ones to get picked on by whichever big shots were in the vehicles.

When Yan Liuyuan saw the town, he got very excited. “Bro, why don’t we just settle down in town?”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Let’s head into the stronghold and have a look first.”

Yan Liuyuan said, “Alright!”

In front of them, Luo Xinyu flashed her identification documents to the guards from inside her off-road vehicle. The soldiers opened the gate respectfully and let them through.

Stronghold 88 had something unique about it. After entering the gate, there was actually another circular wall on the inside. The Yang Consortium had actually built a barbican for Stronghold 88! This was a structure that was specially used to add to its defensive capabilities. The Yang Consortium actually prioritized its defenses at Stronghold 88 this importantly.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin said, “Luo Lan was supposed to leave the stronghold at this time, but the Qing Consortium suddenly broke the alliance, so the people from the Yang Consortium placed him under house arrest. I heard there’s already been a major change in the Qing Consortium. After Qing Zhen was taken back to Stronghold 111, they started a coup, and Qing Zhen has become the head of the Qing Consortium.”

Therefore, it was even more important that the Yang Consortium did not let Luo Lan leave. He was the elder brother of the Qing Consortium, after all. With such an important bargaining chip in their hands, the Yang Consortium Board of Directors would be so happy they wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Ren Xiaosu sensed from Yang Xiaojin’s words that she somehow felt a sense of detachment from the Yang Consortium. For example, whenever Yang Xiaojin mentioned the Yang Consortium, she would refer to them as “the people from the Yang Consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How’s the war at the front lines now?”

“The Qing Consortium’s forces have returned to the front line again.” Yang Xiaojin said, “The war shouldn’t have gone so smoothly at first, but it was said that a really big case of espionage happened at the Li Consortium’s front line. A very capable spy leaked all of their defensive plans at the front line, and even the whereabouts of the Divine Arms Battalion were revealed by this spy.”

Upon hearing that, Ren Xiaosu did not say a word anymore. Wang Yuchi and the others were all staring at their toes, afraid they would laugh out loud.

Yang Xiaojin asked, “What’s going on with you all?”

“It’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Please continue speaking.”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin sighed. “The Yang Consortium’s losses at the front lines are still pretty big since two of their three armored brigades have been taken out. If the Yang Consortium also had such a spy to support them, it would definitely not have ended up like this.”

“Yeah.” Ren Xiaosu also sighed and said, “That spy is amazing.”

Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes and said, “You’ve really been praised to the skies, haven’t you? I know that the spy was you. Other than you, no one else would be able to do it! The place I’ve arranged for you guys to stay at is right next to Luo Lan’s house. That’s where the Yang Consortium hosts their foreign guests. The condition of the place is still pretty good. If you guys have any other requests, you can ask me.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “Is there a university in Stronghold 88?”

“Yes.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. “Why? Are you guys thinking of attending university?”

Ren Xiaosu had been thinking about something all this while. He wanted Wang Yuchi and the others to further their studies so that they could perfect the armor.

The armor he was using now was a little “unfashionable,” be it its appearance or structure, so it still needed to be improved upon.

Wang Yuchi and the others had said they could try to improve on it, but some things were easier to imagine than to do. Therefore, Wang Yuchi and the others needed to further their studies a little.

Ren Xiaosu estimated they would have to stay at Stronghold 88 for at least a few years before considering their future plans. So, instead of wasting time, they might as well start preparing for it now.

If the shield he had formed with the nanoarmor had a better shock-absorbing mechanism, it could have led to a vastly different outcome.

Chapter 308: Encountering Luo Lan again

When Yang Xiaojin heard that Ren Xiaosu wanted to make arrangements for Wang Yuchi and the other students to attend university, she thought for a moment and said, “Even I can’t directly approve their admission into school. However, I can arrange for them to take the entrance exams in three months’ time.”

“That’s fine too,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Wang Yuchi asked, “Monitor, aren’t you also going to attend university?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, “You guys can attend first.”

Although he was very eager to learn, he knew what he was capable of. Even if he studied with all his might for the three remaining months until the exams, it would be impossible for him to qualify for university!

Unless he grinded his quests every day after getting into the stronghold and got his hands on more Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls, he would not be able to copy Yang Xiaojin’s knowledge of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

When Ren Xiaosu thought of those messed-up skills that Yang Xiaojin had, he felt that it would definitely be a tedious process.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu noticed a gold shop on the side of the street in the stronghold and wondered if the Li and Qing currencies had also depreciated here. If that were the case, he could do that thing again.

Even though he could not spend it outside, he could still keep it and use it to pay for items from the palace in the future.

Along the way, Ren Xiaosu heard the clacking of mahjong tiles being shuffled coming from the buildings next to the street. He was stunned. “What’s that sound?”

Yang Xiaojin replied, “Oh, they’re playing mahjong.”

“There’s that many people playing mahjong?” Ren Xiaosu was surprised.

When they arrived at the place Yang Xiaojin had prepared for them, she excused herself as she had a lot of matters to deal with after being away from the stronghold for so long.

Before she left, Yang Xiaojin said, “Please bear with this place for the time being. I’ll help you get another residence as soon as possible.”

Ren Xiaosu was quite satisfied when he saw the house came with a yard. “It’s fine. I find it pretty nice here.”

As soon as Ren Xiaosu and the others entered the yard, they saw Luo Lan’s large head peeking out over the wall and observing them secretly. Ren Xiaosu was tickled. “What are you doing?”

Luo Lan exclaimed when he realized it was Ren Xiaosu, “You all got arrested too?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “You’ve misunderstood. We aren’t in the same situation as you.”

Someone was even whispering behind the wall, “Boss, who did you see? Can we also take a look?”

Luo Lan snapped, “What’s there to look at? Keep holding me up!”

“Boss, you’re really too heavy….”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes twitched a little. So Luo Lan was able to lean over the wall because he had someone holding him up.

However, it seemed that Luo Lan and his men were still in quite a good state of mind. Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you being confined right now? But you don’t look depressed at all.”

Luo Lan said without a care, “The Yang Consortium won’t do anything to me. A fatty that’s alive is worth more than a dead one. Besides, I’m used to being confined because of Stronghold 111.”

“You sound rather optimistic.” Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. “Have you heard about it yet? Qing Zhen has successfully taken control of the Qing Consortium. Congratulations.”

Luo Lan nearly burst into tears at the words. “Fuck, I’m fucking done for this time. The Yang Consortium will definitely not let me go anymore.”

In an instant, Luo Lan understood his value. As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium’s CEO, he would probably be worth more than a stronghold. Thinking of this, Luo Lan even started feeling a little excited for some reason. Had he really become this valuable?

“Come, come, lift me up a little higher.” Luo Lan said to the people below him, “Let me go to the yard next door to catch up with Brother Xiaosu.”

Ren Xiaosu pressed Luo Lan’s head down and refused to let him come over. “As a prisoner, don’t you run over here like that. What if you implicate us?”

Luo Lan said unhappily, “Look, I’m already addressing you as brother. As the saying goes, ‘slap not an apologetic, smiling face.’ How can you treat me like this!”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a glance. “But I’m allowed to slap someone with a fake smile.”

“I have money!” Luo Lan shouted.

It was only then that Ren Xiaosu let go of his hand. “It’s not about the money. I just wanted to invite you over.”

Then Ren Xiaosu watched Luo Lan climb over the wall in the yard clumsily. If he didn’t catch him from below, Luo Lan would have probably crashed to the ground.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Since you can freely come into the yard next door, why didn’t you just make your escape from there?”

“The people who originally stayed here at your place were plainclothes cops instructed to keep watch on me.” Luo Lan dusted off the dirt on his backside and said, “I didn’t know why they left this morning, so I leaned over the wall to have a look. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t keeping watch on me anymore. The entire street is filled with the Yang Consortium’s plainclothes cops. If I take a step out of here, I’ll probably get turned into Swiss cheese!”

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So that was what happened.

“In the morning, someone even specially came over to clean the house for you all,” Luo Lan said as he paced around the yard. When he saw the female students standing behind Jiang Wu, he couldn’t take his eyes off them. “Beautiful ladies, let me introduce myself. My name is Luo Lan, and I’m the elder brother of the Qing Consortium’s current CEO!”

But at this moment, no one really wanted to bother with him. Ren Xiaosu was also considering their current situation. Since the entire street was under the Yang Consortium’s surveillance, why did Yang Xiaojin bring them here? Was it because she was left with no other choice, or did she want to place them under surveillance as well? Did Yang Xiaojin know about this?

Wait a minute. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin told them to bear with this place for the time being before she left. She must have known about this matter as well, but it was just that she could not do anything about it.

It seemed that the conflict between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium had already affected Yang Xiaojin’s status in the Yang Consortium.

Yan Liuyuan whispered next to him, “An organization’s attitude will not be changed just because of Big Sister Xiaojin alone. So, Bro, have you thought about what we’ll be facing next?”

Ren Xiaosu patted his head and said with a smile, “It’ll be fine. When I recover, the Yang Consortium won’t be able to stop us. When the time comes, we’ll head to the north to become bandits. I heard that the area between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178 is an unincorporated zone.”

Ren Xiaosu was right about that. Even Xu Xianchu had encountered the bandits that tried to attack him when he was on his way to Stronghold 178.

The bandits had ties with the Zong Consortium when free trade was still active some years ago. Some of them were even the Zong Consortium’s own regular troops in disguise, all so they could plunder and steal goods.

But over the years, the Zong Consortium had raised a tiger that brought them calamity. Many of the bandits got out of control and lived their carefree and comfortable lives in the unincorporated zone.

Ren Xiaosu thought that living in a place without rules could actually be quite good, and that he should be able to gain a foothold there with his skills.

Therefore, he would stay in the stronghold for the next few days to recuperate and observe the situation. If they realize that Stronghold 88 was really not a viable place to live in, they could just head north and become kings in the mountains.

But at this moment, someone knocked on the door. Wang Fugui went to open it and was surprised to find a group of people waiting outside with some food.

A middle-aged man at the door said with a smile, “Hello, everyone, I have instructions from the higher-ups to send you all some food.”

Luo Lan gasped. Why was the difference in treatment so great?

Chapter 309: The Bronze Ram of the Yang Consortium

The middle-aged man who came to deliver the food greeted Ren Xiaosu and was about to leave after putting down the food. Luo Lan grumbled for a bit in the yard, “Stop right there! As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium’s CEO, shouldn’t I get some respect too? Why didn’t you all deliver any food to us?! I’m Qing Zhen’s elder brother!”

But the middle-aged man ignored him.

Luo Lan stopped yelling when he saw them leaving. Then he took a closer look at the food delivered by them. “Wow, these are ingredients for hot pot. The beef slices are already marinated, the tripe is served on ice, and there’s even a broth!”

Ren Xiaosu and the others looked at each other. They had also eaten hot pot before, but they never really had any meat dishes in the past.

The refugees would always have their hot pot in a nine-sectioned pot. In this case, the nine grids were not used for separating the ingredients while cooking, but rather because everyone was poor. Therefore, those who gathered together to eat in one hot pot would get a grid each so that no one would be able to take advantage of the other.

But back then, the grids were not fixed and were actually only bamboo strips. Therefore, there would always be some who liked stealing other people’s food through the bottom of the pot.

Even though there were plainclothes cops outside keeping watch, they were finally able to get some good rest now that they had arrived at this new place. Besides, they even got food delivered to them.

Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, the most important thing for them now was to wait for him to recover rather than cause any further trouble.

Several tables had been set up in the spacious yard that had three entrances. Up to 100 people could sleep in here. 30 people could easily live here.

When the broth in the hot pot started boiling, Luo Lan said as he started eating, “Did Yang Xiaojin get you all into Stronghold 88? Why didn’t you head to the Qing Consortium’s territory to look for my brother instead?”

“Why should we go to the Qing Consortium?” Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Your Qing Consortium is in utter chaos at the moment. We might even get implicated if we head there.”

“It’s better than coming here to the Yang Consortium at this time, especially since you’re with the Saboteurs,” Luo Lan said.

“Why do you say that?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“Do you know that most of the Saboteurs have already left the Yang Consortium?” Luo Lan said.

“Yeah,” Ren Xiaosu answered.

“Now that the main faction is holding power, the Saboteurs are a marginalized group. Furthermore, the Saboteurs have always been isolated from the organization and became an independent force of its own, so that made the Yang Consortium’s Board extremely upset. As such, they ended up parting ways with each other!” Luo Lan said with a chuckle, “I must say that I’m really impressed with the Saboteurs since the entire Yang Consortium could not even do anything about them. This is something that can only be done by a group of supernatural beings.”

“You’re still praising them when the Saboteurs are trying to destroy your nuclear test site?” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Hehe, there’s no contradiction at all.” Luo Lan laughed and said, “I’m just telling the truth. I don’t have to belittle others to make myself look good. Besides, they won’t be able to find our site. No one can find it!”

“Alright.” Only now did Ren Xiaosu realize the Saboteurs were actually disliked within the Yang Consortium. “By the way, how are you going to leave the Yang Consortium? They probably won’t let you go anymore, right?”

Luo Lan suddenly changed the subject. “Hahaha, have some tripe. Y’know, there’s a particular way to eat tripe. I’ll teach you, after you dip it into the broth—”

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly grabbed Luo Lan’s wrist tightly. “There’s no need to teach me. You’ve already taught us using half a plate of tripe. We can handle it ourselves.”

…

The north of Stronghold 88 was the rich side of the stronghold. The entire area was covered in greenery, a stretch of garden manors.

In a 3,210-square meter villa, servants were bustling in and out of the dining room. Two steel knives with jewels mounted in their hilts were hanging from the wall in the dining room. They looked extremely valuable. But this exquisitely crafted melee weapon was just a decoration in the era of firearms and explosives. They would only be touched when the servants were cleaning them.

There was also the symbol of a bronze ram that was exclusive to the Yang Consortium on the hilts. It was said that the founder of the Yang Consortium had almost starved to death in the wilderness a very long time ago. But before he could die from starvation, a ram came up to him and knelt down in front of him, willingly offering itself to be eaten.

If Ren Xiaosu learned about this story, he would probably flip the table.

The servants placed all kinds of dishes onto the table, while there were only three people seated at the long table. They were Yang Xiaojin and a middle-aged couple.

The middle-aged man rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and said, “Xiaojin, I heard that you brought some refugees back?”

Yang Xiaojin stayed silent for a moment before answering, “That’s right, Third Uncle.”

“It’s not a good habit to be making friends with refugees.” Yang Xiaojin’s third uncle picked up his chopsticks. “The class of a person’s friend determines the class of said person as well. You’re allowed to go outside because we don’t have to worry about you and so that you can broaden your horizons. But don’t let yourself get carried away, and don’t you pick up those bad habits from your aunt either.”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “They’re different.”

Currently, the head of the Yang Consortium’s Board was very old. So half of the organization’s affairs had been handed over to Yang Xiaojin’s third uncle, Yang Yu’an.

The woman seated across from Yang Xiaojin said, “Your third uncle is also doing this for your own good. If your parents were still around, they would say the same too. Refugees aren’t educated, and they don’t have any manners. There are also no topics in common to discuss when dining together. Therefore, it’s better not to have any close interactions with them. If you want to help them, you should just offer them an appropriate amount of help.”

When the woman said to offer help to the refugees, her expression looked like she meant it as performing charity.

To Yang Xiaojin, she somehow felt that the vision of her third uncle, Yang Yu’an, and her third aunt, Meng Rong, was still stuck at the level of normal people. However, this world had changed. The quality and strength displayed by that young man had already surpassed most supernatural beings.

However, that was not the most important issue here.

Yang Xiaojin put her chopsticks down. “I’m full.”

“I still have some important matters to discuss with you.” Yang Yu’an said, “Currently, there shouldn’t be any issues with the battles at the front lines. The opponent we’re facing next will be the Qing Consortium. Qing Zhen is an ambitious man, so it’s not a good thing for our Yang Consortium that he succeeded in seizing power. Have the Saboteurs located the Qing Consortium’s test site yet?”

“No.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “But I doubt they’ll resort to using that kind of weapon in this war.”

“We still have to guard against it nonetheless,” Yang Yu’an said. Currently, the Yang Consortium still supported some of the Saboteurs’ activities. Actually, the reason he was willing to let Yang Xiaojin go out previously was that he was hoping that the Saboteurs could locate the Qing Consortium’s test site so they could destroy the last unknown factor of their expansion plans.

Yang Yu’an continued, “There’ll be a lengthy conflict with the Qing Consortium in the future, so we should also plan ahead and make the Zong Consortium in the north our ally before the Qing Consortium does so. On one hand, it will help cover our rear. On the other hand, our combined forces will act as a deterrent to the Qing Consortium. It’s not only him who can form alliances. Our Yang Consortium is capable of that as well.”

Yang Xiaojin looked at Yang Yu’an. “Third Uncle, what are you getting at?”

“Someone from the Zong Consortium will be arriving in a few days. I want you to go and welcome them,” Yang Yu’an said.

Chapter 310: The northern land’s Zong Consortium

The Zong Consortium was located at a corner in the north. The northern lands were barren, and plenty of natural disasters happened there. Therefore, the overall strength of the Zong Consortium had always been inferior to the Yang Consortium’s and the Qing Consortium’s, and they never dared to cause any significant troubles for the organizations to the south.

Although they did not make any big moves, they still resorted to many cheap tricks. For example, the Zong Consortium was the one who created the problem of the bandits.

Yang Yu’an’s evaluation of the Zong Consortium was that they were ambitious but did not have the ability to support it. This was also the reason why the Zong Consortium kept getting ideas of infiltrating into Stronghold 178. If that damn group from Stronghold 178 were to attack south, the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium would surely get a headache.

The Zong Consortium had thought of taking advantage of the period when Zhang Jinglin was not around to complete their “Peaceful Evolution”[1] strategy on Stronghold 178. However, they underestimated the belief of that damn group of people from Stronghold 178.

After Zhang Jinglin returned to Stronghold 178, all of the plans the Zong Consortium made over a decade went up in smoke. At that moment, everyone realized Stronghold 178 had borne the name of Zhang all this while.

If Yang Yu’an were aware of the friendship between Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin, he would probably treat Ren Xiaosu as an honored guest immediately. That was the most terrifying power in the northwestern borders. They were all brave warriors shaped by the harsh environment who were not afraid of death.

But it wasn’t only Yang Yu’an who was unaware of that. Even Ren Xiaosu did not know who exactly Zhang Jinglin was. But he had never thought of relying on him either, even handing the recommendation letter from him to Xu Xianchu.

At this moment, Yang Yu’an said, “The young man from the Zong Consortium who will be coming is called Zong Cheng, and he’s in charge of the Zong Consortium’s defensive strategies. Although he’s very young, he already commands an important position. We’re getting old, and the world belongs to the younger generation now. I heard that a young officer named Xu Xianchu has also risen through the ranks at Stronghold 178 recently, and he’s highly regarded by Zhang Jinglin. I find the name quite familiar. Isn’t he that Xu Xianchu you’ve crossed paths with before? Do you know him well?”

Yang Xiaojin was stunned. She was not on familiar terms with Xu Xianchu. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who had a great relationship with Xu Xianchu.

All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin found it a little funny. How did the currently famous figures at Stronghold 178, people like Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu, have such a close friendship with Ren Xiaosu? Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin felt that Stronghold 178 also seemed to have become a little bit closer to her for some reason.

Yang Xiaojin said, “I don’t know him well. We’ve traveled together before, but I’m not really friends with him.”

Yang Yu’an said, “Hm, you should still be friends. From now on, you can work on forming a relationship with Stronghold 178. If we can get their support, even Qing Zhen will have to back off.”

Yang Xiaojin did not say anything. Stronghold 178 would never be willing to deal with the interior organizations. The people from Stronghold 178 were bloodthirsty, so if the Yang Consortium really wanted to get close with Stronghold 178, she would probably need Ren Xiaosu to show up in order to deal with them.

Then Yang Yu’an continued, “That Zong Cheng is about the same age as you, and I heard he’s also a supernatural being. This will be a great opportunity.”

It was evident what he meant. Yang Xiaojin frowned. When her third aunt, Meng Rong, noticed, she said, “Don’t you try to snipe him on the road. The last time, you…”

Yang Xiaojin’s fine eyebrows hidden under the shadow of her cap raised slightly. “Alright, I understand.”

…

It was the next morning when Yang Xiaojin came to Ren Xiaosu and his group’s residence again. When Yan Liuyuan heard the sound of knocking on the door, he knew it had to be Xiaojin. As it turned out, it was her.

Ren Xiaosu was squatting on the ground and brushing his teeth. He spat out a mouthful of toothpaste and said with a smile, “You’re here this early?”

Yang Xiaojin got straight to the point. “I’m afraid that Wang Yuchi and the others won’t be able to sit for the entrance exams.”

Yesterday afternoon, she contacted the relevant departments about this matter. But when her third uncle heard about it, he immediately stopped her.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Was there a problem?”

“It’s because you guys aren’t residents of the stronghold.” Yang Xiaojin said in a low voice, “Furthermore, the university is conducting some confidential research. So you aren’t allowed to get involved.”

To put it simply, they were not from the Yang Consortium and neither did the Yang Consortium have any intention of letting them become one of their own. That was because Yang Yu’an did not like refugees and did not think they could be useful.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not dwell on this matter. He asked again, “What about Liuyuan and Dalong? They’ll only be attending junior high.”

Yan Liuyuan stepped forward. “But I’m not a stronghold resident either!”

Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, “Both of them can attend school, and enrollment has already been handled as well.”

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong nearly cried upon hearing that. “We really aren’t residents of the stronghold. We’re just refugees! Refugees do not deserve to attend school!”

“Alright, that’s enough, you two.” Ren Xiaosu looked at them in amusement. “You’re just going there to gain knowledge and learn how to solve problems. You’re making it sound like you’re going to jail. Stop crying about it already.”

“But even though Wang Yuchi and the others aren’t allowed to sit for the entrance exams, I still made library cards for you all. There’s a library at the center of the stronghold where you can borrow books,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Wang Yuchi was stunned. “We can do that?”

“Yes, you can,” Yang Xiaojin said with a nod.

As civilization progressed, a lot of people abandoned the pursuit of knowledge. However, some people were still determined to fill in the missing gaps.

Human technology had never been completely lost, but that only referred to the overall state of technology. A portion of it had still been lost with time. As such, the current developmental direction of technology varied greatly from the times before The Cataclysm.

This was not determined by what humans needed but on what kind of technology was left behind and what resources were suitable for development.

Someone once found a research laboratory of a civilization from before The Cataclysm, and the information found there had been auctioned at a certain stronghold in the Central Plains. The price it was sold at was unbelievably astronomical.

And how did civilization pass on its legacies? It depended on words and symbols passed down in writing.

Although the various organizations also had their own libraries, one had to be of a certain status to use them. When Wang Yuchi and the other students attended school in the stronghold, they were not allowed to enter the library because they were not qualified.

Thinking about it, Yang Xiaojin must have spent quite a bit of effort to help them apply for the library cards.

Ren Xiaosu was very happy. “OK, it’s not a bad idea to go to the library to study by yourself. Thanks a bunch.”

Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Uh…” Ren Xiaosu thought carefully and said, “Are there any teachers in this stronghold who teach hand-to-hand combat? I would like to learn it systematically.”

In the past, Ren Xiaosu had always fought ruthlessly in the wilderness by relying on his instincts he had achieved after long periods of training. Whether it was power generation or hitting weak spots, all of that was slowly accumulated through experience. So his martial skill had always remained at the intermediate level as he only relied on his ferocity.

Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment. “I’ll think of something!”

Next to them, Yan Liuyuan suddenly realized that as long as it was Ren Xiaosu’s request, Yang Xiaojin would not reject it. He knew Ren Xiaosu had saved Yang Xiaojin’s life before, so it seemed to make sense to think that way.

Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said, “There’s something…”

“What is it?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“People from the Zong Consortium in the north might be coming to Stronghold 88 soon. Can you come with me to welcome them when they get here?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“OK.”

[1] The “Peaceful Evolution” theory in international political thought refers to the alleged attempt to effect a political transformation of the Chinese socialist system by peaceful means, primarily by the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_Evolution_theory

Chapter 311: The young man in the library

Ren Xiaosu’s life suddenly became peaceful. Every morning after breakfast, he would lead Wang Yuchi and the other students in their physical training. He would practically push them to their limits before stopping.

While they were training, Luo Lan leaned against the wall and commented, “You guys are too reckless training like that. It’s neither methodical nor scientific.”

Then Ren Xiaosu remembered Luo Lan was a capable military leader, so he would definitely be proficient at this. He looked at Luo Lan and said, “Don’t just mouth off like that. If you say that my methods aren’t scientific, how ’bout you show us how to do it then?”

“Hehe.” Luo Lan’s eyes narrowed and revealed a shrewdness in him. “Don’t try to goad me into training them for you. No way!”

“I can share our food with you,” Ren Xiaosu said firmly.

“Are you that nice?” Luo Lan didn’t quite believe it.

The difference in their meals had become apparent. The food the Yang Consortium provided for Luo Lan and his men were steamed buns, napa cabbages, and pickled vegetables, while Ren Xiaosu and company were given lots of meat to eat. Ren Xiaosu had never lived so comfortably before. He even had drumsticks to eat every day without fail!

When the drumsticks and braised pork were placed onto the table, the aroma even wafted over the wall to the other side. Luo Lan, who was next door, almost cried from craving it!

Ren Xiaosu said, “You are responsible for drawing up training plans for them and supervising their training. Then you and your men can come over and eat together every day.”

There were only four people next door, including Luo Lan himself. Fatty Luo had come here as the representative of the Qing Consortium for negotiations, so he could not bring too many people with him. As such, Ren Xiaosu estimated it and felt it shouldn’t be much of a problem to share some food with them.

Luo Lan rubbed his hands gleefully and said, “I feel so bad about it, but I’m not doing this for your food. As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium’s CEO, would I lack that little bit of food? I just wanted to help you all because I thought your training plan was not methodical at all!”

“Yes, yes, yes, you’re absolutely right,” Ren Xiaosu said as he did not have time to argue with him.

“But I’m a little curious. What are you training them for?” Luo Lan asked. “If you’re not planning on letting them join the military, this strength training won’t be useful for them at all. Without a proper system to train in, an individual’s strength will never be able to stand up to a supernatural being’s strength.”

Ren Xiaosu ignored him. He couldn’t possibly say it was so Wang Yuchi and the others could take more nanomachines into their bodies in the future, right?

Indeed, the significance of their training would not be that great if they didn’t have the nanomachines. But the reason why Ren Xiaosu made them train was so they could gain better control of the nanomachines in the future. They would have to at least reduce the delay to less than 0.1 seconds so they could become combat effective.

If he had the support of eight “nanosoldiers,” it would be a considerable level of combat strength. Besides, there would be more than eight of them if he included Yan Liuyuan, Li Qingzheng, and the others. Even the female students were starting to train themselves spontaneously.

Initially, Ren Xiaosu had not planned to let the female students participate in battle. But after going through so much hardship, they had also grown up a lot.

As for where the nanomachines would come from, Ren Xiaosu would have to find a way to get them. Wasn’t the Yang Consortium manufacturing nanomachines as well? Since the palace could reset the Li Consortium’s nanomachines, it could definitely reset the Yang Consortium ones as well.

Ren Xiaosu, who had been completely set free, would head to the library every morning. The first time he arrived at the entrance of the library, he realized it was not open yet. It wasn’t until 10 AM that he finally saw a middle-aged man with unkempt hair arrive.

When the man saw Ren Xiaosu waiting at the entrance, he was taken aback. “You’re here to read?”

“That’s right.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Doesn’t the sign here state that the library opens at 8.30 AM?”

“Oh.” The man said, “People usually only start coming in the afternoon, and there are very few visitors to the library as well. So it doesn’t really matter if I come in a little late. How about this? If you come early in the future, call me in advance and I’ll be here to open the door for you.”

Then the uncle wrote a string of numbers for Ren Xiaosu. It was his home telephone number.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Why was this so different from what Wang Yuchi had described? It seemed like anyone could just walk in and read whatever books they wanted with the library’s current level of security. Was there even a need for a library card?

Meanwhile, the man wondered where this kid had come from. Did he suddenly vow to study hard now that it was winter break, in the hopes he could strive to become a useful pillar of the stronghold in the future? His enthusiasm would probably subside after a few days, right?

This was what happened to his neighbor’s child. During the holidays, he would come up with plenty of lesson plans for himself. If everything proceeded according to plan, the child would definitely become an academic expert of his generation and contribute to humanity’s improvement.

However, a plan was ultimately just a plan.

When the library was first built, the Yang Consortium would even deploy soldiers to guard it. This was to prevent people from stealing the books. But later on, they realized the stronghold residents were not even interested in reading books after they graduated from high school. On the contrary, when a small-time celebrity released a new song in the stronghold, swarms of people would gather to attend the press conference.

With time, only a middle-aged man was left here to look after the library.

The next day, Ren Xiaosu woke up at 7 AM and gave the man a call to have him open the library so as to prevent yesterday’s situation from happening again.

On the third day, it was the same.

By the tenth day, the man thought something was strange. After opening the library in the morning, he pulled Ren Xiaosu back. “Hold on!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What’s the matter?”

The man, who had dark eye circles after playing mahjong all night, sucked his teeth and said, “You’ve been coming here every day. Don’t you need to rest?”

“It’s not like reading books makes me tired.” Ren Xiaosu was confused. “So why would I need to rest?”

“I’ll be honest with you.” The man said, “It wasn’t easy for me to save up some money to buy this job in the civil service. I heard that a librarian’s job is easy, and I wouldn’t have to work from dawn til dusk. But since you arrived, it feels like I have to slog as hard as I used to ten years ago!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian with surprise. “Then what can I do?”

“Don’t you think you should treat me to breakfast?” An Yuqian said with a dark expression.

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized An Yuqian. “Are you so poor that you don’t even have money for breakfast?”

“Hahaha,” An Yuqian laughed long and hard. “Kid, how dare you say I don’t have enough money for breakfast? Although, you couldn’t be more right about that….”

Ren Xiaosu slapped a ten-yuan bill into An Yuqian’s hand. “Go and eat breakfast. I won’t join you since I still have a lot of books I want to read.”

Wang Yuchi and the other students would come to the library every afternoon to study from 1 to 6 PM. Since they could not borrow the books out of the library, they could only read them here.

Ren Xiaosu felt he was worse at studying than Wang Yuchi and the other students, so he had to spend twice as much time trying to make up for it.

When An Yuqian returned to the library after breakfast, he deliberately went to check on Ren Xiaosu. In the huge library, Ren Xiaosu was the only person sitting quietly at a table. The flipping of pages from time to time was the only sound that could be heard in the entire library.

Chapter 312: The librarian

In the morning, Ren Xiaosu was doing some reading in the library. Meanwhile, An Yuqian was snoring loudly as he slept in his chair at the entrance.

When the sun shone onto An Yuqian’s face from the outside, he would even cover his face with a book to shield himself from the light.

Every morning, when Ren Xiaosu arrived, he would automatically give ten yuan to An Yuqian. Moreover, there was no need for Ren Xiaosu to keep calling An Yuqian anymore as he would be waiting at the door every day at 8.30 AM sharp while yawning.

Gradually, An Yuqian found it extremely uncomfortable that he had to always sleep like that. He used to always play mahjong throughout the night before heading home to sleep well during the morning. But since Ren Xiaosu started coming to the library, he could only sleep while sitting in his chair at the library.

How could sleeping in a chair be more comfortable than sleeping in a bed?

As no one else was using the library, An Yuqian purposely observed what Ren Xiaosu was reading. However, he died laughing when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was actually reading the tenth grade textbooks for math, physics, and chemistry!

Ren Xiaosu’s persistence in coming to the library for so many days finally made An Yuqian change his opinion of him. He had thought that for once, a studious kid had finally come to the library. But to his surprise, this studious kid could only read tenth grade textbooks.

Judging by Ren Xiaosu’s age, shouldn’t he be in 12th grade at the least? So it turned out he was just a weak student who was starting to study from scratch?

An Yuqian counted on his fingers and realized the college entrance exams were only three months away. How could he make it in time if he was still only studying the tenth grade curriculum?

Even though An Yuqian was pacing around him, Ren Xiaosu did not bother looking at him.

An Yuqian could not help saying, “Isn’t it a little too late to study now? The college entrance exams are only three months away!”

Ren Xiaosu looked up at him. “I’m not sitting for the entrance exams.”

“You’re not sitting for the entrance exams? Then why are you studying tenth grade math, physics, and chemistry?” An Yuqian asked in surprise. “Shouldn’t you start working at a factory after you graduate from high school? What’s the point of learning all this stuff?”

“Knowledge will always be useful, and whatever I learn belongs to me,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

An Yuqian shrugged and turned around. “Just don’t forget to pay for my breakfast every morning. If not for you, I wouldn’t need to eat breakfast. This expenditure is incurred only because of you.”

“OK,” Ren Xiaosu said.

However, An Yuqian suddenly realized that other than Ren Xiaosu, there was another group of students who came to study in the afternoon. There were over 20 male and female students, and they had been sitting in the library all afternoon for several days in a row.

Even though there were also others who came to study in the afternoon, it would not be so frequent and scheduled. Furthermore, their numbers were always the same. This group of students… actually sat next to Ren Xiaosu in an organized and disciplined manner.

After waking up in the afternoon, An Yuqian got closer to have a look and realized Wang Yuchi and the others were reading books related to mechanical engineering. This topic exceeded the syllabus of high school.

When the library was about to close, Wang Yuchi suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu, “Monitor, should we go home now since it’s closing time?”

An Yuqian was stunned. The young man who paid for his breakfast every day was actually the class monitor of this group of students? These normal students were learning knowledge beyond their years while the monitor was still studying tenth grade textbooks? What sort of nonsensical crap was this.

Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky and said, “Y’all can head back first. I wanna read a little while longer.”

“Hey!” An Yuqian could not sit still anymore. “Dontcha know it’s time for me to leave too?!”

“I’ll give you 50 yuan,” Ren Xiaosu said without even raising his head.

An Yuqian said unhappily, “That won’t do. I have to leave now to play mahjong. Who knows if I’ll recover my losses tonight!”

Ren Xiaosu quietly put the book back onto the bookshelf before turning to leave.

The first thing Ren Xiaosu said when he saw An Yuqian the next morning was, “So did you recover your losses?”

“Kid, why are you so annoying?” An Yuqian was upset. “Should you even be asking something like that?”

“Then you must have lost.” Ren Xiaosu slapped a ten-yuan bill into An Yuqian’s hand. “Go on, get your breakfast.”

As An Yuqian held the ten-yuan bill, he felt insulted.

In the afternoon, when Wang Yuchi and the others came to the library again, An Yuqian suddenly sat down across from Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked up at him in surprise. “What’s up?”

An Yuqian said, “You guys must be trying to learn more about mechanical engineering, right? However, you’re all reading the wrong books!”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. He glanced at the books Wang Yuchi and the other students were holding. “Then what books should they be reading?”

Without a teacher’s guidance, they had to learn everything by themselves. It was like crossing a river while holding a stone in their arms. Their progress was extremely slow.

Although Jiang Wu was a teacher, she was only a language teacher.

An Yuqian replied, “For 500 yuan, I’ll tell you all what books you should read!”

In response, Ren Xiaosu threw 500 yuan over. Wang Yuchi whispered from beside him, “Monitor, why do I get the feeling that he’s a scammer?”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “A scammer can’t possibly not even have any money for breakfast.”

An Yuqian wanted to curse out loud. Ren Xiaosu was insinuating that he was not even qualified to be a scammer!

An Yuqian said with a sneer, “If you want to properly study mechanical engineering, don’t try to run before you learn how to walk. You have to first learn math and physics!”

Ren Xiaosu leaned back in his chair and listened quietly. Meanwhile, Wang Yuchi and the others opened their notebooks and were preparing to take notes.

“I suggest you all first read Chen Jixiu’s Mathematical Analysis as an introduction, then learn linear algebra. You won’t have learned enough about this topic in high school.”

“There’s no need to read General Physics.” An Yuqian threw a book onto the table. “Just read The Feynman Lectures on Physics.”

“True Analysis… Forget it, you don’t have to read that yet.”

“As for the Methods of Mathematical Physics, you can have a look at Wang Dexin’s books. All the books cover real functions, special functions, equations, and so on. There isn’t much of a difference between them.

“You should also read up on thermodynamics.”

An Yuqian kept talking for half an hour. Ren Xiaosu started to get the feeling that it would take several years to learn everything. But at this moment, An Yuqian smacked his lips and said, “And that’s just the beginning. If you really want to gain a deeper understanding of mechanical engineering, you’re all seriously lacking!”

Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So this guy was just rambling and trying to let off some steam. However, Ren Xiaosu also realized that An Yuqian was not an ordinary person. Even a scammer would probably not recite all that just to earn 500 yuan. Most importantly, no one could possibly teach him how to say what he just said.

Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian and said, “If you teach them, I’ll pay you 500 yuan for each lesson.”

An Yuqian’s eyes lit up, but he immediately held himself back. “But my time is very precious.”

“400.”

“Hey, why is the offer getting lower?!”

“300.”

“Alright, I’ll teach! 500 yuan! And not a cent less!”

Only then did Ren Xiaosu smile. “If you don’t teach them well, I won’t pay you.”

“How can I not teach them well?” An Yuqian’s eyes widened. “I… Forget it, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you!”

But An Yuqian suddenly felt there was much more about this young man before him than he had thought. Would a normal student pay 500 yuan just to attend a lesson?

Chapter 313: Under watch

As soon as An Yuqian received the payment from Ren Xiaosu, he went to a second-hand market and purchased a blackboard. After he brought it back to the library, the venue was all set for teaching.

At first, he thought the teaching process would be very tedious based on what he knew of Ren Xiaosu. After all, if the class monitor was still studying the tenth grade curriculum, how much better off would the other students be?

At most, they should only be slightly better than Ren Xiaosu, right? Although they had been reading up on mechanical engineering books beyond their level, this gave An Yuqian the negative impression they were trying to run without learning how to walk first.

But when he started teaching them, An Yuqian realized Wang Yuchi and the others had a really good foundation.

Although he was giving a lecture on the advanced foundation of math and physics, not things a high school student could easily grasp, Wang Yuchi and the other students picked it up with ease in class.

Regardless of which student, they would all be considered top students at any of the high schools around. They were the type of students who stood a chance of getting into university!

An Yuqian frowned and asked, “Are you all planning on getting into university? You don’t have to learn these things to qualify, though.”

Wang Yuchi answered, “We’re not planning to attend uni.”

“Oh.” An Yuqian did not say anything else. It was quite a pity that these fine young students were not thinking about attending university.

But if these students were not planning to do that, why would they still want to learn all this? However, that had nothing to do with An Yuqian. He only had to teach them and collect his pay.

However, An Yuqian realized Wang Yuchi and the others were always drenched in sweat every afternoon when they came over to the library. It was as though they had just finished exercising.

He asked, “What have you guys been doing?”

“Fitness training,” Wang Yuchi answered simply.

This confused An Yuqian even more. “Why do you have to do fitness training? Are you planning to enlist in the military?”

“No.”

“Then what are you doing the exercises for?” An Yuqian was still confused.

“What are you asking that for?” Wang Yuchi became wary. “We will just train if our class monitor tells us to do so.”

As An Yuqian was their teacher now, Wang Yuchi would still be respectful towards those who imparted knowledge to them. But if An Yuqian kept questioning them on matters unrelated to learning, he felt he would have to be a bit more cautious.

An Yuqian felt that something was off. “He’s only your class monitor, so why do you listen to him so much?”

Why were they so obedient that they did whatever Ren Xiaosu asked of them, be it learning new knowledge or fitness training?

As a matter of fact, An Yuqian was also the monitor of his class back in the days when he was still in school. Did anyone take him seriously back then? Why was there such a huge difference even though they were both class monitors?

…

These days, Ren Xiaosu would go out by himself every morning and return home only at night.

Such peaceful days were really rare for him.

Ren Xiaosu really enjoyed days like these. It would be even better if no one were tailing him.

Although someone claimed the plainclothes cops who were watching over them had already left, Ren Xiaosu found out by the third day that there were different people following him around every day whenever he went out.

In order to tail him, they even switched personnel at intervals while following him. Whenever an intersection appeared, the lead person tailing him would walk off in a different direction and let the next person take over the tailing.

This group of people were quite professional in their methods. If not for Ren Xiaosu’s keen sense of observation he developed in the wilderness, he would probably not have noticed their presence.

Who wanted to follow him? And why would they follow him?

Ren Xiaosu was quite sure that some of his identities were not known to these people yet, so in the eyes of many, he should only be a normal refugee.

Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin was definitely not in the know. If she had arranged for this, she should have known that if Ren Xiaosu really wanted to run away, these normal people would not be able to catch up to him.

As these people continued tailing him day after day, Ren Xiaosu’s fractures healed. Many of his fractures no longer required the nanomachines to hold them together anymore.

After he fully recovered from his injuries, he could set aside some time to take the combat classes. He was looking forward to the class a lot.

An Yuqian would always see Ren Xiaosu sitting quietly in the library. Unless he got up to get a different book to read, he would not move at all.

On one hand, Ren Xiaosu was really quite focused when he read. On the other hand, he felt pain whenever he made any movements. Therefore, he would not make any unnecessary movements unless he was required to.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was on his way to the library. He didn’t plan to alert the people who were keeping watch on him. Although he did not know what their motives were, it would be best to let them think that he was just a normal person.

Zhang Jinglin had offered him a little tip about what to do when he suspected he was being followed. In that scenario, he should stop and look at his watch. When he did that, the person tailing him would also subconsciously take a look at their own watch.

But Ren Xiaosu did not do so because he did not have a watch.

…

In the Yang Consortium’s manor, Yang Yu’an was carefully going through a document. As he was a little nearsighted, he would put on his glasses whenever he went through any documents.

But he did not usually wear glasses when he was outside. That was because his nearsightedness was not particularly severe. It was probably only in the range of 200 to 300 degrees.

At this moment, a housekeeper came in and said, “Sir, someone from the Intelligence Service is here to see you.”

Yang Yu’an thought for a moment before saying, “Show them in.”

A woman walked in. She was very young and probably only in her early twenties. She wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she had an air of elegance to her. Ignoring her identity as a secret agent, she would look just like any other young woman with a charming demeanor if she were out on the streets.

She came over to Yang Yu’an’s table and said respectfully, “Boss, I’ve been monitoring that kid for some days, but I haven’t discovered anything unusual yet. Apart from heading to the library and returning back home day in and day out, he doesn’t go anywhere else.”

“Great work, Yingxue. Have you ever lost track of him before?” Yang Yu’an asked.

“No.” The girl whose name was Zhou Yingxue said, “He’s really stupid and didn’t even realize we were tailing him. As you know, this is what I’m best at, so I believe in my judgment.”

“Very good,” Yang Yu’an said. He was starting to wonder if Ren Xiaosu might really just be a normal refugee after all.

He heard of the name Ren Xiaosu back when he was wanted by the Qing Consortium, but he was quickly taken off the list. The Qing Consortium had removed his name after confirming internally that he was just a refugee.

Yang Yu’an had also asked Lu Yuan about Ren Xiaosu, but Lu Yuan told him he had not heard of this person before. Yang Yu’an asked him whether it was Yang Xiaojin who asked him to say that, but Lu Yuan denied it.

Yang Yu’an frowned. Could it be that he was really just a refugee? He somehow felt that someone was hiding something from him, but he had no evidence. But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu really did seem like just a refugee.

Yang Yu’an looked at Zhou Yingxue and said, “Do not take the investigations lightly. I still feel that something is wrong. How could a normal refugee possibly attract Xiaojin’s attention? If and when necessary, you can go and test him.”

Chapter 314: Spare Me, Great Lord

Ren Xiaosu continued heading to the library as usual every day. In recent days, he discovered the library would already be open by the time he arrived, and An Yuqian would be snoring loudly in his chair at the entrance. It was clear that he had played mahjong all night again.

By rights, earning 500 yuan each day would be enough for An Yuqian to make a living. The monthly income for an average family of three in the stronghold was only 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. With a monthly salary of 15,000 yuan, he should be living a very comfortable life. But An Yuqian just had to use this money to play mahjong.

Even though Ren Xiaosu was footing all of the tuition, he had to get Wang Fugui to secretly trade a small amount of gold for cash. After all, they did not have any sources of income right now.

Fortunately, he still had quite a lot of gold left. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu hoped he could come across the ruins of another civilization again or something similar in the future. Human civilization before The Cataclysm was full of gems.

If it were really as Yang Xiaojin had said, any single item from a research laboratory could be exchanged for an inexhaustible amount of money. That would absolutely be a godsend.

It was no wonder Qing Zhen had spared no effort in trying to excavate that research laboratory in the Jing Mountains.

Cigarettes could go bad and wine could volatilize, but paper documents stored away in enclosed areas were simply priceless.

Of course, some people had found wine that hadn’t volatilized yet, but that was wine that had been stored in specially sealed packaging. If that were sold, the seller would earn a vast fortune overnight.

Ren Xiaosu knocked on the table in front of An Yuqian. “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“Huh?” An Yuqian looked at Ren Xiaosu and said sleepily, “Not yet. I was waiting for you to hand me the money for breakfast. When I passed by the stuffed bun shop this morning, the smell was heavenly.”

Ren Xiaosu slapped a ten-yuan bill onto the table and said peeved, “Go and eat breakfast, I’ll help you look after the library.”

“Haha.” An Yuqian pocketed the ten-yuan bill and said, “You’re such a good person!”

“Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why must you spend all your money on playing mahjong?”

In his opinion, An Yuqian was definitely not ordinary. How could someone who came up with a proper lesson plan in such a short time to teach math and physics in logical steps be an ordinary librarian?

The basic knowledge might seem very simple on its own, but to form them into a systematic lesson plan was a truly remarkable ability.

An Yuqian laughed and looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Then let me ask you: What can I do if I don’t play mahjong?”

Ren Xiaosu was stumped as he really could not come up with an answer.

As An Yuqian walked out of the library, he waved. “Since the world is so boring, isn’t it better to just play mahjong all day and sit around while we wait to die?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. Well, sounded about right.

After a while, An Yuqian came back. He even had a bag of stuffed buns for Ren Xiaosu. “Try some. The buns from this shop are incredible. You don’t look like a local, so I bet you haven’t tried the buns from this shop before. You know, the proprietress of this bun shop is gorgeous. Her nickname is ‘Bun Beauty’!”

Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. After he saw Yang Xiaojin’s looks when she took off her cap, he felt he had already encountered what humans would define as true beauty.

As for that bun shop’s proprietress, Ren Xiaosu had seen her before. She was definitely not as beautiful as An Yuqian had claimed. It could also be because the Bun Beauty had chopped scallions sprinkled all over her face when he passed by the shop, leading him to subconsciously think she was not that pretty after all.

An Yuqian glanced at the book Ren Xiaosu was holding. “Oh, I’ve also read this novel titled Spare Me, Great Lord. It’s quite a good book, but unfortunately, only the first two volumes have been preserved after The Cataclysm. No one knows where the rest of the volumes are.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “I was just browsing.”

“The books you read are quite random.” An Yuqian said, recalling, “Each morning, you read a variety of different books before switching to reading textbooks in the afternoon. If I remember correctly, you’ve read books on economics, literature, history, science, geography, and even comics.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

“So what do you really want to read?” An Yuqian asked, “There must be a purpose, right? I can divide reading into three categories. The first category is entertainment and is done purely because one simply likes reading books. The second category is information. For example, you can read a recipe if you want to learn how to cook. The third category is knowledge. For example, reading textbooks because you’re taking the entrance exams and doing problem sets.”

“Then I’m probably reading for entertainment,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“But what are you trying to find out from the books?” An Yuqian asked.

“I want to know what this world is really like.” Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “In the past, I didn’t have many opportunities to read books nor had the chance to systematically learn about the world. So I want to cherish the opportunities that I have now.”

“Oh.” An Yuqian nodded. “But there are still two types of books you haven’t read yet.”

“Which are they?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not really taken note before.

“You don’t read books on philosophy. I saw you take out a book the day before, but you placed it back after reading two pages,” An Yuqian said.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. He had not expected An Yuqian to be observing him so closely. “I just didn’t feel like reading it.”

“But it’s philosophy. It’s such an interesting topic.” An Yuqian lamented, “How can you not want to read it?”

“I didn’t want to torture myself,” Ren Xiaosu said and smiled.

This time, it was An Yuqian’s turn to be stunned. He fell silent for a while and then said with a smile, “You’re interesting. The meaning of philosophy is to understand the world through self-reflection, but they’re written based on the understanding of others, so it’s fine not to read it. But why didn’t you read political books?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Because the world itself is much more interesting than politics.”

“Alright then.” An Yuqian smacked his lips. “I suddenly feel like we might have a lot in common.”

Ren Xiaosu turned serious again and said, “I don’t think so.”

Just as An Yuqian was about to fly into a rage, a voice suddenly came from the entrance. “Hello, is anyone around? I’d like to enter the library to read.”

The voice was pleasant and melodious. When An Yuqian turned around to have a look, his eyes lit up. “Coming, coming.”

A charming woman was standing at the door with a head of wavy, long hair. Ren Xiaosu could just make out her earrings dangling down to her cheeks, as though they were secretly trying to seduce him.

The woman, wearing a pair of delicate high heels, waited for An Yuqian to check her library card. An Yuqian said, “You’re Ms. Zhou Yingxue, right?”

“Yes.” Zhou Yingxue nodded.

“OK, that’ll do.” An Yuqian followed the script. “You aren’t allowed to borrow any books out of this library. If there’s any damage to the books, please contact me immediately. I hope you take good care of the books here. After all, many of them can’t be found anywhere else anymore.”

“Mhm, thank you,” Zhou Yingxue said with a gentle smile.

An Yuqian was mesmerized by her. “Please let me know if you need anything.”

Zhou Yingxue slowly walked towards Ren Xiaosu and sat down across from him. She looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Hello.”

Ren Xiaosu looked up and said, “Hello, auntie.”

From his desk, An Yuqian got anxious when he heard that. How could the kid talk this way? ‘Even if Yue Lao[1] used rebar to unite your destinies, you would probably snap the bar with a response like that!’

[1] Yue Lao (Chinese: 月下老人; pinyin: Yuè Xià Lǎorén; literally: ‘old man under the moon’) is a god of marriage and love in Chinese mythology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Lao

Chapter 315: Controlled fusion

When Zhou Yingxue heard Ren Xiaosu address her as “auntie,” she couldn’t hold it in any longer. Thinking of how she was only 25 years old and still in her prime, how did she end up being called an auntie?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not really think that Zhou Yingxue was old. It was just that he had seen her outside before.

The people from the Intelligence Service who were watching Ren Xiaosu thought their tailing operation was flawless. They even believed that Ren Xiaosu was extremely stupid to not have noticed them.

But actually, Ren Xiaosu purely didn’t care about them as he just wanted to heal from his injuries.

Besides, it would have been better if they had gotten some nanosoldiers to come and keep watch on him. Normal people were not able to arouse Ren Xiaosu’s interest in the slightest.

However, Zhou Yingxue was not an average person either. She said with a smile, “At my age, it’s more appropriate if you address me as big sister. Are you familiar with the library?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head.

Zhou Yingxue was stunned. He had been coming to the library every single day for almost half a month now, yet he was saying he was not familiar with it?

She continued with a smile, “I’m looking for a book titled The Theory of Time. Do you know where it is?”

Ren Xiaosu looked up at her. He had already given an attitude, trying to distance himself from her, yet she still persisted in striking up a conversation with him.

But at this moment, the voice from the palace said, “Quest: Help the knowledge seeker determine the correct location of the book.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why did this quest have to be assigned to him now of all times? Moreover, the quest even specifically stated it had to be the correct location, so he could not just point to a random spot. However, he really did not know where the book was.

He would have to do the quest no matter what. He looked at Zhou Yingxue and tried his luck by saying, “The Theory of Time must be in this library. Why don’t you look for it yourself?”

Zhou Yingxue was taken aback by the answer. ‘You might as well say that the book is inside Stronghold 88! Of course I know it’s in this library!’

However, Ren Xiaosu didn’t care about that. He thought that since the palace was just asking him to pinpoint the correct location, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the book was right here in the library, right?

The voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to give his own ingenuity a thumbs up. There was probably no one else who could match him in terms of exploiting loopholes when it came to doing quests!

Seeing how awkward it was, An Yuqian quickly found the book titled The Theory of Time and handed it to Zhou Yingxue. Zhou Yingxue got very frustrated but could not vent.

At this moment, a group of people came into the library from outside. It was Wang Yuchi and the others.

When they came to the table where Ren Xiaosu was, they were a little taken aback when they saw Zhou Yingxue sitting there as well. They were used to sitting together at this table to study by themselves.

If Zhou Yingxue was seated here, they would have a stranger in between them. That would make it very awkward, and they would have to be very careful with their words.

They would often discuss some secretive topics during their conversations. After all, they knew too much, so they would unintentionally bring it up while talking.

Zhou Yingxue knew these people wanted to sit together with Ren Xiaosu, but she just pretended to focus on her book and sat there without any intention of excusing herself.

Someone wanted to ask Zhou Yingxue if she could change seats but was stopped by Wang Yuchi. “The library is a public place, so we have no reason to disturb others from reading where they want.”

Ren Xiaosu gathered the books in front of him and said, “Let’s switch tables.”

The library was very large, and there were a lot of tables other than this one. As such, their entire group went to another table and left Zhou Yingxue there to continue reading by herself.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue sat there for the rest of the entire afternoon reading The Theory of Time. She had to do so in order to portray that she was really here to read so as not to arouse Ren Xiaosu’s suspicions. No one really knew whether she could even absorb what she was reading.

Zhou Yingxue was a little frustrated. She did not lack suitors! How could she not even have enticed the young man in front of her one bit?! Something must be wrong with him, right?!

After that day, Zhou Yingxue never appeared before Ren Xiaosu again. The frequency of him being watched also lessened. Sometimes, they would only keep watch on him once every few days.

Meanwhile, An Yuqian’s lectures were starting to progress much quicker. He even sighed, saying how he had never thought it would be this easy to teach students. When he used to teach, he always felt the students were really stupid.

Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian could have been in research in the past. Later, he somehow became a librarian. When he had time, he thought that maybe he could ask Yang Xiaojin about it. She might just know something regarding this.

As they learned more, Wang Yuchi and the other male students would occasionally sketch the armor’s blueprint from imagination during their breaks. Now that the delay in their control of the nanomachines had been reduced to less than 0.2 seconds, they would sometimes imagine how they would look with the armor on. It was really exciting just thinking about it.

After they sketched out the designs for the arms and hands, An Yuqian caught a glimpse and said with a laugh, “So you’d wanted to design something like that? Y’know, it’s completely unachievable!”

Ren Xiaosu looked up at An Yuqian. “Why?”

An Yuqian replied, “A lot of people are looking to design ‘mechanical armor’ and think that these individual combat systems can play a significant role on the battlefield. However, there’s too many challenges to overcome.”

Ren Xiaosu asked with great interest, “What kinds of challenges?”

“First of all, you can’t solve the issue of the propulsion system.” An Yuqian sneered, “How could there be such a powerful and portable power source in this world? There’s only one kind of power source like this, and it’s achieved through controlled nuclear fusion!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Yang Xiaojin was from the Saboteurs, an organization that hated nuclear technology the most. If he were to fit a controlled fusion reactor on his armor, wouldn’t all of the Saboteurs come after him?

“Are there any other potential power sources?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

An Yuqian said firmly, “No! At least not within the limits of known technology! The raw materials for fusion are deuterium and tritium. If the technology is advanced enough, just deuterium alone can be used. An abundant amount of deuterium already exists in water. But the existing methods of controlled fusion, such as the ‘tokamak,'[1] present a very difficult problem to solve. The question remains on how to shrink the size of the device so it can be fitted easily on a human body. The larger the visible radius of the device, the better the energy confinement!”

“It’s not impossible if you want to shrink it, but it will be difficult.” An Yuqian looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others with a smile. “It’s just a dream for the several of you to achieve it.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. He had also been struggling with the power source for the nanomachines all this while. After all, if he only depended on his bioenergy to charge them, he would only be able to use it for two minutes with every two hours of charging. It would not be enough to sustain the nanomachines in a high-intensity battle.

“Are there any other challenges that can’t be overcome?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

An Yuqian said, “How would you command the full body of armor to listen to your orders? How complicated a procedure would it take in order to—”

“That seems rather easy to solve,” interrupted Ren Xiaosu.

An Yuqian was confused. ‘What are you bragging for?!’

However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to say any more than that. Be it the Yang Consortium or the Li Consortium, no one would possibly use the nanomachines as armor for now. That was mainly because it would be a little too extravagant to use them like that.

[1] A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine a hot plasma in the shape of a torus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawson_criterion | http://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/283636/files/Koslowski_EI-3.pdf

Chapter 316: Encountering Lu Yuan again

An Yuqian could not accept Ren Xiaosu’s bragging. “Do you really know what programmable matter[1] entails?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian. “What?”

An Yuqian raised his voice and said, “Programmable matter is a type of ‘intermediary matter’ that changes its physical properties based upon user input or autonomous sensing.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a second. “Real words, please.”

“In short,” An Yuqian said, “if you want to build this kind of armor, its components must at least have the ability to shapeshift and self-reconfigure. Without programmable matter, you can’t create flexible self-combination and separation processes.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “No worries about that.”

An Yuqian nearly went crazy. “Don’t you understand what I am saying? How can you not be worried about something this important!”

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu could solve all the problems An Yuqian brought up, other than the problem with the power source. As for the “programmable matter,” the nanomachines were better performing than that.

Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian definitely had not specialized in the field of nanotech research. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly be unaware of the current progress that nanomachines were making. Furthermore, he was certainly not a core member of the Yang Consortium.

But how did An Yuqian end up in this state? Although Ren Xiaosu’s knowledge was still quite far from allowing him to become an academic, he could feel An Yuqian’s stubbornness and pride in the face of science. Why was An Yuqian willing to be a mere librarian here?

In the following days, An Yuqian focused on teaching and playing mahjong, no longer bothering with the so-called power source and programmable matter.

Ren Xiaosu urged Wang Yuchi and the other male students to come up with designs for the armor after they got home and to approach An Yuqian for help during their breaks during the day to resolve any technical difficulties. For some reason, An Yuqian was willing to help them out.

From An Yuqian’s point of view, if he helped Ren Xiaosu solve all of his current difficulties and led him to the issues he mentioned, Ren Xiaosu would come to realize how wise he was.

He felt that Ren Xiaosu was not bothered by the state of programmable matter technology only because he wasn’t at that level and had yet to encounter the bottlenecks of the technology! After all, An Yuqian did not think that a tenth grader could possibly understand his vision and previous position in the academic field. Thinking of this, An Yuqian even wanted to bug Ren Xiaosu to teach him remedial courses so Ren Xiaosu could quickly understand just how awesome he was.

One day, when Ren Xiaosu wanted to resume studying a textbook from the day before, he found a notebook placed next to it. This was something he had not seen before.

Ren Xiaosu opened the notebook and saw someone had carefully sorted the learning order and key points of knowledge. With just a glance, he knew exactly who had written it. It was definitely An Yuqian!

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at An Yuqian in amusement. Was that guy trying to act mysterious? “Is this your notebook?”

An Yuqian was a little embarrassed. “Oh, it’s just something from the past I stumbled upon and thought would be useful for someone else. You can have it if you think it’ll be useful. It’s pretty suitable for you. Some topics are deliberately simplified in high school. If you follow the curriculum, you’ll end taking a lot of repetitive steps. So why don’t you just follow the method I used to learn?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Thank you, how much is it?” He was about to pay for it.

However, An Yuqian flew into a rage. “I didn’t give you the notebook for money!” Then An Yuqian angrily went back to the entrance to watch the door.

Ren Xiaosu returned to his seat with a grin.After getting guidance from An Yuqian, the outlook for the armor was becoming better and better. In An Yuqian’s words, “Science is an extremely mysterious subject. When a design moves closer to rationality, it will have an even more special charm to it.”

It was a charm that could truly conquer the mind.

Wait. Ren Xiaosu remembered he’d just received a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. Although it could not be used to copy superpowers, it was still very useful for learning normal skills.

He had wanted to use it when he saw Yang Xiaojin again, but Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he did not have to copy Yang Xiaojin’s skills by all means. Couldn’t he just copy from An Yuqian, who was right in front of him? Yang Xiaojin’s knowledge of mathematics and physics would definitely not be as good as a professional academic’s like An Yuqian.

It was not that Yang Xiaojin was not smart, but that people specialized in different professions. There was no need to compare an amateur to a professional.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Skill.”

The voice from the palace answered, “Randomly copied target’s skill: Master-level mahjong playing. As the host does not have the corresponding advanced-level skill, the host will only be able to learn it up to the advanced level. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu immediately looked at An Yuqian. Why would he still lose money every day when he clearly had a master-level skill in playing mahjong? There had to be something wrong! Could it be that someone set up a scam for him? Or did the opponents cheat?

An Yuqian noticed Ren Xiaosu staring at him. “What are you looking at me for?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu replied to his mind palace, “Yes.”

By now, Ren Xiaosu had almost recovered from his injuries. As long as he did not exercise vigorously, he would be alright. He did not find it painful anymore even if he moved around.

Finally, it was time for him to learn about hand-to-hand combat. He wondered who Yang Xiaojin had arranged for him to learn hand-to-hand combat from.

Yang Xiaojin had given him an address not far from the library. When he felt that his injuries had healed, he could go there by himself. A martial arts school stood there.

During the day, he would spend his time in the library. In the evening, he would head to the martial arts school. Ren Xiaosu’s life had never been more fulfilling.

He went to look for the place based on the address Yang Xiaojin had given him. It seemed that the martial arts school was located inside a small alley, so it didn’t look well-known at all.

“Nangeng Alley. Here we are!” Ren Xiaosu said.

It really was a small alley. Ren Xiaosu felt that whoever ran a martial arts school in this alley was likely losing money. They probably could not even cover their overheads.

But when he got to the entrance of the martial arts school, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see a lot of students inside. Several dozen students were standing in a yard slightly over 200 square meters. Many parents were waiting outside the martial arts school to pick up their children after class ended.

When he looked up, he was surprised to see the door frame and school signboard were carved out of a solid piece of wood. From the look of it, it was quite old. Rainwater had eroded the surface, creating white stains.

He saw the words “Lu Family” written on the sign.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if he might actually know the owner of the school. He went in and said to an instructor, “Hello, I’m looking for the owner.”

The instructor shouted to the inside loudly, “Old Lu, someone’s looking for you!”

Lu Yuan walked out. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he said with a kind smile, “Quick, come in. We haven’t met in a while!”

The parents standing at the entrance were stunned. When they saw Ren Xiaosu earlier, they thought he was just a normal young man. But they could not have expected Lu Yuan would personally come out to meet him.

[1] Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_matter

Chapter 317: A precious quality

When Ren Xiaosu saw the two words “Lu Family,” he thought the hand-to-hand combat teacher Yang Xiaojin had found for him might be Lu Yuan.

When they were in Stronghold 109, Lu Yuan had walked leisurely through the chaos while Yang Xiaojin protected him from afar atop a tall building. At that time, Ren Xiaosu still did not know Lu Yuan was from the Yang Consortium.

However, Ren Xiaosu was still unclear about Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin’s relationship.

Currently, there was an intense war going on at the Yang Consortium’s front line. Although it looked like victory had already been secured, the question was why didn’t Lu Yuan get deployed to the front line when he was a known supernatural being in the organization?

Even though it was difficult for supernatural beings to do much on the main battlefield, it was still better than having none deployed at all. It would also be quite good to have some supernatural beings accompanying and protecting the generals.

Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu saw Lu Yuan in the stronghold, he realized the relationship between Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin might be a little closer than the relationship between Lu Yuan and the Yang Consortium.

Lu Yuan led Ren Xiaosu to the backyard. As he walked, he laughed and said, “There’s no need for any formalities. I used to be the housekeeper of Xiaojin’s family, and she grew up under my care, so you can address me as Uncle Lu. I served the Yang Consortium in the past, but I was able to regain my freedom and enjoy retirement because of that hard drive.”

Lu Yuan was also an understanding person. Since Yang Xiaojin trusted Ren Xiaosu, he might as well be open with his identity and introduce himself.

“Hello, Uncle Lu.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Luo Lan is also here in the stronghold. Why didn’t you go and beat him up? He’s freeloading off our family right now.”

“Haha,” Lu Yuan started laughing. “When I’m in character for my missions, I have to be immersed in my role. But after that, I need to get out of character. Otherwise, I’ll get embroiled in many difficult situations. Since I’m no longer Stronghold 109’s overseer, whatever had happened before has nothing to do with me.”

Ren Xiaosu thought he was such a forgiving person. It was no wonder he could leisurely retire here and even open a martial arts school. “Xiaojin recommended me to learn hand-to-hand combat from you. What time should I usually come?”

“Xiaojin told me you always spend the day reading in the library until evening, so just come at night.” Lu Yuan said, “Have you trained before?”

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “I’ve never learned it systematically before. But I did wonder about it while living in the wilderness.”

“Then I’ll teach you systematically from how to generate power to the actual execution of techniques when in combat. Afterwards, we’ll train your reaction speed and your awareness of your opponent,” Lu Yuan said.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Shouldn’t I be learning some boxing styles? The type they’re practicing outside…”

Right after he came into the school, he had seen a lot of children practicing boxing techniques. The way they were practicing was rather fascinating.

However, Lu Yuan said with a smile, “That’s something only children will learn. It’s used to cheat parents of their money. Parents nowadays get distressed the moment their children suffer a little, so how can they possibly practice boxing that way?”

‘How honest of him to blatantly admit that he’s cheating others of their money,’ Ren Xiaosu thought to himself.

Lu Yuan said, “The technique to generate power needs to be practiced. You’ll have to suffer first and learn through hardship before you can master control of your body.”

The technique to generate power while throwing a punch was that you had to punch while twisting your hips. If not, the resulting punch would be extremely weak.

Lu Yuan continued, “The actual skill in combat is the technique in which you use to kill. It’s very complicated to explain but will help you know what you should think about when attacking someone, and what others might be thinking as well, stuff like that.”

“Then what are reaction speed and awareness of the opponent about?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Reaction speed varies from person to person.” Lu Yuan said, “Everyone’s reaction speed can improve with some training. But of course, everyone also has a ‘ceiling.’”

“In other words, you’re saying that everyone’s potential is different?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Yes. Take Xiaojin for example. If she has to fire a shot at a fast-moving target with only one chance of hitting it, the window available for her is a mere 0.06 seconds. If that were the upper limit you were born with, that’s what you have. But if you don’t, you can’t master it no matter how much you train. Not even a supernatural being can do that.”

“0.06 seconds?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise. He had never calculated time down to two decimal places before. So Yang Xiaojin’s reaction speed was that terrifying?

What Lu Yuan was currently talking about was the theory of talent. When everyone worked hard and put in the same amount of effort, they could all reach a certain standard, such as achieving the master skill level.

But if one wanted to break through that ceiling and advance further to the perfect skill level, they would need to have a real talent for it. That was something they were born with.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward when he remembered his one and only perfect-level skill was to “annoy people.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can I test my reaction speed?”

Lu Yuan said with a smile, “Let’s do this step by step and not get too ambitious so early on. Since you haven’t received training before, you should first properly master how to generate power.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu did not argue with him. Since he came here with the attitude to learn, he had to do his best to learn properly. He could not get conceited just because he felt very powerful already.

The two of them came to the backyard where Lu Yuan pointed to a sandbag hanging in the middle of the yard. He said, “Hit it with all your might and let me see how strong you are.”

“Mhm.” When Ren Xiaosu walked up to the sandbag, Lu Yuan watched him bend his knees a little. Then he channeled all his strength into the punch and tore straight through the sandbag!

Lu Yuan was stunned. This was a sandbag specially prepared for supernatural beings to use!

But what surprised him was not Ren Xiaosu’s strength. The strength of supernatural beings ranged from high to low, and the power displayed by Ren Xiaosu was not particularly rare. It could at most be regarded as extremely strong but still shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Of course, this was before Ren Xiaosu activated his City Crusher.

What surprised Lu Yuan was that all of Ren Xiaosu’s muscles seemingly acted as one at the point he generated power. It was flawless. Especially the slight bending of his hind leg, which was extremely important. Most people couldn’t exert their strength because they did not make use of the power in their legs.

Had he really not trained before?

Moreover, he could tell that Ren Xiaosu had not exerted all his strength yet. His left hand and arm remained in a semi-relaxed state throughout, and he could still pull back his punch at any moment.

It was much harder to control strength than to fully exert it.

Lu Yuan asked, “Why didn’t you put in your best effort?”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu explained, “Probably just a force of habit. I always encountered wild animals in the wilderness, and sometimes, I don’t know how they’ll attack. So I have to guard against them.”

Lu Yuan said, “Let’s see your kicking this time. Do a side kick.”

However, Lu Yuan still couldn’t find any flaws in Ren Xiaosu’s performance. This was probably also some kind of talent. Lu Yuan sighed. “It seems you’ve led a rather difficult life.”

If he had led a carefree and easy life before this, he couldn’t possibly be so good at generating power.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s mainly because I’m afraid to die.”

Lu Yuan also smiled. “You don’t have to learn how to generate power since you’re already so adept at it. Let’s start with learning practical combat techniques.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

After waiting for a long while, Lu Yuan thought Ren Xiaosu would ask him again if he could test his reaction speed, especially after he had praised him. However, Ren Xiaosu did not even mention a word and slowly learned what he was taught with a patient attitude.

This was not talent but a precious quality that existed in a person.

Chapter 318: Get over here and help me!

“The thing about the ‘calf slicer’ move is that you have to grab hold of your opponent’s ankle as soon as they lose balance. You then have to use that opportunity to grab hold of their calf and create a pinch point with the back of your knee to exert force onto their calf. That way, you can apply a pressure of a few hundred kilograms on your opponent’s tibia and fibula. Although the tibia is one of the strongest bones in the human body, you can break it easily by using this type of lock.” After Lu Yuan spoke, he called for an instructor to spar with Ren Xiaosu.

Such a technique would have to be tried out in actual combat. Ren Xiaosu couldn’t grasp the concept by just looking at it.

The instructor looked at the scrawny Ren Xiaosu in front of him and felt that he should be rather weak. As such, he said with a smile, “Let’s go through the motions.”

He thought Ren Xiaosu must have been sent here by some family member of the Yang Consortium. Why else would the owner offer to train him personally? So it would be better not to injure someone like him. If his parents came to seek answers, he would be in deep trouble for sure.

Lu Yuan said to Ren Xiaosu, “Although it’s only practice, it’s still necessary to make you understand that even though you might have an idea of how to execute a move, if you’re not fast and steady enough, the idea will just remain an idea.”

Then Lu Yuan said to the instructor, “Do your best and don’t allow him to immobilize you.”

“Alright,” the instructor responded.

After the two of them got in position, Lu Yuan suddenly told them to start. The instructor was just about to turn around to put Ren Xiaosu in a lock, but he found out that Ren Xiaosu had already grappled his leg!

Before the instructor could react, he felt his entire body being shoved to the ground and his leg being firmly locked in Ren Xiaosu’s arms. Not only that, after Ren Xiaosu had him immobilized, he unconsciously tried to strike the instructor’s ribs with his free hand. Ren Xiaosu was going to terminate his opponent’s ability to fight.

The instructor started sweating. It was as though he was about to experience something terrifying.

Lu Yuan hurriedly shouted, “Stop, stop, stop!”

Everything happened so quickly that the instructor could not react. He had nearly died from Ren Xiaosu’s punch.

Only Lu Yuan had seen it clearly. If Ren Xiaosu landed his punch, the instructor would probably become disabled. That punch might have even caused his organs to rupture and lead to his death.

The instructor got back up on his feet in a daze and heard Lu Yuan say seriously to Ren Xiaosu, “Why were you trying to kill him?”

When the instructor heard that, sweat started rolling down his back.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Actually, I wouldn’t have punched him for real. But I thought that if I only immobilized my enemy, I would appear weak.”

“You’re saying it’s a sign of weakness if you just make your opponent vulnerable but not kill him?” Lu Yuan had a strange look on his face.

“Well, it’s not that.” Ren Xiaosu said, “The enemies that I encountered in the wilderness would all fight to their deaths. There’s no other outcome. So I thought that it wouldn’t be enough to just break one leg. What if the opponent has a gun in his hand and fires it at me? I’ll definitely die!”

Lu Yuan went silent for a while. As he had grown up in the stronghold, the civilization here had taught him to show mercy to others and resolve conflicts peacefully.

However, the philosophy of life that Ren Xiaosu had gained from living in the wilderness was that kindness was the same as weakness.

Next to them, the instructor suddenly felt a little ashamed that he got beaten to the point of no retaliation by such a scrawny young man. “Sir, I—”

“It’s alright.” Lu Yuan smiled and waved it off. “It’s not your fault. Let me train with him instead. That way, everything will be fine. You can also take the opportunity to observe from the sidelines and witness the power of supernatural beings.”

After he said that, Lu Yuan went to spar with Ren Xiaosu. After all, normal instructors would just be like toys in the face of Ren Xiaosu. They were not qualified to spar with him at all.

The instructor finally heaved a sigh of relief. So this young man was a supernatural being. It was no wonder he was not his match. It looked like he could only let the owner spar with him personally.

Ten minutes later, Lu Yuan slapped the floor. “Let go, let go! I lost, I lost! That hurts, that really hurts!”

The instructor was dumbfounded. When Lu Yuan got up from the ground, he said to Ren Xiaosu in seriousness, “You need to learn how to control your strength. Remember, we’re just helping you fully understand the weaknesses of the human body’s joints by showing you these techniques. There’s no need for you to exert so much strength.”

Lu Yuan had thought that since he was a supernatural being too, his strength should be more or less equal to Ren Xiaosu’s. But to his surprise, he had overestimated himself and underestimated Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “Alright, I won’t exert too much strength.”

“Alright, we’ll end today’s lesson here then.” Lu Yuan said, “Remember to come every night. If you have something else to do, call me and tell me. Little Li, please jot down our phone number for him.”

After Ren Xiaosu left, Lu Yuan grabbed his own waist and said, “Get over here and help me.”

The instructor asked softly, “Sir, who is that young man?”

After thinking about it for a while, Lu Yuan did not know how he should describe Ren Xiaosu’s identity.

It was still quite early when Ren Xiaosu went home at night. The sound of people playing mahjong could still be heard on the streets. It seemed like the stronghold residents were not bothered by the war outside since they had already won.

Along the way, he also saw some workers who had just knocked off from work. Although the stronghold stipulated they could only work eight hours a day, no one ever oversaw or upheld this rule at the factories. As a result, many of the stronghold residents did not lead a happy life.

The social circle of these stronghold residents was similar to a city structure, and most of them had never ventured outside either. Ren Xiaosu felt that these people were more like a higher class of refugee, as everyone still had to serve the organization in some way and led busy lives every day. It was just that one group had to earn a living in the wilderness while the other had to do so within the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu used to think that people living in the stronghold would leave their doors open at night and no one would steal their belongings as everyone trusted one another. But after getting into the stronghold, he found that it was not true.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard a familiar voice coming from a small alley. “Nine bamboo!”

When Ren Xiaosu walked into the alley, he found An Yuqian seated inside a small yard. He was playing mahjong with two old ladies and an old man, and they were all completely absorbed in the game.

Ren Xiaosu was a little confused. He had thought that An Yuqian might have been scammed by someone in a gambling den, so he could not win even with his master-level mahjong playing. However, that wasn’t the case at all.

After observing them from a distance for a while, he noticed the old man and the old ladies were secretly switching tiles under the table. But it didn’t look like An Yuqian had noticed anything.

Just how stupid could he get?

If anyone were to switch tiles like this when playing mahjong with Ren Xiaosu, he would flip the table in his opponent’s face.

An Yuqian was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu. He said to the old man and the old ladies, “Please wait for me a little. My friend is looking for me.”

Then An Yuqian stood up and went over to Ren Xiaosu. “What are you doing here?”

“With that loud voice of yours,” Ren Xiaosu said, “I could hear you shouting ‘nine bamboo’ even from two streets away!”

Chapter 319: The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself

If it weren’t for An Yuqian’s loud voice attracting him, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not have found his way over.

“Was I that loud?” An Yuqian was a little taken aback. Then he looked at the sky. “Are you going home now?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu looked into the yard and saw the old man and old ladies looking quite happy. He asked An Yuqian curiously, “So they were the ones who won your money?”

“Yeah,” An Yuqian said with a smile.

“Did you know that they secretly switched their tiles?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

An Yuqian fell silent and quickly dragged Ren Xiaosu out of the alley. Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood and said, “Then you deliberately lost your money to them?”

“Yes,” An Yuqian said with a sigh.

Ren Xiaosu realized the reason behind this might also be related to why An Yuqian was living such a dejected life. After all, Ren Xiaosu had asked the palace about An Yuqian’s proficiency in mathematics and physics. The palace told him he was at the master level. Ren Xiaosu initially thought An Yuqian’s proficiency would be at the perfect level, but the palace said there was no perfect rating for science subjects. Therefore, everyone could at most be at the master level.

Ren Xiaosu understood what the palace was trying to say. After all, humans were still exploring the realm of science, so of course they couldn’t reach perfection.

But for a person with mastery in math and physics, he ended up becoming a librarian? If there wasn’t some sort of a story behind this, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not be convinced.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What’s their relationship with you?”

“They’re the family members of two former good friends of mine who were also my students.” An Yuqian said, “During an experiment, an explosion happened in our laboratory due to my negligence. As a result, both my assistants perished.”

“What type of experiment?” Ren Xiaosu guessed, “Was it a nuclear experiment?”

“If it was, you wouldn’t be seeing Stronghold 88,” An Yuqian snapped.

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu had thought An Yuqian worked in nuclear physics. “Then what happened after that?”

“Afterwards, I got sacked and lost my job. Even my girlfriend broke up with me. Before she left, she also took away the pet tortoise we had at home.” An Yuqian sighed.

“So was that why you got depressed?” Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand.

“What do you think? What would you have done if it were you?” An Yuqian asked.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “At least halve the tortoise so you can put it in your own separate wines[1].”

An Yuqian was confused. Weren’t they just talking about his sorrowful past? Why the sudden mention of halving the tortoise then?

He did not know that for refugees like Ren Xiaosu, even if their loved ones had died, they would still have to live on as usual. Who had the time to be sentimental?

Ren Xiaosu had come across so many townspeople whose family members had passed away the day before and would still show up at work the very next day.

As the two of them walked down the street, An Yuqian cut a bleak figure under the dim yellow streetlights.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Then you deliberately lost money to them so that they can have a better life?”

“Yes.” An Yuqian nodded. “I’m fine with it since I can survive no matter what. But they’re different. Without their children, nobody will support them.”

“Alright,” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “You’re quite the loyal person.”

“They died because of me, after all,” An Yuqian said.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow morning!” Ren Xiaosu waved and parted ways with An Yuqian. Although he could not sympathize with An Yuqian, he still respected him.

An Yuqian suddenly called out to Ren Xiaosu, asking, “Why do you seek knowledge?”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said on the long street in the dark, “I’ve answered this question before.”

“But do you know where the end of the road lies for science?” An Yuqian asked.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head.

“There’s no end!” An Yuqian said, “That’s what makes people despair!”

“What’s there to despair about?” Ren Xiaosu could not understand.

An Yuqian no longer seemed to be talking to Ren Xiaosu. He was saying to himself, “There were creatures that lived on these lands for a 165 million years, but the Homo genus has only been in existence for about 3 million years. We don’t have to consider whatever natural disasters or mutations that might occur, nor will we even get to witness an apocalypse brought on by a natural disaster within our lifetimes…. The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself!”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little lost. He did not know why An Yuqian would say this to him and wondered what had gotten into him. He asked An Yuqian, “Then how do you think humanity will destroy itself?”

“Science.”

This word crashed through the backdrop of the night. It was like a fate that awaited humans at the end of a long road.

“You’re crazy.” Ren Xiaosu waved it off and headed home.

…

When Ren Xiaosu returned home, he found everyone waiting for him out in the yard. He looked at everyone’s expression. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

Yan Liuyuan walked over and handed him an invitation that came with gold embossed letters and decorative patterns at the corners. There was also an ornamental tassel extending down the middle of the invitation.

The invitation was sealed with wax that had an exquisite design of a bronze ram on it. This was the Yang Consortium’s symbol.

Yan Liuyuan said, “Someone delivered it here this evening. They told us that the Yang Consortium has invited the two of us to their manor and even reminded us to wear something formal since a lot of distinguished guests will be present that night.”

Ren Xiaosu opened the invitation. Although it was written very politely, everyone knew the reason an organization like the Yang Consortium would suddenly invite two refugee kids was definitely not as simple as wanting to get to know them.

“Should we go or not?” Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, “I feel that the Yang Consortium has a more sinister motive.”

“A Feast at Hongmen?”[2] Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Surely there won’t be 300 assassins rushing out of the shadows when a cup gets smashed, right?”

“I don’t think that will happen.” When Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu taking it easy, he also started laughing. “But this matter is definitely not so simple.”

“Alright, let’s not think too much about it.” Ren Xiaosu patted Yan Liuyuan’s head. “I’ll bring you out to shop for some clothes tomorrow morning. We should also go and have a look for ourselves at what the feast held by the organization is all about.”

“OK,” Yan Liuyuan replied obediently.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Did you face any problems at school?”

“No, it’s been pretty good,” Yan Liuyuan said with a smile.

“When you tell a lie, you always smile like this.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Are you and Dalong getting ostracized by your classmates?”

“No, no, you should quickly go and get some rest. You still haven’t fully recovered from your injuries,” Yan Liuyuan said as he pushed Ren Xiaosu into the house.

Wang Fugui came up and said, “I went out to trade some of the gold for money today. I didn’t trade too much to avoid attracting attention….”

“Why are you talking about money at this time of night? Xiaosu is tired, so let him get some rest first.” Xiaoyu rattled off at the back, “Xiaosu, have you eaten yet? I’ll heat up some dishes and make some scrambled eggs with stir-fried tomatoes for you. There’s chicken soup in the pot as well…”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. This was what home felt like.

Chapter 320: A gulf and a natural divide

When Ren Xiaosu was asleep, Xiaoyu suddenly pulled Yan Liuyuan aside and asked, “Why didn’t you tell your brother what happened at school?”

“Big Sister Xiaoyu, keep your voice down.” Yan Liuyuan said as he dragged her out, “I can’t tell him.”

“Why can’t you tell him? You should let your big brother teach those little bastards a lesson. What gives them the right to call you and Dalong names and ransack your belongings?” Xiaoyu said furiously.

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “If they need to be taught a lesson, I can do it myself. But it wasn’t easy for my brother to decide to come here for Big Sister Xiaojin’s sake, so how can I trouble him at a time like this?”

After Yan Liuyuan started attending school, his classmates immediately figured out he was a refugee. That was because he had a different understanding of how daily lives went.

Yang Xiaojin had selected the best school in Stronghold 88 for Yan Liuyuan to attend. The students there were not ordinary people, and many of the students’ parents were extremely well-connected. So they already knew about these refugees enrolling into the school.

At the beginning, the students bluntly called Yan Liuyuan a refugee. Later on, as the others started joining in on the name calling, someone even called him and Wang Dalong riff-raff. After all, there was only a syllable[1] of difference between the two.

The teacher forced Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to sit in the last row and even deliberately left the seats next to them empty.

But from the beginning to the end, Yan Liuyuan did not show any retaliation. Ren Xiaosu had already done a lot for Yan Liuyuan, so it was not a big deal to make some sacrifices for Ren Xiaosu.

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu brought Yan Liuyuan out to shop for clothes. Since they had been invited and there were also instructions for them to be dressed formally, he wouldn’t be deliberately contradictory.

For this reason, Wang Fugui specially handed all the money he had recently exchanged to Ren Xiaosu. Although he did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gotten his gold from, Old Wang knew Ren Xiaosu still had a lot left in his possession. And it was much more than he could imagine.

Xiaoyu even reminded Ren Xiaosu repeatedly to not be thrifty and to make sure they dressed nicely.

But when they arrived at a well-known tailor shop in the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu realized they did not have any formal clothes here.

“Bossman,” Ren Xiaosu called the owner over, “do you have any formal wear? We’d like to try them on.”

An old man came out with a measuring tape dangling around his neck and two sleeves hanging off his arm. “You wish to buy formal wear?”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Do you have anything suitable for us?”

The old man examined Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan and then said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t sell you any suits.”

“Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “Why not? I have the money!”

“It’s not really about money.” The old man explained patiently, “The stronghold regulations state that only people in public office can buy formal wear. Moreover, the suits have to be custom-made here at our shop. Both of you must have an event to attend tonight, right? A custom-made suit will take more than 20 days to be ready. Even if you order one now, you won’t be able to wear it tonight.”

The old man sounded very polite and did not portray himself in a high and mighty way. However, the objective facts he stated made Ren Xiaosu feel very helpless.

At first, he thought the Yang Consortium wanted to flex their financial might by inviting him and Yan Liuyuan to the function. They might have thought that as a refugee, he couldn’t afford a suit. But it wasn’t until now that he realized the Yang Consortium was just trying to flex their status.

Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan out of the shop. He went to look at the route information at the streetcar station to find out if any streetcars went to the Yang Consortium’s manor.

However, he couldn’t find a streetcar that stopped at the Yang Consortium’s manor even after looking at the information board for a long time.

Ren Xiaosu asked a pedestrian next to him, “Hi, do you know which streetcar goes to the Bronze Ram Manor?”

That pedestrian was slightly taken aback. “The Bronze Ram Manor? You guys are going there? Why are you two going there?”

Ren Xiaosu explained, “We’re attending the gala organized by the Yang Consortium tonight.”

“Haha.” The pedestrian laughed and said, “You’re really funny. Anyone who attends a gala there should be chauffeured to the event. Why would anyone take the streetcar there? Those who live there don’t need to squeeze into streetcars like us every day!”

Ren Xiaosu understood no streetcars could bring them there. If they wanted to get there, they would have to take a streetcar to the vicinity of the manor and then walk for more than ten kilometers before they could reach the place.

The custom-made suits and cars that were a prerequisite to attend the galas were essentially the difference between the refugees and those from the consortiums.

Under that stronghold regulations, the differences in the hierarchy of humans was like a natural divide that even money couldn’t surmount.

In the eyes of an organization, money flowed through their hands like quicksand, while power was a fortress that guarded their wealth.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan said gloomily, “they must be doing this on purpose, right?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

The Yang Consortium had probably anticipated that they would not be able to get a fitting suit for the gala. The organization used their brains to suppress the people. This was akin to cutting meat with a blunt knife.[2]

Yan Liuyuan thought the stronghold would slowly start to accept them now that Yang Xiaojin had brought them here. So he didn’t mind bearing with it for the time being even if he felt oppressed, thinking that things might improve after a while. But he realized the people in the stronghold were only going to get more unreasonable. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, “Why don’t we just skip the function?”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “No, why should we skip it? Before we leave the stronghold, we should go and have a look at the feast of the organization.”

At noon, they made a trip back home where they saw Luo Lan feasting in the yard. When Luo Lan saw them, he was amused. “Didn’t you say you’d be attending the dinner party? Why are you back so soon?”

Ren Xiaosu was also amused. How did a proper gala event end up sounding so crass when it came out of Luo Lan’s mouth?

Ren Xiaosu was not embarrassed and said, “We went out to buy suits this morning. But when we got there, we were told the suits had to be custom-made in advance and only people in public office in the stronghold could buy them. Also, there’s not even a streetcar that goes there.”

Luo Lan frowned in response. “They didn’t invite you in advance or send a car to pick you up?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head.

“Those bastards must be deliberately making trouble for you.” Luo Lan banged on the table and stood up. “This is too outrageous. I’ll go with you all later. We’ll dress in our casual wear, take the streetcar, and then walk our way in! Let’s see which bastard dares to talk behind our backs! I received the invitation too, but I wasn’t planning on going!”

Then Luo Lan flashed an invitation that looked the exact same as theirs out of his bosom.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan with a smile. “What are you up to this time?”

“I can’t just keep freeloading off of you, right?” Luo Lan wiped his mouth. “Besides, we’re friends, really good friends!”

“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll be looked down on if you’re seen with us?” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

“Hehe,” Luo Lan laughed. “Even though I’m a hostage right now, I’m the most valuable hostage in the entire Southwest. Everyone knows what kind of person Qing Zhen is. It’s understandable why the Yang Consortium would take me as a hostage, but if some insignificant characters try to put me down, they still have to be qualified enough to do so. Even if I kill someone in this stronghold, they won’t dare to do anything to me. The current head of the Qing Consortium is Qing Zhen, the vengeful Qing Zhen! And he’s my little brother!”

[1] Refugee in Chinese is 流民 (Liú mín), and riff-raff in Chinese is 流氓 (Liú máng)

[2] Causing imperceptible harm to people, psychologically.

Chapter 321: The guest from Stronghold 178

In the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Luo Lan swaggered out of the house. Initially, Yan Liuyuan was a little worried. But after Luo Lan joined them, he felt much more relaxed. The fatso who could eat a lot was still a pretty loyal person at times.

After eating lunch, the three of them set off for the function. They first took a streetcar to Resurgence Road where they transferred to another streetcar that traveled north.

They were dressed in casual attire but did not feel embarrassed one bit.

After they arrived at the terminal station, they had to continue walking further north. Luo Lan suddenly said, “Ren Xiaosu, why don’t you follow me back to the Qing Consortium’s territory in the future?”

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. “Why?”

“I know you aren’t an average person. The average person couldn’t survive after going through the destruction of three strongholds. Of course, I’m not trying to make use of you. You can do as you wish after we return to the Qing Consortium’s territory.” Luo Lan remarked, “Of course, if you’re willing to help us, I can also get Qing Zhen to pay you.”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “There’s no need. I’m not used to living in a stronghold.”

When he said this, it was Yan Liuyuan’s eyes that lit up. He realized Ren Xiaosu had already made his decision to leave, but he still did not know where Ren Xiaosu had decided on going.

However, it was not a big deal for Yan Liuyuan no matter where they were headed. He was fine with following Ren Xiaosu to the mountains where they could reign as kings.

Of course, this would all still have to wait until Ren Xiaosu had fully recuperated, as well as for the right opportunity to arise. The Yang Consortium would probably not let them go for now.

Luo Lan replied, “If you aren’t used to living in a stronghold, I can have you all live in town. Since you’ve all lived in town before, this shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ren Xiaosu felt a little tempted by his words. Humans were social beings. If he made friends with Luo Lan and Qing Zhen, that would probably solve many problems.

Ren Xiaosu did not answer the question directly. He said with a smile, “You might as well think about how you’re going to leave this place. I don’t think the Yang Consortium will release you.”

“That’s fine.” Luo Lan said nonchalantly, “Qing Zhen will definitely arrange for someone to come and save me. I’ll just wait patiently until that happens. When the time comes, you all can come with me if you want to leave the Yang Consortium’s stronghold!”

This time, Ren Xiaosu felt that the information revealed by Luo Lan was very crucial. Qing Zhen would definitely save Luo Lan, and Ren Xiaosu could take Xiaoyu and the others to leave with Luo Lan at that time.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Luo Lan and Qing Zhen were just as close as Yan Liuyuan and him. They did not need to explicitly convey their thoughts to each other, as Luo Lan firmly believed Qing Zhen would do things for him.

It was a kind of tacit understanding and trust to place their lives in the hands of the other. Just like back at Stronghold 108, even though the Experimentals almost caught up to them, Yan Liuyuan still stayed together with Ren Xiaosu even though he could have died.

When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he empathized a little more with Fatty Luo.

All of a sudden, several cars drove past them. They would arrive at the Yang Consortium’s Bronze Ram Manor if they headed a little further to the north. It seemed like those people were here to attend the gala as well.

Luo Lan noticed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze and explained with a smile, “Don’t be jealous of them driving those expensive cars and being able to attend such a grand gala. The people who attend these functions are generally called socialites. For example, they could be the director of the Logistics Division or the director of the Commerce Division. They pretend to lead glamorous lives, but once they get into trouble, they will probably be much worse off than a dog.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Didn’t Yan Liuyuan kill a director from the Li Consortium’s Logistics Division while they were escaping? When he thought of that, Ren Xiaosu despised them even more.

In this era where supernatural beings were starting to rise, absolute power was beginning to have an impact on the social order that was in place. Ren Xiaosu realized he was gaining a condescending mentality when he looked at these people. Ren Xiaosu shook his head. This was the mentality that came with the increase of his strength. He had to remain clear-headed as it was not the time to get arrogant yet.

Meanwhile, Luo Lan, who used to be the true controller of Stronghold 113, would naturally look down on these so-called socialites who were part of a stronghold. When the fatty returned to the Qing Consortium safe and sound, he would likely become one of the most powerful people in the world.

Of course, whether he could return or not was another matter…

As the luxury cars drove past them, no one deliberately stopped to mock them for walking in. Everyone was very busy, and they were not expecting Ren Xiaosu and company to be attending the gala as well.

In contrast, the well-dressed celebrities were sitting in luxury cars to attend the gala, while Ren Xiaosu and company had to walk inside dressed in their casual wear.

The person from the Yang Consortium who invited them here seemed to be telling Ren Xiaosu in a direct way that the refugees did not stand a chance of integrating into their social hierarchy.

When they arrived at the gate, the security guard immediately came to check their invitations. After Luo Lan handed over the invitations, Ren Xiaosu could see that the security guard was taken aback. Then he politely opened the gate and let them through.

Luo Lan said with a smile as he walked in, “The watchdogs who work for the rich families are all very clever people. As long as you have an invitation, they won’t dare to offend you regardless of how you’re dressed. It’s because his master was the one who invited you.”

A lot of people were already standing on the lawn in the manor. All of them were holding crystal wine glasses in their hands as they toasted one another.

If he had not seen this with his own eyes, Ren Xiaosu would not have believed the people here led completely different lives from the refugees.

Luo Lan stopped a servant and took three glasses of wine from his tray and handed one each to Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.

But before Yan Liuyuan took the glass from him, Ren Xiaosu snatched it out of his hand. “You’re still too young to drink.” Then Ren Xiaosu placed the glass down on the table next to him.

All of a sudden, he heard someone say, “I heard a VIP from the Zong Consortium will be here tonight.”

Someone asked, “Do you know who it is?”

Someone said, “I heard it’s an up-and-comer who already commands an important position in the Zong Consortium. He’s in charge of the entirety of Stronghold 141’s garrison troops. And Stronghold 141 is the Zong Consortium’s headquarters.”

Luo Lan whispered to them, “The garrison troops are usually where the family members of an organization are posted. It’s a place where worthless people gather together.”

However, someone else said, “But I heard today’s main guest is not from the Zong Consortium.”

“Ah? It’s not the Zong Consortium’s people?”

“Yeah, it seems like someone from Stronghold 178 has come as well. Apparently, the most favored current subordinate of Zhang Jinglin has come to discuss a joint defense plan with the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium,” the person answered.

“I heard it’s not about a joint defense plan. It seems they’ll be working together to exterminate the banditry happening out there in the unincorporated zone between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178. They’re looking to reopen the trade routes between the three organizations.”

Chapter 322: Dumbfounded

Listening to the discussions around him, Ren Xiaosu had not expected today’s gala to be so important. This was the beginning of a relationship between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178.

Meanwhile, Luo Lan, who was next to him, cursed in a low voice, “Fuck, this Yang Consortium’s old fogey is ganging up with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to put pressure on our Qing Consortium.”

The seemingly clueless Luo Lan immediately understood what the Yang Consortium was trying to achieve. Currently, the Li Consortium had no chance of winning the war and the outcome would be decided soon. But before the end of the war, the Yang Consortium was already starting to plot against the Qing Consortium.

As the saying went, those who did not think and plan ahead would find trouble right on their doorstep. Yang Yu’an had already planned far ahead in the buildup to this war. At the moment, he was seeking an immediate alliance with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to exert pressure on the Qing Consortium once the Li Consortium fell.

The Yang Consortium could join forces with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 in the north, while the Qing Consortium would be left to battle alone by themselves in the corner.

Actually, the eastern region of the Qing Consortium’s territory was quite near the Central Plains. However, the natural barrier of the mountains not only protected the Qing Consortium from external threats, it also stopped them from forming alliances with other forces.

If the Yang Consortium succeeded in forming their alliances, the Qing Consortium would probably become the lone chess piece on the chessboard. If everyone in the Northwest were to target them, the Qing Consortium would end up becoming the next Li Consortium!

While they were fighting the Li Consortium, Qing Zhen sent Luo Lan to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium. But in the end, the Yang Consortium turned around and used the same strategy against Qing Zhen.

But Luo Lan was more concerned about himself. “These old fogeys even invited me to such a gala? It looks like they’re fucking not planning on letting me go back.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at him. “Then what will you do?”

“I’ll be fine. Qing Zhen will think of a way.” Luo Lan drained the glass of wine and said, “Anyway, I’m a hostage right now. This group of hillbillies won’t be able to deal with Qing Zhen, but we will have to be wary of Stronghold 178. I’ve already told him to finish off Zhang Jinglin secretly, but he wouldn’t listen to me! See what happened now!”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Is it possible that Qing Zhen has made more considerations than you?”

Luo Lan was taken aback. “That’s possible too. After all, my little brother is much smarter than I am.”

It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan had a subconscious habit of praising his little brother no matter where he went.

Then Ren Xiaosu wondered if Xu Xianchu had gone to Stronghold 178 or not after handing the letter of recommendation to him. He also wondered how Xu Xianchu was doing since no one made any mention of Xu Xianchu so far.

Although he always made Xu Xianchu his scapegoat, it was only because his hand was forced by the circumstances. He really liked Xu Xianchu because the guy was very sincere to his friends.

Back when Xu Xianchu fled to the stronghold and met him there, he even asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted something to eat when he only had half a cornbread left.

So Ren Xiaosu sincerely hoped that Xu Xianchu could succeed and do well at Stronghold 178.

Luo Lan suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Aren’t you on good terms with Zhang Jinglin? Go and tell him that our Qing Consortium will join forces with Stronghold 178 to eliminate the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. “We’re not that close, so don’t even think about it.”

“Haha, I’m just saying,” Luo Lan said with a laugh.

The public figures around them were giving toasts to those they knew. Some of them even introduced their friends to other friends of theirs. This was probably how the smaller social circles were formed. The people here were mostly only making friends with those who would benefit their own interests and then come together as they aligned their interests for even greater benefits.

At this moment, some people noticed Ren Xiaosu’s group and chuckled, “Look at those three wearing casual clothes. While I was on my way here, I saw them coming in on foot. I wonder how they got past the gate.”

“Haha, I saw them too. Those who can come in definitely have an invitation, but I’m not sure who invited them.”

These people were speaking in whispers. Although Ren Xiaosu’s group could not hear what they were saying, Ren Xiaosu was pretty sharp. He could tell they were discussing them by their gazes. As for what they were discussing, he could think of it even with his toes.

Gradually, more and more people around them shifted their attention to Ren Xiaosu’s group. They were whispering among themselves like they had found a good conversation topic. But they kept their voices low so it wouldn’t get awkward if Ren Xiaosu’s group heard them. This was what their “demeanor” and “culture” were really like.

Beautiful lights around the manor shone down upon the lawn as Yan Liuyuan found himself amid the grand and glamorous affair. If it were up to him, he would rather gaze down on the gala from above than be part of it where he had to hear this gossip. The people around him wore hypocritical masks as they mockingly criticized them behind smiling faces.

He had previously dreamed of getting into the stronghold with Ren Xiaosu, but that dream felt so ridiculous now when he recalled it. Actually, the stronghold wasn’t that great either. Rather, it was not a world that he liked.

Luo Lan looked around them and then saw Yan Liuyuan’s sad eyes. He suddenly shouted, “Who the hell are you all looking at! Who says we must wear suits to attend the gala? Can’t I dress as casually as I like?”

A middle-aged man frowned and said, “Please be more civilized. This is an event held for the upper class. We don’t condone your atrocious behavior here.”

Luo Lan got so angry he laughed. He went up to the man and slapped him. Then he snarled, “How can you speak to me in that manner? I noticed you just now. You were the one who laughed the hardest!”

Everyone nearby looked dumbfounded by Luo Lan’s slap. They had not expected someone would actually hit others at such a glamorous event!

That middle-aged man held his face in pain and said dumbfoundedly, “Do you know who I am?”

Luo Lan laughed. “You wanna talk about who we are now, do you? Why? A man like you who’s too afraid fight back after getting slapped? Where are your balls! You’re acting like a sissy!”

The middle-aged man retorted, “I’m the director of Stronghold 88’s Public Order Division!”

Luo Lan’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know who I am then?” Luo Lan looked around like a dangerous tiger.

Everyone knew Qing Zhen was the silent tiger of the Qing Consortium. But they did not know about how Luo Lan had restrained himself so Qing Zhen could stand out even more brilliantly.

He said that his life was worthless, so everything good deserved to be given to Qing Zhen instead of him.

But a tiger was still a tiger. Something inherent would eventually reveal itself to the world.

Luo Lan said with a sneer, “Listen up, my name is Luo Lan. Let’s see who dares challenge me.”

The crowd erupted into a furor. Who in Stronghold 88 did not know that Luo Lan was here? Although the Yang Consortium had placed him under house arrest in the stronghold, Qing Zhen was now the head of the Qing Consortium. If Luo Lan remained alive, it would be fine. But if he died, who would bear the wrath of Qing Zhen?

Then the crowd fell silent. It sounded like a 1,000 flies had suddenly stopped buzzing.

The crowd looked at the end of the lawn where a young girl stood, sporting a similar attire to the boy.

Chapter 323: Two weeds

Under everyone’s gaze, the cap-wearing Yang Xiaojin walked up to Ren Xiaosu. All of the well-known public figures of Stronghold 88 knew of her status.

Meanwhile, the young man who was similarly dressed stood in a daze out on the lawn. It was as though he had not expected to witness such a twist today. He had thought she would make her appearance in a stunning gown, shining bright as the stars. At the moment of her appearance, even the stars in the night sky would have paled in comparison. He had come here today because he had wanted to enjoy that sight.

But what happened here blew Ren Xiaosu’s mind. Not only was Yang Xiaojin not dressed formally for the function, she even deliberately wore white sportswear with red wording on it that matched well with his that had blue wording.

The young man had many fantasies that made him the hero saving a damsel in distress. But the entire world was apparently playing a joke on Ren Xiaosu. He had only saved her once, yet she stood by him on so many occasions after that, ready to pull him out of any sticky situations he got himself into.

At the venue of the gala, everyone was holding their champagne flutes with stunned looks. They were staring in shock at the two like spectators would.

It might have been an illusion, but Ren Xiaosu felt that everyone around him had turned into statues. The world was no longer bustling, while time also stopped briefly.

The two of them were similar in that they were somewhat out of place with the neatly mown lawn, the smooth stone steps, and the tasteful decorations found around the manor.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized he had been mistaken. Yang Xiaojin was never a princess of the organization like he had imagined her to be, but a weed willing to grow freely in the wilderness just like him.

Ren Xiaosu said in a stunned manner, “Why are you dressed in such—”

Yang Xiaojin leaned forward and grabbed Ren Xiaosu’s hand with everyone watching. “C’mon, it’s pretty boring here. Let’s go out for a walk.”

The young girl led Ren Xiaosu out and disappeared from everyone’s sight. It was only then that the glacier cold atmosphere started thawing.

Someone asked in a whisper, “Who is that young man?!”

Yan Liuyuan watched quietly as Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left the manor. He had wanted to go after them, but he thought they were like the stars on the stage, and that he should just stand quietly in the audience and watch in the darkness.

He knew how much hardship Ren Xiaosu had suffered. During the period Ren Xiaosu was injured, Yan Liuyuan got a sense of it. So when Ren Xiaosu’s happiness arrived after all the suffering he had gone through, Yan Liuyuan knew not to disturb Ren Xiaosu’s hopes.

He had told Ren Xiaosu that if Yang Xiaojin did not come look for them, they should not head to Stronghold 88.

But now Yang Xiaojin had used her actions to prove she could do a lot more for them.

Since it was that way, Yan Liuyuan had nothing more to disagree with. He was willing to sacrifice his personal inclinations for Ren Xiaosu’s happiness. Wasn’t it just suffering some grievances in the stronghold? That wasn’t a big deal to him.

If Luo Lan was willing to act like a silly fatso whose life was worthless for Qing Zhen’s sake, Yan Liuyuan could do likewise for his brother.

When he thought of that, Yan Liuyuan felt like Luo Lan had suddenly become much more affable. “Hey, fatty, let’s head back first.”

Luo Lan scolded, “Brat, who are you calling a fatty? Come on, I’m taking you home.”

…

When they walked out of everyone’s sight, Yang Xiaojin suddenly let go of Ren Xiaosu’s hand. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Just now…”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Thanks for bailing us out.”

Yang Xiaojin seemed relieved. “You don’t have to care about them since they’re still obsessed with the world they’ve built and are complacent about things. But you and I know this world is about to change.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

“You still haven’t eaten yet, right?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Yeah.” Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “I discussed beforehand with Luo Lan to scrounge off your family tonight, but we ended up leaving before I could do that.”

“Let’s go. I’ll take you to a diner that serves delicious wontons.[1]” Yang Xiaojin said, “There’s also something I want to tell you about. We’ll be setting off to the northwest in seven days.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What’s in the northwest? Are we going to Stronghold 178?”

“No.” Yang Xiaojin said, “We’re going to exterminate the bandits with the Zong Consortium. It’s going to be a joint operation by the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium this time. We’re not going to exterminate the banditry completely, so we’ll return once we’ve killed enough of them.”

“Who else will be going with us?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“The Zong Consortium’s people.” Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “We have to be careful along the way. Don’t trust anyone besides me.”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He suddenly recalled the time they were on the expedition to the Jing Mountains. Although they did not trust each other at the time, they still formed a temporary alliance. Now that he thought about it, that alliance felt rather nice.

Neither of them mentioned holding hands. The stars were shining brightly in the night sky, and it was the perfect time to have supper.

…

The uproar at the gala did not subside even after Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had departed. Everyone seemed to have found a new topic to gossip about.

Many of the higher-ups knew the purpose of the gala tonight. A young and promising man from the Zong Consortium who was known to be a supernatural being would be here for the function. In addition, Yang Yu’an had arranged for Yang Xiaojin and Zong Cheng to exterminate the bandits together. His intention could not be any more straightforward than this. It was not like the higher-ups were stupid.

The gala had not even started yet. Yang Yu’an, the representative of Stronghold 178, and the young man from the Zong Consortium were still discussing some matters inside the villa. The gala would only officially begin when they were done with the discussion and after they walked out of the villa. But before the function even began, one the stars for the night had already run off with someone else. In fact, she was the one who made the other person run off with her!

At this moment, Yang Yu’an and two young men stepped out of the villa. As he smiled at the guests, Yang Yu’an calmly took a glass of champagne and said, “Honored guests, what’s going on here? Is there something interesting you’re discussing?”

Someone hesitated before saying, “Your niece left with a young man….”

Yang Yu’an’s expression remained unchanged. He maintained his smile and said, “Oh? Which young man?”

Some people secretly sighed at how shrewd Yang Yu’an was. He could still keep such a straight face at a time like this.

Someone replied, “I don’t know where he popped out from. But he came here with Luo Lan and was dressed in casual attire.”

Yang Yu’an took a deep breath and said with a smile while looking at Zong Cheng and Xu Xianchu next to him, “Zong Cheng, Brother Little Xu, I’m sorry about this, but I have to deal with some family matters first.”

Xu Xianchu did not mind and said with a smile, “What’s the matter? Who ran off with your niece?”

“It’s just a refugee called Ren Xiaosu. There’s nothing worth mentioning about him,” Yang Yu’an answered.

But Xu Xianchu was stunned. He suddenly asked the others around him, “Where did Ren Xiaosu go? Which direction did he head off to?”

The people at the gala were dumbfounded. What the hell was going on?! The situation was such a mess. “I think they took off towards the south.”

Xu Xianchu bade farewell to Yang Yu’an, “I’m sorry, Chairman Yang. Ren Xiaosu is a good brother of mine. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, and he’s also my benefactor. I’ll go look for him first, so let’s discuss the other matters tomorrow.”

Then Xu Xianchu ran out and chased after Ren Xiaosu.

[1] A type of Chinese dumpling commonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonton

Chapter 324: Commander Zhang

The previously bustling gala fell silent as everyone held their breath. It was as though they were waiting for someone to break the silence.

A servant accidentally knocked down a champagne tower on a table due to his nervousness and broke the silence with the shattering of glass. A group of servants frantically cleaned up the area while the guests heaved sighs of relief.

With the collapse of the champagne tower, the tense atmosphere was finally broken.

Someone asked, “Third Uncle, was that the representative from Stronghold 178 just now?”

Yang Yu’an handed the champagne in his hand to a subordinate beside him. He was no longer in the mood to drink. “Yes, that’s Xu Xianchu.”

Everyone knew the main guest tonight was actually Xu Xianchu. The war in the Southwest was very intense, yet Stronghold 178 remained standing amid the fighting. It was as though they were not the least bit interested in the war happening in the Southwest.

But while they remained quiet, it did not mean others could disregard them.

As the older people knew, there was a group of ferocious beings hiding behind the walls of that fortress.

The other strongholds were all simply known as strongholds. Only Stronghold 178 was sometimes referred to as a fortress by people in private. It also seemed like it was the only stronghold that was qualified to be named as such.

When an all-out war arrived, that magnificent fortress would turn into a sophisticated war machine. With its gigantic and strong gears working together, it could destroy any targets that were a threat to the fortress.

Of course, a lot of people had not seen it for themselves. Stronghold 178’s status in the Northwest had long become a thing of legends.

Therefore, compared to the Zong Consortium’s Zong Cheng, Yang Yu’an was far more concerned about Stronghold 178’s stance. But the problem now was that Stronghold 178’s representative had left before the function could even begin.

“That young man called Ren Xiaosu, were you the one who invited him?” Someone asked, “What’s his background, and why does that Xu Xianchu care so much about him?”

Yang Yu’an frowned. He knew from the intelligence reports that Ren Xiaosu had traveled alongside Xu Xianchu on an expedition to the Jing Mountains. But as Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, he didn’t think much of him. He only treated that young man as a refugee who had been accidentally embroiled in the situation.

But to his surprise, his niece had a different view of Ren Xiaosu, and even Xu Xianchu saw him as a good friend.

He must be a very important friend, a best friend he really wanted to see. Why else would Xu Xianchu leave such an important gala just to go and meet him?

However, Yang Yu’an did not say anything else. He smiled at the guests and said, “There’s been a small incident at the function, but I hope this matter will not affect everyone’s mood. Please continue to enjoy yourselves here.” His words meant he did not want to continue talking about the matter.

The guests were very understanding. After all, everyone worked for the Yang Consortium, and Yang Yu’an was now the second most important person of the entire Yang Consortium. As such, no one would want to set themselves against him for the sake of some gossip.

However, after tonight, Ren Xiaosu’s name would probably become widespread. Some people would even add their own narratives of what happened here and make the story even more bizarre than it really was.

Yang Yu’an looked at Zong Cheng beside him and said, “I was planning on introducing you to Xiaojin tonight, but unfortunately, she left with her friend first. I think she must have something important to attend to. However, there’s no need to rush things. After all, you two will be heading northwest next week. There will be more opportunities for you to get to know her.”

Zong Cheng had good facial features with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes and exuded a strong aura from head to toe. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Uncle Yang. I’ll get along great with Xiaojin.”

…

When Ren Xiaosu returned to his residence at night, he saw Xu Xianchu standing at the doorstep like he was waiting for something. Ren Xiaosu understood the moment he saw Xu Xianchu here. So the representative sent by Stronghold 178 to the Yang Consortium was him!

When Xu Xianchu saw Ren Xiaosu, he got excited. He raised his arm and waved. “Xiaosu! Xiaosu!”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. “Why didn’t you go in and have a seat? How did you find out where I’m living?”

“I actually chased after you from the gala but couldn’t catch up, so I had no choice but to go back and ask for where you lived before I could make my way here,” Xu Xianchu said and smiled.

“Go on, come in and have a seat.” Ren Xiaosu pulled Xu Xianchu into the house. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of familiarity for Xu Xianchu. Perhaps the way he treated others sincerely could be sensed, so no one would want to reject such a friendship. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu made up his mind to not let Xu Xianchu take the blame for himself anymore in the future.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “So you went to Stronghold 178? How are you doing there?”

“I still have to thank you for the recommendation letter,” Xu Xianchu said while he sat on a stone bench in the yard. Xiaoyu brought a cup of tea over to him. Xu Xianchu smiled at Xiaoyu and said, “Thank you.”

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Did you get to meet Zhang Jinglin?”

“Only you would directly address him by name.” Xu Xianchu was amused. “We all call him Commander Zhang.”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. It seemed like Zhang Jinglin really called the shots at Stronghold 178. He asked again, “What did he say after he saw the letter?”

“Nothing much.” Xu Xianchu said, “After he found out that I’m a supernatural being, he assigned me an entry-level role at the lowest level so that I could get to know the other brothers. Then he realized I was quite capable and quickly promoted me.”

“What’s Stronghold 178 like?” This was one of the questions Ren Xiaosu most wanted answered.

“The people there are all very talented. I really get along with them, so I really like it there.” Xu Xianchu chuckled and said, “Oh yes, Xiaosu, why don’t you go to Stronghold 178? Commander Zhang has been asking about you a lot.”

“If there’s a chance in the future, we might go and see what’s there,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Then a voice floated over the wall. “Xiaosu, ask him if he’s here to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium to attack our Qing Consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu was startled for a moment. That was clearly Luo Lan’s fucking voice.

Both Xu Xianchu and he turned their heads to have a look and were greeted by Luo Lan’s large head slowly rising up from behind the wall. It was a really weird sight to behold.

Xu Xianchu was taken aback. He knew Luo Lan too well. “Xiaosu, why are you and him neighbors?”

“Ignore him. He was placed under house arrest here, but I’m not,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Hey, Xiaosu, ask him for me,” Luo Lan said anxiously.

But before Ren Xiaosu could respond, Xu Xianchu answered first. “I’m not here to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium. Our Stronghold 178 does not form alliances with any organizations.”

Luo Lan let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good! Back then, I personally sent Zhang Jinglin away, so don’t forget the friendship!”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself about how shameless Fatty Luo was. Earlier in the evening, he said that he had tried to persuade Qing Zhen to kill Zhang Jingling.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. “Then why are you here at Stronghold 88?”

“I’m just here to discuss bandit extermination in collaboration with the Yang and Zong clans. Commander Zhang wants to open up the trade routes again.”

Chapter 325: Look at this cauldron, it’s so big and round

“What do y’all have to sell?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Isn’t Stronghold 178 said to be a very desolate place?”

“The area around us is indeed very desolate,” Xu Xianchu replied. “But there are still many things that I can’t talk about for now. It’s a secret.”

At the mention of it being a secret, Ren Xiaosu felt it could be something very important. Otherwise, Xu Xianchu would not be so serious about it.

“Oh, is the Northwest safe?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Sometimes it’s safe, sometimes it’s not.” Xu Xianchu smiled and said, “It really depends on the situation. But recently to the north… forget it, I can’t talk about that either”

“Alright then.” Ren Xiaosu had a feeling that Stronghold 178 was keeping a secret and that secret had something to do with Zhang Jinglin’s departure from Stronghold 178. But what exactly was it that made Zhang Jinglin feel like it was meaningless for him to stay behind in Stronghold 178?

Zhang Jinglin had once said to Yan Liuyuan that war would not save humanity.

What did he really mean when he said that?

However, that didn’t really have anything to do with Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Xu Xianchu and said, “Hmm… have you heard of anything recently?”

Xu Xianchu was taken aback. “Hear about what?”

“Haha,” Ren Xiaosu laughed. “It’s nothing important.”

Then, Xu Xianchu said, “Oh yes, I have some big news to share with you. My original power was to summon a shadow clone, y’know?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “I know.”

“The shadow I summon has gained an additional cauldron!” Xu Xianchu said excitedly, “This cauldron is so strong it can even block an RPG!”

Xu Xianchu then summoned his shadow. It stood quietly in the yard with a large black cauldron floating behind it.

It was extremely large, so large that it could even envelop an entire person.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the cauldron. “Damn…”

Xu Xianchu looked particularly excited. “Don’t look down on this black cauldron. Y’know, it can be used as a shield against bullets and also to smack people. It’s infinitely powerful and there are many wonderful uses for it as well. I can even use it to stir-fry vegetables! When I lead troops out to the Gobi, we don’t even have to bring along a mess kit. How convenient!”

“Mhm, it is convenient,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the cauldron looked very familiar. Wasn’t it a larger version of the black iron cauldron he had used for catching sparrows?

Wait a minute! When Ren Xiaosu took a more careful look, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable, because he noticed a small crack in Xu Xianchu’s cauldron. Back then, his metal cauldron had formed a small crack when he accidentally knocked it over. However, it did not really affect the functionality. This was a power the shadow formed on its own. So how could there be a crack?

Ren Xiaosu’s expression grew concerned and weirder. Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was still showing off his power. “It might be because my power is getting stronger, so the cauldron is also becoming bigger. I wonder how big it can get in the future. If I can even use it to block an artillery shell, that would be even better!”

Ren Xiaosu said with mixed feelings, “Yeah, it will grow bigger….”

Ren Xiaosu realized Xu Xianchu’s cauldron must have appeared after he pushed the blame onto Xu Xianchu. And as he pushed even more blame onto Xu Xianchu, the cauldron would just get bigger and bigger. He did not know why, but since Xu Xianchu wanted the cauldron to grow bigger, he would naturally have to help him fulfill his wish as a friend.

But as for why? Ren Xiaosu could not understand it at all. So as long as he pushed the blame onto Xu Xianchu, it would result in Xu Xianchu conjuring up a cauldron?

What was the principle behind that? There was absolutely no logic!

From the other yard, Luo Lan suddenly said, “Oh yes, Old Xu, thank you.”

Luo Lan was leaning against the wall and seemed like he was about to say something. However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly roared, “Can’t you go back and sleep already? I’m talking with my friend here, so don’t keep bringing up your Qing Consortium’s matters and interrupting us. Isn’t it already clear that they aren’t gonna form an alliance with the Yang Consortium?”

Luo Lan cursed as he retracted his head back down. The soldiers who were charged with carrying him behind the wall let out sighs of relief.

It was only when Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan leave that he heaved a sigh of relief. He was a little worried Luo Lan would suddenly mention how “Old Xu” had saved his life back at Stronghold 109.

If he brought that up, Xu Xianchu would definitely understand everything!

Xu Xianchu looked utterly confused. “Why did he thank me?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Maybe he’s thanking you for not forming an alliance with the Yang Consortium. Don’t worry about the details.”

“Hm, alright.” Xu Xianchu suddenly whispered, “Xiaosu, why don’t you follow me back to Stronghold 178? The people there are really nice. I’ve lived in the stronghold before, so I know how the people in Stronghold 178 are different.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and asked, “How many people can you bring?”

“How many of you are there?” Xu Xianchu asked.

“30,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

“Then I can’t make that decision.” Xu Xianchu frowned and said, “I’m mainly here to negotiate with the Yang Consortium. Why don’t l go back to Stronghold 178 next week and inform Commander Zhang about this.”

Ren Xiaosu considered it seriously and said, “Sure.”

But after tonight, once Yang Yu’an realized how important Ren Xiaosu really was, he would most probably not allow him to leave so easily. However, Ren Xiaosu was well-prepared now. One plan was to follow Luo Lan when Qing Zhen came to rescue him, while the other plan was to rely on the successful negotiations between Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin and the Yang Consortium.

No matter which plan succeeded, he would have to seize the opportunity. Only one thing made Ren Xiaosu hesitate. But it didn’t matter as he still had time.

…

Xu Xianchu’s arrival seemed to have added some small episodes to Ren Xiaosu’s life, and it also gave him another possibility to consider for his future.

However, Xu Xianchu did not stay at Stronghold 88 for too long. After he, the Yang Consortium, and the Zong Consortium had agreed to eradicate the bandits, he immediately headed back to give his report.

Someone found the opportunity to ask him about his relationship with Ren Xiaosu. In the end, Xu Xianchu only said he was indebted to Ren Xiaosu, and that it was Ren Xiaosu who hooked him up with Stronghold 178.

With that revelation, a lot of people were stunned. What was Ren Xiaosu’s background? He could even recommend people to go to Stronghold 178?

As a matter of fact, it was quite difficult for someone living in the stronghold to arrange a job for their relatives. But somehow, Ren Xiaosu could leapfrog the chain of command of the stronghold and promote someone to officer?

However, as Xu Xianchu did not mention the details, everyone did not know how Ren Xiaosu managed to do it.

After Xu Xianchu left, Ren Xiaosu’s life returned back to normal. It was not yet time for Yang Xiaojin and him to go out to exterminate the bandits, but he was still very happy to study and practice hand-to-hand combat every day.

The only surprise was that the woman named Zhou Yingxue appeared again after disappearing for a week. Moreover, the woman seemed to have made up her mind to follow Ren Xiaosu all the time. She would be at the library whenever Ren Xiaosu went there.

Ren Xiaosu guessed it must have been Yang Yu’an who had ordered her to get close to him again to fish for some useful information.

Chapter 326: New rules

When Zhou Yingxue appeared again, she did not deliberately try to make conversation with Ren Xiaosu. She would wear different outfits every day despite the winter weather and also put on elaborate makeup. Then she would sit quietly in the corner of the library and flip through her books.

If anyone passed by, she would not turn to look at them, not even if it was Ren Xiaosu.

When it got slightly more crowded in the library in the afternoon, there would be youths going over to hit on her, only to get rejected gently.

As time passed, it seemed as though she were really here because she wanted to read. She was just like a quiet beauty who had become a unique scene for others in the library.

Ren Xiaosu thought that if the other party were really willing to get along peacefully with him, he would be fine with it. After all, he wasn’t doing anything illegal here, so there was no reason he should be afraid of being monitored. Although he had hired An Yuqian to teach Wang Yuchi and the others, there was nothing out of place with the lessons. At most, they would have to be more careful when discussing how to design the armor. So Ren Xiaosu simply ignored Zhou Yingxue’s presence.

However, Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian kept getting distracted with staring at Zhou Yingxue. That was especially so today after Zhou Yingxue entered the library and actually took off her coat to reveal a qipao underneath.

The hem of the qipao had a slit that almost went up to her hips. As Zhou Yingxue sat quietly, An Yuqian stared straight at her.

Ren Xiaosu felt helpless. He wondered if Zhou Yingxue might be a supernatural being too. Why was she not afraid of the cold?

At this moment, Wang Yuchi asked, “Teacher An, about this question…”

An Yuqian came back to his senses and said, “Ah, this question is really fair… no, I meant this question is really slender. I don’t mean that either….”

Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at An Yuqian. “Say, shouldn’t you focus on your class? We paid you for it.”

An Yuqian was a little embarrassed. “Don’t you think she looks really elegant sitting there quietly?”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. He went to the bookshelf and found three books before walking over to Zhou Yingxue. An Yuqian was thinking how ballsy Ren Xiaosu was to try to hit on her in such a direct way.

Zhou Yingxue pretended not to see Ren Xiaosu. When Ren Xiaosu walked up to her, she finally looked up. “Hello, is something the matter?”

Ren Xiaosu placed the Spare Me, Great Lord novel in his hand in front of Zhou Yingxue. “I think this book is quite interesting. You should read it.”

After that, Ren Xiaosu went back to sit down and continued with studying by himself. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue flipped open the book in front of her curiously, hoping to find out more about the book Ren Xiaosu liked.

Eventually, while Ren Xiaosu and the students were getting their afternoon lessons, Zhou Yingxue was laughing so hard in the corner of the library she was curling into a ball. Her face went numb from laughter. The quiet and demure image she had painstakingly built up was completely ruined.

Zhou Yingxue did not do anything for the entire afternoon other than laugh like a lunatic.

Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian. “Do you think she’s still elegant now?”

An Yuqian took a deep breath and said, “Not anymore.”

“Then focus on teaching,” Ren Xiaosu said.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not expect Zhou Yingxue to start pestering him ever since then. Every day, she would ask him what books were good reads and would even go over to discuss what she thought of the books he recommended.

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this woman was indeed someone who specialized in getting close to someone. She could really make the best of a given situation.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not reject Zhou Yingxue too obviously either and would still recommend some extremely boring books to her every day. In the end, Ren Xiaosu realized she would still finish reading them no matter how boring they were. Afterwards, she would go over and chat with him.

Actually, if he were qualified enough, Ren Xiaosu could have recommended Zhou Yingxue some very high-level math texts. This way, even if Zhou Yingxue had to force herself to read it, she wouldn’t understand anything. However, he wasn’t qualified enough. In fact, Ren Xiaosu might not even be as good at math as Zhou Yingxue. He was too severely limited by his knowledge to even use this method against her.

An Yuqian went up to Ren Xiaosu and suddenly said, “Bro, I can tell that girl named Zhou Yingxue really likes you!”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ‘Like me? She’s a fucking spy!’

Even if he had not spotted Zhou Yingxue among the spies previously, Ren Xiaosu could still sense there was something wrong with her based on his intuition built up in the wilderness. One who was unaccountably solicitous had to be hiding evil intentions.

Zhou Yingxue thought it would be very easy for someone of Ren Xiaosu’s age to get seduced by her beauty. Would a 17-year-old boy have much experience? Any extortionist in the game[1] would prefer boys of this age.

As a matter of fact, Zhou Yingxue was not wrong. If it were Wang Yuchi and the others, they might have already fallen into the trap. However, Ren Xiaosu was different.

At night, Ren Xiaosu bade farewell to Wang Yuchi and the others. He told them to go home first while he headed off to Lu Yuan’s place to learn hand-to-hand combat. But when he left the library, he saw Zhou Yingxue standing at the entrance.

Ren Xiaosu pretended not to see her as he walked out. Zhou Yingxue called out to him, “Do you have time? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“No,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “Quest: Help the woman asking for help.”

This quest appeared too suddenly and caught Ren Xiaosu off guard. “I suddenly have time now. How can I help you?”

Zhou Yingxue froze for a couple seconds but quickly adjusted her emotions and smiled. “It’s my birthday today, but I don’t have any relatives in the stronghold anymore. Can you accompany me tonight?”

Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. “How?”

“Let’s go to my place. We can play some games.” Zhou Yingxue smiled.

“Play what games?” Ren Xiaosu was already starting to feel like giving up on this quest.

“A game that can’t be played alone.” Zhou Yingxue winked at Ren Xiaosu.

What kinds of games were there that could not be played alone?

Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “Do you mean jump rope? I’m really good at that!”

Zhou Yingxue was confused. She said, “We can’t jump rope with just two people.”

At this moment, An Yuqian walked out of the library. Seeing that the library was about to be closed, Ren Xiaosu said, “There! We have enough people!”

Zhou Yingxue smiled awkwardly. “Forget it, I don’t want to play anymore.”

Ren Xiaosu checked the palace’s quest and said, “No, we have to play!”

Zhou Yingxue was speechless. What kind of fucking person was this?!

Half an hour later, the voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll that came out of nowhere nearly made him jump for joy. After all, it was a really rare item.

Perhaps with this one Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll, he could gain another new power.

Even if he did not manage to learn a superpower, he could still gain a master-level skill.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “What if I copy someone else’s master-level skill without having the corresponding advanced-level skill?”

“Invalid,” the palace said coldly.

“That isn’t fair!” Ren Xiaosu protested.

The palace explained, “A Basic and Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll can be used at the same time to completely learn a master-level skill in the event you do not have the corresponding skill set.”

[1] The badger game is an extortion scheme or confidence trick in which the victim is tricked into a compromising position to make them vulnerable to blackmail. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_game

Chapter 327: The special Yan Liuyuan

In the past, when Ren Xiaosu was learning the duplicated skills, they would be categorized into five levels—beginner, intermediate, advanced, master, and perfect.

The Basic Skill Duplication Scroll could only learn a skill up to the advanced level. Even though Yang Xiaojin’s firearms proficiency was perfect, Ren Xiaosu only managed to learn it to the advanced level. It also did not allow the user to learn any superpowers.

If he wanted to continue learning, he had to use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll after his firearms proficiency reached the advanced level.

Meanwhile, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll would allow the user to randomly copy the target’s master-level skill or superpower. If he had duplicated Yang Xiaojin’s Perfect Firearms Proficiency and did not have the corresponding Advanced Firearms Proficiency, then this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll would have been useless.

Thus, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll was not without its risks. However, the palace had now given him an easier choice. When paired with a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll enabled him to learn anything in one shot.

Now that Ren Xiaosu had obtained the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll through his quest, he definitely had to learn some superpowers with it. So it was better to use it on someone who had superpowers.

But after thinking for a long time, he realized there was no one around him he could learn any powers from.

No, he could learn from Yan Liuyuan!

Although a selfish person like him had no use for a power such as making wishes, if he gained the ability to manipulate curses instead, that was something he could really play around with. Moreover, it didn’t seem like Yan Liuyuan had any other master-level skills. That way, the palace would automatically decide to learn his superpower!

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu ran back home excitedly. He did not even go over to Lu Yuan’s place.

Both An Yuqian and Zhou Yingxue were left dumbstruck.

When Ren Xiaosu returned home, he called Yan Liuyuan into the house. He immediately said to the palace, “Use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll.”

However, something Ren Xiaosu didn’t expect happened. The palace answered, “Unable to use the Skill Duplication Scroll on the target.”

This time, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He never expected this outcome.

This had never happened before when he used the Skill Duplication Scroll on anyone else. Moreover, based on the palace’s answer, he couldn’t even use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll on Yan Liuyuan either.

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Yan Liuyuan. Why was Yan Liuyuan an exception to the palace? After all, the palace was a power that could even reset nanomachines.

Yan Liuyuan was not a refugee, or rather, Ren Xiaosu was not sure if Yan Liuyuan was a refugee in the past. That was because… he picked Yan Liuyuan up in the wilderness.

That winter, he had found Yan Liuyuan unconscious out in the wilderness. Initially, Ren Xiaosu wanted to leave Yan Liuyuan there and not do anything about it. But in the end, he started feeling uneasy after leaving him there for some time before going back to bring Yan Liuyuan to the town. Back then, he asked many people while carrying Yan Liuyuan on his back if they knew whose child it was. In the end, no one was able to answer him.

After Yan Liuyuan woke up, he could not remember anything and only addressed Ren Xiaosu as his brother. But it was at that moment that Ren Xiaosu was touched, because he had never felt anything like having a family before.

However, Ren Xiaosu was a ruthless guy. If he could not even support himself at that time, how was he going to support others? He had thought of chasing Yan Liuyuan away when he regained consciousness.

But Yan Liuyuan kept staying outside his shack the entire day while in tears. At that time, Ren Xiaosu hardened his heart again and asked him, “Can’t you go to someone else’s house and cry? I can’t support you!”

Yan Liuyuan replied in confusion, “But you’re my brother.”

Ren Xiaosu’s heart softened for the first time ever. “If you want to survive in this wilderness, you have to at least have one skill, right? Tell me, what can you help me with?”

In truth, Ren Xiaosu was trying to find an excuse to keep him. If the child in front of him could help him out a little, even if it was just doing some simple chores for him, he would grit his teeth and keep Yan Liuyuan with him.

But Yan Liuyuan cried for a long time and was not able to say what skills he had. All he did was say he could make wishes.

At first, Ren Xiaosu did not believe it. He thought that having this ability was as good as having nothing. He could also make wishes, but they could not be fulfilled!

But after testing it out with Yan Liuyuan twice, Ren Xiaosu realized what Yan Liuyuan said was true!

All these years, Ren Xiaosu had never bothered to investigate Yan Liuyuan. After all, who had the time to delve into such matters these days?

But now that even the palace couldn’t duplicate Yan Liuyuan’s power, it left Ren Xiaosu deep in thought. Why had Liuyuan appeared outside in the wilderness alone? Was he abandoned by his parents?

Thinking about it carefully, Yan Liuyuan’s power to make his wishes come true and manipulate curses seemed like a power only gods should possess.

All mortals wanted to be gods since only gods could get whatever they desired.

Yan Liuyuan blinked at Ren Xiaosu and thought for a long time. “Bro, what’s wrong with you?”

Ren Xiaosu pinched Yan Liuyuan’s cheeks like how he would knead dough and laughed. He said, “Just where did you come from, kid?”

Yan Liuyuan’s voice was distorted from his face being pinched. “If you continue doing this to me, I won’t go easy on you.”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “You’re all grown up now, arentcha?”

All of a sudden, a loud crash came from the yard next door. It was followed by the sound of people crying out in pain. Ren Xiaosu frowned. “What the hell was that!”

Then they heard a familiar voice shout, “Six assassins! Two have been shot down!” The voice obviously belonged to one of Luo Lan’s men.

As he wondered what was going on, he went straight out the door and jumped over the yard’s wall. He discovered that six assassins dressed in black had entered Luo Lan’s yard and were holding guns fitted with silencers.

Two of the assassins had already been shot dead by Luo Lan’s men. One of Luo Lan’s men was hiding behind a tree in the courtyard, unable to come out from his cover due to the enemy’s heavy firepower.

Meanwhile, Luo Lan and his other men were stuck inside the house. They had tried to rush out but were stopped by the assassins firing at them.

When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he quickly guessed these people were probably here to assassinate Luo Lan. However, they must not have expected to find Luo Lan and his men with their guards still up and that there would still be people patrolling in the courtyard during his house arrest. So the moment they entered the front yard, they were shot dead by Luo Lan’s subordinate in the cover of the darkness who similarly had a silenced gun.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. For an arrogant fatso like Luo Lan to be able to live up till now, there had to have been a reason.

When he jumped in, the people who were here to assassinate Luo Lan were not expecting someone from next door to jump over. They instantly pointed their guns at Ren Xiaosu, but it was already too late.

The assassins only saw a blur as Ren Xiaosu dashed in an arc towards them.

Ren Xiaosu hacked the gun out of one of their hands while grabbing the back of the assassin’s neck to use him as a human shield. With just three shots, he finished off the remaining three assassins in the yard. Meanwhile, the assassin he was holding as a human shield was like a fearful little chick as he lost all will to resist. Ren Xiaosu had wanted to leave a survivor for Luo Lan to interrogate. But before he could even call Luo Lan to come out, the person swallowed a suicide pill to kill himself.

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he threw him onto the ground. He could only watch helplessly as his opponent started foaming at the mouth. This was the first time he had seen “suicide agents” with his own eyes.

“Come on out, Fatty, they’re all dead,” Ren Xiaosu shouted into the house.

Chapter 328: Visiting to deliver some gifts

Luo Lan ran out of the house swearing. He was really angry from being suppressed by the enemy forces just now. “Dammit, someone is actually trying to kill me. Luckily, I didn’t let my guard down.”

However, Luo Lan was also a little surprised. Although he had guessed Ren Xiaosu was a supernatural being, he did not think he was that powerful.

Thinking about this, Luo Lan asked his subordinate who had been hiding behind the tree earlier in a whisper, “Did you see how he killed those people?”

That soldier shook his head. “I didn’t see it clearly.”

“Who are these people?” Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, “You better not tell outsiders that I helped you. I don’t want to get into trouble for it.”

“Alright, that’s for sure.” Luo Lan looked at the corpses and said, “Search them and see if there are any clues. However, it should be quite meaningless to do so. Suicide agents won’t carry anything that might offer a clue to them.”

As expected, they discovered nothing else on these people except for guns and magazines after searching through their bodies.

Luo Lan squatted and thought for a moment. “Let me think about this. If I were to die, who would benefit?”

Ren Xiaosu sat on a stone stool beside him and let him think about it slowly.

“Could it be the Zong Consortium?” Luo Lan asked doubtfully. “If they had me killed, then the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium will immediately descend into war. The natural environment in the north around the Zong Consortium is not as good as the south. They’ve been plotting to get this region for a long time now but aren’t a match for us. So they tried to infiltrate Stronghold 178 and use them as leverage. If the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium were to start fighting, they could just sit back and reap the benefits.”

However, Luo Lan changed his mind and said, “But the Zong Consortium’s people are still in the stronghold. If they kill me, Qing Zhen would probably think in that direction as well and might then focus his anger onto the Zong Consortium instead. So it could also be possible that the Yang Consortium is trying to kill me while the Zong Consortium’s people are in Stronghold 88, making it difficult to discern what really happened. That way, they can force the Zong Consortium to face Qing Zhen together with them since the Zong Consortium couldn’t prove it wasn’t they who assassinated me.”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “Your analysis is as good as useless.”

“What else can I do?” Luo Lan stared at him. “Since there’s no fucking clues here, I can only make some wild guesses.”

“Alright, take your time to guess.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Remember not to tell anyone that I was the one who saved you. I’ll be leaving the stronghold the day after tomorrow, so don’t create unnecessary trouble for me.”

Luo Lan’s expression immediately changed. “What am I to do if you leave? What if someone tries to kill me again?”

“Don’t worry, Liuyuan is staying just next door.” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly, “Besides, that guy from the Zong Consortium is going with me too. You’ll probably be safe after he leaves.”

“Eh, where are you all off to?” Luo Lan wondered.

“We’re going to exterminate the bandits.” Ren Xiaosu jumped back over to his yard.

He heard Luo Lan lower his voice and shout, “Wait, you said that Liuyuan will protect me? Can he really…”

By now, Ren Xiaosu was really treating Luo Lan as a friend. It was the same for Luo Lan, so Ren Xiaosu did not mind helping Luo Lan out.

It was just that tonight’s incident was really strange. The Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium seemed to be getting along peacefully with both their armies still working together to fight the Li Consortium at the front lines. It was as though Luo Lan were not under house arrest in Stronghold 88.

But underneath the surface of this seemingly calm sea, turbulent waves were rolling.

Right now, the Li Consortium’s front line at Mt. Guangying was in grave danger. Many of the Li Consortium’s military forces were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare against the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium inside the mountains in an attempt to destroy the supply lines and marching routes of both parties. After all, they were no match for the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade on the front lines. The Qing Consortium’s artillery troops were especially brutal, so the Li Consortium could only use this method to delay their impending defeat.

When their defeat finally arrived, the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium would probably start fighting each other immediately. This was what a lot of people speculated.

Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu both knew Qing Zhen would send someone to save him, but no one knew what method Qing Zhen would use to conduct the rescue operation. Launch a frontal assault? In that case, it would definitely be over for Luo Lan as well.

Ren Xiaosu felt that based on his level of understanding, he probably couldn’t guess what Qing Zhen was planning.

…

With the imminent departure to exterminate the bandits, Xiaoyu got busy again. She rushed everywhere to buy all sorts of supplies for Ren Xiaosu as she was afraid he would suffer when he went outside.

And now, Ren Xiaosu’s storage space was equipped with a vacuum preservation zone, so the food would not go bad when stored inside.

“This is a new tent, a waterproof cushion, a blanket, and a mattress,” Xiaoyu said. Although she did not know how Ren Xiaosu would take them with him, she knew Ren Xiaosu had the ability to carry a lot of things with him.

After all, she was one of the closest people to Ren Xiaosu. How could she not have noticed anything after living together every day?

“I just bought these stainless steel bowls and chopsticks. Take them with you as well.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Wait, why are there two sets of bowls and chopsticks?”

“Aren’t you going with Ms. Xiaojin?” Xiaoyu paused. “Since you can bring more things with you, you should bring an extra set for her just in case.”

“Then why is there only one tent?” Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded.

Xiaoyu started laughing. “Why are you being so shy? I only packed one tent because it’s for your own good. It’s fine if you don’t get to use it, but if you do, you’ll thank me for it later.”

These words startled Ren Xiaosu quite a bit. He did not know how to respond.

Then at this moment, a car stopped outside the house. Someone knocked on the door after getting out and asked, “Hello, is anyone around?”

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. This voice was a complete stranger, for he had never heard it before.

He walked over to open the door and found a young man he had never seen before standing there.

“Hello, my name is Zong Cheng. Nice to meet you.” Zong Cheng was the same height as Ren Xiaosu. He was standing there holding some gifts with both hands.

Zong Cheng’s subordinates who were standing behind him wanted to help him carry the gifts, but Zong Cheng smiled and said, “It’s alright, I can handle it myself. Wait for me outside. Don’t come in and dirty their front yard.”

Ren Xiaosu had to admit that Zong Cheng looked quite friendly when he smiled. He had the cleansing presence of a spring breeze and was completely different from what Ren Xiaosu had imagined. He had originally thought Zong Cheng was here to find trouble with him, but in the end, it seemed like he was here to give him some gifts?

Then Zong Cheng said, “You must be Ren Xiaosu. I brought you some gifts from up north. They’re our hometown’s specialty fruit, wolfberries.[1] These gifts are very cheap, so I hope you won’t mind it.”

Ren Xiaosu thought Wang Fugui might have some use for these items, so he decided to accept them.

Zong Cheng said happily, “I won’t be going inside. As we’ll be going to exterminate the bandits together, there’s still some supplies I have to purchase at the market. Is there anything you need to buy? I can get them for you.”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Please do take care of me on our expedition to exterminate the bandits,” Zong Cheng said politely.

“Sure, I’ll take care of you,” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly.

“Thank you so much,” Zong Cheng said.

Ren Xiaosu was waiting for this moment. He did not receive any gratitude tokens from Zong Cheng.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goji

Chapter 329: The zealous Yang Yu an

The palace could not lie to Ren Xiaosu, so gratitude tokens came with every sincere gratitude. If it wasn’t sincere, he wouldn’t receive any tokens.

No matter how earnest and sincere Zong Cheng behaved, Ren Xiaosu did not believe him. Even without the palace, Ren Xiaosu would still not have believed him. Otherwise, he would have lived a wasted life for the past 17 years.

Zong Cheng did not stay around for longer. Ren Xiaosu did not know what this guy was up to. He just smiled and answered whatever he said.

Yan Liuyuan watched as Ren Xiaosu clasped hands with Zong Cheng. All there was left to do was to take vows to become blood brothers with the other party.

After Zong Cheng finally left, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s really difficult dealing with these people from the strongholds. We all know that we’re just putting on an act, yet we still have to go along with it and cooperate with each other.”

“Bro, you were smiling very sincerely just now.” Yan Liuyuan laughed and said, “I seriously thought you were about to acknowledge him as your blood brother.”

“Don’t you know how capable your brother is?” Ren Xiaosu said proudly.

After sending off the visitor, someone knocked on the door again. Ren Xiaosu thought that rascal, Zong Cheng, had come back again. He immediately put on a smile and went to answer the door. When he opened it, he was almost about to shake the other party’s hand. “Bro!”.

Yang Yu’an, who was standing outside, looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. He did not understand what was happening.

“Hahaha.” Ren Xiaosu was embarrassed. “That was just a misunderstanding. Who are
you?”

Although Ren Xiaosu had gone to the gala the other night, Yang Yu’an only came out of the villa after he left the function with Yang Xiaojin. So Ren Xiaosu had not seen Yang Yu’an, nor knew who he was.

Yang Yu’an smiled and said, “Hello, my name is Yang Yulan. I’m Yang Xiaojin’s third uncle.”

“Oh!” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before quickly moving aside. “Please, come in.”

Ren Xiaosu was thinking to himself that it must have been this manchild who had invited him to the gala without giving him any prep time. He was probably trying to make him stay away from Yang Xiaojin when he did that.

But of course, Ren Xiaosu would not mention that explicitly. Yang Yu’an had personally come over with his bodyguards and subordinates following behind him. They entered the yard as well and kept watch on the surroundings.

Without waiting for Ren Xiaosu to say anything, Yang Yu’an started speaking. “I’m really sorry. My arrangements had not been properly thought out, so there was a lack of preparation when I invited you to attend the gala. The main issue was that this gala had already been in the plans for a long time. But since you just arrived at the stronghold, I was a little negligent in hosting you.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “No, no, I’m just a refugee. It was great that I got to see what these parties are like.”

Wang Fugui watched their interaction through the window and mumbled, “Those two foxes.”

Yan Liuyuan chuckled and said, “My brother is no fox.”

“Then what is he?”

“A predator of foxes.”

At this moment, Yang Yu’an had someone bring the gifts over. “I didn’t prepare anything too lavish on my first visit, but I hope you’ll like it!”

“I like it, I like it. I like any gifts from you.” Ren Xiaosu laughed.

Ren Xiaosu waited for Yang Yu’an to get down to business. He did not believe the second-in-command of the Yang Consortium would come here just to pay him a visit and offer him gifts in apology. There was definitely something more important than that.

In the end, Yang Yu’an beat around the bush for half an hour before changing the topic to what he wanted to discuss. Ren Xiaosu really admired the patience of such people.

Yang Yulan said, “Xu Xianchu had been talking a lot about you for the past few days before he departed back to Stronghold 178. Are you close with him?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “We went to the Jing Mountains together, and Xiaojin was there too.”

“Oh.” Yang Yulan seemed to have just found out about this. He then asked, “Do you know Commander Zhang then? Zhang Jinglin.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback a little. “Yes, I know him.”

Yang Yu’an smiled and said, “You and him…”

“He’s my teacher,” Ren Xiaosu said decisively.

It was Yang Yu’an who was startled this time. He had not expected Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin to have such a relationship. Teacher and protégé?

Ren Xiaosu had a calm expression on his face. Who wouldn’t know how to borrow someone else’s prestige to protect themselves? He had also used the silk banner Luo Lan had given him as protection from persecution. For Ren Xiaosu, the practical usage of such things was much more important. Gaining a few more of these amulets be much more powerful than anything else.

He would not bother to hide anything at a time like this. Since he knew Yang Yulan had thoughts of allying with Stronghold 178, it wouldn’t really matter if Ren Xiaosu decided to put on an act here. Besides, he was not lying about Zhang Jinglin being his teacher. Not only that, but he had also even worked with Zhang Jinglin before. Weren’t they both teachers of the school back in that town?

Yang Yu’an deliberated for a moment before saying, “Then why didn’t you go to Stronghold 178?”

“It’s not that I’m not going.” Ren Xiaosu said in a grave voice, “But I was planning on going there after some time. After all, there are more important matters to attend to, so I had Xu Xianchu head there first after giving him a recommendation letter.”

Yang Yu’an looked calm on the surface, but his mind was racing. Could Xu Xianchu be commanding such an important role in Stronghold 178 because of Ren Xiaosu’s recommendation letter?

It was no wonder that when Xu Xianchu heard Ren Xiaosu’s name, he did not even care how it would look to the gala when he took off in search of Ren Xiaosu!

Although, the more important thing Ren Xiaosu had mentioned was probably Yang Xiaojin, wasn’t it?

Ren Xiaosu also wore a calm expression. He did not feel guilty when telling the half-truths.

“It looks like Commander Zhang values you a lot.” Yang Yulan smiled amiably.

“I guess it’s not too bad. Teach once wanted me to take over his job, but the timing wasn’t right yet,” Ren Xiaosu said seriously. He wasn’t telling a lie. After all, Zhang Jinglin had indeed chosen him as the substitute teacher. He was planning on making him the teacher of the school.

However, it sounded different to Yang Yu’an. Did Zhang Jinglin really want this young man in front of him to take over Stronghold 178 in the future? The “timing wasn’t right yet” should mean that Zhang Jinglin was planning on grooming him some more. Many of the old-timers knew Zhang Jinglin worked at the grassroots level for a full ten years until everyone was convinced before he took over command of Stronghold 178. Therefore, this explanation made sense to Yang Yu’an. Zhang Jinglin had been chosen as the commander of Stronghold 178 even though he used to be a refugee. At Stronghold 178, it did not matter what your birthright was.

The way Yang Yu’an looked at Ren Xiaosu turned gentler. “You’re a promising young man.” He seemed to have completely forgotten what he had said to Yang Xiaojin. “I heard you’re also going on the expedition to exterminate the bandits?”

“Mhm. This is an issue for the Northwest, so of course I won’t hesitate to do it,” Ren Xiaosu said righteously.

“Good, good.” Yang Yulan reminded, “You must watch out for yourself. There’s no hurry to exterminate the bandits. I believe we can definitely get rid of the banditry issue in the future. Alright, I won’t stay around any longer. You should also be preparing to set off on your trip, so I’ll leave you to do what you need.”

“Thank you, Third Uncle,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yang Yu’an’s smile grew wider at the words “Third Uncle.” Compared to the Zong Consortium, he was definitely hoping to work with Stronghold 178 much more. That was what true support was really like. If Stronghold 178 could offer him a helping hand, it would probably be a piece of cake to devour the Zong Consortium as well.

However, Yang Yu’an would not place all his chips on one person alone. He still had to verify the veracity of Ren Xiaosu’s claims.

But from the looks of it, his credibility was very high. After all, there was already Xu Xianchu’s testimonial.

Chapter 330: Exterminating the bandits

According to Yang Xiaojin, they would set off from Stronghold 88, then pass through Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99, before arriving at the valley in the north.

The banditry originated over there. At the beginning, the Zong Consortium made use of these activities to plunder the traveling merchants and seize precious resources left behind in the valley by the Pre-Cataclysm civilization.

The entire valley’s surface and underground had a large number of urban structures that remained from before The Cataclysm. Most of the things left behind were useless, but if anyone found something useful there, it would be priceless.

There was a group of merchants who pretended to pass through the area and claimed they were on a business trip, when in fact, they stayed around to excavate any useful resources and technologies from the valley.

Some people used to try to excavate the technologies and secrets within the valley with the aid of electronic devices, but in reality, the massive nuclear haze and radioactive clouds from the fallout would destroy any kind of electronics on the ground.

The things they found were either already rusted or could not be used even if they were relatively well-preserved.

At first, the Zong Consortium did not interfere with those merchant groups and allowed them to excavate as they wished. But after the excavation, bandits would arrive as expected and plunder all of their valuable possessions.

As a result, some of the bandit gangs grew bigger and stronger because of the plundering. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium also rose and became a force to be reckoned with in the Northern Wastes.

However, the proper organizations generally despised the Zong Consortium as they always felt the Zong Consortium did not have much depth in the way they did things.

In order to exonerate themselves, the Zong Consortium started breaking off their relations with the bandits in recent years. But when they attempted to kill the bandits, they realized the bandits had become familiar with all the terrain in the valley and were scattered in every corner of the place. The Zong Consortium had quite a problem on their hands.

All the bandits in the valley had become irritated with the Zong Consortium now. Although they used to pay tribute to the corporation annually, the Zong Consortium was suddenly trying to kick them to the curb after they had outlived their usefulness. They were too merciless!

And now, the Zong Consortium had suddenly joined forces with the Yang Consortium and Stronghold 178 with the intention of leveraging both their strengths, all in order to make a clean break with their evil past. As long as they exterminated all the bandits, everyone would naturally forget how they started out in hundred years or so.

In the house, Xiaoyu said, “I made some snacks for you. This one is apparently a very famous mung bean cake[1] here in the stronghold. Take it with you and…”

Ren Xiaosu listened to Xiaoyu’s chatter. Xiaoyu would always help ready his belongings whenever he went on long trips now, so he did not have to pack on his own anymore.

Luo Lan leaned over the wall and watched. He interrupted, “You’re bringing so much food with you, eh? Why don’t you bring me along as well? I’m quite the fighter.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless as he stared at Luo Lan. “Do you know why quiet people seem smarter than talkative ones?”

Luo Lan was surprised. “Why?”

“Because they hide all their stupid thoughts on the inside.”

Luo Lan was speechless.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Have you heard of a person named Zong Cheng?”

“Zong Cheng?” Luo Lan tried to remember. “I’ve never heard of him before. But I suppose he’s a family member of the Zong Consortium? We aren’t really familiar with them.”

“Doesn’t your Qing Consortium share a border with the Zong Consortium’s territory in the north? Ren Xiaosu asked.

“The Zong Consortium is a cackle of hyenas. None of the proper organizations are willing to deal with them. Tigers will never make friends with hyenas.” Luo Lan said, “In any case, you should be pretty careful of him.”

Ren Xiaosu knew it was time to leave when he heard the sound of a vehicle coming to a stop outside. Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and the others sent him off together and reminded him to be careful.

Ren Xiaosu opened the door and came out onto the street. He saw Yang Xiaojin driving an off-road vehicle, and no one else was in it besides her. There were also two military transport trucks following, and they looked like they were transporting quite a few soldiers and supplies.

“Get in,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu turned around to Yan Liuyuan and instructed, “While I’m not around, you must watch over our family.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded vigorously.

Then Ren Xiaosu opened the vehicle’s door and left. Along the way, Ren Xiaosu nonchalantly asked, “How many soldiers are in the trucks behind us?”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him. “30 nanosoldiers. They’re here to help with the extermination of the bandits.”

“Nanosoldiers?” Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up, but he immediately dismissed the idea of harming these nanosoldiers. After all, they were here to protect Yang Xiaojin, so he should not be attacking any of them. When he thought of this, Ren Xiaosu felt quite at odds. Although he and Yan Liuyuan did not lack nanomachines, Wang Yuchi and the others still did not have enough.

Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “What did you say to my third uncle? Why did he suddenly change his attitude? He actually asked me to get along with you.”

“I didn’t really say much.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “I only said that I was Zhang Jinglin’s student. There’s nothing wrong with saying that, right?”

Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. “My third uncle only cares about his interests, so don’t be fooled by his appearance. If he finds out you were lying to him, he’ll probably change his attitude immediately.”

If Yang Yu’an found out Ren Xiaosu was only talking about taking over as the schoolteacher when he said Zhang Jinglin had asked him to “take over his job,” his attitude would definitely be very different. He wouldn’t immediately abandon Ren Xiaosu as a choice, but Zong Cheng would appear to be much more important than Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Then what about you?”

Yang Xiaojin smirked. “Guess.”

She stepped on the gas, and the off-road vehicle sped towards the northern gate of Stronghold 88. They were going there to meet up with the others from the Zong Consortium.

When Ren Xiaosu and the convoy left, Yan Liuyuan stood at the door and looked in the direction of the departed off-road vehicle for some time. Xiaoyu came up to him. “Don’t worry, your brother’s injuries have already gotten much better. He’ll be fine.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan said, “I wasn’t worried about that.”

“What are you thinking about then?” Xiaoyu asked with a smile.

Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu. “Big Sis, they’re holding a parent-teacher conference at school tomorrow. Can you go on my brother’s behalf?”

Xiaoyu felt a little awkward. “Me? Am I allowed to?”

“You’re my big sister. Of course you can,” Yan Liuyuan replied with a smile.

Although Xiaoyu had been with them for a long time, and Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had also accepted her wholeheartedly, she sometimes still worried about it in the middle of the night. She was unsure if she had really integrated into their family.

They had to be a real family for her to be asked to attend the parent-teacher conference, right? Moreover, Yan Liuyuan had addressed her as “Big Sis” instead of “Big Sister Xiaoyu.” It somehow felt like the relationship between them had gotten much closer at this moment.

Xiaoyu asked curiously, “Then should I dress up a little?”

When Xiaoyu was living back in the town of Stronghold 113, she would always wear makeup. But ever since she followed Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, she no longer wore makeup most days because she had to do housework. She would present herself with her natural appearance almost every day.

Now that she was going to attend a parent-teacher conference with Yan Liuyuan, she could not possibly disgrace Yan Liuyuan and let his classmates think that his big sister was an unrefined woman. She had to give herself a makeover!

Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu and said with a smile, “Big Sis, you’re pretty even without any makeup. It’s true.”

Xiaoyu rolled her eyes at him. “You’re such a sweet talker!”

[1] Mung bean cake (lüdougao) is a traditional and popular Chinese dessert in summer. | https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/mung -bean-cake)

Chapter 331: The parent-teacher conference

This was Yan Liuyuan’s first time hearing about something called a parent-teacher conference in the stronghold’s school. He didn’t know about it until the teacher informed him, but he wondered what it was for.

Jiang Wu told him it was just a meeting to summarize the students’ progress at school and to explain some issues to the parents for them to take note of. There was nothing special to it. When Jiang Wu said that, Yan Liuyuan was relieved.

But he did not tell Ren Xiaosu because he was worried it would affect Ren Xiaosu on his expedition. Of course, there were also other reasons for not telling him.

This was also the first time Xiaoyu was attending a parent-teacher conference. She purposely went to a shop in the stronghold to get new clothes and even bought some new cosmetics and jewelry.

After Xiaoyu got dressed and walked out of her room, Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “Big Sister Xiaoyu is so beautiful.”

Xiaoyu had put on a simple pair of earrings and wore a new down coat and boots. She originally wanted to wear a skirt but was persuaded by Yan Liuyuan not to as the weather was too cold.

Xiaoyu had initially put on too much makeup due to nervousness. However, Yan Liuyuan helped her clean it off after laughing at her for a long time.

Yan Liuyuan said, “Big Sis, you’re naturally beautiful. Even if you don’t put on any makeup, you still look good.”

Xiaoyu poked his forehead and said, “Aren’t you the sweet talker? Let’s go to the parent-teacher conference now.”

“The students probably won’t be able to take their eyes off you after they see you,” Yan Liuyuan said with a smile.

It was no wonder Yan Liuyuan could be a friend of the women wherever he went. Although he might not know how to compliment them, he made up for it by complimenting them often. Women always loved receiving compliments, after all.

However, Yan Liuyuan really felt a sense of happiness when he saw Xiaoyu so happy.

Xiaoyu took the streetcar to school with Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong. While on the streetcar, Yan Liuyuan even said, “Look, that old man behind us has been staring at you the entire time.”

When they arrived at school, Yan Liuyuan realized most of the people were already there. As this school was mainly attended by the children of the rich and influential figures of the stronghold, everyone owned a private car. Since they took the streetcar here, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if they arrived late. Fortunately, they weren’t late.

But when they entered the classroom, Yan Liuyuan felt the parents’ eyes looked a little strange. They were all checking them out. Then they started whispering to the children and parents next to them.

A middle-aged female teacher walked into the classroom. She said with a smile, “In last semester’s final exams, the students in our class fared extremely well. So let’s give our children a round of encouraging applause.”

Xiaoyu also clapped her hands. However, Yan Liuyuan whispered next to her, “Big Sis, I didn’t take those final exams, so you don’t have to clap.”

Xiaoyu looked at him askance. “I can still encourage you even if you didn’t take those exams. You’re such a good child, so I must encourage you.”

Yan Liuyuan held back his laughter.

From the front of the room, the teacher talked about the curriculum and matters regarding the children’s weekday prep classes. She encouraged the children to attend more tutors because the students in this class would have to make a final sprint for their university placings in the future. If they picked up knowledge beyond their years early, they would be one step ahead of those from the other high schools.

As the saying went, once you got a head start in life, you would have an advantage. That was the logic.

Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were not really listening to the teacher’s speech. Although Ren Xiaosu had always urged him to study hard, Xiaoyu was afraid that Yan Liuyuan would get exhausted from studying, so she did not place too much emphasis on his learning progress. She knew this was a form of pampering, but she couldn’t help it.

At this moment, the teacher said, “It’s like this: I held the parent-teacher conference on a weekend afternoon because I’d like to take the opportunity to discuss some matters with everyone.”

The classroom fell silent. The teacher said, “Yan Liuyuan? Wang Dalong? Are your parents here?”

Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu looked up at her. The teacher smiled at Xiaoyu and said, “You must be Yan Liuyuan’s guardian, right?”

Xiaoyu replied with a smile, “Yes, I’m Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong’s elder sister.”

“You look really young. Where are their parents? Why aren’t they here?” the teacher asked.

Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment before saying, “Miss, it’s fine, you can speak with me.”

“Alright, look here.” The female teacher said, “The parents have recently given us some feedback that Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong are not performing as well as the others. Our class is the elite class in school. When the teachers are lecturing, they will definitely add in a lot of knowledge beyond their grade. Since their foundation is quite poor, they can’t keep up with the rest of the class.”

Xiaoyu’s mood gradually sank as the teacher went on. She had thought this would be a normal parent-teacher conference. Jiang Wu also said it was just a session for discussing some of the more common issues and that there shouldn’t be anything special to it.

But things seemed to have turned out a little different from what they had expected.

Xiaoyu said, “Miss, what do you mean? My Liuyuan and Dalong are very smart children. How could they possibly not keep up with the class?”

“Please don’t misunderstand.” The female teacher said with a smile, “What I mean is that I would like for them to switch classes. The principals also know about this, and we’re doing this for their own good. If they can’t keep up with the class, they can’t follow the lessons, and that won’t be good for them. We want to transfer them to a normal class. There’s no other meaning to it, so please don’t mind it.”

What this teacher said was right, and she had also used the same reasoning to persuade the principals about this matter. This was all for the sake of Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong as they really could not keep up with the progress of their class.

Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong had close ties to Lu Yuan, so the principals did not agree to it at the beginning. But they eventually relented when they could not refuse the constant requests of the rich and influential parents. After all, their reasoning was not wrong.

Even though Lu Yuan had entrusted someone to handle the enrollment for Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong, that person was not an authoritative figure. After weighing the pros and cons, the principals instructed the homeroom teacher to handle the matter.

Xiaoyu said firmly to the female teacher, “Although I don’t quite understand your arrangements, and maybe the decision that you brought up might turn out to be really good for them, I’m certain of something else. You should discuss matters like this in private with me and not use such a humiliating method to deal with the issue in front of the entire class.” Although Xiaoyu was not a cultured person, she understood what was reasonable in this world.

All of a sudden, a short female parent said, “Why should we talk reason with a refugee like you? My husband is the director of the Public Order Division. Even if I say those two kids are not allowed to attend school, so what?”

If the director of the Public Order Division were here, he would definitely not speak like this. If he knew these two students were Ren Xiaosu’s younger brothers, he might even slap his wife on the spot. But he probably did not know about any of this. In this day and age, which authoritative man cared about trivialities like parent-teacher conferences?

On the contrary, his relatives, friends, and wife would only talk like that because they were used to throwing his name around.

Such behavior was common everywhere in society.

A male parent tried to persuade the female parent, “You can’t say things like that either. We should talk things over peacefully and not use authority to oppress people.”

Meanwhile, the other parents stayed silent.

Chapter 332: The origin of a disaster

The female parent looked at the male parent who spoke and sneered at him “It’s none of your bloody business how I speak. You might want your child to be friends with the refugees, but I don’t!”

The male parent choked on his words and couldn’t come up with anything in response, but he wasn’t going to stoop to her level either.

Xiaoyu sneered, “And if I refuse to let them switch classes?”

“Refuse to switch classes?” The short female parent stood with her arms on her hips and said, “Do you think you can make that decision? Why don’t you ask the parents and students in class if they agree to it or not first? Why should the 30 of us have to accommodate you?”

Xiaoyu said, “Stand up if you want to talk to me. I’m standing up while you’re sitting down. Where are your manners? Is this how stronghold residents behave?”

Yan Liuyuan burst out laughing. Wang Dalong looked on from next to him, apparently enjoying the show.

The female parent was immediately enraged. Her height had always been her sore spot and she hated anyone who brought it up. Yet now she was being ruthlessly mocked by Xiaoyu on it.

She raised her voice and said, “What an uncultured thing you are! How dare you speak to me like this? Watch your-“

“Watch what?” Xiaoyu said with a smile, “Watch out in case you jump up and hit my knee?”

Yan Liuyuan died of laughter. He sat in his seat and looked up at Xiaoyu, her thin stature suddenly looming much larger.

For the sake of Ren Xiaosu and him, this little woman ended up becoming a housekeeper who did the laundry and cooking for them. Having been used to spending generously without a second thought in the past, she had now become willing to haggle with shopkeeps for a long time just to save a few cents.

And now she was acting like a hero as she tried her best to protect Yan Liuyuan from getting hurt.

Normally, Yan Liuyuan was actually quite annoyed by Xiaoyu. She demanded him to wash his hands before eating and made sure he wore his fall clothing when it got cold. He also had to eat some vegetables he didn’t like because Xiaoyu said he needed to have a balanced diet.

But as he thought back on the past, that was the warmth of family.

It seemed that only with Xiaoyu around did their family feel complete. If they were without her, this family would lack a kind of warmth.

Looking at Xiaoyu, the female parent was so irritated she couldn’t utter another word. She rushed at Xiaoyu and wanted to slap her face. However, Xiaoyu dodged in time and slapped her back, knocking off her glasses as well. After slapping her, Xiaoyu did not take the opportunity to hit her again. Instead, she retreated.

Some of the parents quickly stood up to stop the fight. The female parent tried again to slap her, but there was no chance to do so anymore. Xiaoyu had gained the upper hand, and it was as though she had expected such a thing to happen.

The refugees were much fiercer than the people from the stronghold when they fought. That was regardless of whether they were male or female.

Someone suddenly said, “Why don’t we hear the children’s opinions? See what they have to say about the matter?”

A child spoke up, “Ever since they arrived, there’s been cases of pencils and erasers going missing in class—”

Xiaoyu was unable to stand it any longer. She started cursing, “Bullshit, whose badly disciplined child is that to cast stones at others? Who doesn’t have pencils and erasers? I bought many of them for Liuyuan, so why would he need to steal yours?”

However, that parent who had been slapped exploded into anger again. “How dare you say that about my son! Your mouth is filthy. One look at you and I know you do illicit activities outside the stronghold. The money you earn is dirty too, isn’t it!”

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. He immediately turned to look at Xiaoyu, but he found that the usually glib Xiaoyu was dumbfounded. That was her most painful emotional scar, and it was suddenly uncovered by someone now. Xiaoyu looked a little confused and helpless. She was like an injured little animal.

The darkest and most depressing time of her life was a burden Xiaoyu constantly had to carry around. That was why she always felt like she couldn’t integrate into the family. It was not that Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu did not treat her well, but because… she felt she was unworthy of them.

Early this morning, Li Xiaoyu thought the world was fresh and exciting. It was like she climbed out of her nightmarish hellscape in the middle of the night and into the world to enjoy the scenery. But now she was dragged into hell once again.

When the female parent saw Xiaoyu’s reaction, she got smug. “See! Look at her! I wasn’t wrong. I was spot on, wasn’t I!”

Yan Liuyuan looked at her and said, “I’m warning you, don’t say anything else.”

“Why can’t I?” The female parent snarled, “How can a promiscuous woman like her be allowed to attend the parent-teacher conference!”

Yan Liuyuan roared, “I told you, don’t say anything else!”

Done speaking, Yan Liuyuan broke through the crowd and slapped her face. Many of the people had wanted to stop Yan Liuyuan when they saw him charging. But when Yan Liuyuan collided with them, they realized they could not stop him.

The young man was surprisingly strong! The classroom was in complete chaos, and many of the tables were even overturned!

But when he was about to kill that woman, Xiaoyu hugged him from behind and said softly, “Liuyuan, let’s go home.”

Yan Liuyuan stood there quietly. Tears suddenly streamed down his cheeks. Xiaoyu said softly again, “Liuyuan, let’s go home.”

“Dalong, let’s go.” Yan Liuyuan held Xiaoyu’s hand and walked out of the front door. He no longer wanted to attend school.

Wang Dalong quickly followed closely behind them. Before he left, he even spat at that female parent. Yan Liuyuan hit her so hard she was still in a daze.

LOU

On their way back, Xiaoyu held Yan Liuyuan’s hand tightly in the fear that he would get impulsive and kill someone. She knew that if Yan Liuyuan used the nanomachines and started killing people, the classroom would have turned into a river of blood, and no one could’ve stopped him. She also held Yan Liuyuan’s hand tightly like she was afraid she would lose him. It was as though she were scared Yan Liuyuan would abandon her.

But just as they were about to reach home, a car suddenly sped towards them. The driver of the car was so drunk he kept flooring the gas pedal.

The pedestrians on the streets cried out in alarm, but the driver paid them no heed and continued accelerating.

A vehicle speeding rampantly on the road like that was as good as the Grim Reaper waving his sickle at them.

But just as the car was about to hit Yan Liuyuan, he pulled Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong to safety like he already knew beforehand what was going to happen.

Xiaoyu stared dumbfoundedly at Yan Liuyuan. “You…”

Curse Manipulation was a new world Xiaoyu had personally opened up for Yan Liuyuan. So she knew Yan Liuyuan possessed such a power and also knew he would receive a similar backlash whenever he used it.

She asked in a whisper, “Has she died already?”

Next to her, Yan Liuyuan said calmly, “She must die.”

“Let’s head home right away.” Xiaoyu pulled Yan Liuyuan with her. Her feeble little body dragged Yan Liuyuan along in a stubborn yet helpless manner.

Chapter 333: Blessed with mines in the backyard

If Yan Liuyuan did not have the nanomachines, he would already have died, and Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong might even have been implicated. It seemed precisely because of this reason that his strength did not increase like the others after becoming a supernatural being. The world was apparently preventing him from abusing his power.

That was supposed to be his shortcoming, but Ren Xiaosu had helped him mitigate it. It was not an exaggeration to say that his fate had been changed.

Xiaoyu did not say anything. She could sense the beast in Yan Liuyuan’s heart that had previously been restrained by Ren Xiaosu was about to crawl out and start attacking people. But she did not know how to stop it. She only knew that Yan Liuyuan shouldn’t become like that.

A moment later, the neon sign hanging above them suddenly crashed down due to a loose screw.

Yan Liuyuan once again pulled Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong aside and avoided the accident.

Xiaoyu asked softly, “Who was it this time?”

“Big Sis, don’t bother yourself with this,” Yan Liuyuan answered.

“Can you stop killing people?” Xiaoyu said to Yan Liuyuan.

“No.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head. He thumped his chest. “Something’s weighing heavily on my chest, and it makes me very uncomfortable, yet I can’t seem to get it off my chest.”

Xiaoyu suddenly started crying. “Liuyuan, stop it. I’m not worthy for you to do all this for me. Let me bear the responsibility since it was my own fault.”

Yan Liuyuan looked at her stubbornly. “No, you’re worth it.” Then Yan Liuyuan reached out and wiped her tears away. “Don’t cry. I’ve already killed her for you, and I’ll send her family members to hell with her.”

Xiaoyu did not know what to do anymore. Without Ren Xiaosu around, there was not a person who could restrain Yan Liuyuan.

Seeing Yan Liuyuan’s murderous rage getting stronger, Xiaoyu hugged Yan Liuyuan tightly. “Don’t you remember what your brother said? Don’t let the sorrows of our era become your sorrow as well.”

Ren Xiaosu’s name seemed to have a strange, magical effect on Yan Liuyuan. The words touched a soft spot in Yan Liuyuan. After Xiaoyu said that, Yan Liuyuan finally started to calm down.

The wife of the Public Order Division’s director was killed in a car accident, and the accident caused quite a stir in the stronghold. Someone even told the director his wife had only dashed out onto the streets because she was looking for someone who had argued with her at school.

The director of the Public Order Division flew into a rage in his office and vowed to punish the murderer severely. He even wanted to seek out the student and parent who had hit his wife at school!

But before he could conduct a thorough investigation, Yang Yu’an summoned him to the Yang Consortium’s manor and gave him a dressing down, claiming that he did not discipline his friends, family, and wife properly. Yang Yu’an even said that as the director of the Public Order Division, he could not differentiate right from wrong. If he caused any further trouble, he would be removed from his position as the director of the Public Order Division. When Yang Yulan reprimanded him, Yang Yu’an spoke pompously.

However, the director of the Public Order Division knew there had to be a reason for this. Yang Yu’an was definitely not someone who would reprimand him because of “justice.” This matter must have affected the interests of Yang Yu’an!

It was only then that he calmed down and recalled what had happened. Then he remembered someone saying it was a refugee who was the cause of the matter!

Wait a minute, there weren’t that many refugees in the stronghold.

There were probably less than ten refugees who had gotten into the Yang Consortium’s stronghold over the years, so it would definitely be easy to find out who it was. However, there was one young refugee who had been enjoying the limelight recently.

No, wait! There was also a group of refugees who had come into the stronghold recently!

When he finally got someone to investigate the matter and found out the truth, he was shocked to discover the young man who had quarreled with his wife was actually Ren Xiaosu’s younger brother! After finding out about this, he immediately understood why Yang Yulan was not on his side this time.

However, his first reaction was not to risk his position as director of the Public Order Division, nor was it to take revenge for his wife. He just mentally cursed at her for being such an idiotic woman. Afterwards, he instructed his subordinates to stop investigating the matter. Whatever happened at the school was wholly unrelated to the traffic accident. That stupid woman had brought it upon herself for failing to obey traffic rules, and her death had nothing to do with anyone else.

Once the case was concluded, the entire stronghold flew into an uproar. Those who were in the know understood why the director of the Public Order Division had bowed his head in regards to the investigations. As for those who did not know, they thought he had been looking forward to his wife’s death and getting a promotion since a long time ago.

What surprised everyone most was that the director of the Public Order Division actually headed to Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu’s place to apologize to them. However, Yan Liuyuan kept their door shut and did not have any intentions of meeting him.

The principals also came down to their place. However, Wang Fugui was the one who met them to handle Yan Liuyuan’s and Wang Dalong’s withdrawal from the school.

Eventually, everyone in the inner circle caught wind of this matter. So it turned out that the refugee, Ren Xiaosu, was actually a protégé of Zhang Jinglin. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu could recommend Xu Xianchu to Stronghold 178.

Meanwhile, the bandit extermination group Ren Xiaosu was part of had just arrived at the first stronghold on their journey. Everyone was to use a half-day to do quick repairs and maintenance work here before they continued north.

After entering the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything other than visit gold shops using his official identity as part of the bandit extermination task force and exchanged his gold for the devalued currencies of the Li Consortium and the Qing Consortium. But as he was in a hurry, he did not manage to trade too much.

During this period, Yang Xiaojin also disappeared for a while. It seemed she had gone to meet up with the Saboteurs’ planted spy here. And Zong Cheng remained behind with the convoy and happily waited for the others to return. He was a polite, talented young man who was confident in himself yet friendly to others.

On the way here, he had tried talking to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. While Yang Xiaojin couldn’t care less, Ren Xiaosu and Zong Cheng almost became blood brothers, the way they chatted.

There were more than 60 people from the Zong Consortium who were traveling with them, and they were split between the two military transport trucks. The Zong Consortium’s people were in charge of basic tasks like cooking for the journey.

The nanosoldiers portrayed a sense of superiority and only showed a nice attitude to Yang Xiaojin, Ren Xiaosu, and Zong Cheng. When the normal soldiers talked to them, they would ignore them.

Ren Xiaosu found an opportunity to ask Yang Xiaojin, “Hey, why is everyone so interested in Stronghold 178? Is it because they’re great at combat?”

Yang Xiaojin explained, “In modern warfare, no matter how good you are at combat, you can’t fight if you don’t have money. There are four military factories in the vicinity of Stronghold 178 that are extremely vital. And you might not be aware of it, but there are more than 30 kinds of minerals found in the territory controlled by Stronghold 178. Their grain reserves are ranked first among those in the entire stronghold system. Some of their mineral reserves are even estimated to be at 90% of all reserves!”

Yang Xiaojin continued, “Besides, the exploitable oil reserves there amount to as much as 40% of what the entire stronghold system has access to. Modern development is dependent on mineral and energy sources, so these things are all indispensable.”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He had thought Stronghold 178 was extremely poor. After all, that place was located in such a harsh environment, so it sounded like it would be a very poor area. He had not expected Stronghold 178 to be so rich!

Come to think of it, you could not win a modern battle with just courage alone. Fighting a war was all about money, and the reason Stronghold 178 could still stand intact in the Northwest without having any close ties to the other organizations was not because they were asocial or conceited but because they were blessed with mines in their backyard.

Chapter 334: Zong Cheng the magician

Ren Xiaosu felt that he could not be faulted for thinking that Stronghold 178 was very poor. After all, it was not like a place that was located in such a harsh environment should have much wealth to begin with. But Yang Xiaojin’s explanation made him understand why so many people were eyeing Stronghold 178 even though it was situated at the border.

It was no wonder that Stronghold 178 wanted to exterminate the bandits and reopen the trade routes. Those minerals needed to be transported to the Central Plains!

More importantly, Zhang Jinglin had once refused to be the commander of Stronghold 178 even though they were so rich? Was he being melodramatic or what! Ren Xiaosu started judging Zhang Jinglin.

When they arrived at the second stronghold to do repairs and maintenance, Yang Xiaojin disappeared off to somewhere again. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu traded some more gold for money before returning to the assembly place in advance. When he got back, Yang Xiaojin hadn’t returned yet. Zong Cheng was laughing and chatting with the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers.

His own soldiers had brought over some folding chairs for the nanosoldiers and even provided them with some specialties from the North as snacks.

It seemed that Zong Cheng was highly interested in these nanosoldiers and was willing to interact with them. No matter how arrogant the nanosoldiers might be, they would still not put on any airs in front of an important figure from the Zong Consortium and conversed quite happily with him.

When Ren Xiaosu returned, he did not approach them immediately. Instead, he observed them from afar. It looked like Zong Cheng was performing some magic tricks for them. Zong Cheng asked one of the nanosoldiers while holding a water bottle in his hand, “What do you usually like to drink?”

The nanosoldier smiled and said, “You’re too polite. I’ll just have some water.”

“OK,” Zong Cheng said as he tilted the bottle slightly and poured some clear liquid out of it.

Zong Cheng turned to look at another soldier. “What do you like to drink? Say something different this time.”

“I like grape juice,” the nanosoldier said.

“Alright.” Zong Cheng was still holding the same bottle in his hand but the previously clear liquid was no longer there. This time, he poured some purple grape juice out.

The nanosoldiers exclaimed, “There must be a mechanism in the bottle, right?”

“Come here, you can inspect it for yourself.” Zong Cheng handed the bottle to one of the nanosoldiers. The nanosoldier looked into the bottle and found no mechanisms inside.

Then Zong Cheng turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu. “Brother Xiaosu! Why are you watching from there? Come and sit with us for a while. We’ll set off when Yang Xiaojin gets back.”

Ren Xiaosu walked over and said with a smile, “Can you do card tricks?”

“That’s something every magician has to learn.” Zong Cheng took out a deck of playing cards from his breast pocket and asked, “What kinda trick would you like to see?”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly sensed that something was not right. Why would a core figure of an organization be obsessed with magic tricks? He had heard Zong Cheng was a supernatural being, so could his superpower be related to magic?

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Why don’t you conjure up four ‘fours’ for me?”

“That’s simple.” Zong Cheng said confidently, “Pick out any four cards as you like.”

He fanned the cards out face down so that no one could see what the cards were.

Ren Xiaosu reached out and picked the cards. These were cards used for magic, and he happened to have similar cards.

“Wow, they really are four ‘fours,” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise as he looked at the cards in his hands. “Brother Zong Cheng is truly amazing.” Then Ren Xiaosu returned the cards to him.

Zong Cheng was stunned. He felt like something was off but could not tell what it was exactly.

“Please don’t say that. It was no big deal.” Zong Cheng smiled as he put the cards back into the box and then stuffed it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Then Zong Cheng said with a warm smile, “By the way, Brother Xiaosu, I just heard about something. Are you very close with Xu Xianchu?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at him and said with a smile, “I guess. I was mainly trying to recommend talented people to my teacher.”

He knew what Zong Cheng was getting at, but Ren Xiaosu would also not let slip any opportunity to increase his own “amulets.”

Zong Cheng’s smile remained. “I’m also very familiar with Brother Xu. It seems like we were fated to meet. But if I could ask, your teacher is…”

“Zhang Jinglin.” Ren Xiaosu whispered, “Usually, I don’t tell a secret like that to anyone. It’s better to keep a low profile.”

Zong Cheng’s eyes twitched. ‘You’re still calling this a secret? The entire Yang Consortium already knows about it!’

Even he had already received news of it. At first, he was still a little skeptical and had to check with the other party again to confirm if it was true. As a result, that person said everyone in Stronghold 88 already knew about it, and that Ren Xiaosu’s younger brother had made the director of the Public Order Division eat humble pie.

Before setting off on the expedition, Zong Cheng had realized there was something strange about Yang Yu’an’s attitude. So this was the reason for it.

After confirming the truth, Zong Cheng’s smile for Ren Xiaosu became even more sincere. At the beginning, he would occasionally talk to Yang Xiaojin. But now it was like he did not even know Yang Xiaojin anymore, even though they were traveling together. He never said another word to her again, and the way he addressed her had changed from “Xiaojin” to “Yang Xiaojin.”

This was completely different from his original plan in which he was the leader of this attack to exterminate bandits.

It was not that he was afraid of Ren Xiaosu. Because the Yang Consortium was so bold as to detain Luo Lan despite both sides being equally powerful, it demonstrated the Yang Consortium was not necessarily afraid of the Qing Consortium. It was the same for the Zong Consortium when they faced Stronghold 178. After operating in the North for so many years, they had become a force to be reckoned with.

However, he felt that he should be more ambitious as a man rather than creating unnecessary trouble over a minor issue like romance.

The Zong Consortium had endured for so long in the impoverished Northern Wastes, yet everyone claimed they were hyenas and even refused to acknowledge them as a consortium.

Now that the South was at war, it was the best opportunity for the Zong Consortium to rise up. He could not screw this up.

Before setting off again, Ren Xiaosu sat in the passenger seat of the off-road vehicle and asked, “Can you let me drive for a while?”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him in surprise. “Why do you want to drive all of a sudden? Do you know how to drive?”

“Of course.” Ren Xiaosu said confidently, “How can a man not know how to drive?”

“Alright then.” Yang Xiaojin stopped the vehicle and changed seats with him.

Ren Xiaosu excitedly stepped on the accelerator. But after driving for ten minutes, Yang Xiaojin took out her pistol and pointed it at Ren Xiaosu. “Stop the vehicle, I’m driving.”

Ren Xiaosu reluctantly stopped the vehicle. “Let’s talk nicely. Why do you have to point a gun at me?”

Yang Xiaojin rubbed her temple and changed the topic. “After we leave the stronghold, north of that is the valley. When the time comes, I’ll shake off Zong Cheng and the nanosoldiers so that we can act on our own.”

“Eh?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “Aren’t we going to exterminate the bandits? How are we going to exterminate the bandits with just the two of us?”

“You probably don’t know how serious the banditry to the north is.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “There are already hundreds of large bandit gangs living there, with the smallest groups with members numbering in the double digits. They’re all threats the Zong Consortium created over the years.”

“There’s that many of them?” Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find out there were hundreds of bands of bandits.

“So we won’t be their match if we encounter a larger gang of bandits with only the 100 of us,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Chapter 335: Acting alone

“Then why didn’t they send some more people?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t they sending us to our deaths? They could have just sent the army to eliminate the bandits!”

“Do you know why that place has become an unincorporated zone?” Yang Xiaojin said, “It’s because it’s the transit hub of the Northwest with links to four different places, of which three lead to the Zong Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and Stronghold 178. Whoever sends their troops into this area will attract the suspicion of the other two. In the past, there was no lack of friction among the three groups over this matter. None of them wants anyone else to gain control of this route.”

“So that area eventually became a gathering place for the bandits since no one could do anything about it?” Ren Xiaosu asked. “No wonder the three organizations are conducting this operation together at the mention of exterminating bandits. Even Xu Xianchu had to specially make a trip to the Yang Consortium.”

“Yes, some large bandit gangs even settled down over there and turned to stealing women from the refugees to keep them company.” Yang Xiaojin said, “If there’s a need to deploy troops there to exterminate the bandits, the three organizations have to work together. Since everyone wants to kill the bandits, the mission must be carried out no matter what.”

“Everyone should have just sent their troops together then,” Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner. “What’s the point of sending us there?”

“It’s extremely easy for the bandits to hide in the valley because of the complex and peculiar terrain.” Yang Xiaojin said, “So someone has to first get a better understanding of the bandit situation in the entire valley and find out where they’re located to assess if there’s a chance of killing them in one fell swoop before making further plans.”

With that, Ren Xiaosu understood they were just going there to scout the path and did not have to participate in any battles. He and Yang Xiaojin weren’t even a part of this plan at the beginning. The primary mission was supposed to be conducted by the 30 nanosoldiers along with the Zong Consortium’s soldiers.

If the troops were deployed directly into the valley, many of the bandits might go into hiding or run away. Furthermore, it would be very easy for the three organizations to fight each other.

“When you say that you want to shake them off, it’s mainly Zong Cheng that you want to shake off, right?” Ren Xiaosu probed.

“Yes.” Yang Xiaojin nodded and said, “As the Zong Consortium is more familiar with the valley, they suggested they should lead the way this time. However, the banditry issue originated from them, and many of the bandit gangs have ties with them as well. If they lead the way, we can only see what they want us to see.”

In any case, they would have to avoid the Zong Consortium and not get led by the nose.

Ren Xiaosu did not have any problems with that. Honestly, Yang Xiaojin was a daredevil. How could a normal person barge into a bandit’s lair just like that? Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you worried that something will happen along the way?”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him. “Don’t I have you to protect me?” Then she stomped on the gas at an intersection.

When they exited the stronghold, Yang Xiaojin deliberately drove to the rear of the convoy. By now, the convoy in front of her had turned down a side road. So when Yang Xiaojin suddenly took the other route and drove west, the vehicles ahead of her could not react in time.

By the time they realized the off-road vehicle driven by Yang Xiaojin had detoured, it was too late for them to turn around. They could only stop their vehicles and watch Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin drive all the way northwest, leaving a huge trail of dust behind them.

The Southern wilderness was filled with lush greenery. But in just the short distance spanning two strongholds, the landscape had suddenly changed from a lush green to a khaki land filled with sand mounds. From here to the north, it would be hard to see an entire forest again. The remaining vegetation that could be seen were squat shrubs,
en wen

Severe soil erosion had happened here before The Cataclysm, and desertification was already an unstoppable trend back then and could only have been prevented by putting in a great deal of manpower, logistics, and funding into its reversal.

But with the advent of The Cataclysm, the lands became completely deserted.

Zong Cheng had a calm expression as he stood outside the vehicle and looked at the off-road vehicle departing west.

One of the nanosoldiers on the ground asked, “Platoon Commander, what do we do now?”

The platoon commander gave it some thought and said, “We’ll continue with the original plan and carry out our mission.”

Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu were not included in their original mission plans to head deep into the northern valley. So even though Yang Xiaojin had just left, it did not fluster them.

Zong Cheng looked at the nanosoldiers and said with a smile, “They might have a more important mission to conduct. But that’s alright. I hope that we can happily work together in the coming days.”

Based on the established plan, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu should have followed the convoy east where they would pass by the front lines at Mt. Shangying, Mt. Lianta, and Mt. Dingyuan before proceeding to the core of the valley.

But with Yang Xiaojin’s detour, she would have to pass through Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan before meeting up with the rest of the convoy again. She had already planned for this as she wanted to see for herself what the banditry situation in the valley was really like.

After driving for a short while, they abandoned their vehicle and walked on foot. Although this would slow their progress, they would not be easily identified as members of an organization.

Yang Xiaojin had even prepared specific rags just so it would make them look like refugees who had escaped from a Yang Consortium factory.

Yang Xiaojin said, “Actually, there’s still many small human settlements in the valley. They’re all refugees who can’t stand the exploitation of the consortiums and have fled here to farm near a water source.”

“Aren’t they afraid of the bandits?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“The bandits deliberately left quite a few refugees alone in the valley and won’t harm them.” Yang Xiaojin said, “I wonder who gave them the idea, though. Whenever an organization conducts an operation to exterminate them, if there isn’t enough time for them to go into hiding, they’ll simply stash their weapons and escape to the refugee settlements where they pretend to be refugees who live there as well.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised by her answer. “What’s the point of doing that?”

“To the organizations, people are also a kind of resource.” Yang Xiaojin said, “When the Yang Consortium first started their operations to exterminate the bandits, they would escort any refugees back to the stronghold’s town if they came across them and make them work at the factories to continue creating value. But after about a year, the bandits who had impersonated refugees would abduct some of the refugees and head back to the valley.”

“It isn’t easy for the bandits either, huh?” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

“I suspect there’s someone behind the scenes advising them,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“Or it could be their own smarts,” Ren Xiaosu said as he stood atop a mound.

“I’m not saying the bandits are stupid, but someone powerful must be backing them.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Some years ago, the ruins of the Cataclysm civilization were cleared out. With nothing much left to scavenge, and the merchants too afraid to come by, what did they survive on in recent years? We also found out these bandits often acquire brand-new weapons and motorcycles. Some of the bandit gangs are even quite up to date with the latest news. If you tell me they don’t have some sort of corporation backing them, I’d refuse to believe it.”

Chapter 336: The people supporting the bandits

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Could it be the Zong Consortium? Didn’t you say that the bandits originated because of them?”

Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “No, it seems the forces supporting the bandits with their resources are likely to be against the Zong Consortium. That’s also why the Zong Consortium is helpless about the situation. The people behind it are especially hard to seek out. It’s like they’re rats or something.”

Ren Xiaosu had been confused. But when Yang Xiaojin mentioned the word “rat,” he suddenly thought of Luo Lan for some reason. Although there was an extreme difference in their body size, they had one thing in common, and that was how they loved scuttling around in the sewers.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt he could guess who was supporting the bandits to gross the Zong Consortium out. If it was really as he had guessed, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan’s foresight would be much greater than the Yang Consortium’s.

After all, the Yang Consortium had only thought of forming an alliance with the Zong Consortium in the past one or two years, while the bandits had been troubling the Zong Consortium for five to six years.

If it were really Qing Zhen and Luo Lan who were behind this, just how scheming would they have to be? What were they really after?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was unaware of the entire story behind the change in leadership at the Qing Consortium, nor did he know how long Qing Zhen had been planning for it.

And now, it seemed like the Zong Consortium truly had a problem with the bandits. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sought the Yang Consortium and Stronghold 178’s help. After all, they were the ones who developed the bandits at the beginning, but the issue got out of control in the end. If the problem were leaked, wouldn’t they become the butt of the joke?

Ren Xiaosu shared his assumptions with Yang Xiaojin. “I think it’s the Qing Consortium who’s secretly helping them.”

“It doesn’t really matter.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, “It doesn’t really have anything to do with me.”

“Your relationship with the Yang Consortium…” Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment but did not ask further.

“You don’t need to be apprehensive.” Yang Xiaojin said, “The Yang Consortium is starting to decline, and family ties are something that’s become dispensable. Let’s head to Mt. Daban now. There’s some small bandit lairs and refugee settlements congregated there.”

“Are you familiar with this region?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I’m pretty familiar with the outer perimeter of the valley.” Yang Xiaojin said, “I came by here frequently some years back.”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “What were you doing here?”

“I came to practice shooting,” Yang Xiaojin answered.

Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin had actually used the bandits out here in the wilderness for target practice. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu felt like Yang Xiaojin was sometimes very similar to him. They were like the grass that grew in the wilderness.

“Would you like to learn?” Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “I can teach you.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes twitched. “My marksmanship is also quite good.”

“I don’t know what kind of power you have that you can actually learn the skills of others directly,” Yang Xiaojin said, “but you didn’t manage to learn it completely, right? Your breathing technique is wrong.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. As expected of someone with Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she immediately noticed his shortcomings at a single glance. Although he had managed to copy her proficiency, there had to be a huge gap in proficiency between the Advanced Firearms Proficiency and Perfect Firearms Proficiency.

He stopped acting unreasonable. “How do you plan to teach me?”

“I’ll teach you through actual combat,” Yang Xiaojin said calmly.

Ren Xiaosu muttered, “And I was thinking you would place your hand on mine to teach me.”

“What?” As Ren Xiaosu’s voice was too soft, Yang Xiaojin could not hear him.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Nothing!”

Yang Xiaojin looked at him and asked, “How should I make myself look more like a refugee?”

“You’ve asked the right person. You can’t wear this cap anymore.” Ren Xiaosu said, “What refugee wears a cap?”

Yang Xiaojin decisively took off her cap. Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he rarely saw her without her cap.

“And then?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

Ren Xiaosu examined her and said, “Your hair is too neat, but you don’t have to make it too untidy. You can just leave it slightly disheveled.” Although her clothes seemed rather refugeelike, some details were still quite different upon closer inspection. As refugees tended to cut their own hair, everyone’s hairstyle was always unkempt.

But after he finished saying that, he saw Yang Xiaojin take out a dagger from her sleeve and cut off her hair without hesitation. After that, she ruffled it a little.

Yang Xiaojin originally had a chin-length bob that was neat and tidy. But after she cut it off with the dagger, her hair became disheveled.

Although she would return to her original appearance in another month or two, Ren Xiaosu was surprised by how Yang Xiaojin did not care about her image just so that she could look more like a refugee. He knew that some girls in the stronghold cherished their hair as much as their lives. This Yang Xiaojin was really willing to go all out to get things done.

Yang Xiaojin gave a few slight shakes of her head and said, “What about now? Do I look more like one now?”

“Mhm, that’s more like it.” Ren Xiaosu held in his laughter and said, “Your face still looks a little clean, as well as the lining of your clothes. But never mind that. Based on what you said earlier, it will still take us another day before we arrive at Mt. Daban. After we travel in the dusty wilderness for a day, we won’t be clean anymore.”

“OK.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. “Let’s come up with a narrative first. I don’t want us to blow our cover when we find a human settlement and someone asks us about our relationship. H-How old are you?”

It seemed like this was the first time the two of them were asking each other the more personal questions. They had never discussed these matters before. Back at the Jing Mountains, they talked about what might lie in the mountains. When they were at Stronghold 109, they talked about the Li Consortium’s breakthrough in their research. These days, they discussed the banditry that was going on in the valley. Somehow, they had never really gotten to know each other. It was as though they were not too worried about that.

Ren Xiaosu vaguely remembered that Yang Xiaojin should be 18, while he was 17. If he told the truth, he would probably have to address her as big sister, and that would be quite unfortunate for him.

Ren Xiaosu gave it some consideration. “I’m 20 this year.”

Yang Xiaojin nodded. “Well, I’m 21, so you can just call me Big Sis. Don’t have a slip of tongue when we encounter other people.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Wasn’t she fucking lying through her teeth? In the past, Ren Xiaosu was always the one who tricked others, so how did he end up getting tricked by someone else today!

“You’re 21?” Ren Xiaosu said unconvinced, “Take out your ID card and let me have a look.”

“I lost it.” Yang Xiaojin said nonchalantly, “Enough, you don’t have to mind those details. You were the one who lied first.”

Ren Xiaosu could only take the loss silently. Even as the two of them advanced northwest, he was still thinking about how to get back at her.

In the vast wilderness, the two of them were two tiny black dots, and the hills on the land were waves rolling across the ground.

During the evening, their shadows were stretched extremely long on the ground. The sparse clouds above their heads also extended all the way into the distance and connected with the ground.

At night, the sea of stars in the sky was so dense that they looked like they could be touched with an outstretched arm.

Yang Xiaojin said while hurrying along, “I’m hungry.”

Ren Xiaosu echoed, “Me too.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

“Hey, why didn’t you bring any food with you?”

“I’m a refugee now. How can a refugee have any food?” Yang Xiaojin justified. “And with you following me, there isn’t a need to bring any food either.”

Chapter 337: Sniping is a natural talent

“Sniping is a natural talent.”

Yang Xiaojin laid prone behind a mound, hiding herself completely within the cover of some bushes. Unless someone were to look down from above, it would be near impossible to notice that someone was lying there.

Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, who was also prone next to her, “In our training, your sense of balance and the steadiness of your advanced neural activities determine your ‘ceiling’ from the day you’re born. These terms might not match the scientific expressions used in biology, but we’re used to calling them that.”

“It’s not just talent alone, thought. There’s also your personality, which is difficult to foster and change.” Yang Xiaojin said, “In a personality assessment, there are 16 possible types based on the assessment of a set of judgment criteria. The first criterion is introversion and extraversion. On a scale of zero to ten for snipers, zero represents introversion and indecisiveness, while ten represents risk-taking and bravery. For a sniper, one should have a score between five and eight, inclusive, with the most ideal score being eight.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What’s your score?”

“Eight,” Yang Xiaojin answered.

In fact, her answer was what Ren Xiaosu expected. Since she had Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she should be perfect in every aspect. If there were any flaws, it wouldn’t be called perfect.

“Let’s talk about the training method we’ll employ for the day after tomorrow.” Yang Xiaojin said, “You’ll have to keep your body steady and learn how to breathe evenly. All of that is done to ensure that when you finally pull the trigger, the bullet hits where you want it to. In that moment, all of the hormones secreted by your body should be at the bullet’s service. All of this can only be achieved with a long period of training.”

“There’s also biofeedback[1] training to go through. When a sniper encounters a situation, they can’t have their heart start racing and start sweating profusely like a normal person would,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “How do you train that? It goes against your instincts, doesn’t it?”

It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin felt a little aloof. Upon careful observation, it was a calmness behind the powerful self-control that allowed her to completely restrain her instincts.

It was just like how she had covered Ren Xiaosu from the top of that building. Seeing the Experimentals about to get to her, she could still continue calmly pulling the trigger and only left at the last possible moment.

Luo Xinyu was scared to death on that day as she thought she would not get Yang Xiaojin out of there.

Yang Xiaojin said, “There’s some methods to train your biofeedback. For example, one of my old training routines was to immerse my arms into two buckets, with one containing cold water and the other hot water. After training to a certain extent, I can even increase the temperature in just one hand by two degrees through mental suggestion.”

Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “You can even do that? Can you do it now? Let me touch your hands.”

Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes at him. “The purpose of this training is not to control the temperature of your hands, but to let the sniper master their instincts. When they want to take a deep breath, their heart rate will immediately slow down.”

Ren Xiaosu realized the difference in their sniping level was not just a small amount. Yang Xiaojin’s success was only achieved after she put in many years of effort. How could it possibly be duplicated with just a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll? It was no wonder that even the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll could only copy up to master-level skills. You had to put in a lot more effort if you wanted to break past your limit and achieve perfection. Of course, his skill to annoy people was an exception. It seemed he was born with it and did not require any training.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “How did a girl like you get into firearms?”

“I like them.” Yang Xiaojin said, “They have a power I can use to protect myself with.”

Yang Xiaojin’s words made Ren Xiaosu realize that only those who lacked a sense of security would seek strength to protect themselves with.

“Was it tough?” Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.

“It’d be a lie if I said it wasn’t tough.” Yang Xiaojin said, “But I enjoy it as well.”

“Why did you come out into the wilderness to practice your marksmanship?” Ren Xiaosu said.

“For desensitization training.” Yang Xiaojin explained, “It’s so I would not be affected mentally after seeing corpses, blood, and death.”

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at Yang Xiaojin and wondered what this girl had been through.

Yang Xiaojin wondered, “We’ve already been waiting for a day now. Why aren’t any bandits passing by yet? This used to be a necessary route for bandits to take.”

They had been lying here in wait for the entire day. On one hand, Yang Xiaojin wanted to see if Ren Xiaosu possessed the right qualities to be a sniper. On the other hand, they could observe the movements of the bandits from here.

As a result, Yang Xiaojin realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to have as high an endurance as her. Although they had been lying in the bushes for more than eight hours, Ren Xiaosu did not even change his posture once. But what surprised Yang Xiaojin most was that even though Ren Xiaosu did not change his posture or even move a little, she could clearly feel him tightening and relaxing his muscles all the while. This was to help his blood circulation so that his muscles would always remain in a relaxed state.

Yang Xiaojin had no doubt that if danger appeared, Ren Xiaosu, who had been lying here motionlessly all day, could quickly engage in a high-intensity battle. She wondered how this young man had trained himself to such a state.

She slowly got up from the ground. “Let’s go. Something might have happened to the bandit lairs around here. Let’s go and check them out.”

Then Yang Xiaojin walked off in the direction she remembered. An hour later, she stood in a mountain gap and frowned as she looked at the white skeletal remains there.

They were surrounded by mud shelters[2] that had been dug out by the bandits. Wooden tables, chairs, and benches were placed inside of them, but they were discolored and covered in a solidified layer of black matter.

Black matter was what blood would become after being left out to dry for a long time.

“Someone ransacked this place.” Yang Xiaojin said, “I wonder who did it. There are bullets and empty shells lying around on the ground, while the firearms and motorcycles have all been taken away.”

When Ren Xiaosu looked at the skeletons on the ground, he noticed some teeth marks on them, suggesting that wild animals had been here as well. “Are there any women in the bandit lairs?”

“Most of them have some. The bandits head into the towns or factories and abduct some of the women back,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“There’s no skeletons of women or children in here,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“This place must’ve been plundered by other bandits. Strange. Why would anyone target such a poor group of bandits?” Yang Xiaojin said, “It seems the valley is no longer as peaceful, and something must have happened within the circle of bandits. They didn’t kill each other in the past because the people funding them had always maintained a certain kind of balance from behind the scenes.”

“Someone is trying to consolidate the valley bandits? Is that even possible?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“It’s possible, but we still have to head to the other hideouts and investigate them before we can be sure of it,” Yang Xiaojin replied. “Let’s go, there’s nothing more to see here.”

The two of them continued going northwest. Mt. Daban was right in front of them now. Based on Yang Xiaojin’s memory, they would come across the first small human settlement there.

[1] Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions of one’s own body, commercially by using electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to manipulate the body’s systems at will. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofeedback

[2] A yaodong (Chinese: ?a; pinyin: yáodòng) or “house cave” is a particular form of earth shelter dwelling common in the Loess Plateau in China’s north. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaodong

Chapter 338: Civil strife among the bandits

“Take note of your breathing.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Breathing in will cause a rapid change to your posture. It might not be obvious, but every detail that isn’t adhered to can be fatal for a sniper.

“The hawk is flying too high, you have to wait for it to spiral down and seize that opportunity when the distance closes. But the chance will be brief.”

A sniper had to be decisive whenever an opportunity arose.

Boom. Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger at the hawk soaring high in the sky. The sniper rifle’s heavy recoil and burst of gas from the muzzle swept a large cloud of dust and smoke up off the sandy ground around him.

This was Yang Xiaojin’s sniper rifle she had materialized from thin air to lend to Ren Xiaosu.

Today was Ren Xiaosu’s real combat training day, and he was supposed to shoot a hawk out of the sky. But right from the start, Yang Xiaojin wanted him to hit the hawk’s head, which was the highest degree of difficulty.

After he fired at it once, the hawk was unscathed and flew away after getting frightened by the gunshot.

Yang Xiaojin smirked. “So do you still think your marksmanship is quite good?”

Ren Xiaosu pretended to be puzzled. “I clearly shot it in the head, so how did it escape unharmed? Could it possibly be a mutant?”

“Oh, come on.” Yang Xiaojin curled her lips. “It’s still a hawk no matter how much it mutated. Since it’s not a product of genetic modification done by the Pyro Company, it can’t survive a sniper’s bullet. You said you hit it in the head, so why was it unharmed?”

Ren Xiaosu pondered the question. “Maybe because its head is empty and the bullet went right through?”

“Ha, ha.” Yang Xiaojin put away her sniper rifle. “We can’t do any more shooting if we advance further. The sniper rifle is too loud and will attract the attention of the bandits.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. In the past two days, he had learned a lot of advanced knowledge about firearms, but he still needed much more practical experience.

He had already delayed the journey by a day due to his target practice, but Yang Xiaojin did not seem anxious or in a rush at all. She patiently accompanied him to practice his shooting

But right now, the mission to exterminate the bandits was obviously more important, and he was not in a hurry to practice his shooting at this time either.

“If we encounter the refugee settlement, will they welcome us?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“They probably won’t, but it’s also not to the extent of ostracizing us.” Yang Xiaojin said, “Everyone depends on a water source for farming and will grow their own crops. A lot of refugees who have just escaped here won’t have any food on them. They will use the money they saved up while working in the factories to purchase some food and seeds from the others. After all, it will take quite a while for the crops to grow. This is something the refugees at the settlement will want to see. Furthermore, new refugees will also bring news of the outside world with them.”

“It’s really strange that we never encountered any bandits along the way.” Ren Xiaosu frowned.

If they could not see any bandits in a place infested with bandits, it would be similar to not seeing any fish in the sea. Something strange must have happened out in this valley.

After crossing a hill, Yang Xiaojin suddenly pointed ahead and said, “Look over there.” There was a stream meandering across the land in front of her. Many refugees were digging ditches by the stream to get ready to irrigate the crops before spring arrived.

When the refugees saw Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu dressed in refugee attire, they were relieved.

The people here were very smart and could tell at a glance whether these were stronghold residents in disguise or not. It all depended on the details Ren Xiaosu had mentioned.

When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin approached them, an older woman wiped away her sweat and spoke before they could say anything, “Do you want to buy some sorghum seeds? You’re just in time for the spring sowing season.”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu took out a bag wrapped in cloth and flipped through several layers before he found some loose coins. When the refugees saw this, they were even more relieved. Could important people from the strongholds possibly act as natural refugees?

But still others worried. “Where did the two of you escape from?”

Ren Xiaosu railed, “From the coal mine. They promised to pay us 21 yuan for every ton of coal carried, but then suddenly reduced it to 20 yuan and 60 cents. Furthermore, they even wanted to deduct some fees to cover the material cost. They were totally inhumane.”

One of the refugees laughed. “That’s even worse than the time when I worked at the coal mine.”

But at this moment, an older woman said, “But it’s not the right time for you and your wife to escape.”

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were both stunned. They had schemed against each other over who would be older, and it ended with Ren Xiaosu grumpily accepting that he would be the younger brother while Yang Xiaojin was to be his elder sister. But after all that discussion, their “relationship” suddenly changed the moment they got here.

Refugees tend to get married and have children at a very young age. When the children grew up, they could help out at home with some of the work. That was the mindset of the refugees. So while they might look too young to be a couple in the stronghold, they were just the right age for marriage out here.

Furthermore, no one would flee together if they were not a couple these days. If either one told on the other, the person who reported it would get rewarded.

This caught the two of them off guard. Ren Xiaosu stole a glance at Yang Xiaojin and wondered how she would react. If Yang Xiaojin insisted on clearing it up and arousing the suspicions of the refugees, they would have to retreat from this place. In any case, It shouldn’t be much of a problem for them to find another way into the valley.

However, Yang Xiaojin just smiled and did not explain their relationship. She chose to quietly accept it. She asked, “Why is it not the right time for us to come out here? Could something have happened?”

“Lemme tell you, the state of the bandits in the north is chaos right now, and many people have been killed in this period.” The older woman said earnestly, “We’re panicking and nervous at the moment and wonder if all that will affect us as well.”

“What’s wrong with the bandits?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why would they do anything to us when we’re only farmers?”

“I heard there’s three gangs in the north that dislike each other. They’re trying to unify the bandit gangs in the valley regardless of size. Two of the gangs are especially fierce, and there’s apparently a superhuman among them as well. If they bump into anyone who goes against them, they kill them immediately.” The older woman explained, “Let’s come to an agreement beforehand. It’s not a problem for you and your wife to stay here. We can always farm together. But if the bandits come and ask if we’ll submit to them, all of us will have to agree to it. We can’t go against them.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu responded, “But what if another gang comes after that gang leaves?”

The older woman waved it off. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll submit to whoever comes as long as they let us farm here.”

This was the refugees’ law of survival-give in and don’t cause trouble. The bandits could fight among themselves all they wanted, and the refugees would submit to whoever came.

In any case, the bandits no longer eyed their seeds and crops. For some reason, even though they did not have anyone left to steal from, the bandits were somehow getting richer, and their equipment and weapons were also getting better.

Last year, the Zong Consortium’s combat troops had entered the valley but left with their heads hanging after getting beaten by a few bands of bandits!

How could ordinary bandits be capable of that? If they could fucking defeat the regular combat troops, could they still be called bandits?!

Chapter 339: Conceited bandits

There were only a few hundred refugees in this small settlement. Ren Xiaosu saw a child running around the entrance of a mud shelter a distance away. By the looks of it, this small settlement was formed only a short time ago.

There were many rivers in the valley. In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, places near rivers should be lush with vegetation. However, the valley here was not like that.

Most of the sand here had turned into soil, and where the rivers cut through, the flow of water would sweep away the soil from the two banks. Perhaps in another few years when the rivers dried out or changed course, the riverbed here would turn into a new valley like a scar running across the ground. Across the land here, the formations all looked to have been carved out by rivers.

The area the refugees chose to settle was relatively flat and suitable for planting crops.

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had planned on staying here with the refugees for some time to get a better understanding of the banditry in the region.

As they were talking, a cloud of dust suddenly emerged in the distance. From afar, it could even be mistaken as a small sandstorm.

An older woman said nervously, “Why are they here again? Which group is it this time?”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are those the bandits?”

“Definitely. That dust cloud is made by the motorcycles they ride.” As the older woman spoke, she ran towards the mud shelters and shouted, “Take the children back into the houses.”

But the bandits in the distance were rapidly approaching. Everyone could already see their figures. The motorcycles they were riding were like taut and muscular beasts, while the rumbling of the engines and exhaust sounded like their roars.

This was an especially rough and savage sight to behold.

Even from afar, the refugees could hear the excited cries of the bandits. When they saw the refugees, it was as though they had spotted their prey.

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other and blended in with the refugee group. They wanted to observe the situation first.

The refugees seemed to already have experience in dealing with such situations. After hiding their children away, they stood in line on the flat ground as though they were about to welcome their superiors. The only difference was that their line was rather crooked, and everyone in the group had starkly different moods.

Ren Xiaosu did a count and found slightly more than 20 bandits in this band. A group of this size would not be considered a very powerful force in this valley. However, he did not know how many other members they had back at their lair.

The gang of bandits rode their motorcycles and circled around the refugees while roaring. This was a show of force by the bandits. Round after round, the circle became smaller, and the refugees cowered together in fear.

When the refugees became visibly scared, the bandits slowly came to a stop. One of them jumped off his motorcycle and pulled down the scarf covering his mouth. “You people are farming here?”

“Yes, that’s right!” One of the refugees said in fear, “We’ve been farming here for several years already!”

“What’s so interesting about farming?” the bandit said as he spat out the sand in his mouth onto the ground. Then he smiled and said, “I see quite a few men here. Men are born to do lofty deeds. How can you call yourselves men when you’re cowering here and farming every day?”

“But what are we gonna eat if we don’t farm?” The refugee said meekly, “We only want to grow some crops to feed ourselves with.”

“From today onwards, all of you will become my subjects.” Patting the face of the refugee in front of him, the bandit boss said, “Follow me and you’ll have meat to eat and wine to drink. In the past, the consortiums bullied you. Join me and we’ll go bully them in the future!”

Ren Xiaosu observed these people and thought about what Yang Xiaojin had said. There was an 80% chance their motorcycles were new, while the automatic weapons in their hands were even newer than the motorcycles. It was obvious they had just changed their equipment.

Even more ridiculous was how many of these people were carrying two guns on their backs. It was as if they had too many guns and nowhere to use them.

Perhaps the new equipment had given additional confidence to these bandits. With only a few more than twenty people, they even boasted about bullying the consortiums!

When the refugees heard these people were going to declare war against the consortiums, they became even more afraid. “We don’t want to fight the consortiums. We only know how to farm.”

The bandit boss’s face sank. “You have to fight even if you don’t want to fight. Gentlemen, round them up and bring them back!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So it turned out they were here to abduct them. They were probably doing so because they had too many guns, more than the people in their group. So they knew they had to expand.

This had to have something to do with the bandit’s civil strife that was going on in the north. The entire valley was in a state of chaos as everyone started deviating from the “rules”!

“Are we gonna go with them?” Ren Xiaosu asked in a low voice.

“We should.” Yang Xiaojin replied, “We might get to understand more about the situation in the valley this way. Besides, they only have about 20 people. If we really want to leave, they won’t be able to stop us.”

“Well, why don’t we just eliminate them here,” Ren Xiaosu mumbled.

With so many guns pointed at them, the refugees had no choice but to return to the mud shelters to take their children with them. Then they started being escorted north.

The bandit boss was riding a motorcycle next to the group of refugees. With the motorcycle’s engine rumbling noisily, he shouted proudly, “Don’t you people think that I, Jin Lan, am a tyrant. It’s just that you were living in the outermost region of the valley, so you might not know about the situation in these lands. The people in the northern settlements have already been abducted by the other groups from the other mountain places. Even if we don’t take you away today, others would come for you tomorrow.”

“But we don’t know how to fight,” the refugees said in distress.

“Who doesn’t know how to fight? I’ll give y’all guns, and don’t worry ’bout saving ammo. Just shoot! Besides, even if you don’t wanna fight, you can contribute in other ways.” Jin Lan laughed heartily.

Nobody knew what these other ways Jin Lan mentioned were, but what he said was enough to confirm Ren Xiaosu’s suspicions. It looked like they had really captured all these people because they had an excess of guns and ammunition.

However, Ren Xiaosu wondered how many firearms Qing Zhen and his people had invested in this area. Why did it seem like the entire valley was chaos?

If this went on, a lot of people in the valley would die.

The big fish devours the little fish; the strong prey on the weak. This had always been the case since ancient times.

And when the war subsided, an even more powerful bandit organization could rise up after all the bandit gangs in the valley had been unified.

Was that Qing Zhen’s goal? To use a massacre to clear away the “tainted impurities” in the valley and achieve the goal of consolidating all the bandits who were active here? After that, would he take control of this force for his own gain? And all he had to do was invest some guns and ammunition to make these bandits get conceited.

Although automatic rifles were a favorite among the bandits, the consortiums knew well that these guns and ammunition were worth close to nothing.

Although he had no evidence, Ren Xiaosu was certain that Qing Zhen was behind all this. No one else would do something like it.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was also certain that Qing Zhen still had subsequent plans for the valley, and that would be the power he would eventually use to complete the consolidation of the bandits here.

At this moment, because the Yang Consortium was at war with the Li Consortium in the South, their defenses in the North were virtually empty. They would have, at most, an independent force garrisoning each of their strongholds.

If this bandit army attacked south, they would definitely not be able to bring down the strongholds. However, they could easily destroy all the factories outside the strongholds, and that could set the Yang Consortium’s economy back by three years.

Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium was probably still thinking that the northern bandits would not amount to any threat. After all, which organization would be afraid of bandits? They were totally fine with leaving them in the valley to play by themselves.

Facing such an opponent, the Zong Consortium and Yang Consortium would most likely have a really bad headache to deal with.

Chapter 340: She’s mine now

Just over 20 bandits were enough to threaten the hundreds of refugees. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu did not see the refugees putting up any resistance.

The bandit leader, Jin Lan, was still chattering nonstop. “Don’t y’all worry. I, Jin Lan, also studied for two years in the town’s school. I’m not an oaf who kills without batting an eyelid, and I won’t do anything bad to y’all.”

Someone nearby buttered up to him. “That’s right, our boss is very knowledgeable. Those bandits from the other gangs can’t compare to him.”

Jin Lan smiled humbly. “Don’t exaggerate. Speaking of which, I’m bringing y’all back to the mountains so that I can provide everyone here a better life. Look at how skinny y’all are, especially you!” He pointed at Ren Xiaosu. “Look at how skinny you are. Your face is so bony and pale. It’s like you don’t even have any strength left.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a while. He looked at his own body and realized that since his Strength and Dexterity had reached equilibrium, it did make him look like he had lost some weight.

Next to him, Yang Xiaojin was laughing like she had heard something really funny.

Jin Lan did not care about Ren Xiaosu’s reaction and continued to ramble, “Y’all don’t know how intense the fighting to the north is. I don’t know where all these forces came from either, but the fighting is getting more and more intense. Y’all can only survive by following me, understand?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin speechlessly. They had walked for more than ten kilometers under the escort of the 20-odd bandits before they finally arrived at their camp.

The camp was extremely simple and crude. It was just an empty area surrounded by wooden fences up in the mountains. There were some mud huts in the camp, and the roofs even had large holes in them. Apart from the new firearms, everything else was junk!

Ren Xiaosu could imagine how miserable these people were before they started receiving support from the Qing Consortium.

But it was different now. There were even dozens of brand-new motorcycles parked in the clearing of their campsite. Next to the motorcycles were dozens of green jerrycans used for storing fuel, and entire boxes of ammunition laid beside them. There were grenades and bullets piled up beside the jerrycans, and if anything blew up there, the explosion would probably swallow the entire ridge in an instant.

Seeing this, Ren Xiaosu had some misgivings. He didn’t want to die due to the stupidity of these bandits. That would be such the injustice. And right after that, he saw the bandits who had just returned to the camp start a cooking fire ten meters away from the jerrycans.

Ren Xiaosu’s hair stood on end. He muttered to Yang Xiaojin, “If the other groups attack, these people won’t even know how they died, right? The Zong Consortium can’t even beat bandits this stupid?!”

But despite saying that, he looked at how miserable Jin Lan’s gang of bandits were and realized they were probably the weakest bandit gang in the entire valley. They didn’t even know if they would survive until their next meal.

Jin Lan suddenly said, “If you’re willing to fight alongside me, go and collect guns from over there. This is your only chance to make a choice!”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked. How did this fellow conquer this part of the mountains? Wasn’t he afraid these refugees would kill him with the guns they picked up?

However, something else shocked Ren Xiaosu even more. More than 30 male refugees went to collect guns in the end, but after they took their guns, they just sat woodenly on the ground and let Jin Lan continue to lecture them.

They had no intention of resisting!

The sight unfolding before his eyes was just like the fantasy novels he had read back at Stronghold 88’s library. But it was even stranger than fiction.

These refugees had been told to submit since they were young and to obey orders. If they were disobedient, they would get beaten up. They did not have the courage to resist the organizations. They would choose to pledge allegiance to whichever mountain place they settled down at. This was a habit forced upon them by their difficult living conditions.

At this moment, one of Jin Lan’s subordinates came up to Ren Xiaosu. When he saw Yang Xiaojin, he was stunned. Although Yang Xiaojin had deliberately dirtied her face, it was still difficult to conceal her good looks.

The bandit said excitedly, “This chick is a looker. If she washes her face clean, she’ll definitely be very pretty. She’s mine now.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed at the words. Bandits were still bandits. He said, “Sorry, but lemme break into this.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu flew into a rage. He punched the right side of the bandit’s ribs while he was off guard, caving in the bandit’s chest.

The people around him were shocked. He really meant it when he said that he wanted to break in! He broke his bones just like that? He literally broke him?!

Jin Lan and the others were building a fire, and they were shocked by what they saw. They wanted to pick up the guns beside them to defend themselves.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. Before Jin Lan could get his hand near his gun, Ren Xiaosu had already come up to him and kicked him in the face!

Jin Lan instinctively leaned backwards, and it was precisely this reaction that saved his life. However, he could feel his entire head buzzing.

Gunfire rang out. Yang Xiaojin was holding a decorated pistol and covering Ren Xiaosu. The bandits who had picked up their guns suddenly felt their hands go numb. The wrists of their gun-toting hand were bleeding profusely.

The refugees around them were all dumbfounded. Who was this couple who had just joined them?

A clever bandit had already thudded onto his knees. “Superhumans! Please spare my life!”

The speed and strength Ren Xiaosu displayed were definitely beyond that of a normal human. The bandits were not stupid either. They knew what they were facing right now.

As for Yang Xiaojin’s marksmanship, it was so shocking it could be seen.

Jin Lan dizzily knelt on the ground with his nose bleeding profusely. “Sir, please spare my life. It was all a misunderstanding! We haven’t been bandits for long and have never killed anyone before!”

Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized these useless things were all kneeling on the ground. They had even consciously thrown their guns far away from themselves. What kind of fucking bandits were they? Why were they not the least bit bloodthirsty?

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan and frowned. “How did you even become a bandit?”

Jin Lan was nearly crying as he wiped the blood from his nose. “We used to be farmers from Mt. Tangwang to the north. But someone came around and told us to become bandits and even handed out guns, motorcycles, and food, so we decided to head into the mountains to become bandits. We’ve only been bandits for two months now.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless for a long time. What on earth was the Qing Consortium trying to achieve?

Jin Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Boss, you’ll be the leader of this mountain from now on. I hope you can lead us to be strong!”

“No, wait.” Ren Xiaosu facepalmed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Jin Lan flattered with a smile, “You don’t know, right? There’s a gang of bandits to the north who are especially fearsome because their leader is a supernatural being. Since you’re also a supernatural being, you’ll definitely do better than him and be more powerful than him!”

Chapter 341: Trapping

Ren Xiaosu had originally wanted to stay in this mountain hideout for a while to observe them. However, Yang Xiaojin’s looks sure made it easy for the bandits to want to lay their hands on her. If it weren’t for this matter, Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t have suddenly made that move.

But since he acted, he would have to ensure there wouldn’t be trouble afterwards. He wasn’t going to learn from the stronghold residents and fake mercy.

However, the turn of events seemed a little unexpected. Ren Xiaosu realized that after Jin Lan and the others had been overpowered, they did not have any hate for him or even say any harsh words. Instead, they wanted this supernatural being to lead them to something greater!

What kind of freaking mindset was that?!

Seeing this band of bandits addressing Ren Xiaosu as their boss, even the refugees standing nearby were stunned. They could never have expected such a reversal!

It was also at this moment they realized Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were no ordinary people. The couple had not come to their settlement because they wanted to farm. In fact, they might even be bandits from another mountain hideout.

Yang Xiaojin went on guard. She was responsible for preventing anyone from secretly attacking them with their guns. But after a while, she realized these people were actually serious about acknowledging Ren Xiaosu as their boss.

He was here to exterminate the bandits, so how did it end up with him becoming the bandit leader?

However, the first thing Ren Xiaosu said was, “Hurry up and move the firearms and fuel cans far away from me. By placing all the firearms in one spot, aren’t y’all afraid you’ll blow yourselves up?”

Jin Lan, whose nose was bleeding, hurriedly stood up. “Listen to the boss. Hurry up and shift the things away. Don’t keep them there and cause an eyesore to the boss!”

Yang Xiaojin came to Ren Xiaosu’s side and watched the group of people busy themselves with their tasks. She said in a low voice, “How are we going to put a stop to this mess now?”

Ren Xiaosu pondered for a long time. “Look at the logic you’re going by! We’re here to destroy the bandits, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“We’re here to figure out where all the bandits are hiding so we can capture them
all!”

“Yes.”

“Then look at it this way. If we go through so much effort to find them and then draw the terrain map,” Ren Xiaosu said, “when the Zong Consortium and Yang Consortium’s troops come storming, we might not be able to find them.”

These bandits were like rats, and the valley that had been cut through by rivers was like a sewer. It would be really easy for the regular combat troops to come here to fight them. All they had to do was send more people here, and they would have no problem dealing with the bandits. Ren Xiaosu did not believe the Zong Consortium would be so utterly defeated unless they had other motives.

However, if the combat troops were not familiar with the terrain here, it would be impossible to exterminate the bandits entirely. Strictly speaking, it was not that it couldn’t be done, but it was just not worth the effort.

“So…” Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu.

“We’ll have the bandits come to us instead,” Ren Xiaosu decided.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin did not realize what it would lead to, mainly because Ren Xiaosu’s thinking was quite different from others. Under normal circumstances, it would not be possible to guess what he was thinking.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the refugees. “Let’s go back to farming!”

The refugees were stunned for a moment. “We can go back to farming?”

They had thought Ren Xiaosu would stay here at the mountain hideout as the bandit leader while they continued being their captives. After all, the bandits in the valley were all birds of a feather. But Ren Xiaosu was actually thinking of bringing them back to farm?

“That’s right.” Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, “Haven’t y’all dug the irrigation ditches already? Since they’ve already been dug, we have to sow the land! Now that we have weapons, we can choose not to be bandits and use them to protect our crops so that other bandits can’t hurt us!”

The refugees were stunned. However, they still did not dare pick up the weapons. It was as though they would get into trouble the moment they picked one up.

Not everyone liked fighting and killing. They chose to escape here to farm because they wanted to avoid everything that was going on in the outside world and find a quiet place where they could settle down.

Among the refugees, if there were ruthless people such as Ren Xiaosu, then there were also cowardly ones who sought to avoid conflict. However, it was not exactly as simple as calling them cowardly. It could only be said that they were unwilling to fight others.

Ren Xiaosu said, “We will definitely not take the fight to others. But if you don’t have any means of protecting yourselves, then don’t even think about being able to farm in peace. Think of your family and children!”

At the mention of the word “children,” some of the refugees were moved. Being used to the easy and comfortable life in the valley, they’ve realized it was no longer as safe in recent years. They had started becoming the targets of the bandits.

Just like today when the bandits came and took them away, they were not even capable of retaliating. The children had to suffer as a result, while their wives might even end up becoming someone else’s wife.

Weapons could be used to invade, but they could also be used for protection.

Some of the refugees slowly picked up the brand-new firearms. However, they did not even know how to use them. All it did was boost their courage for now.

But when they held the cold and unfeeling firearms in their hands, they somehow felt a sense of security.

Ren Xiaosu beguiled the refugees and escorted Jin Lan and the others back the way they came while riding pillion on Yang Xiaojin’s motorcycle. Earlier on when no one was looking, Ren Xiaosu even threw an entire box of grenades into his storage space.

A grenade was similar in power to the Explosive Poker’s four “threes,” so this could save Ren Xiaosu quite a few gratitude tokens.

After returning to the settlement, Ren Xiaosu gave Jin Lan and the others a mission. “All y’all used to be refugees too. For now, don’t think about being a bandit anymore. Behave yourselves and tend to the land here, ya hear?”

Jin Lan and the others had bitter looks on their faces. The bandits from the other mountain hideouts all abducted refugees and turned them into bandits. Meanwhile, even though they were also bandits, they had been abducted back to the settlement by refugees to farm.

Yang Xiaojin watched as the refugees started plowing the fields again. She asked, “What do you plan to do with these refugees and bandits?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the sky and smiled. “We wait.”

Right at this moment, another cloud of dust kicked up in the distance. Yang Xiaojin looked at the gang of bandits screeching their way over and realized, “You were waiting for them to come knocking on our door….”

Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, it was too slow to go around looking for these people one by one.

Based on what Jin Lan had said, all the bandit gangs were trying to expand their strength and would not pass on raiding any human settlements they came across.

In that case, why would Ren Xiaosu bother to go looking for them? He could easily wait for the bandits in the entire area consisting of Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guang to find him instead.

Trapping!

“But we can only catch some of the small-time bandits in the south this way,” Yang Xiaojin said with a laugh.

“That’s fine. I would be really afraid if the stronger bandit gangs showed up. Don’t worry, we’ll be able to defeat the bigger bandit gangs soon!” Ren Xiaosu said in high spirits.

When this new band of bandits was about to arrive, the refugees who had just returned to the settlement started panicking and did not know what to do. They had just returned home, and now they were about to get taken away again by other bandits? But while they were panicking, they saw Ren Xiaosu rush up to those bandits excitedly.

Just by looking at Ren Xiaosu’s expression, it was as though he were going out to receive his relatives!

Yang Xiaojin had already set up her sniper rifle atop a hill and was prepared to give Ren Xiaosu some long-range cover. Through her scope, she gazed at the band of bandits who were still unaware of what was going to happen. She suddenly felt that this expedition would turn out to be very interesting

At the very least, it was going to be much more interesting than when she last came here.

Chapter 342: The people from Stronghold 178

Laying a trap was somewhat a technical skill. Ren Xiaosu had originally planned to head deeper into the valley. But after thinking over it carefully, he felt that if they encountered the larger bandit gangs with hundreds of members, it could get difficult for him and Yang Xiaojin to deal with them.

Staying here and waiting for the few dozen bandits to show up each day would not even make Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin break a sweat to handle them.

What was a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user? If one could not even handle a situation as simple as this, then they would not qualify to be called a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user.

It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu felt the joy of having a teammate protect him. He did not even have to worry about anyone sneaking up on him since the sneak attacker couldn’t defend against getting sniped.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also thinking about how he should integrate Jin Lan and the bandits into the group. They might be respectful to him now, but that was because they were no match for him. Moreover, they had also been stripped of their firearms by him and the other refugees, so they had to behave. If he let Jin Lan find an opportunity, who knew what he might try? However, Ren Xiaosu had still not thought of a solution to integrate them.

At this moment, Jin Lan and his gang of bandits were squatting on the ground and watching Ren Xiaosu capture the bandits who had just arrived. They whispered to each other, “Did you see that? Those two are freaking strong! It was definitely wise that we did not fight them head-on. Especially that lady, she doesn’t even bat an eyelid when killing people. I’ve heard legends of that sniper rifle of hers before, but I’m seeing it for myself for the first time.”

One of his lackeys said, “But, Boss, we did go head-on against them. We just didn’t win, that’s all!”

“…You talk too much.”

“Boss, according to what you said, could these two people be linked with the consortiums?” The lackey wondered, “Could they be specialists from the consortiums?”

Jin Lan shook his head. “No, they don’t feel like the typical consortium people.”

“But what if they are?” Someone wondered, “Where else would such specialists come from? I’ve never heard of anyone in the entire valley who knows how to use a sniper rifle.”

“Look at the two of them. They aren’t even bothered by the living conditions here nor wash their faces. How can they be from the strongholds?” Jin Lan continued arguing against the possibility. “Could the important people from the strongholds endure this!”

Just like Ren Xiaosu in his earlier years, much of their views of those who came from the strongholds were largely based on their imagination. Stereotypes were already deeply embedded in the minds of all the refugees. In their opinion, people from the strongholds were all similar.

Of course, the people from the stronghold also looked at them the same way.

“Then where do you think they’re from?” someone asked softly.

“Wait a minute.” Jin Lan was taken aback. “Don’t fucking tell me they’re from Stronghold 178? Didn’t they say that highly skilled people all hail from Stronghold 178? I think only talents from Stronghold 178 would be this highly skilled and strong! Moreover, it’s said that most of those in Stronghold 178 were former refugees. Holy shit, surely they can’t really be from Stronghold 178, right?”

As Jin Lan eliminated the possibilities, he came to the conclusion that Ren Xiaosu’s and Yang Xiaojin’s backgrounds seemed to suggest they were likelier to be from the legendary Stronghold 178. They were not particular about the living conditions, did not have the delicate characters of those living in the strongholds, were vicious, mysterious, and really strong.

In recent years, Stronghold 178’s reputation in the Northwest had been spreading to the point of being a little too legendary, especially among the refugees.

Jin Lan muttered to himself, “If the people from Stronghold 178 have really come down to the valley, then this is our chance. If we perform well, we might even get recruited into Stronghold 178 in the future!”

These days, Stronghold 178 no longer accepted outsiders into their ranks. Otherwise, it would definitely be a million times better to go to Stronghold 178 than be a bandit here in the valley!

If Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were from the consortiums, Jin Lan would not even think about joining them. After all, everyone knew what the consortiums were like, so why would they go there to suffer?

But Stronghold 178 was different. It was a sacred place in the hearts of many refugees in the Northwest.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu returned with a group of bruised and swollen bandits. He called out to Jin Lan, “Are you done with your tasks yet?”

“Yes. Please give me my next orders.” This time, Jin Lan wasn’t putting on an act like he was earlier. Instead, he was speaking with complete sincerity from the bottom of his heart.

Ren Xiaosu threw him a gun. “You’ll be the leader of 1st Squad from now on. Take care of these people.”

Jin Lan was touched. “Thank you, Boss!”

“Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan in surprise. He only wanted to test this guy a little, but what was this sincere gratitude about? Ren Xiaosu wondered if he actually possessed a legendary leadership aura and that it had somehow caused this guy to submit to him.

He said to Jin Lan, “Confiscate this group’s guns and learn ’em. They’ll be part of this settlement from now on.”

“Alright, don’t you worry!” Jin Lan said, “Boss, may I ask you something?”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “Ask away!”

“Where are you from?” Jin Lan asked softly, “You aren’t from around the valley, are you?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. He looked at Jin Lan. “Is this something that you should be asking about?”

“Alright, I won’t ask anymore!” Jin Lan said guiltily.

Then Yang Xiaojin walked over and said, “Don’t bother with him for now. We have updates from the northwest.”

Ren Xiaosu shot a look at Jin Lan. “Go and do what you need to do. Keep an eye on them and make them recognize the reality of things. They’ll have a bright future ahead by joining us.”

Jin Lan stifled his excitement. So they really were important figures from Stronghold 178!

He believed Yang Xiaojin definitely had a slip of tongue earlier when she spoke to Ren Xiaosu. However, he had been listening for any clues that might give up their identities. And now everything matched his guesses!

After Jin Lan left, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu looked at each other and smiled. They had been discussing how to handle the issue of their identities last night and whether they could use it to make these bandits stay. They came up with a plan to pretend they were from Stronghold 178.

In the end, before they could resort to doing so, Jin Lan had already sent himself straight into the trap. This way, the effect was going to be even better!

“What if there really are people from Stronghold 178 here?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“At most, I’ll take a special trip to Stronghold 178 to explain things to Zhang Jinglin. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Hey, why do the refugees in the Northwest fall so easily for something like that?”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded and said, “You’re from the South, so you probably don’t know how good Stronghold 178 is in the eyes of these people. A powerful organization that’s impartial in accepting refugees into their stronghold is a one of a kind existence out here in the Northwest.”

“But aren’t they no longer accepting refugees?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Yang Xiaojin answered, “It’s usually the things you can’t have that make them even more precious.”

“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Then let’s continue to remain mysterious and let this matter develop on its own. We’ll see how it turns out.”

By this point, Jin Lan had already walked over to the other bandits with a mysterious smile on his face. Someone asked, “Boss, you look very happy, but you can’t forget our original plans just because they gave you a gun!”

Jin Lan snapped, “What do you know? Am I such a shallow person? I’m telling you, those two really are from Stronghold 178!”

Chapter 343: Surrendering together

As soon as Jin Lan finished speaking, his lackeys were stunned. They looked at one another and said, “Boss, could they be tricking you?”

“No.” Jin Lan shook his head. “They were trying to keep it a secret, but I’ve already discovered the truth based on some clues!”

“What do we do now?” The lackey said, “Are we still running away?”

They were definitely not a match for Ren Xiaosu. So while they were coming here, Jin Lan and the others had secretly discussed if they should escape at night while everyone was sleeping. That way, they would stand a chance of regaining their freedom.

However, Jin Lan had changed his mind now. He said, “Run? My ass! I’m not running anywhere! I’m gonna stay right here! If I get a chance to go to Stronghold 178, I’ll be rich!”

The others were also tempted by his words. “But will they allow us to join them?”

“That’s why I’m telling y’all to behave!” Jin Lan said, “Alright, I’ll talk to the newcomers and settle them in first. This is the first mission the boss has given me, so I must not disappoint him.”

His lackeys fell silent. Fine! What else could they say since their boss had already acknowledged a new boss?

Jin Lan came over to the new bandits and said with a smile, “Hey, guys, which mountain hideout are y’all from?”

“We’re the gang from Mt. Daban’s west face.” The bandit leader of the newcomers said, “I’m warning you, we still have over 50 brothers back at our lair. Hurry up and release us, or y’all will be in serious trouble when the rest of our brothers get here.”

Jin Lan laughed, “Bro, who are you trying to threaten? How dare you make threats in front of Stronghold 178’s people? You said that you still have more than 50 brothers back at your lair, but do you know how many brothers we have in Stronghold 178?”

The person standing across from Jin Lan was stunned. What the hell? People from Stronghold 178?

It was no wonder the young man and woman who had just given them a good beating were so strong. He looked at Jin Lan and asked uncertainly, “Are all of you from Stronghold 178?”

Jin Lan hesitated. “Not yet for me…”

“Then what are you blabbering about?” the bandit leader snapped.

“But those two lords who beat y’all up are!” Jin Lan lowered his voice and said, “Bro, I used to be from the North Face. You know where Mushroom Ridge is?”

“Wait.” The bandit standing across from him was stunned. He said, “You were also captured by them? I’ve heard about those twenty or so people over at Mushroom Ridge. Someone said that they lived real awfully there.”

Jin Lan’s face darkened immediately. “How can you speak like that! I’ve turned my life around. Do you see the gun at my waist? It’s a reward from our two lords over there! From now on, I’ll be your leader, so you better wise up!”

The bandit said meekly, “Are those two really from Stronghold 178? How do you know that?”

“Hehe.” Jin Lan whispered, “Lemme tell you, I discovered it myself, so it’s definitely true. Think about it again. Do you still want to go back to your West Face, or would you rather stay here for a better future?”

At this point, the bandit was close to believing what he said. Most people would not use Stronghold 178’s name as a joke. Moreover, the immense power displayed by Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in combat made their hearts pound.

Jin Lan said in a low voice, “Last year when winter had just arrived, Master Xu happened to pass by this place. Did you hear about it?”

“Yeah.” The bandit leader said as his eyes lit up, “Are those two related to Master Xu as well?”

“I’m not sure about that.” Jin Lan said, “But when Master Xu passed by here back then, a reckless gang of bandits tried to rob him. At first, two of the bandits were finished off by some sort of magic. That angered the rest of the bandits, and more than 50 of them attacked all at once. However, they still couldn’t hold him down despite that. That flying black cauldron was the best!”

“I also heard about it. It’s true.” The bandit leader said, “I heard that Master Xu has another power that summons a shadow.”

“How can the shadow be more powerful than the cauldron?” Jin Lan said excitedly, “I heard that the cauldron is extremely powerful. The 50-odd bandits shot at it for half an hour with their guns but still couldn’t break it.”

“Hey, that’s an exaggeration. What I heard was that they fired at it for two whole minutes.”

“Let’s not get too bothered with the details,” Jin Lan said unhappily. “In the aftermath, those bandits regretted their actions. At that time, Master Xu had still not risen to power. If they followed him at that time, they would’ve found salvation. That same opportunity has now presented itself right in front of us, so my advice to you is to give it a rest.”

“More importantly, who can confirm that the two of them are from Stronghold 178?” the bandit leader said unconvinced. “Even though they might be strong, I still don’t really believe they are who they say they are.”

“Do whatever you like then,” Jin Lan said coldly. He suddenly felt that everyone was drunk whereas he was the only sober one.

But at this moment, Jin Lan saw a dark shadow darting past in an irrigation ditch. He thought he was seeing things, so he asked the people next to him, “Did y’all see anything just now?”

Someone said, “I think I saw a dark shadow moving extremely fast.”

The bandit who’d just been captured today started laughing. “I’m afraid that our brothers at home are getting worried about us. They must be here to rescue us!”

“Bullshit!” Jin Lan spat out, “As if you people are that close!”

Some of the bandits hurried after the shadow by following the ditches while Jin Lan followed close behind them in the fear they would escape. However, they did not find anyone there. Some of them could not accept this and continued chasing. But less than two minutes later, they were surprised to see Ren Xiaosu talking face to face with a shadow. The shadow that felt like a physical being handed Ren Xiaosu a letter before sprinting off into the wilderness.

A lot of others who were following Jin Lan also witnessed what just happened.

“What did y’all say about Master Xu’s other power?” someone asked in a soft, quivering voice. “Two different superhumans can’t have the same power, that much I do know….”

Jin Lan said in a low voice, “Let’s get out of here! They definitely won’t want anyone to discover them if they’ve chosen to meet in such a secretive spot. If they find out that we saw them, they might even try to silence us!”

But before they could leave, Ren Xiaosu had already looked up and discovered Jin Lan and the others. His face darkened and a killing intent seemed to slowly start forming.

Jin Lan immediately knelt on the ground and cried, “Boss, I didn’t see anything! Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me!”

Immediately, everyone behind Jin Lan also knelt down in fear that Ren Xiaosu might silence them.

Ren Xiaosu slowly walked up to Jin Lan and the others. After a long pause, he said, “Alright, get up, but y’all must keep it a secret.”

Jin Lan and the others nearly cried. “Boss, thank you for sparing us! Thank you for sparing us!”

“Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!”

“Gratitude received from…”

With this wave of gratitudes alone, Ren Xiaosu harvested over a dozen gratitude tokens and his number of gratitude tokens was back to around 900 or so!

Jin Lan and the others got up and ran towards the settlement. Along the way, Jin Lan asked while panting, “So do you still want to run away? Do you believe me now?”

However, the new bandit next to him said, “Can you please let me return to my lair?”

Jin Lan was stunned. “You still want to run away?”

“No, I want to get all my brothers to come back here with me and surrender together.”

Chapter 344: Depends on my mood

Once someone saw a brighter future for themself, they would naturally think of their bros. It was rare for a bandit to come to a good end. If there hadn’t been someone who suddenly supported them with money and supplies in this desolate place, they would still be leading quite a difficult life.

For the past five years, no caravans had passed through the valley. If the bandits wanted to fill their stomachs, they would have to go and rob the other bandits. All these days of fighting left them wondering when they could finally call it quits.

In their poorest days three years ago, the bandits even reached a stage where they had to eat wild vegetables and chew on bark and tree roots. As bandits, they were leading terrible lives.

Some of the bandits even ran back to the consortiums’ factories to work…

Two years ago, their situation improved after the Qing Consortium set their sights on this place. At the beginning, they only brought food to them so they would not starve to death or leave the valley. From last year onwards, they started secretly sending weapons here.

This was a gradual process.

Naturally, the bandits were unaware it was the Qing Consortium that supported them. They did not care who they were and were only concerned about how long the aid would last.

Everyone knew that whoever was sending them the firearms had to have other motives All of this was probably done so there would be chaos in the valley and in turn lead to an easier consolidation of forces.

But so what if they knew the motive behind all this? They still had to at least survive. If they got unified later, that wouldn’t be too bad either. At least, they would have their meals taken care of.

But now there was a brighter path put ahead of them. It was just up to them whether they chose it.

Jin Lan whispered, “There’s no point saying that. You’ll have to speak to the two lords.”

“Alright then.” The bandit hesitated for a while before finally going off to look for Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu was currently having a discussion with Yang Xiaojin about the outcome. “I wonder if they’ve heard of old Xu’s power before. What if they know nothing of it?”

Actually, Ren Xiaosu’s move was an unnecessary one. He thought that if he used Xu Xianchu’s signature power and called upon the shadow clone, these people might link it to Xu Xianchu since his reputation was rather well-known now. In this way, their identities as members of Stronghold 178 would be even more realistic.

But what Ren Xiaosu was worried about was that these bandits had never heard of Xu Xianchu before.

Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, “Aren’t you afraid you’ll mess things up?”

“At worst, we’ll just go back,” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly.

As they were discussing this, the bandit came up to them. Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at him. “What’s the matter?”

“Boss,” the bandit hesitated for a moment before saying, “can you let me return home for a while?”

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. “Do you think you can ask for sick leave to return home? Who said you could go home?”

“No, please hear me out.” The bandit explained, “I just wanted to go back and bring all my brothers here.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he looked at Yang Xiaojin. The strategy was working! It seemed like these people knew about Xu Xianchu!

He deliberated for a moment before saying, “What do you know?”

The bandit quickly shook his head in fear. “I don’t know anything, really! I don’t know that you’re from Stronghold 178!”

“Shoo!” Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “You have a day.”

“Yes, yes! Thank you!” The bandit took it as an opportunity bestowed by Ren Xiaosu and was deeply grateful.

“Gratitude received from Zhang Yiheng, +1!”

After that, Zhang Yiheng hopped on his motorcycle and rode off by himself. Ren Xiaosu was not afraid he would not return. Even if he did not, Ren Xiaosu would only lose one person. He was not bothered by that in the slightest.

He turned to Yang Xiaojin and said, “My strategy should be working.”

Initially, Ren Xiaosu was most worried about the fact that even though he could lay the trap to capture all of these bandits, they would be beyond his control after a few hundred or even thousands of them had been forced to stay here. So Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief now.

Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu with a smile as she sat on a mound and quietly rested her chin on her hand. Who would have thought that Ren Xiaosu could come up with so many tricks when all she did was invite him along to exterminate the bandits?

To be honest, Yang Xiaojin did not care about the success of the bandit extermination operation. What did this have anything to do with her anyway? She just did not want to quarrel with Yang Yu’an because of it.

Yang Xiaojin could have enjoyed leading a rich person’s life in the stronghold, but she did not like being in there. She would rather lay down in the wilderness for three days and three nights than stay in the stronghold.

And now she was really looking forward to seeing what other ideas Ren Xiaosu could come up with.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin. “The more I think about it, the more I feel that the Qing Consortium must be behind the chaos happening in the valley. In fact, they’ve been planning for this since last year.”

Yang Xiaojin tilted her head. “Mhm.”

“The Qing Consortium’s plans here are definitely to plot against the Zong Consortium and your Yang Consortium. However, the Qing Consortium still does not have much authority in this place. We’ve already heard about how the North is caught in a deadlock between the three forces. Who knows, maybe someone from the Zong Consortium is trying to thwart the Qing Consortium’s plans for this region.” Ren Xiaosu said, “But if the Qing Consortium ends up as the victor, there will be no more bandits here and only their puppets will remain. Qing Zhen is… not a person who’s easy to deal with. Aren’t you worried about it?”

“I’m not worried,” Yang Xiaojin said calmly.

“Are you blaming the Yang Consortium for treating you as a chess piece in all this?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“I don’t hate them nor do I feel close to them.” Yang Xiaojin changed the subject. “What’s your next step going to be? Why do I get the feeling that you’re very interested in this valley?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and then said with a smile, “Perhaps I’ll come here someday and settle down for the long term?”

“You want to leave the stronghold? Is it because of Yan Liuyuan? I can feel the aversion he has for the strongholds,” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Liuyuan is one of the reasons. I don’t want him to feel wronged.” Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky. “It’s not only him; I dislike the strongholds too. I think it’ll be more comfortable living out here.”

“So you’re thinking of establishing a foothold here, right?” Yang Xiaojin gave it some thought and said, “But that won’t be easy. This is only just the beginning. There’s still a long way to go.”

In response, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Will you come and help me?”

Clouds were scudding across the blue sky while the dusty ground of the wastelands remained still. The refugees had just finished digging irrigation ditches and were ready to go home. Even the wind had stopped blowing.

Ren Xiaosu seemed to have asked her casually

Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment. She chuckled as she got up and walked back towards the settlement. “That depends on my mood.”

In the evening, the sound of motorcycle engines came from the wastelands in the distance. It sounded like there were a lot of them as well. As Ren Xiaosu watched from afar, Jin Lan ran to him. “Boss, should we grab our weapons? What if those bastards are up to no good?”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw that Yang Xiaojin had already reached a hidden spot on a hilltop and occupied a commanding position. He laughed and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

Even without him, Yang Xiaojin alone would be enough to frighten away those useless bandits.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered the sniper who had wiped out the remainder of the Divine Arms Battalion deep in the Li Consortium’s territory. That was probably Yang Xiaojin too, wasn’t it?

Chapter 345: Is it cozy in the tent?

Ren Xiaosu stood still and watched as the bandits approached. The leader of the group was Zhang Yiheng, the same person he had let go earlier today.

San

Zhang Yiheng shouted from afar, “Boss, don’t shoot. It’s me!”

Yang Xiaojin lay prone on a mound and scrutinized the subtle movements of these people using her scope to prevent anyone from sneaking an attack on Ren Xiaosu.

However, she realized these people were not at all aggressive. Their guns were slung across their chests and the safeties weren’t even off.

Furthermore, these people were really here to join them. They not only brought along all of their firearms and ammunition from their mountain hideout, but were carrying their own ragged bedrolls along as well.

The bandits looked rather fierce as they rode on their muscular motorcycles. And they had their tattered blankets wrapped around their backs…

The sight really could not get any stranger than this…

It looked like they really planned to live here for an extended period. Yang Xiaojin sighed when she thought about how she and Ren Xiaosu had initially come to exterminate the bandits. So how did Ren Xiaosu suddenly end up becoming the leader of the bandits?

Even Yang Xiaojin, who had witnessed the entire development for herself, was left a little confused at the unexpected turn of events.

When Zhang Yiheng came up to Ren Xiaosu, he immediately jumped off his motorcycle and said respectfully, “Boss, I’ve brought all my brothers here. We’ll all listen to your orders from now on.”

Zhang Yiheng’s brothers behind him quietly sized up Ren Xiaosu. So this was the specialist from Stronghold 178 their boss had mentioned? He looked really young!

Wait a minute, wasn’t there supposed to be a sniper around?

At this moment, everyone realized they might already be in the sniper’s sights. When they thought of this, they shuddered in fear at the possibility that the sniper might accidentally shoot them if they made any sudden movements.

Ren Xiaosu found it a little awkward hearing a man in his thirties addressing him as boss. But now was not the time to contemplate that. “Jin Lan, find a place for all these brothers. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow.”

The refugees living here from the beginning grinned when they saw this sight. The children were playing around their parents in a relaxed mood. At the beginning, the refugees were quite afraid of the bandits. But after thinking about it, didn’t the bandits also dig irrigation ditches with them? They did not even dare to slack off one bit either! When they thought of this, the refugees gradually accepted the reality of their situation.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu told them earlier in the evening that since they had already solved the issue of having enough people to defend the settlement, those who wanted to farm would not have to bear arms and fight anymore. That responsibility would naturally fall to the bandits.

When it was time to sleep at night, Ren Xiaosu lay down outside the tent with his arms acting as a pillow for his head. He said to Yang Xiaojin, who was in the tent, “For some reason, I still feel that something’s missing. Although we can fool them into staying put with our identities, they’re barely capable of fighting.”

Inside the tent, Yang Xiaojin was still awake. Before Ren Xiaosu set off, Xiaoyu had prepared the tent for him. At the beginning, they did not use it because they were pretending to be refugees. But it was unnecessary to do so anymore after they had deliberately “exposed” themselves. They decided to stop pretending and laid all their cards on the table.

Based on Xiaoyu’s intentions, this was definitely the kind of opportunity she had identified for Ren Xiaosu. But when the moment came, Ren Xiaosu got timid and ended up volunteering to sleep outside the tent. He even built a campfire out here!

Yang Xiaojin said, “You want them to be combat-ready?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu said, “You’ve seen the standard of those bandits for yourself. If they really end up fighting others, I doubt they’ll even know how to use the guns. And they’ll probably run away covering their heads if some of them get killed or injured. How are soldiers usually trained in the military?”

“Under normal circumstances, if the weaker units lose 20% to 40% of their numbers, their entire unit is as good as gone. Only the soldiers with conviction persevere.” Yang Xiaojin said, “The training a soldier goes through in the military is based on two aspects. First, it trains their military skills, and second, it enables them to become fearless through ideology. Neither of these two aspects are something that can be achieved overnight.”

“I have to give it a try no matter what.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

“Alright then, I’ll teach them how to use the guns,” Yang Xiaojin said.

“As for the ideology, we should unite them first.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Do you have any ideas?”

“They have to suffer together until they can find joy amid hardship,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. It would be easy to see who their real friends were after they got put through adversity. But if they were allowed to get rich, they would become greedy instead.

“Er… is it cozy in the tent?” Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked.

Yang Xiaojin calmly replied, “Why don’t you come in and see if it’s cozy?”

“Hahaha.” Ren Xiaosu laughed in embarrassment and said, “I was just asking.”

Ren Xiaosu was the first to back down.

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke everyone up from their slumber.

Those bandits who were sleeping soundly were suddenly awoken. Just as they were about to lose their temper, they calmed down when they saw it was Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu gathered everyone and said, “Have any of you used a brick kiln before?”

The bandits looked at each other. Why was this boss so different from the bosses at the other mountain hideouts?

The bosses in the other mountain hideouts would at least say some decent words when recruiting new brothers, things like “stick with me and we’ll have good food and good wine” or “I’ll lead everyone to something greater.”

But over at Ren Xiaosu’s place, they were first asked to dig ditches and were then made to build brick kilns?

Someone raised his hand and said softly, “I worked at the Zong Consortium’s brick factory.”

“Do you know how to build a brick kiln?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Although the conditions here suck, we can still build a simple one with less bricks.” That bandit said, “But we don’t have enough firewood here, and it won’t be enough to just use the shrubs in the area.”

Yang Xiaojin chimed in, “The spring floods will come soon. The melting of the upstream glaciers will trigger a flood. When the time comes, there’ll be a lot of wood drifting downstream, and we’ll definitely get enough firewood to use.”

“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu said to Jin Lan, “Bring the weapons over.”

Last night, Ren Xiaosu had ordered Jin Lan to seize everyone’s weapons. Ren Xiaosu said, “I know what y’all are thinking, but it won’t be easy to gain my approval.”

Everyone looked at each other. These words were clear as day. It seemed like it would not be that easy to become a part of Stronghold 178.

If Ren Xiaosu had said it was incredibly easy to join Stronghold 178, they would not have believed it. After all, this was Stronghold 178 they were talking about! So the more difficult their tests, the more realistic the trial would feel.

Zhang Yiheng said, “Just name the place. We’ll attack wherever you want us to.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I don’t want bandits who only know how to clamor for war. With your combat strength, you’re still not worth my attention.”

The bandits started murmuring among themselves again. “The people from Stronghold 178 are so capable. They don’t even have eyes for people like us…”

Jin Lan said resolutely, “Just tell us what to do!”

“We’ll start making bricks today. Since we’re still digging ditches, I want all of you to get into the river and dig up the silt to make into clay bricks. Every ten bricks made earns you one bullet. Once you amass a 100 bullets, I’ll return your guns to you. When that happens, you’ll have the chance to prove yourselves to us. Instructor Yang here will teach y’all how to properly use a gun.”

The bandits bit their tongues nervously. Even qualifying for the test was going to be this difficult? This was definitely not a trick!

Chapter 346: No pain, no gain

The lengthy winter in the Northwest was finally coming to an end. Ren Xiaosu saw some plants sprouting along the river, and the insects hibernating in the soil started waking up as well.

The spring floods were approaching, and the snowy mountains that stretched for thousands of miles in the Northwest would gradually start melting. The sunlight would turn the snow into tens of thousands of rivulets, and they would then flow east and merge to become a raging river.

Someone once said this water was from the Heavens and that it always flowed east without stop.

The valley that had been dry for many months would receive an abundant source of water by spring. This was the best time for them to farm and irrigate. When the time came, the massive source of water from the river would fill up the irrigation ditches and turn the dusty channels into a riverbed.

Ren Xiaosu and the bandits had to make enough clay bricks before the spring floods arrived.

When the tree trunks were sent floating downstream by the spring floods, it would be time for them to start firing bricks.

Someone remarked that they shouldn’t have to work so hard to fire bricks. It would be good enough to just build some mud huts. Hadn’t everyone always lived like that?

However, Ren Xiaosu said, “Why should the stronghold residents get brick houses to live in, but not us? And we’re not just going to build houses, but defenses too.”

When a refugee asked if he was planning to build a new stronghold here, Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He smiled and said, “Isn’t it better to live in the wilderness? Why do we have to wall everyone up?”

When he said that, the refugees fell silent. However, they started working more diligently after that.

The bandits put down their guns and dug for silt in the riverbank barefoot. After digging up baskets of silt, they got back to dry ground and made them into clay bricks.

The idea of digging for silt sounded easy, but it was much harder when they did it. The bandits had only brought guns with them to this settlement and did not have any shovels. If they wanted to dig for silt, they had to do it barehanded.

The weather was frigid. Although the fierce bandits were freezing their balls off, they still insisted on working.

“If you keep pushing them like this, won’t they give up?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “The more tired they are, the more they’ll believe that all of this is real. The more relaxed they have it, the more they’ll suspect that things might not be what they seem.”

“But they’ll surely find out someday,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu turned to Yang Xiaojin and said in seriousness, “I wanna build a home here. In the past, it was just a blurry idea in my mind. But when I saw them working, the idea became much clearer over time. When the time comes, I’ll give them a proper explanation.”

This was also the first step Ren Xiaosu would be taking to train these bandits. He wanted to change the habits of these bandits who were used to being lazy and robbing others of their possessions. By making them go through all kinds of hardships here, he would build a peculiar feeling called camaraderie.

After a tiring day, the bandits were grumbling endlessly, and even Jin Lan started to waver. He was so tired he felt like crying when he looked at the mud on his hands and feet. “Why don’t we just go back to being bandits instead of trying to get into fucking Stronghold 178? This is way too tough!”

“Yeah.” Someone slumped down on the edge of the riverbed and looked up at the sky in a daze. “What are we really after?”

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were currently the leaders of the 1st Squad and 2nd Squad, respectively. When the others saw the leaders starting to waver, their conviction was shaken even more.

At noon, some of the refugees from the settlement suddenly came over carrying baskets and placed them down on the ground. Curious, Jin Lan asked, “Hey, mate, what’s that?”

A good-natured refugee smiled in embarrassment and said, “We have yet to thank y’all for helping us dig the ditches. We made this cornbread ourselves. If they taste bad, we hope y’all won’t mind it.”

Jin Lan was stunned. He did not know how to react to this situation. When he finally managed to speak, his speech was filled with expletives. “Why are you being so fucking polite? You don’t have to be so fucking polite with me. Just put the damn cornbread down. Feel free to yell for me if you need any fucking help with anything.”

Jin Lan made it sound like he was just doing his work, not because he wanted to help the refugees. That shocked the refugees.

At this moment, someone asked Jin Lan, “Boss, why don’t we escape this place tonight?”

However, Jin Lan hesitated for a moment before saying, “Let’s endure it for another two days and keep an eye on things. It won’t be too late to run away by then! Our fellow villagers have made us some cornbread, so we should at least build houses for them first!”

After work at night, everyone lay on the ground and did not want to move. Ren Xiaosu came to the riverbank and saw the clay bricks stacked on wooden planks. “Get up and come over here to collect your bullets. You should only report the number of clay bricks that you made. Every ten bricks get you one bullet in exchange.”

Humans were very strange beings. These bullets were theirs to begin with and were not worth anything at all. Even though they did not seem to care much about it when they were working, everyone was still quite happy when they knew they could trade the bricks for bullets.

Jin Lan got up and said, “Me! I made 30 clay bricks today. I could’ve made even more if it was easier to dig out the silt!”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Mhm, you get three bullets in exchange.”

Looking at the three brass-colored bullets in his palm, Jin Lan felt a sense of accomplishment was inexplicably touched.

But these were clearly just three normal bullets, so why was he feeling that?

This was the idea that Ren Xiaosu had come up with. If they just focused on working hard, the bandits would get depressed because they could not see their “progress” or the “end” of it.

But by breaking down the progress into a 100 bullets and letting the bandits measure their own achievements, they would have an objective to work towards.

At this moment, Jin Lan started calculating. If he could earn three bullets in one day, he might be able to earn up to five bullets a day once he got the hang of it. Then he could find salvation in less than a month.

How long was a month at most? Thinking of it this way, Jin Lan suddenly felt he could endure this a bit more. At worst, he would just leave after the month if things didn’t go according to plan. That would not cause much of a delay anyway.

At this moment, he looked at the others. When he saw Zhang Yiheng with only two bullets in his hand, he laughed and said, “Buddy, you don’t seem to be doing well. You only managed to receive two bullets?”

Zhang Yiheng was so angry his face turned red. “I just haven’t gotten good at the work yet, but I’ll definitely get more bullets than you tomorrow.”

Then Zhang Yiheng looked to his side and saw someone without any bullets at all. He also laughed. “I’m still not the worst here!”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He did not criticize those who had done less work nor praise those who did more.

Jin Lan laughed and went up to him. “Boss, what do you think of me? I did the most work today.”

Ren Xiaosu said noncommittally, “Y’all have to understand that I’m only giving you a chance because you want to pass the test. It’s not like you’re helping me with anything.” Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and left.

Jin Lan was stunned in the wake of Ren Xiaosu’s words. He said in shock after snapping out of his daze, “Boss, thank you for giving us this opportunity!”

“Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!”

Suddenly, Jin Lan turned around and roared, “It isn’t dark yet, but y’all can go back first, I still want to work a little longer!”

The bandits looked at each other. They were already very tired, but they suddenly gained a little more motivation when they heard that. But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin came up to them and said, “Stop working. Everyone, wash your hands clean and prepare for class.”

Chapter 347: Strict discipline

Completing a day of menial work tended to be the limit for an adult. It wasn’t like Ren Xiaosu was trying to squeeze the most work out of them, so he didn’t intend on tiring them out completely. He only wanted to make them tired enough so they would not have any energy to think about their own self-interest and start accepting a new realm of thoughts.

Some of the bandits would definitely adjust to this new mindset slowly, but there would also be some who were more stubborn and remain skeptical of all that was happening. But because of their fascination with getting into Stronghold 178, they decided to keep an eye on things for now.

Ren Xiaosu did not think he could control everyone else’s behavior since he was not a god. But he was not in a hurry to convince them because he still had time.

In the evening, Yang Xiaojin did not give them any firearms lessons. Jin Lan and the other bandits who were amateurs at shooting were looking forward to the firearms lessons most of all. When Yang Xiaojin fought them, she displayed her superior shooting. So everyone got very excited when Yang Xiaojin told them that they would be attending her lessons.

However, Yang Xiaojin said to them, “Let me tell you about the five Disciplines of our group. Everyone is to memorize them without leaving out a word.”

Jin Lan started panicking. Why did they have to memorize disciplines? He was most afraid of memorization when he attended the school in town years back. So why did he still have to memorize now that he had become a bandit?

Jin Lan asked, “Um… Boss Lady!”

Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows when she heard him address her that way, but she did not say anything about it in the end. “What’s the matter?”

“Didn’t Boss say that he wanted us to learn about firearms?” Jin Lan said anxiously, “So why do we still have to memorize all these fucking disciplines?”

llen

Yang Xiaojin sneered, “Do you have guns right now? How are you supposed to attend a firearms lesson without guns?”

The bandits were stunned. So they had to earn enough bullets and retrieve their weapons before they were qualified to attend the firearms lessons. Jin Lan touched the three bullets in his pocket bitterly and thought how it would take him another 20 days or so before he could start learning more about firearms.

Then Yang Xiaojin said, “Those of you who manage to trade for a gun will be able to attend the lessons. I wonder if any of you are suitable to be snipers.”

Jin Lan’s eyes lit up at the words. “You can teach us how to use a sniper rifle too?”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “Don’t be so happy yet. Since sniping depends on your natural attributes, out of the two hundred of you, only two or three will get selected for sniper training. So you all better not have high hopes.”

Yang Xiaojin deliberately gave them something to look forward to before personally extinguishing their hopes.

But how could that thought be stifled? When Jin Lan heard that two or three of them could become snipers, he immediately thought he might be one of the chosen ones.

Before hitting the brick wall of reality, everyone would hope they could be the lucky ones!

They were talking about getting a role as a sniper after all. It felt really exciting just to think about. All the rough and tumble men loved guns since they represented a form of power, security, and authority. And the sniper rifle represented the pinnacle of firearms.

Yang Xiaojin glanced at them. “It’s still too early to be happy now, so you’d better memorize the disciplines first. Otherwise, don’t even think about touching the guns.”

Jin Lan whispered, “Boss Lady, can I have a look at your sniper rifle? I haven’t had the chance to get a close look at it.”

Yang Xiaojin gave him a look and then pulled her sniper rifle out of thin air. Jin Lan and the others gasped at the sight. So it fucking turned out that these two were supernatural beings!

At first, they thought Yang Xiaojin was just a sniper and did not expect that she could actually pull a sniper rifle out of thin air. It was no wonder they did not see where she had hidden her gun.

Yang Xiaojin put the sniper rifle away and said, “Now, I’ll explain to you what the disciplines are. First, obey the order and execute it without fail…”

After reciting them several times, the dumb bandits still couldn’t memorize the disciplines. Yang Xiaojin had Jin Lan write the Five Disciplines on the ground with a tree branch. They did not have to understand them and only needed to memorize them.

When these people started trying to memorize the disciplines, Yang Xiaojin went over to Ren Xiaosu, who was not too far away. “We’re really making things difficult for them.”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “Without discipline, no army can exist. This is something that they need to go through. There’s no other way.”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “You’re really not afraid they’ll just fall out with each other?”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Since ancient times, strict teachers have produced outstanding students, strict parents have raised filial children, and strict discipline has made strong armies. You might think that making them go through this suffering will tear them apart, but I think that these hardships will make them band together even more tightly.”

What was discipline to an army? Discipline was the code of conduct, the external manifestation of combat power, the morale of the soldiers, and the image and honor of a unit.

It was not useless. On the contrary, Ren Xiaosu thought no army could exist without discipline. He could not forget how the private troops were so messy in behavior and appearance when he first saw them, nor could he forget how Qing Zhen’s troops awed him when he witnessed how disciplined they moved.

Discipline was the first step of their ideology. Only after they achieved that could they start talking about things like a sense of belonging or honor.

Unfortunately, some of these bandits were illiterate. Even though the disciplines were written clearly on the ground, it was illegible to them.

Jin Lan was exasperated by this. “I’m telling you, Yan Laoliu. You have to fucking memorize it even if you can’t. Don’t disgrace our 1st Squad. I’m still waiting to go through the sniper training.”

Yang Xiaojin had told them that no one could start learning about guns if any of them could not fully memorize the disciplines.

Ren Xiaosu specifically ordered this. He was hoping they could all learn to be a little more united through helping each other.

This was also the first time he played the role of instructor. He was feeling his way forward, but it would be good enough if these bandits could pick up a little of what he was trying to teach them.

Ren Xiaosu turned to Yang Xiaojin and said with a smile, “What do you think of my methods?”

Yang Xiaojin smirked. “Not bad, I guess.”

She thought this was really getting more and more interesting. There was even a moment when she suddenly started looking forward to the day when there would be plenty of brick houses and farmland here, with groups of children playing and lots of laughter in the
air.

But could there be such a possibility in this chaotic world?

Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, “I can work out something with the Yang Consortium and let this settlement remain. But what if the Qing Consortium is really trying to consolidate the forces in the valley? What do we do after they find us here?”

How could bandits possibly stand up to the capabilities of an organization. The reason the bandits could survive in the valley was because they were flexible. To put it bluntly, they were good at running away. But once they built a fixed settlement, they couldn’t run away anymore. If they ended up running away, all of their previous efforts would have come to nothing.

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “That’s fine. Both Qing Zhen and Luo Lan still owe me big favors.”

Whether it was saving Luo Lan or helping the Qing Consortium attack the Li Consortium’s defensive line, these were both favors he had done for them.

So when Ren Xiaosu guessed several days ago that it was the Qing Consortium behind the chaos in the valley, he no longer panicked. After all, he had worked with them on many occasions…

“Alright.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. She did not object to Ren Xiaosu being friends with Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, nor would she request Ren Xiaosu to help her locate the Qing Consortium’s nuclear test site. That was the Saboteurs and her own business. It had nothing to do with Ren Xiaosu, so there was no need to impose such a responsibility onto Ren Xiaosu.

Chapter 348: Why pretend

While digging for silt to make clay bricks two days ago, everyone was discussing whether they should run away, go back to being bandits, or rebel. But by the third day, everyone suddenly had a different topic of discussion. “How many bullets do you have now?”

“Hehe, I already have ten bullets.” Jin Lan said, “I think I can definitely get my gun back in less than a month!”

After arriving here, they ended up having to work for the guns that were theirs to begin with. That sounded incredibly absurd but everyone suddenly seemed to be enjoying it. It was as though it had suddenly become an honor to be able to carry guns again.

At the beginning, quite a few people slacked off. They only pretended to be busy while the others worked hard. They would lie on the edge of the riverbed to sleep and bask in the sun or watch the others as they worked.

But that changed by the third day. Those who did not do any work previously started feeling a little embarrassed of themselves. When the others were resting, they would continue working just to make up progress after falling behind for the past two days. Otherwise, it would be too fucking embarrassing when the others received their guns again and they were still empty-handed.

Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin had already informed them that she would not give any firearm lessons as long as a single person was still without their gun.

This left Jin Lan in a dilemma. He and Zhang Yiheng were each put in charge of more than a 100 people, so both of them were well aware of who was fast or slow in their progress.

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng counted all the bullets and found that some people were still missing quite a few. As such, Jin Lan took the lead and called for a meeting. “Well, our goal was to quickly save up a 100 bullets each so that we can trade them for the guns, but some people have fallen behind. If it were because they were slacking, I would not care about them. But y’all saw for yourselves how anxious they are to get to a 100 bullets too, so as the leader, I’ll donate one bullet to each of them.”

Then Zhang Yiheng also said to his 2nd Squad, “I’ll donate a bullet to each of those who are short from my stash as well.”

The bandits looked at each other for a while before someone hesitantly said, “I’ll donate too, but on one condition: They have to be returned!”

Soon after, a large number of bandits donated around six bullets each. Although there was still a shortfall, the gap was considerably closed.

Jin Lan was very pleased and nodded. “Well done, brothers. Let’s continue our work!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at them from afar. Suddenly, he said to Yang Xiaojin beside him, “I came across a book in the library of Stronghold 88 hidden away in a corner. It was called The Crowd.[1]”

“There’s a passage in the book that states that once a person becomes part of a group, their intelligence will be badly lowered. In order to be accepted, an individual must be willing to abandon their capacity for reasoning and exchange their intelligence for a sense of belonging, which makes them feel safe,” Ren Xiaosu continued. “Maybe that’s the reason why it’s so easy to get influenced when you’re in a group.”

Yang Xiaojin said calmly, “Do you mean they’re going through this situation now?”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I’d rather believe that this is the power of hope.”

Now that this group had a common goal, these bandits who went through hardship together were also seeking ways to achieve that goal as quickly as possible. Friendship would be established in the process.

Jin Lan was working with the others when he suddenly sensed that another two people had appeared next to him. After he took a closer look, it turned out to be Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.

They saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin taking off their shoes and rolling up their sleeves. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng hurriedly said, “Lords, you two don’t have to work. Please rest and leave the work to us.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s fine, we’re not spoiled. You can divide the clay bricks that we make equally among your two squads. I’ll leave the squad leaders to assign them to their members.”

The bandits were stunned. They never thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would also work together with them.

Shouldn’t these big shots be resting on the sidelines? Back when they were working at the factories, the foremen did not do any physical work. While they went down to the coal mines, the foremen would sit outside and supervise the workers while resting.

Furthermore, the two people in front of them were much more impressive than those foremen. Both of them were supernatural beings, after all. Especially Yang Xiaojin, who was a woman, even she got to working together with them. Their boss lady was really quite different from the others.

Ren Xiaosu’s face darkened. “What’re y’all still standing around for? Trying to be lazy?”

Jin Lan chuckled. “No, we’re not! Brothers, let’s keep working!”

The bandits carried on working in silence. It was still the same work and the goal was still the same goal they had set out to achieve. But when Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped in the trenches with them, it felt like a little more. It was a little more human compassion.

At this moment, a cloud of dust billowed in the distance. Ren Xiaosu was all too familiar with this sight. He knew a new band of bandits had arrived.

According to Yang Xiaojin’s estimation, there should have been more than 3,000 bandits on the front lines of Mt. Guan, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Daban. And they had only gathered around 200 people here, far from the numbers of those to the north. They already knew there were far more bandits further north and much fewer of them here in the south.

But Ren Xiaosu was still a little disappointed when no new bandits came by yesterday.

This new bandit group that had just arrived consisted of about 30 people. When they saw a large group of people working from a distance, they were ecstatic. With so many refugees in this settlement, they were going to be rich!

In the distance, Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, Ren Xiaosu, and the others all had mud over their arms and legs. They were not even carrying guns. If they were not refugees, what else could they be?

Out here in the wilderness, refugees were the most obedient group of people and could be easily captured like livestock.

However, when they arrived at the settlement, the bandit leader suddenly felt that something was off. He saw Ren Xiaosu and the others stand up and watch them calmly as they approached.

The bandit leader suddenly muttered, “Why do I get the feeling that they aren’t afraid of us?”

Meanwhile, Jin Lan said with a sigh, “Why the fuck are there newcomers again? They’ll have zero bullets when they join us!”

Jin Lan already knew the fate of these bandits who had come from elsewhere. He was just feeling a little ripped off.

That bandit stopped his motorcycle beside the ditches and pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu. “All of you, step out of the ditches right now! Haha, you’re still in the fucking mood to make clay bricks? Who says that you can make them?”

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng looked at each other and began feeling sorry for the new bandit leader at the same time.

Half an hour later, the bruised and bloodied bandit leader had his sleeves rolled up inside the ditches. With his eyes swollen, he asked Jin Lan, “How many clay bricks do we have to make every day?”

Jin Lan snapped, “Do you know that you people are delaying us? I’m telling you, you can forget about sleeping if you can’t produce 30 clay bricks by the end of today.”

Then the bandit leader glanced at Zhang Yiheng beside him. “Wait a minute, I know you. Aren’t you the leader of the bandit gang on the west face of Mt. Daban? What’re you doing here?”

Zhang Yiheng also snapped at him, “Just dig silt and cut the crap.”

The newly arrived bandit leader felt ganged up on. “Aren’t y’all bandits too? Why pretend to be refugees here? If I knew that there were so many of you here, I wouldn’t have come at all!”

[1] In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: “impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others…” | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crowd:_A _Study_of_the_Popular_Mind

Chapter 349: Building houses for our fellow villagers

The bandits who had just arrived were confused. They saw Jin Lan and the others happily digging for silt in the river and making clay bricks with it. After that, they would trade the bricks for bullets. For every ten clay bricks, they could only get one bullet.

Even at the sight of this, they did not really find it strange. But the moment Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others received their bullets, the newly arrived bandits wondered what the fuck was with the happy smiles on their faces. Weren’t y’all supposed to be bandit leaders? Why were you so happy to receive one bullet?! Could it be that you hadn’t had much real-world experience yet?!

The river channel was starting to be widened by these people digging. Originally, the riverbed here was just a channel that had been formed after a small stream had changed its course. But now, the channel was getting wider to the point of almost turning into a large river.

Initially, the refugees were worried the elevation of the riverbed would cause the channel to burst its banks when the spring floods arrived. That would definitely affect the crops if it happened.

But now, they did not have to worry. The spring floods did not scare them.

In the river, Jin Lan and the others whose pockets were filled with bullets were making noisy clinking sounds. The new bandits were shocked by this strange scene. “Have these people been put under a spell?”

After Jin Lan finished his work, he called for the new bandits to gather and formally briefed them on their duties, what the bricks could be exchanged for, and the long-term plans they had. For example, they were planning on building ten small houses after the spring floods and then in the summer…

When they heard that, the new bandits were dumbfounded. Could these people still fucking be considered bandits?

Then Jin Lan got straight to the point. “Do you know who’s in charge of this place? You think you’re unlucky to have been caught, but I’m telling you, you’re actually very lucky!”

Jin Lan kept rambling. The bandits switched their attention from Jin Lan to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin every now and then, while their eyes gradually became more confused.

Currently, Ren Xiaosu did not have anything more to do. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng would take care of everything for him. He and Yang Xiaojin were only required to reduce the number of casualties when they subdued the bandits at the beginning.

Band after band of bandits came here and ended up joining the kiln forces. During the day, they would dig for silt to make clay bricks. In the evening, they would memorize the Five Disciplines. Their lives had never been more enriching than this.

When the spring floods arrived as expected, everyone could feel the current in the river getting stronger. They could even catch fish in it quite often, but the fish would bite anyone they encountered. If they did not have so many people, it would have been a really challenging task.

More and more firewood were piled on the riverbank to be dried, while whole tree trunks broken off by the floods from upstream washed in as well. The thinner branches would be used as firewood, while the thicker trunks could be used for the beams of the houses later on.

The refugees in the settlement also helped to construct some temporary mud houses and a small brick kiln for them.

The bandits had helped the refugees dig irrigation ditches, as well as the river. And the refugees gave them some help in return.

The refugees were no longer afraid of the bandits. All of them were just like residents of a small village living together.

One of the refugees came up to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Boss, let’s start firing the bricks. Otherwise, when the first rain arrives, a lot of the clay bricks we made will get destroyed.”

“Sure!” Ren Xiaosu responded. A large area of clay bricks had already been laid out at this moment. It looked like it was enough to build more than ten houses with.

Firing bricks was not a particularly difficult task. After placing the bricks into the kiln, the door would be closed. All that needed to be done afterwards was adding firewood into the kiln.

As for the process to cool the kiln down with water, that would be left to the bandit who knew how to do it.

Bricks were categorized into red and black bricks. The silt clay the bricks were made with contained iron. During the firing process, red bricks were produced when the iron content was completely oxidized to form ferric oxide. If the iron content did not completely oxidize during the firing process, they would end up as black bricks.

The brick kiln built by Ren Xiaosu and the others had a roof that did not allow oxygen to enter. Therefore, the fired bricks would all be black in color.

“How long does it take to fire bricks?” Ren Xiaosu asked the bandit with experience in making them.

“Our kiln is small, so it can only burn around 20,000 bricks in one go. I reckon that it’ll take a little more than ten days from now for the bricks to be ready. However, if we include the time for them to cool down, it’ll take another two days.” The bandit explained, “It’ll require roughly 2,000 bricks to build a house measuring about 20 square meters. The batch of bricks in the kiln now should be enough to build a dozen houses with.”

Thinking about living in brick houses soon, the bandits got quite excited.

After all, most of the people here had never lived in a brick house before in their lives. A brick house was a symbol of status in town.

“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu said to the refugees from the settlement, ‘Y’all should send some people over to guard the place. When the bricks are ready, we can build some houses for y’all as well.”

Jin Lan mumbled, “Why do we have to build houses for them too when we’re the ones making the bricks?”.

Ren Xiaosu shot him a look. “Quit complaining.”

Jin Lan ran off with his head hanging. He shouted for his brothers to produce more clay bricks before the rainy season arrived. Right now, there were more than 400 bandits at the settlement, so they were extremely efficient at their work!

But after just a few days, the sky started to turn overcast. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng got really worried that it might start raining soon, so they said, “Hurry up, bring the clay bricks in. Carry the dried clay bricks into the mud houses!”

Halfway through the retrieval, a drizzle enveloped the entire wasteland like a cotton towel.

“How unlucky!” While hiding under the eaves, Jin Lan said, “Why did this rain have to fall now of all times?”

“Captain, can we go into the houses and take shelter from the rain?” a bandit muttered.

At this moment, the houses were filled with bricks, and there was no room for anyone to stand inside. When Jin Lan heard that, he stared at the bandit. “If you go inside, where do we put the bricks! These are all the bricks that everyone has worked hard to make. Are you gonna waste ’em?”.

The bandits pouted. They had even become inferior to bricks.

A large group of people were squatting in the rain around a huddle of mud houses and guarding the bricks within.

Jin Lan muttered, “Boss still wants to build houses for the refugees. I dunno what he’s thinking. They won’t even be enough for our brothers to live in.”

“Why, Captain, are you complaining against Boss now?” someone whispered.

“I’m not complaining.” Jin Lan curled his lips. “I can tell that those two are really different from those big shots in the strongholds. Those big shots look down their noses at us, but neither of them do. Have you seen any big shots from the consortiums dig for silt in the river like us? I’m utterly convinced by this couple, if only because they were willing to do work with us.”

“What d’ya mean, Captain?”

“I’m just annoyed. Why should those refugees be allowed to live in a house when they did not even make a single clay brick?” Jin Lan said angrily.

“But the brick kiln was built by them,” someone muttered.

Jin Lan glared at him. “You talk too much.”

But at this moment, some refugees braved the rain and came over, calling for Jin Lan, “Don’t just stand there in the rain. Get in our huts and take cover from the rain. We’ve discussed this with the others. Y’all can go into whichever house you want. There’s definitely enough space for everyone. We also have hot soup at home, so y’all can drink some to warm yourselves up.”

Jin Lan was stunned for a moment. Then he hurriedly said, “Oh… yeah, we’ll come over right away!”

A bandit next to him asked in a whisper, “Captain, aren’t we supposed to be angry about building the houses for them?”

“Who says I’m angry?” Jin Lan rebutted, “Our fellow villagers are so kind to us. What’s wrong with building some houses for them? We have to be more open-minded like our boss, understand? We should be more kind! Once the rain stops, we’ll start building the houses for them!”

Chapter 350: Ulterior motives

On a rainy mountain road near Mt. Daban, a large group of motorcycles suddenly drove up the mountain. A large banner embroidered with the image of a tiger’s head was being carried by the lead motorcycle.

Each of these bandits had a blue bandana covering their nose and mouth. From afar, there were two rows of motorcycles, and all of the riders were wearing the same type of blue bandana on their faces. This was a spectacular sight to behold.

Furthermore, there were a lot of people in this group. With more than 300 of them heading up the mountain together, they would not be mistaken for some small gang at a glance. At the very least, they looked way better than the ordinary bandits just in appearance alone. Some bandits were so poor that they even wore tattered pants, much less had bandanas and a large banner.

When they arrived on the North Face, they parked their motorcycles by the side of the road. The leader of the group walked towards a small mountain path that would lead to a campsite.

These fierce-looking bandits trekked on the path up the mountain silently. No one was speaking. Everyone was carrying their guns in front of them so they would be ready to deal with anything unexpected.

They had thought there would be people lying in ambush to put up a fierce resistance against them. However, the whole stretch of the mountain path was silent, and there wasn’t even anyone keeping a lookout.

When they reached the entrance of the mountain hideout, the leader pushed open the wooden door with a creak. He was not afraid of anyone sneaking up to attack him and entered first. But when he went inside, he saw this mountain hideout was totally empty. It seemed like no one had been living here for some time.

The leader said softly, “There’s something strange about this Mt. Daban. We’ve come across five or six empty hideouts along the way already. What’s happened here?”

“Could it be that it’s been getting too hard to get by these days, so everyone decided to head back to the consortiums’ factories to work? Since there’s still a few hideouts on the mountain. Should we go and look at them?” the leader’s trusted aide asked.

“Let’s go! I don’t believe that all the bandits on Mt. Daban turned over a new leaf.” The leader sneered as he led his group further up the mountain.

It wasn’t until they checked another three hideouts before they discovered a few sporadic bandits in one of the campsites,

When these solitary bandits saw the turnout, they immediately knelt down on the spot and begged for mercy, “Please don’t kill us!”.

The leader thought for a while and asked with a frown, “Where are your other men?”

The two-bit bandits wailed, “They were captured by bandits!”

The leader was stunned. “Aren’t y’all fucking bandits yourselves?”

This group of people got so angry that they started laughing. They were only supposed to be abducting refugees. Why would anyone even abduct bandits?!

But actually, they were also here to recruit the bandits from the other mountain hideouts. They had thought their plans were well ahead of the other groups’, but who would have expected that someone had beaten them to it.

The leader asked, “Who’s the leader here? Stand up and talk!”

The bandits shouted, “Our boss was taken away as well.”

The leader was shocked. “Damn… Who captured them? How did the few of you escape unharmed?”

One of the bandits said, “They were captured by the refugees from a settlement at the foot of a mountain to the south. Us few only managed to escape because we ran away in advance when we sensed that something was wrong.”

“How large is that settlement?” the leader asked curiously.

“4 to 500 people live there. They are extremely fierce, and there’s two supernatural beings among them as well!” the bandit said.

The leader became wary at this moment. There were two supernatural beings in a refugee settlement? How could that be a normal refugee settlement?

The leader thought for a moment and asked, “What kind of people do they usually capture? And how do they capture them?”

“They take anyone they come across. Basically, the two supernatural beings do all the work so the others don’t have to do anything at all. Our boss was beaten to the ground.”

“What do they do with the people after capturing them?” the leader asked.

“I don’t know. In any case, I don’t think they killed them. The group just gathers there to dig ditches and make bricks.”

The leader said to his trusted aide next to him, “It seems like this group of people don’t have any sense of vigilance. Xu Jinyuan, take a group of people with you and let them capture you. After you join them, get a better understanding of their situation and wait for my signal to concentrate an attack on them.”

The bandit named Xu Jinyuan nodded. “Got it!”

He picked out 11 people to head down the mountain with him.

The leader looked at another person and said, “Head back north and get some brothers to come over. It seems like we might be in for a tough battle, but we should still be able to handle it without much effort. In any case, just get them to come here.”

All of a sudden, the original bandits of this mountain hideout noticed the Tiger Head Banner. “You’re that bandit gang from the north!”

The leader smiled. “You’re pretty observant.”

Xu Jinyuan aggressively led a group of people to attack the refugee settlement. As expected, they were also captured by Ren Xiaosu.

In order to make it more realistic, Xu Jinyuan and the others deliberately resisted capture with all their might. Although they couldn’t land a shot on Ren Xiaosu, they still looked quite aggressive in their attacks.

After Ren Xiaosu handed Xu Jinyuan over to Jin Lan, Yang Xiaojin suddenly whispered, “Something’s a little off with this group.”

“How?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Someone’s trained them on how to hold their guns, and there’s also some form of cooperation between the 12 of them. You can see that there should have been a group symbol engraved on their motorcycles, but it was deliberately scratched off on their way here.” Yang Xiaojin had a very keen eye, so there was no way of hiding any details from her, especially when it was related to firearms.

These people only knew there were two supernatural beings here. Although they had played their parts well, Yang Xiaojin could still see the problems with their act.

“Are they soldiers?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Not really. There are no signs they’ve been through the tough training regimen of the
tary. I’m guessing this group of people must’ve been sent by one of the larger bandit gangs in the valley. Who knows, they might have bad intentions,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “It’s alright, we can let them stay here.”

Ren Xiaosu didn’t seem worried about this group of people in the slightest.

When the rain stopped, Xu Jinyuan and his group started digging for silt in the river after being put through Jin Lan’s systematic training. What surprised them was Jin Lan’s claims that these two supernatural beings were from Stronghold 178.

Why would Stronghold 178 get involved with matters in the valley? Xu Jinyuan was rather skeptical. Then he was shocked to discover that the people digging silt with him were all bandits as well. Could it be that they were all here because they wanted to join Stronghold 178, just like what Jin Lan had hinted at?

“Brother Xu, what do we do now?” someone asked in a whisper.

Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment and said, “We’ll continue making clay bricks with them. Didn’t they say that we can get our guns back once we collect a 100 bullets each? We can only coordinate with our brothers back at the lair if we get our guns back.”

“Alright!”

A few days later, the brick firing process was completed. Jin Lan and the others happily waited for the temperature in the kiln to cool down before carrying the black bricks out.

Someone next to Xu Jinyuan said, “Brother Xu, why did they come here and work so hard to make bricks when they could have been bandits instead?”

Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment before answering, “They could be building defenses.”

“No way. I heard it’s because they wanted to build houses for the refugees. I also heard that the refugees are quite good to these bandits and even offered them food.”

“Cut the bullshit.” Xu Jinyuan snapped at him, “How could it be possible that bandits would build houses for refugees? Isn’t that like a weasel dropping by a chicken coop for a visit? And you said that refugees offered food to the bandits? I don’t believe it one bit!”

But at noon, the refugees came over to the riverbank with baskets and said with warm smiles, “Everyone, come and eat lunch. We’ve cooked some ears of corn for all y’all. Please don’t mind the simple fare.”

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng took the baskets from the refugees and distributed the corn to everyone one by one. The ears of corn were from last fall’s harvest, and the refugees could not finish eating them during the winter, but no one minded that.

Xu Jinyuan was stunned for a while. “What the fucking hell is this!”

Just as he finished saying that, Jin Lan stuffed a piping hot ear of corn into his hands and said, “Talk less, eat while it’s hot.”

Chapter 351: Dumbfounded!

Xu Jinyuan was absolutely reluctant to work, especially when it was something like digging for silt. It felt extremely degrading to him.

Seeing his companions that came with him to the settlement already starting to seriously work for the bullets, he was still hesitant and did not want to work.

Xu Jinyuan observed Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in silence. After all, these two legendary supernatural beings were his top priority. As a low-level bandit who had just joined them, he thought it would be difficult to meet these two supernatural beings and interact with them. However, he was wrong.

Over the past few days, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had been working together with everyone. No matter how dirty or tired they were, they never complained once.

Xu Jinyuan was a little puzzled by this. How could they possibly be supernatural beings? So these were the specialists from Stronghold 178? How could they be this humble?

However, his pained face served as a reminder that he could not afford to offend the two.

Xu Jinyuan asked Jin Lan quietly, “Brother Jin Lan, the two of them are just putting on an act, yet y’all still believe them? The big shots are just playing a child’s game here, so how can you trust them?”

Jin Lan gave him a look of disdain and said, “Our two lords are not putting on an act. We’re not idiots. If they were just pretending, couldn’t we tell? As for you, you only know how to laze around and not work. You’re not allowed to eat the corn that’s given by our fellow villagers today!”

Xu Jinyuan was speechless. What the fuck was that!

Xu Jinyuan said unhappily, “You’re a fucking bandit. What’re you being so proud of when all you’re doing is farming?!”

Jin Lan shot him a look and sneered, “It’s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs! But it’s a disgrace if all you know is how to be a lazy bum!”

Xu Jinyuan thought it over seriously. “That does make sense…” ‘Wait! Who the fuck are you calling a lazy bum!’

However, Xu Jinyuan had been observing Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin for a long time. He had been spending all his energy on observing them. In the end, he realized the two of them were not pretending. They could really take the suffering.

In fact, Xu Jinyuan was starting to believe the identities of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. It would be great if he could really be recruited by Stronghold 178 too, but somehow he felt it was a little unreal. Besides, his other brothers to the north were still waiting for his news. What should he choose?

The people who came here with a purpose would always be more difficult to convince than the others. That was because they already had an objective from the start.

At this moment, someone shouted, “I need a few people over here. Boss said that those who help build the houses will receive 15 bullets each!”

Xu Jinyuan saw the people around him running over in an instant. Jin Lan was roaring, “Don’t anyone dare fight me!”

Xu Jinyuan followed right behind and muttered, “Has everyone gone fucking crazy?”

When they reached the refugee settlement, the black bricks were piled up off to one side. However, someone said, “But where are we gonna get mortar from?”.

At first, everyone thought that building a brick house only required some beams, a roof, and bricks. However, they now remembered they had forgotten to make the cement mortar.

It was available in the stronghold, but they couldn’t possibly go there and buy it, right?

Nearby, Ren Xiaosu said dumbfoundedly, “Do any of you have any experience in building a house?”

The refugees and bandits shook their heads. “We’ve never built a brick house before. We have been living in mud huts all our lives.”

Ren Xiaosu asked loudly, “Does anyone know? There’ll be a reward of 20 bullets if anyone does, so if you have the know-how, please don’t keep quiet!”

Everyone looked at one another. Although they really wanted to earn those 20 bullets, they really did not know how to build houses.

Suddenly, Xu Jinyuan said, “A very gooey mixture[1] of sticky rice mortar, lime, and hemp fibers can be used as an adhesive to fill the gaps between the bricks. It won’t crack even after a decade or two.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. “What about the proportions? What’s the ratio for each of the ingredients? Did you used to work in construction?”

“I used to build houses for the richer families in town. Y’all can source the materials first. I’ll adjust the proportions later. It’s not difficult to find them out here in the wastelands., Xu Jinyuan said aloofly. He was not doing this for the 20 bullets, but because he felt that these refugees were so stupid that they did not even know a simple thing like that.

Suddenly, Jin Lan walked over and thumped him on the chest. Xu Jinyuan was about to fly into a rage when Jin Lan smiled and said, “Great one, bro! Awesome!”

Ren Xiaosu led the applause. “C’mon, let’s thank our brother here. What’s your name?”

“Xu Jinyuan?”

“Alright, you’ll be the leader of the construction team of our settlement from now on!” Ren Xiaosu casually appointed him.

Xu Jinyuan’s mind was in a daze as he looked at the people around him who were giving him looks of approval. He suddenly recalled what Jin Lan had said to him: “It’s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs.”

Ren Xiaosu went to get 20 bullets and handed them to Xu Jinyuan. “Well done, bro!”

Xu Jinyuan looked at the bullets. They felt rather heavy in his hand. When he saw the others looking at him in envy, he suddenly felt a tinge of the happiness Jin Lan and the others felt when they earned their bullets.

While they were building the houses, some of the refugees brought over sweet potatoes, corn, and other food to them. As their living conditions here were bad, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were their staple foods.

A female refugee was praising Xu Jinyuan as she stuffed food into his arms, “I’ve watched you since the first day you arrived. At first glance, I could tell that you’re a learned person.”

Here, those who could build houses were considered learned.

Just as Xu Jinyuan was about to deny that he was a learned person, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu, who said with a smile, “You’re a learned person if you can use your knowledge to help everyone. Knowledge should be used to change the world, and you’re changing the world right now.”

These bold claims lavished sky-high praise onto Xu Jinyuan.

When he didn’t do any work previously, all of the other bandits disliked and despised him. But after he displayed his abilities, these fucking bandits started to address him warmly as “Brother Xu” every day when they saw him.

Xu Jinyuan was unused to the huge difference in treatment.

Meanwhile, this gang of bandits was turning from a scattered bunch into a unified force.

They would come to share the same values and gain a mysterious thing called faith in the time they would be spending together. But of course, it was still quite far from that day.

Half a month quickly passed.

Xu Jinyuan was thinking as he chewed on the delicious corncob in his hands. What was he here for? He had come here to gain the trust of this gang of bandits, to get a better understanding of their current situation, then get back their weapons, and plan with the other bandits in the north to destroy this entire settlement.

“

But what did he end up doing? He had been building houses every day!

Not only that, he had also dug for silt, helped the refugees sow seeds, and eaten their corn.

A female refugee had taken a liking to him and kept dragging him into her mud hut, but Xu Jinyuan used a great deal of effort to control himself.

As a notorious bandit from the north, how could he stay here just because of romance and corn?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu shouted in the distance, “Come and help carry bricks. You can earn a bullet for every 30 bricks carried.”

Xu Jinyuan counted his bullets and quickly finished eating the corn in his hands in three bites. “I’m coming. Brothers, don’t fight me to carry those bricks! I’ve almost collected enough bullets!”

Chapter 352: Seeds of faith

With the bandits gathering here, the previously isolated refugee settlement suddenly became much livelier.

Although one of the bandits stole some dried corn on the cob from a refugee’s house during this period, the refugee did not say anything when they discovered the theft. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who gave the guy a good beating and even confiscated his bullets.

That refugee had even asked Ren Xiaosu to be merciful, and this made the bandit who got beaten up extremely ashamed.

After that, such things never happened again.

On the other hand, some refugees were still bullying their fellow refugees. They would go to their houses and act like punks while mooching off on their food. In the end, when Jin Lan and the others could no longer bear to watch, they beat up those punks and dragged them off to the other bandits to reform them.

These punks might be capable of bullying the refugees, but going against the bandits was something none of them even dared to think of.

The brick houses were rapidly taking shape. The bandits were all full of strength and could work extremely fast as well.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Jinyuan, who was supervising the construction of a house. Off to the side, a female refugee was looking at him lovingly. Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Yang Xiaojin, “He’s one of those that you said was problematic, right?”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. “But it seems like he no longer has any ulterior motives.”

Yang Xiaojin had been wondering if this group of people would cause them any trouble and had been spying on them. At the time, she was wondering why Ren Xiaosu was not worried. In the end, she realized her worries had been unnecessary. She could see that Xu Jinyuan was now looking forward to trading for bullets every day.

This time, they managed to build 12 houses in one go. In this desolate wasteland, brick houses were once again rising up from the ground. When Ren Xiaosu saw all of this, he felt a swirl of emotions. The sturdy brick houses were a symbol of the continuation of human civilization.

The houses were about 28 square meters each. One single structure required around 1,900 bricks to build, and more than ten people could live in it.

Although there were still too few houses compared to the number of people they had, the second batch of bricks were already being fired. When they took them out in another two days, they could continue building the houses.

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were bragging to the refugees yesterday, saying they were going to build houses for everyone to live in.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu asked him while laughing: “By the time y’all’ve collected enough bullets, do you still want to continue building houses?”

Embarrassed, Jin Lan said, “We can’t just watch our fellow villagers continue living in those mud huts, can we? And there’s so many children as well. It gets very damp in the shelters, and that isn’t good for their health.”

Zhang Yiheng added, “We can even build a school, a factory…”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “Why the hell would we build a factory? We don’t even have the tech to run one!”

“What if we gain the tech in the future?” Zhang Yiheng mumbled.

Then Ren Xiaosu walked over to those brick houses that were just built. He told Jin Lan, “Count how many bullets everyone has.”

It had been more than twenty days since the bandits started working, so a lot of them should have accumulated enough bullets by now. After counting for a long time, Jin Lan scratched his head and said, “Because some new brothers have just joined us, we shared our bullets evenly between them. So everyone still has two to three more bullets to go. We should have enough by tomorrow after one more day of making bricks.”

It was the arrival of the new bandits that had delayed everyone’s progress. Otherwise, they would have accumulated enough bullets through their additional work in carrying bricks, mixing clay, and sowing seeds.

Fortunately for them, no new bandits had joined recently, with their total number here controlled at around 400 people. Of course, there were also some bandits who’d escaped, but there were only a few of them.

Ren Xiaosu had mentioned to Yang Xiaojin that some of the bandit gangs to the north must have already started heading south. It couldn’t have been more than ten days since new bandits came by to their settlement.

Therefore, they were very likely going to fight the gangs from the north to see who would be the victor.

It was at this moment that Yang Xiaojin recalled that they were actually here to exterminate the bandits.

But now was not the time to think about that. Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “You haven’t included the bullets that are gonna be given out for building the houses today. I said before that everyone who helps build houses will get 15 bullets each. We keep our promises.”

When he said that, Jin Lan and the others grew excited. After working so hard for more than twenty days, their efforts were finally paying off!

If Ren Xiaosu had returned to them their guns at the start, they would definitely not be this excited, because those guns were theirs to begin with, and they were even given by other forces for free.

But it was different now. Saving a 100 bullets and trading them for a gun was like an honor they earned. The reason they were so excited was not because of the gun, but because it meant they had earned the right to bear arms in this settlement.

This right felt worth a lot of money. In the past, they had never been so happy or proud even after robbing the passing merchants. That was because they had earned this right today through their sweat.

Ren Xiaosu had Jin Lan’s people bring over all the firearms. “What do y’all plan to do when you receive your guns?”

Jin Lan said excitedly, “We’ll go robbing, of course! There’s hundreds of us now, and we’re so united. We can absolutely dominate the entire south!”

Jin Lan was not bragging either. After all, some of the bandit gangs to the north were still very fearsome.

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. He pointed to the refugees who were watching them from the sidelines and said, “Robbery? Are y’all gonna rob people like them?”

When the crowd of refugees heard this, they were stunned. Jin Lan hurriedly explained, “We aren’t gonna rob y’all. Why would we rob you?”

“But there’s still a lot of people just like them.” Ren Xiaosu said, “They also have children and wives.”

Xu Jinyuan wondered, “Then why would we carry guns?”

“To protect them,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. He pointed at the female refugee who had been hooking up with Xu Jinyuan every day and said, “To protect Xiaocui, to protect the villagers, and to protect your families.”

Xu Jinyuan stopped talking. Bashful, Xiaocui was making eyes at him.

Ren Xiaosu picked up a gun and handed it to Xu Jinyuan with both hands. “After you take this gun, we’ll become comrades, brothers, and family.”

Xu Jinyuan took the gun hesitantly. Next up were the visibly excited Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng.

Holding the cold and unfeeling guns in their arms, it felt like they were hugging a treasure. Jin Lan said to the villagers, “Don’t worry. With me around, no bandits will be able to snatch y’all away!”

Yang Xiaojin watched all of this quietly from the side. Looking at the youth who was like the main character on a stage, she thought about how she had once mentioned it would be very difficult to make this gang of bandits find faith, and how it would be good enough to just unite them. But to her surprise, after a little more than twenty days had passed, a herd mentality had silently formed. On top of that, a belief to “protect” had also silently been born.

There were no grand speeches of loyalty, and all Ren Xiaosu transmitted to the bandits was the belief to protect. Protect their own assets, protect their families, and protect their friends. Everything should be done from the perspective of guarding their own interests.

There was no need to uphold world peace. That had nothing to do with them.

But of course, be it the strength, will, or faith of this group, they were just tiny seeds that had been planted in them.

If they were to be separated from a strong individual such as Ren Xiaosu and let go of the rope that was holding them together, they would probably break down quickly and go back to leading their own lives. Or if they encountered a strong opponent now, it would also be enough to deal them a quick defeat.

But Yang Xiaojin felt that it was very impressive that Ren Xiaosu could plant these seeds.

Chapter 353: Family

Yang Xiaojin tilted her head and looked at Ren Xiaosu. For the past two days, she had been thinking about what kind of house she should build for herself here.

She couldn’t squeeze in with the other bandits, right? Could they build a bigger one then? For example, they could have a kitchen and maybe a small front yard as well, and Ren Xiaosu could go into the wilderness to hunt some pigs and wild chickens to domesticate them. Perhaps they could even rear a cow or two.

Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin was also starting to look forward to tomorrow when the new bricks were ready.

However, she reckoned she would have to wait a while longer for her house to be built. After all, not everyone in the settlement had a brick house. Since Ren Xiaosu wanted to set an example for the others, she didn’t mind suffering with him.

However, she was curious as to what target Ren Xiaosu would set for them next to hold them together now that the guns had been issued.

Then she heard Ren Xiaosu say, “Starting tomorrow, we’ll keep making bricks. For the next batch of bricks from the kiln, we’ll build our defenses with them.”

Jin Lan muttered, “And I thought we wouldn’t have to work anymore.”

Although Ren Xiaosu was working hard to change their thinking, old habits die hard. To Jin Lan and the others, they felt they should be going on a killing and pillaging spree if they had guns. Even if they were no longer keen on killing and pillaging, they shouldn’t need to keep working.

Ren Xiaosu spoke up, “From tomorrow onwards, every 200 bullets earned will allow you to trade for a motorcycle.”

Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others looked at the brand-new motorcycles with a sparkle in their eyes. They had not touched the motorcycles since they arrived at this settlement.

All men loved things that exuded strength, and vehicles were one of those things. Be it a two-wheeled motorcycle or a four-wheeled car, the purring of the engines were just like a roar from their hearts. It was an enjoyable and pleasurable feeling.

Xu Jinyuan was a little hesitant. Should he also quickly get more work done so he could trade his bullets for a motorcycle? He was a skilled worker too, so he could definitely trade for one much faster than the others.

The next morning, Ren Xiaosu walked along the river after waking up. The spring floods would last for quite a while, and the hotter the weather, the wider the river would get.

By summer, the river that seemed to flow for forever would become a lifeline for humanity’s survival as it stretched across the wastelands.

Ren Xiaosu continued walking straight towards the settlement. Today was the day the bricks would be taken out of the kiln. The bandits felt that the progress of using only one brick kiln to fire the bricks was a little slow, so they decided to construct a new and even bigger one.

Someone asked Jin Lan why they needed to make so many bricks. The houses would be finished sooner or later, and afterwards, would the brick kilns be of any use?

Jin Lan said mysteriously, “What if a Stronghold 179 suddenly gets built here?”

The question of why Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had come here had been on the bandits’ minds for a while now. After analyzing it for some time, everyone wondered if Stronghold 178 was planning to extend its influence inland. Wasn’t this vast and empty valley a very good choice to start?

No consortiums had built a stronghold here because this unincorporated zone was just too sensitive an area. No one would agree to the construction of a stronghold here by any of the other factions.

But if a powerful organization like Stronghold 178 were to take action, the Yang Consortium, which was currently engaged in war, might not be able to stop them. Meanwhile, the Northern Waste’s Zong Consortium was no match for Stronghold 178. Although the location was not exactly ideal, the opportunity was!

Furthermore, if Stronghold 178 wanted to export their mine reserves inland, the valley was an unavoidable region that they needed to pass through!

When they thought of this, Jin Lan and the others felt like they understood what was going on.

Throughout this, everyone would greet each other warmly as “brothers” whenever they saw one another. It was as though they had really become family after Ren Xiaosu’s speech.

Some people really believed it, while others were still skeptical. But in light of the overall situation, those who did not believe it could not say much either.

At the moment, the bandits who came here with Xu Jinyuan were just watching in silence.They did not believe anything that was said.

Someone counted the days and estimated there wasn’t much time left until the window their leader had set for them. At the agreed time, they were to secretly head out into the wilderness tonight and report back to their leader about the attack plan. Afterwards, they would launch a surprise attack on the settlement the following night.

“Brother Xu, let’s prepare to leave.” Someone said to Xu Jinyuan, “Tonight…”

Xu Jinyuan gave him a look and said, “What are you talking about? How can I leave my family?”

The bandits under him were confused. ‘What fucking family! Are you fucking crazy?!’

At first, everyone thought Xu Jinyuan was just kidding. But when they got serious again, they realized Xu Jinyuan was absolutely not kidding!

Hurt, one of the bandits said, “Brother Xu, didn’t you say that you didn’t buy their antics out here?”

Xu Jinyuan sighed and said, “Will we come to a good end by being bandits? Have you heard of any bandits who get to enjoy their later
years?”

Everyone carefully considered this and realized it was true.

Xu Jinyuan continued, “Y’all’ve interacted with Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin as well. Let’s ignore whether they might really be from Stronghold 178. What do you think of them when compared to our previous leader?”

“On strength, there’s supernatural beings on both sides,” the bandit analyzed. “But there’s two of them here.”

“On conduct, it’s way more comfortable here.” Someone said, “At our previous place, the atmosphere could get quite oppressive. Usually, we don’t even dare to sigh too loudly.”

Xu Jinyuan nodded. “What about here?”

“It’s just like being around family here. We can joke, we can work together…”

“So let’s not talk about anything else for now. Which side do y’all like better?” Xu Jinyuan said, “Do you really think that I’ve been taken in by them? No, it’s just that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin have let me seen a glimmer of hope.”

Xu Jinyuan looked at Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng, who were moving bricks in the distance. Did these bandits choose to stay here because they were brainwashed? No, it was because they saw something called hope, so they willingly believed in the razzle-dazzle.

If this razzle-dazzle could bring everyone a good life in the future, then would it still be considered a lie?

Xu Jinyuan had lost much sleep over this before finally arriving at his decision.

“Then are we not gonna make a plan with the others to attack this settlement?” someone probed.

“Mhm.” Xu Jinyuan nodded. “I’ll find an opportunity to tell Boss about this later and warn him to be on guard against any sneak attacks.”

Someone asked, “But if he learns that we came here as spies, will he start shunning

US?”

Xu Jinyuan was taken aback. He took a deep breath and said, “I believe that he won’t.”

Then Xu Jinyuan walked to where Ren Xiaosu was. He thought he could convince all his brothers to stay behind, but someone still ran away in secret. Before leaving, that bandit even said, “Although I also think this place is great, just look at how everyone else doesn’t even know how to use a gun. When the leader gets here, this place will be blown to dust overnight. I don’t wanna die!”

The others looked at one another, unable to come to a decision themselves.

When Xu Jinyuan walked up to Ren Xiaosu and was hesitating to speak, Ren Xiaosu turned his head to him and asked with a smile, “When are those bandits attacking

US?”

Chapter 354: Wang Congyang

“You already knew about it, didn’t you?” Xu Jinyuan said with mixed feelings. In deciding to tell Ren Xiaosu about this matter, he suffered from sleeplessness the entire night.

In fact, he was still worried that Ren Xiaosu would kill him on the spot when he found out the truth.

Although he had said to his brothers “I believe that he won’t,” he wasn’t actually sure.

But he realized at this moment that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already known about the secret he was hiding.

Yang Xiaojin stood next to Ren Xiaosu and looked at Xu Jinyuan while saying, “You guys deliberately scratched away the logos on your motorcycles, didn’t you? That wasn’t exactly clever, was it?”

“But that’s not enough to suggest anything,” said Xu Jinyuan, pursing his lips.

“Ever since y’all arrived, there haven’t been any bandits coming here from the north.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Someone in the north must’ve already unified all the bandits at Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan, right?”

Xu Jinyuan said stubbornly, “Just because of that?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “We were bluffing.”

Xu Jinyuan was dumbfounded. They were bluffing?

“Actually, we’ve been watching you for some time.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “But it’s only now that we’ve fully confirmed your identity.”

“Then how are you gonna punish me?” Xu Jinyuan said in a low voice.

The punishments dished out to bandit traitors had always been very cruel. They wouldn’t show any mercy.

Xu Jinyuan knew that if it were any other bandit leader, this would probably mean the end for him. But deep down, he felt that Ren Xiaosu was different!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly put out a hand to him and said, “Welcome to the team.”

Xu Jinyuan heaved a sigh of relief. The young man in front of him was indeed different from the other bandit leaders. He said briefly, “We originally agreed to meet tonight to come up with an attack plan for tomorrow night. But one of the eleven guys I brought here ran away, so my previous gang will definitely know that I’ve leaked their plans.”

“So there’s a possibility that they might attack in advance.” Ren Xiaosu said, “How many bandits does the gang to the north have? How many of them will be joining the attack?”

“They originally had 1,200 people, but it should have increased recently.” Xu Jinyuan said, “But not all of them will come here because they still have to fight with two other gangs in the north. If they all come here together, the other bandit gangs will definitely take advantage of the situation. According to the plan that we had, 600 bandits will be showing up here.”

In response, even Ren Xiaosu, who was already mentally prepared, gasped. The bandits in the valley had even fucking joined forces? How did they end up with so many people?!

Although not all of them would turn up for the attack, 600 bandits could still theoretically crush their refugee settlement.

Of course, that was only in theory.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Which organization is the leader of the northern bandits from?”

Xu Jinyuan was taken aback for a moment. “I think he used to be from the Qing Consortium, but he has nothing to do with them now. Someone said that he escaped from Stronghold 113 and knows Xu Xianchu of Stronghold 178 as well. However, I’ve never seen him contact Xu Xianchu before, so maybe he only met him a couple times? Eh, don’t you know Master Xu too? Maybe you know him as well?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Their leader escaped from Stronghold 113 and even knew Xu Xianchu? Could this be someone he knew? “What’s his name?”

“Wang Congyang!”

“Damn…” Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He was not the only one who knew this man. Yang Xiaojin knew him as well.

Yang Xiaojin thought back and said, “Was he that man who was supposed to go with us on the expedition to the Jing Mountains?”

“That’s him.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. Enemies were always bound to meet. If Xu Jinyuan hadn’t mentioned the name, Ren Xiaosu would have forgotten about this person.

Wang Congyang was a junior officer in the private army of Stronghold 113, and he was similarly ostracized by the organization like Xu Xianchu was. Wang Congyang had, in fact, worked together with Xu Xianchu, but they weren’t friends.

Wang Congyang never stopped pursuing Ren Xiaosu after Ren Xiaosu had killed his relative, and importantly, Wang Congyang was a meticulous person. Even though Ren Xiaosu was very good at acting like he wasn’t the one who killed the man, he still got targeted by Wang Congyang.

After that, Yan Liuyuan told Ren Xiaosu that even after he had set off to the Jing Mountains, Wang Congyang still persisted and even led a team to try to arrest him. If it weren’t for Zhang Jinglin, Yan Liuyuan and the others would probably have been put in danger.

The cause of this grudge was because Ren Xiaosu had killed someone. However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any regrets about doing it. Since he had already killed that man, so be it.

However, he never expected Wang Congyang would survive the collapse of Stronghold 113. Furthermore, he even fled north and became a bandit boss?

And he turned out to be a supernatural being too!

Yang Xiaojin asked, “How’s his relationship with Xu Xianchu?”

“I remember Xu Xianchu saying that he didn’t have any friends in Stronghold 113.” Ren Xiaosu said, “That eliminates the possibility that he and Wang Congyang are friends. Old Xu wouldn’t lie to me about that.”

Xu Jinyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin’s expressions and realized they really knew Xu Xianchu.

At the beginning, he thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin might have been lying.

“Have you seen him use his superpower before?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Nope.” Xu Jinyuan shook his head. “When we were fighting the other bandits, he would usually just stand behind and not need to do anything.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “No wonder y’all are so different from the other bandits. Wang Congyang used to be an army officer, so it’s no surprise that he can manage a gang of bandits as well.”

“Boss, what should we do?” Xu Jinyuan asked, “Should we take refuge in the valley until the dust settles?”

“Nah.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “He’s only one supernatural being. There’s two of us here, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Not only was he not afraid, but Ren Xiaosu even wanted to seek out Wang Congyang so he could replicate his power.

Remember, he still had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll in his hands. It was not worth learning from Yang Xiaojin since the conjured sniper rifle was only going to be useful in the hands of a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user. Even if he learned her power, he could only use it as an artillery weapon at most. So it would be great if Wang Congyang’s superpower turned out to be quite useful.

Ren Xiaosu walked towards the brick kiln and shouted to Jin Lan, “Hurry up! Have some people push the bricks to the north side! Bandits are coming to attack us! Build the defenses! The enemy might arrive tonight!”

It might be a little too late to build the defenses now, but they had to win this battle no matter what!

Jin Lan and the others had been holding it in for a long time. When they heard they were going to fight, their eyes lit up. “Boss, how are we going to fight this battle?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Fight however you like.”

Yang Xiaojin grinned as she looked at Ren Xiaosu from behind. She felt this could be the most interesting stretch in the 18 years of her life.

Yang Xiaojin turned around and walked towards the wilderness. She did not need to stay here. A sniper was a lone wolf that transcended the confines of the wasteland. A lone wolf should do what a lone wolf did best.

The wasteland was vast and boundless. Yang Xiaojin walked into the distance, stepping on the desolate ground underfoot as the turbulent waters of the river flowed next to her.

She would have to kill a lot of people tonight, but this was the first time she was going to pull the trigger to protect someone.

What a night to look forward to!

Chapter 355: Thunder

When night fell, Jin Lan and the others hid behind the simple defensive fortifications, holding two buns of cornbread with them. The cornbread was made by the refugees to help them sate their hunger.

Ren Xiaosu had already informed them that the bandits from the north might not be coming tonight, but everyone should still be prepared for an attack nonetheless. For the first half of the night, half the group would sleep before taking over the watch for the rest of the night. If there were really signs of the enemy, everyone would have to respond quickly and get straight into battle.

When Ren Xiaosu was done giving them orders, he could not find Yang Xiaojin. “Have you all seen… ahem, have y’all seen your boss lady?”

“Nope,” Jin Lan replied.

“I saw her heading into the wilderne Thunderss earlier,” Xu Jinyuan answered.

Ren Xiaosu grunted in acknowledgment. It looked like Yang Xiaojin had already gone to familiarize herself with the terrain.

An outstanding sniper would never remain at only one vantage point on a real battlefield. If their position were discovered, they would have to leave that spot as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they would get shot dead by the approaching enemy. Hence, a sniper’s combat role was a proactive one.

Fortunately, Xu Jinyuan said there were no snipers among the bandits to the north. This would greatly reduce the danger to Yang Xiaojin.

Moreover, Yang Xiaojin had her advantage as well.

Sniper rifles could be very heavy. If a sniper used a high-caliber rifle, the rifle would become a heavy burden while they were operating

Some sniper rifles could even weigh up to 20.9 kilograms. This was equivalent to carrying two bags of rice and running wildly in the wilderness. Even an adult man would find that difficult to bear.

But Yang Xiaojin was different. When she needed to retreat, she could just put away her sniper rifle and move around freely. Moreover, supernatural beings were physically stronger, and their movements were also swift.

A supernatural being who was also an elite sniper was definitely the most terrifying existence on a battlefield.

After eating two pieces of cornbread, Ren Xiaosu hunkered down behind the defensive fortifications and closed his eyes to get some rest. Honestly, he also thought it would be more suitable for him to fight out in the wilderness.

But before the bandits here experienced what a real battle was really like, they would still be just a mob. If there were no one to maintain their morale, more than half of these people would probably run away before the battle even began.

Jin Lan went up to Ren Xiaosu and asked softly, “Boss, if Boss Lady’s superpower is to pull a sniper rifle out of thin air, what’s yours?”

Until today, Ren Xiaosu had purely relied on brute strength to deal with them without resorting to using his superpowers. So Jin Lan and the others were all guessing what Ren Xiaosu’s power was.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the bandits. “When those northern bandits arrive, you’ll find out. Bring that box of grenades over and put it next to me.”

The bandits around him were stunned. Weren’t they just talking about superpowers? Why did he suddenly mention the grenades? Could his power be related to grenades?

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, “They’re here! Prepare for battle! The enemy’s coming from the northwest, not the north!”

Xu Jinyuan looked into the wilderness and then asked, “Boss, where are they?”

The wilderness in front of them was clearly pitch black, so where was the enemy supposed to be coming from? They did not know how Ren Xiaosu could have discovered them.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu had sent out his shadow clone earlier tonight. Since they did not have any scouts, Ren Xiaosu had to use it to act as one. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu knew they had arrived when his shadow clone encountered the enemy. However, he did not expose his shadow clone and waited for the enemy to get closer.

Then Xu Jinyuan watched Ren Xiaosu grab a grenade with his right hand and remove the pin before reaching his hand into a shadow.

The shadow was like a doorway that seemingly allowed him to put his hand into another dimension.

Jin Lan, Xu Jinyuan, and the others were watching this sight in a daze. They did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was doing.

The bandits in the distance were quietly advancing. In order to hide their movements, they even took a detour to change their route, then abandoned their motorcycles to advance on foot.

As they walked in the dark, the bandit farthest forward suddenly saw a hand extend out of thin air within the darkness and throw a grenade at his feet.

The bandit was stunned. By the time he realized what was going on, he only had time to shout, “Fuck!”

Right after, Xu Jinyuan and the others heard a grenade explode nearly a kilometer away.

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. What kind of power was that? Throwing a grenade remotely?!

They were not the only ones shocked; even their enemies were shocked! The gang of bandits who were advancing towards the settlement did not understand what was going on. They thought they might have stepped on a land mine!

But how could there be land mines in the valley?!

The farthest a grenadier could throw a grenade was only about a 100 meters or so. For example, the best record in the Yang Consortium’s army for grenade tossing was only 102 meters.

Yet Ren Xiaosu had thrown a grenade from a kilometer away?

Surely an impenetrable fortress couldn’t exist in the face of such power, right? But why did this power feel really strange?

At this moment, the enemy in the distance was still unsure of who was attacking them, and neither could they see where the attack had come from. There wasn’t even an opponent they could fight back against.

Suddenly, the boom of a sniper rifle thundered through the sky. It was just like the rumbling of a large overcast cloud.

The sound of that high-caliber sniper rifle could even be heard from several kilometers away!

The grenade Ren Xiaosu threw had pointed Yang Xiaojin in the direction of the enemy, and the explosion gave her illumination!

Xu Jinyuan and the others understood that to be their boss lady making her move, but they still could not figure out where Yang Xiaojin was at this moment

Jin Lan and the others roared excitedly as everyone clutched their automatic rifles. However, after waiting for a long time, there were still no signs of their enemies charging.

In the minds of Jin Lan and the others, the battle should play out with them waiting for the enemy to arrive at their doorstep. When that happened, everyone would mow them down with their rifles like they were fire-breathing dragons, and there would be blood splattering everywhere.

After the enemy collapsed, Jin Lan could rally everyone to chase after them.

The fantasy alone was already beyond exciting!

In the end, the boom of the sniper rifle kept ringing out, and the grenades kept exploding. Meanwhile, they were like cheerleaders. After the battle had gone on for some time, they still did not see any signs of their enemies.

As Ren Xiaosu threw the grenades, he used his shadow clone to observe from the shadows. However, he found it a little strange that the number of bandits here did not seem quite right.

Weren’t there supposed to be over 600 people? Why were there only about 200 or so of them?

‘Shit!’ Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted to Zhang Yiheng, “Be careful of the northeast. The enemy might have split into two groups!”

Zhang Yiheng and the others immediately turned to look northeast. There were a series of gullies cutting across the middle of the valley over there. If the enemy came from that direction, they could hide in the gullies and advance on them, making it difficult to guard.

As Ren Xiaosu spoke, he sent his shadow clone into the battlefield. The shadow clone was rapidly taking lives in the darkness of the night with the black saber in hand. Ren Xiaosu had to quickly kill off the enemies in this direction, as the rest of them who were heading here from the other direction were probably going to arrive soon!

Chapter 356: Steam Locomotive

Wang Congyang was someone who was much more difficult to deal with than Ren Xiaosu had imagined

Back at the town, Ren Xiaosu had concealed almost every detail flawlessly, but Wang Congyang still latched hard onto him.

Ren Xiaosu and the others who had thought the northwest attack would be the main battlefield were now realizing they had anticipated it wrong.

When his shadow clone encountered these bandits, Ren Xiaosu immediately determined they had at least a few hundred people in the group. As such, he believed they were Wang Congyang’s main force.

However, Wang Congyang was even more ruthless. He actually used these 200 people as cannon fodder to attract the firepower of the enemy. Wang Congyang clearly knew these 200 people would die here, but he did not care!

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘No wonder that guy gained a foothold in the valley. Not only does he use his superpower, but he also has a cunning and vicious mind.’

At this moment, the firing of the sniper rifle suddenly stopped before the bandits in the northwest were all dead. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Yang Xiaojin had also noticed that something was amiss and was quickly shifting her position in search of a new commanding point for her firepower suppression.

Without needing to communicate in words, Yang Xiaojin believed Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone would finish off the remnants of the defeated bandits in the northwest.

Seeing that more than half of the 200 bandits in the northwest had already died, the remaining ones were so scared their hearts nearly exploded. This unknown shadow that had come out of nowhere could neither be driven away nor killed.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu knew that if Wang Congyang’s main forces were really coming from a different direction, his village couldn’t defeat them in a direct confrontation. Xu Jinyuan had said that Wang Congyang had heavy firepower on his side that included RPGs as well!

He had to think of another way! He had to avoid a direct confrontation at their settlement.

As for Jin Lan and the others, Ren Xiaosu could only bet on Yang Xiaojin arriving in time to support them.

Jin Lan looked northeast into the darkness and said, “There’s a lot of gullies over there. If the enemies are hiding in them, I’m afraid that Boss Lady’s sniper rifle won’t be effective.”

“Can they really be so familiar with the terrain?” Zhang Yiheng asked, “If they haven’t been here before, they’ll probably lose their way in the gullies, right?”

Xu Jinyuan sighed and said, “This is all my fault. I should’ve persuaded that brother to stay behind. He must have revealed our plans and informed the gang of bandits that we have a sniper. That’s why their main forces purposely chose to approach from where the sniper can’t spot them. Besides, he worked here for more than twenty days. He’s surely familiarized himself with the area already. He always went out to explore the terrain at night.”

Jin Lan was silent for a moment. “You weren’t in the wrong either. We can only say that everyone makes their own choices, so there’s no need to feel guilty over it. As the saying goes, ‘while the general is on horseback, do as you wish.’”

“Haha.” Next to him, Zhang Yiheng slotted bullets into a magazine. “Jin Lan, I didn’t know you were a cultured person?”

Jin Lan said modestly, “I did attend a few years of school.”

“We can’t just rely on Boss Lady’s sniping to hold them off. We’re grown-ass men! We’re holding guns in our hands, and we can kill our enemies too!” Zhang Yiheng said heroically, “Weren’t you all disappointed that our enemies could not charge at us just now? We’re going to be charging at them instead very soon! Don’t be a coward when the time comes.”

But right at this moment, metallic sounds clanged in the darkness.

The strange metallic sounds were like dagger-axes striking against each other, but it also sounded like someone was striking iron with a hammer.

This sound came abruptly, yet it sounded extremely powerful.

Suddenly, a fog started spreading. It felt like a gigantic creature was charging at them from the darkness.

Then, clickety-clacking could be heard. It grew louder in the nothingness and slowly increased in rhythm!

Right after that, a black steam locomotive sped through the fog, “shattering” it!

“Fuck!” Jin Lan roared angrily, “Where the hell did this train come from!”

The consortiums had trains as well, but they were limited to a very small number of places and were used for transporting minerals and supplies. It was not that the consortiums could not afford to build a railway system, but that earthquakes in the Northwest and Southwest happened far too frequently. As a result, it would be extremely expensive to maintain the system. Sometimes, newly built railroad tracks would get damaged by the next day.

How could anything even withstand earthquakes that could shatter two strongholds?

However, Jin Lan and the others did know of the existence of trains. Jin Lan had also seen blurry pictures of them before in the schoolbooks.

It was just that he could not figure out where this train had come from.

The metallic clanging was made by the train as it moved forward on a metal railroad track that materialized segment by segment below it. After the rails materialized, they would automatically pave themselves at the bottom of the black locomotive. As the train moved forward, the tracks behind would disappear while fresh tracks reappeared in front of it.

The train had three carriages attached to the forward engine. Jin Lan instinctively fired at the locomotive but could only send some sparks flying as the bullets hit the train!

“Dodge!” Jin Lan roared.

But the train kept charging at their simple fortifications in an attempt to completely crush their defenses.

Instead of the enemy showing up, they were greeted by a giant steel monster!

The train was zooming. Before Jin Lan and the others could dodge, the train had already crashed into a short brick wall. The brick walls crumbled into pieces like tofu.

This was the power of a supernatural being. In the era of the “Rise of Gods,” the power of supernatural beings was getting more and more powerful. Who knew what kind of shocking things could happen in the future!

As many of the bandits could not avoid it in time, they died from the impact of the cold and unfeeling train. After the train brushed past Jin Lan and the others who managed to escape unscathed, they could only watch helplessly as the steam locomotive crashed into the village where the refugees were located. Over there were the mud houses, the newly built brick houses, and also their fellow villagers who had cooked for them.

Jin Lan watched this happen in a daze. He saw the new houses turn into a heap of ruins before his very eyes while the refugees inside were pinned under the bricks.

But the steam locomotive that seemed to have come from Hell remained completely undamaged.

Gunshots rang out, but it wasn’t Jin Lan and the others who had fired their weapons.

Under the cover of the steam locomotive, the bandits to the northeast finally broke out of the gullies and charged at Jin Lan’s group!

One of Jin Lan’s squad mates next to him was shot, and blood started flowing out of his wound.

It was over! Everything seemed to be finished! They had worked hard to make the bricks and build the houses, but they ended up being destroyed so easily by the enemy.

They had been greeting each other as brothers all these days, but their brothers ended up dying here by their sides.

Xu Jinyuan hid behind a heap of broken bricks and said in a daze, “Who saw Boss?”

They only just realized that Ren Xiaosu had disappeared at some point!

“Where’s Boss

“Who saw where the boss went?”

Behind the trembling voices that were asking this, the loneliness that stemmed from the fear of being abandoned and left behind started spreading. “Did Boss abandon us and run away?”

Gunfire intensified. The enemy was getting closer and closer.

Some of the bandits started fleeing into the wilderness behind them.

Although everyone felt a sense of belonging to this place, no one would risk their lives for it.

That wonderful hope ultimately could not win against their survival instincts.

Although some of them left, there were also others who remained behind.

Zhang Yiheng suddenly spat out, “I don’t believe that he would abandon us and run away. He’s gotta have something more important to handle.”

“Then what should we do?” one of the bandits asked.

“Fucking kill them!” Zhang Yiheng roared, “Aren’t we also holding guns? They actually destroyed the houses that I put in so much effort to build! Fire at them! Let’s get revenge for the houses and our brothers!”

Chapter 357: I ve surrounded all of you

There were only two choices in despair. One was to die silently while the other was to find strength in silence.

If it were twenty days ago, Zhang Yiheng would probably have run away by now, and so would have Jin Lan. But they had changed by today.

Perhaps the change in them wasn’t very big, but it was enough to make them willing to pick up their guns and fight for their survival.

Even Ren Xiaosu would probably not have expected this group of bandits to push themselves and counterattack in such a desperate situation!

When they started to fight back through their broken defensive line, the enemy immediately slowed and they started taking casualties.

Bullets on the battlefield did not discern between friend from foe. The intelligence of humans was vividly portrayed in war, and the appearance of firearms and explosives brought about a great transformation in the history of human warfare.

Zhang Yiheng hid behind collapsed bricks and fired at the enemy with his automatic rifle. This band of bandits who had no strategy in place were actually holding off the enemy.

However, someone was commanding the enemy forces from the rear. After a brief adjustment, they got used to the firing patterns employed by Zhang Yiheng’s squad.

Some of them silently crawled on the ground and advanced. This way, they could reduce the chances of being hit by bullets. The others would continue to charge forward until Zhang Yiheng’s group revealed themselves and fired at them. When they did that, the enemy bandits who were crawling on the ground would fire in short spurts to cover their fellow bandits.

Slowly, Zhang Yiheng and the others were getting suppressed by the enemy’s tactics again.

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin’s training had only made them united and planted seeds of faith in their minds. The training was not a magical solution, so it could not make this group of bandits who did not even possess any military knowledge become braver.

They were being suppressed by the lack of experience. It was not something they could be trained on in a short time. Wang Congyang had fought many tough battles with his bandit gang, and they had even undergone short-term military training with him.

Zhang Yiheng panted and said, “We can’t beat them. It looks like we’re going to die here!”

“What should we do then?” Jin Lan suddenly laughed. It was clearly a hopeless situation, but he was still laughing. “Why don’t we surrender?”

Zhang Yiheng spat, “If you wanna surrender, go ahead. No wonder there were only 20 bandits in your gang, and y’all were even leading such shitty lives! So it was because you’re a leader with no balls!”

Jin Lan was infuriated. “I was only fucking kidding! Don’t you fucking criticize me!”

Then Jin Lan got up and started attacking. The idiot managed to make the enemy retreat for a moment when he did that.

But no matter how hard they tried, they were still losing

“Hey, where did Boss and Boss Lady go?” Zhang Yiheng sighed and said, “If they don’t come back soon, we’re really gonna die here.”

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin’s slender figure was running at full speed in the wilderness. The gullies on the ground were no obstacle to her.

She was getting closer to the gunshots in the northeast. As she ran, she looked for gunfire that lit up the night in front of her.

Yang Xiaojin was panting heavily. Even she would have to try her best to adjust her breathing when she was running with all her might.

She could have had a more relaxed role on the battlefield, but she knew there wasn’t enough time.

Yang Xiaojin knew there were people waiting for her!

A second later, Yang Xiaojin stopped on a dime in front of a mound and conjured her sniper rifle. She took only an instant.

Deep breath.

She lowered her heart rate quickly and illogically against her body’s homeostatic responses. Following, her dynamic visual acuity seemingly froze time from her perspective.

At this moment, all the anger in her transformed into an arrow from the gods. Yang Xiaojin slowly exhaled the air in her lungs and pulled the trigger according to the rhythm of her breathing.

With a loud bang, the sound of the sniper rifle spread across the battlefield again.

The huge bullet traveled for nearly a 1,000 meters and arrived at the center of the battlefield after what felt like a long passage of time.

The bullet penetrated the chest of a bandit who was making an attack. However, it did not stop moving even after that. It continued through and penetrated a second bandit behind before disappearing into the night.

The thin gray fog that had first appeared when the steam locomotive arrived suddenly turned into a bloody mist. The sprays of blood that bloomed formed beautiful shapes in the air.

When Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng heard the sound of the sniper rifle, their hearts skipped a beat. The long-awaited gunshots had finally returned!

They quietly poked their heads out and discovered that the enemy who had readjusted the rhythm of their attack was now getting torn apart one by one by the shots!

“Boss Lady is so brutal.” Jin Lan gasped in amazement. From their vantage point, they could see the enemies were sent flying one after another by the powerful force of the bullets.

The sprays of blood were like flowers blooming in the dark of night.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was lying prone on a mound. Only by doing so could she stabilize her body against the high frequency of her shots.

The formerly cap-wearing girl was not bothered by how dirty the ground was. She only cared if her bullets could reach the other side of the riverbank and bring death to the enemy.

This was what a sniper was. She would only feel safe when her body was in contact with the ground.

It was only at this moment that thoughts of being encaged by her clan connections and the mystery of her parents’ death no longer lingered on her mind. In this moment, she was just a sniper.

A sniper who could dominate the wilderness battlefield!

Amid the rhythmic bangs of the sniper rifle, Zhang Yiheng acted like he was on steroids. “Everyone, attack them without mercy! Fucking kill them!”

Silent, Xu Jinyuan fired as he felt his blood boiling. He could even feel himself getting goosebumps as he listened to the sniper rifle consistently ring out.

This was a fight he had never experienced before. Xu Jinyuan never thought a small battle like this could be so exciting.

Only Jin Lan was asking doubtfully, “Boss Lady is here, but where’s Boss? Why haven’t we seen him yet?”

“I might not know where Boss is,” Zhang Yiheng laughed maniacally while saying, “but I know that he definitely ain’t gonna miss his chance to end this battle!”

Right then, gunshots suddenly rang out from behind enemy lines. Zhang Yiheng instantly reacted. “Boss is behind the enemy!”

“Holy fuck…” Jin Lan did not know what to say. He had thought Yang Xiaojin was very aggressive, but it turned out that Ren Xiao was even more ferocious than her. He actually ran to the rear of the enemy all by himself? Was he trying to cut off the enemy’s retreat?

Xu Jinyuan was also a little confused. “Since Boss and Boss Lady are both so fierce, who do you think wears the pants at home?”

Someone scolded him with a chuckle, “Hey, we’re fighting right now! Stop shooting the shit!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was rapidly approaching the back lines of the enemy from the flank. He was dashing in an arced path. Due to the angle of his approach, he was leaning close to the ground like he was a speeding motorcycle making a turn.

The shots fired by the enemy in their attempt to stop him only sent bullets into the dirt. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had already detoured and arrived at the rear of the enemy’s formation!

“I’ve surrounded all of you!”

Chapter 358: Scene of the accident

Due to Ren Xiaosu’s appearance in the rear, the enemy had no choice but to divert a large number of their men to deal with him. That suddenly relieved the pressure on Jin Lan’s group, and it was something they could clearly feel.

However, while the enemy thought Ren Xiaosu would force his way into their formation, they were surprised by how Ren Xiaosu remained just outside of their effective attack radius throughout, even though he had rushed towards them aggressively. He was kiting them, pulling them in and then letting go.

Ren Xiaosu was not holding back. He had activated the nanomachines and was crazily cycling them in his body to prevent himself from getting shot. Even if he did get hit, he could immediately use the nanomachines to stop the bullet from causing further damage.

This was a very wise move. After all, Ren Xiaosu was just a normal human being, so how could he possibly hold up against a few hundred people shooting at him? If he even tried to get close to them, the enemies would quickly release a barrage of gunfire on him. Even a mosquito might get killed by the crossfire!

But the enemy was confused. Where did your initial bravery go? Didn’t you heroically declare you had all of us surrounded?

Fucking attack us then!

“He’s playing for time!” someone shouted.

“That’s right!” Someone said, “This kid has been distracting all this time so that we can’t concentrate on our attack at the front. But he’s not tryna get close. He’s only tryna attract our firepower in a bid to stall for time.”

“But what’s he waiting for?” a bandit wondered.

Right at this moment, a shadow suddenly appeared on the horizon a distance away. The shadow was able to leap over ten meters in a single bound. It was extremely terrifying!

The heavy and hurried footsteps were getting closer and closer. This was the reinforcement Ren Xiaosu had been trying to buy time for! It had come from afar!

When some of the bandits saw the shadow approaching, they fired at it. However, the shadow did not dodge or evade and took all of the gunfire head on!

“What is this thing?” One of the bandits exclaimed, “Why isn’t it afraid of bullets!”

“Oh shit, run!”

But it was too late to escape now!

The shadow that was just like a wild bull collided with the crowd in an instant. The powerful inertia struck the bandits like a cannonball, sending a row of them flying into the air like toys and dolls thrown by a truck in a crash.

The bandit who had been hit directly felt all his bones shattering before he was sent flying into the air uncontrollably.

The bandits were sent flying into the air one after another like they were trapezists of a circus. However, they were the worst trapezists ever in history.

The bandits no longer had the presence of mind to fire their weapons. When a strength that was strong enough to crush them appeared, these bandits plunged into panic!

The strange shadow’s ability at slaughtering its enemy was too strong. They could not even fight back!

Away from the battlefield, Ren Xiaosu was controlling his shadow clone to charge recklessly through the crowd as he looked for Wang Congyang’s presence.

Due to the shadow clone continuously getting shot, Ren Xiaosu was constantly enduring the pain that was passed on from his shadow clone to him.

He was sweating profusely from his head and on his back due to the pain he had to endure. Ren Xiaosu was still looking for Wang Congyang. To catch a thief, he first had to first catch the king!

Ren Xiaosu kept moving at high speeds. Stray bullets on the battlefield were flying around everywhere and were impossible to defend against. He had used the nanomachines to shield himself from the bullets twice already. When the bullets hit him, they only managed to scrape his skin; they could not penetrate past the defensive structure formed by the nanomachines.

But even after searching for a long time, he still could not see any signs of Wang Congyang!

Jin Lan, who was farthest in front on the battlefield, discovered that the enemy was beginning to panic. The enemies who were not being commanded had become flustered when a powerful force appeared behind them.

With Yang Xiaojin’s suppressive fire covering them, Zhang Yiheng and the other bandits even dared to charge from behind the broken defensive line to launch a counterattack. And the bewildered enemies started to fall.

But even now, Ren Xiaosu still did not see Wang Congyang!

Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Could it be that Wang Congyang wasn’t here? That couldn’t be right! The train that appeared out of nowhere was clearly Wang Congyang’s doing!

Actually, when he first saw the steam locomotive, one of Ren Xiaosu’s early doubts was answered. In the earlier days, there were always rumors spreading among the refugees in Stronghold 113’s town that someone had seen a moving train materializing from nothingness out in the wilderness. That was the power of a supernatural being.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu was still very envious. This was the earliest rumor being talked about in town regarding supernatural beings. It went on for so long that Ren Xiaosu even got sick of hearing it. Many people said the refugee must have been feeling sick and was only seeing things in his trance.

That train never appeared a second time.

Ren Xiaosu used to wonder about whether there were other supernatural beings in Stronghold 113. But no one had ever seen them before.

Now that he thought about it, the train that appeared in the wilderness back then must have been Wang Congyang testing his power, right?

So the rumors were true. Judging by the time Wang Congyang first became a supernatural being, he was most likely one of the earliest people to do so!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized Wang Congyang must have escaped when he saw that the situation was hopeless.

Ren Xiaosu looked towards the valley in the north, in the hopes that he might spot Wang Congyang fleeing through the gullies. The ravines would serve as Wang Congyang’s shield.

Ren Xiaosu stopped searching for him here and started running north, trying his luck. If his judgment were right, he might still be in time to catch that guy!

After running for just two kilometers, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a figure crawling out of a gully in the distance. They were about a kilometer away from each other.

Ren Xiaosu confirmed that it was Wang Congyang and that he had indeed escaped ahead of time!

The bandit gang this person had painstakingly built was about to break apart, but none of that seemed worth mentioning to him. When he saw the shadow clone arriving, he abandoned all of his burdens and fled by himself.

That was because the moment Wang Congyang saw the shadow clone, he thought it was Xu Xianchu who had arrived!

In Wang Congyang’s opinion, if three supernatural beings-Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin fought him alone, he would definitely lose!

The bandit who had escaped from Ren Xiaosu’s place had told Wang Congyang that Ren Xiaosu was from Stronghold 178 and that he was also a good friend of Xu Xianchu.

At that time, Wang Congyang knew that even though the description was probably an exaggeration, Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin were actually on very good terms.

If Ren Xiaosu were really there to carry out a mission for Stronghold 178, then Wang Congyang probably couldn’t gain a foothold in the valley.

Even if he did not go looking for Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu would come and look for him!

Wang Congyang was unable to figure out what exactly the truth was. All he wanted was to take advantage of the fact that Ren Xiaosu was not ready yet and try to kill him in order to eliminate any chance of future trouble!

But regardless of whether he succeeded or not, he would have to leave the valley and head to the Central Plains where it was a larger world!

Therefore, when Wang Congyang heard Ren Xiaosu’s name get mentioned, he already had the thought to abandon the bandits under him. It would be impossible for him to bring them to the Central Plains with him, nor did he think they were worthy.

Ren Xiaosu pursued him from behind. He had thought he could catch up with Wang Congyang easily, but at this moment, the mysterious and strange black steam locomotive suddenly drove into the wilderness, completely ignoring the rugged valley as though it were driving on flat ground.

Chapter 359: Duplicating a superpower!

The steam locomotive headed straight for Wang Congyang. When it reached his side, Wang Congyang grabbed a metal handle on the steam locomotive. He stood outside on the edge of the carriage. Off they went towards the north.

Wang Congyang heaved a sigh of relief. But at this moment, he turned around and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu running at full speed behind the train!

What the hell!

Why was there someone following him?!

When Wang Congyang was escaping, he did not notice that someone was following him. In fact, he did not think anyone would have noticed him.

But the moment he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu, he frowned.

At this moment, the two of them were truly pitted against each other one-on-one in the true sense of the phrase. Wang Congyang wondered if he should control the train to turn around and kill Ren Xiaosu. As one of the earliest people to turn superhuman, his physical fitness would definitely be better than Ren Xiaosu’s!

However, he gave up on the idea after careful consideration.

Although he was one of the earliest people to become a supernatural being, and his physical fitness was definitely one of the best as well, that did not mean that Ren Xiaosu would not be hiding killer moves.

Wang Congyang was unwilling to take this risk.

He held the train with one hand and calmly turned around to stare at Ren Xiaosu. It was as though he were trying to burn Ren Xiaosu’s image into his mind.

A strong gust of wind was blowing past him, making his clothes flutter nonstop.

Wait a minute… Wang Congyang realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to be gaining on him…

He suddenly felt like something was amiss and hurriedly used all of his power to drive the steam locomotive faster in hopes of ditching Ren Xiaosu completely.

During this time, Wang Congyang had been leading a very unhappy life. He had become the bandit leader very quickly after arriving here, and that should have been quite good.

But before long, he came to realize that problems were deeply rooted here in the valley due to the influence of several organizations. So it seemed that even being a bandit was a really stressful job!

When he wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu, he ended up losing all the bandits under him after Ren Xiaosu joined forces with Xu Xianchu.

All he wanted now was to leave this place, yet Ren Xiaosu continued chasing after him like a vengeful spirit.

Wang Congyang took out his pistol and fired it at Ren Xiaosu. However, they were so far apart that Ren Xiaosu was not within his effective range.

But Wang Congyang felt a burst of joy when he realized Ren Xiaosu was gradually slowing. He was probably running out of stamina! Should he take advantage now that Ren Xiaosu was exhausted and kill him? Forget it, never mind! What if he was just faking it!

As expected, Wang Congyang decided to give up on killing him. When Ren Xiaosu saw that Wang Congyang did not take any action, he started chasing after him again.

The two of them were constantly jockeying. When Ren Xiaosu sped up, Wang Congyang clenched his teeth and went faster too.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu was already cursing Wang Congyang in his head. There was a limit to his stamina.

This steam locomotive was traveling at about the speed of a normal train, and its maximum speed was about 120 kilometers per hour.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu’s current Strength and Dexterity were roughly three times that of an ordinary person’s. His top speed was only slightly more than a 100 kilometers per hour.

But the stamina of humans was limited! That limit applied to Ren Xiaosu as well!

Ren Xiaosu kept trying to trick Wang Congyang to turn back, but that bastard was simply too smart and cautious. He wasn’t taking the bait.

“Forget it, I’m not gonna chase anymore!”

Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily as he prepared to stop chasing. He had wanted to activate City Crusher to chase after Wang Congyang, but the problem was that it would only last for 30 seconds. And the nanomachines were no longer operating at full capacity. What if he caught up to him but got beaten up instead?

His shadow clone was still assisting Jin Lan and the others to kill their enemies at this moment. Without his shadow clone, who knew how many more people would die back there!

So Ren Xiaosu decided to give up the chase. There would still be many more chances in the future.

However, he suddenly remembered he still needed to do something!

Ren Xiaosu said to the palace in his mind, “Use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!”

The voice from the palace answered, “Currently out of effective range.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What’s the effective range?”

“Five hundred meters.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the distance between him and Wang Congyang, then decisively activated City Crusher to chase after him. When Wang Congyang saw this, he nearly died of fright. How could Ren Xiaosu be so fast?!

But before he could think of a way to handle him, he saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly turn around and run off!

Wang Congyang got farther away as he rode on the steam locomotive. He still could not figure out what Ren Xiaosu was up to! Ren Xiaosu clearly had the strength to catch up to him, so why didn’t he continue pursuing him?

But he couldn’t possibly know that Ren Xiaosu only had a 30-second limit for his power. Why would he not quickly run away after the 30 seconds were up? Would he rather get beaten up?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace saying in his mind, “About to copy the target’s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it.”

“Randomly copied target’s superpower ‘Steam Locomotive.’ Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was ecstatic. “Yes!”

Earlier on, Ren Xiaosu was worried he would end up copying some garbage skill, but he did not expect he would directly duplicate the opponent’s superpower!

The sadness of his past skill duplication attempts had been swept away with this. That jumping rope skill, mahjong playing skill, deception skill, and so on, all of that bad luck seemed to have gone far away from him.

But in an instant, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Could this be the result of Yan Liuyuan’s wish for him? If that were really the case, Yan Liuyuan would probably have to suffer the backlash soon, right? But what was the backlash going to be? Would it be dangerous?

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt his joy retreating. He wanted to go back to check on Liuyuan.

Perhaps he could find an opportunity to bring Yan Liuyuan and the others out here into the wilderness? But he did not know when Qing Zhen would mount a rescue for Luo Lan. Surely it wouldn’t be too long from now, right?

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was sitting in the yard playing Fight the Landlord with Wang Fugui and the others. When he saw the lousy hand that he had been dealt, like missing a card to complete a straight and his high card being a king, he sank deep into thought.

It wasn’t just this hand that was bad! He had been very unlucky throughout the night!

Seeing how Wang Fugui was winning every game, why did it seem like all of the luck had gone to Wang Fugui instead!

“He shouldn’t have encountered anything particularly dangerous, right?” Yan Liuyuan muttered to himself.

“Ever since Bro’s nanomachines enabled him to block bullets, I’ve haven’t experienced any serious backlashes. But if the backlash is just me getting really bad hands, what sort of situation could Bro have encountered?”

Yan Liuyuan had a look at the poker cards in his hand again and exclaimed, “What the hell!”

Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu had yet to realize that their powers would complement each other. If not for Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan would be plagued by the backlash of making wishes. And without Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu would probably not have been able to successfully copy the Steam Locomotive either.

In the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu attempted to summon the strange train out. A black fog immediately appeared out of nothing as a black steam locomotive materialized out of thin air.

The clanking of steel was especially pleasing to the ears in the wilderness. With a chugging sound, black smoke billowed out from the chimney of the steam locomotive. However, Ren Xiaosu was suddenly stunned by what he saw.

He carefully counted the carriages behind the steam locomotive. Wang Congyang’s steam locomotive only had four, so why did he have as many as sixteen?

Chapter 360: In a good mood today

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the battlefield, he saw the corpses of his enemies left behind in the uneven valley. Soon after Wang Congyang fled, the fearsome bandits from the north were routed.

Most of these bandits had already fled into the wilderness and gone missing. Meanwhile, Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were frantically thanking the shadow clone, “Master Xu, I didn’t expect you to show up and help us out personally. Thank you so much!”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes kept twitching when he heard those thanks. He did not even gain a single gratitude token from it.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to lay all his cards on the table. That was not Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone but his! But Ren Xiaosu eventually managed to hold back from doing so because he still had not thought of how to give Xu Xianchu an explanation yet.

Ren Xiaosu said to the shadow clone, “Old Xu, go back and report to Commander Zhang that we’ve defeated a large bandit gang here in the valley.”

There used to be three large bandit gangs that were active in the valley, and now, one of them had been eliminated.

The bandits who had escaped might go on to join the other bandit gangs, but this battle here was a complete victory.

When Jin Lan heard that, he thought that Ren Xiaosu was getting Xu Xianchu to go back to report about their contributions.

However, Ren Xiaosu coughed and said, “I got Old Xu to return to Stronghold 178 to put in some good words for all of us. The commander might be happy when he hears what Old Xu has to say and immediately recruit y’all to join Stronghold 178, so you should know what to do now, shouldn’t you?”

While Ren Xiaosu waited for everyone to thank him, he watched Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others started bowing to the shadow at a 90-degree angle and saying, “Thank you, Master Xu!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. ‘Are they fucking rebelling?!’

Yang Xiaojin walked over from the wilderness looking extremely exhausted. Tonight, she had made some significant contributions to the battle. If it weren’t for her, Jin Lan and the others would be dead.

Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “How many of our people were lost or injured?”

The excitement on Jin Lan’s face immediately faded as he sighed and said, “More than a 100 of our brothers have died. The houses we just built have been destroyed, while our fellow villagers have also died and been injured.”

“Let’s treat our brothers’ wounds first.” Ren Xiaosu took out ten bottles of black medicine and handed them to Jin Lan. “Take the bullets out of their wounds first. This is a secret remedy passed down through my family. You can apply it directly to the wound. One bottle is enough for five to six uses. Just make sure it isn’t drunk.”

It might be gratifying to win the battle, but what about the aftermath? The dead could not be resurrected.

Zhang Yiheng stood in the devastated wasteland looking a little confused. The refugees in the distance were crying.

More than half of the settlement’s mud houses had been toppled by the steam locomotive, while none of the brick houses remained standing. Even the ditches had given way and were now a total mess.

It would be great if even half of the crops they planted could end up germinating.

Zhang Yiheng slowly walked through the crowd. Some of his injured brothers were crying out in pain, while the ones who were OK stayed around to comfort them.

When he walked past a refugee, a child cried out at him, “It’s all your fault! Those bandits came here because of all y’all!”

But before Zhang Yiheng could speak, the mother slapped her child. “Don’t you run your mouth!”

The child’s mother looked at Zhang Yiheng and said, “I know that y’all are good people, so I won’t blame you!”

Zhang Yiheng was stunned and did not say anything

Ren Xiaosu called out to him, “You regretting it?”

Zhang Yiheng was stunned again, then suddenly said, “Actually, I don’t feel that sad. After so many years, everyone knows what this world is really like. It’s all too common to see people dying. Even when my father passed away, I didn’t cry.”

“Then what’re you thinking about?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Zhang Yiheng said calmly, “I’m just thinking, if we were stronger, could we have prevented this suffering?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at him seriously and said, “The houses that we built have all been destroyed.”

Jin Lan, who was standing next to them, said, “We can still rebuild them even though they’ve been destroyed. I’ve checked, and the brick kiln is fine!”

“Even if something had happened to the brick kiln, we could still build another one, two, or even three of them!” Zhang Yiheng suddenly said in a determined tone.

Ren Xiaosu was looking at these bandits. Actually, there was nothing they were good at. Most of them did not even attend school and were illiterate. Even though they were bandits, they could not even hold a gun properly.

But when he attacked the enemy from their rear just now, the bandits here did not break down. Right now, they were still harboring hopes in the ruins of the settlement.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized these bandits were probably still useless as of now. But starting from today, their fate was really going to be changed.

On the same day, Jin Lan led everyone to carry the wounded back to the mud houses that were still intact. Some of the refugees also took the initiative to help take care of them.

At first, they thought that it would be very difficult for the wounded to survive. That was because bacteria these days had become very scary. If anyone received a wound, 90% of them would get infected even in the early spring when the weather was still very cold.

Ren Xiaosu’s wound had been infected after he got nipped by the sparrow.

But they were shocked to discover the black medicine given by Ren Xiaosu was really effective. As soon as it was applied to the wounds of the injured, they claimed their injuries did not hurt anymore. Moreover, their wounds started healing the very next day. The medicine was extremely effective!

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu with more and more admiration.

It was even more so when Jin Lan and the others talked about Ren Xiaosu going behind enemy lines to draw fire to himself. Everyone’s eyes were shimmering in admiration when they heard that.

To Jin Lan and everyone else, this was the respect Ren Xiaosu had earned through risking his life. They admired him in all sincerity.

With the refugees helping to take care of the wounded, Jin Lan and the others had time to make clay bricks again. They salvaged all the usable black bricks from the ruins and restarted the brick kiln.

Standing next to Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin asked him, “Do you feel these people have more enthusiasm now? Their eyes are all filled with hope.”

“Yes, I can feel it.” Ren Xiaosu said emotionally, “It’s probably because there’s no rebuilding without destruction. These people are undergoing a complete change and getting reborn.”

“I’ll be teaching them about firearms. Some of them should be suitable for sniper training. They’re calm and can endure hardship,” Yang Xiaojin said.

On this day, Jin Lan and the others would go looking for Yang Xiaojin on and off to ask her when they could start learning about guns and when she would select the candidates for sniper training.

The battle had made them see their shortcomings. But most importantly, the powerful fire suppression Yang Xiaojin had displayed during the battle was terrifying.

Although everyone knew that it was basically impossible for them to reach Yang Xiaojin’s level, their current ambition was to become a sniper.

As for how Ren Xiaosu had surrounded all their enemies without fear, that was too far of a goal even for them. Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others did not even dare to think about something like that.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “When the situation here has stabilized, I plan to make a trip back to the stronghold and see if I can bring Liuyuan and the others here.”

Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, “You’ve decided that you want to settle down here?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. He suddenly asked, “Have you decided yet?”

Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment. She slipped her hands into her pockets and walked off to the distance. “I’m in a good mood today.”

Chapter 361: We have a spy

Post-battle rebuilding was a very tedious process, because the ruins would have to be cleared up first before the structures could be rebuilt. They had to experience pain before they could receive a new lease of life.

Ren Xiaosu took the lead in burying their dead companions. He initially wanted to erect a stele for each of them, but later, he realized some of the bandits did not even have names.

If Ren Xiaosu had not established this settlement, these people would have been forgotten after their deaths.

He took out a pen and a notepad from his storage space and handed them to Yang Xiaojin, saying, “Make a record of those who are still alive. This will be our future roster.”

A regular army should first have a roster. It meant that everyone’s names would be recorded, and the people on it would be recognized.

But when Yang Xiaojin started the recording process, she was put in a dilemma. The bandits did not report their real names to her. Instead, they gave their nicknames such as Rat, Crow, Mud Pit, Rotten Egg…

Just by their names alone, you would know they were not respectable people!

Yang Xiaojin said patiently, “This roster is only for recording your real names. Besides, aren’t your nicknames really…”

Jin Lan chuckled and said, “Boss Lady, you should allow them to use their nicknames. If you call them by their real names, they might not even respond. All of us are bandits, so we should be called by our nicknames.”

Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and said with a smile, “Sure!”

But at this moment, Xu Jinyuan, who was in charge of the clean-up crew, suddenly came up to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Boss, we found something in the ruins.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the thing Xu Jinyuan was holding. It turned out to be a satellite phone! Seeing that the satellite phone was already damaged, he asked Xu Jinyuan curiously, “Where’d ya find it?”

“It was hidden under the bed in the ruins of our brick house.” Xu Jinyuan said, “There were twenty people sleeping in that house, and I remember that a bandit called Old Fox slept on that particular bedroll.”

“Where’s Old Fox now?” Ren Xiaosu said, “Get him here, I want to question him.”

“He’s dead.” Xu Jinyuan said, “That’s why I secretly came over to seek Boss’s instructions.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. The satellite phone was definitely not something bandits could own. The owner of this satellite phone must’ve used it to report information to a consortium.

He wondered which consortium this satellite phone was linked to.

Was it the Qing Consortium? Or the Zong Consortium?

Anything was possible.

These two consortiums had been eyeing the valley for a long time now, so they might have planted quite a few spies.

“Don’t breathe a word about it. If it doesn’t belong to Brother Old Fox, his reputation will be tarnished after his death if this matter gets out.” Ren Xiaosu said, “This satellite phone could also belong to somebody else.”

Ren Xiaosu even suspected the phone could be Xu Jinyuan’s. He had read in a detective novel back at Stronghold 88 that stated how more than 40% of the witnesses and discoverers of a homicide turned out to actually be the real murderer.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not bring up that doubt and let Xu Jinyuan continue working.

Yang Xiaojin walked over and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“I’m afraid we can’t stay here any longer.” Ren Xiaosu said, “After we go back and get Yan Liuyuan and the others, we’ll head northwest to look for a more secretive location to settle down again. Our activities here have likely been leaked. It’s not so bad if it’s the Qing Consortium, but if it’s the Zong Consortium that planted their spies here, we won’t be able to fend them off when their military attacks us here.”

“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin agreed with him. She did not think it was wrong for Ren Xiaosu to be more cautious.

The reason why the Zong Consortium had trouble fighting the bandits was because the bandits were always wandering around. If they settled down here, it would be extremely easy for the Zong Consortium to deal with them. So Ren Xiaosu wanted to head deeper into the mountains and find a new place to reestablish the settlement.

In the evening, Jin Lan went to look for Ren Xiaosu. But when he came up to him, he heard Ren Xiaosu whispering to Yang Xiaojin, “The northern bandits have killed so many of our brothers, so I’ve already contacted Old Xu and told him to lead his troops here next week. We’ll settle the score with those northern bandits then!”

Jin Lan was a loudmouth. Once he learned about this, everyone in the settlement would find out about it as well.

Ren Xiaosu turned to Jin Lan. “Are you looking for me for something?”

“Oh.” The dumbfounded Jin Lan came back to his senses and said, “Our brothers wanted to ask you… uh, I forgot what their question was!”

“Then go and remember before coming back here,” Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.

After Jin Lan went back to the others, the news of Xu Xianchu coming here with troops next week started spreading.

The bandits were stunned when they heard this. Everyone was fervently discussing how Master Xu would definitely bring others from Stronghold 178 with him. In that case, they would all have to start putting on a good performance from tomorrow onwards so that they would not disgrace their boss, Ren Xiaosu!

The days of the post-disaster rebuilding were very dull. It wasn’t like people could always wallow in pain and sorrow. Everyone had to continue leading their lives.

Jin Lan and the others were working harder than before as they were still thinking about the motorcycles.

Three days later, a figure left the settlement in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep.

The settlement was not quiet, as the bandits snored loudly.

When the person was about to leave, he suddenly turned around and had a look at the settlement. It was as though he had a reluctant look in his eyes. But after struggling for a minute, he still decided he was going to escape north. He was going to leave this place and head north!

But before he could even take two steps, that figure saw Ren Xiaosu waiting in the shadows and looking at him with a smile.

Ren Xiaosu chuckled, “So it was you. What’s your nickname? Rat?”

The bandit named Rat immediately knelt down. “I… I had no choice.”

“Where did you come from?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Rat replied softly, “I was originally from the bandit lair at Mt. Dingyuan in the north. The bandit leader at Mt. Dingyuan sent me to Mt. Daban. Later on, I came here together with the bandits of Mt. Daban, but they also had someone supporting them from the shadows.”

“You’re pretty honest for telling me everything.” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

Rat was getting a little anxious. “I didn’t want to leave either. But even if I stayed, I wouldn’t survive when those people at Mt. Dingyuan started spreading the news that I’m a spy.”

This was the awkward situation that a spy had to go through. If the beginning was already a mistake, it would lead to the wrong ending. Rat had also been tempted in recent days to stay here and lead a good life, but how could he still stay? When the time came, both sides would probably not spare him.

“Is that thing yours?” Ren Xiaosu asked but did not explicitly mention what he was referring to. “What were you doing with it?”

Rat said, “The satellite phone was issued by my previous leader some time ago. It’s used for sending intel.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded in acknowledgment. That matched precisely with what he was asking.

But what should he do with Rat? Let him go? Ren Xiaosu was not that kind.

But when he thought of the days they spent together, Ren Xiaosu felt a little melancholic.

Ren Xiaosu whispered, “If you didn’t try to leave or betray me, I might not have done anything to you when the truth came to light. Xu Jinyuan was originally a spy too, but he made the right choices. Rat, let’s become bandits again in our next lives. But for now, it’s goodbye to you.”

Chapter 362: Harboring evil intentions

It seemed that Rat was also quite the patient one. It wasn’t until the third day after Ren Xiaosu had released the information that he tried to leave the settlement. Ren Xiaosu had not slept well in recent days because he wanted to find the spy who might still be alive.

He had no choice but to root out that person, because if they kept such a person around, they might get found by the Zong Consortium before they could grow stronger even if they moved to another location.

Ren Xiaosu believed the northern bandits were likely to be supported by the Zong Consortium. Although he had no evidence of that, Zong Cheng was supposed to bring them to the front lines at Mt. Shangying, Mt. Lianta, and Mt. Dingyuan in the original mission plan.

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu thought the place Zong Cheng wanted to bring them to would definitely not be simple. It might even turn out to be the bandit lair controlled by the Zong Consortium.

But what was Zong Cheng planning to do by bringing them to Mt. Dingyuan? Was he thinking of putting on an act for the Yang Consortium with his own bandits?

Ren Xiaosu felt this matter had more than met the eye.

At this moment, Wang Congyang was walking alone on a path in the valleys and hills of the Northern Wastes. But as he kept walking, his pace slowed.

“Come out,” Wang Congyang said harshly.

Ahead of him, a young man walked out from behind a mound. He said to Wang Congyang with a warm smile, “Chief Wang, I’ve been waiting here for a long time. Let me introduce myself. I’m Zong Cheng from the Zong Consortium.”

Wang Congyang looked around and asked, “Did you come alone?”

“Of course not.” Zong Cheng smiled and said, “How could I come alone when I’m dealing with you?”

As soon as Zong Cheng stopped speaking, another 30 soldiers appeared from behind the mound. However, Wang Congyang realized these soldiers were acting a little strange. They were behaving unnaturally, as though they were puppets. They didn’t act like normal humans.

He frowned and said, “Why are you looking for me?”

Wang Congyang was wondering how Zong Cheng caught wind of his escape. He actually predicted he would pass by here and came here in advance to wait for him?

If Ren Xiaosu were present, he would have sensed that something was wrong. Since the spy’s satellite phone had been smashed apart during the battle, how could Rat have relayed the intel to Zong Cheng?

“You and I have had dealings with each other for quite some time already.” Zong Cheng said with a smile, “You’re one of the most difficult opponents our Zong Consortium has faced in the valley. I didn’t expect you to end up in such a predicament today.”

“Like you know anything.” Wang Congyang sneered. If he weren’t afraid of Stronghold 178’s strength, Ren Xiaosu would not have been able to do anything to him. “And when have I ever had any dealings with you… Oh, I see, so the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan are your Zong Consortium’s people.”

“It’s much easier speaking with smart people.” Zong Cheng said, “I’m curious about something. Is there bad blood between you and Ren Xiaosu?”

Wang Congyang scorned, “That’s none of your business. As the second generation member of a consortium, aren’t you ashamed to come here and mix with bandits?”

Zong Cheng did not mind it. “This valley has always been our Zong Consortium’s territory. By rights, our Zong Consortium should be the ones controlling this area. But, Chief Wang, you’re the one who’s acting rather unusually. Why are you staking everything just so you can kill Ren Xiaosu when you’ve always been a cautious person? Surely he did not kill your wife and children or something, right?”

Wang Congyang’s mood instantly changed. He suddenly said, “I’ve had a grudge against that Ren Xiaosu since we were at Stronghold 113. Am I wrong for attempting to kill him after he killed my brother?”

Zong Cheng asked, “Then what do you know about Ren Xiaosu? I heard he’s on very good terms with Zhang Jinglin ever since they were at Stronghold 113. Zhang Jinglin also intends for him to take over his role. Isn’t that because he favors Ren Xiaosu and wants him to become the next commander of Stronghold 178? Aren’t you afraid Stronghold 178 will get rid of you for trying to kill him?”

Wang Congyang laughed and answered with a half-truth, “Where’d you get that info from? I was at Stronghold 113 back then. When Zhang Jinglin was teaching in the town’s school, Ren Xiaosu was just his substitute teacher. If he’s on good terms with Zhang Jinglin, would I dare to kill him? All of you were fooled by him!”

Wang Congyang was harboring evil intentions. He was afraid Zong Cheng did not dare to make a move on Ren Xiaosu because of the relationship between Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin!

Wang Congyang deliberated for a couple seconds and said, “You might not know it, but I was the one who assigned the escorts for Zhang Jinglin when he traveled back to Stronghold 178 from Stronghold 113. But for someone as high-ranking as Zhang Jinglin, do you think he would make friends with normal people?”

Zong Cheng frowned. Why did Wang Congyang’s words differ so much from the account Ren Xiaosu had portrayed?

But as they had been dealing with Wang Congyang for some time, they knew he was not a rash person. Since Wang Congyang was willing to make trouble for Ren Xiaosu, could it really be that he might not be on such good terms with Zhang Jinglin after all?

Zong Cheng smiled and said, “Are you saying you want me to seek revenge for you? Why don’t you join us and we’ll seek revenge on your behalf together?”

Wang Congyang smiled as he retreated. “Once I left Stronghold 113, I said I’d never work for anyone else ever again. I’ll only die for myself!”

“That’s such a pity,” Zong Cheng said with some regret. “But you killed so many bandits under my Zong Consortium’s flag. I’m afraid it won’t be appropriate to just let you leave like this.”

“You think you can stop me with just these people?” Wang Congyang laughed uproariously. “That depends on whether you’re capable of doing so or not!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Congyang suddenly noticed the faces of the 30 soldiers behind Zong Cheng were glowing with silvery strands. After that, all of them rushed at him!

These soldiers were much faster than Wang Congyang could imagine. He even felt like they were like 30 standard supernatural beings!

“Nanosoldiers?!” Wang Congyang was bewildered. Although he had heard of nanosoldiers before, he had not seen them for himself. But Wang Congyang could not understand something. Wasn’t it only the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium that had the nanosoldiers? Why would Zong Cheng also have nanosoldiers among his subordinates?

However, Wang Congyang was already prepared. In just an instant, the rugged and menacing steam locomotive had already materialized into reality and driven off in the opposite direction with Wang Congyang on it!

A nanosoldier leaped up and caught a handle on the side of the steam locomotive. It seemed like he was trying to climb onto the train to kill Wang Congyang. But to Zong Cheng’s surprise, Wang Congyang just kicked the nanosoldier off.

The power of this kick was so great it was far beyond Zong Cheng’s imagination. It was not a power that standard supernatural beings could achieve! This Wang Congyang was the best of the best even among supernatural beings!

When that nanosoldier was kicked down, his body blocked the other pursuing nanosoldiers to the rear. When they got up again to chase after him, they realized the steam locomotive had already sped off at a speed of a 120 kilometers per hour.

Some bandits in the gullies in the distance suddenly crawled out and started shooting mercilessly at the steam locomotive. However, Wang Congyang was already inside the train and the bandits could not hurt him.

One of the bandits carrying an RPG launcher fired it at the train. But surprisingly, even when the RPG hit the steam locomotive, it only caused the strange train to wobble a little.

Wang Congyang suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood in the train. He wiped it off and growled, “Your Zong Consortium’s people are like the hyenas that like attacking people from behind. I’ll see how long you all can survive here in the Northwest!

Zong Cheng watched calmly as the steam locomotive departed. He knew he had underestimated what Wang Congyang could do.

Chapter 363: Delivering warmth to the valley

In the settlement, Jin Lan suddenly ran madly towards Ren Xiaosu and said, “Boss, Boss, those people delivering the stuff are here!”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What do you mean by those people delivering the stuff?”

“The people who previously gave us the firearms and motorcycles.” Jin Lan yelled, “I saw their convoy from the hillside. They’re almost here!”

“Let’s go and take a look.” Ren Xiaosu and Jin Lan headed east. Without needing to say anything, Yang Xiaojin started to choose a sniping spot in case the two parties got into a conflict.

During this period, Ren Xiaosu had frequently been hearing from the bandits that there were people delivering food and weapons into the valley. However, he had not seen it for himself yet.

Ren Xiaosu stood on a mound and looked at the approaching convoy. There was no logo on the bodies of the vehicles. He realized the convoy seemed to be very familiar with the valley, as they knew exactly where the locations of the gullies and rivers were.

It seemed this group of people had been keeping themselves rather busy in the valley for the past few years.

Before the convoy arrived, the people in the vehicles were waving from afar when they saw Ren Xiaosu and the others. They were acting in such a friendly manner that it seemed as though they had spotted their fellow villagers.

However, the convoy did not approach them and stopped just under a loess slope in the distance. 30 people jumped out of the vehicles and walked slowly towards them. The group looked to be moving free and easy, but they constantly maintained an attacking formation. The soldiers on both flanks were aiming their guns and already had their weapons cocked in case they needed to open fire at any time.

Ren Xiaosu felt that the disposition of these soldiers was extremely familiar.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought the group’s leader looked a little familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he had seen him before. After these people slowly got closer, the leader smiled and said, “Hey, buddy, who’s in charge here?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “I’m in charge here. Who are you?”

The leader said with a smile, “I’m here to deliver firearms and supplies to you all.”

The sincere look he portrayed was like he was from the consortium dropping by the stronghold’s factories to hand out rice to the workers there.

Ren Xiaosu looked him over. “You’re from the Qing Consortium?”

The leader raised an eyebrow and said, “Nope.”

“Why do I find you so familiar-looking?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Have we met before?”

The leader smiled and said, “I also find you rather familiar. Perhaps it’s fate that brought us together.”

During the conversation, the soldiers behind the person speaking started making some subtle movements as everyone placed their right index finger onto the trigger of their rifle. The atmosphere did not feel right. It was like they could get ambushed at any moment!

Ren Xiaosu glanced at them and saw the atmosphere was getting more intense, so he decided to be direct and said, “I’m Ren Xiaosu.”

Off to the side, Jin Lan and the others were all confused. What was their boss doing?

To their surprise, when the leader heard the name “Ren Xiaosu,” he suddenly froze. After that, he carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu and asked, “You’re Ren Xiaosu?”

Jin Lan and the others’ jaws dropped. Was their boss this famous? It looked like the bandits themselves still did not understand their boss!

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How do I prove it?”

The leader gave it some thought and said, “What has Boss Luo given you before?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before answering, “A banner…”

“Hahaha.” The leader burst into laughter. “So it’s really you. Hello, my name is Xu Man.”

Xu Man appeared to be very polite. Meanwhile, Jin Lan and the others were totally confused by the developments. What was this banner they were talking about?

Jin Lan asked, “Boss, did you used to be a doctor?”

As far as Jin Lan and the others knew, only doctors would receive banners these days.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan and the others and coughed. “Y’all’ve also used the black medicine to treat your wounds.”

It was Xu Man who had discovered Ren Xiaosu’s presence in the Jing Mountains back then. The two of them had clashed before.

But it was late at night back then, and the two of them did not engage in close combat. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu’s face was really dirty at that time. So they did not recognize each other even though they were talking face to face.

Xu Man continued, “Back then, you were also in the Jing Mountains. But I probably did not see you because you did not enter the ruined city. I was tasked with capturing Xu Xianchu that night.”

Ren Xiaosu immediately understood.

Then Xu Man said, “But you still look very familiar to me. Have we met before?”

“Hahaha, I don’t look familiar, I really don’t.” Ren Xiaosu laughed. “I got the wrong person earlier.”

Of course he couldn’t fucking look familiar to Xu Man. Otherwise, Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Xu Xianchu might just find out what really happened that night!

Xu Man wondered, “But you really look familiar! Wait, you’re…”

Ren Xiaosu began sweating. He quickly changed the subject and asked, “What’re you doing here? Don’t tell me the Qing Consortium is supplying all the guns into the valley?”

“Oh, this has been going on since some time ago. I only started coming here in the last year.” Xu Man said, “At that time, Mr. Qing Zhen had been placed under house arrest, and our men were separated when they got assigned out to the other combat troops. I received Mr. Qing Zhen’s instructions and secretly came to the valley to take over the duties here.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized it was Qing Zhen who had planned everything here, not the Qing Consortium!

But if it happened several years ago, then he must have gotten all of the plans in the valley started while he was still under tight watch by the Qing Consortium’s Board of Directors.

He had planned really far ahead!

The Yang Consortium, the Li Consortium, and the Zong Consortium were really unlucky to encounter such an opponent. Initially, the Zong Consortium wanted to take control of Stronghold 178 from within during the absence of Zhang Jinglin. In the end, Qing Zhen purposely sent Zhang Jinglin back to Stronghold 178. He wondered whether the Zong Consortium’s people had seen red when they learned about that.

Xu Man suddenly said, “Boss Luo has specifically instructed us to inform you if we met you that we’re ready to take action. Of course, even if you can’t make it back in time, he’ll still help you bring your brother and the others out.”

“Is Qing Zhen preparing to rescue Luo Lan?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll betray y’all after you tell me this?”

“Boss Luo said you can be trusted.” Xu Man said with a smile, “As subordinates, we just follow orders.”

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. The feeling of being trusted was quite nice.

He asked Xu Man, “Then what about all y’all? What are your plans? Are you going to attack the Zong Consortium?”.

Since Qing Zhen had prepared backup plans for the north, they would be put to good use when the time arrived, right?

Xu Man explained, “We’ve only managed to rope over some of the bandits in the north to our side, so it’ll be impossible for us to defeat the Zong Consortium. Mr. Qing Zhen’s plans here were not made so that he could send us to our deaths by taking on the Zong Consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu started to get curious. “Then what are y’all doing here?”

Xu Man hesitated for a moment before saying, “The peak of the upstream floods of the river will be here in about ten days. At that time, we’ll destroy all the bridges in the valley to stop the Zong Consortium from coming further south to aid the Yang Consortium. Meanwhile, we’ll have our other men head south to destroy all the factories outside of the Yang Consortium’s strongholds.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He felt that Qing Zhen’s plans were somehow all linked to one another.

It was like Qing Zhen had been planning to incorporate the entire Northwest and Southwest into the Qing Consortium’s territory since several years ago.

Chapter 364: I ll wait for you here

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that Qing Zhen was just like a shining star in the Northwest and Southwest. He completely overshadowed those from the other consortiums and made them appear dull and gloomy.

It was not that the other consortiums were not smart, but that Qing Zhen’s plans were much more thought out.

The series after series of Qing Zhen’s plans involved both luck and calculation.

From the start, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had gotten their hands on the Li Consortium’s breakthrough in nanotech, yet they gave it to the Yang Consortium through Yang Xiaojin just like that.

At that time, Qing Zhen asked Yang Xiaojin, “Will the Yang Consortium put the knowledge to military use after acquiring what was originally a technology used for medical treatments?”

Obviously, Qing Zhen already knew the answer. How could the Yang Consortium possibly not put the nanomachines to military use? These were greedy consortiums whose appetites would never be satisfied.

The destruction of Stronghold 109 had a significant impact on the Li Consortium. As a result, several internal factions of the Li Consortium with their own interests were fighting one another to shirk responsibility for the defeat.

At that time, the Li Consortium’s higher-ups also needed a target to vent their anger on and prove they were not weaklings. If they let the matter slide, an even greater disaster might befall the entire organization. Therefore, they needed to take revenge.

The Li Consortium’s decision to start a war with the Yang Consortium was definitely not done out of spite. It was a decision they had to make after considering their political interests.

The Li Consortium wanted to kill Li Shentan, but he had already disappeared.

The Li Consortium also wanted to exterminate the Experimentals. But at the time, the Yang Consortium had already amassed their troops along their shared border, so they couldn’t worry about the Experimentals.

As such, the Li Consortium directed all of their anger at the Yang Consortium.

In fact, the Qing Consortium joined the battlefield much later. It was originally a war between the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium and had nothing to do with the Qing Consortium.

Qing Zhen had predicted back then that the Board would send him to the front lines, so he waited patiently in his villa.

After he made his comeback, Qing Zhen immediately killed Qing Yun and chose to cooperate with the Yang Consortium.

It looked like he had formed an alliance with the Yang Consortium, but he was actually holding their main forces at the front line of the battlefield in the south.

This was probably one of the most critical portions of Qing Zhen’s plan.

Later on, Qing Zhen deliberately double-crossed the Yang Consortium with his sudden withdrawal of the troops. This led to Luo Lan’s house arrest and caused the Yang Consortium to have to dispatch more troops to fill the gap at the front line.

And currently, the mysterious force that was preparing to rescue Luo Lan, as well as the bandits he had been consolidating in the North, were all capable of troubling the defenseless Yang Consortium to the point they would not sleep well at night.

It seemed Qing Zhen wasn’t planning to swallow the Yang Consortium immediately. He had too much patience for that. Right now, he was only looking to disrupt the Yang Consortium’s well-oiled supply chain. The collapse of the rear logistics might seem to be just an economic setback, but in war, it could mean that the frontline soldiers would not get issued with enough bullets to fight!

It might not be felt too soon since the Yang Consortium’s reserves could still last for a while. But over time, the Qing Consortium would probably be able to pin the Yang Consortium down on the ground and give them a good thrashing!

If the Zong Consortium wanted to head south at this moment, they would be stopped by the arrival of the spring floods.

Although the Zong Consortium could still build pontoon bridges, the intensity of the spring floods in the valley was absolutely not something that could be resolved by just constructing several dozen pontoon bridges. There were thousands of riverbeds, and the ground resembled broken porcelain scattered around in the middle of a river.

Qing Zhen had even calculated the timing perfectly. It would take place ten days later!

But Ren Xiaosu could not understand who could possibly be capable of storming the stronghold to save Luo Lan. The Qing Consortium’s main forces were at the front line in the south as well!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “But there should also be the Zong Consortium’s people who are part of the northern bandits, right? What if they try to stop you?”

Xu Man smiled and said, “They think our Qing Consortium is trying to compete with them for the valley’s territory, but they’re too shortsighted by thinking that way. We’ve never regarded them as a threat before. We might be in the south for several days before they realize we’re gone.”

The Zong Consortium had always thought the Qing Consortium was trying to seize the valley for themselves. But in reality, that was not the Qing Consortium’s target.

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. “I’ll prepare to head south as well and cooperate with your people to save Luo Lan.”

“The ones rescuing Luo Lan are not our people.” Xu Man said, “So you don’t have to treat them as your friends.”

However, Xu Man did not disclose too much information to Ren Xiaosu. That was all he could say.

When they finished talking, Xu Man was about to leave. Off to the side, Jin Lan suddenly said, “Since you’re already here, why don’t you give us some stuff before you leave?”

“Oh.” Xu Man was stunned. He had totally forgotten about giving out firearms and supplies to them. “What do you all need?”

Ren Xiaosu could not be bothered to slowly choose, so he said, “Just leave all of it behind.”

Jin Lan and the others were shocked. Their boss was way too different. By saying it that way, how could the people be willing to give them anything?

Xu Man’s mouth twitched. “Why don’t you ask me to let you keep the resupply vehicles as well?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “Well, I guess that would work too. After unloading the supplies, you’ll have four empty vehicles. Since there aren’t that many of you, just leave these four vehicles behind for us.”

Off to the side, Xu Jinyuan whispered, “Boss is really different. Usually, we have to wait for the consortium’s people to come with the supplies and accept whatever they offer to us. Then we use the supplies to go and rob others. But, Boss, he just robs them instead.”

Xu Man frowned and considered it for a couple seconds before saying with a sigh, “Alright, you’re so pushy.”

Jin Lan and the others gasped. Who the hell was their boss, really? Never mind the Qing Consortium’s people being so polite with them earlier, they even gave him whatever he wanted and the resupply vehicles as well.

Ren Xiaosu stared at Jin Lan. “What’re you still standing there for? Go and take the stuff.” He turned to Xu Man and said, “I won’t keep y’all for lunch. I still have to hurry up and get ready.”

With that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and left, leaving Xu Man standing there with his eyes twitching. After giving them all that stuff, he was actually chasing them away without offering them a meal? We didn’t even say we’d be staying for lunch, so who are you guarding against!

Ren Xiaosu found Yang Xiaojin and told her, “The Qing Consortium will likely launch an attack on Stronghold 88 soon. What’s your opinion?”

In fact, what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was how Yang Xiaojin was also a member of the Yang Consortium. If the Yang Consortium’s stronghold came under attack, could she possibly stay out of it?

Yang Xiaojin was silent for some time before replying, “I’ll stay here.”

It seemed that the estrangement between Yang Xiaojin and the Yang Consortium was not as simple as their kinship fading. She had never mentioned her parents before. Based on her age, her parents should both be in their prime, so why were they not around?

If Yang Xiaojin did not wish to talk about it, Ren Xiaosu would not ask her either. But he understood there had to be more to this.

But even though Yang Xiaojin could ignore the Yang Consortium, she would not want to harm them. So she decided to stay out of it by remaining here in the settlement.

After all, Ren Xiaosu would inevitably clash with the Yang Consortium if he cooperated with Luo Lan to get Yan Liuyuan and the others out when he went back this time.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“I’ll wait for you here.”

Chapter 365: The fall of the Li Consortium

In the Southwest, Li Shentan was walking alone in a vast forest on a small path that was only wide enough for a car to pass. The ground had turned muddy after a downpour.

He was carrying a fishing rod on his shoulder with a fish basket hanging from his waist.

In the fish basket made out of bamboo strips, two large river shrimps were wriggling, and three crabs had their pincers and legs tied up with hemp twine. Each crab looked like it weighed around 1 to 1.5kg. If these crabs were caught in the times before The Cataclysm, they would definitely be considered a good catch.

“Little Liren, did you get a good look at what that shadow in the river was?” Li Shentan asked.

Si Liren’s sweet voice could be heard above him. “No, I didn’t really see it.”

Li Shentan curled his lips. “It was quite scary.”

“Don’t worry, it can’t beat me,” Si Liren comforted.

“I was just worried I would get eaten by it before you could save me.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “But luck is on my side today. Although I did not catch any fish, I caught quite a few shrimps and crabs.”

At this moment, the sound of an approaching vehicle came from further up the path. Li Shentan stood still with a calm expression on his face.

When the vehicle appeared, the driver behind the wheel was shocked to see Li Shentan standing there. “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!”

The driver frantically honked at him, but Li Shentan just stood there motionlessly like a rock.

The driver stepped on the brakes, but the vehicle could not stop due to the muddy ground. The middle-aged man in the vehicle gritted his teeth as it headed straight for Li Shentan. He could not turn his steering wheel at this moment because the vehicle would flip if he did.

Just as the off-road vehicle was about to hit Li Shentan, the little girl in the sky suddenly dropped down from above and smashed her tiny fist heavily on its hood.

This punch caused the entire rear half of the off-road vehicle to fly into the air. Then it flipped over Li Shentan in midair before landing in the mud behind him.

“Li Shentan, the damsel is here to save you!” Si Liren said happily.

Li Shentan smiled but did not answer. Instead, he turned around and looked behind at the off-road vehicle that had just overturned. “How sad.”

The driver was stuck in his seat and dangling in midair. He cursed from within the vehicle, “Are you fucking blind! You—”.

Before he could finish speaking, Si Liren floated over and flipped the vehicle back upright. Then she effortlessly lifted the old man in the backseat out.

The old man had a look of horror on his face. Li Shentan said with a smile, “It’s our first time meeting. Hi, my name is Li Shentan.”

When this name was mentioned, the old man became even more frightened. “How did you know I was going to be passing through here? What do you want?”

Li Shentan said with a smile, “It seems you know nothing about my power, but there’s no need to think about these meaningless things. What I’m curious about is, didn’t the Qing Consortium surround the stronghold awhile ago? How did you manage to get past their perimeter?”

The old man’s face darkened. “What exactly do you want from me?”

Li Shentan muttered to himself, “Oh, I see. You made a deal with that demon, Qing Zhen, so you can abandon the entire Li Consortium and escape alone. Where does this road lead? There’s a mountain road up ahead that goes all the way to the Central Plains. So you must be fleeing there.”

At this moment, Si Liren said, “Big Brother Shentan, there’s a lot of gold bars in the vehicle!”

“Mhm.” Li Shentan nodded and said, “Before leaving, you even took all the gold from the Li Consortium’s bank. That’s enough for you to lead a rich life in the Central Plains.”

The middle-aged man hiding in the vehicle did not dare to make a sound. The old man roared, “Li Youbai, kill him with the gun!”

But no matter how much the old man shouted at him, the middle-aged man did not dare to move recklessly.

Li Shentan smiled and said, “You even thought of bringing your son with you to escape together, but sadly, he’s useless. The Li Consortium has fallen from grace so much in your generation.”

In the eyes of Li Shentan, the Li Consortium was unworthy of its reputation. They were but a small warlord exercising sovereignty in a corner of the Southwest.

He said to the old man, “Dear patriarch of the Li clan, let me guess what deal you’ve made with that demon, Qing Zhen…”

Because Si Liren was holding the old man up, his long, sparse hair was scattered messily on his forehead. His face turned red as he said, “How dare you claim others are demons when you’re the demon yourself!”

“I didn’t say he was the only demon in this world.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “I’m one as well. But let’s get back to the point. Over a month ago, the Qing Consortium suddenly withdrew their troops from the main battlefield, then the most mysterious nanosoldiers of the Li Consortium disappeared shortly after that. The Li Consortium’s higher-ups must’ve thought you were preparing to put up a last stand against the enemy. However, they didn’t realize these mysterious nanosoldiers were only your bargaining chip. So what was Qing Zhen’s condition for you that he allowed you to leave with the gold? You betrayed the entire Li Consortium this easily?”

The old man did not say anything more. As he was advanced in age, he started getting dizzy after struggling for a bit in Si Liren’s hands.

Li Shentan continued, “At that time, the mysterious troops were disguised as wounded soldiers of the Qing Consortium that retreated to the rear. They marched all the way north through the territories controlled by the Qing Consortium with no one stopping them, and they were even provided with supplies and firearms too. As for their destination, even I’m not sure where they’re headed. Can you tell me where they went and for what?”

“This has nothing to do with you!” the old man roared.

“I’m a member of the Li Consortium as well.” Li Shentan said with a sigh, “I’d wanted to destroy the Li Consortium with my own hands as I was really ashamed of this identity. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be too gratifying if the Li Consortium perished just like that.”

“You’re a madman!”

“But it’s not fun anymore.” Li Shentan sighed before saying again, “With the imminent destruction of the Li Consortium, you should die alongside it as well.”

Si Liren said, “Should I kill them?”

“No, I’ll kill them myself. You’re still young, so you shouldn’t be killing anyone.”

Then Li Shentan raised his hand and grabbed a small stone from the ground without physically bending down. With a flick of his finger, the stone flew towards the old man and left a bleeding wound in his forehead.

The small stone stopped at the back of the old man’s head and suddenly changed direction to go through the back of the driver’s head.

Li Shentan muttered to himself, “So this is how it all ends?”

Si Liren dropped the old man to the muddy ground as though he were a tattered bag. She wondered, “What are we doing next?”

“I don’t know.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “We’ll head to the Central Plains. I heard it’s very prosperous. But we have to wait for a little while. Grandpa hasn’t arrived yet.”

“OK.” Si Liren nodded. “When will Grandpa Hu Shuo be here?”

“Tomorrow.” Li Shentan suddenly remembered something and said, “Bring the gold in the vehicle along. Ren Xiaosu will definitely like it a lot. We can give it to him the next time we meet.”

“Why don’t we go look for him in the North?”. Si Liren asked curiously.

Li Shentan said calmly, “He probably doesn’t want to see me now. We should head to the Central Plains and wait for him there instead.”

“OK,” Si Liren answered obediently. She then flew into the woods and carried out a huge metal box that she placed over her back. The case was several times bigger than her, so it made her tiny body floating in the air look like a tiny bee. She stuffed the heavy gold pieces into the case, but it didn’t look like it took her much effort to carry it on her back.

Li Shentan stood on the quiet path and gazed at the far end of it. He saw sunlight shining down through the woods, and the scattered light looked just like the cold rain falling. He felt a little lost.

Just like a child who had scored a 100 percent on his exam, he should be looking for his parents happily for reward and praise. But in this case, he couldn’t find anyone he could share the happiness and success with. ‘Mom, I’ve avenged you.’

Chapter 366: The start of Qing Zhen’s territorial expansion

In the darkness outside of Stronghold 88, a convoy of transport trucks were driving on the northern highway. When they arrived at the stronghold, the private troops in charge of guarding the gate carried out a simple search before letting them through. As these were the Yang Consortium’s transport trucks, the private troops did not dare to stick their noses in too much.

But shortly after the convoy entered the stronghold, the figure of a young man rolled out from under the truck. He stood up and dusted himself while looking around cautiously.

It was late at night, so there wasn’t really anyone around.

Ren Xiaosu walked in the shadows of the streets as he quickly made his way to where Yan Liuyuan and the others were living. Xu Xianchu was the one who taught him how to get into the stronghold that way, and it was surprisingly useful.

He would get there soon. During this time, Ren Xiaosu did not encounter anyone on patrol.

But just when he thought everything was going smoothly, he suddenly saw the familiar figure of a woman in front of him. That person also seemed surprised to see Ren Xiaosu here.

“Ren Xiaosu, didn’t you go north for the elimination of the bandits?” Zhou Yingxue asked in surprise.

But just as she finished speaking, she saw Ren Xiaosu charge out of the shadows and swing his palm towards her neck without saying a word.

Zhou Yingxue reacted extremely quickly as she raised her wrist to block the knifehand strike. But she was surprised that they were on completely different levels.

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at Zhou Yingxue, who had fainted onto the ground. It should purely be a coincidence that he encountered Zhou Yingxue here. But her reaction speed from earlier was not something the average person possessed. She was a supernatural being.

After thinking for a moment, he picked Zhou Yingxue off the ground and sprinted in the direction of Yan Liuyuan and the others.

Ren Xiaosu did not know when Qing Zhen’s people would make their move, so if he left Zhou Yingxue here, who knew what trouble she could cause after coming around?

However, Ren Xiaosu didn’t feel that it was necessary to silence her.

After Ren Xiaosu carried Zhou Yingxue back, he jumped over the wall into the yard without knocking on the door. Upon landing on the other side, he saw Yan Liuyuan pointing a pistol at him.

“Bro?” Yan Liuyuan said in surprise, “Why have you come back all of a sudden? You even brought someone back too?”

Liuyuan was supposed to be keeping watch tonight, but little did he expect such a surprise.

Ren Xiaosu put Zhou Yingxue down onto the ground and said with a smile, “Wake Li Qingzheng and the others up. Tie this Zhou Yingxue up and gag her.”

“Alright!” Yan Liuyuan said.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Did anything happen at home recently?”

Yan Liuyuan hesitated and said with a smile, “Don’t worry, we’ve been doing well.”

All of a sudden, Luo Lan’s head appeared over the wall from next door. “You’re finally back. Any later and we wouldn’t have made it in time!”

Ren Xiaosu said curiously, “Xu Man told me it was supposed to take place ten days later, and it’s only been three days since then.”

Luo Lan replied, “This matter is a little beyond our control. We aren’t sure when exactly they’ll make their move, so it could happen at any moment.”

But just as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu heard a sudden explosion in the silence of the night!

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Beyond your control? Who exactly is coming to attack Stronghold 88? Aren’t they your people?”

“It’s the Li Consortium’s people. I don’t have time to explain, so quickly pack everything up. My men will be here soon.” Luo Lan anxiously whisper-shouted, “Let’s hurry up and leave while the Yang Consortium deals with the attackers!”

“How many people from the Li Consortium are here?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“A regiment of 1,500 soldiers.” Luo Lan said, “This is the last of the Li Consortium’s forces.”

As they spoke, the southern part of the stronghold was set ablaze. Gunfire ripped through the peace of the night and loud explosions rang out. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “How can 1,500 soldiers possibly take down a stronghold of the Yang Consortium?”

Luo Lan glanced at him. “They’re 1,500 nanosoldiers.”

Just as Stronghold 88 started turning chaotic, the last stronghold of the Li Consortium at the front lines of the southern battlefield was declared destroyed.

The Yang Consortium’s leader at the front line, Yang Yuning, said to his trusted aide beside him, “Seize control of the Li Consortium’s stronghold. After we get inside, we must quickly occupy the favorable terrain. Lay in ambush and kill all of the Qing Consortium’s troops that enter the stronghold together. Don’t show them any mercy!”

But before the Yang Consortium could rush into the stronghold, Yang Yuning suddenly heard an ear-piercing sound come from the sky. It was the sound of artillery fire penetrating through the air, and it was fired from the Qing Consortium’s position.

He instinctively roared, “Qing Zhen, you treacherous scoundrel!”

After the destruction of the Li Consortium, there would no longer be any basis for the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium’s alliance.

The Yang Consortium was planning to attack the Qing Consortium before this, but Yang Yuning did not expect the Qing Consortium to not even bother taking down the Li Consortium’s stronghold before sneak attacking against them!

The Yang Consortium was still not ruthless enough!

“Go prone!” Yang Yuning roared. “Order the nanosoldiers to break through and take out Qing Yi!”

But just as he finished speaking, a soldier beside him pointed his gun at him and started shooting merciless. Before he could finish firing all the rounds in his magazine, the soldier collapsed in a pool of blood.

However, the Yang Consortium’s general, Yang Yuning, had already been shot to death!

No one knew how long Qing Zhen had been preparing for this day. All those countless days and nights that Qing Zhen had spent playing those unnecessary moves had now dealt continuous fatal blows to his enemies in just a short few months.

The reinforced company in charge of guarding the general immediately surrounded him. Amid the chaos, someone shouted they were being attacked. But the artillery fire in the sky was already arriving.

Right from the beginning, the Qing Consortium dealt them a vicious blow. The Yang Consortium’s troops were surrounded by smoke and mud after artillery shells hit their area. The artillery troops the Qing Consortium had kept hidden for the longest time had fired at strategic locations like it didn’t cost a thing. It was as though they wanted to bombard the entire battlefield once over.

The Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers on standby to attack Qing Yi’s command center were immediately deployed. But just as they were about to charge diagonally to the front of the Yang Consortium’s position, they realized someone at the Qing Consortium’s position had suddenly removed the tarps on the armored vehicles.

There was a dense matrix of gun barrels on those black armored vehicles!

It was the metal storm, the Mountain Obliterator!

The thousand-odd nanosoldiers were blasted to shreds in an instant. Even before they died, they did not understand why these Mountain Obliterators appeared here. It wasn’t mentioned in their intel at all!

The intel they received was false!

Qing Yi stood behind an armored vehicle and sneered, “Third Bro was indeed right. These nanosoldiers are just a fancy bunch.”

The third brother Qing Yi was referring to was Qing Zhen. Qing Zhen was third oldest among their group of cousins.

And according to Qing Zhen, these nanomachines that had always been hailed as the battlefield’s divine weapons were really just bells and whistles in the face of modern artillery fire.

When they annihilated the Divine Arms Battalion some time ago, Qing Zhen had said it was an extremely dumb tactic to use the nanosoldiers by putting them together. They should be used for infiltration, carrying out decapitation strikes, intelligence gathering, and destruction of key enemy installations. They shouldn’t appear on the main battlefield at all. Unless, of course, the enemies were caught off guard.

Just like in Stronghold 88, no one had imagined there would be an entire formation of nanosoldiers breaking through the Qing Consortium’s defensive line and arriving here.

Even though the Yang Consortium had tried their best to monitor the movements of all the Qing Consortium’s combat troops, they had neglected to keep tabs on the Li Consortium, which was fighting a desperate last stand.

Chapter 367: Towards the wilderness of hope

Ren Xiaosu was unaware of what was going on at the southern front line. He only knew this stronghold was finished when he saw the fiery flames in Stronghold 88.

Currently, the permanent garrison troops of Stronghold 88 were only left with the military strength of an independent infantry regiment. If this were a normal defense, even an infantry brigade would not be able to defeat it, unless it was an armored brigade or rocket troops.

But the whereabouts of all the Qing Consortium’s fighting forces were known to the Yang Consortium’s intelligence agency. It was impossible that they could have allowed the Qing Consortium’s heavy firepower troops to get so close to Stronghold 88.

But ever since these nanosoldiers started moving north, they had relied on their high mobility to travel through the wilderness and never once showed themselves on the main roads. Although normal troops could not travel through such difficult terrain, it proved to be just walking on flat ground for these nanosoldiers.

This was also the reason why Qing Zhen chose to have these nanosoldiers infiltrate the Yang Consortium’s stronghold. Even Qing Zhen’s elite troops couldn’t break through the Yang Consortium’s defensive line without raising a ruckus.

But nanosoldiers could.

At this moment, the flames were spreading towards the north. Ren Xiaosu realized it was moving in a straight line like a precise scalpel cutting into the Yang Consortium’s vital points.

After destroying the gate and breaking into the stronghold, these nanosoldiers did not fight the garrison troops. Instead, they continued heading north as they sought to destroy the Yang Consortium’s manor and kill all of the Yang Consortium’s higher-ups located there.

Although the Yang Consortium’s higher-ups were distributed across more than a dozen strongholds, 60% of them were located here in the Yang Consortium’s manor at Stronghold 88. If this place were destroyed, the Yang Consortium would immediately fall into a state of disarray.

Once the front line collapsed and the rear was without a leader, the Qing Consortium would probably push forward unopposed and devour the already defeated Yang Consortium bit by bit.

“Ugh.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that sound, he turned around and saw Zhou Yingxue slowly regaining consciousness. Zhou Yingxue was staring blankly at the flames. She could also hear the thunder of firearms and explosives. Suddenly, she said in panic, “Let me go! My mother’s still at home!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He hesitated for a second before walking over to Zhou Yingxue and said, “I have nothing against you. I won’t blame you for spying on me since you and I are looking at the matter from a different standpoint. But if I let you go here, don’t cause any trouble for me, got it?”

Zhou Yingxue looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu. “OK!”

Ren Xiaosu cut the hemp rope tied around Zhou Yingxue. She jumped over the wall without hesitation and disappeared.

Ren Xiaosu was no longer afraid the Yang Consortium would come and stop them. After all, they could hardly even look after themselves.

Suddenly, tires screeched against ground in front of their door. Luo Lan roared, “Ren Xiaosu, hurry up and come with me. We have to leave this troublesome place. Those Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers won’t care if we’re from the Yang Consortium or not once they start their killing spree.”

When Ren Xiaosu pushed open the front yard’s door, he saw a lot of the stronghold’s residents coming out onto the streets and watching the flames around them. Some people were hiding in the buildings, thinking it would be safer at home.

Two transport trucks were parked at the door and were surrounded by the Qing Consortium’s soldiers, who were standing guard. These soldiers had infiltrated Stronghold 88 earlier, but Luo Lan knew very well that they could not rescue him from here and were only responsible for aiding him.

Ren Xiaosu helped Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others into the vehicles. Within two minutes, everyone was seated in the back of the truck in an orderly manner.

Luo Lan roared, “Start driving! Go, go, go! I don’t want to be buried along with Stronghold 88!”

Ren Xiaosu looked back at the blazing flames where the 1,500 nanosoldiers were. If he could just get his hands on some of the nanomachines, it would be enough for everyone here to get stronger. But he could not take the risk because he knew his priorities.

If they turned around now, all of them could end up dying here instead. Ren Xiaosu would rather not get those nanomachines.

The two trucks sped along the streets towards the east gate. When the stronghold residents saw the way those two trucks took flight, everyone started panicking as well and began fleeing in the same direction as the trucks.

“Ren Xiaosu,” Luo Lan called out in the back of the truck during the bumpy ride, “come with me to the Qing Consortium!”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Yan Liuyuan, then shook his head. “No.”

Puzzled, Luo Lan asked, “If you follow me to the Qing Consortium, you’ll have meat to eat and wine to drink. There’ll be plenty of money to spend, and you can get chauffeured around in luxury cars. Wouldn’t it be such bliss to drive luxury cars and take beautiful women out for a spin?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled. “I’ve thought about living in the stronghold before, but I have a better option now. I still feel that the wilderness is more suitable for me.”

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes lit up. “Bro, where we going?”

“Our new home.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “A place where there’s hope.”

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. He replied, “Bro, thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” Ren Xiaosu said, “I really think that it’s a good place.”

Luo Lan lamented, “Xu Man already told me about this. I can only wish you all the best then. In the future, you can visit our Qing Consortium. Just mention my name wherever you go.”

“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “I will.”

Although they did not want to settle down in the Qing Consortium’s territory, they could still visit. But that would definitely be a long time from now. The current Qing Consortium would probably be involved in the war for a long time to come. At this moment, the Qing Consortium was no longer a consortium but a war machine.

“But the bridges in the north have probably been destroyed by now, so how are you guys going to head north?” Luo Lan asked. “Now there’s a large river separating the north and the south, so you can’t pass through that
area.”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Ren Xiaosu replied calmly.

The bandit gangs controlled by the Qing Consortium in the north had come down to the south. They had destroyed not only the bridges but also all of the Yang Consortium’s factories in the wilderness.

If it were the past, he definitely couldn’t have crossed the large river. But now he could. He really had Wang Congyang to thank for presenting him with the steam locomotive.

Ren Xiaosu had already tested it earlier. The steam locomotive could travel on any terrain like it was moving on flat ground. The tracks that materialized out of thin air allowed it to cross any rivers.

When the two trucks arrived at the east gate, there were only a few garrison troops remaining. When the soldiers were about to inspect the vehicles, the Qing Consortium’s soldiers got out and killed them in an orderly fashion. How could these private troops guarding the gate be a match for the Qing Consortium’s regular troops?

After the Qing Consortium’s soldiers blew up the gate, the trucks burst through the enveloping smoke and drove out into the wilderness.

This escape from a stronghold was much easier than all of their previous experiences. Ren Xiaosu turned cheerful the moment he finally managed to get Yan Liuyuan and the others out of the stronghold.

Everything was developing positively, and Ren Xiaosu started looking forward to their future in the wilderness.

But when he looked back at the sky filled with smoke at Stronghold 88, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt this was probably not something he should be happy over.

This era was starting to collapse.

Could they really carve out a future of their own in the wilderness?

Chapter 368: A gift

The people who appeared in the stronghold were not the only ones who had come to pick Luo Lan up. Xu Man had also led a team to wait outside of Stronghold 88. It was as though he were afraid that something would go wrong in the process of rescuing Luo Lan.

It seemed that the brotherhood between Luo Lan and Qing Zhen was indeed strong. Qing Zhen was even willing to destroy an entire stronghold for Luo Lan.

When Ren Xiaosu first met Luo Lan at Stronghold 88, Luo Lan said Qing Zhen would definitely rescue him. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen had already made all the preparations for the rescue when he suddenly ordered the withdrawal of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops and left the Yang Consortium’s troops stranded at the front line.

Even if Qing Zhen had not been able to turn the tables on the Board in that chaotic struggle for power, this rescue mission would still have been carried out accordingly, with Qing Yi’s assistance, and the nanosoldiers would still have arrived at Stronghold 88 within the planned time.

On the day Qing Zhen trekked up to Mt. Ginkgo, he had laid out everything for Luo Lan before the snowstorm arrived.

Before they parted, Luo Lan was no longer trying to persuade Ren Xiaosu to go back to the Qing Consortium with them. He said to Ren Xiaosu, “Once you’ve all settled down in the valley, you can contact me. I’ll get Xu Man to send some supplies to you. Consider it my congratulations to you on your new home.”

“Sure!” Ren Xiaosu did not be overly polite as they bade each other farewell.

In this world, all good things had to come to an end. Ren Xiaosu and the others were about to head off towards that hope and light in their hearts.

On their way back to the valley, Yan Liuyuan asked, “Bro, what’s it like in the valley?”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “It’s a poor place where the homes are made out of mud. The land for growing crops has also been destroyed, and there’s a gang of bandits so poor that they only have guns, while there’s no one left for them to rob.”

Yan Liuyuan listened to this seriously but did not say anything.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “So are you still willing to go there?”

“Yes, of course.” Yan Liuyuan’s eyes gleamed as he said, “Is Big Sister Xiaojin there too? She…”

“Yeah, she’s also there.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “Together with the bandits, the two of us usually dig for silt to make clay bricks to build houses with. We even give lessons to those bandits too.”

Yan Liuyuan asked, “Can I also build houses with y’all?”

“Of course you can,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yan Liuyuan was not afraid that life would be tough. As long as there were hope, he would still be very happy even if he had to carry bricks and build houses.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi, Jiang Wu, and the others behind him. Ms. Jiang had been very quiet ever since several of her female students left the group. No one knew what she was thinking about every day.

Ren Xiaosu said to Yan Liuyuan, “Let’s go! Bro will take you for a spin!”

“How are we going for a spin?” Yan Liuyuan wondered. “We don’t even have a car. I thought we were going to walk to the valley.”

Stronghold 88 was more than 400 kilometers away from the valley, with two strongholds between them. It would even take Ren Xiaosu three days to run back there.

However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly summoned the steam locomotive as though he had no intention of hiding this superpower. When Wang Fugui saw the train, he was stunned. “Xiaosu, this is… a train?!”

“That’s right.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Let’s go for a ride on the train!”

Everyone behind him started laughing. Other people would take beautiful women out for a spin in their luxury cars, but when it came to Ren Xiaosu, that became a train ride with a bunch of men, women, seniors, and teens.

Why was everything that came out of Ren Xiaosu’s mouth always a little different from imagination?

“Come on, step onto the train,” Ren Xiaosu shouted excitedly. With life full of hope now, he became particularly energetic and motivated in everything he did.

The group sat inside the steam train as they watched the tracks in front of them change from illusion into reality. At the same time, the tracks behind them vanished segment by segment after the train passed by. This moment felt just like a dream.

Xiaoyu asked, “Xiaosu, is this train your superpower?” To her memory, Ren Xiaosu had never revealed his superpowers before, and this was the first time he was showing it. “What does this power of yours do?”

Ren Xiaosu thought carefully. “I can use it to run some deliveries? When Stronghold 178 opens up the trade route in the future, I can go and pick up some goods to deliver. I wonder how much money I can make by delivering a trainload of goods?”

In reality, it was not about the money. Je just wanted to put into service what he had learned.

He wondered what Wang Congyang would think if he found out about this idea of his. Wang Congyang had probably not even thought about using his superpower to run a freight business.

This was mainly because supernatural beings had a limit to their willpower. Even Wang Congyang could only “drive” the train for half a day without carrying any load, and this was not even traveling at full speed.

But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. From the moment he copied the “Steam Locomotive” power, he already had 12 more carriages than Wang Congyang’s version. Moreover, he did not even feel his mental strength being drained while using it.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu had still not realized that his most advantageous skill was not in being able to copy other people’s superpowers but that he had a mysterious mental strength that greatly surpassed that of other supernatural beings.

It was extremely quick to travel using the steam locomotive without the constraint of doing so with one’s own limbs. Currently, there were no consortiums in the Northwest that had the power to stop supernatural beings. In fact, those consortiums were already busy up to the ears with their own matters. Meanwhile, the relationships between Ren Xiaosu and both the Qing Consortium and Stronghold 178 right now could also be considered as quite friendly, right?

As the steam locomotive crossed the river en route to the valley, the natural moat that it provided was navigated over as though it were flat ground. All of the worries everyone had were instantly cast out of their minds.

Ren Xiaosu reminded them, “When we get to the settlement, don’t mention this power of mine. Those bandits still can’t be trusted.”

Wang Fugui and the others nodded in agreement. They still understood the seriousness of the situation. When they were about to arrive at the valley, Ren Xiaosu put away the steam locomotive and led everyone there on foot.

When they finally arrived, the settlement was still in ruins. Yang Xiaojin, who had her sleeves rolled up, was helping the refugees carry the harvested corn and sweet potatoes to store them in the trucks left behind by Xu Man.

Her face was very dirty, and it did not look like she was the heiress of a consortium. She looked like she was a refugee her whole life.

When Yang Xiaojin turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and the others walking over, she waved happily to them. Yan Liuyuan did not seem saddened by the sight of the ruins at all. He waved at Yang Xiaojin and shouted, “Sister-in-law!”

As this was the first time Yan Liuyuan had addressed Yang Xiaojin as “sister-in-law,” she was stunned.

Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan felt someone kick his butt. When he turned around, he saw Ren Xiaosu blushing furiously. “Stop messing around!”

Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin had a calm expression on her face. This was mainly because the bandits had already been addressing her as “Boss Lady”[1] for the past few days, so she was used to it and was willing to be addressed this way.

Xiaoyu came over to Yang Xiaojin and took out a handkerchief to wipe her face. She smiled and said, “What a terrible shame for a nice girl like you! It’s akin to planting a beautiful flower in cow dung.

Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Hey, watch your words. Who’re you saying is cow dung?!”

Xiaoyu ignored him. Instead, she took out a gold bracelet and put it on for Yang Xiaojin. “Big Sis doesn’t have much money, and this bracelet is not heavy enough either, so please don’t mind it. When Big Sis has more money, I’ll buy another more expensive one for you.”

Yang Xiaojin did not decline it. Rather, she smiled gleefully and said, “Of course. I don’t mind, I like it a lot.”

[1] Boss Lady and Sister-in-law mean the same thing here.

Chapter 369: Getting ready for battle

Xiaoyu kept looking at Yang Xiaojin. The more she looked at her, the more she liked her. Yang Xiaojin looked very cultured and was beautiful as well. At the same time, it did not feel like she was a delicate girl who could not fend for herself.

Where else could she find a sister-in-law like her?

Xiaoyu was already thinking about the dowry for Ren Xiaosu before the relationship had even started taking shape. She even wanted to ask Ren Xiaosu what he would name his child. How many children would Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin have? If they only had two, she could help take care of them. But any more than that and it would be really tough for her to handle.

When everyone went back to work, Xiaoyu secretly asked Ren Xiaosu, “Did you use the tent that Big Sis prepared for you?”

The first thing that Xiaoyu thought about the moment they arrived here was this. When she saw that there was not even a proper place for them to live, she knew the tent would definitely come in handy!

But as Xiaoyu joyfully waited for his reply, Ren Xiaosu stammered, “She sleeps inside the tent while I sleep outside.”

Xiaoyu pinched Ren Xiaosu hard. “How could you let such a good opportunity slip?!” He had wasted all her efforts! Everything she’d done had been for nothing!

To avoid further questioning, Ren Xiaosu quickly went over to the refugees and gathered everyone together. “I believe everyone already knows that the Zong Consortium in the north probably knows that we’re here. Now that the South is in chaos, we might be in danger if we continue living here.”

At this moment, Jin Lan took the lead and shouted, “Boss, we’ll follow you wherever you go!”

Ren Xiaosu paused for half a minute before suddenly saying, “Actually, I’m not from Stronghold 178.”

He felt that a wonderful hope should not be mixed with deception. If that dream were really worth it, there should be no impurities. So he had to be honest with them.

After the bandits gradually quieted down, Ren Xiaosu continued, “I know both Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin, and we even have a good relationship, but I’m not actually from Stronghold 178. If any of you wish to leave, I can write you a recommendation letter. As for whether you’ll be allowed to join Stronghold 178, I can’t guarantee that.”

Ren Xiaosu waited for everyone to make their decision. He was not pinning much hope on most of them choosing to remain with him. He had spoken the truth as he did not wish to deceive this group of people anymore.

Sure enough, most of the bandits started looking at one another after hearing what Ren Xiaosu said.

Regardless of whether the method that Ren Xiaosu had previously used to fool them was effective or not, even though everyone enjoyed the process of earning the bullets, they only chose to stay around because they ultimately were looking to join Stronghold 178. So the moment the truth was revealed, everyone instinctively hesitated.

Someone stepped forward and said, “Boss, to be honest, I only chose to stay behind because I really wanted to go to Stronghold 178. So…”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. He beckoned for Yan Liuyuan to get pen and paper, then wrote a letter to Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin on the spot. However, he could not guarantee that Stronghold 178 would take them in as a favor to him.

Once someone got the ball rolling, the next bandit stepped forward and asked for a recommendation letter as well. Even though they were very happy here, their future was much more important. It was Stronghold 178 they were talking about.

Within half an hour, roughly one-third of the 300-odd bandits had left.

Ren Xiaosu was not unhappy. Rather, he appeared unusually calm.

There was no point in forcing them to stay if they wanted to leave. He was no longer willing to resort to lies in order to keep these people around.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan. “Why aren’t you going?”

Jin Lan replied with a smile, “I already guessed that was the case.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “You guessed it?”

“Boss, I’m not stupid.” Jin Lan said with a smile, “If Stronghold 178 really wanted to unify the valley, they wouldn’t have to act so cautiously and only send two people here. With just a word from them, 99% of the bandits in the valley would take up the offer immediately.”

“Then you…” Ren Xiaosu was startled. He wanted to ask Jin Lan and the others why they did not leave if that were the case.

Jin Lan said with a smile, “I’m in that 1%. When you and Boss Lady jumped into the muddy river and dug for silt together with us, I decided that I would follow you and explore the opportunities in the valley. Even if it wasn’t the valley, we’d still have followed you wherever.”

After Jin Lan spoke up, Zhang Yiheng added, “There’s nothing great about Stronghold 178 anyway. It gets so fucking cold there in the winter that we wouldn’t even know who we are, so it’s no loss even if we don’t go there.”

Xu Jinyuan said, “Bandits don’t meet with a good end. We’ve come across all kinds of bandit leaders before, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a leader like you. It doesn’t matter if we can’t go to Stronghold 178. We’ll just go wherever you say, Boss!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan, Yang Xiaojin, and the others were watching quietly from the side. Perhaps this was the reason why Ren Xiaosu liked it out here.

They had been wandering through the vast wastelands for about a year now. It seemed like they had just been going from stronghold to stronghold, one after another, yet they never managed to find one they could truly call home.

And now, it seemed like Ren Xiaosu had found it.

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “Sister-in-law, I like this place.”

Yang Xiaojin smiled and patted his head. “Me too.”

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said, “Then let’s head northwest. I purposely checked the records in the library and know that there’s a Mt. Kushui located in the Northwest. Apparently, there’s a valley in that mountain where it’s spring all year ’round. The clear stream that passes through the valley does not freeze even in winter.”

The group of bandits looked at each other and started laughing. “Then let’s head to Mt. Kushui. We’ve also heard of that place before, and some of us thought about going there too. But it seems that an extremely fierce group of wild boars led by a king is active in that area, so no one’s dared to go there.”

Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Everyone, get on your motorcycles and take all your luggage! We’re setting off!”

“We can ride the motorcycles right now?” Xu Jinyuan’s eyes lit up.

“What else would we do with these hundreds of bikes?” Ren Xiaosu was incredulous. “You gonna push them or leave them right here?”

Jin Lan mumbled, “Then do we still need to earn bullets to trade them in after we get to Mt. Kushui?”

Ren Xiaosu answered seriously, “Of course you have to!”

Jin Lan was speechless.

The journey to Mt. Kushui in the north required them to go around the front lines at Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan first, traveling about a 100 kilometers west to Mt. Kaolei. After that, they would turn and continue heading north.

It was not that Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to take a detour, but that he wanted to avoid all the bandits’ camps in case someone discovered their movements.

Now that the South was plunged into a state of chaos, the Zong Consortium had become an uncontrollable hyena in the wilderness. The Zong Consortium had become the most dangerous presence of all.

For this journey, each bandit gave one or two passengers a ride on their motorcycles. The female refugee riding pillion on Xu Jinyuan’s bike was so happy she could die. Xu Jinyuan had always been a little reserved towards her. But it was all good now. He was finally not shy about it anymore.

Jin Lan and the others even started teasing Xu Jinyuan. After they got to Mt. Kushui and finished building their houses there, they would hold a wedding for these two!

But on the third day of their journey, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when they were close to arriving at Mt. Kaolei. “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Someone asked, “Boss, what’s the matter?”

Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at their surroundings. He was looking for something.

Ren Xiaosu whispered to Yang Xiaojin, “Quick! Search for a vantage point! The rest of you, find a place to hide. We’re under attack!”

Jin Lan reacted and hurriedly gestured to the bandits. “Prepare for battle!”

No one knew where the enemy was, nor even what was going on. But if Ren Xiaosu said so, it definitely meant that danger was approaching.

Zong Cheng had performed a card trick for Ren Xiaosu after they left Stronghold 88 to head into the valley. At that time, Ren Xiaosu deliberately asked Zong Cheng if he could conjure up four “fours” for him. When he drew the cards and covered them in his hands, he switched them out and replaced the four cards with his Explosive Poker cards.

When the two of them parted ways, his mental connection to the Explosive Poker cards “snapped” due to the distance between them. It seemed his control over the Explosive Poker cards was also limited to a distance of around one to two kilometers. As for the specific range, Ren Xiaosu was not exactly sure.

The reason why he was nervous now was because his connection to those four cards had returned.

Zong Cheng was here!

Chapter 370: Come and kill me!

Chapter 370 Come and kill me!

Ren Xiaosu had believed it was unlikely he would ever again come across those four playing cards he had placed on Zong Cheng. But he did not find it sad and even hoped he would never have to see him again. When his new life began, he felt he no longer needed to deal with those people from the consortiums like Zong Cheng anymore.

As they had been carefully avoiding the other bandit gangs along the way, Ren Xiaosu was very sure no one noticed their whereabouts and therefore exposed it to Zong Cheng.

This was something Ren Xiaosu was most careful about, so there couldn’t possibly be any mistakes. He had even caught the spy who had infiltrated the group in order to keep their whereabouts a secret. He also decided they would have to leave the settlement they had grown familiar with. But despite all his efforts, their whereabouts had still been exposed.

Zong Cheng’s previous route should have taken him in the northeastern direction, so based on that logic, he should absolutely not be appearing here in the west, especially not in the vicinity of Mt. Kaolei.

Ren Xiaosu knew there could have been more than one spy hidden amid them. Moreover, the spy was so good they did not get discovered even after being put through so many observations and tests. That person could even be a former soldier of the Zong Consortium.

A second later, he heard a rumbling getting closer. It sounded like a large number of people were approaching the dune in front of them. Right after, a muffled explosion rang out.

Ren Xiaosu stood in place and asked, “Did y’all hear something?”

It sounded like something had exploded within a hard metal container before dragging its tail across the air. It then traveled in a crazy parabolic trajectory across the sky and headed towards Ren Xiaosu and the others.

Yang Xiaojin, who was still searching for a vantage point, suddenly turned to Ren Xiaosu and shouted, “Ren Xiaosu, it’s a mortar!”

With a loud boom, Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the mortar shell that landed at Xu Jinyuan’s feet. Then he was blown into the air.

A large amount of mud and debris was blown off the ground. That female refugee who was in love with Xu Jinyuan ran in tears to the spot where he fell. She hugged his head and cried out to him, but the man she loved no longer responded to her.

There weren’t any farewells. In a war, there would hardly ever be any chance to say goodbye.

In fact, Xu Jinyuan was planning to marry her after they arrived at Mt. Kushui, but he just didn’t know how to say it to her.

In the middle of the night, he would lie down in the wilderness with his arm cushioning his head and ask Jin Lan, “I’m just a bandit. Do you think I’ll be a burden to her by marrying her?”

At the time, Jin Lan and the others laughed and teased Xu Jinyuan for having romantic thoughts.

But at this moment, Jin Lan and the others were stunned by the sight of their comrade falling. “Jinyuan!”

Ren Xiaosu yelled, “Don’t just stand there! Find cover!”

A fit of extreme rage blasted within him. That glimmer of hope that was just starting to bloom in his soul had been utterly wrecked by a mortar shell.

Ren Xiaosu had gotten a glimpse of that hope and their future, but the more beautiful those moments were, the more hopelessness and anger he felt now.

He had seen that hope before.

The enemy was prepared for the attack as they fired off more than one mortar round towards them. They were going all out to ensure that everyone here would die.

Yan Liuyuan immediately activated his nanomachines and retreated with Xiaoyu. The others also quickly looked for concealed spots on the ground to take cover from the shelling in an effort to reduce their casualties.

The mortar shells landed beside them one after another. Within a minute, dozens of bandits were either killed or wounded!

Ren Xiaosu conjured up the steam locomotive out of nothing behind him and yelled, “Everyone, hide in the train!”

But at this moment, another mortar shell landed, directly on the steam locomotive. Ren Xiaosu spat out a mouthful of blood. So it turned out that he would receive backlash whenever the train took damage! But Ren Xiaosu did not even bother wiping off the blood on his mouth. “Motherfucker.”

Ren Xiaosu mumbled, “Motherfucker!”

Motherfucking hell!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly charged in a frenzy towards where the mortars were fired from. He went past layer upon layer of smoke in the wilderness like an angry lion with a bloody spear stabbed in its body!

It only took 20 seconds for Ren Xiaosu to cover that short distance of a few hundred meters and come into view of the enemy’s defensive line. As it turned out, they were the Zong Consortium’s combat troops.

And there were over a 1,000 of them!

Should he go over? If he did, he might not be able to make it out. But if he did not, the mortars would kill everyone behind him.

Ren Xiaosu started charging again at the defensive line of over a 1,000 people. His lone figure on the desolate wasteland made him resemble a solitary boat in front of a towering tsunami. At the same time, it also made him look like the most brilliant star in the sky!

Ren Xiaosu roared, “Zong Cheng, don’t you want to kill me? I’m right here! Where are you!”

His voice reverberated like a large bell being struck. Ren Xiaosu subconsciously detonated the Explosive Poker cards, and two seconds later, a fireball suddenly shot up in the air at the rear of the defensive line!

That was the “gift” from Ren Xiaosu to Zong Cheng, but he hated himself a little at this moment as he thought, ‘Why didn’t I finish off this hyena from the north when I had the chance!’

Self-blame, remorse, and anger formed into a killing intent within him!

But after the Explosive Poker cards exploded, there were still no signs of chaos within the Zong Consortium’s defensive line. This told Ren Xiaosu that something was wrong. It was not the normal way a fighting force would react when its commander fell!

Zong Cheng was probably not dead yet!

How could Zong Cheng still be alive?!

Ren Xiaosu immediately summoned his shadow clone and instantly covered his entire body with the nanoarmor. The two figures abruptly changed their direction on the battlefield and dashed towards where the Explosive Poker cards had just gone off!

Without seeing for himself that Zong Cheng had really died, Ren Xiaosu would never be able to accept it.

A moment later, the shadow clone rushed in against the intense gunfire ahead of Ren Xiaosu and charged straight into the battlefield where over a 1,000 soldiers were holding the line!

The fearsome shadow clone forced a bloody path through the crowd for Ren Xiaosu to follow.

Amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu held his black saber in one hand while using the other to constantly throw the grenades he had stored after pulling out the pins on them.

After he ran out of grenades to throw, he started throwing the Explosive Poker cards next. The gratitude tokens he had originally accumulated to around 900 were decreasing rapidly, but he showed no signs of hesitation.

No one was expecting Ren Xiaosu to barge into the defensive line alone, and they didn’t expect him to remain unharmed up til now either.

Ren Xiaosu started killing his way through the ranks while the surrounding Zong Consortium’s soldiers shot indiscriminately at him. However, they discovered that the armored monster and black shadow did not seem like they were affected by the attacks at all.

Someone attempted to aim an RPG at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu deliberately chose to attack where most people were congregated. If the RPG landed there, it would definitely injure many of their own troops!

Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly turned the entire Zong Consortium’s defenses upside down!

When Ren Xiaosu looked at his surroundings, the image of Xu Jinyuan’s smiling face suddenly appeared in his mind. Then the faces of those around him turned into demonic shadows.

But that did not matter as dawn was already here. The gods were about to rise!

In this brand new age of “The Rise of Gods,” superhumans were defined as those who could single-handedly go against a group of people as gods. If this definition held true, Ren Xiaosu was slowly approaching that definition regardless of how he managed to achieve it. Although, he was still a far ways away from achieving that.

The armor on Ren Xiaosu was riddled with holes as the power for it came close to depletion.

He rushed to the spot where the Explosive Poker cards had blown up, but to his surprise, Zong Cheng’s corpse wasn’t there. Ren Xiaosu roared, “Come and kill me!”

Chapter 371: As brilliant as a star

It seemed that Zong Cheng had sensed something and given the playing cards to someone else a while ago. After the artillery bombardment on Ren Xiaosu’s position, the playing cards turned into bait that led him straight into the ripping chaos of the thundering troops.

As this was the era of supernatural beings, no one knew what kind of superpower they were up against.

Zong Cheng was also unsure if there were any problems with those playing cards. He was only being careful not to fall into a trap, and was trying to prevent any supernatural beings from plotting against him in these strange times. As it turned out, Ren Xiaosu really came looking for him.

Ren Xiaosu stood in the middle of the battlefield with soldiers surrounding him in heavy numbers. He had to come over, because if he did not, the artillery fire would continue bombarding the bandits and refugees until they were all dead.

And by now, the mortar bombardment had stopped.

The batteries of the nanomachines in Ren Xiaosu were still depleting, and some of them had crumbled off like dust due to being out of power. It was as though this unique “lifeform” were withering away one by one.

The shadow clone continuously circled Ren Xiaosu as it slaughtered the enemies with its black saber in hand, cutting them down like a whetstone.

But Ren Xiaosu just stood there silently.

He suddenly felt like he could understand Qing Zhen a little better. The humans in these wastelands sought power and ambition like ugly moths attracted to candlelight and warmth.

Humans had been endlessly seeking power over the strongholds, resulting in them becoming selfish and greedy.

If I do not kill you, you will end up killing me. As such, the basic rule of the world was to fight to the bitter end. That was because even when the world came to an end, hope still did not exist.

As Ren Xiaosu looked around, his tough armored figure was slowly being disintegrated into a fine dust.

This was a trap that had been prepared for a long time. His opponent was cunning like a hyena and was about to kill him right here.

‘Since you wanted me to come over, and now that I’m here, why are you not showing yourself?’ Ren Xiaosu roared again, “Come and kill me!”

The Zong Consortium’s soldiers were looking at the armored young man in the crowd like he was a star in a mysterious nebula of the universe.

Scorching, dazzling, and lonely.

However, they also felt that this was probably Ren Xiaosu’s final moment of brilliance. After that, this dazzling star would become just like the afterglow of the sunset.

Sinking into the sea.

A hail of bullets rained down on Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone. Heavily surrounded, this lonely island would get swallowed up by the tsunami, and the clown would mock him in delight from the waves.

A god was about to die.

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked back at where he had arrived from.

The Zong Consortium’s soldiers were taken aback. Why was he looking behind him?

Someone followed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze and looked over. Suddenly, a steam locomotive resembling a long dragon rushed out of a gray mist and smashed through the formation that had surrounded Ren Xiaosu!

At the same time, the steam locomotive shattered the endless despair.

“Shit, he’s trying to escape!” someone exclaimed.

“Kill him!”

“Use the RPGs!”

The soldiers wanted to use their weapons to stop the steam locomotive, but not even a direct hit from the RPG could cause any damage to the train.

The steam locomotive sped through the air and threw the entire defensive line into complete chaos.

No one had expected such a reversal. They all thought the armored young man who had been surrounded was surely going to die!

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I’m here, so why don’t you come out and kill me? Why don’t you show yourself and kill me? You better watch out when I come and kill you.”

Then the seemingly ancient train “drove” out into the real world. The sound of the wheels turning and the metallic clanging of the tracks paving themselves was enough to terrify anyone. The railcar’s smokestack suddenly spewed a cloud of thick black smoke, and the long whistle that followed was like a bugle being blown.

On the battlefield, the “black iron” steam locomotive was driving straight in and headed for Ren Xiaosu who was standing there silently.

The Zong Consortium’s soldiers felt a strong sense of powerlessness, as though no matter how hard they struggled, they would still have to face their fate.

As the steam locomotive drove past Ren Xiaosu, he grabbed onto Yang Xiaojin, who had stretched out her hand from the inside. He was then carried forward by the train as it sped off into the distance towards the wilderness.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache. That wilderness had represented his hope and light.

The soldiers at the rear concentrated their firepower on the departing train, but their firearms seemed to have no effect on the steam locomotive.

As the train drove north, Ren Xiaosu spat out another mouthful of blood after he was brought into the train through the window. Right after, the nanomachines that were still covering him also started falling off.

Ren Xiaosu slumped into a seat in the carriage and wheezed as he leaned against the wall. Even though the nanoarmor took the damage from those vicious bullets, he still sustained internal injuries. Moreover, the damage to the steam locomotive and shadow clone would be directly transferred back to him. It was a pain that normal people would never experience in their lives and was so extreme that he felt as though he were in the abyss of hell.

At this moment, he just wanted to sit still like this until the world ended.

More than half of the nanomachines had died in this battle and could not return to Ren Xiaosu’s body.

Even he couldn’t take on an entire regiment of people armed with firearms and explosives. Or rather, he could handle them for only a short period and only if he were assisted externally by something like the nanomachines.

With the loss of more than half of his nanomachines, the armor could no longer cover his entire body. If he got shot, it would be very dangerous for him.

Wang Yuchi and several of the other male students came up to Ren Xiaosu and held out their hands. “Use ours.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at them before shaking his head and saying, “Y’all don’t have much of them in your bodies.”

Yan Liuyuan firmly said, “There’s mine too.”

Ren Xiaosu calmly rejected him, “Keep them to protect yourself.”

Yang Xiaojin crouched down to help him wipe away his sweat and blood. “I wasn’t of any help.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “How many of our brothers are dead or injured?”

Jin Lan said tearfully, “More than 60 of them have died. We wanted to bring the female refugee with us, but she committed suicide with Xu Jinyuan’s gun.”

Ren Xiaosu paused for 30 seconds before changing the subject. “Who’s familiar with the terrain around here? We can’t head to Mt. Kushui anymore. There’s a spy among us.”

Everyone looked at one another. A spy? So it was because there was a spy who had revealed their whereabouts that caused them to get ambushed?

Jin Lan shouted at the group, “Who is the spy? Step forward!”

Ren Xiaosu sneered, “Search everyone. This spy must have some kind of communication equipment to contact the Zong Consortium.”

Just as he finished speaking, a bandit suddenly panicked and jumped out of the window to try to escape from the steam locomotive.

But while he was still in midair, Yang Xiaojin took out her pistol and shot him straight in his temple.

Ren Xiaosu said coldly, “Keep searching, there might be others!”

But this time, they could not find any more clues of who could be a spy.

But Ren Xiaosu still found it hard to put his mind at ease. Even though they did not find any communication equipment, it did not mean that there were no more spies.

The spies seemed to have left a mark on Ren Xiaosu that made it difficult for him to trust others again. It was a mark caused by the deaths of Xu Jinyuan and the others.

They seemed to be safe for the time being. But Ren Xiaosu’s failure to kill Zong Cheng was weighing on him. His opponent was a fierce, cunning, and cruel hyena, and the feeling of disgust was overwhelming Ren Xiaosu.

Chapter 372: Don’t you die

But at this moment, the steam locomotive suddenly started shaking when something exploded in front of the train. Yang Xiaojin stood up and said, “Land mines, this spot is covered with land mines!”

It seemed that Zong Cheng had not only sent a large force to ambush them with artillery fire, but also made sure to plant land mines at any possible escape route they might take.

Ren Xiaosu immediately paled when the land mines loaded with TNT exploded one after another in the wilderness, bombarding the steam locomotive as it went past them. Even the train started turning a little more translucent, as though it would disappear at any moment.

Each time the steam locomotive set off a land mine, Ren Xiaosu felt like his vitals were being torn apart.

Everyone saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly curl up on the ground in pain. It was so painful that large beads of sweat started rolling down his forehead. But then, everyone realized there were two gunshot wounds on Ren Xiaosu’s side!

As it turned out, Ren Xiaosu’s nanomachines were no longer fully protecting him while he was escaping earlier. However, Ren Xiaosu was forced to remain composed and not treat his wounds immediately since he had to deal with the spy first.

Everyone watched Ren Xiaosu put his right index finger and middle finger into his wound. Then, he forcefully plucked out the first bullet before doing the same for the second bullet!

Jin Lan and the others looked on in a daze. They had never met anyone so brave as to extract bullets out of their own wounds.

Ren Xiaosu had his eyes closed, and every last strand of hair on his body looked to be trembling

Only then did Yan Liuyuan finally react. He quickly took out the black medicine Ren Xiaosu had given to him and applied it onto his wound.

But even though the wounds had been treated, the pain of the backlash from the attacks on the steam locomotive did not lessen.

Ren Xiaosu was trembling as Yang Xiaojin hugged him tightly in her arms. She said, “Put away the steam locomotive and let everyone walk on foot.”

But Ren Xiaosu roared angrily as though he did not hear it. The steam locomotive that had started turning a little translucent “solidified” once more!

Yang Xiaojin whispered, “You’ve already done enough. Ren Xiaosu, I won’t have any regrets if we die together today.”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to give up as well, but he had to hold on. If the steam locomotive were to disappear at this moment, everyone would fall into the minefield. If that happened, all of them would die!

Jin Lan probably understood what Ren Xiaosu was doing. He said in a daze, “Boss, just give up. Let’s die together.”

Ren Xiaosu continued to keep his eyes closed and did not respond, but the steam locomotive “solidified” once more.

It wasn’t until the train drove for a further three kilometers before they finally got out of the wilderness zone that was filled with land mines.

Ren Xiaosu could take it no more. The steam locomotive started to rapidly slow, but it suddenly disappeared before it could fully stop, forcing everyone to roll to the ground.

Jin Lan heard motorcycle engines in the distance. It sounded like a large number of bandits were heading for them!

“What should we do?” Zhang Yiheng asked with a frown. He could already see over a 1,000 bandits in front of him.

It was impossible for Ren Xiaosu to participate in such high-intensity battles. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked extremely pale, so it was difficult to say if he still had any strength left to put up a fight or not.

The pain was like millions of ants biting into every nerve of Ren Xiaosu. It was so painful it could make him lose his mobility. Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth with his eyes closed without saying a word.

They were at a dead end.

Everyone could only watch in silence. No one could bear the burden for Ren Xiaosu.

Some people in the group suddenly started fleeing northwest without saying anything. They stopped caring as they treasured their lives more!

Everyone was fine with not going to Stronghold 178 and happily continuing to earn their bullets at a new settlement. But if they died here? There would be nothing left if they died here!

Ren Xiaosu had already planted a seed of faith in their minds. Given time, the seed might even have grown into a towering tree someday.

But there was no time anymore.

Just as Ren Xiaosu had understood it, there was no hope when the world came to an end.

Yan Liuyuan quietly watched as hundreds of people started leaving their companions behind. He said to Ren Xiaosu, “Bro, I’ll stay with you.”

Ren Xiaosu’s trembling gradually lessened. It seemed that with the disappearance of the steam locomotive, the pain from the backlash had also rapidly dissipated.

Jin Lan slowly got up from the ground and dusted himself off. He unslung the automatic rifle from his back, disengaged the safety, and cocked the weapon.

Then he smiled at Zhang Yiheng and said, “At worst, I’ll go down to the Underworld to meet up with Xu Jinyuan. Those of you remaining from the 1st Squad, follow me and don’t disgrace Boss!”

The sound of guns being cocked rang out. Adrenaline suddenly rushed through the veins, bones, muscles, and hair of Jin Lan and the others.

Jin Lan laughed and said, “Boss, get some rest for now. We’ll go down first and wait there for you. Ptui, ptui, ptui, that sounds a little ominous…. I felt really happy during this period. In this chaotic world, it’s good enough to have felt happy just once.”

“2nd Squad, take the others and get out of here!” Saying that, Jin Lan suddenly rushed towards the oncoming bandits.

In the sunlight, Jin Lan’s back seemed to be glowing

“Stop acting like a hero.” Zhang Yiheng wiped away his tears and yelled, “Protect Boss, let’s head west!”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at Yan Liuyuan. “Carry him on your back.”

Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. “Sister-in-law, where are you going?”

But before he was done talking to her, Yang Xiaojin had already turned around and walked off into the wilderness. She wanted to create a last line of defense for Ren Xiaosu there. “Don’t you die.”

At this moment, Jin Lan’s group, who was standing behind the others, had found an ambush location behind a hill. They crouched on one knee to stabilize the gun with the method Yang Xiaojin had taught them.

Laughing, Jin Lan shouted, “Believe it or not, but I must’ve been a sniper in my previous life.”

Someone laughed heartily and said, “No, you’re not, I am!”

“Haha, come on, we were definitely all snipers in our previous lives!”

Then Jin Lan saw the enemy bandits finally entering their range. He shouted until the veins on his neck were protruding, “Open
fire!”

When the gunfire rang out, a large group of bandits right at the front of the motorcade suddenly fell to the ground.

But too many bandits had come this time. Previously, Qing Zhen’s men were holding them back in the north. But with his men deployed to the south, no one in the valley could keep these northern bandits in check anymore.

Jin Lan’s group had not undergone any formal military training before. They just imitated whatever firearms knowledge Yang Xiaojin had taught them and carried out the basics, like burst firing.

But they did not really manage to stop the bandits from advancing south even after they had finished firing all the rounds in their magazines.

Seeing that the motorcade was almost right in front of them now, Jin Lan’s group couldn’t reload amid their panic. Suddenly, he threw aside his gun in desperation and blocked the motorcycles in front of him with his body. “Motherfuckers, you’re not allowed to pass through me!”

In that instant, Jin Lan turned his body into a barricade. One of the enemy bandits riding at the front of the motorcade made an emergency turn when he saw someone rush out from behind the hill. But Jin Lan was reluctant to let the enemy speed past him, so he jumped at the motorcycle.

With this hijack, he actually pulled down the bandit from the motorcycle. Meanwhile, the fallen bike ended up blocking the path of the other bandits behind the rider. The bandits further back got up and started shooting mercilessly, killing Jin Lan and that fallen bandit together.

Jin Lan smiled as he closed his eyes. “Motherfucker.”

This was a chaotic world where the living had no choice, and the dead were forgotten.

Since the day they were born, there had been nothing to be happy about for them. All they received was suffering.

But on one day, someone suddenly appeared and let them see the light and learn what hope was. Because of that, they knew they had to let this person carry on living.

This person might very well be that ray of light.

Chapter 373: I want my sorrows to become the sorrows of this era

North of the battlefield, Zong Cheng was standing on a hill as he waited for the outcome of the battle.

Two people were standing in wait next to Zong Cheng. The 30 nanosoldiers from the Yang Consortium stood quietly behind him. However, these nanosoldiers who were originally part of the Yang Consortium seemed to be unaffected by everything that was happening with the outside world.

“You’ll probably succeed this time,” a person beside Zong Cheng said to him.

Zong Cheng was not exactly anxious. He exuded a calm and composed aura. “We spent so much time planning this. If we fail, that would be really disheartening.”

“But even if you could control Yang Xiaojin, I’m afraid it wouldn’t affect the Yang Consortium much.” Someone beside him asked, “Can you make her live like a normal person in the Yang Consortium?”

“Yes.” Zong Cheng glanced at him.

However, the voice didn’t come from Zong Cheng’s mouth. He saw a nanosoldier walk out from behind Zong Cheng with a smile and say, “Han Yang, you don’t understand. The Yang Consortium will be helpless now that they’re facing Qing Zhen, so I’m not too interested in the Yang Consortium anymore.” Zong Cheng said calmly, “What I’m targeting is the power of the organization behind her. The Saboteurs are currently controlled by her aunt, so that role will definitely be passed to her someday. I don’t even have to do much. I just bide my time.”

These “puppets” that were controlled by Zong Cheng were just like Zong Cheng himself.

“What about Ren Xiaosu?” Han Yang wondered, “Do you want to leave him around?”

Zong Cheng was somewhat hesitant. His original plan was to go to Stronghold 88 and find an opportunity to take Yang Xiaojin outside. Then, he would use his superpower to control Yang Xiaojin before letting her go back and live like a normal person.

But Zong Cheng did not eye Yang Xiaojin’s influence within the Yang Consortium from the start. He was only interested in her influence with the Saboteurs.

He was a supernatural being himself, so he understood what it meant when organizations like the Pyro Company and Saboteurs started bringing together supernatural beings. That would truly tilt the balance of power in the world.

Meanwhile, Zong Cheng would not even need to spend too much effort on the Saboteurs. He would only require Yang Xiaojin to get the entire Saboteurs involved.

However, an unexpected involvement from Ren Xiaosu happened. When he first learned that Ren Xiaosu was Zhang Jinglin’s student, he was absolutely ecstatic on the inside. If the successor to Stronghold 178 were to fall into his hands, the Zong Consortium would be like a tiger that had grown wings.

Zong Cheng loved his superpower. It was a hand that could control everything from behind the scenes. He could easily gain the status and power of others and control them like a puppet.

However, Wang Congyang said that Ren Xiaosu did not really seem to have that good a relationship with Zhang Jinglin. This made Zong Cheng a little hesitant. He knew that what Wang Congyang said might not be the truth, but even Zong Cheng doubted that Zhang Jinglin really looked upon Ren Xiaosu as his successor to Stronghold 178. Wasn’t Ren Xiaosu a little too young? Furthermore, could Ren Xiaosu convince the masses?

Zhang Jinglin had been at Stronghold 178 for over a decade before he was able to fully win over the masses. As a member of Stronghold 178, everyone was even more supportive of him.

But Ren Xiaosu was different. To the current Stronghold 178, he should still be considered an outsider, right?

So after careful consideration, Zong Cheng still felt that Ren Xiaosu’s value was clearly not as great as Yang Xiaojin’s.

Yang Xiaojin and the leader of the Saboteurs were blood relatives, and Yang Xiaojin was also publicly acknowledged as the successor of the Saboteurs.

“Han Yang, you should go along as well. It’s best if Ren Xiaosu is captured alive. If you can’t, just kill him,” Zong Cheng said calmly.

Even if he could only get his hands on Yang Xiaojin, it would still be a success.

The group led by Jin Lan only numbered around a dozen people, and they ultimately could not stand up to the torrent of northern bandits riding motorcycles.

Zhang Yiheng was walking along when he suddenly came to a stop beside Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was still panting hard on Yan Liuyuan’s back, and said, “Boss, I’m going too.”

After that, Zhang Yiheng turned around and said, “2nd Squad brothers! Follow me!”

Their group laughed and headed to welcome the bandits. “We can’t have Jin Lan get all the fun, right?”

Zhang Yiheng asked, “Do y’all blame me? If I hadn’t brought y’all here from the mountain hideout, you might not be dying today.”

Someone said, “There wasn’t really a point in living back where we were.”

Zhang Yiheng smiled and said, “Yeah, it was boring.”

“I wonder where we’ll go after we die. Underground?” one of the bandits asked as he inspected his gun.

“I don’t know. In any case, study hard in your next life and learn a handy skill. Look at that Xu Jinyuan. Just because he knew how to build a house, he attracted that woman into pulling him into her house every day,” Zhang Yiheng lightheartedly mocked. “I’ll have to learn how to build a house in my next life as well.”

“I wonder if I’ll get to meet Boss again in my next life?”

“We should be able to reincarnate in time to meet him.”

“Does anyone have a poem for the situation we’re in?”

“Hahaha, who would fucking know something like that?”

These people had never been educated in their entire lives. When they were living in town, only the richer families could send their children to school. For them, they were sent to the factories and coal mines by the organizations.

It was precisely because they could not stand those dark days that they became bandits. Now that they saw the light and knew what hope was, they preferred to die with some dignity.

Suddenly, a sniper rifle boomed from a hill in the distance. Then a motorcycle in the cluster of bikes exploded into a huge fireball. Following that, the motorcycles exploded into balls of fire one after another. Yang Xiaojin was once again using her specialty to dominate the battlefield.

But there were too many bandits, and they were still getting closer!

Zhang Yiheng turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back. He shouted, “We’re gonna fucking take them on! My name is Zhang Yiheng! I’m a hero too!”

Zhang Yiheng did not know why he shouted out his name, but he felt that this was probably the most glorious moment in his life.

From this moment on, it wasn’t Zhang Yiheng who needed the world, but the world that needed Zhang Yiheng! He was not going to retreat, not even a single step!

Yan Liuyuan did not turn around. He did his best to carry Ren Xiaosu as he ran west. Every nanomachine was making an agonizing sound inside his body at the burden they were carrying. Yan Liuyuan was already pushing his limits.

“Bro, does this world not want to see us lead a good life?” Yan Liuyuan panted as he spoke.

“We’ve already left the stronghold. We were already planning to hide in the wilderness and not have anything to do with them, so why are they still doing this?”

Yan Liuyuan ran while carrying Ren Xiaosu and asked blankly, “Bro, are these the sorrows of this era?”

He was not sad for Jin Lan and the others since he had never interacted with them before. Nor did he think that these people were that heroic, because he had witnessed a more heroic act before.

It was just that this era did not seem like it had any intention of letting anyone lead a good life.

In this chaotic world, one could only dream if they sought to better their lives.

Ren Xiaosu was still a young man and did not used to understand why Zhang Jinglin was so tired of war. He also did not understand why Qing Zhen and Li Shentan would bother fighting to the death with their enemies.

But now he and Yan Liuyuan understood why the world was called chaotic. It was because no one would be spared from it.

Without enough power, there would be no way to build a place of one’s dreams. Before achieving absolute power, everything else was just wishful thinking.

In the past month, everything that had happened in this valley was like an indulgence for Ren Xiaosu. In his 17 years of struggling and suffering, he had never seen his hands create something so beautiful before.

So even though everything felt really surreal, he was still willing to give up his rationality and believe it was all true.

It was a normal day today, just like any other day before.

But when the bullets arrived on the battlefield, the peace from before vanished into thin air.

Yan Liuyuan did not dare to use Curse Manipulation because Ren Xiaosu was on his back. Right now, Yan Liuyuan was unsure if he could help Ren Xiaosu avoid the backlash together with him. If the backlash hit Ren Xiaosu, it would be over for him.

Ren Xiaosu’s weak voice came from behind. “Put me down.”

Yan Liuyuan pursed his lips and did not say anything as he continued running.

The sound of the sniper rifle ringing in his ears was like an artillery bombardment, but there were too many northern bandits here. They had broken through the suppressive fire and come to where Zhang Yiheng was!

Ren Xiaosu said while trembling, “Liuyuan, put me down.”

He struggled while on Yan Liuyuan’s back, but the pain was still numbing his nerves. Although the pain was gradually fading away, he still remained helpless at this moment.

Right at this moment, the northern bandits went around the defensive position Zhang Yiheng and the others were guarding. They split into two groups, and one of them rushed towards the sniper, while the other chased after Yan Liuyuan and company.

More than 400 members of the northern bandits remained behind. Their numbers were too great for Zhang Yiheng and his people to stand up to.

When Zhang Yiheng saw the bandits going around them, he immediately got anxious. “Stop right there! Come and kill me instead!”

But the bandits did not care about them.

Yan Liuyuan saw that the bandits were about to reach them, and no one could stop them.

Five plum blossoms suddenly flew out of Jiang Wu’s arm with five crimson petals on each of them.

In the intense wind, Jiang Wu’s petals flew towards the bandits like blades. But there were far too few petals. It was still not enough.

After one of the blade petals flew towards a bandit and sliced the life out of him, it transformed into a red glow before fading away. However, there were still hundreds of bandits around.

Jiang Wu gritted her teeth and three plum blossoms bloomed again from the markings of a plum blossom stalk on her arm.

But that was still not enough. She was about to attempt to burn up her life force as someone else had once done.

Wang Yuchi pulled her back and said calmly, “Teacher, we’re still here.” Then Wang Yuchi picked up his gun and prepared to charge.

At this moment, a surge of bandits were charging in Yang Xiaojin’s direction. Yang Xiaojin was a sniper, so how could she kill so many bandits in a short time?

Then Yan Liuyuan stopped in his tracks. He turned around and said to Jiang Wu, “Ms. Jiang, carry my brother on your back and keep walking forward. Don’t turn back.” He placed Ren Xiaosu on Jiang Wu’s back and walked alone towards the battlefield and towards disaster.

Xiaoyu shouted at the top of her lungs, “Liuyuan, what are you doing?!”

Yan Liuyuan said calmly, “Uncle Fugui, take Big Sister Xiaoyu and go.”

Xiaoyu tried her best to break free from Wang Fugui’s grip. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui felt terribly awful on the inside.

He did not know what Yan Liuyuan was trying to do, but he knew he could not let go of her hand. If he let go of her, something could happen to Li Xiaoyu as well.

Xiaoyu cried out, “Liuyuan, come back here. What are you doing!”

Yan Liuyuan turned around and smiled at Xiaoyu. “I want my sorrows to become the sorrows of this era.”

After that, Yan Liuyuan gradually stepped away. This was an era on the decline, and a new era was definitely arriving.

But how strong would you have to be to build an era filled with hope? Yan Liuyuan did not know, but he felt that Ren Xiaosu should be able to do it.

Suddenly, dark clouds appeared in the sky, and the distant earth let out a keening cry.

This was a time when gods seemed to be walking the Earth again—the era of “The Rise of Gods.”

Yan Liuyuan walked towards the oncoming bandits step by step. Suddenly, a gray aura wrapped around him like an evil dragon representing calamity.

The beast whose heart was bound was roaring. It was roaring at this era!

Yan Liuyuan, who was just a harmless boy-next-door in the past, had mastered the power of wishes and curses.

No one knew what he could do, nor did anyone know the extremes of his curses.

Now he was cursing the sky to collapse and the ground to split. And so, the ground really broke apart.

As Yan Liuyuan overexerted his power, his willpower suddenly stabbed and gave him a splitting headache.

Finally, two teary streams of blood flowed down his cheeks.

“Hnnng, this won’t kill me,” Yan Liuyuan said softly. He did not feel any sadness. All he wanted was to bury this old era together with the world.

“Bro, it’s time that I protected you now and that impending new era as well,” Yan Liuyuan said softly.

In the distance, a huge amount of energy abruptly burst out of the trembling crust. Cracks suddenly started spreading across the ground just like the one that had originated from the Jing Mountains and was capable of tearing the strongholds apart. Almost instantaneously, the ground in front of the bandits broke apart.

It was almost exactly the same as back then.

That was the force of nature that Yan Liuyuan had witnessed with his own eyes and was now being released by him.

The fracture cut through the ground like a knife as the world rumbled loudly like it was about to collapse.

The fracture reached all the way to the bandits and trapped them in an abyss they could not overcome.

Deep below the abyss was an endless darkness. When the winds of the wilderness blew into it, it sounded like a behemoth lived in it.

However, the fault did not stop as it continued shooting northwards. Yan Liuyuan could not see any threat in the north, but he felt a very disgusting existence there that needed to be erased from this world.

When Zong Cheng, who was in the north, saw this scene from afar, he was scared out of his mind. He had not thought there would be such a powerful supernatural being in this world!

“Run!” Zong Cheng’s calm demeanor disappeared. He madly dashed to the side to avoid it, but the fault kept chasing after him. He could not shake it off.

However, Zong Cheng realized the fault was running out of momentum. He was too far away from the battlefield. Even with Yan Liuyuan’s full-power attack, he could not kill Zong Cheng, who was several kilometers away.

Gradually, the fracture came to a halt before the abyss slowly started closing up.

Zong Cheng’s heart sank as he fled north with the nanosoldiers.

He never expected the bandits charging Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu would be buried alive by an abyss!

After surveying the area through her scope, Yang Xiaojin looked up at the young man who had summoned the calamity.

Zhang Yiheng and the others stared blankly at the sight before them. They had survived?

Was this… the power of the gods?

Yan Liuyuan just stood quietly and waited for the backlash.

Since the curse was a natural disaster, the backlash would also be a natural disaster.

Suddenly, a loud rumble came from the west. It sounded like the galloping of thousands of horses. Yan Liuyuan understood that a flood was coming

Yan Liuyuan used whatever was left of his strength and shouted at Wang Fugui and the others, “Run for higher ground!”

Then he slowly sat onto the ground in his weakened state. His nanomachines were out of energy, and the curse he had overexerted his willpower to cast left him unable to avoid the backlash. He could only wait for fate’s judgment.

Every spring, the floods in the valley would arrive as expected. When that happened, the valley would form a new river, and most of the landscape here would be changed by the flood.

But the difference was that the peak of this year’s floods seemed to have arrived a few days early.

A boundless amount of water gathered upstream, which then crashed down like an avalanche. It was cascading at a speed faster than the blink of an eye!

Yan Liuyuan could already hear trees breaking upstream. He turned around and looked up into the distance at the floodwaters that were towering high. It was going to crash down on them!

But then he saw Ren Xiaosu break free from Jiang Wu’s back. Xiaoyu had broken free from Wang Fugui’s grip as well.

While everyone else was running for higher ground, Ren Xiaosu and Xiaoyu were running towards him with all their might. Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Bro…”

As the crest of the flood arrived, Wang Fugui and the others who were uphill could not avoid the rushing waters in time and got dragged into the waves. The plum blossom branches on Jiang Wu’s arm suddenly materialized an extension of themselves, and the long plum branches tied everyone together as they got swept down along the river.

When Ren Xiaosu heard the rushing of the floodwaters coming up from behind, he knew it might be too late. As such, Yan Liuyuan heard Ren Xiaosu’s angry bellow as he shouted, “City Crusher!”

An instant later, Ren Xiaosu’s speed increased again. He suddenly arrived in the front of Yan Liuyuan as the torrent of floodwaters touched his back.

But yet another unexpected event occurred! A supernatural being suddenly appeared atop a hill in the north. It was none other than Zong Cheng’s subordinate, Han Yang!

In an instant, Han Yang raised his arm and a bright red spear appeared in his hand. When he tossed the spear, Yan Liuyuan said anxiously, “Bro, dodge it!”

The spear looked like it was soaring through the bounds of mortality.

Ren Xiaosu also knew there was danger behind them, but he did not care. He forcefully grabbed Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu’s arms before City Crusher could deactivate and flung them onto the shore. After Xiaoyu landed on the ground, she passed out.

In midair, Yan Liuyuan saw the sharp red spear pierce Ren Xiaosu’s right side.

The long stream of floodwaters split the north and south into two different worlds. Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were looking at each other from afar across the lengthy river of time. Ren Xiaosu’s abdomen was bleeding profusely, but he smiled at Yan Liuyuan as though nothing had happened and said, “Don’t you die.”

Then Ren Xiaosu got swept away by the floods and disappeared within the murky waters.

“Bro, wait for me!” Yan Liuyuan cried out in grief. He wanted to get up and give chase down the river, but he lost all strength when he stood up and fainted.

Suddenly, the wolf pack in the south headed north. The Wolf King rushed to where Yan Liuyuan was without caring about the floodwaters. When it came to Yan Liuyuan’s side, it picked Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan up with its mouth and left.

Right after, the floodwaters came in and engulfed the area where they had just been.

End of Volume Three: The Sorrows of Our Era

Next Volume: Ruler of the Northlands

Chapter 374: Yang Xiaojin’s revenge

Han Yang was escaping. The floods had stopped his enemies on the other side of the river, but there was still someone chasing after him relentlessly. If not for his past experience in the army, he would have already died at the hands of his pursuer.

Earlier, Zong Cheng had escaped back to the Zong Consortium in advance because Yan Liuyuan had displayed a power that was too shocking.

As such, Han Yang had been left behind by others. He was just a sacrificial pawn now.

Upon reaching the outlying area of Mt. Guan, Han Yang carefully made his way into a small stream flowing out of the valley. This was an area he was familiar with. The bandits controlled by the Zong Consortium used to be stationed inside of Mt. Guan.

The outside world thought the bandits in the valley had gone out of control. However, as the main party in this matter, how could the Zong Consortium have completely lost control of this place? All of the bandits at Mt. Guan still remained under the control of the Zong Consortium.

When he arrived here, Han Yang heaved a sigh of relief. He knew he was almost safe.

However, the most dangerous moment when walking a tightrope was the last three steps. Han Yang heaved a sigh of relief before resuming his alertness.

The ghostly opponent behind him was definitely still tracking him. He couldn’t afford to be careless.

But all of a sudden, Han Yang felt like his heart and lungs had been torn apart. A great force of inertia hit from his right and sent him right into the stream. He could not resist this force.

A bullet spinning at high speed passed through the gap between his ribs. The massive tearing force ripped his muscles apart like they were wadding while his heart was pulverized.

Only now did the sound of the sniper rifle reach his ears. Han Yang fell into the stream with his blood flowing from his wound, dyeing the water red. He laid on his back and watched the sky appear to darken before his life faded away.

In the distance, Yang Xiaojin got off the ground. In order to hunt down Han Yang, she had spent the past two days and two nights awake.

Yang Xiaojin’s eyes were bloodshot, but it wasn’t clear if it was due to crying or a lack of sleep.

She had a chance to finish off Han Yang earlier, but she held back so Han Yang would experience the same pain as Ren Xiaosu.

No, she wanted Han Yang to experience even more intense pain.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was feeling a little lost. The other day, she had sprinted in a frenzy to the river to search for Ren Xiaosu. Even if he had really died, she needed to see his body first.

But the river was moving too fast. She could not keep up even after running with all her might for several kilometers. All she could do was helplessly watch as the river took Ren Xiaosu further away.

Even supernatural beings had limited endurance when running at full speed.

Seeing that she could not keep up with the floodwaters, she forded the river at a narrow point to chase Han Yang down all the way to Mt. Guan.

But what to do after killing Han Yang? Would she go after Zong Cheng next?

However, just killing Zong Cheng would not quench her hatred for him.

Suddenly, a white paper crane flew onto her shoulder. Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment before opening up the paper crane. She saw a line of beautifully written words on it: “Come to the Central Plains. After the matter here is handled, Auntie will help you to finish off the Zong Consortium.”

When Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes, he felt as though he had lost all his strength. And he heard someone say in surprise, “He’s awake.”

The voice belonged to a girl. Ren Xiaosu looked over in silence and saw a girl who was around the same age as him looking at him from the passenger seat.

He was lying in the back of an off-road vehicle with the backseat laid out flat like a bed.

The girl picked up the vehicle’s walkie-talkie and said, “Big Bro, the injured boy has regained consciousness.”

The vehicle slowly came to a stop. Ren Xiaosu had not said a single word since he came around. He had not figured out what had happened yet, but he could feel a sharp pain in the right side of his abdomen throughout all this.

The door opened and he saw a middle-aged man in a wheelchair being pushed over.

The middle-aged man smiled and said, “Hello, my name is Wang Shengzhi. We had found you by the river unconscious and severely injured, so we made the decision to bring you with us. I hope you don’t mind.”

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Are my injuries serious?”

“I have to congratulate you on that,” Wang Shengzhi said with a smile.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What was there to congratulate?

Sensing the doubt in Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengzhi kept his smile and said, “The wound you suffered happened to be right at your appendix. Whatever penetrated you actually cut it off for you, so you don’t have to worry about getting appendicitis anymore.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

The young girl smiled. “My name is Wang Shengyin. How did you get injured?”

Ren Xiaosu replied without any hesitation, “We were farming, but when the floods arrived, our settlement was wiped out. I was carried away by the floodwaters and hit into a tree where a branch went right through my abdomen.”

“I see.” Wang Shengzhi nodded with a smile. He did not seem like he had any intention of getting to the bottom of how this wound was inflicted.

But Ren Xiaosu had some hesitations of where these people were from. Where were they going?

In this era, anyone who had an off-road vehicle was no ordinary person. But even though Wang Shengzhi sat in a wheelchair, Ren Xiaosu could vaguely sense that he was the person in charge of this convoy.

Ren Xiaosu did not wish to tell the truth. He no longer trusted anyone.

There was a time when he wanted to believe in something, but that brought about a disaster. Since he experienced that, he definitely had to remember the pain.

Wang Shengzhi asked, “It’s not convenient for you to move about. Why don’t you follow us and wait until your injuries are healed before making any plans?”

Ren Xiaosu asked in return, “Where are y’all headed?”

“Stronghold 178.” Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “We’re from the Central Plains and are heading to Stronghold 178. Do you know about Stronghold 178?”.

“I do.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “But I’ve never been there before.”

Only at this time did Ren Xiaosu realize these people were actually from the Central Plains to the east. So these were… Central Plainsmen?

He had been swept along by the flood to the east. But in the end, he was brought back to the Northwest by these people. It was in the exact opposite direction.

But why were these people going to Stronghold 178? Ren Xiaosu noticed that everyone in the vehicle was dressed in casual attire, and there weren’t any special symbols in the vehicle either.

“OK.” Wang Shengzhi nodded and said, “Since your home has been washed away by the floods, come with us to Stronghold 178. Who knows, you might be able to find a place there and settle down.”

When he heard the word “home,” Ren Xiaosu felt a sharp pain in his heart. Wang Shengzhi saw Ren Xiaosu’s expression and said, “Apologies for reminding you of your painful memories.”

Ren Xiaosu did not try to hide it. After all, he should be like a distressed refugee right now. He paused before saying, “Stronghold 178 doesn’t accept outsiders.”

Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “I have some connections with Commander Zhang over there. Perhaps we can help put in a word for you. Even if that doesn’t work, we can’t just leave you out here in this wilderness.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. “Alright, thank you then.”

Ren Xiaosu’s injuries were indeed very serious. A sense of helplessness permeated throughout his entire being and into his bones, and he did not even have the ability to think properly.

He was too seriously injured this time, so he needed to find an opportunity to apply the black medicine on himself as soon as possible.

When the convoy got back on the road, Ren Xiaosu asked to make conversation, “Very few people from the Central Plains come to the Northwest. Why have y’all come to such a poor place?”

The girl answered as though she did not have any reservations, “We’re here to open up the trade routes in the Northwest.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment. Open up the trade routes? Would the Zong Consortium, spread across the trade routes, agree to that?

Chapter 375: Traveling together

The group headed to Stronghold 178 from the Central Plains did not consist of a lot of people. Although Ren Xiaosu was badly injured and immobilized in the backseat, he could roughly tell that there were about 20 of them. The six off-road vehicles formed a convoy, with one of them pulling along a supplies trailer.

The key figures of the convoy were probably the pair of siblings named Wang Shengzhi and Wang Shengyin. However, the two of them did not put on any airs. They seemed to be very easygoing, and the other people in the convoy did not feel any pressure in their presence.

As they traveled, Ren Xiaosu checked on his wound. The tear in his right side was horrific. Fortunately, these people had stitched it up for him. Otherwise, he would probably have died before he could even come around and apply the black medicine on himself. The sutures over the wound were straight and neat. He could tell the person who did it was meticulous.

Listening to what these people were saying, Ren Xiaosu realized he had been swept by the floodwaters to more than a 100 kilometers away. He did not even know how he survived.

When it was time to eat, Wang Shengzhi’s subordinates brought over some piping hot food for Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu ate silently in the vehicle. But as everyone in the convoy knew that he had just survived a disaster, they thought it was normal for him to be quiet.

After sunset, the convoy set up camp on schedule. Ren Xiaosu heard them discussing the entire Northwestern and Southwestern situation by the campfire. A man said, “Why did a war suddenly break out there? Hasn’t it been several decades since any conflicts happened in the region? We never used to pay attention to that area.”

However, Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, “In the past, it was because that place was quite inaccessible by traffic. Meanwhile, the clans in the Central Plains took no interest in the Southwest either. They could not even handle the matters back home, so how could they have time to care about whatever was happening over there? We don’t really have any dealings in that region anyway.”

The Southwest was destined to be an isolated region due to its geographical location. However, it seemed that because of the sudden war that happened recently, some people in the Central Plains started paying attention to it.

“It’s said that Qing Zhen is an extremely formidable figure.” Wang Shengyin thought for a moment before saying, “Although we don’t know the details of the war, after the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium were done dealing with the Li Consortium, it seems that the Yang Consortium also got played by Qing Zhen. We must definitely be careful of a belligerent like him.”

To the eyes of an outsider, the developments in this war looked like Qing Zhen had been controlling it entirely on his own. From the beginning to the end, the war fully emanated Qing Zhen’s ambitions and plans.

However, only those who were in the know understood that Qing Zhen had only been doing whatever it took to protect himself all this while.

Just as Qing Zhen had said, if he had been given more free rein previously, he might not have become the head of the Qing Consortium now.

In the current times, those who were satisfied with the status quo would eventually get destroyed and die. On a long and dark road, no one could turn around until they saw the light.

Someone suddenly turned around and asked Ren Xiaosu, “Aren’t you from the Northwest? Do you know how the war started?”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I’m not sure. I’m only a refugee. Why would I know about those things?”

The person speaking scratched his head. “True, these matters are really far from you, hahaha. I guessed I asked for nothing then.”

When Wang Shengyin heard that, she asked Ren Xiaosu, who was half-propped up in the vehicle, “By the way, I haven’t asked you your name yet.”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. “My name is Ren Xiaosu. My family was also swept away by the floodwaters. If you encounter anyone looking for me in the Central Plains, please tell them that I’m still alive.”

This was the most Ren Xiaosu had spoken in days.

Ren Xiaosu had wanted to hide his identity, but it was not like these people knew much about the Northwest and Southwest anyway. So Ren Xiaosu dismissed the thought and gave his real name. Moreover, he was hoping to find his lost family. His name should be considered quite unique since it didn’t contain any repetition. If Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others heard his name mentioned, they would definitely come looking for him.

In fact, he would also have liked to go look for Yan Liuyuan and the others. But finding people in this vast world was simply too difficult. He still had more important things he needed to handle.

During this period, Ren Xiaosu would have to pay back the suffering and despair the Zong Consortium had inflicted on him. However, his strength alone was limited, so Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how he could get support for his cause. Now that this group of people in front of him were thinking of opening up the Northwestern trade routes, perhaps this would be his chance.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that he could understand Li Shentan much better. Back then, he thought Li Shentan was like a demon. But now, Ren Xiaosu finally understood that when you were not living in a state of pain and hatred yourself, you shouldn’t be trying to persuade others to be kinder.

Of course, understanding was one thing, but being friends was another.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Are there any wars in the Central Plains?”

Wang Shengzhi glanced at him and said, “That’s a place that any military would be willing to fight for.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Wang Shengzhi meant that there were also wars happening in the Central Plains. He asked, “Don’t they all say that the Central Plains are a prosperous and wealthy place?”

Wang Shengzhi smiled. “It’s precisely because it’s prosperous and rich that wars happen. There’s no contradiction between the two.”

Ren Xiaosu did not probe further. That wouldn’t match his current status as a normal refugee. But Wang Shengyin’s interest did get piqued, and she got in the mood to chat. “What do you refugees in the Northwest usually do?”

Ren Xiaosu calmly answered, “Farming, brick making, and digging ditches to irrigate the crops.”

“How long does it take to fire a kiln of bricks?” Wang Shengyin asked.

Ren Xiaosu answered, “The black bricks take about 13 days to make, but that also depends on how long we take to cool the kiln down with water. We haven’t fired any red bricks before, so I don’t know how long those take to make.”

Wang Shengyin nodded and did not ask anything else. The questions might have seemed casual, but there was actually intent behind them.

But at this moment, several military transport trucks suddenly drove over from the northwestern direction. Everyone stopped talking and looked over. When Ren Xiaosu saw the mark of a long saber on the vehicles, his heart sank. That was the symbol of the Zong Consortium.

They were still at least a 100 kilometers away from the Zong Consortium, so why would their people suddenly appear here?

Ren Xiaosu shifted himself further into the vehicle and kept his face hidden in the shadows within.

Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi and the others remained seated by the campfire like they were not worried at all.

Those vehicles stopped next to the campsite, and three combat platoons from the Zong Consortium disembarked. The leader was a tall and broad-shouldered man. He looked like an officer of the Zong Consortium. He frowned and asked, “Who are you people?”

Wang Shengzhi turned his wheelchair around to the officer and said with a smile, “We’re from the Central Plains and are headed to Stronghold 178. Who are you?”

The officer did not answer Wang Shengzhi’s question. Instead, he continued asking, “What are you going to Stronghold 178 for?”

“We’re going there to do business,” Wang Shengzhi replied briefly.

“This route is controlled by our Zong Consortium. Why don’t you all come back with me to the Zong Consortium first and we’ll let everyone leave after we get a clear understanding of the situation?” the officer said. It sounded like this officer was still being polite as he was unsure of who he was speaking to.

However, Wang Shengyin said, “Then wouldn’t we have to take a detour? We’ll just stick to our planned route and mind our business without troubling the Zong Consortium.”

At that, the Zong Consortium officer dropped his polite tone and said to the soldiers beside him, “Take them back.”

Then they heard the Zong Consortium officer say to Wang Shengzhi, “I’m sorry, everyone. You’re not allowed to enter this area.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered if the Zong Consortium was trying to isolate Stronghold 178 in the Northwest and prevent any contact between them and the Central Plains.

Chapter 376: Zhou Yinglong

The Zong Consortium officer seemed very insistent on bringing Wang Shengzhi and company away, with his three combat platoons already starting to surround them.

When Wang Shengyin saw Ren Xiaosu hiding in the shadows within the vehicle, she comforted him, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. The Zong Consortium won’t dare do anything to us.”

Ren Xiaosu acknowledged her and quietly put the Explosive Poker cards in his hand back into the palace.

Wang Shengyin probably thought Ren Xiaosu was afraid of the consortium’s combat troops, but he was actually worried that his identity would be exposed.

The Zong Consortium should not know he was still alive, but just in case, it was better that he not reveal himself.

Yesterday, Ren Xiaosu applied the black medicine on himself. But the problem was that after his wound had been stitched up, the black medicine did not work as effectively on his internal organs.

Wang Shengzhi said to the Zong Consortium officer with a smile, “You don’t have to be so anxious. Just look at me. Could a handicapped person like me possibly get away from you all? We can go back to the Zong Consortium with you for questioning, but can you help us prepare some delicacies from the Zong Consortium’s stronghold?”

When he said that, even Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not expect Wang Shengzhi to suddenly bring up the topic of getting something to eat. Why did it feel like he treated this as a vacation to the Zong Consortium’s stronghold? Furthermore, Wang Shengzhi didn’t seem to mind talking about his disability at all. He had a very good mindset about things.

But right at this moment, a car engine thrummed from afar again. The Zong Consortium officer was taken aback. Wang Shengzhi’s smile broadened as he said, “It looks like we can’t make the trip anymore. If there’s another chance in the future, we’ll definitely go there.”

As he said that, an off-road vehicle appeared on the horizon. From afar, this off-road vehicle’s lone presence seemed a little weak compared to the Zong Consortium’s combat troops.

But on that off-road vehicle were three numbers: 178.

Typical organizations would usually put their emblem on their vehicles, but the symbol of Stronghold 178 was just 178. Everyone seemed to recognize these three numbers.

The people in the off-road vehicle were probably here to receive Wang Shengzhi and the others. But with only one vehicle coming, would the Zong Consortium let them leave?

Ren Xiaosu quietly sat in the backseat of the vehicle. When the off-road vehicle arrived in front of everyone, the Zong Consortium’s soldiers did not dare move or even raise their guns.

A burly man jumped out of the off-road vehicle and said with a laugh, “I’m Zhou Yinglong from Stronghold 178. Which one of you is Wang Shengzhi? The commander has asked me to come and bring you all to Stronghold 178.”

It would have still been fine if it was just one vehicle, but it turned out that there was only one person in the car as well.

But when the Zong Consortium officer heard the name “Zhou Yinglong,” Ren Xiaosu noticed the immediate change in his expression.

Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “Me, sorry to trouble you, brother.”

Zhou Yinglong looked around at the surrounding Zong Consortium soldiers. “What is the Zong Consortium doing here? Trying to intercept us?”

That officer of the Zong Consortium dropped his serious face from before. He turned around and said with a smile, “No, no, we just wanted to invite the guests from the Central Plains for a visit to our Zong Consortium’s stronghold.”

“What’s so good about your Zong Consortium’s stronghold? Bug off!” Zhou Yinglong sneered and said, “How dare you stop Commander Zhang’s guest? You all must’ve grown a pair lately, huh? Disappear from my sight! Otherwise, don’t blame me for being rude.”

Zhou Yinglong was around 1.9 meters tall. His stature was like that of a beast, and his square face was full of vigor.

He was actually trying to threaten nearly a 100 regular soldiers from the Zong Consortium into backing off all by himself? But what was even more shocking was that the Zong Consortium officer really got back into his vehicle and left in a hurry.

Zhou Yinglong watched as the Zong Consortium’s vehicles fled and muttered, “Fuck, I almost played it too big. If I had known, I would’ve asked the Commander to let me bring more people with me….”

Wang Shengzhi and the others looked at each other speechlessly. Zhou Yinglong turned around and said to him with a smile, “Follow my car and we’ll head straight to Stronghold 178. Commander Zhang is already waiting for you.”

“How long will it take to get to Stronghold 178?” Wang Shengyin asked.

“It’s approximately a four or five-day journey.” Zhou Yinglong said, “One of the roads ahead was deliberately wrecked by the bandits. We’ll have to thank our lucky stars if we can even drive above 15 kilometers per hour.”

Wang Shengzhi said, “This Zong Consortium…”

Zhou Yinglong waved it off. “They’re just hyenas. They’re nothing to worry about.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood the way Zhou Yinglong spoke. Regardless of whether he was really worried, his speech had to be tough.

Zhou Yinglong was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu in the vehicle. “Someone’s injured? How did you get injured?”

There were still traces of blood on Ren Xiaosu’s clothes on his right side. The blood had seeped out, and Zhou Yinglong happened to have sharp eyes. He could immediately tell at a glance.

Wang Shengzhi explained, “Wasn’t there flooding in the valley? This young man is a refugee who lived there. He was swept downstream by the flood, but we managed to save him.”

“Oh, so that’s what happened.” Zhou Yinglong sized up Ren Xiaosu, “It’s true that there was flooding. But there’s also a lot of bandits in the valley; it’s not just refugees, you know? Hey, kid, are you a refugee or a bandit?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m a refugee.”

“Which settlement?” Zhou Yinglong asked again.

“It’s about 50 kilometers east of Mt. Daban,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Then do you know who Old Liu is?” Zhou Yinglong asked.

Ren Xiaosu’s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly realized Stronghold 178 would probably have a good understanding of the valley. Otherwise, Zhou Yinglong wouldn’t have asked about a particular person out of nowhere!

He asked calmly, “Which Old Liu? Liu Junkui or Liu Desheng?”

Zhou Yinglong started laughing. “Alright, if you can mention those two names, then you must really be from a refugee settlement.”

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache.

Liu Desheng and Liu Junkui were both honest peasants who lived in the settlement. It could be said that those who escaped to the settlements were all honest people who could not stand the organizations or the way of life in the strongholds’ towns. So they could only go into the wild to seek refuge.

However, whichever Old Liu he was referring to was probably dead from the flooding. Ren Xiaosu did not feel any joy in clearing the interrogation. Each time his intense hatred was stoked, it was as if his heart was being carved out. He simply could not find it in him to forgive that. If the Zong Consortium did not cease to exist, Ren Xiaosu would never be at ease.

The convoy set off again. This time, no one doubted Ren Xiaosu’s identity anymore. However, Ren Xiaosu became even quieter. He did not want to say anything else.

In the car, Wang Shengyin said, “Brother, this Zong Consortium will probably be the first problem in our bid to open up the trade routes. The accessibility of this area is a secondary issue.”

Wang Shengzhi grunted in agreement. “It’ll be easy to repair the roads. All we need are people and money to fix that. But it still remains to be seen if the returns for these repairs will be worth it. If the Zong Consortium still continues to stop us, it’ll be useless even if the roads get repaired.”

“Then should we join forces with Stronghold 178 to eliminate the Zong Consortium?” Wang Shengyin asked.

“We can deliberate on that.” Wang Shengzhi said calmly, “We’ll see what Zhang Jinglin has to say first.”

While they were discussing, they did not avoid mentioning anything in the presence of Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a glimmer of hope.

Chapter 377: Too tough to die

The Zong Consortium would not wish for any trade routes to open here, of course. After all, the terrain surrounding the Zong Consortium was really barren. This had always been an important factor that limited their development. It was also because of this that the Zong Consortium was always seeking to expand their territory.

If the trade routes were opened, countless merchants would arrive in the Northwest, and Stronghold 178 would become stronger and stronger. As the saying went, two tigers couldn’t share the same mountain. Even if Stronghold 178 had no intention of expanding, wouldn’t the Zong Consortium be afraid by just being around Stronghold 178?

Of course, the Zong Consortium could still continue supporting new bandits to control the valley like they had been doing. But in the past, Stronghold 178 did not have Zhang Jinglin around. And the stand-in commander did not want to manage affairs that were beyond the stronghold.

But things were different now. Zhang Jinglin had returned!

The higher-ups of the Zong Consortium could still remember how powerful Stronghold 178 was over a decade ago. They had been building up their power over the years, but if Stronghold 178 were allowed to return to their former glory, the Zong Consortium would very likely be doomed.

This was why the Zong Consortium was not taking advantage of the situation even though the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium were currently embroiled in a fierce war. On one hand, Qing Zhen had cut off the Zong Consortium’s shortcut to the south. On the other hand, the Zong Consortium was still wary of Stronghold 178 and did not dare to make any unusual moves.

At night, Zhou Yinglong led them to a downwind spot to set up camp. It seemed that Zhou Yinglong came out to the wilderness very often, as he looked very familiar with everything he was doing out here.

After applying the black medicine, Ren Xiaosu’s wound did not feel so painful anymore. However, he still pretended like he had trouble moving around.

When he got out of the vehicle slowly to move about, Wang Shengyin even came over specifically to help him. Ren Xiaosu rejected it and expressed that he could handle himself if he moved slowly.

Wang Shengyin did not seem bothered by the blood on his body.

Ren Xiaosu found a mound and sat down. Suddenly, someone said, “I heard that many of the strongholds in the Southwest have been destroyed. I wonder what happened there. The strongholds in the Central Plains are still doing well.”

Zhou Yinglong chuckled. “Let me share something with you guys about a good brother of mine called Xu Xianchu. All the strongholds he’s been to, other than our Stronghold 178, have collapsed! At first, everyone thought he was a jinx, but when Stronghold 178 still remained standing, we didn’t think any further about it. But when he went to Stronghold 88 recently, Stronghold 88 also got destroyed….”

Wang Shengzhi laughed and said, “Did nothing happen to him?”

“What can possibly happen to him? He always leaves before the collapse of the strongholds, so he’s basically unaffected.” Zhou Yinglong chuckled and said, “Brother Xu Xianchu is too tough to die. He’ll be fine even if the strongholds get destroyed.”

“He must be the chosen one then.” Wang Shengzhi said, “Can you introduce him to us when we get to the stronghold?”

“Haha, of course!” Zhou Yinglong said, “But Old Xu wouldn’t admit to this himself. He said that there’s someone who’s even tougher than him. He always leaves before the stronghold collapses, so he’s unaffected. But that close brother of his has never managed to escape on time, yet he’s still fine….”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he immediately knew who Zhou Yinglong was referring to. He recalled the strongholds he had been to had all collapsed. Even the Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88 was not spared.

But the collapse of these strongholds should not have anything to do with him, right?

The first few that were destroyed were either caused by the earthquake or due to Li Shentan’s revenge and the Experimentals’ invasions. Even Stronghold 88—it was destroyed because Qing Zhen wanted to rescue Luo Lan.

It really had nothing to do with him!

Wang Shengzhi was even more intrigued after hearing what Zhou Yinglong said. “If I can meet this ‘chosen one’ you mentioned, I’m sure it will be very interesting.”

Zhou Yinglong carried a box of wine out of the vehicle and asked, “Do you guys drink? This Qiang[1] wine was brewed with excellent barley grains and water from snow mountain streams. It’s a little sweet!”

The others shook their heads. Only Wang Shengzhi said, “I can drink with you, but does Stronghold 178 allow drinking in their military?”

Zhou Yinglong remarked, “At our place, we’re allowed to drink during our winter break. Without alcohol to warm our bodies, it’s impossible to function.”

“But it’s almost summer now,” Wang Shengzhi said.

Zhou Yinglong thought for a moment. “It’ll be fine if you don’t tell the commander. I’ve been saving this wine since winter.”

“But there shouldn’t be many grain producers around Stronghold 178, right? Where did your barley come from?” Wang Shengyin asked.

Zhou Yinglong stopped talking. This seemed to be a very important secret.

Ren Xiaosu also realized there was something secretive about Stronghold 178 as well. There were no barley fields in the vicinity of Stronghold 178. If it were really as the outside world had said, Stronghold 178’s people tended not to leave the stronghold under ordinary circumstances. In that case, why would Zhou Yinglong know so much about the refugee settlements in the valley? And how did the barley get transported to Stronghold 178?

Zhou Yinglong changed the topic. “Did you come from the Central Plains with plans to do business with Commander Zhang? Does the alcohol in the Central Plains taste good?”

“Of course, grain production is teeming in the Central Plains. We produce tea and textiles as well.” Wang Shengzhi said in his wheelchair with a smile, “But what Commander Zhang is after most are not these, but medicine.”

When he heard the words “medicine,” Zhou Yinglong’s eyes lit up. The people in the military knew exactly what Stronghold 178 lacked the most.

What outsiders did not know was that even though Stronghold 178 lacked grainstuffs(2), they did not lack for meat. So they definitely would not starve to death.

As for medicine, that was precious. Medicine determined the survival rate after any battles they participated in.

Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It was no wonder Zhang Jinglin wanted to open up the trade routes so badly. And the Zong Consortium had probably guessed the significance of these actions.

When he listened in on Zhang Jinglin’s classes, Mr. Zhang would say that the ancient Silk Road was very important. Of course, times were different now, so the goods traded on the Silk Road would definitely be different as well. At that time, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why Zhang Jinglin had suddenly brought up this subject. But now it seemed like Zhang Jinglin had been thinking about it for a very long time.

Wang Shengzhi stopped after taking two sips of the wine. Then Wang Shengyin helped him cover his knee with a blanket.

“You can’t hold your liquor,” Zhou Yinglong muttered. All of a sudden, he looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Do you drink?”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “No, I’m still injured.”

Zhou Yinglong thought for a moment. “Since alcohol is an anti-inflammatory, your wounds won’t get inflamed after drinking some. Don’t you think I make sense?”

Next to them, Wang Shengyin said angrily, “What kind of crappy theory is that? After an injury, the immune system will deal with the damage and fight infection. If you drink alcohol, you’ll numb the immune system. When that happens, you can just wait for your death!”

Zhou Yinglong opened his mouth but was unable to refute Wang Shengyin due to his limited knowledge. In the end, he could only mutter to Ren Xiaosu, “Don’t listen to her. She might not be right either. Have you heard about how Guan Yu scraped poison off his bones? Even the Martial Saint drank alcohol after being wounded….”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head helplessly. It was not that he was afraid that drinking would affect his injuries, but that he did not want to lose consciousness and rationality among this unfamiliar crowd and environment.

Zhou Yinglong mumbled, “How boring.”

Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard the sound of a vehicle passing through the wilderness in the distance. Zhou Yinglong put down the bottle and sneered, “The Zong Consortium has grown too bold!”

“Do you think the Zong Consortium has ordered their people to attack us?” Wang Shengzhi looked at Zhou Yinglong. “Does the Zong Consortium dare to attack people from Stronghold 178?”

“In recent years, the Zong Consortium has been developing at a rapid pace. They probably found some backing or something.” Zhou Yinglong sneered.

[1] Qiāng # is the name of a people living in the western region of China, particularly the Hexi Corridor. | http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History Altera/qiang.html

(2) Previously in Chapter 333, it was mistakenly translated that Stronghold 178’s grain reserves were ranked first in the entire stronghold system. That is untrue and only their mineral reserves are ranked first.

Chapter 378: Mysticism

When Ren Xiaosu, who had already deemed the Zong Consortium as an enemy, heard a vehicle approaching, his first thought was that the Zong Consortium must have sent someone to ambush Wang Shengzhi’s convoy. This was probably because they wanted to prevent Stronghold 178 from building close ties with the Central Plains.

One by one, the members of Wang Shengzhi’s convoy drew their weapons from the vehicles’ trunks. Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong got up barehanded.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Zhou Yinglong and determined that the burly man from the Northwest was definitely a supernatural being. Otherwise, Zhang Jinglin would not have sent him here alone, nor would Zhou Yinglong not grab a weapon when facing a possible enemy attack.

However, when the Zong Consortium’s convoy finally approached, it surprised them. The moment the people in the vehicle got out, they immediately expressed that they were not carrying any weapons with them. The leader of the group was an unfamiliar young man.

A few people dressed in chef’s attire jumped out of the cars behind them. They were carrying some pots and pans, while some even carried portable gas stoves.

The young man said with a smile, “Good evening, everyone. I’m the Zong Consortium’s Zong Xiang. I heard all of you wanted to have a taste of our Zong Consortium’s delicacies, but since you can’t go to our stronghold due to your schedule, I’ve brought my chefs out here instead so you can get to enjoy authentic food like caramelized potatoes, Hundred Blossoms Chicken, and roasted whole goat.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this from inside the vehicle, he sneered. The Zong Consortium was clearly eager for everyone here to die, yet they pretended to be really welcoming.

Before Zong Cheng revealed his intentions, he had acted really warm and hospitable too. But in the end?

Even now, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why Zong Cheng would attack them. This was what Ren Xiaosu was most furious about.

Looking at this young man named Zong Xiang, Ren Xiaosu was very sure that he and Zong Cheng had a close relationship. He was considering if he should kill Zong Cheng on the spot. But what would he do after killing Zong Xiang? That would not be enough to sate his fury.

Ren Xiaosu needed to make sure the entire Zong Consortium was destroyed. Just killing Zong Xiang alone would not erase his hatred.

Ren Xiaosu was even considering intentionally creating a conflict between Wang Shengzhi, Zhou Yinglong, and the Zong Consortium. For example, killing Zong Xiang and framing it as though Wang Shengzhi and the others had made the move. But if he did that, they would not be able to return to the Central Plains safely, right? These people had saved his life, so he could not do that.

Ren Xiaosu took a slow, deep breath to calm himself down. He wanted to gain the support of Wang Shengzhi and Stronghold 178 to use their power to seek out the best opportunity to destroy the Zong Consortium.

As the saying went, slap not a smiling face. Even Zhou Yinglong was not saying anything at this moment.

After the food was prepared, the aroma spread throughout the entire campsite. Zong Xiang asked the chef to cut him a slice of mutton. He grabbed it and put it into his mouth. “Let me taste it first for you all…. Mmm, it’s cooked. The meat is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, so please enjoy it. I won’t disturb you any further and hope that you’ll have a pleasant journey in the Northwest.”

After saying that, Zong Xiang actually left with his men.

The taste test seemed more like it was to prove to Wang Shengzhi and the others that the food was not poisoned.

When Zong Xiang departed, Zhou Yinglong spat on the ground. “What good can possibly come of a hyena trying to please you?”

Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “Why do you hate the Zong Consortium so much?”

“When Commander Zhang left the stronghold, the Zong Consortium loved throwing themselves at Stronghold 178, and even secretly sent their people behind the walls. That ended with the news in Stronghold 178 always getting leaked in advance.” Zhou Yinglong said with a dark expression, “This group of hyenas kept fighting for power and benefits in Stronghold 178, creating a foul atmosphere in the organization. It was only later on that we found out the Chief of Staff was actually a bastard son of the Zong Consortium. Commander Zhang was quite upset after he found out about this. Since then, Stronghold 178 stopped accepting outsiders. That was mainly to prevent people with ulterior motives from infiltrating the stronghold.”

“How did you guys learn he was an illegitimate son of the Zong Consortium?” Wang Shengyin asked.

Zhou Yinglong sneered. “Through torture, of course.”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘Doesn’t that make him a sleeper agent? Who knows how long that bastard son of the Zong Consortium was lurking to even rise to the role of chief of staff.’

Wang Shengzhi nodded. It was no wonder the people from Stronghold 178 hated the Zong Consortium so much. He smiled and said, “We used to worry about such matters too.”

Zhou Yinglong was stunned. “Have you stopped worrying?”

“Mhm, it’s been resolved,” Wang Shengzhi replied.

“Can this be resolved too?” Zhou Yinglong frowned. “It’s impossible to guard against those with ulterior motives once they get into the stronghold.”

“We have artificial intelligence to depend on.” Wang Shengyin smiled as she explained, “Our AI can use a camera to analyze whether a person is suspicious.”

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be confused. What was this artificial intelligence that was being talked about?

Ren Xiaosu was not the only one who was dumbfounded. Even Zhou Yinglong was confused. “What the hell is that?”

Wang Shengyin explained, “Al is something that our predecessors researched before The Cataclysm. It was fortunate that we managed to preserve all of the data from their research. To put it simply, we want our computer program to have the ability to analyze things independently like a normal human being. However, our AI doesn’t really have sapience. Currently, the philosophy behind AI is still—”

“Don’t tell me all that. I can’t understand it,” Zhou Yinglong interrupted. “Surely what you’re talking about is mysticism, right?”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he could identify with Zhou Yinglong. Anything he could not understand would immediately be deemed superstitious.

He knew what machines and programs were, but to make machines and programs think like humans? Was that even possible? Ren Xiaosu did not believe it. Machines were just machines.

Due to The Cataclysm, humanity’s scientific advancement deviated. Whatever research that remained behind would continue to get studied and become the mainstream research direction of the organizations. This would allow them to instantly gain a lead over the other organizations in certain fields.

Wang Shengzhi said, “Your Stronghold 178 can also deploy our AI to screen for any spies.”

Zhou Yinglong wasn’t stupid. He chuckled and said bluntly, “Although I don’t know what that thing is, and it might be very reliable in screening for spies, our Stronghold 178 will never allow something like that to monitor us. What if you can operate it remotely? We don’t have the technology to fight you.”

Wang Shengzhi did not mind. “It’s fine, I was just offering a suggestion.”

Zhou Yinglong wondered, “Even your machines have become intelligent. Please don’t tell me you live in a floating stronghold in the sky or something.”

Wang Shengyin laughed. “That’s pseudoscience. What kind of propulsion can support an entire stronghold and make it float high in the air? Humans can’t achieve something like that. There isn’t actually much of a difference between our stronghold and your stronghold except we live a little more prosperously, have more high rises, and have better living conditions. We have factories and grain fields outside the stronghold just like you. The nanomachines the Yang Consortium and Li Consortium developed are not something we have.”

The entire conversation, Ren Xiaosu did not say a word. As a refugee, he should not understand these things, and nobody cared if he could understand them.

Chapter 379: The two great jinxes

Wang Shengyin carried on explaining more about artificial intelligence. For example, the practical field of artificial intelligence was not very wide. It was mainly put into the stronghold’s surveillance cameras to create the so-called “eye in the sky” function.

It was precisely because of the appearance of such an artificial intelligence that the Central Plains could become a civilization where one wouldn’t need to shut their doors at night. It could even analyze thefts and inform the stronghold’s Public Order Division to arrest the thief.

Thus, the rumor that people in the Central Plains did not close their doors at night was not because that place was civilized, but because it was too easy to be caught after committing a crime.

Ren Xiaosu could not help but ask, “Are there also refugees in the Central Plains?”

Wang Shengyin looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Yes.”

Ren Xiaosu realized the Central Plains were not exactly a paradise either. From his point of view, there was no such thing as paradise as long as oppression existed.

When Ren Xiaosu learned of the meaning of the phrase “artificial intelligence,” he found it extremely ridiculous. Back when he was still living in town, he did not even own any electronics!

In the entire town, only brick houses like the ones that Wang Fugui lived in had electrical cables wired. The rest of the refugees did not even have light bulbs in their homes, but someone here was actually saying that machines in the Central Plains were close to being intelligent?

Ren Xiaosu found this unreal.

Zhou Yinglong stated, “That means the combat strength of those in Central Plains is about the same as ours, but the only difference is that there’s been a breakthrough in this pain of an AI thing.” To this burly man from Stronghold 178, the first thing he was most concerned about was the combat strength of those in the Central Plains.

Wang Shengzhi laughed and said, “The wars happening in the Central Plains aren’t going to reach Stronghold 178 any time soon, so don’t worry.”

“Who can say?” Zhou Yinglong muttered. “Alright, get some rest. We’ll reach Stronghold 178 in another two days.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leaning on a mound. Here he was at the northernmost part of the valley, an area that was closest to where the Zong Consortium called its territory, where the vast expanse was covered in yellow dust.

Because there were no industrial activities out here, the stars in the sky seemed to be right in front of him.

But there was no one to keep watch for Ren Xiaosu anymore.

Ren Xiaosu stared into the void while thinking. No matter how hard he tried to fall asleep, he just could not.

He wondered where Yan Liuyuan was right now. Perhaps he was already on his way to the Central Plains? Did Wang Fugui and the others survive? Ren Xiaosu had seen Jiang Wu’s power undergo a new transformation at the last minute before they got swept away by the flood. So with Jiang Wu around, the others might have survived.

According to Wang Shengzhi, the Central Plains were downstream of this river. It would flow past Strongholds 46, 37, 28, 7, 9, and end at Stronghold 1. If Ren Xiaosu wanted to seek out his family, he could go there according to this route.

Ren Xiaosu made a mental note of it. He would definitely go and look for Yan Liuyuan after the Zong Consortium was destroyed. But before the Zong Consortium’s destruction, Ren Xiaosu did not want to drag Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others into this mess.

At this moment, Wang Shengzhi rolled up to Ren Xiaosu in his wheelchair and asked, “Are you thinking about your family and friends?”

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. “Actually, I don’t have any family left, just friends who were like family.”

“I’ll help you look for them after I return to the Central Plains. Tell me their names.” Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “If they really did manage to get to the Central Plains, I’ll definitely help you locate them.”

However, Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment. He did not want to give Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan’s names because he did not know if Wang Shengzhi was a good or bad person. How could he possibly entrust the safety of Wang Fugui and the others to someone else? He believed that even without Wang Shengzhi’s help, Wang Fugui and the others would still be able to live well.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Thank you, but only one of my friends still remains. His name is Li Shentan.”

Ren Xiaosu did not tell the truth.

Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll remember it.”

After the convoy restarted their journey, the Zong Consortium did not reappear. After driving for some distance, the sunset in the wilderness was starting to arrive later.

On the night before reaching Stronghold 178, the sun only went below the horizon after 8 PM.

The vastness of the Northwest was something Ren Xiaosu had never seen before when he was in the Southwest. In his wheelchair, Wang Shengzhi looked out into the vast plains and snowy mountains in the distance and said with emotion, “Today, I’m finally able to appreciate how large this world truly is.”

Zhou Yinglong chuckled and said, “A real man should be living out here. You people from the Central Plains aren’t noble enough.”

Wang Shengzhi did not refute that. He asked, “Why did Commander Zhang leave Stronghold 178?”

Zhou Yinglong asked in return, “And how did you get to know our commander?”

“After Commander Zhang left Stronghold 178 all those years ago, he traveled to the Central Plains. We got to know each other then.” Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “Back then, I still had full control of my legs. But time passes like a song. He and I are both getting old.”

Zhou Yinglong curled his lips. “Our commander is still young though.”

All of a sudden, a convoy of cars appeared on the horizon. Zhou Yinglong waved excitedly and said, “I used the satellite phone to inform the commander yesterday that you were arriving soon. Who’d have thought you’d be so important that the commander would even come out personally to welcome you?”

Wang Shengzhi smiled without saying anything. Beside him, Wang Shengyin looked at Ren Xiaosu. “When we get to Stronghold 178, it shouldn’t be difficult for my brother to arrange for you to join Stronghold 178 with his influence.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned. How long had it been since he last saw Zhang Jinglin?

He had squatted outside the school and listened to the classes for three years. Later on, he was finally allowed to attend classes in the school by Zhang Jinglin. Counting the days, Zhang Jinglin and he had known each other for quite some time. But that teacher had turned into the commander of Stronghold 178 all of a sudden.

The vehicles on the horizon drove over in the twilight of the sunset. When the convoy arrived in front of everyone, the first person to jump out of a vehicle was someone Ren Xiaosu knew: Xu Xianchu.

When Xu Xianchu saw Zhou Yinglong and the others, he was stunned. Zhou Yinglong smiled and said, “Bro, why have you come in advance to pick us up?”

Afterwards, Xu Xianchu walked in a trance past him and came to Ren Xiaosu. When he saw Ren Xiaosu’s pale face and the bloodstains on his body, he asked anxiously, “What happened? You got injured?”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s just a minor injury. I’ll be fine soon.”

“You call that a minor injury?” Xu Xianchu was shocked. He lifted Ren Xiaosu’s shirt and saw the scar on the right side of Ren Xiaosu’s abdomen. “It’s a penetrating wound? Who did this? Weren’t you at Stronghold 88?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s a long story. This was done by the Zong Consortium.”

“Where’s Liuyuan?” Xu Xianchu looked around at everyone. “And where’s Wang Fugui?”

Ren Xiaosu’s face darkened for a moment. “We got separated.”

Zhou Yinglong, Wang Shengyin, and Wang Shengzhi were all stunned. “What’s going on? Didn’t he say he was a normal refugee?”

Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong was even more surprised. He had never heard Xu Xianchu having friends on the outside… Wait a minute! It seemed like Xu Xianchu really did have a friend on the outside…. Damn!

Was Stronghold 178 about to play host to the two great jinxes?!

Chapter 380: Attitude switches faster than flipping through a book!

The people in Stronghold 178 had all mocked Xu Xianchu for being a jinx. But later on, everyone realized it wasn’t Xu Xianchu when nothing happened to Stronghold 178 since he arrived.

Later, they heard from him that he only managed to join Stronghold 178 thanks to a recommendation letter by his friend. Otherwise, he couldn’t have even gotten inside Stronghold 178. And it was this friend who was the most unfortunate one. Whichever stronghold he went to would surely collapse. After Xu Xianchu came to Stronghold 178, he had only ever mentioned this friend of his. So Zhou Yinglong quickly put two and two together.

While they were traveling here, Zhou Yinglong thought Ren Xiaosu was a normal refugee. On one hand, Ren Xiaosu’s act was very believable. After all, he really was a refugee to begin with. On the other hand, the information Ren Xiaosu mentioned regarding the refugee settlement matched up with what Zhou Yinglong had asked.

So why had his status changed all of a sudden?

Wang Shengyin pursed her lips. She whispered to Wang Shengzhi, “Brother, he lied to us. He’s too deceptive.”

After saving Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengyin was the one who stitched up his wound. She cleaned off the dirt on his face too. She had thought Ren Xiaosu was a pitiful refugee who looked rather honest. But in the end, he didn’t speak a single truthful word the entire trip.

Women hated being lied to. In just an instant, Wang Shengyin’s impression of Ren Xiaosu had gone down the drain. The only thing she did not expect was that Ren Xiaosu actually had contact with Stronghold 178.

Wang Shengzhi smiled indifferently and said, “He’s not exactly deceptive. It’s quite normal that he didn’t trust us. It must be this cautiousness that helped him to survive in the wilderness. But at his age, I wonder what he’s been through to constantly be so wary.”

“He still lied!” Wang Shengyin got unhappy.

At this moment, Zhang Jinglin got out of a car. There was also a group of people from the convoy standing guard next to him. Zhang Jinglin said to them with a laugh, “You guys don’t have to be so uptight. Everyone here is an old friend.”

But no matter what he said, the burly men behind still followed him closely. Someone mumbled, “What if someone tries to harm you?”

Wang Shengzhi was smiling as he watched this scene play out. He was a little envious of Zhang Jinglin’s high status in Stronghold 178. He was clearly a frail scholar, yet he was being supported by this group of burly Northwestern men.

The people following Zhang Jinglin were all fully armed and looked extremely menacing. If they were deployed to their stronghold in the Central Plains, the AI might think they were bad guys and tell the Public Order Division to arrest them all.

Zhang Jinglin suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu as well. He frowned and greeted Wang Shengzhi briefly before coming over to Ren Xiaosu. “What happened? Where’s Liuyuan? Where’s Xiaoyu?”

Just like Xu Xianchu, Zhang Jinglin lifted Ren Xiaosu’s shirt and took a look at his wound. “It’s a puncture. Could this be the same as the wounds some of our soldiers suffered when they got ambushed?”

Someone behind him leaned forward to have a look. “It’s been stitched up, so I can’t tell. Why don’t we remove the stitches and get a better look?”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Who the hell would suggest removing the stitches before a wound healed just so they could have a look?

Zhang Jinglin asked seriously, “Who did this?”

“It was the Zong Consortium’s Zong Cheng.” Ren Xiaosu did not hold back anymore now that Zhang Jinglin was here. They’d known each other for many years and were very good friends. He said, “We had planned on heading to Mt. Kushui to settle down there. But along the way, we encountered Zong Cheng, who led his men in an ambush.”

Zhang Jinglin frowned. “Zong Cheng!”

“Mr. Zhang, do you know Zong Cheng?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.

“I do.” Zhang Jinglin said, “Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang are the cream of the crop among the younger generation of the Zong clan. It seems like the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium intend to let Zong Xiang take control of the Zong Consortium, while Zong Cheng will be Zong Xiang’s Shadow. They’re biological brothers.”

Ren Xiaosu remembered the clean-shaven young man named Zong Xiang. He was practically close enough to him that he could have killed him. But it wasn’t exactly a missed opportunity either. By killing Zong Xiang, Zong Cheng would probably get alerted. There were still many more opportunities in the future to kill them together.

However, Zhang Jinglin said, “Zong Cheng is a supernatural being. His superpower seems to allow him to make someone into his puppet, but we still can’t verify that as he keeps a very low-profile and doesn’t act predictably.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. If Zong Cheng were really as Zhang Jinglin had said, could it be that Zong Cheng had attacked them because he wanted to control him? No! If he wanted to control him, he wouldn’t have tried to kill him. So that meant… he was trying to gain control of Yang Xiaojin?

Wang Shengzhi and the others had been cast aside. Wang Shengyin stared blankly as Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu stood around Ren Xiaosu. Was this young man so highly revered in Stronghold 178? What the hell? They had picked up this young man on the road. How did he turn out to be such an important person? They really did pick him up by chance!

Wang Shengyin turned to look at Zhou Yinglong. “You don’t know this Ren Xiaosu? Isn’t he from Stronghold 178?”

Zhou Yinglong was also a little confused. “I didn’t know he knew the commander either.”

Moreover, Zhang Jinglin’s attitude towards Ren Xiaosu seemed to be a little special. Now that Zhou Yinglong was thinking about it, Xu Xianchu was also recommended to Stronghold 178 by Ren Xiaosu, wasn’t he?

At this moment, Zhang Jinglin whispered something to Ren Xiaosu. Then he turned around and said with embarrassment to Wang Shengzhi, “I’m sorry, Shengzhi, but Ren Xiaosu is my student. I wasn’t expecting to see him here, and he’s even seriously injured too.”

Wang Shengzhi said in surprise, “He’s your student? Then why isn’t he a member of Stronghold 178?”

Zhang Jinglin replied, “This student is a little more peculiar. Let’s head back to Stronghold 178 first before I fill you in further.”

Zhou Yinglong suddenly muttered, “It’s over, we’re done for. The strongholds he’s been to have all collapsed. Our Stronghold 178 has collected two of these great jinxes together. And one of them is even a student of the commander!”

The burly man next to him asked, “Old Zhou, what are you mumbling about?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing…”

When they set off again, Ren Xiaosu was still sitting in Wang Shengyin’s vehicle. But he noticed that something was off about Wang Shengyin’s expression. She looked to be sulking. However, Ren Xiaosu did not give any explanation and only said, “Thank you for saving me. I had no choice, so please understand.”

Wang Shengyin pursed her lips and said, “Yeah, that’s right, you’re a big shot, so of course you had to hide your identity to prevent others from harming you.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything further. He just looked out of the window. Zhang Jinglin had told him earlier that they should head to Stronghold 178 first. Stronghold 178 had some ideas for dealing with the Zong Consortium. If he wanted to seek revenge, he could only rely on Stronghold 178 for now. Even the Qing Consortium couldn’t divert their attention as they were busy defending against the Yang Consortium’s desperate counterattacks.

Zhang Jinglin knew exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted. So he only needed one sentence to convince him.

All of a sudden, Wang Shengyin asked in a soft voice, “Did something happen to your family as well? Was it caused by the Zong Consortium?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu continued staring out of the window as he grunted a response.

“Whatever, you’re forgiven.” Wang Shengyin said, “Don’t feel too sad. We’ll help you find your friends in the Central Plains.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. A woman’s mood was really complicated and volatile. Their attitude could switch faster than flipping through a book!

Chapter 381: Fortress 178!

When Ren Xiaosu saw Stronghold 178 from afar, he was in awe.

This stronghold was utterly different from any of the other strongholds he had seen. The towering and ancient stronghold was marred with “scars,” and there were even large areas of patched up scrapes. It looked like the stronghold had been through multiple collapses and reconstructions. Over and over again, bad luck came and went, but it remained standing nonetheless.

Even though the strongholds Ren Xiaosu came across in the past had shown signs of aging, their walls had never taken such serious damage before. Comparatively, they looked to be in really good condition.

But the walls of Stronghold 178 were different. At first sight, Ren Xiaosu got the feeling that this wall seemed to have tenacity built into it.

He suddenly understood why people referred to Stronghold 178 as a fortress.

This was a fortress-type stronghold that was truly built for war. There was far more attention put into the building of its defenses than any other strongholds that Ren Xiaosu had been to.

Zhou Yinglong said proudly, “We all call this Fortress 178. It’s totally different from those weak strongholds out there!”

Ren Xiaosu stood under the towering walls of Fortress 178, while the soldiers on the tall walls were on alert. But as they had arrived with Zhang Jinglin, the soldiers on the walls did not issue any warnings to stop them.

According to Xu Xianchu, a stranger would find it very difficult to get close to this stronghold. Without Ren Xiaosu’s recommendation letter, it would also have been impossible for him to get in.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “I wrote a few recommendation letters for others as well. Did they come to Fortress 178?”

Xu Xianchu shook his head. “No.”

“Something must’ve happened to them then.” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

Then Ren Xiaosu dug a bullet out of the wall. “Why’re there bullets lodged in the walls?”

Fortress 178 was naturally constructed to defend against enemies. But from what Ren Xiaosu remembered, everyone had said that Fortress 178 was built to defend against wild animals.

Everyone said there were fewer wild animals in the interior because humans had chased them to the outer perimeter of the stronghold ring. Meanwhile, Fortress 178 towered over the Northwest to prevent a large number of terrifying wild animals from invading inland.

But how could bullets lodged in the wall be explained? It was obviously left behind by an enemy who had fired at the walls. And only humans knew how to use firearms.

Xu Xianchu smiled and said, “You’ll understand in the future. In this era of firearms and explosives, the only true enemies of humans are humans themselves.”

These words sounded somewhat familiar to Ren Xiaosu. A librarian named An Yuqian had said something similar before.

However, An Yuqian was referring to how science was uncontrollable and that humans would create a power so massive they could not control it in the end.

But Xu Xianchu was more straightforward, stating the enemies of Fortress 178 were also humans.

The thick and heavy gate of Fortress 178 slowly lifted. The rumble sounded like an enormous dragon roaring.

As the group walked in, everyone was surprised to find that although Fortress 178 looked old, it was unusually clean and tidy.

Ren Xiaosu had thought this place where burly men from the Northwest lived would be very dirty and messy, but that was not the case.

After passing through the gate, they ended up on a very long street. At the end of the street, a gigantic copper bell hung high above in a tower.

Xu Xianchu described to Ren Xiaosu, “This bell is a little different from the one at our previous stronghold. While the ones at the other strongholds are used for telling the time, the bells here at Fortress 178 only ring in warning. When the bell rings, everyone in the military prepares to fight to their deaths.”

“When was the last time it rang?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Sixteen years ago.” Xu Xianchu lamented, “It sucks that I wasn’t here to see that sight. Many people in the interior don’t even know there was a war here. Fortress 178 is like a barrier that holds all of the dangers and darkness on the outside.”

There were many common folk on the streets, and they were all dressed in cloth clothing. Neon signs were rarely seen outside the shops, and there were barely any private cars driving on the road. Occasionally, the military would pass by in an off-road vehicle.

Curious, Wang Shengyin said, “This place looks really primitive.”

Xu Xianchu said, “We don’t have enough electricity. The new power plant at the outer perimeter is still being built. However, there isn’t enough manpower in Fortress 178, so the construction process is very slow. We used to have a very large power station, but that was destroyed in the war.”

“I don’t think there’s enough resources either.” Wang Shengyin said, “The Northwest is quite suitable for planting cotton. There’s a good amount of light, and water from the snow mountains and groundwater are also abundant. Why didn’t you all grow more cotton?”

Xu Xianchu looked at her and said, “We have to make sure we can fill our stomachs first.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the sights around Fortress 178. To be honest, it was a little dingy. But for some reason, he found this place much more comfortable than any of the other strongholds.

When the pedestrians saw Zhang Jinglin’s convoy passing through the streets, they did not deliberately fawn upon him. Instead, they greeted him as though they were old friends before getting back to their own business.

Xu Xianchu gave Ren Xiaosu a look. “Xiaosu, can that black medicine of yours be mass produced? We have some people here who got frostbite during the winter and can’t seem to heal. Furthermore, we’ve always had a lack of medicine for our battles. If we had your black medicine, that would be great news for our Fortress 178.”

Xu Xianchu had heard about Ren Xiaosu being a doctor in town, and Zhang Jinglin also knew about this.

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “There’s no way to mass produce it.”

Xu Xianchu was a little disappointed. “That’s alright. When the trade routes are opened, we can start buying medicine from the Central Plains.”

Fortress 178 lacked not only medicine, but also clothes, food, and so on. For Zhang Jinglin, who had just returned to Fortress 178, reopening the trade routes was an extremely urgent matter.

Zhang Jinglin had spent several months eliminating the turmoil in Fortress 178. Now it was time to consider the development of the fortress.

Xu Xianchu arranged for Ren Xiaosu and the others to stay in a small building. “This is where we entertain our guests. Please don’t mind if it’s a little bare.”

Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “It’s already quite nice.”

Wang Shengzhi, Wang Shengyin, and the others might not have stayed in such a dilapidated place before, but since Ren Xiaosu had even lived in a shack before, there was no way he would mind it.

A little embarrassed, Xu Xianchu replied, “Xiaosu, your wound hasn’t healed yet. I’ll go to the Supply Division to apply for some medicine for you. However, we’re missing a lot of drugs in the fortress, so I might not be able to get any….”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I still have some black medicine with me.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Xu Xianchu rubbed his hands together and said with a laugh, “Then would you have any to spare…”

Xu Xianchu was a little embarrassed to say this out loud. One of the soldiers under him had gotten injured during his training, and his wound still hadn’t healed. In fact, the Supply Division had run out of medicine, so he could only live with the injury. Now that Ren Xiaosu had come, rather than taking good care of him, he even ended up asking him for something. What the hell was he thinking?

But Ren Xiaosu stuffed a small porcelain bottle into Xu Xianchu’s hands. “Don’t mention it.”

In the past, even when Xu Xianchu was at his lowest, he was still willing to give away the remaining half of his cornbread to Ren Xiaosu. In that case, Ren Xiaosu could not be petty towards Xu Xianchu.

Chapter 382: To fight or not to fight

Fortress 178’s sole existence was for the purpose of war. Therefore, it was destined to be different from the other strongholds ever since its emergence.

There were no shops selling a variety of things in the streets, nor were there any particularly well-dressed pedestrians. Some girls had already changed into long skirts for the spring season, but even their long dresses were made out of calico fabric.

The clothes of those in the fortress were very monotone and were mainly in shades of dark blue, dark green, or yellow.

At present, the textile dyeing techniques in Fortress 178 were still stuck at the most basic level. After wearing the clothes for some time, the color would start fading.

Just as Wang Shengyin had said, the Northwest was one of the most suitable places for growing cotton. However, there was a lack of that technology here. All of their focus was instead placed into developing their military industry, as well as trying their best to ensure that everyone had something to eat.

So who would have the time to involve themselves with bells and whistles?

After Xu Xianchu left, Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengzhi, and the others walked out of the building and carefully sized up this legendary fortress.

The pedestrians on the street turned to look at them when they saw them, because other than Ren Xiaosu, the group looked a little out of place.

Wang Shengyin had also changed into a long dress, but the blue dress did not look like it could be produced here in the fortress. Wang Shengyin said that this blue was called Tiffany Blue, and it was a very popular color back in the Central Plains, as a female singer had worn it before.

Ren Xiaosu thought there probably wouldn’t be celebrity singers in Fortress 178. The women he saw in Fortress 178 were all carrying a pole with baskets on both ends just like the men.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked Wang Shengzhi, “How do you think Mr. Zhang will handle the Zong Consortium?”

Wang Shengzhi raised his head and smiled. “You’re hoping that Fortress 178 will help you get your revenge?”

“That’s right,” Ren Xiaosu admitted frankly. “But if it’s not Fortress 178’s own decision, I don’t want to drag others down with me either. I can still manage a lot of things by myself.”

Ren Xiaosu thought that if Fortress 178 was unwilling to send in their troops against the Zong Consortium and clear out the obstruction to the trade routes, he would have to infiltrate the Zong Consortium himself.

Anything Li Shentan could do, he could probably do as well.

Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, “Look at these pedestrians on the street.”

“Hm?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback.

“Everyone’s taking the food in their homes out with carrying poles. But where are they taking it?” Wang Shengzhi asked.

“To sell?” Ren Xiaosu said.

“The farmers live outside the fortress, while these are normal residents, so why would they be selling their food?” Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, “They’ve gathered up all the food they stored away to donate it to the military of Fortress 178.”

“Why, though?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He really did not understand military matters. He had encountered an Advanced Army Warfare Leadership skill user but did not have a Skill Duplication Scroll on him to learn it at the time.

“This is Fortress 178’s preparation for war. All the food has been handed over to the garrison troops to be allocated during the war,” Wang Shengzhi explained with a smile. “If you’ve already decided on taking revenge against the Zong Consortium, you can put your mind at ease. If Mr. Zhang hadn’t thought over it carefully, he wouldn’t have asked me to come to the Northwest. He’s already made his decision.”

Fortress 178 sought to sell off their large mineral deposits to make the lives of the fortress residents better and obtain better military armaments as well. As such, they had to open the trade routes.

But the Zong Consortium would never allow all this to happen. Why would they allow outsiders to sleep soundly next to their beds? This was the inevitable outcome caused by the growth and development of an organization with a vested interest.

In a run-down meeting room in Fortress 178, a group of officers were arguing endlessly around a large sand table. Zhou Yinglong shouted, “I’ve long disliked the Zong Consortium. I’m sure everyone already knows those old fogeys at the Zong Consortium have deployed their weapons and troops to face our Fortress 178. What do you think they intend to do? I don’t have to elaborate, right?”

“Everyone understands.” Someone said, “When I made a trip to the valley awhile ago, I discovered the Qing Consortium was also stirring up trouble there. However, Qing Zhen is not targeting our Fortress 178 in his schemes. All of his people have gone to attack the Yang Consortium, leaving only the Zong Consortium with a presence in the valley.”

“If we want to open the trade routes, it would be best to build it on the path that goes through Mt. Dingyuan. Wasn’t it a highway before The Cataclysm? That would be the fastest route to take. But Mt. Dingyuan is still being controlled by the Zong Consortium’s bandits, while Mt. Guan to its north acts as the Zong Consortium’s forward operating base,” Xu Xianchu analyzed. “So, even if we don’t attack the Zong Consortium directly, we still have to take back control of the front line at Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan.”

“How do we do that?” Zhou Yinglong replied, “We don’t have enough manpower. We can fight, but occupying the territories is a bit of a stretch. How many people would you have to deploy there to guard against the Zong Consortium’s raids? And when the Zong Consortium cuts off the retreat route at Mt. Dingyuan, the soldiers there will immediately be left to fend for themselves. Just thinking about it makes me despair.”

“That’s right, Old Zhou’s argument makes sense. No one takes a long-term defensive position.” A burly man said, “The Zong Consortium is right in front of us. Those bastards have become too restless in recent years and are constantly fixated on Fortress 178 being their imaginary enemy. In the past, we stood guard at Fortress 178 to defend against the western enemies. It seems they’ve already forgotten all about the kindness that we’ve shown them!”

For the whole night, the entire conference room was noisy as everyone chipped in with their opinions. It was heated.

Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin stood next to the sand table and looked quietly at the terrain mapped out on it. The sand table covered the entire Southwest and Northwest and even included a small area of the Central Plains.

All of a sudden, someone said, “But what if the western enemies come again while we’re attacking the Zong Consortium?”

Everyone started looking at one another. Zhou Yinglong hesitated and said, “They haven’t been here in 16 years. Wouldn’t that be too coincidental?”

The person who spoke up calmly said, “Because of the differences in our skin, hair, and ethnicity, our people have never been able to infiltrate their camp. By the same logic, they’re also unable to infiltrate our camp. Thus, neither side knows anything that’s going on at the other end, so how can you be so sure they won’t come? What if it’s really that coincidental? Then we’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Fortress 178 had not been paying much attention to the Zong Consortium in many years, but it wasn’t because they were willing to accept this hyena’s insolence right at their doorstep. Rather, they had a more important mission that left them unable to spread their forces too thin.

Zhou Yinglong and the others felt a little aggrieved. They had to accept that their mission came first.

The Zong Consortium, the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and even the Central Plains were not required to thank them for it, but a mission was a mission.

Suddenly, Zhang Jinglin said, “We will fight.”

The meeting room fell silent. Everyone could hear each other’s breathing. There was a glimmer in the eyes of Zhou Yinglong and the others as their cheeks flushed red. It was the rush of blood they would experience before every big battle.

Regardless of the points of view brought up in the meeting room, or how different all of their opinions were, only Zhang Jinglin’s words mattered.

Once Zhang Jinglin had made his decision, it meant that war was inevitable.

Chapter 383: Razor Sharp Company

Zhang Jinglin slowly said, “Everyone’s considerations are not wrong. On one hand, the Zong Consortium has entrenched themselves at the northern side of the trade route. As long as they are still there, we can forget about opening up the trade route from our place to the Central Plains. By controlling the front lines of Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, it shows that they know what they’re doing.”

Zhang Jinglin continued, “On the other hand, the enemy from the west may attack us at any time. If we split up our forces to go to the Zong Consortium, we might not be able to defeat the western enemies. But even if they don’t coincidentally attack while we’re away, some of our troops will still be lost in the conflict against the Zong Consortium. At that time, we might not be able to defeat the western enemies when they come either.”

At the end of the day, they were just arguing over these two possibilities for the entire afternoon. Zhang Jinglin had already decided after taking into consideration all details. He thought for a moment and said, “There’s definitely that risk, but if we don’t clear the trade routes, Fortress 178 will only continue weakening. As you all know, we’ve sent some people disguised as refugees west and discovered that place is becoming more and more prosperous. Meanwhile, we’re held back in our current situation with no resources, no technology, and no new talents. We’re even running out of clothes to wear!”

“We might control a lot of mines, but they can’t turn into our strength.” Zhang Jinglin said, “If this goes on, Fortress 178 might not be able to stop our enemies from the west in another ten years. So we have no choice but to make a change now. We have to survive this disaster before we can talk about the future.”

Zhang Jinglin had made himself clear. It was not that he did not consider the risks involved, but that with the risks they were facing, fighting the Zong Consortium and opening the trade routes was their best option.

Rather than waiting to die, he might as well have a go at it.

Zhang Jinglin knew that Fortress 178 was much stronger and resolute than the rumors said, but their current plight was also much more dangerous than the rest of the world imagined

But Zhou Yinglong and this group of rowdy people couldn’t care less about Commander Zhang’s considerations. As long as Zhang Jinglin gave the word that they were going to fight, they would fight.

Whether they won or lost was something to think about in the future. All they had to do now was fight!

The conditions at Fortress 178 might not be comparable to others, but this damned group of people were definitely the strongest in their execution of orders.

Then Zhang Jinglin said, “Tomorrow, we’ll hold a meeting at the same time to discuss our strategy. If you’re late, stand and listen as your punishment. You won’t be allowed to speak.”

When the others heard this, they hurriedly guaranteed that no one would be late. They would definitely not drink tonight.

Zhang Jinglin added, “Zhou Yinglong, arrange for that young man named Ren Xiaosu to join the Razor Sharp Company under your command. Let him start from the rank of private.”

The moment he said that, the entire conference room became even quieter than before. It was as though they could not even hear the sound of breathing. They looked like they wanted to ask Zhang Jinglin something, but Zhang Jinglin did not even give them a chance to say anything and walked out of the conference room.

When Zhang Jinglin left the room, the officers sitting at the sand table exploded. “Was Commander referring to the Razor Sharp Company he used to be in?”

“Apparently, two other previous commanders also started in the Razor Sharp Company. Does Commander view that boy as his successor? Old Zhou, you were the one who brought that boy in. What’s up with him?”

The Razor Sharp Company was a very special existence. No one had ever explicitly stipulated that the commander of Fortress 178 needed to serve in the Razor Sharp Company first.

But as it stood, every previous commander had come from there. They were all sent by the previous commander before them to train where it was the most dangerous and then slowly work up the ranks.

As the name “Razor Sharp Company” suggested, it was the most dangerous fighting force to be posted to. They were often tasked to take on the most insurmountable missions, and only those who could survive the Razor Sharp Company would convince the others in Fortress 178.

It wasn’t about how the Razor Sharp Company was really strong, but that being part of it would put anyone in the most perilous of situations. You would have to spend time in the most dangerous places to know the fate you were putting your soldiers in with the orders you gave.

Eventually, after several commanders served their tour of duty, the Razor Sharp Company became an even more special existence. Although no one said anything, everyone knew that whoever suddenly got posted to the Razor Sharp Company was definitely someone the commander paid special attention to. As long as this person could survive and convince the masses, he would go on to become the next commander of Fortress 178.

16 years ago, Zhang Jinglin had once posted a person to join the Razor Sharp Company, but that person perished in the war. And now, he had sent Ren Xiaosu to the unit… and he was someone none of them knew!

Zhou Yinglong looked at everyone’s burning eyes and felt a little anxious. “What are y’all looking at me for? I’ve only known him for a couple of days. That kid’s also a refugee and has even lived in the valley. He looks rather soft and weak and is injured too, but I’m not sure how he got injured. But from the looks of it, he doesn’t look like he can fight well, so how is he gonna survive in the Razor Sharp Company?”

Someone added, “The commander wasn’t exactly a fighter back then either, but that’s not a problem as long as he’s ruthless enough.”

Someone chuckled. “Commander was a medic at that time who wasn’t even willing to fire a shot. How can you compare them? Why don’t you talk about how many people Commander saved back then?”

Xu Xianchu was starting to get unhappy. “How can you say that about my bro? How can my bro possibly be weak? When we went on an expedition into the Jing Mountains, it was all thanks to him that we managed to get out of there safely.”

Zhou Yinglong was surprised before saying, “Oh, that’s right! Ren Xiaosu is Old Xu’s bro. We should ask him for details.”

“Xu Xianchu, you punk, why weren’t you more upfront about it? If you know things, tell us!” A big man chuckled and said, “Hurry up and fill us in.”

“He’s a refugee from the town outside Stronghold 113. Someone in the stronghold wanted to go to the Jing Mountains and was trying to find a guide in town. In the end, everyone said that if they wanted to go to the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu was the only one who could take them there,” Xu Xianchu recalled. “The team went looking for him first, but he pretended to be ignorant as he didn’t want to go. Later on, it seemed like they offered him something before he agreed to bring them. Oh right, I think he was Commander Zhang’s student too as Commander Zhang was the teacher at the town’s school at that time. He specified Ren Xiaosu as his substitute teacher after that because he wanted him to take over running the school.”

Everyone looked at each other. He was supposed to take over the school? But now Commander Zhang was planning to let Ren Xiaosu take over at Fortress 178?

Although everyone would not defy Zhang Jinglin’s wishes, it would still depend on whether Ren Xiaosu was qualified enough to take over Fortress 178. If Ren Xiaosu could not convince the masses, even Zhang Jinglin would not force it ahead. This was the usual practice at Fortress 178.

Even if you were given a herd of ferocious beasts, you needed to be able to control them. That was the logic behind it.

Everyone felt that Zhang Jinglin’s arrangement was too sudden, as Ren Xiaosu was still an outsider and no one knew him yet.

Someone asked Xu Xianchu, “What’s Ren Xiaosu like?”

“There’s no question about his morals.” Xu Xianchu said, “In any case, I trust him.”

Someone asked Xu Xianchu again, “Is your bro also a supernatural being? What kind of power does he have?”

These words immediately stunned Xu Xianchu. “Back in the Jing Mountains, he could carry an adult man with just one arm. He must be a supernatural being, but I don’t really know what power he has.”

The group of burly men in the conference room were stunned. ‘You call yourself his bro when you don’t even know what his power is? You serious?’

Chapter 384: Observing Ren Xiaosu

Xu Xianchu explained, “The environment he grew up in is a little different. He was always plotting against the refugees in town since childhood, so it’s normal that he hides his thoughts deep inside. But don’t underestimate him. Just think, how many people can escape unscathed on so many occasions after a stronghold collapses…”

Everyone looked at one another. It was still too early to say for now. If he were the real deal, he could definitely stand up to their scrutiny. The war was going to happen no matter what, so the Razor Sharp Company would definitely be deployed at the forefront of the other fighting forces. At that time, it would be clear to all whether Ren Xiaosu was a hero or a zero.

Regarding the matter of a young man named Ren Xiaosu being shoved into the Razor Sharp Company, everyone in the military of Fortress 178 found out overnight. This made everyone quite curious about what Ren Xiaosu was like.

To the burly men of Fortress 178, this was clearly an important matter as it involved someone Zhang Jinglin regarded as his successor.

When Xu Xianchu was fast-tracked for promotion, everyone thought Xu Xianchu stood a chance of being considered and wondered if the tradition of the fortress commander emerging from the Razor Sharp Company would finally be broken.

But from the looks of it, it seemed like Xu Xianchu had not been chosen by Commander Zhang as a candidate to be his successor. It seemed that tradition would still remain tradition.

Rumor had it that Ren Xiaosu was a supernatural being. However, it did not seem like he would be very good at fighting with that weak and frail body. Everyone was a little curious as to whether Ren Xiaosu could even survive the war.

The next morning, when Ren Xiaosu walked out of the building where his group was staying, he saw a group of burly men squatting on the sidewalk.

The moment he appeared, the group of men lowered their voices and whisper-shouted, “He’s out! That’s him!”

“Why’s he so skinny?!”

“Can he even take a few punches?”

“He’s not gonna get killed the moment he steps onto the battlefield, right?”

Ren Xiaosu immediately put his guard up. Were they here to find trouble with him? Was this group of burly men blocking the way to seek a fight with him?

Although his injuries had not fully healed yet, he was not afraid if anyone tried to find trouble with him.

But once these burly men saw Ren Xiaosu, they retreated. Ren Xiaosu was left standing there in a daze, not understanding what was going on.

Zhang Jinglin had not discussed anything with him prior. In fact, Zhang Jinglin’s arrangements might not be a good thing for Ren Xiaosu at all.

That was because once Ren Xiaosu joined the Razor Sharp Company, everyone would watch his every move, and any mistakes he made would be scrutinized even harder. The moment he showed any signs of cowardice, everyone would think he was not qualified enough.

Everyone would look at him through a magnifying glass to see if he deserved to be so highly regarded by the commander.

And what made him so highly regarded?

But Zhang Jinglin did not care about that. He only told Ren Xiaosu that if he wanted to take revenge and personally bring down the Zong Consortium, he would have to first join Fortress 178’s military.

Ren Xiaosu agreed to it, of course.

Then Zhang Jinglin asked him what kinds of troops he was planning to join and offered him the chance to choose for himself.

Ren Xiaosu answered he would like to go wherever it was the most dangerous. Whichever unit could kill the most enemies, he would go there.

Zhang Jinglin asked him if he wanted to reconsider it, but Ren Xiaosu said he had already made his decision and would not go back on his word.

Revenge was the only motivation that pushed Ren Xiaosu to go to Fortress 178.

Zhang Jinglin smiled and said: “Alright, I’ll arrange for you to be posted where it’s the most dangerous then.”

At the time, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was going to happen, but he did not know what exactly was going on.

In the afternoon, Xu Xianchu came over and told him to report to the Razor Sharp Company. This company was going to be under the command of Zhou Yinglong, the commander of the Forward Strike Battalion.

When Ren Xiaosu was told, he did not think much of it since it was his own request.

But Xu Xianchu reminded him repeatedly, “Xiaosu, it’s said that the Razor Sharp Company comes back with less than 10% of its troops after every war, and it’s not even uncommon for everyone to get wiped out, so you must be careful when you’re there. After you return safely, my future in Fortress 178 will be in your hands.”

These words absolutely confused Ren Xiaosu.

Xu Xianchu drove Ren Xiaosu to the west side of Fortress 178 where the Razor Sharp Company was garrisoned. As they drove in, Ren Xiaosu realized that all the soldiers in the military base stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at him.

Zhou Yinglong was already waiting inside. He glanced at Xu Xianchu before chuckling and saying, “Old Xu, go on back now. It’ll be fine to leave him here with us.”

Xu Xianchu raised an eyebrow. “We don’t even know if you’ll survive this war or not.”

Zhou Yinglong spat and said angrily, “Stop jinxing me. I won’t die even after you’ve died.”

Xu Xianchu sneered and said, “Do you have a cauldron like I do?”

Zhou Yinglong did not say anything else. Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Zhou Yinglong was a supernatural being as well. Otherwise, he would not be in such a dangerous place like the Forward Strike Battalion.

After all, it wasn’t like there were a lot of supernatural beings in Fortress 178 either.

But Zhou Yinglong knew his own power was not strong as Xu Xianchu’s. Everyone had witnessed the might of Xu Xianchu’s cauldron before.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized the soldiers in Fortress 178 were really casual when talking about death. It was as common as eating. There was not much fear in their eyes. He wondered what kind of environment created such a group of soldiers.

Even in spring, Fortress 178 was very cold. Sometimes, it would even start snowing by August or September out here, as more than half the year would be spent in wintry conditions.

After bidding farewell to Xu Xianchu, Zhou Yinglong led Ren Xiaosu inside the military base. As they walked, he said, “Our Forward Strike Battalion has always been a place where we fight the tough battles. You might not know it since you came from outside the fortress, nor do I know if you’ve ever experienced war before, but I just want to warn you so you don’t go onto the battlefield and get caught off guard.”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Don’t worry, Battalion Commander, I won’t.”

Since he had been posted to this unit, he was someone’s subordinate. Naturally, he would have to obey his orders. Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that Zhou Yinglong would say that either, so there was no need for him to deliberately talk back.

Zhou Yinglong glanced at him and continued, “I heard Old Xu mention you before. I know you’ve killed people before and that you’re a supernatural being. However, bullets have no eyes on the battlefield. Even supernatural beings aren’t that lucky. There’s still a difference between war and killing people.”

Zhou Yinglong was very clear. Although Ren Xiaosu was very powerful, war was a totally different matter.

War was like an avalanche, and even supernatural beings could not defy the force of nature. It was good to not be scared, but one couldn’t be overconfident either.

In the makeup of troops at Fortress 178, there were 30 people in each platoon. Each company consisted of four platoons, so a normal company would generally have about 120 soldiers each.

But the Razor Sharp Company was a reinforced company. They also had their own cooks, quartermasters, radio operators, and medics. The company commander was a captain who was assisted by a non-commissioned officer.

The reason the Razor Sharp Company was so well-equipped was so they would have the ability to fight as an independent force.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Battalion Commander Zhou, is the Razor Sharp Company really that strong?”

Zhou Yinglong gave it some thought. “They aren’t necessarily as strong as you might imagine. They’re just a bunch of drifters who’ve gathered together. Normally, they’re real slackers in their daily lives, but they’ve never lost once in a military exercise. They’re well-versed in digging up electrical cables and can fight for a position on the battlefield as well. They’re really as shameless as you can get.”

Chapter 385: The Razor Sharp Company is invincible

When Fortress 178 decided to launch a war against the Zong Consortium, the entire place suddenly started bustling with activity.

Most consortiums would usually distribute most of their fighting forces across various strongholds in order to gain complete control over each stronghold. For example, it would be enough for the Qing Consortium to station one brigade in a stronghold during peacetime, while an independent regiment was enough for the weaker strongholds.

Only Stronghold 111 where Qing Zhen was located would have more fighting forces garrisoned there.

But it was different for Fortress 178. Since this was their only base, practically half of the fortress would be garrisoned by troops. Furthermore, the residents of the fortress and those living outside it, as well as some of the scattered settlements in the area, served the military as well.

But unlike other strongholds, there wasn’t a distinction between the refugees and residents of Fortress 178. Those who worked beyond the walls would even receive additional subsidies for being stationed outside.

In winter, those who lived outside the fortress would be allowed to enter the fortress with a valid pass. Of course, approval for these passes was still relatively strict.

The total military strength of Fortress 178 reached up to 80,000 troops, and they were an entirely first-class fighting force as well. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium’s army claimed to have as many as 200,000 soldiers.

The difference between their military strength was too great. But it was also perhaps because of this significant difference that the Zong Consortium had become so daring in recent years, destroying the main traffic arteries connecting Fortress 178 and the outside world.

But Ren Xiaosu realized the burly men at Fortress 178 did not seem to mind the stark contrast in their military strength.

According to Xu Xianchu, the number of soldiers was no longer the key to victory in modern warfare. The intelligence, technology, courage, and experience of the army was what mattered.

Although the Zong Consortium had many soldiers, they were all recruits who had been drafted into the military, with many of them being refugees. Once they were deployed onto the battlefield, these recruits would be blindsided by their inexperience.

The difference between veterans and recruits was like the distance between the heavens and the earth.

Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was not a reckless person. Since Zhang Jinglin had decided to start the war, he must be confident he could win it.

By this point, Zhou Yinglong led him to where the Razor Sharp Company’s camp was. The members of the Razor Sharp Company had already been waiting at the entrance for a long time. They all had their arms around each other’s shoulders as they started sizing up Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu was also wearing the Razor Sharp Company’s uniform that had been delivered to him by Xu Xianchu. The patch on his arm was a bayonet, representing the Razor Sharp Company.

Zhou Yinglong said softly, “It’s quite different here in the Northwest compared to the South. If this were the South, everyone in the military would probably treat you courteously if Commander Zhang assigned you to the Razor Sharp Company. But here in the Northwest… we’re all curious to see whether you’re really qualified to join us.”

Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. What did he mean? All he wanted was to seek revenge by being assigned to the most dangerous unit. That was it! Could it be that it was extremely difficult to join the Razor Sharp Company?

Zhou Yinglong did not continue speaking. He said to the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company who had surrounded them, “Why have y’all gathered around instead of packing your stuff? You’ll be the first ones to set out for the battlefield early next morning. I’m hereby giving you half a month to take Mt. Dingyuan.”

“Those bandits at Mt. Dingyuan are nothing. We’ll beat them as soon as we arrive.” Someone asked, “Battalion Commander, is the person next to you Ren Xiaosu?”

“Yes, he is.” Zhou Yinglong said, “Remember, don’t get too carried away.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhou Yinglong say “don’t get too carried away,” he felt like something was wrong. Were they about to put him in his place or something? And why did it seem like he had suddenly become a celebrity here in Fortress 178?

But as soon as Zhou Yinglong finished speaking, he turned around and left, leaving no chance for Ren Xiaosu to ask any questions.

The 180 or so members of the Razor Sharp Company came up to Ren Xiaosu, including the chow squad who were holding kitchen knives. Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. How was this a fucking military camp? Why did it feel like this was a seedy shop operated by bandits?!

But Ren Xiaosu was only here to get his revenge on the Zong Consortium by killing them. All he wanted to do was fight the Zong Consortium on the battlefield, so he didn’t need to establish a good relationship with these soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company.

Ren Xiaosu lifted his shirt and exposed the wound on his right side. He said, “Are y’all gonna hit a wounded person?”

But to Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, these thugs standing across from him just laughed and said, “Don’t worry, we won’t be too heavy-handed.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. They were even fucking OK with beating up the wounded?!

A wise man did not fight when the odds were against him. As soon as the voice trailed off, Ren Xiaosu turned around and ran away. If he wasn’t fighting to kill, taking on more than a 100 people proved too much for Ren Xiaosu to handle. Moreover, he still had not recovered from his internal injuries!

The thugs of the Razor Sharp Company roared, “Get him!”

Whenever a recruit joined the company, they would be put in their place by the veterans. If they couldn’t be beaten into submission, what if they disobeyed their orders later on? Of course, this was a hugely pretentious rationale to give. The true reason was that these veterans were bored and had nothing better to do.

As the saying went, no discord, no concord. No one would bear any grudges after joining the company for a while.

However, something odd happened today. This recruit turned tail and ran away?! But where could he run off to? The Forward Strike Battalion’s base was only so big, after all, and surely he had to come back to sleep tonight, right?!

But the crux was that Ren Xiaosu ran away so fast he shook them off in an instant!

As the large group of people chased after Ren Xiaosu, they saw him quickly slipping into the barracks in another area. The men of the Razor Sharp Company dived in right after him.

When Ren Xiaosu entered the barracks, he saw a dozen-odd people drying their blankets in the sun. He rushed up to one of them and punched that person to the ground. “The Razor Sharp Company is invincible!”

The burly Northwestern men who were drying their blankets were all stunned and could not react for several seconds.

One of the men grew angry. “We still haven’t fucking settled the score with the Razor Sharp Company for the previous military exercise, and now they’ve actually picked a fight with us?!”

Then he shouted into the barracks, “Second Company, get out here now! We have a fight on our hands!”

When the thugs of the Razor Sharp Company entered this area, they saw the members of Second Company running out of their barracks. The Razor Sharp Company’s commander shouted, “Old Li, step aside. It’s none of your business…”

But when Second Company’s Commander Li looked at his comrade who had been punched to the ground, he said, “Step aside? Fuck you! Brothers, get them!”

The Razor Sharp Company’s commander also turned furious. “Hey, sore loser!”

When Old Li heard this, he got even angrier and threw a punch.

It only took a few seconds for everything to happen. No one had time to think. But if they had had the time, it would certainly not have ended up like this.

Zhou Yinglong frowned as he watched from a distance. What the fuck was with this?! On the first day of Ren Xiaosu’s arrival, the Razor Sharp Company and Second Company had immediately descended into a mass brawl? More than 300 people were fighting one another, and some of them even had their shirt collars torn off in the scuffle!

It was very common for people to pick a fight with one another within the military bases of Fortress 178. In most situations, the commanding officer would usually let the soldiers fight all they wanted. It was like these tough men in the fortress thought that being a little bloodthirsty was a prerequisite to them becoming soldiers.

But how on earth did this fight escalate into a brawl?!

“This is way too fucking ominous, ” Zhou Yinglong said.

Ren Xiaosu, who was standing next to him, also lamented, “Yeah.”

Zhou Yinglong spun around. “Since when were you standing next to me!”

Reserved, Ren Xiaosu replied, “I just got here a moment ago.”

Chapter 386: Swiftly taking Mt. Dingyuan

Zhou Yinglong looked at Ren Xiaosu. He took a deep breath and asked, “Why did they start fighting?”

Ren Xiaosu blinked. “I dunno, maybe they had some disagreements. Battalion Commander, aren’t you going to stop them? Didn’t you say that the Razor Sharp Company would be heading out to Mt. Dingyuan?”

Zhou Yinglong was stunned for a couple seconds before he stopped caring about Ren Xiaosu. He ran to where the fight had broken out. “Everyone, stop fighting. Razor Sharp Company, I want all of you to return to your barracks and assemble within ten minutes. Since you’re all so energetic, I don’t think you need another day’s rest, right? You can head straight for Mt. Dingyuan in that case!”

Zhou Yinglong’s words still held a lot of weight in the Forward Strike Battalion. It seemed that the two companies were also very used to this. Even though they were fighting, the two sides immediately stopped once Zhou Yinglong stepped in.

The Razor Sharp Company turned around and ran back to their own barracks.

Military orders were not to be taken lightly. If they were asked to assemble in ten minutes, they would have to do it within ten minutes and not a second later.

Before they left, the members of the Razor Sharp Company saw Ren Xiaosu standing next to Zhou Yinglong unscathed. When they thought about what had just happened, they nearly vomited blood.

It wasn’t until this moment that the Second Company soldier who was beaten up at the beginning started slowly getting up off the ground. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he shouted, “He was the one who hit me just now, and he even yelled ‘the Razor Sharp Company is invincible’ at me!”

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “You’ve got the wrong person.”

Zhou Yinglong raised his eyebrows and told Ren Xiaosu, “I want you to assemble with everyone as well.”

Ren Xiaosu replied, “Yes, sir!” Then he ran towards the Razor Sharp Company’s barracks.

When he entered the Razor Sharp Company’s camp, the Razor Sharp Company was already standing in a block formation with their field packs on their backs. Ren Xiaosu said, “Recruit Ren Xiaosu reporting in.”

The 180-odd men from the Razor Sharp Company looked at Ren Xiaosu speechlessly. The company commander was so angry he smiled. “Good on ya, Ren Xiaosu. You’re the only one in Fortress 178 who’s capable of making our Razor Sharp Company look like dumbasses. Amazing!”

Ren Xiaosu said politely, “But I’m also part of our Razor Sharp Company.”

The company commander barked, “Get your ass in formation and fall in with 1st Platoon. I’ll teach you a lesson after the war is over.”

The company commander looked at the Razor Sharp Company that had assembled in a block formation and was about to lecture them. However, the men standing before him all looked bruised and swollen, while their uniforms were also in tatters. One of the soldiers’ noses was still even bleeding. However, he did not fidget or wipe the blood off as he was currently standing in formation.

When the company commander was greeted by this sight, his heart shattered. What the fuck did they do to deserve this!

Zhou Yinglong walked over while humming a little ditty. The company commander said to him, “Reporting in, Battalion Commander, Razor Sharp Company has assembled. Total strength, 184. Present strength, 184. End of report, sir!

Zhou Yinglong nodded as he looked at the Razor Sharp Company in the block formation. He snapped, “Look at the state you’re in! You’ve got 60 more men than Second Company, but why does it seem like you’re all useless?! Didn’t y’all do really good during the exercise, and you even captured our command center too? Where’s that arrogance now, eh?”

As he spoke, Zhou Yinglong stood in front of the Razor Sharp Company and started laughing…

Ren Xiaosu stood in formation and thought to himself, ‘Just by looking at the way Zhou Yinglong leads his soldiers, he’s probably not an ordinary person either.’

Zhou Yinglong continued, “We also don’t have enough uniforms to go around at our fortress, so I wonder if y’all will be mocked when you step on the battlefield wearing your current attire? Zhang Xiaoman, I hope you haven’t forgotten that you’ve pledged to take Mt. Dingyuan within half a month. Alright, time for y’all to set off.”

The Razor Sharp Company’s commander stood at attention and yelled, “Battalion Commander, don’t worry! If we don’t take Mt. Dingyuan within half a month, I’ll commit suicide.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company standing in block formation roared, “Battalion Commander, don’t worry! We’ll win the opening battle!”

Only at this moment did Ren Xiaosu finally feel some bloodlust from this group of thugs. Earlier, they were thinking of beating up a wounded person. Their behavior was too immoral!

After Zhou Yinglong left the barracks again, Zhang Xiaoman loosened up. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Good fucking job, kid! You’ve made our Razor Sharp Company lose all honor.”

Ren Xiaosu said softly, “Yes, sir, yes.”

“Jiao Xiaochen!” Zhang Xiaoman called over 1st Platoon’s commander. “Ren Xiaosu will be assigned to your platoon from now on, so keep an eye on him. If he disobeys any orders, beat him to death.”

Jiao Xiaochen muttered, “Captain, you saw how fast he ran just now, right? Even if we want to beat him up, we might not even be able to catch him.”

“Cut the crap. We’re setting off.” Zhang Xiaoman turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Now that you’ve joined the Razor Sharp Company, be prepared to suffer. I don’t know how you lived in the past. You might be used to eating well and never having to sleep in the wilderness, but from today onwards, know that the good days of the past are over!”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He would simply have to prove he could handle it.

The Forward Strike Battalion was the advance guard of Fortress 178. They not only had to capture cities and territories, but also played a part in verifying if the mapping of the battlefield was accurate. They would then report any intel back to headquarters to guide the Engineering Battalion in their bridge building and road paving missions to establish a forward operating base.

The armor and artillery could only reach the Zong Consortium after the bridges, roads, and FOB had been set up properly.

And the Razor Sharp Company was the advance guard of the Forward Strike Battalion. They would be the first to face and overcome any difficulties.

It was not without reason that all of the previous candidates for the role of fortress commander were trained in the Razor Sharp Company. If they did not gain experience with the toughest company, how could they possibly become good commanders?

This way of setting an example had carried on to this day. As such, all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were expecting even more from Ren Xiaosu. This person could end up becoming the commander of Fortress 178 in the future, but was he up to it?

Ten military transport trucks were assigned to the Razor Sharp Company by Zhou Yinglong. They weren’t only used for transporting people. They also transported heavy machine guns, mortars, and other firearms. If they wanted to capture Mt. Dingyuan without this equipment, that would be a pipe dream.

After getting into the vehicles, the company commander, Zhang Xiaoman, was still analyzing the map in his hands. “There’s a group of bandits holding Mt. Dingyuan, but it’s hard to be sure at this moment that there won’t be any of Zong Consortium’s regulars mixed in among them. So we’ve gotta be careful when we attack them.”

Ren Xiaosu was also sitting in the same vehicle as the company commander. He quite agreed with Zhang Xiaoman that they definitely could not treat the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan as normal bandits.

Zhang Xiaoman continued, “We don’t have much time. There might still be a spring on Mt. Dingyuan, so it’s not feasible to cut off their water supply. Any of you have any good ideas?”

Zhang Xiaoman looked around for someone to offer a suggestion, but no one said a thing. In the corner, Ren Xiaosu also sat with his eyes closed without saying a word.

Zhang Xiaoman’s gaze fell on Ren Xiaosu. “You look like you have a lot of ideas. Tell me, how should we fight this battle?’

“Just fight?” Ren Xiaosu said. Since he had never been to Mt. Dingyuan before, he didn’t even know what the terrain there looked like. So how could he think of a strategy?

Zhang Xiaoman scorned, “The bandits might even be armed with heavy machine guns, mortars, and RPGs. Do you know how many people will die if we launch a head-on attack? Do you think you’re like Xu Xianchu, who has that invulnerable shadow with a black cauldron, and that you can simply force your way through the battlefield?”

Ren Xiaosu’s mouth twitched. “I’m just a private, so I’ll obey your orders.”

Zhang Xiaoman nodded. “That’s the correct attitude.”

Chapter 387: A pledge

In the truck, Ren Xiaosu listened as the thugs of the Razor Sharp Company discussed their plans to break through the defensive line at Mt. Dingyuan. They not only had to think about how to break through at Mt. Dingyuan, but also consider the possibility of the enemy’s reinforcements arriving from Mt. Guan.

The reason Mt. Dingyuan was difficult to capture was because the Zong Consortium’s bandits were supporting them from the front line of Mt. Guan. In peacetime, the two groups of bandits looked wholly unrelated. But when war broke out, these two groups were clearly fighting on the same side.

So if they attacked Mt. Dingyuan, they would have to face the threat from Mt. Guan at the same time.

When the convoy was about to leave Fortress 178, someone suddenly stopped the convoy from the front. It turned out that Wang Shengzhi and Wang Shengyin were both waiting at the east gate. Zhang Xiaoman jumped out of the truck and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Wang Shengyin said, “Ren Xiaosu is in your company, right? We learned he would be heading out to the front line today after speaking to Commander Zhang. We’re just planning to bid him farewell, so we won’t really delay your journey.”

Looking at Wang Shengyin’s appearance, Zhang Xiaoman realized she was obviously one of the people from the Central Plains. He said unhappily, “When the troops are setting off for war, how can they be asked to wait just because someone wants to say goodbye? Get out of the way already. He’s a soldier of my Razor Sharp Company now, so I won’t allow him to meet you two.”

Zhang Xiaoman was already a little unhappy to begin with. How could his troops be stopped in their journey over such a trivial matter? What the hell?

Wang Shengyin said with a smile, “I’m sorry, we won’t say goodbye to him then. Can you hand this gift to him? Let him know that we’ll also be leaving Fortress 178 in three days. When we return to the Central Plains, we’ll definitely help him to find his friend named Li Shentan.”

“Alright, alright.” Zhang Xiaoman waved them off impatiently. “I’ll hand it to him.”

Then Zhang Xiaoman jumped back up into the truck and quickly led the convoy through Fortress 178’s gate. The copper bell behind them at the end of that long road stood at the center of the fortress unchanged. A group of soldiers watched Wang Shengyin, who was getting further and further away and muttered, “How enviable…”

At the moment, Wang Shengyin was still waving goodbye at the convoy. Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi smiled throughout without a word.

Zhang Xiaoman handed the present to Ren Xiaosu and said, “During wartime, you shouldn’t be in a relationship. There’s only life and death to think about in war, understand?”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He took the box and opened it. He discovered it was a box of pea cakes, took one out, and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he gave the rest of the cakes to Zhang Xiaoman and said, “Y’all can share it.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “How can you let us have the snacks when it was given to you by a girl? Kid, what are you thinking?”

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, “It tastes bad.”

Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.

The group of soldiers around him snatched the snacks from Zhang Xiaoman’s hands and said, “If he doesn’t want them, let us have ’em. It’s so nice to have a girl send you something to eat, yet you’re still being picky?”

Ren Xiaosu was sitting in the corner. He knew his relationship with Wang Shengyin was not what the soldiers thought. They had only known each other for a little more than ten days. It hadn’t even been a month yet.

Perhaps Wang Shengzhi felt he would be useful in the future, so he quickly expressed his good intentions to him while they were still here.

But no matter what, Ren Xiaosu would not trust these “friends” he had only known for a little more than ten days. As for what would happen after Wang Shengzhi found Li Shentan, he did not care.

Judging by what Li Shentan and Si Liren were capable of, Li Shentan could definitely get away unscathed even if Wang Shengzhi had ulterior motives.

But when he tasted the pea cake, he was reminded of Yang Xiaojin. He wondered where that cap-wearing girl was now.

All of them probably thought he was dead.

Even Ren Xiaosu himself did not think that he had any hopes of survival at that time.

Before he could get revenge, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to get involved with other people. He would just treat them as passersby in his life.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, “Company Commander, why don’t we attack Mt. Guan head on instead?”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Zhang Xiaoman said with his mouth full of pea cake. “My pledge was to attack Mt. Dingyuan. Also, it’s more difficult to attack Mt. Guan than Mt. Dingyuan!”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Didn’t you say that we have to prevent the reinforcements at Mt. Guan from coming to support Mt. Dingyuan during our attack? So even if we attack Mt. Guan, there should also be reinforcements coming from Mt. Dingyuan, right?”

Zhang Xiaoman pondered what he said. Then he realized Ren Xiaosu was implying that they should pretend to attack Mt. Guan first, then lay in ambush to pick off the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan when they headed to Mt. Guan.

This suggestion suited the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers’ taste.

After all, positional defense still played the part of the “meat grinder” in modern warfare.

The officers of Fortress 178 were required to learn military knowledge during weekdays. Even though these men did not like studying, they still enjoyed reading case studies of wars preserved from before The Cataclysm.

One of the case studies detailing a battle for an airport perfectly explained what modern positional warfare was about. The attacking forces were ten times the number of the defensive troops, and they also possessed 122 mm howitzers and attack choppers. But even in those circumstances, it still took three months for the attackers to take the airport. During the battle, both sides suffered countless casualties.

This case study proved that as long as one side did not have a fully mechanized force and powerful aerial strikes they could depend on, positional warfare had to be taken seriously.

Whatever equipment they had, their enemies would have as well. In fact, the defenders would have also planted land mines, booby traps, and other forms of traps.

Bombarding the target with firepower required a huge price and intel on the enemy’s firepower deployment, earned by sacrificing lives.

If it weren’t for Ren Xiaosu, who had given the defensive deployment map to Qing Zhen, it would have taken Qing Zhen a very long time to take Position 313. At that time, the deadline set by the Qing Consortium’s headquarters was only one month.

A lot of people thought the era of positional warfare was no longer applicable in modern warfare, but that wasn’t the case at all.

The “Theory of the Omnipotence of Missiles” had still not reached full omnipotence yet.

In the case study Zhang Xiaoman and the others had read, the positions that were quickly conquered were bombarded by the air force. But now it was those flying beasts in the sky that were the overlords of airpower. Humanity’s planes were too fragile in comparison.

The Razor Sharp Company was currently up against two bandit lairs. Although they could call for supporting fire to bombard Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, what do they do after that? How were they going to fight the remainder of the Zong Consortium’s troops?

It was just two fucking bandit lairs. The real battle had not even started yet.

Zhang Xiaoman pondered things for a while. “But we might not be able to handle it when we get attacked on both sides.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Even if we don’t attack this way, we’ll still have to face attacks from both sides, right?”

“That’s true.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “But what if the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan don’t come to support them if there isn’t enough pressure on Mt. Guan?”

Ren Xiaosu said firmly, “Then we’ll put the pressure on them. Just leave it to me.”

“Will you pledge to that?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.

“Yes!”

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company in the truck suddenly felt something was wrong. They were still worried that a recruit like Ren Xiaosu would have his legs turn to rubber once he was on the battlefield. But why did it seem like Ren Xiaosu was more hellbent on seeking battle than they were?

Wasn’t Ren Xiaosu rumored to be a supernatural being? No one knew where he got the confidence to talk big.

Chapter 388: War fanatic

Since they had decided to attack Mt. Guan to lure the Mt. Dingyuan bandits out of their lair, they would have to quietly sneak into the valley in case their movements were discovered.

The Zong Consortium had spies all over the Northwest. Fortress 178 was planning to eliminate the bandits in the valley first in case they caused any trouble to the forward operating base when the real war began.

Zhang Xiaoman believed it would be harder to take Mt. Guan, but Ren Xiaosu did not think so. That was because some of the bandits had already died in the terrible earthquake when Yan Liuyuan’s curse hit them. He was guessing those bandits must have come from Mt. Guan.

At that time, they were in the vicinity of Mt. Kaolei, and the nearest bandit lairs were at Mt. Tangwang and Mt. Guan. However, the bandits at Mt. Tangwang had already been recruited by Wang Congyang. So the only possibility was that those bandits were from Mt. Guan.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not mention a word about this. It seemed that Fortress 178 did not know about the battle in the wilderness yet, as the Zong Consortium was still locking out the news.

Fortress 178 was between 5 and 600 kilometers away from that battlefield at that time. No matter how massive the explosions and firepower were, no one would hear anything if they were in the fortress.

But Ren Xiaosu knew that if it were really as he had guessed, Mt. Guan was definitely not going to be as difficult to overcome as they had thought. Instead, it would be much easier to attack than Mt. Dingyuan.

The Razor Sharp Company started behaving like mice when they suddenly abandoned their trucks and moved in the gullies with their guns and artillery supplies. By lying low in the daytime and only becoming active at night, they were trying their best not to get discovered by the enemy.

When they were resting in the shadows of the gullies during the day, Zhang Xiaoman said to Ren Xiaosu, “Although I don’t know what your superpower is, I’ll still believe you since you said you could put pressure on Mt. Guan. But you better not tell me that you can’t do it when we get there. If you can’t do it, I’ll be sure to shoot you regardless of who you are.”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply to him as he cradled his automatic rifle and lay against the gully with his eyes closed.

Everyone was slowly eating their field rations. As they were now secretly trying to enter the valley, they were not allowed to set up cooking fires.

But Zhang Xiaoman and the others were surprised by how Ren Xiaosu could bear more hardship than they could. While everyone was resting, they would always require rotations for sentry duty. The other soldiers were so sleepy they kept complaining, but Ren Xiaosu never once grumbled about anything. If he was asked to perform his sentry duty, he would just do it. He was also fine with it when he had to perform his duty for a little longer.

Zhang Xiaoman observed and realized that Ren Xiaosu was really serious and responsible when he was on sentry duty.

The Razor Sharp Company’s commander muttered, “As expected of someone chosen by the commander.”

Everyone was expecting something more from Ren Xiaosu, not because they had something against him, but because when they found out he could become the next commander, they wondered, ‘In what way is he better than me? Why should he be considered as a candidate for the role of commander?’

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu not only had to perform sentry duty, but he also took turns with everyone to carry the heavy machine guns and mortars during their march. The machine guns were really burdensome, and the mortars were only slightly lighter at about 15 kilograms each. Although it was very uncomfortable to carry them for long distances, it was still within acceptable limits.

Meanwhile, the 12.7 mm heavy machine guns weighed 25 kilograms each, and they even had to carry their own rucksacks too. The route they had to take to get to Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan was still at least another 100 kilometers away, and the terrain was difficult to traverse. Some soldiers even got abrasions on their shoulders after carrying the weapons.

But Ren Xiaosu never once complained.

Ren Xiaosu looked very skinny at the moment because his Strength and Dexterity were balanced. At the beginning, Zhang Xiaoman deliberately made things difficult for Ren Xiaosu by making him suffer.

But to Zhang Xiaoman’s surprise, Ren Xiaosu was not careless at all when carrying the machine gun even though he looked thinner than all of them. He even volunteered to shoulder some of the burden for his comrades.

This was just how it was in the army. If you were tough and capable, you would get respected. If you were a weakling, you would get looked down on.

In just these few days of their march through the wilderness, everyone’s impression of Ren Xiaosu changed for the better. This kid was really tough and capable!

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company vaguely thought to themselves, ‘He’s too not bad after all.’

But it did not mean he had fully been accepted. Whether he was qualified to be the next commander would not depend only on physical strength and perseverance.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman did some calculations and said, “Mt. Guan is around 30 kilometers away from Mt. Dingyuan. If the bandits on Mt. Guan seek reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan, those bandits will probably arrive in about half an hour. We have to dig trenches and set up an ambush on the road in advance. Or else we might not be able to defeat those fucking bandits.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “This gully is already a natural trench.”

“That’s true.” Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, “Are you really confident in putting pressure on Mt. Guan and forcing them to call for reinforcements?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I already pledged to do so.”

The signalers from the Razor Sharp Company were constantly in touch with the Forward Strike Battalion behind them. The Forward Strike Battalion had set off the day after the Razor Sharp Company had departed. At this moment, they should be 60 kilometers behind them.

However, the Forward Strike Battalion’s target was neither Mt. Guan nor Mt. Dingyuan. They had to set up a defensive line in the north to prevent the Zong Consortium’s counterattack on the south after they successfully took Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan.

Of Fortress 178’s military corps, other than a full brigade that was tasked with staying behind to defend the fortress, the rest were preparing to head out to the battlefield.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Captain, does the Zong Consortium really have 200,000 soldiers?”

Zhang Xiaoman said with a sneer, “How dare the Zong Consortium claim to have 200,000 soldiers when their territory is so small? Oh, wait, if we include the refugees and private troops they recruited into their forces, it seems there might really be 200,000 of them. But our Fortress 178 can fight down to our last soldier. The Zong Consortium’s so-called brigade would probably lose all their morale once a few hundred of their soldiers get killed.”

Only then did it dawn on Ren Xiaosu that the Zong Consortium was just like the Li Consortium. Not only did they draft the incapable refugees, but they recruited the incompetent private troops into their forces as well.

If the Qing Consortium did the same, Ren Xiaosu estimated they could come up with more than 400,000 troops.

But what was the use of such troops?

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Then how many real troops does the Zong Consortium have?”

“About 90,000.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “But this was intel from last year.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. He suddenly felt that this battle was no longer that difficult to fight even though Fortress 178 only had 75,000 troops on the battlefield.

But why did it feel like Fortress 178 was not that strong? Was he getting a false impression?

Ren Xiaosu felt that there was something strange about this. If Fortress 178 only had these fighting forces, even if they could remain standing here in the Northwest, it would definitely not be enough to awe a real consortium.

Besides, Luo Lan had wanted to kill Zhang Jinglin, but Qing Zhen refused.

Did Qing Zhen allow Zhang Jinglin to return to the Northwest so he could keep the Zong Consortium in check, or was it because he wanted Zhang Jinglin to continue keeping guard for the humans in the interior and prevent another foreign war from breaking out?

Perhaps it could be for both reasons too. Ren Xiaosu felt that Qing Zhen might not be that fanatic who was only obsessed with fighting wars.

Chapter 389: Don’t alert the enemy

The Razor Sharp Company’s march was not slow. They continuously laid low during the day and only came out at night for three days in a row. Even this group of thugs were starting to feel a little tired.

They would not be so tired if they were marching normally, mainly because they still had to carry their supplies, ammunition, and firearms with them. The Razor Sharp Company had four heavy machine guns with them and were supplied with more than 20 ammo boxes.

At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu kept a very low profile and carried the heavy machine gun with the other soldiers. Two people were on a gun, rotating pairs every three hours.

But as he kept walking, Ren Xiaosu felt it was very inconvenient for two people to carry the machine gun since they had to synchronize their pace and footsteps. As such, he simply had his teammate let go and carried the gun by himself.

Zhang Xiaoman had thought Ren Xiaosu was overestimating himself. How could he carry that thing weighing 25 kilograms on top of his field pack all by himself? He might be able to carry it for a while, but try carrying it for three hours!

But everyone eventually realized it was unusual. Ren Xiaosu was actually able to carry the fucking heavy machine gun weighing 25 kilograms by himself effortlessly, and he was not even panting!

One hour later, Zhang Xiaoman and the others thought Ren Xiaosu would already be tired. However, Ren Xiaosu switched to carrying the machine gun in his other hand and continued carrying it forward.

Two hours later, Zhang Xiaoman and the others thought that surely he would be tired by now. However, Ren Xiaosu simply switched back to carrying it with his previous hand like it was not heavy at all.

After three hours, Ren Xiaosu passed the heavy machine gun to his comrades who would be taking over and said, “It’s your turn now.”

This time, everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was secretly surprised. Was Ren Xiaosu a beast? Fortunately, they did not end up fighting Ren Xiaosu in the military base. With his strength, he could probably kill others with just a punch, right?!

Zhang Xiaoman was a little jealous. “Is this what it means to be a supernatural being?”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the palace in his mind say, “Quest: Help your comrades lessen their burden.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not received a quest from the palace for nearly a month. He wondered what kind of reward it would be this time.

When they were about to arrive at the specified location on the fourth day, Ren Xiaosu purposely chose a time when his comrades had become extremely tired to help them carry their supplies. He would carry them for a while before letting them carry the supplies again.

His comrades were all moved to tears. Ren Xiaosu was such a good guy, and he was really helpful to everyone too.

When Ren Xiaosu took their boxes of supplies, everyone thanked him for it. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that even though the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were like thugs, they were rather sincere in their gratitude. He actually managed to receive gratitude tokens from all of their thanks.

During his previous battle, Ren Xiaosu had used his Explosive Poker cards like they did not cost a thing. So he only had around a 100 gratitude tokens left from the originally 900-odd gratitude tokens he had accumulated

And now, Ren Xiaosu would have to be exceptionally hardworking as he started earning the gratitude tokens all over again.

Although Zhang Xiaoman was the company commander, he was always one to lead by example. He also helped carry whatever everyone was carrying without slacking off one bit.

When it was Zhang Xiaoman’s turn to carry the supplies, Ren Xiaosu was about to take the ammo box from his hands, but Zhang Xiaoman refused to let him do so.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not bear any grudges against them for trying to beat him up. He even volunteered to help his comrades out, making everyone feel really embarrassed about how they treated him.

When Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was about to take the ammo box from his shoulder, he immediately said, “It’s fine, you don’t have to. I can carry it.”

However, Ren Xiaosu did not budge. He said with a dark expression, “Let go!”

Zhang Xiaoman subconsciously let go of his hand, and Ren Xiaosu grabbed the ammo box. Even if he could carry it, Ren Xiaosu wouldn’t allow it. Wouldn’t that delay the progress of his quest?

Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought he could complete the quest by just helping them carry one or two ammo boxes. But after testing, the palace updated him that the quest was only 1% complete. It meant he would have to do it a hundred times before the quest would be considered complete.

There had always been a better reward for the more challenging quests he was given. Ren Xiaosu was starting to look forward to the reward this time.

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like something was missing as he carried the ammo box. He looked back at Zhang Xiaoman and said, “Aren’t you going to thank me?”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before muttering, “Thank you…”

“Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman,

+1!”

Zhang Xiaoman said from behind, “Don’t push yourself too hard, preserving your combat strength is the most important thing.”

Ren Xiaosu had been carrying something on his shoulder all day. But even when the rest of the troops looked really tired, Ren Xiaosu looked fresh.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks. “Someone’s coming!”

In that instant, all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company went prone inside the gully. Ren Xiaosu was shocked when he looked back at them. His comrades were way too cautious!

It wasn’t until ten seconds later that they heard a motorcycle in the distance. It seemed to be coming from the east, so that could only mean it was someone from Mt. Dingyuan.

Zhang Xiaoman lay on the ground and said to the others, “Don’t alert the enemy. We can’t be discovered—”

Before he could finish speaking, the bandit riding the motorcycle suddenly screamed in the distance. Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “What was that? Who’s screaming when I was just saying to not make a sound? Didn’t I say to stay hidden and not alert the enemy?”

“Captain, the scream came from way over there. It’s not our people.”

“From over there?” Zhang Xiaoman was puzzled. “Wait a minute, where’s Ren Xiaosu?”

When they cautiously poked their heads out of the gully, they saw that Ren Xiaosu had snapped the bandit’s neck and left him lying on the ground.

Ren Xiaosu took off his Razor Sharp Company’s uniform and put on that bandit’s clothes. Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. “What’re you doing?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “I’ll push the motorcycle and head up Mt. Guan. I noticed earlier that it’d take around an hour to walk up the mountain road. In exactly an hour, I want ‘all to start firing the mortars at the mountain. You don’t have to worry about whether it’s accurate. Just create a distraction. After that, prepare to intercept the bandits coming from Mt. Dingyuan. There’s no need to worry about me.”

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers looked at one another. Was Ren Xiaosu planning to head up Mt. Guan all by himself?!

Zhang Xiaoman asked, “Are you gonna be fine by yourself?”

“Yes.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m not looking to die.”

“But it’s too dangerous. Why don’t I send a platoon to cover you?” Zhang Xiaoman said.

“There’s no need for that.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, “I’ll help y’all pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan first. If the situation goes south, I’ll retreat. As long as I can lure the bandits out from Mt. Dingyuan, everything that I do there will be worth it.”

Zhang Xiaoman turned serious. “You’re a brother of our Razor Sharp Company from now on. If you sadly sacrifice yourself there, I’ll make sure our comrades back at the fortress learn that you were a brave man.”

How could there be no deaths in a war? There would surely have to be some sacrifices if they wanted to win the war.

The Razor Sharp Company’s current mission was to take Mt. Dingyuan. If they could not complete their mission on time, it would delay the progress of the entire army.

They were going to be in for a tough battle.

But 1st Platoon Commander Jiao Xiaochen suddenly wondered, “Why would you have to push the motorcycle up the mountain? Wouldn’t it be better to ride it?”

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a while. “I don’t know how to ride it.”

Zhang Xiaoman was speechless, as was Jiao Xiaochen. All of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were speechless.

Chapter 390: I ve already taken Mt. Guan

After Ren Xiaosu pushed the motorcycle and set off, Zhang Xiaoman quickly led the Razor Sharp Company in digging the trenches.

After all, Ren Xiaosu was not well-versed in military knowledge. Although the gullies could indeed save them a lot of steps, there was still a need to work on them before the gullies could be useful as trenches. They needed to select the most suitable position for the ambush and set up emplacements as well.

It would take an hour for Ren Xiaosu to head up the mountain and probably another hour for the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan to reach this location. So there wasn’t much time left for Zhang Xiaoman and the others to get ready.

As Jiao Xiaochen led the group to construct the trenches, he muttered, “I thought the commander sent us a weakling, but it turns out he’s the best.”

“Do y’all feel that he has a grudge against these bandits?” someone wondered. “I feel like he really wants to fight these bandits and the Zong Consortium until he kills them all.”

“I can feel it too.” Zhang Xiaoman sighed. “There’s some sort of ferocity deep in that kid’s bones. He could kill someone just like that without batting an eyelid. Before we could even react, he finished off that bandit.”

“When he was pushing the motorcycle to go up the mountain just now, I could sense a killing intent in him.”

“You must’ve fucking listened to too many stories! You can even sense something like killing intent now? Get out of here!”

Zhang Xiaoman was sitting in the trenches and estimated the time. “Are the mortars ready?”

“Captain, our mortars definitely can’t hit the mountain since their effective range is only three kilometers.” Jiao Xiaochen wiped away his sweat and said, “Should we get a little closer? That way, we can still provide some cover for him. Our mortars are probably still a bit far from the bandit lair on Mt. Guan to effectively hit them.”

“No.” Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. “Our most important task is to wipe out the bandits coming from Mt. Dingyuan. It’s not that I don’t want to provide cover for him, but our mission must be completed. We can only talk about other matters after the mission is done.”

“What if he—”

“There’s no ‘what ifs,’” Zhang Xiaoman refuted. “It’s an honor for a soldier to die on the battlefield. Since he’s decided to go, he must have some skills to keep himself alive. Don’t ever underestimate a supernatural being. Have you forgotten how strong old Xu’s superpower is? And Ren Xiaosu might even be stronger than Old Xu?”

Supernatural beings had now become a variable on the battlefield. They were sharp daggers that could kill the enemy as soon as they were stabbed in the right position.

When it was time, Zhang Xiaoman immediately ordered Jiao Xiaochen to launch the mortars and create a distraction. After the mortars exploded, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountainside.

Someone said, “It seems like the bandits on Mt. Guan have already started fighting. Are we really not going to support him?”

“I think I just heard a train whistle. Did I hear wrong?”

“He definitely can’t deal with them by himself. No matter how powerful a supernatural being is, they’re still afraid of bullets. Why don’t we attack Mt. Guan first?”

Zhang Xiaoman said coldly, “Keep your guards up, all of you! Our current enemies are the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan, not the bandits here at Mt. Guan!”

But at this moment, the gunfire on the mountainside subsided. Zhang Xiaoman frowned. “Why have the gunshots stopped so quickly? Has he retreated already, or did he sacrifice himself?”

“He sacrificed himself, more than likely.”

Based on last year’s intel, there were at least 700 bandits gathered up on Mt. Guan. No matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu was, he could not possibly wipe out all the bandits by himself.

Moreover, there should be gunshots from the pursuing bandits if Ren Xiaosu had fled down the mountain. But right now, they couldn’t hear any gunshots at all. This suggested the battle on the mountain had already ended.

Therefore, the most reasonable explanation was that Ren Xiaosu had overestimated his own strength when he said he would pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan. In the end, his plan backfired on him.

“But the reinforcements at Mt. Dingyuan won’t come over here to give support if the battle’s ended so quickly. Then our plan is ruined.” Jiao Xiaochen sighed. “What should we do now? Should we retreat?”

“Wait awhile longer.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “What if the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan rush here? We can fight as many of them as we can then. Our enemies have motorcycles that allow them to travel freely in the valley while we retreat on foot. If we evacuate at this moment, we’ll be caught up to very soon by the enemy. If that’s the case, we might as well defend this position and fight back.”

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company leaned against the trench walls, hugging their guns. “The commander is really unlucky. The two candidates he chose so far have both ended up dead.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, “On the battlefield, you never know when someone will die.”

However, the Razor Sharp Company waited for nearly an hour in the trenches at the foot of the mountain. They did not see any bandit reinforcements coming from Mt. Dingyuan, nor did any bandits charge down from Mt. Guan to kill them.

“This feels a little strange.” Zhang Xiaoman wondered, “We exposed our position when we fired the mortars earlier, so why’re the bandits on Mt. Guan not coming down to attack us? Never mind that the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan did not come, why aren’t the bandits on Mt. Guan coming down either?”

But at this moment, a soldier poked his head out and saw someone walking slowly on the mountain road towards them. The figure was covered in blood and prominently stood out in the dusty landscape.

“Isn’t that Ren Xiaosu? He’s still alive?!” Jiao Xiaochen exclaimed.

They had been speculating and coming up with many scenarios, but never had they thought Ren Xiaosu would be walking out of the mountain alive!

When the calm-looking Zhang Xiaoman heard Ren Xiaosu’s name, he immediately got out of the trench and ran towards him. He circled Ren Xiaosu for a while and asked, “Did you get injured? How did you manage to escape? Medic! Medic, get over here!”

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t complete the mission.”

Zhang Xiaoman chuckled when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was alright. “It’s good enough that you’re still alive. I said that you were too overconfident. How could you possibly pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan all by yourself? Follow me into the trenches. When the bandits charge down, we’ll still have a tough battle to fight!”

Ren Xiaosu said, “No, what I meant was that I killed them so fast they couldn’t even call for reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan.”

Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was stupefied. ‘Is it fucking appropriate for you to say something so ruthless while putting on a sad face like that?!’

Zhang Xiaoman asked in bewilderment, “You aren’t joking, right?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “The bandits of Mt. Guan almost turned out in full force for a battle last month, but they were all killed. There were only about a 100 bandits left on Mt. Guan, so they weren’t as strong as y’all thought.”

“Aha!” Zhang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment. “But how do you know about it?”

Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He suddenly missed Liuyuan a little.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others still felt that something was wrong. Even with only a 100 bandits left on this mountain, the battle should not have ended this quickly, right?! In that case, did it mean that Ren Xiaosu had killed all the bandits on the mountain single-handedly?!

“Are you sure the bandits on the mountain are all dead?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in confirmation. “You better not joke around in the military!”

Ren Xiaosu said, “There’s still some HMGS and a lot of ammo left on the mountain, so I think we should go up and get them. We don’t have enough ammo, after all.”

“That’s not what I was asking about…” Zhang Xiaoman was a little speechless.

An hour later, Zhang Xiaoman was looking at the bodies lying around the bandit lair on Mt. Guan. Then he said to a radiotelephone operator, “Notify Commander Zhou. I’ve gotta give him a sitrep.”

The RTO walked over with a portable radio. When Zhang Xiaoman took the handset, he heard Zhou Yinglong shouting on the other end: “Maggot, why’re you looking for me at a time like this? Are you thinking of giving up because you feel you can’t take Mt. Dingyuan? Lemme tell you, you already pledged to do it, so even if you can’t, you’ll still have to fight!”

Zhang Xiaoman said in a speechless manner: “Battalion Commander, we’ve already taken Mt. Guan. We will be attacking Mt. Dingyuan tomorrow….”

Chapter 391: The copper bell

After repeatedly confirming with Zhang Xiaoman through the radio, Zhou Yinglong finally believed that they had really taken Mt. Guan.

The Forward Strike Battalion’s original plan was to first deploy the Razor Sharp Company to attack the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan, which they felt was easier to take. After that, the Razor Sharp Company would move to attack the stronger forces at Mt. Guan together with Second Company.

But in the end, Mt. Guan was taken not long after the Razor Sharp Company set out.

Zhang Xiaoman asked on the radio, “Battalion Commander, does this count as our credit?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Zhou Yinglong replied. “What are the Razor Sharp Company’s casualties? If there’s too many casualties, take a short rest and wait for reinforcements.”

“We didn’t suffer any casualties.” Even as Zhang Xiaoman said that, he was finding it hard to believe. As such, he did not bother hiding the truth. “There were only about a 100 bandits on Mt. Guan, and they were all killed single-handedly by Ren Xiaosu. I’m shocked by it, let alone you. We had only planned for him to pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan. But in the end, he pinned them down so hard that all of them died.”

Then Zhang Xiaoman even heard Zhou Yinglong take a deep breath through the radio before shouting, “What the!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was wiping the blood off his body by a stream behind Mt. Guan. After that, he changed back into the Razor Sharp Company’s combat uniform.

Jiao Xiaochen and the others watched Ren Xiaosu as they collected the ammunition and supplies a short distance away. “Did y’all see that? He’s acting like it’s no big deal after killing over a 100 people. He’s a little too calm, ain’t he?”

“I wonder what he did before coming to Fortress 178….”

“I heard he was also a refugee. He was even a student of Commander Zhang’s and well-known as ruthless in town. That’s what Old Xu told me.”

Ren Xiaosu stood at the edge of the stream after changing back into the uniform of the Razor Sharp Company. This was just the beginning of his revenge. He still had a lot more battles to fight.

Zhang Xiaoman finished reporting to Zhou Yinglong. He asked Jiao Xiaochen, “Count everything we collected.”

“We’ve collected two 12.7 mm caliber HMGS that came with wheeled mounts and gun shields, 31 ammo boxes, and two mortars,” Jiao Xiaochen reported. “There’s also a lot of rifles, but those are useless to us.”

Having more guns wasn’t necessarily better. They would still need people to carry them to be effective. So the rifles were not much different from scrap metal to them.

“Take the mortars and rounds, dismantle the wheel mounts and gun shields from the HMGs before taking them, and grab the HMG ammo too.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “The gun shields of the machine guns are more useful in the plains. It’s not convenient for us to bring them while on the march. Wait, something’s wrong. Weren’t there any grenades there?”

Jiao Xiaochen shook his head. “No, we didn’t find a single grenade.”

“Were those bandits so poor they couldn’t even afford grenades?” Zhang Xiaoman wondered.

It was not that the bandits on Mt. Guan were poor, but that Ren Xiaosu had already stuffed seven full boxes of grenades into his storage space before heading down the mountain.

Before he obtained any Explosive Poker cards that were at least “sixes,” Ren Xiaosu felt he could use the grenades as a replacement. As for how powerful a “quad-six” bomb was, he couldn’t gauge that yet.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at the pile of firearms with shimmering eyes. Even the Razor Sharp Company was only equipped with the standard weaponry whenever they headed out for battle. They did not usually get issued with so much firepower. So they had to depend on their own abilities to get whatever they could from the battlefield.

Jiao Xiaochen shouldered a machine gun. “This thing’s mine!”

As he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu grabbed the machine gun out of Jiao Xiaochen’s hands. Jiao Xiaochen was stunned for a moment. Then he heard Ren Xiaosu say, “Platoon Commander, let me carry it for
you.”

Jiao Xiaochen was moved to tears. He was such a competent soldier and had such great esprit de corps. Just what kind of an angelic teammate was he!

“Thank you, Ren Xiaosu,” Jiao Xiaochen said.

“Gratitude received from Jiao Xiaochen, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu realized it was rather easy to gain gratitude tokens at Fortress 178.

Now that his quest was almost complete, he thought he maybe should continue gaining more gratitude tokens even after the quest.

“Captain,” Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, “what do we do next?”

“We’ll besiege Mt. Dingyuan.” Zhang Xiaoman replied, “The Forward Strike Battalion and Engineering Battalion are about to reach our north. They’re going to establish an FOB there, so we can’t have the bandits in the rear go and make trouble for them.”

“Is the FOB essential?” Ren Xiaosu asked. He was not doubting him but just humbly asking, “What’s the use of an FOB?”

Ren Xiaosu’s impression was that a forward operating base was just a place where one could eat.

Zhang Xiaoman patiently explained, “By using the FOB, it can greatly reduce the time the troops spend traveling from the rear to the front lines. It can also extend supply lines to a place closer to the enemy’s location. For example, an armored brigade must resupply at an FOB before venturing further into the depths of the battlefield.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded to show he understood. “Then how are we attacking Mt. Dingyuan?”

“Commander Zhou said we don’t have to do a head-on attack, so we only need to blockade them on Mt. Dingyuan.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Now that Mt. Guan has been taken, the plan has changed. As such, our mission is no longer considered too difficult, so we should try to keep our casualties to a minimum. After the FOB is built, there’ll be new troops coming to provide us with fire support. Then it’ll be much easier to capture our target.”

That same night, everyone took a short rest atop Mt. Guan. While the soldiers took off their shoes and sat by the campfire, Ren Xiaosu walked away quietly.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at the solitary Ren Xiaosu, who was standing near the edge of the cliff. He suddenly said to the other soldiers, “Looks like he’s got something on his mind.”

“Captain, it’s cuz our feet stink.”

Zhang Xiaoman joked, “Don’t you think he’s weighed down by something?”

“A little.”

Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back. He had a feeling that Ren Xiaosu had been through much more than they imagined. He went up to Ren Xiaosu with some piping hot vegetable soup. “Here, eat your fill.”

“Mhm, thank you, Captain,” Ren Xiaosu said.

However, Zhang Xiaoman did not walk away after handing the soup to him. Instead, he asked, “I heard you recently arrived at Fortress 178. Why have you chosen to come to such a poor place?”

Ren Xiaosu gave Zhang Xiaoman a look. “I didn’t plan on coming here, but there’s something important that I have to do, and I also share some common goals with Fortress 178.”

“Oh, I see.” Zhang Xiaoman nodded.

“Captain, why did you join the Fortress 178 army?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I was born in Fortress 178.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “The first thing the young men in the fortress do when they turn 16 is to get a physical to see if they can qualify as soldiers. Some people even attempt suicide after failing the test due to flat feet.”

“Why?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.

Zhang Xiaoman looked to the northwest like he could see Fortress 178. Then he replied with a smile, “So they can get a chance to prove they’re brave warriors when the copper bell in the center of the fortress tolls.”

Chapter 392: Zhang Xiaoman’s dream

All the soldiers of Fortress 178 felt an unparalleled sense of belonging to the ancient fortress, but Ren Xiaosu was still very curious. “The interior consortiums never told their residents about your efforts and achievements before, so the residents don’t even know who’s keeping the peace for them. Even so, y’all are still willing to continue guarding it?”

“Whether they know or not, that’s their problem.” Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, “But guarding this place is our business.”

As they were now carrying more ammunition and supplies, the weight on each person’s back was almost as heavy as half their own weight.

Although everyone was complaining that they were really tired, no one was willing to throw away the ammunition because they depended on it for survival on the battlefield.

Using Zhang Xiaoman’s own words, when the war arrived, they could only trust the guns in their hands, the bullets in the magazines, and their comrades in the trenches.

Therefore, the Razor Sharp Company despised cowards, as cowards in a company would get their comrades killed.

“I heard that when Commander Zhang joined the Razor Sharp Company as a medic, he was not even willing to fire a gun.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile as he struggled to march forward, “At that time, the Razor Sharp Company’s warriors all despised him, yet he did not argue once. But in a battle, he ended up saving the lives of hundreds of wounded soldiers. Not only did he save his own company’s comrades, but comrades from other companies were saved as well. That was how he earned their respect in the end. Before that, everyone thought he was just a coward.”

These gruff men of Fortress 178 were not at all afraid to discuss Zhang Jinglin, and Zhang Jinglin did not seem to mind it either.

Zhang Xiaoman said, “When I saw your thin and weak frame initially, I thought you wouldn’t be good at fighting. However, I never expected you to be so fearsome.”

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Were you also there when Mr. Zhang was in the Razor Sharp Company?”

“Fat chance! I was still playing in the mud back then.” Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, “That was all in the older generation’s time.”

“The older generation?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Who’s from the older generation in Fortress 178?”

Zhang Xiaoman thought back and replied, “There’s no point mentioning them since most of them are dead.”

“That tragic, huh?” Ren Xiaosu was startled. “What happened?”

“16 years ago, there was a war so terrible 90% of our original army perished in it. The remaining survivors said it was a war they barely escaped alive from, with the fortress almost getting destroyed too.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Do you know why Fortress 178 used to accept refugees? On one hand, everyone was a refugee to begin with, while others were exiled criminals from the Central Plains. So no one disliked one another since they all had the same status. On the other hand… it was because no others were willing to come to this poor place except for refugees. Fortress 178 needed those people to defend the place.”

Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “There were even exiles from the Central Plains in Fortress 178?”

“Yes.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “My neighbor’s one of them, but I haven’t seen anyone from the Central Plains get exiled to the fortress in over ten years. I heard they’ve started exiling them to Stronghold 176 in the north instead. And north of Stronghold 176 is the Steppe.”

“Is Stronghold 176 very far away from where we are now?”

“Yes.”

Then Ren Xiaosu asked, “Do you have any other thoughts or wishes other than waiting for the bell to sound?”

“Yeah,” Zhang Xiaoman laughed and said, “I want to be a brigade commander just like my father!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Your father was a brigade commander?”

Zhang Xiaoman paused for a moment before saying, “What I mean is, my father’s dream was to be a brigade commander as well.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised.

The journey from Mt. Guan to Mt. Dingyuan was quite short. Before they had gone far, Jiao Xiaochen, who was in charge of leading the formation, suddenly raised his palm. All of the soldiers in the rear immediately took a knee and raised their guns in full alert.

Zhang Xiaoman stooped low and ran to the front of the formation. He whispered, “What’s the matter?”

“We discovered signs of the enemy. I think it’s a hidden lookout post,” Jiao Xiaochen said.

Zhang Xiaoman picked up his binoculars and looked ahead. He was surprised to see smoke coming out of the gully several hundred meters ahead. “I think someone might be smoking. The smoke produced from cooking does not look like that at all. These fucking bandits even have guards to keep a lookout on the foot of the mountain, how professional! Too bad the guards on duty are idiots.”

The bandits under the Zong Consortium’s control were truly different from other bandits, but all in all, they were still bandits.

“What do we do?” Jiao Xiaochen asked, “Should we kill them?”

“Mhm, we’ll keep marching in the gully towards them. Fu Rao, Lin Ping’an, see if you two can get to the road over there and kill them quietly without your guns. I don’t want to cause a commotion,” Zhang Xiaoman said.

These two were the most outstanding soldiers in the Razor Sharp Company and were experts at infiltration and knife fighting

However, Fu Rao whispered, “Captain, Ren Xiaosu has already gone ahead….”

As those words trailed off, Zhang Xiaoman’s head started to hurt. Having such a fearsome person in the company was also a very frustrating experience. He said, “Let’s wait here quietly!”

Zhang Xiaoman was most worried that Ren Xiaosu would cause too much of a commotion. However, it was dead silent ahead of them. After several minutes, Ren Xiaosu returned with two people in his hands. They were not dead, just unconscious.

Ren Xiaosu threw the two men on the ground. “We can ask them about their deployment on the mountain. Who knows, maybe we can use our mortars to take out their MG positions. Bandits aren’t really tight-lipped, and the two of them should know quite a lot about the operations.”

Zhang Xiaoman was taken aback. Most of the time when sneaking past an enemy’s defensive line, it was quite difficult to capture them alive. That was because they had to prevent the enemy from struggling, firing warning shots, or shouting to warn others. So the only action taken would be to kill on sight.

But with the appearance of Ren Xiaosu, he made the impossible possible.

However, Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone, “Xiaosu, I know you’re very capable, but you still have to listen to orders during an op. You have to wait for my command, understand? I’m purposely putting on airs as the company commander, but troops have to obey their commanding officer and execute their orders to a tee in a battle.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered this. “Understood, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. You don’t have experience serving as a soldier of Fortress 178, nor did you go through any training before getting deployed to the battlefield. So long as you have a modest attitude, we’ll teach you whatever we can during battles.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “OK, I won’t act without permission in the future.”

While Zhang Xiaoman got someone to slap the two bandits on the ground to wake them, Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an held daggers to their necks and said, “We’ll remove our hands, but if you dare shout, you’re dead.”

The two bandits nodded frantically. Zhang Xiaoman took out a battle map and two pencils, then said, “I’ll give both of you a chance. If you can help us draw the defensive deployment map of Mt. Dingyuan, I’ll spare your lives.”

Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an removed their palms from the bandits’ mouths. However, the two bandits asked, “What’s a defensive deployment map?”

“Just indicate the positions of the heavy machine guns and mortars on the mountain, then tell me how many people are guarding those positions.” Zhang Xiaoman said coldly, “We’re from Fortress 178. If you cooperate with us, we’ll let you go, understand?”

The two bandits were stunned. “You’re from Fortress 178? Sure, we’ll cooperate!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw this. It was like the bandits were not worried Zhang Xiaoman would go back on his words after he mentioned the name of Fortress 178.

Chapter 393: Sudden appearance on the battlefield

But what surprised Ren Xiaosu even more was that he had thought the two bandits would have tricks up their sleeves. However, they actually pointed out some of the wrong details on the map.

Drawing a map was a rather technical skill as it required surveying instruments. You could not confirm how high and wide a location was by just using your eyesight.

Although Fortress 178 had attempted to map out the mountain hideouts as detailed as possible, their work was all carried out in secret. As some areas could only be measured visually, deviations on the map were guaranteed.

The two bandits took the pencils and drew some circles on the map, with a small circle indicating that it was a heavy machine gun position. The two of them said, “But the heavy machine gun positions often get switched around. A lot of equipment on the mountain are also covered with tarps. We don’t know what’s under them either, so y’all must be careful.”

“Y’all can’t get to the top because the path leading up the mountain has been cut off by trees.” A bandit pointed at a route on the map and said, “It seems that our boss was ordered to defend Mt. Dingyuan, so he shipped in a bunch of supplies in advance. He said that as long as we can defend the place for three months, everyone would be rewarded.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Are there any regulars on the mountain?”

The two bandits shook their heads. “No, but there’s some very powerful folks mixed in with the bandits. They definitely weren’t bandits in the valley before.”

“How many of them are there?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“About a 100. There’s more than 900 bandits in total on Mt. Dingyuan,” one of the bandits said.

Ren Xiaosu nodded and did not say anything else. An entire formation of the Zong Consortium’s regular troops was among those who had intercepted his group, so he had to get to the bottom of it. If the Zong Consortium’s regular troops were here on Mt. Dingyuan, he would have to be careful of them.

“Is there no other way up?” Zhang Xiaoman frowned and asked, “Did they say why y’all had to defend Mt. Dingyuan?”

“No, how could we know something like that?” One of the bandits said, “So can we leave now?”

Zhang Xiaoman hesitated for a moment before waving them off. “Scram, head west and don’t let me see you two again.”

“Ah, alright.” The two bandits got up and started to run, but before they even covered two steps, they turned around and asked, “Sir, do you have any cigs?”

Zhang Xiaoman said impatiently, “Our cigs don’t contain the stuff you add into yours.”

“That’s fine,” the two bandits said.

Zhang Xiaoman had Jiao Xiaochen throw two packs of cigarettes to them. “Get lost.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “We’re letting them go just like that?”

“Fortress 178 never breaks a promise. Don’t worry, the bandits in the valley are all sensible. They won’t turn around once they’re told to head west,” Zhang Xiaoman said nonchalantly.

Ren Xiaosu watched as the two bandits disappeared after passing criss-crossing gullies in the west. If it were him, he would not have spared their lives.

But he could not say what Zhang Xiaoman did was wrong. Fortress 178 had its own way of survival, after all.

“The bandits on Mt. Dingyuan have already sealed off the mountain path. Strange, why did they seal off the path? What’s the point of keeping guard for three months?” Zhang Xiaoman wondered.

“That’ll save us a lot of trouble if we just keep guard at the foot of the mountain. They won’t be heading down the mountain anyway,” Jiao Xiaochen said.

“No.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “There must be something fishy about their decision to defend this place. War is not just about a rigid execution of orders. We’ll only be successful if we can make the enemy uncomfortable. Why don’t we take Mt. Dingyuan by ourselves?”

Yesterday, Battalion Commander Zhou had ordered them to only lay siege on the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan after they had taken Mt. Guan. But from the looks of it, it seemed they would still have to attack Mt. Dingyuan after all.

“But it’s a good thing that we already know about the locations of their HMGs, so we can reduce our casualties by pointing our mortars directly at the enemy’s emplacements and destroying them. We must immediately force an attack. Otherwise, when their MG positions change, all the information we just obtained will become outdated,” Zhang Xiaoman said.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Didn’t you say that we should listen to orders in battle? The order was for us to lay siege on the enemies from the foot of the mountain.”

Zhang Xiaoman explained patiently, “What I want to teach you now is how to be adaptable during battle.”

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu while pondering what he had just said. He suddenly felt that he should not have taught him that.

Jiao Xiaochen said, “Are we going to launch an attack tonight then?”

“Mhm.” Zhang Xiaoman nodded and said, “If only there were other smaller paths leading up the mountain. We could’ve sent someone to covertly infiltrate their lair. But this is the only route we have to the top of Mt. Dingyuan. We can only fight our way up even if it’s gonna be really difficult. Radioman, contact Commander Zhou and report the situation to him!”

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, “I can climb up the back of Mt. Dingyuan and sneak attack them first, then coordinate further action with y’all.”

The entire Razor Sharp Company was stunned when they heard that. “How’re you gonna climb up that 80-degree slope at the back of the mountain?”

“I have my ways.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Just give me two packs of TNT.”

The Razor Sharp Company was still well-equipped with ammunition. However, TNT was generally used to blow up bunkers and artillery positions, so no one understood what Ren Xiaosu was planning to do with them.

Zhang Xiaoman clenched his teeth and said, “Take care of yourself!”

Zhang Xiaoman suddenly felt that it was amazing to have such a fearsome person in the company who would always volunteer for the most dangerous tasks. It had never been easier to fight a war now that they had a person like him with such excellent combat skills.

In his opinion, it did not matter if Ren Xiaosu was qualified to be the commander of Fortress 178 or not. But at least having a character like Ren Xiaosu on the battlefield was really nice.

Zhang Xiaoman said to Ren Xiaosu, “Regardless of whether the others support you or not, our Razor Sharp Company will support you. Ain’t that so, everyone?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. “What do you mean by supporting me?”

He somehow felt like he missed out on something very important.

At 9 PM, Zhang Xiaoman handed the TNT and a rope over to Ren Xiaosu for him to carry on his back. “When you’re climbing up the back of the mountain, you must be extremely careful. If you feel like you can’t get up there, don’t force it.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Don’t worry. When y’all hear the TNT go off on the mountain in six hours, immediately start the attack on Mt. Dingyuan and destroy their HMG positions first. I’ll be supporting y’all from up there.”

Through the military case studies of previous wars, Zhang Xiaoman and the others had learned that paratroopers would usually get paradropped onto the battlefield for them to open a path for the rest of the forces to enter. In this way, they could effectively avoid the enemy’s interdiction.

They were destined to not have things like paratroopers in this era, but that would not stop a fearsome person from climbing a 700-meter-tall and 80-degree-steep cliff with his bare hands.

Besides, could a normal paratrooper have a combat strength as powerful as Ren Xiaosu’s?

Watching as Ren Xiaosu faded into the distance, Jiao Xiaochen suddenly said, “We must start our attack as soon as we hear the noise. I feel that if we don’t act quickly enough, he’ll wipe out all of the enemy forces before we get there.”

When they attacked Mt. Guan, everyone was worried that Ren Xiaosu would die on the mountain. But this time, they were afraid he would kill the bandits too quickly.

However, Zhang Xiaoman shook his head and said, “It’ll be harder to take Mt. Dingyuan than Mt. Guan since the bandit numbers are several times higher. According to Ren Xiaosu, the main fighting forces on Mt. Guan died in a previous battle, leaving only remnants of the original bandit group there. We still need to launch an attack on the mountain a-sap, though, so we can ensure Ren Xiaosu’s safety. It’s the responsibility of the entire Razor Sharp Company to fight the battle. We can’t let him face the pressure all by himself.”

“Starting now, we’ll begin implementing noise and light discipline. There will be no smoking, no talking, and no using of flashlights. Everything must be done in silence!” Zhang Xiaoman was thinking about something as he looked at the silhouette of Mt. Dingyuan in the distance.

Chapter 394: A spy in the bandit lair

Although Mt. Dingyuan was not tall, its terrain was extremely dangerous. The back of the mountain was not scalable at all with its 700-meter-steep cliff. If they wanted to storm the mountain, there was only one way to go.

Even Ren Xiaosu couldn’t scale to the top with his own bare hands. However, he had his shadow clone with him.

It was not that he was a daredevil for trying to attack from the rear by himself, but that he did not really wish to reveal his shadow clone in front of Zhang Xiaoman and the others.

If Zhang Xiaoman and the others knew he had a shadow clone similar to Old Xu’s, a lot of things would probably come to light. This was something Ren Xiaosu had still not figured out how to explain to Xu Xianchu.

How should he explain things to Old Xu when the time came? Maybe he could just deny any knowledge of the black cauldron’s origins and convince him not to think too much into
it.

At this moment, the shadow clone was climbing up the face of the mountain while carrying Ren Xiaosu on its back. One of the greatest advantages of the shadow clone was that it would not get tired at all.

If Ren Xiaosu tried to climb the mountain on his own, he might not have any strength left to fight even if he could reach the top.

His current fitness was only a little more than three times that of normal people’s, so he was still not that tough. But it was different for the shadow clone.

If every supernatural beings’ control of their superpowers were dependent on their “mental strength,” then Ren Xiaosu had never really experienced the limit of his willpower before, and neither did he know what his limits were.

The shadow clone used the two black sabers as anchors as it climbed up the cliff. The black saber was so sharp it could pierce into the cliff easily, but the only thing was that the sabers had to be thrust in laterally. Otherwise, if the saber penetrated into the mountain blade down, the weight of the shadow clone and Ren Xiaosu would cause the black sabers to cut through the stone face like tofu.

Ren Xiaosu had discussed with Zhang Xiaoman’s group to take action six hours after he started scaling the mountain. But in reality, he was a little ahead of time after moving much faster than he had predicted.

When Ren Xiaosu poked his head up on the top of the cliff, he saw a campfire burning in the distance in an open space of the bandit lair on Mt. Dingyuan. Some people were sitting next to the campfire holding guns while keeping a lookout. But no one was keeping watch on the back of the mountain. It looked like the bandits never expected anyone to be so brave to actually scale the face of the mountain.

Ren Xiaosu did not put away his shadow clone but manipulated it to do a quick survey of the surrounding terrain. Meanwhile, he moved quietly in the shadows.

As there were about 900 bandits on Mt. Dingyuan, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly attack them head on. If he still had his full set of armor, he could’ve easily taken Mt. Dingyuan by himself without the help of Zhang Xiaoman and the others.

But unfortunately, 80% of his nanomachines were destroyed in that battle. And now, he only had enough to barely protect his vitals.

He wondered if he would encounter the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers in the future. However, Ren Xiaosu did not really want to lay a finger on the Yang Consortium’s people. It would be quite good if some of the Li Consortium’s 1,500 nanosoldiers who attacked Stronghold 88 had survived.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was aware that this was just a passing thought. He knew that neither the Yang Consortium nor the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers would come north.

The shadow clone had already crept into one of the barracks and slit the necks of two sleeping bandits with its black saber.

Everything was carried out quietly. There were only 12 people to a room in the barracks of the bandit lair, and it only took 20 seconds for the shadow clone to kill everyone in the room.

However, Ren Xiaosu knew he could not use this method too many times since accidents would definitely happen.

All of a sudden, he heard someone speaking in a low voice. After searching for some time, he still could not locate where the sound was coming from. Finally, Ren Xiaosu’s gaze settled at a latrine.

It was a pit latrine surrounded by a brick wall with only a broken wooden door covering the front, and the metallic hook for locking the wooden door seemed broken as well. The person in the outhouse even had to stretch his arm out and hold the wooden door to prevent it from opening.

It looked like someone inside was watching the outside through a small hole in the door. If any bandit walked over, this person would see them through the hole.

But it was different for Ren Xiaosu since he had arrived from the back of the mountain.

Ren Xiaosu quietly walked up to the outhouse and listened in on the person inside who was whispering, “Boss, I really can’t stay on Mt. Dingyuan any longer. They’ve even sealed the path. Someone said Mt. Guan was taken by Fortress 178. The Zong Consortium has hidden two 52 caliber/155 mm howitzers with a firing range of more than 50 kilometers on this mountain. This weapon was phased out of the Zong Consortium’s arsenal and placed here at the bandit lair after they calculated the target’s strike location. I’m guessing they’ll use it to launch a surprise attack on Fortress 178’s FOB.”

The person inside continued, “Boss, if the Zong Consortium uses the howitzers, I’m afraid Fortress 178 will raze Mt. Dingyuan to the ground. If I continue to stay here, wouldn’t I have to die along with them?! OK, OK, thank you, Boss. I’ll head down the mountain tonight. Do you think we should inform Fortress 178 about the situation on Mt. Dingyuan?”

“Alright, I’ll make a trip to their military base and inform them. We can’t let the Zong Consortium do whatever they want! We have to prevent them from ruining our battle plans in the South!”

Ren Xiaosu was listening to everything from the outside. It sounded like the “bandit spy” inside the outhouse was contacting someone with a remote communications device and reporting about the situation at Mt. Dingyuan.

The two bandits had said there were some secret supplies transported up the mountain covered with tarps and that no one knew what they were. Those were probably the howitzers the spy was referring to, right?

An effective firing range of more than 50 kilometers could really be called terrifying. Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Xiaoman said the forward operating base to the north was only about 40 kilometers from Mt. Dingyuan, and that it was the most suitable place to establish a forward operating base.

The Zong Consortium wasn’t stupid. They were planning on dealing a severe blow to Fortress 178 with the two howitzers that had been phased out of their arsenal. Although these two howitzers might not be that significant, they could still throw Fortress 178’s plan into disarray and intimidate their military.

Based on Zhou Yinglong’s plan, the forward operating base would be in deep trouble if the Razor Sharp Company only surrounded Mt. Dingyuan.

Was Zhou Yinglong prepared for this? Ren Xiaosu was unsure.

However, this person in the outhouse should be from the Qing Consortium, right? There were only the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium left in the South. The Qing Consortium was probably the only organization that could send someone here to Mt. Dingyuan to act as a bandit for such a prolonged period.

At this moment, when the shadow clone broke into another room in the barracks, some bandits were actually still awake. When they saw it, they shouted so loudly that all the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan were jolted
awake!

The person in the outhouse whispered, “Boss, I can’t talk anymore. It sounds like there’s a situation on the mountain!”

While he was still speaking, Ren Xiaosu reached out and pulled open the outhouse door. But he had not expected the person in the outhouse to still be holding onto the door. With one pull, Ren Xiaosu dragged the spy out of the outhouse before he could even pull his pants up…

“Who the fuck!?” That person shouted as he laid on the ground with his butt bare. He was already preparing to pick a fight with Ren Xiaosu without pulling up his pants!

Ren Xiaosu pointed a pistol at the spy. “You’re from the Qing Consortium?”

The spy was not stupid. Looking down the barrel of the gun, he turned obedient. He heard the shouting in the distance, then looked at Ren Xiaosu’s Razor Sharp Company fatigues. “You’re from Fortress 178?”.

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt like the spy seemed to be relieved. But before Ren Xiaosu could do anything, the spy smashed the palm-sized communication device in his hand onto the ground with the gun still pointed at his head!

Chapter 395: Blessed be the good man

Chapter 395 Blessed be the good man

The soldiers of the Qing Consortium were all headstrong. Even though a gun was pointed at the spy’s head, he decisively destroyed the communications device without any fear of death. Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry! Are you Luo Lan’s guy?”

“Who is Luo Lan?” The spy froze. “Sir, what’re you talking about? Why can’t I understand anything you’re saying?”

Ren Xiaosu did not reveal his name. “Pull up your pants first.”

“Oh, right.” The spy hurriedly pulled up his pants. He had not even managed to wipe his butt before getting dragged out of the outhouse.

“How many others from the Qing Consortium are here on Mt. Dingyuan?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

The spy said with a wry smile, “Sir, I really don’t understand what you’re getting at. If you’re planning on attacking Mt. Dingyuan, I can show you the way.”

Ren Xiaosu lifted the spy over the edge of the cliff. “If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll drop you.”

When the spy realized Ren Xiaosu could lift him up with one hand, he closed his eyes while hanging over the edge and muttered, “Brothers, I’ll be leaving first then.”

Ren Xiaosu was so angry he almost laughed. He put the spy back on the ground. “That’ll do. I’m actually a friend of Fatty Luo’s. I’ll let you go now. This place isn’t safe anymore. But don’t take the main path, or you’re gonna die.”

At this moment, the spy was still unwilling to come clean. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu had loosened his grip, the spy turned and ran away. But after running for 50 meters without being fired at, he turned back around to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Blessed be the good man!”

After saying that, he continued running into the shadows. But even then, he still did not reveal his identity.

But when Ren Xiaosu heard the words “blessed be the good man,” he somehow felt that it was not just a simple thank you.

Ren Xiaosu shook his head for a bit before walking over to the bandit lair. Since he had already guessed the spy was from the Qing Consortium, he would definitely not kill him. After all, he might still have to depend on Luo Lan and Qing Zhen to help him find his family after taking his revenge.

Moreover, he thought of Luo Lan as his friend.

At this moment, the entire bandit lair was in chaos. Although Ren Xiaosu did not venture into the battlefield, he felt like the bullets were hitting him.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt an enormous pain when a bullet hit the shadow clone in its forehead. Getting hit by a bullet there hurt much more than getting hit at other parts of his shadow clone’s body. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu got a feeling that he couldn’t allow the shadow clone to be hit between the brows. That could spell big trouble for him!

Most supernatural beings were still in the midst of figuring out their powers, and Ren Xiaosu was no exception.

As they learned more, everyone would gradually discover their powers had some weaknesses rather than being omnipotent.

Ren Xiaosu took off a pack of TNT from his back and lit the fuse. Then he used the Shadow Door and threw the TNT outside a row of barracks. At this moment, someone was shooting at his shadow clone through a window in the barracks.

With a loud explosion, the entire row of brick barracks collapsed and buried the bandits alive.

However, there were a total of seven rows of these barracks. But Ren Xiaosu was not expecting the battle would end by just throwing one block of TNT at the enemy. This was just the signal he was sending to the Razor Sharp Company at the foot of the mountain!

As soon as the TNT went off, the Razor Sharp Company began to bombard the pre-identified heavy machine gun positions with their mortars from the foot of the mountain!

Zhang Xiaoman was leaning against a trench wall and eating hardtack from his field rations. As his mouth was a little dry, he was about to drink some water when the TNT exploded on the mountain.

Zhang Xiaoman yelled at Jiao Xiaochen, “Fire the mortars! Quickly, fire the mortars!”

Hardtack crumbs sprayed out of his mouth onto Jiao Xiaochen’s face, but Jiao Xiaochen couldn’t care less and just wiped his face as he shouted the command, “Ready the mortar barrage. Three, two, one! Fire!”

Thump, thump, thump. The mortar rounds flew towards the mountain trailing smoke behind them. After that, their temporary positions were entirely filled with the smell of gunpowder.

Zhang Xiaoman inspected his weapon again and said, “2nd, 3rd, and 4th Platoons will charge forward with me. Radiomen, contact Battalion HQ. 1st Platoon will stay here and continue providing artillery support! Fire all the mortar rounds we collected!”

Now was not the time for them to worry about how much each mortar shell cost. The fiercer the artillery support, the fewer casualties they would suffer. Moreover, they would resupply ammunition once they took Mt. Dingyuan.

Other soldiers often carefully rationed the ammunition they could use in battle, but the Razor Sharp Company was different. They were the types who would spend money as they wished and use whatever ammunition they had. If they ran out, they would simply ask for more from Zhou Yinglong without shame. If he refused to give them any, they would throw tantrums back at the battalion headquarters. These people were capable of doing whatever it took to get more supplies.

The Razor Sharp Company’s objective was to overcome difficulties, not be frugal while fighting a war.

So once the battle began, Zhang Xiaoman assigned a platoon to fire the shells they had collected from Mt. Guan like it didn’t cost a thing.

But when they proceeded up the mountain, Zhang Xiaoman realized the opposing forces he was initially expecting seemed to have disappeared entirely.

After the mountain path was sealed, this route should have been heavily guarded by the bandits. However, there was no trace of anyone as they made their way up the mountain.

When they passed by the first heavy machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman was relieved to see that it was exactly where it was marked on the map. This meant their plan was proceeding smoothly.

At this moment, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountain again. Zhang Xiaoman had his men go prone and crawl all the way into a ditch on the side.

But when they got into the ditch, everyone realized the gunshots were not aimed at them.

“What the fuck’s happening on the mountaintop?” Zhang Xiaoman was bewildered. “Everyone, charge forward with me! Ren Xiaosu’s in grave danger!”

But as they charged towards the final machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman felt from afar that something was wrong. The bandits had switched the location of this heavy machine gun position. It was not positioned on the right side of the path like it was labeled on the map, but on the left!

“This MG wasn’t destroyed in our mortar attack,” Zhang Xiaoman said, finding it a little pitiful. “2nd Platoon Commander Wang Boren, charge your platoon forward and take out that MG!”

How could things always be smooth sailing in war? It would, of course, be wonderful if they could always take out all of their enemy’s emplacements. But if the mortars could not take them all out, they would have to get it done by sacrificing some lives!

At this moment, people were bound to die. But still, they would die for a worthy cause!

The 2nd Platoon’s commander, Wang Boren, looked up at the machine gun position and estimated it to be about 300 meters away from them. He said firmly to the soldiers of 2nd Platoon, “Ma Dewei, we’ll provide cover fire for you to gain another 220 meters. Can you throw a grenade at that MG position?”

The grenadier, Ma Dewei, hesitated for a moment. “That’s gonna be difficult. It’s definitely in range, but I’m afraid that I won’t be accurate.”

“You have to make it happen no matter what. You only have three grenades to pull it off. If you don’t throw it accurately, all of us will have to die with you.” Wang Boren roared, “Charge!”

Then everyone in 2nd Platoon got out of the ditch and charged up the mountain. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman and the others had already set up their heavy machine guns and got ready to provide covering fire for 2nd Platoon.

But at this moment, an explosion boomed at the final heavy machine gun position. All of the sandbags and the people inside were blown into the air!

Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes lit up. “That’s TNT! It’s Ren Xiaosu! He blew up the HMG position for us. Brothers, charge!”

Chapter 396: How can we know if we don't try?

Chapter 396 How can we know if we don’t try?

Initially, Zhang Xiaoman objected to Ren Xiaosu being assigned to his company. He even wanted to discuss with Zhou Yinglong to see if he could transfer him away.

But as of now, Zhang Xiaoman was more than likely to hug Zhou Yinglong and give him a peck on the cheek. Assigning Ren Xiaosu to his company was even better than Zhou Yinglong issuing ten heavy machine guns to them!

Everyone in the army who had fought in a battle before would know how difficult it was to destroy a heavy machine gun position. They truly represented the idea of a “meat grinder” and was an ultimate weapon that could be wielded on the main battlefield.

But now that they had Ren Xiaosu, the heavy machine guns could be destroyed with the TNT. No one knew how he did that.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others still did not know what Ren Xiaosu’s superpower was. It was quite mysterious.

But everyone had their secrets, so there was no need to delve deeper.

When Zhang Xiaoman and his men finally charged up the mountain, they did not see Ren Xiaosu anywhere nearby. Meanwhile, the bandits up on the mountain were not concentrating their firepower in their direction, but away from them.

“Something’s weird.” Zhang Xiaoman wondered, “Why does it feel like Ren Xiaosu did not come up here by himself? This feels more like another company scaled the back of the mountain to attack this place.”

Many of the bandits’ barracks had already collapsed, and bodies were strewn all over the place. However, they did not die from gunshot wounds but stab wounds!

A soldier was shocked when he passed by the corpses. “Did Ren Xiaosu get into close combat with them?”

At this moment, the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan were engaged in battle with a mysterious shadow. But halfway through the battle, the shadow suddenly slipped behind a barracks and disappeared.

The shadow was extremely fearsome and had killed many of the bandits at the beginning. But for some reason, the shadow started acting less aggressively as it used its quick movements to keep the enemy at bay. It never stayed in one place for too long.

But when they were searching for the shadow, gunshots suddenly rang out behind them. Some bandits turned around in shock and saw that the Razor Sharp Company had already set up three heavy machine guns at a distance of several hundred meters away behind them. They started shooting at them mercilessly!

At the same time, Zhang Xiaoman led 2nd Platoon to outflank the bandits. They attempted to trap all the bandits in the open area and make them targets of the heavy machine guns.

Some bandits reacted quickly and immediately hid behind the ruins of the barracks to launch a counterattack. But just as they were about to shoot, they suddenly saw a hand stretch out of a shadow next to them and throw a grenade over.

With a loud explosion, the bandits who had just taken cover behind the ruins were blown sky-high. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman finished organizing a simple defensive formation on the flanks.

Zhang Xiaoman had never experienced such a smooth battle before, as though all the hidden threats had been nipped in the bud by someone. It felt like a god’s hand was helping them on the battlefield and greenlighting everything for this surprise attack they had launched.

However, more than a 100 of the bandits in this group had obviously received formal military training before. They retreated slowly all the way back while constantly maintaining an orderly formation.

Ren Xiaosu was observing this group of people from the shadows. These 100-odd people were probably the Zong Consortium’s regular troops hiding among the bandits.

Moreover, the 20-odd soldiers manning the last heavy machine gun position were also more cautious than the bandits. They were probably also a part of the Zong Consortium.

The Zong Consortium had placed around a 100 of their soldiers here on Mt. Dingyuan and assigned them as the last line of defense. If their roles had been reversed with no supernatural beings participating in the battle, the Razor Sharp Company might not have even broken through the machine gun position after sacrificing all of their men.

Now that Ren Xiaosu had spotted the Zong Consortium’s regulars, he was not going to go easy on them. From within the shadows at 200 meters away, he aimed his rifle at them and opened fire!

The Zong Consortium’s regulars never expected an enemy to be over here as well. With just a burst of fire, the orderly formation they maintained while retreating was disrupted.

Zhang Xiaoman shouted, “Charge and continue pressing them! Go Ren Xiaosu!”

To the north, Zhou Yinglong was leading the entire Forward Strike Battalion to create a defensive line to ensure that the forward operating base at the rear could be built successfully.

There were no unusual activities from the Zong Consortium here. But ever since the bandit lair on Mt. Guan had been taken, the two sides knew that war had begun.

All of a sudden, a soldier ran up to Zhou Yinglong and said in a low voice, “Battalion Commander, the Razor Sharp Company’s Zhang Xiaoman is requesting to speak with you.”

“Bring the radio over,” Zhou Yinglong said while lying on a hill.

When the radiotelephone operator approached him with the radio set on his back, Zhou Yinglong took the receiver and berated, “Didn’t I say to just follow my orders and lay siege on the bandit lair at Mt. Dingyuan? What’re y’all messing around for? You’ve been pinned down at the mountainside now, haven’t you? Stay right there and don’t move. I’ll deploy Second Company there to support you!”

Zhou Yinglong was furious when a radioman from the Razor Sharp Company called in to report on the situation at Mt. Dingyuan. When the path leading up to Mt. Dingyuan had been sealed, it was clear the bandits were planning on fighting to the bitter end. They might have been able to carry out a sneak attack on the bandit lair previously, but it would be impossible for a single company to take the mountain fort.

Zhou Yinglong was really worried that Zhang Xiaoman would act impulsively and lead the entire Razor Sharp Company to its demise at Mt. Dingyuan.

However, Zhang Xiaoman interrupted Zhou Yinglong. “Battalion Commander, we’ve taken Mt. Dingyuan!”

Zhou Yinglong was confused.

Before the night was over, they had already successfully taken Mt. Dingyuan?! Everyone knew that a siege tended to take several days or even months before a mountain fort like that could be captured!

Zhou Yinglong said with a dark expression: “Have been drinking?!”

“Battalion Commander, we’ve really taken Mt. Dingyuan.” Zhang Xiaoman said eagerly, “We were fortunate that we attacked this place. Did you know the Zong Consortium hid two howitzers on Mt. Dingyuan that were aimed at where the FOB would be built? If we didn’t take Mt. Dingyuan, you would’ve all been in deep trouble!”

Zhou Yinglong cursed out loud: “What deep trouble? As soon as I heard that Mt. Dingyuan was sealed, I knew the Zong Consortium had such a move up their sleeves. We already relocated the FOB. Their howitzers would never reach us at all. Our FOB is about 80 kilometers away from Mt. Dingyuan, so what are they going to hit us with?”

Ren Xiaosu was somewhat relieved when he heard Zhou Yinglong’s loud voice coming from the radio. Before this, he was wondering whether Fortress 178 would foresee this cheap move by the Zong Consortium. If they didn’t, Fortress 178 really wouldn’t live up to its great reputation at fighting wars.

However, even a battalion commander like Zhou Yinglong seemed to have a keen situational awareness. Fortress 178 was truly worthy of its reputation.

Ren Xiaosu clearly knew he was still deeply ignorant of military knowledge as compared to Zhou Yinglong. He only realized there were long-range howitzers on Mt. Dingyuan after overhearing the spy’s conversation with the Qing Consortium.

Zhou Yinglong’s voice eased up a little. “How many of our people were sacrificed or wounded?”

Zhang Xiaoman replied, “Battalion Commander, only seven people were wounded, and no one died.”

On the other end of the call, Zhou Yinglong fell silent for a while. Then he asked, “How many bandits did y’all wipe out?”

Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, “We killed 927 enemies, of which 131 are suspected to be the Zong Consortium’s regulars!” Behind that tone was a hint of smugness.

Zhou Yinglong knew well what the Razor Sharp Company was capable of. Under normal circumstances, he would not be surprised if the entire Razor Sharp Company perished while attacking Mt. Dingyuan.

Zhou Yinglong understood very quickly. He instinctively questioned, “Is the Ren Xiaosu assigned by the commander really that capable?!”

Ren Xiaosu had already walked away. Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu as he sat alone in the ruins and rested in the distance. After ending the conversation, he walked over to the ruins. Then he sat down next to Ren Xiaosu and asked, “What are you fighting so hard for?”

Ren Xiaosu could clearly have attacked Mt. Dingyuan with them after the mortars had taken out the heavy machine gun positions. However, this young man chose to take the risk of climbing up the mountain with his bare hands and launching an attack on the entire bandit camp all by himself.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Doing this can help reduce your casualties.”

Zhang Xiaoman said, “But people always die in battle. Sometimes when walking on the road, enemies hiding in the forest and bushes will suddenly pull the triggers of their machine guns and turn your comrades around you into blood-drenched sieves. It’s also possible that an artillery shell could suddenly land at your feet and blow up your legs, ripping your internal organs in the process. The battlefield’s a place where we have to put our trust in fate. Everything lies with fate. No one can control it.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “How can we know if we don’t try?”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. He realized the reason why Ren Xiaosu was pushing so hard was because he really wanted everyone to stay alive.

But this was war! How could there be no casualties in a company tasked to overcome all difficulties? Unless a miracle happened!

Chapter 397: The might of the Razor Sharp Company

Chapter 397 The might of the Razor Sharp Company

After every big battle, there would always be rewards to reap. Zhang Xiaoman’s men had finished firing all their mortar shells with just a few rounds of artillery bombardment. But it didn’t matter to them as the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan turned out much more well-armed than they had imagined.

These things were not even worth much to an organization like the Zong Consortium.

They had almost finished expending their bullets as well. 7.62 mm bullets were most commonly used here in the Northwest, so plenty of them could be found at the bandit lair.

How much ammunition could be expended in a single battle? That was an incalculable amount. If you included the bullets used in training, it was likely that thousands or even tens of thousands of bullets would be expended just to down one person in battle.

This counting was purely based on data. Most of the time, the number of bullets expended using suppressive fire was probably much higher.

After Zhang Xiaoman and the others brought out all of the ammunition from the bandit lair on Mt. Dingyuan, the soldiers went to retrieve the empty magazine that had been tossed aside during the battle and reinserted fresh bullets.

Zhang Xiaoman sighed emotionally. “How satisfying it is to take this entire mountain fort by ourselves. All the spoils of war are ours to keep. Wait a minute, why aren’t there any grenades here again?”

Everyone only realized it now that the company commander mentioned it. “Looks like it. We only found some individual grenades on the bandits and have not seen an entire box of them yet.”

“The bandits on Mt. Dingyuan aren’t even poor, so why can’t we even find a full box of grenades?!”

When Ren Xiaosu, who was standing a distance away heard this, he felt so guilty he did not say anything. Actually, there were as many as ten boxes of grenades here, with each filled with 20 grenades. But he had already put all of them in his storage space.

All of a sudden, the voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded five attribute points. You can distribute them as you like.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. As expected, the rewards were much better for a more challenging quest like the one with a progression percentage!

However, he had only completed 90% of the quest in which he had to help his comrades lessen their burden. Why did it suddenly jump to a 100%?

Wait a minute, was it due to the ten boxes of grenades? By putting those grenades into his storage space, it could also be counted as helping his teammates lessen their burden?

Ren Xiaosu, who was always taking advantage of any loopholes in the palace’s requirements, was shocked. It could even be done like that?

He had already stuffed six boxes of grenades into his storage space at Mt. Guan. But since there was no alert for the completion of the quest, he did not notice the quest progression had ticked up. If he did, he would have finished the quest at that time.

Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to help his comrades lessen their burden!

He evenly distributed three points to Strength and two points to Dexterity. His Strength now reached 13.5, while his Dexterity was at 12.1.

OV

From these attributes alone, Ren Xiaosu’s current fitness was already more than four times that of a normal adult male.

However, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to whether a new skill would emerge when his Strength and Dexterity hit 20 much more. Like the “City Crusher” powerup with a duration of 30 seconds that he had gained after surpassing 10 points in both those attributes. Perhaps there would be a qualitative change every time it exceeded a threshold?

While heading down the mountain, everyone in the Razor Sharp Company had their arms full of supplies. If they could move those two howitzers as well, Zhang Xiaoman would probably have dragged them all the way back to the forward operating base.

Before leaving, Zhang Xiaoman used the TNT to blow up the muzzles of the two howitzers’ barrels. This was to prevent the Zong Consortium’s people from using them again.

Under normal circumstances, they would rather choose to destroy large siege weapons on the battlefield that were less mobile instead of spending great effort to take them away.

On their way down the mountain, a fellow soldier suddenly thanked Ren Xiaosu when he walked past him before continuing on as though it were nothing.

Immediately after, more and more soldiers thanked Ren Xiaosu when they passed him.

They were thanking Ren Xiaosu for helping them take most of the fire in the battle. If it weren’t for Ren Xiaosu taking the risk by himself, it would not be a surprise if half of them were killed in combat.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This time, he had not even requested them to thank him! Even so, all of his comrades were really sincere in thanking him.

In just a moment, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than a 100 gratitude tokens. His gratitude tokens had suddenly shot up to around 400.

After just one battle, Ren Xiaosu not only gained ten boxes of grenades, five attribute points, and a 100-odd thanks, but he also earned the trust of his comrades.

Zhang Xiaoman had said that you could only trust the guns and bullets in your hands, as well as your comrades in the trenches who provided covering fire for you on the battlefield.

Ren Xiaosu kept quiet as he looked at his comrades in front of him heading down the mountain.

Then he deliberately slowed down and waited for those who had not yet thanked him to pass him from behind.

They would have to advance all the way northwest now. Zhou Yinglong had ordered the Razor Sharp Company to join up with the Forward Strike Battalion at the forward operating base first. They would have to wait for the rear troops to fully assemble at the forward operating base before setting off to the next destination based on Commander Zhang’s next battle plan.

The strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Zong Consortium were all northeast of the forward operating base, while the vast Gobi Desert was situated more than 200 kilometers north.

As the Razor Sharp Company had to travel more than 80 kilometers to get back to the forward operating base, all of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were dog-tired when they arrived. Even dogs would not be as tired as them! It was mainly because they had carried too many fucking things!

But the moment they entered the forward operating base, Zhang Xiaoman and the others held their heads high and looked really spirited. Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an even carried their rocket launchers on their shoulders proudly. They really couldn’t look any more impressive than they did.

Then they walked all the way to the command post’s tent to be welcomed back by the entire army’s advance guard.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Captain, is this really necessary?”

Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “You wouldn’t understand. Our Razor Sharp Company has emerged victorious, so the entire army must’ve heard about how a company of just over a 100 people wiped out two mountain forts. We have to put on a front to show them the might of our Razor Sharp Company!”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. They had clearly been complaining that they were dead tired before entering the military base.

But when he saw his fellow soldiers around them, they really were looking at the Razor Sharp Company with adulation. Even the soldiers who were setting up the tents in the base had stopped their work to whisper among themselves.

Zhou Yinglong’s loud voice boomed, “Put the fucking RPGs away already. It makes y’all look like you’re coming here to attack the camp.”

With that, Zhou Yinglong circled the Razor Sharp Company. When he saw the seven wounded soldiers lying on stretchers, he shouted, “Where’s the medics? Come and carry the wounded off for treatment.”

“There’s no need for that.” A wounded soldier from the Razor Sharp Company hurriedly said, “Ren Xiaosu has already applied some medicine onto our wounds. We’ve already recovered from our injuries.”

“How can traditional medicine be effective?” Zhou Yinglong said unhappily, “If you’ve suffered any injuries, you should get them treated, so cut the crap!”

Ren Xiaosu realized that even though Zhou Yinglong was harsh with his words, his first reaction when he saw the Razor Sharp Company was to check on the casualties of the company and treat the wounded.

The Razor Sharp Company’s wounded were getting anxious. “Ren Xiaosu, please explain to the Battalion Commander that we’re truly alright.”

If they got taken away to be treated, they would not be able to participate in the next battle. While their brothers were off to fight at the front lines, they would have to recuperate in the medical center. How could they accept that?

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yinglong and said, “Commander Zhang has also seen the effects of my medicine before. It might be a traditional drug, but it’ll heal all kinds of surface injuries within three days. Nowadays, there’s plenty of magical herbs that can be found in the wilderness.”

Chapter 398: Third-class decoration

Chapter 398 Third-class decoration

Zhou Yinglong specifically inspected the wounds of the injured and found that all of them had sustained gunshot wounds. One of them was even unfortunate enough to be hit by the fragments of a stray bullet.

However, the wounds below the layer of black medicine had already started to scab. It was as though the injuries were not that serious.

In order not to get stretchered off, the injured even jumped off their stretchers and moved about vigorously to show they were absolutely fine. It wasn’t an act at all and they really were fine.

Zhang Xiaoman who was standing by the side directly scolded, “Why didn’t you all fucking walk on your own when you were fine?”

The wounded chuckled and said, “If we could walk a little less, why not?”

Their comrades of the Razor Sharp Company who had carried them started cursing, “Ya bastards are fucking awful!”

“Y’all are too shameless!”

At this moment, Zhou Yinglong asked, “Are these all the casualties you suffered after taking Mt. Dingyuan?”

Zhang Xiaoman said modestly, “It was all due to Battalion Commander Zhou’s good teachings.”

Zhou Yinglong was so angry he smiled. “Enough of your bootlicking! Get out of here and write up the battle report for me!”

The faces of Zhang Xiaoman and the others fell. “Battalion Commander, all of us in the Razor Sharp Company are faithful veterans. Now should be the time for us to enjoy some good food and drink here at the FOB rather than writing some battle report.”

“Why?” Zhou Yinglong gave Zhang Xiaoman the side-eye. “Would you also like me to personally pour you some w

Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment. “Well, if you don’t mind…”

Zhou Yinglong kicked Zhang Xiaoman in the ass. “Get lost and write the report for me!”

It was the usual practice to write a report after every battle. On one hand, it was to summarize all of the details of a battle. On the other hand, it was to list any mistakes and lessons learned in combat to prevent the same mistakes from happening again in the future.

But Zhang Xiaoman and this group of gruff men hated writing battle reports the most.

Since they had already won the battle, why should they still have to list their mistakes and lessons learned? All they had to do was win the battle!

These gruff men of the Razor Sharp Company were all nestled and gathered around Zhang Xiaoman in the tent that had just been put up.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu while holding a notebook and a pencil. “Ren Xiaosu, you…”

“I’m just a refugee, so I dunno how to write,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Oh.” Zhang Xiaoman lowered his head dejectedly at first but immediately figured out that something was not right. How could the successor chosen by Commander Zhang be fucking illiterate? ‘If you don’t want to write the fucking report, just say it. Doesn’t it prick your conscience to lie that blatantly?!’

Zhang Xiaoman chewed on the end of the pencil and tried to recall the details of the battle. “It feels like the enemy was defeated even though we did not put in much effort.”

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Xiaoman still did not know how he should write the report. That was because their victory was mainly due to Ren Xiaosu. That was the truth.

“Ren Xiaosu, I think it’s better for you to write the report. If you’re really illiterate, you can just tell me and I will write it out for you.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “More importantly, we don’t even know how exactly you managed to turn the bandit lair at Mt. Dingyuan upside down. Also, what you did will earn you great honors. You’ll get promoted right after submitting this report!”

Ren Xiaosu said, “You can just write that everyone fought bravely. Fighting the battle involved the entire company, so I can’t take all the credit for it.”

“I don’t think that’s right.” Zhang Xiaoman said awkwardly, “We’ll be really embarrassed that way. It’s not like us to accept credit where it isn’t due.”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Forget it, I’ll write instead.”

Then Ren Xiaosu grabbed Zhang Xiaoman’s notebook and pencil from him and started making up details of the battle. He described his comrades as soldiers who had shown unsurpassed bravery and resourcefulness in combat.

He also wrote about how they broke through the defensive line and killed the enemies in an orderly manner. Zhang Xiaoman was dazed reading what he had written. “Was I that great?”

After he finished writing the report, Ren Xiaosu handed it to Zhang Xiaoman. “Take it to the battalion commander. We’ll all share the credit.”

As for Ren Xiaosu, he did not really have a sense of belonging to Fortress 178 yet. He just wanted to use the power of Fortress 178 to take revenge on the Zong Consortium. Therefore, whatever credit he might deserve was completely unimportant to him.

After his revenge, he would head to the Central Plains to search for Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others. He did not plan to become an official in Fortress 178. So he’d rather leave the credit for others.

By now, the entire Razor Sharp Company had acknowledged Ren Xiaosu, and he was no longer ostracized by the others. This group of men had even forgotten about the previous incident where Ren Xiaosu caused a misunderstanding and led them to pick a fight with Second Company.

However, Zhou Yinglong’s intention was to find out about Ren Xiaosu’s capabilities from the battle report. He knew it was mostly to the credit of Ren Xiaosu that they could take Mt. Dingyuan with almost no casualties. He also wanted to know what this person the commander had selected was like. However, Ren Xiaosu’s name was hardly mentioned in the entire report!

Zhou Yinglong glanced at Zhang Xiaoman and said unhappily, “How dare you steal the accomplishments of your subordinate! D’you think I won’t execute you?”

Feeling wronged, Zhang Xiaoman stammered, “But this report was written by Ren Xiaosu himself!”

Zhou Yinglong got lost in thought. How could a young man not be greedy for success? What kind of a successor had Commander Zhang chosen?

His group of old comrades would definitely ask him about Ren Xiaosu’s performance as a soldier under his command. As the battalion commander, wouldn’t it be such an embarrassment if he could not even answer that?

Zhou Yinglong suddenly asked Zhang Xiaoman, “Tell me, how did Ren Xiaosu fight this battle?”

Zhang Xiaoman replied honestly, “I didn’t see it either, Battalion Commander….”

“Get outta here!”

Their days at the forward operating base were not as comfortable as expected. At 6.20 AM, Ren Xiaosu could already hear reveille blaring outside their tents.

Then soldiers gathered in their respective formations and began their morning exercises. Very quickly, cadences were being shouted from outside the forward operating base.

The soldiers had to run five kilometers in full kit before heading out to the battlefield. Only the Razor Sharp Company was the exception. That was because they had just finished a battle, so they had the privilege of skipping training to recover at the forward operating base.

But after reveille sounded, Jiao Xiaochen could not get back to sleep. He laid on his cot and said, “Something doesn’t feel right if I don’t do anything after reveille. Is there anyone else who can’t sleep like me?”

In the military tent, there was a scattered response from everyone. “Wanna go for a jog?”

“You can’t get back to sleep either?”

“It’ll be a miracle if I can fall asleep now….”

“Come on, let’s go for a run!”

With that, Ren Xiaosu saw everyone from 1st Platoon get up to put on their uniforms. As such, he got up as well. When he walked out of the tent, he realized that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Platoons were also out of their tents. This included Han Minglei, a medic, and Li Xingcheng, a cook.

Zhang Xiaoman said with a chuckle, “Well done, gentlemen. Even though our Razor Sharp Company has gained victory, we can’t get too uppity. We have to keep training!”

Jiao Xiaochen muttered, “You’re the one who’s most uppity right now….”

“Will you die if you don’t speak?” Zhang Xiaoman stared at him.

But at this moment, Zhou Yinglong’s orderly trotted over to them. “Captain Zhang Xiaoman, Battalion Commander Zhou is requesting your presence at the command post!”

Chapter 399: The petition

Chapter 399 The petition

In the command post, Zhou Yinglong said earnestly to Zhang Xiaoman, “I just handed in the battle report yesterday, and the commander has already issued a commendation for you today. Things really move quickly during wartime. This shows that the commander values you a lot.”

Zhang Xiaoman looked overwhelmed. “What did Commander say?”

“So, your current rank is half a rank above your appointment, but due to the Razor Sharp Company being a reinforced company and even though your pay had been increased, your responsibilities remained unchanged.” Zhou Yinglong said, “You’ve made another big contribution this time, so the Personnel Division is already preparing talks with you….”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiaoman knew what was going on. “I’m not leaving the Razor Sharp Company!”

Zhou Yinglong was stunned. “This is a good thing. Why’re you unhappy?”

“Right now, the Razor Sharp Company is in the midst of a tough battle. What does it say if I, the company commander, leave at such a time? Even if I get transferred, it’ll have to be at the end of the war!” Zhang Xiaoman raised his voice and shouted.

“What are you yelling for?” Zhou Yinglong got unhappy. “I was just trying to hear your opinion. It’s a good thing to begin with, but look at what you’re making it out to be.”

“Battalion Commander, do you want me to open up a space for Ren Xiaosu? If that’s the case, that’s fine too. You’ll just have to let me remain a soldier in the Razor Sharp Company.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “I’m willing to let him take over as company commander, but I won’t leave the Razor Sharp Company.”

Zhou Yinglong’s temper went away. People like Zhang Xiaoman, who was unwilling to be promoted and would rather get demoted than leave the company, probably only existed among the troops of Fortress 178.

However, Zhou Yinglong said, “Then you can just stay and continue being the commander of the Razor Sharp Company. This matter has nothing to do with Ren Xiaosu. The commendation has already been given, and the entire company will receive the third-class unit citation, except for him.”

“Why?” Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. “Just because he was selected by the commander, that’s why he’s being treated so harshly?”.

Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. He had thought he was going to be transferred to make space for Ren Xiaosu, even though he did not think Ren Xiaosu would be promoted so soon. But it turned out that Ren Xiaosu was the only one who would not receive a medal.

“Enough, we can’t figure out the commander’s thoughts. You should go back first. The award ceremony will be held tonight.” Zhou Yinglong waved him off.

Zhang Xiaoman returned to his company looking out of sorts. He continued to lead everyone in their exercise and training, but everyone could tell that Zhang Xiaoman had something on his mind.

“Captain, did the battalion commander lecture you?” Jiao Xiaochen asked. “I feel like you have something on your mind.”

Zhang Xiaoman said, “The commander’s decided to give each of us the third-class unit citation because we took Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan successfully.”

“That’s great.” Jiao Xiaochen was overjoyed. “Maybe everyone in our Razor Sharp Company will even get promoted to officers after the war is over.”

“What’s so good about that?” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Only Ren Xiaosu did not get commended and won’t receive the third-class medal.”

Everyone was surprised. “Why? Even if Ren Xiaosu did not mention anything about himself in the report, he should still get the award if the rest of the company’s also getting it. Could there be some problems with the report? Why don’t we get the battalion commander to write a new one?”

“Yes, let’s go look for the commander! This is
so unfair!”

“Ren Xiaosu risked his life to complete the company’s mission. No one else could’ve climbed the back of that mountain, right? Even if any of us could’ve climbed that mountain, we might not have caused much damage to the bandit lair.” Jiao Xiaochen said angrily, “Winning this battle should have been his credit in the first place!”

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu just smiled and said, “It’s alright. It’s pretty useless to me even if I were given an award. There’s no need to go to the commander on my behalf. Didn’t you all say that obedience is our soldierly duty? Let’s leave it to the higher-ups to decide however they want. We just need to listen to our orders.”

Zhang Xiaoman said in exasperation, “You need to fight for what you deserve too!”

“Why should I?” Ren Xiaosu laughed and continued running. “Hurry up and run, or we won’t make it in time for dinner.”

Everyone looked at one another, not knowing what to say.

As the night’s award ceremony was quite important, the forward operating base had organized it as a pep rally to motivate the soldiers.

However, Zhang Xiaoman started addressing all of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers except for Ren Xiaosu. “Listen up, all of you. Writing this jointly signed petition is an act of insubordination. If the commander gets upset, I’m afraid that every one of us here will no longer have a future in the military.”

“I don’t believe that the commander is that kind of person. He’s definitely open to suggestions.” Jiao Xiaochen said. “Anyway, I’m gonna sign it. We have to make sure that Ren Xiaosu gets recognized for his contributions. If Ren Xiaosu does not want to fight for it, we’ll fight for it on his behalf.”

Zhang Xiaoman said, “Alright, I’ll write it, then all of you can sign it!”

The group of gruff men lowered their heads and pondered how to write the petition. It was really difficult for them.

Zhang Jinglin arrived at the forward operating base and was having a meeting with all the commanders of the fighting forces. Just as they were about to discuss how to cross the Beiwan River at the front line, an orderly came inside and whispered to him, “The officers from the Razor Sharp Company are all here. They said they’re representing the entire Razor Sharp Company in submitting a petition.”

Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “Didn’t I already say they would be given the third-class unit citation? What are they petitioning about? Let them in.”

The other commanders whispered, “Commander, should we go outside?”

“No need.” Zhang Jinglin shook his head. “Let’s listen to what our men from the Razor Sharp Company have to petition about.”

Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the other officers were brought into the command post tent. Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “Tell me, what do the men of the hour who got us our first victory in the opening battles want to petition about?”

“This is our petition.” Zhang Xiaoman handed a crumpled piece of paper to Zhang Jinglin. “We just feel that Ren Xiaosu’s been treated unfairly. We would like to resubmit our battle report. He should be the one credited for winning this battle.”

“Oh.” Zhang Jinglin nodded as he read the petition. The petition was even signed by all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company. He said, “Do you mean to say you all fabricated the battle report, and that you two, Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen, have falsely claimed credit for the war contribution?”

Zhang Xiaoman said through his teeth, “Even if Commander wants to punish us, we’ll still admit to it. However, Ren Xiaosu really contributed to the victory. You can’t give all of us the third-class unit citation but forget about him. Isn’t that as good as a slap to the face?”

Zhang Jinglin said calmly, “Let’s look at the facts without any bias. Fabricating the battle report, condemning the military from within, and falsely claiming credit for war contributions—these actions will subject you to be revoked of your third-class unit citation. It’s no exception even if you were all men of the hour. As for Ren Xiaosu, I already knew about it.”

Zhang Xiaoman and the others were stunned. What did he mean by he already knew about it?

After that, they were led out of the tent by the orderly. Zhang Jinglin slid the petition to the other commanders with a smile. “Everyone, have a read.”

Zhou Yinglong was seated at the end of the line. He thought to himself, ‘Commander Zhang clearly looks like he’s in a great mood.’ By showing the petition to the other commanders, he was obviously trying to tell them what Ren Xiaosu, his chosen candidate, had contributed to the war.

As a soldier who had just joined the company, what had he done to deserve his comrades giving up their third-class citation just so they could petition on his behalf?

Ren Xiaosu was far more endearing to the Razor Sharp Company than they had imagined.

If you were a beam of light, you would eventually encounter other beams of light behind a dark thundercloud.

Chapter 400: Urban warfare

Chapter 400 Urban warfare

The commanders of the various fighting forces in the command post tent were passing around the jointly signed petition and going through it. The contents of the petition roughly described that during the battle to take control of Mt. Dingyuan, Ren Xiaosu had climbed the back of Mt. Dingyuan barehanded to launch a surprise attack on the bandits there. As the credit was his, everyone at the Razor Sharp Company felt ashamed to be awarded the third-class unit citation for it.

Moreover, because Commander Zhang did not award the third-class decoration to Ren Xiaosu as well, this was seen as really unfair.

As Zhou Yinglong read the petition, he stole a glance at Zhang Jinglin’s expression. However, he realized Zhang Jinglin did not seem unhappy. He softly probed, “I didn’t expect those bastards would come here to chide the commander for acting unfairly. Should I punish them when I return to the barracks?”

Zhang Jinglin smiled. “How could I not know what you’re thinking? Alright, there’s no need to test me. I’m not angry.”

“That’s good then.” Zhou Yinglong chuckled. “Commander, you’re such a kind person.”

At this moment, a brigade commander suddenly wondered, “The Razor Sharp Company under Zhou Yinglong’s command is notorious for being difficult. Ren Xiaosu’s only been posted there for a few days, but he’s already gained so much support?”

Zhang Jinglin said, “Enough, let’s not discuss this anymore. The award ceremony tonight will also be canceled. Zhou Yinglong, go back and tell the Razor Sharp Company that the reason Ren Xiaosu was not included in the third-class citations was that I had intended to award him the second-class decoration. However, since Ren Xiaosu fabricated the battle report that was submitted to me, his second-class medal will also be revoked. We’ll start discussing our next battle plan now.”

Zhou Yinglong, who was sitting in the back, suddenly felt his teeth aching. The commander was way too scheming. He did not even have to give out any awards in the end, and all the commanders of the various fighting forces already knew Ren Xiaosu had already gained a foothold in the Razor Sharp Company. Not only was his combat strength ferocious, but he was also a very inspiring figure there.

Previously, the commanders were still discussing among themselves that Zhang Jinglin might have placed Ren Xiaosu into the Razor Sharp Company purely by coincidence, not because he wanted Ren Xiaosu to be his successor. But judging from Commander Zhang’s actions, he was clearly paving the way for Ren Xiaosu, wasn’t he?

Of course, to forge iron, one had to be strong first. If Ren Xiaosu were a weakling, Zhang Jinglin could not groom him as commander even if he wanted to.

But as it turned out, Ren Xiaosu was not even close to being a weakling.

Zhou Yinglong was a little puzzled. Why did it feel like Commander Zhang was very confident in Ren Xiaosu?

Although Ren Xiaosu did not seem to have gained anything out of the mission, all the commanders had a clearer understanding of Zhang Jinglin’s intentions and got to know Ren Xiaosu better as a person.

Perhaps this had always been Zhang Jinglin’s intention.

Zhang Xiaoman and the other officers were not back at their own camp yet. People from the Personnel Division were already coming to the barracks to tell them the award ceremony that was to be held that night had been canceled. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Why did it get canceled?”

It was only the officers who went to submit the petition. The rest of the soldiers did not go.

The soldiers from the Razor Sharp Company standing next to Ren Xiaosu did not say a word when they heard that. It was those from the Personnel Division who said, “Your company’s officers went to the commander to protest the fact that you weren’t awarded the third-class citation and everyone at the company thought it was unfair to you. The commander has also revoked all of their three-class unit citations over how the battle report was fabricated.”

Only now did Zhang Xiaoman and the others finally appear back at the camp. Ren Xiaosu frowned and looked at Zhang Xiaoman. “Why did y’all do that? I already said that I don’t need any credit for my contributions.”

“You might not want to claim it, but that’s your business.” Zhang Xiaoman said loudly, “But our brothers at the Razor Sharp Company can’t stand to see such unfairness. We’re from the Razor Sharp Company, and we’re are all in this together. One for all, and all for one!”

Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a long time. However, the employee from the Personnel Division who was standing beside him curled his lips and said, “Ren Xiaosu had been awarded the second-class decoration, but that’s also been revoked now.”

“Revoked…” Zhang Xiaoman’s smile faded away. “What the fuck did you say?”

The employee from the Personnel Division shot a look at Zhang Xiaoman. “We already prepared the second-class commendation document for Ren Xiaosu, but it’s been canceled now.”

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu, then at the employee. He facepalmed and did not know what to say.

The employee from the Personnel Division laughed. “Alright, don’t be in a hurry to feel dismayed. HQ has already told us to hold back all of your third-class unit citations until y’all make another contribution. We’ll take everything into consideration then.”

“Really?” Zhang Xiaoman suddenly looked up.

The staffer from the Personnel Division said, “As the entire military already knows that you all are the heroes of the opening battle, you’ll still get what you deserve. Also, the commander has given the word that you can keep the spoils of war from the battle at Mt. Dingyuan.”

Zhang Xiaoman was instantly overjoyed. The spoils of war had always been required to be sent to the Supply Division to be allocated. After every battle, the Razor Sharp Company’s supplies would instantly get knocked back close to zero again.

Now that the commander had allowed them to retain their spoils of war, they had probably become the most well-armed company in the entire military.

After the Personnel Division left, Ren Xiaosu thanked Zhang Xiaoman and the others very seriously. “I’ll remember everyone’s efforts. Thank you.”

“What’s there to thank us for?” Zhang Xiaoman waved his hand. “If it weren’t for you, most of us wouldn’t have made it back.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at these gruff men from the Northwest and was suddenly looking forward to continuing to fight alongside them.

At this moment, Zhou Yinglong strode over with a loping stride and yelled, “You maggots, I’ll settle the score with y’all after the war is over! Everyone is to pack up your stuff and head to Shichuan Village. I want you to take the village within seven days.”

Shichuan Village was about 70 kilometers northeast of the forward operating base. No one lived there, and it was just a small town that remained behind from before The Cataclysm. Now it was a defensive strongpoint for the Zong Consortium at the southernmost side of their territory.

The reason Fortress 178 was so eager to attack Shichuan Village was because it was too close to their forward operating base. It was to prevent the Zong Consortium from setting up long-range artillery there and putting the forward operating base in their attack radius.

The safety of the forward operating base was one of the most important issues at the beginning of the war, and the main mission for the Forward Strike Battalion was to ensure the safety of the forward operating base.

Zhang Xiaoman took out a map and scanned it. “I heard there’s a ton of buildings in Shichuan Village that are still standing. They’re very suitable for setting up HMGs in. Also, there’s new defensive fortifications and bunkers built by the Zong Consortium. This urban warfare isn’t going to be easy to handle.”

Urban warfare was also called urban combat. Under most circumstances, urban warfare was fought at close quarters, and situations would even arise where close combat was required. Hostile and friendly forces could hardly be differentiated from each other, leading to extremely dangerous conflicts.

The narrow streets, complex environment, unseen enemies, and gunfire that could come from anywhere…

You wouldn’t know when a gun would suddenly point out of a dark window and start taking lives.

“Can’t we get the armored brigade to provide cover?” Jiao Xiaochen asked with a frown.

“No.” Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. “The FOB’s facilities haven’t been fully upgraded to serve them yet. The armored brigade can’t throw themselves headlong into the battlefield.”

For a moment, even these fearless thugs from the Razor Sharp Company got a little worried.

Only Ren Xiaosu was unaffected. It was as though he were not bothered by the prospect of urban combat.

Chapter 401: A happily married life

Chapter 401 A happily married life

The war had started the moment the Razor Sharp Company took Mt. Guan. There was no official declaration of war, with the first gunshot fired being the bugle call.

Attacking Shichuan Village was a very minor interlude in the entire war. Both Second Company and Third Company had come along with Razor Sharp Company to Shichuan Village as this was not a place they could wage a battle on their own.

From here on out, they would be facing the Zong Consortium’s regular troops. These regular troops had been put through systematic military training and had shot countless targets before. The only thing was they had never officially been on the battlefield before. Compared with the bandits they faced earlier, these troops were on a completely different level.

According to Zhang Xiaoman, the troops of the Zong Consortium were not that much weaker than those from Fortress 178. The only difference was their experience and ability to adapt on the battlefield. There was also a difference in what they had learned during their desensitization training.

Some of the Zong Consortium’s new recruits would throw up, get disgusted, and become fearful when they saw intestines spilling out and legs getting broken. However, the veterans of Fortress 178 would not.

At the forward operating base, Zhou Yinglong got the orderlies to hand out pen and paper to everyone.

“What’s this for?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Zhang Xiaoman raised his head and gave him a look. “To write your will.”

“Will?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.

“On the surface, it’s to let everyone write down whatever they want to say. If they don’t make it back after a battle, the Administration Division will deliver the letters to their family. You can consider it a letter to pass down any instructions after your death. If the soldiers manage to return, they can go to the Administration Division and redeem their letters,” Zhang Xiao Man explained. “But we just call this thing a will.”

“That sounds like bad luck,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“There’s nothing unlucky about it.” Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. “Those who step onto the battlefield should be able to make light of death. Actually, we didn’t understand it at first, but after fighting so many enemies outside Fortress 178, we’re numb to it.”

“Then who are you writing to?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“My parents,” Zhang Xiaoman said, “and my wife too.”

“You’re married?”

“Listen to what you’re saying. I’m almost thirty years old.” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “Can’t I have a wife?”

Ren Xiaosu felt a little embarrassed. He did not really understand the concept of marriage, so he assumed everyone else was single like him. Thinking about it, since Zhang Xiaoman was the company commander, he couldn’t be that young.

“What does being married feel like?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“It’s not too bad, I guess. There’s always a hot meal waiting at home,” Zhang Xiaoman said as he wrote out his “will.”

“Are you happy?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and looked up. “You must be hankering for love, huh? Why are you so interested in this? Let me put it this way. I’ve been happily married for one year.”

“That sounds pretty nice,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Beside him, Jiao Xiaochen laughed loudly and said, “You don’t get it. He’s been married for ten years.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Then Zhang Xiaoman asked, “Aren’t you going to write your letter?”

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know who I should write it to.”

All the warriors of the Razor Sharp Company fell silent. They realized this was probably the reason Ren Xiaosu had fought so desperately against the Zong Consortium.

After leaving the forward operating base, they could only travel on foot. In the battle plan, they would arrive at the outskirts of Shichuan Village on the third day. But from the moment they stepped out of the forward operating base, they had to be on full alert. This was in case the Zong Consortium’s troops had set up an ambush near Shichuan Village.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Shichuan Village is located on a plain. Although its outskirts are forest, it should be quite difficult for us to break through into Shichuan Village, right?”

A rifle in his hands, Zhang Xiaoman explained, “We’ll use the mortars to attack first. Their range of three kilometers is enough for us to stay outside the range of the enemy’s HMGs. Once we create an opening, we can move on to urban combat.”

“Are you confident?” Ren Xiaosu asked skeptically.

“If that doesn’t work out, we’ll get the artillery troops behind to take out their large-caliber artillery and bombard them.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “There’s definitely a way.”

On the night of the second day, the sound of gunfire rang out from both sides. From where the Razor Sharp Company was, heavy machine guns could be heard firing in the distance.

Zhang Xiaoman frowned. “Second Company and Third Company have been ambushed. We should be careful too!”

Everyone had expected the Zong Consortium to set up an ambush outside of Shichuan Village, so it was not a surprise. Second Company and Third Company were probably prepared for this as well.

A gunshot suddenly rang out in front of them as well, but it sounded like it came from far away.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others instinctively took cover behind a tree by the side of the road, but no bullets flew at them.

“That’s strange. Who’s firing?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in confusion. “Let’s continue moving forward!”

But after the Razor Sharp Company advanced several hundred meters, they still did not reach where they thought the enemy was. There were not even any gunshots anymore.

“Something’s not right.” Zhang Xiaoman frowned and said, “We’re the ones taking the main path. Is the Zong Consortium trying to mislead us? Fu Rao, Lin Ping’an, I want the two of you to take point and scout!”

It was not that Zhang Xiaoman liked ordering Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an around when there was danger, but that there had to be designated scouts in the company. When a dangerous situation arose, these scouts would be tasked with charging ahead first. This was just a division of responsibilities.

Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an crouch walked through the forest and felt their way forward. However, before they could get far, the two of them turned back. “Captain, something’s wrong. The people ambushing us are all dead. They’ve been wiped out!”

“There was only a single platoon manning the MG position, and all 30 of the soldiers there died just a while ago. They were still bleeding when we got near them,” Lin Ping’an added.

Zhang Xiaoman looked suspiciously at Ren Xiaosu. “You did this?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “Ain’t I right here?”

“That’s true.” The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were also a little stunned. “Who helped us take out that MG nest? And their throats were slit? Only a supernatural being is capable of that, right?”

Everyone was puzzled. A mysterious supernatural being had suddenly appeared on the battlefield and done good deeds for them?

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were not fools. This was clearly done by Ren Xiaosu, but they did not have any evidence of it.

To be honest, everyone still did not know what kind of power Ren Xiaosu had.

Zhang Xiaoman tried to test Ren Xiaosu again. “It really wasn’t you?”

“It really wasn’t me,” Ren Xiaosu said innocently.

Zhang Xiaoman came to the machine gun position where he found a corpse and touched the area between the man’s thumb and index finger. “There’s no thick calluses, so they shouldn’t be trained soldiers. This group was probably put together with refugees or soldiers from the private troops.”

“They’re just cannon fodder.” Jiao Xiaochen said, “It looks like the Zong Consortium is trying to use cannon fodder to wear us out first.”

“Predictable.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “There won’t be a lack of enemy troops in Shichuan Village. A conservative estimate says there’s over a 1,000 of them. But the good news is that most of the enemies we’ll encounter should be very weak. They might not even have a proper understanding of what targeting range is.”

Shichuan Village was not a very important place to begin with. The Zong Consortium had only garrisoned it because they wanted to be a pain in the ass to Fortress 178’s forward operating base.

Chapter 402: As long as we're still around

Chapter 402 As long as we’re still around

Actually, Zhang Xiaoman and the others’ suspicions were correct. Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone was the one that had taken out the heavy machine gun position. Right after they had set off, he had been using his shadow clone to scout ahead in case they were ambushed.

After experiencing some setbacks, Ren Xiaosu learned how to be more careful and cautious.

However, this was not something to be happy about because he had learned to be this way through someone’s suffering.

The level of enlightenment for every individual was equivalent to the depth of their anguish.

Second Company and Third Company’s positions were some distance away, with the gap between each of the three companies maintained at around two kilometers. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone was only effective within a one-kilometer radius, so he could not send it out to help them.

Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoman said, “Continue marching. We’re still a day away from Shichuan Village. Don’t let up. We might encounter another ambush at any time.”

The Zong Consortium had placed the refugees and private troops at the front lines. With just a single heavy machine gun, they could make Fortress 178’s front line troops suffer heavy losses. This was a kind of bizarreness that only happened in the era of firearms and explosives.

As they marched, Zhang Xiaoman asked Ren Xiaosu, “I’ve actually been quite curious for a while, but you’re not very interested in getting promoted, are you?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said, “After the war, I might be heading to the Central Plains.”

“Wait!” Zhang Xiaoman suddenly felt that something was not right. “You’re saying you’ll leave Fortress 178 after the war?”

“That’s right.” Ren Xiaosu said, “I have to go find my family. The day before yesterday when y’all were writing your wills, everyone had loved ones that they could write to. But when I wanted to write mine, I realized that there was no one for me to write to.”

“Is the Zong Consortium the cause of this?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

“Yes,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

Zhang Xiaoman realized it was no wonder Ren Xiaosu was so ruthless towards the Zong Consortium. He even volunteered to lead the main attack for their mission. So it turned out that he actually had a grudge against them.

Although Ren Xiaosu did not usually show any anguish, everyone could clearly feel the loneliness emanating from him. For example, when everyone gathered around the campfire, Ren Xiaosu would sit by himself and look up into the starry sky. Or when everyone was laughing and chatting after a meal, Ren Xiaosu would lean against a big tree and look out into the distance. No one knew what was on his mind.

When Ren Xiaosu came down from Mt. Guan drenched in blood, Zhang Xiaoman had clearly sensed his rage dissipating.

“Did you kill the bandits on Mt. Guan?” Zhang Xiaoman was referring to the main forces who had disappeared from Mt. Guan.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “My little bro killed them.”

Zhang Xiaoman choked a little. Ren Xiaosu was already this ferocious, yet he had a younger brother who could wipe out an entire mountain of bandits? What kind of a family was this?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not explain much.

“But if you leave, wouldn’t the commander have placed you in the Razor Sharp Company for nothing?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

“Does the commander have other intentions by putting me in the Razor Sharp Company? I was the one who asked to be posted to the most dangerous unit,” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

“Um, it’s nothing, it’s nothing,” Zhang Xiaoman said. He felt that everyone might have misunderstood the entire situation. How could someone who was going to leave Fortress 178 after the war become the commander of the fortress? Or did Commander Zhang have other ideas?

Throughout their journey, there were a total of three ambush points. Without exception, the heavy machine guns were all taken out by someone.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “It’s not like Zhang Jinglin has any combat skills, so why do all y’all listen to him?”

This doubt had always been on Ren Xiaosu’s mind. This group of gruff men from the Northwest respected strong people the most. Although Zhang Jinglin was very capable and had saved many people in the past, that should not be enough to give him command over this forlorn hope, right?

Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. “I don’t know, but someone said the commander should never be made to bear arms. Killing others is our job. All the commander has to do is to say who he wants us to kill and how to kill them.”

When Zhang Xiaoman used the radio to report to Zhou Yinglong that they had arrived at the rendezvous point, Zhou Yinglong was shocked. “Second Company and Third Company are still on their way. How’d you get there so quickly? Did you encounter any ambushes on the way?”

“The ambushes we encountered were all taken out by a mysterious supernatural being,” Zhang Xiaoman said honestly. “We don’t know who did it either.”

“It wasn’t Ren Xiaosu?” Zhou Yinglong asked.

“We also suspected it could have been him, but he was with us the whole time.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Battalion Commander, should we go and provide support to Second Company and Third Company?”

“Negative. The companies have their own routes to take. We can’t mess up the plan.” Zhou Yinglong said, “They’re not under a lot of pressure either, so they’ll only be delayed by a bit. The enemies who ambushed them aren’t experienced.”

“Then what should we do now?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

“Familiarize yourselves with the terrain first, and make preparations to capture Shichuan Village while waiting to rendezvous with Second Company and Third Company. The other fighting forces of the Forward Strike Battalion will be arriving the day after tomorrow.” Then Zhou Yinglong ended their conversation.

Zhang Xiaoman ordered, “1st, 2nd, and 3rd Platoons, you get a short break. 4th, 5th, and 6th Platoons, follow me and start building some simple fortifications to prevent our enemies from coming out of Shichuan Village and ambushing us.”

As a matter of fact, even though Zhang Xiaoman was always seen scrounging at the forward operating base and constantly requesting more armaments, he became a fully qualified company commander once he got onto the battlefield. He would unequivocally handle whatever needed to be done during battle.

Through the dense forest, Ren Xiaosu was looking at Shichuan Village in the distance. The abandoned town’s high-rise buildings had long collapsed, and all that remained were the tattered two-story buildings.

Zhang Xiaoman said from next to him, “Even the concrete and metal that humans relied on for survival is no match for the effects of time. As long as there’s maintenance done on them, those tall buildings will all collapse in a matter of 200 years. In another 500 years, there won’t be any buildings left standing here. The cities of humans are not as sturdy as we imagined them to be.”

“As long as we’re still around, that’s good enough,” Ren Xiaosu remarked.

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before smiling and saying, “That’s absolutely right. It’s fine as long as we’re still around.”

As they were quite close to Shichuan Village, they could not start a campfire. Otherwise, they would end up becoming targets for artillery fire from the town.

Ren Xiaosu expressed his understanding when he heard this reason. Then, as he had nothing better to do in the middle of the night, he ran far away and started a few campfires out there. As expected, just as the fire burned bright, the artillery from Shichuan Village locked on to the locations where the fires were burning and commenced a heavy bombardment.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others who were sitting behind some sandbags were confused when they heard the artillery fire. They were wondering who the enemies in town were attacking

When Ren Xiaosu came back after a while, Zhang Xiaoman asked, “Where’d you go?”

“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu explained, “Didn’t you say that campfires would attract the artillery? I went out to start some campfires. I thought that it’d be good if I could make them waste their shells. The troops in this Shichuan Village are an isolated force, so they definitely can’t restock their ammo. Who knows? We might be able to reduce the number of casualties on our side this way.”

Ren Xiaosu was just giving it a try and did not really think he would succeed.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman was thinking about what he had just done. He wondered how Ren Xiaosu’s mind even worked in the first place.

Chapter 403: Bickering before battle

Chapter 403 Bickering before battle

The sound of artillery fire from Shichuan Village was intense. Ren Xiaosu had lit up as many as seven campfires out there. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium’s soldiers did not think too much and decided to bombard those areas first.

Actually, it was very chaotic on the battlefield. Most of the time, the officers would not even have time to consider their actions too carefully, and it was normal to fight the moment they spotted their enemies.

Only a small number of commanders could remain calm in the chaos and take the right course of action. And it was these commanders who would emerge victorious from a battle. Some would then go on to become famous military leaders.

The artillery fire quickly put the Second Company and Third Company, who were currently storming the machine gun positions, on high alert. When they heard the sound of the bombardment, they thought the Razor Sharp Company had already started the attack on the town!

Importantly, the battle plan was for the three companies to rendezvous before launching an attack on the town. It was practically impossible for a single company to capture Shichuan Village, and the casualty count would definitely be disastrous as well.

Both Second Company and Third Company called in to Zhou Yinglong at the rear in unison. They were hoping he could stop the recklessness of the Razor Sharp Company. Although the Razor Sharp Company had just accomplished great things by taking mountain forss, there were two things in a battle that all soldiers were afraid of. One was cowardice, and the other was arrogance.

An army cocksure of its invincibility was doomed to defeat.

When Zhou Yinglong heard about the situation at the front line, he got anxious. He quickly found a radio operator to contact the Razor Sharp Company in the hopes they could still get through to them.

In the end, the call went through very quickly. Zhou Yinglong said anxiously, “Did you guys start attacking Shichuan Village already? Zhang Xiaoman, are you crazy? Didn’t I tell you to wait until you joined up with Second Third Companies before launching an attack? If your Razor Sharp Company suffers heavy casualties, I’ll hold you responsible!”

Zhang Xiaoman said innocently, “Battalion Commander, we’re eating right now. We didn’t start attacking Shichuan Village.”

Zhou Yinglong was taken aback. “Are you sure? Then what’s with the sound of the bombardment?” Zhou Yinglong could still hear the artillery bombardment on the other end while holding the receiver to his ear.

Zhang Xiaoman patiently explained, “I told Ren Xiaosu earlier that since we were very close to Shichuan Village, we shouldn’t light any campfires or risk ending up as targets for the enemy. In the end, he ran off to a faraway place and started many campfires. He said he wanted to make the enemy at Shichuan Village waste some of their shells….”

It went silent in the call. Zhou Yinglong had not expected a situation like this. He said in a daze, “Where’s Ren Xiaosu?”

“Oh yeah, where’s Ren Xiaosu?” Zhang Xiaoman looked around but could not find Ren Xiaosu. Then he saw another group of campfires lighting up in the distance. He said numbly, “He went out to start a few more campfires.”

But this time, the Zong Consortium’s troops in Shichuan Village seemed to have realized that something was amiss. They gradually stopped their bombardment.

But after waiting half the night, Zhang Xiaoman did not see another campfire light up. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had also not returned yet.

He muttered to Jiao Xiaochen, “I wonder what Ren Xiaosu’s up to now?”

When dawn was about to break, Ren Xiaosu finally came back. Zhang Xiaoman leaned forward and sniffed. He could still smell gunpowder on Ren Xiaosu. “Where have you
been?”

“When I saw that Second Company and Third Company still hadn’t arrived even after waiting for so long, I thought I’d go help them,” Ren Xiaosu explained.

Zhang Xiaoman froze. He realized he had underestimated Ren Xiaosu’s ferocity. He still had the strength to go and help his allies.

As they were speaking, Second Company and Third Company finally arrived. The commander of Second Company was still wondering as they walked over, “I wonder who helped us destroy that MG position with a grenade…”

Zhang Xiaoman glanced over at Ren Xiaosu. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was squatting behind the bushes and quietly watching the silent Shichuan Village in the distance.

Zhang Xiaoman did not say anything else. He turned to Second Company and Third Company and said, “Why have you only just arrived?”

Both Second Company and Third Company were puzzled. “Didn’t y’all encounter any ambushes last night?”

“We did!” Zhang Xiaoman said, “If our Razor Sharp Company can be stopped with just a machine gun, we’re willing to give up our name of ‘Razor Sharp’ to y’all!”

The faces of both Second Company and Third Company’s commanders darkened. Zhang Xiaoman was too fucking arrogant recently!

“Was it really that easy for y’all to take out the MG nests?” Second Company’s commander said unhappily, “The trenches they dug were so effective that even our mortars couldn’t cause any damage to them. Zhang Xiaoman, don’t get too cocky. We don’t care about getting the ‘Razor Sharp’ name.”

What the Second Company and Third Company’s commanders did not know was that the Razor Sharp Company did not even encounter any living enemies in the course of their march. However, this did not stop Zhang Xiaoman from full-on mocking them.

“Don’t stray from the subject.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Rest up during the day. We’ll start by launching an aggressive attack on Shichuan Village at midnight. Our Razor Sharp Company will be responsible for creating an opening, so y’all better not drag us back.”

The moment he said that, the commanders of Second Company and Third Company got so angry they nearly lost their appetites! However, this was the culture at Fortress 178. As long as you were good at fighting, it wouldn’t matter how tough your words sounded!

Even though Second Company and Third Company were angered by this, they had to accept it. During their rest, all they could think of was how to win back their reputation during the attack on Shichuan Village.

The commander of Second Company quietly held a meeting with his officers. “I don’t want any of us losing our reason later just to prove our worth, understand?”

The officers said, “Understood, sir!”

The company commander’s responsibility was not only to lead in a battle, but also to know when to remind their soldiers to be cool-headed. Fighting a war was a matter of life and death, so one must not allow their emotions to rule their heads.

But immediately after the commander of Second Company was done speaking to his men, he heard Zhang Xiaoman loudly say, “Everyone, don’t be in a hurry when attacking Shichuan Village tonight. It’s fine even if we allow Second Company and Third Company to get the credit. We’re a team, after all, so our Razor Sharp Company shouldn’t be hogging all the contributions, right?”

This time, Second Company’s commander nearly vomited blood.

It was normal to have some friendly bickering before a battle. They were all veterans with a lot of battlefield experience and knew how to put aside their emotions when going into battle.

Zhang Xiaoman was on very good terms with Second Company and Third Company. Otherwise, he would not dare to talk nonsense like this before a battle.

The commander of Second Company turned around and looked in the direction of the Razor Sharp Company. He saw Ren Xiaosu sitting alone with his eyes closed. Someone in the company muttered, “That’s Ren Xiaosu, right? I heard he scaled a 700-meter-high cliff with his bare hands during the attack on Mt. Dingyuan.”

“Are you serious?” A Second Company soldier asked skeptically, “Even Battalion Commander Zhou couldn’t do that, right?”

When Jiao Xiaochen heard the discussion about Ren Xiaosu in Second Company, he remarked, “When Ren Xiaosu came back early in the morning, he said he went to help you guys. Weren’t y’all asking who helped you to take out the MG nests? It was him.”

The commander of Second Company was stunned. Jiao Xiaochen would not lie about such a thing. “I heard he’s a supernatural being, right? What’s his power?”

Jiao Xiaochen went silent for a moment. “We don’t know either.”

For a second, all of the soldiers at the camp looked at Ren Xiaosu either intentionally or unintentionally. They all had the same thought on their minds: ‘Is this the person Commander Zhang chose? No wonder that the commander chose him.’

Chapter 404: Power revealed

Chapter 404 Power revealed

At 3 AM, most people would easily start falling asleep. However, Zhang Xiaoman did not think the enemy would be sleeping at this time. It was easier to breach the enemy’s machine gun positions under the cover of night.

Zhang Xiaoman quietly led the Razor Sharp Company forward. They could not rashly approach Shichuan Village because there were sure to be machine guns waiting in the windows.

The effective range of heavy machine guns tended to usually be between 1,000 and 2,000 meters. Some machine guns could even reach a range of 3,000 meters or 5,000 meters. However, once the range exceeded 500 meters, most shots from a machine gun would lose accuracy. Whether or not they could hit someone purely depended on luck.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman had set up some mortar positions 2.9 kilometers away from Shichuan Village, the maximum range at which they were effective. He was planning to destroy the buildings on the periphery of the village first.

They did not need the mortars to inflict a lot of casualties. All they needed was for them to bring down the buildings and turn them into rubble. That would create a natural defensive barrier for Fortress 178’s soldiers to get close to Shichuan Village.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiao Xiaochen skillfully adjusting the mortar’s angle. He suddenly asked, “Where’s the most terrifying part of urban combat?”

Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment and said, “Every room with a window could be turned into an enemy position.”

“Then why don’t we just demolish all the buildings and flatten them?” Ren Xiaosu said.

Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. “You make it sound so easy, but how are we going to achieve that? How many mortar rounds would we have to waste for that?”

Ren Xiaosu stopped talking. He was hesitating about whether he should use the steam locomotive to flatten the buildings. It would definitely be painful for him, but he felt that such a method would be very useful. After all, the old buildings couldn’t withstand the impact of the steam locomotive.

What was impossible for Zhang Xiaoman and the others was only one of the many methods that Ren Xiaosu could choose to use.

But after some thought, Ren Xiaosu realized this was not his only way to launch an attack on the enemy. It would be better to choose a more conservative approach. If the steam locomotive crashed into the buildings, he might just vomit blood again from the pain.

At this moment, Jiao Xiaochen said at the side, “Captain, all preparations are complete!”

Zhang Xiaoman glanced at Second Company before saying softly, “Other than Jiao Xiaochen and those who are operating the mortars to provide cover, the rest are to advance with me. Jiao Xiaochen, keep this in mind: Don’t allow the enemies in Shichuan Village to reinforce their defenses on the periphery. Attack them with everything you’ve got!”

Right now, Zhang Xiaoman was most worried about the required time for them to charge three kilometers. In that duration, the enemy was fully capable of reorganizing themselves to stop them from entering the town. Therefore, the accuracy of Jiao Xiaochen’s mortar bombardment would become crucial in their charge.

Jiao Xiaochen was put in a difficult spot. “Captain, it’s too far. Furthermore, when we fire our mortars, the enemies will also fire back at us. We’ll need to keep changing our positions!”

“I don’t care about that.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Our lives are in your hands!”

Then Zhang Xiaoman led his men forward. Ren Xiaosu followed close behind him while Jiao Xiaochen was left with a problem at the rear.

The firing of mortars whooshed from the back. The Razor Sharp Company had deployed six mortars, and they were firing at Shichuan Village all at once.

After firing, Jiao Xiaochen shouted anxiously, “Run! Switch locations and fire again!”

The soldiers from Razor Sharp Company adroitly carried the mortars and ran off, in case the bombardment from Shichuan Village turned them into live targets.

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Won’t they have to readjust the angle and range when they get to another spot? That’ll delay the covering fire, won’t it?”

“No.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “That’s Jiao Xiaochen’s expertise. No one in the entire army is better at it than him.”

Ordinarily, mortars would never be used in this way, because every time they shifted positions, it would take an extremely long time to recalibrate the trajectory of fire. However, Jiao Xiaochen’s expertise enabled the Razor Sharp Company to become this mobile. Many of the other fighting forces had tried to recruit Jiao Xiaochen into their ranks, but they were all stopped by Zhou Yinglong.

As they were talking, the second wave of mortar rounds hit Shichuan Village. Ren Xiaosu watched as the buildings on the periphery of Shichuan Village collapsed into rubble, forming cover for the Razor Sharp Company.

Meanwhile, the artillery in the town started firing at the suspected area where the mortar fire was coming from. But by then, Jiao Xiaochen had already fled with his men.

This was a great strategy, indeed.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Jiao Xiaochen is an expert. How did he master it?”

“If you’re afraid to die, you can train hard,” Zhang Xiaoman panted.

As soon as the enemies in Shichuan Village saw the mortar bombardment, their soldiers immediately moved towards the periphery and tried to re-establish a defensive line.

But the platoon Jiao Xiaochen was leading had set up another mortar shelling. The third wave of artillery fire happened to be right in the path of the enemy’s movements and intercepted them!

Back when the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were eating and bragging to each other, someone said how great it would be if all of them could become supernatural beings. Jiao Xiaochen said at that time that if he were a supernatural being, he would definitely find it very easy to lug the mortar around.

Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others did not have any superpowers. They had become an integral part of the Razor Sharp Company in the Forward Strike Battalion purely through their hard work.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others were approaching the rubble. He looked up ahead at Shichuan Village and saw a small, two-story building still standing not too far away. However, he could not make out if there were any enemies behind the dark window.

If there were a heavy machine gun nest set up inside that building, many of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers would probably have to die here.

But were they going to stop fighting just because people would die? Taking casualties in war was unavoidable!

He lowered his voice and whisper-shouted, “Those who aren’t afraid to die, attack with me. Watch out for that window on the second floor—”

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu hold a grenade in his hand and extend it into a shadow.

A second later, an explosion burst from that second-floor window that he was worrying about a moment ago. With a loud boom, a huge cloud of dust was blown out of the window while cries of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers came from the inside!

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “What kind of fucking power was that?!”

But Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. He ran towards the rubble as he said, “If you think there’s a spot where it might be dangerous, tell me. As long as it’s within a kilometer, let me handle it.”

Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. Urban warfare was at its most dangerous when it was too difficult to deal with enemies hiding behind windows during a close-quarters fight.

But with Ren Xiaosu’s power, it was as though he was a born nemesis for enemies in urban combat. No matter how well one hid, as long as enemies were suspected to be in a building, they would be greeted with a dropped grenade.

In the past, the Razor Sharp Company would always have a hard time when they had to fight in urban settings, because there wasn’t really a good strategy for such battles. All they could rely on was Jiao Xiaochen’s long-range cover fire to suppress the enemies for them.

But things were different now. They no longer had to be afraid of anything!

Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, “Wait, was it because of you that we didn’t find any grenades at Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan?”

Ren Xiaosu was about to explain when Zhang Xiaoman said, “Don’t explain! In the future, you don’t have to hide the grenades we seize anymore. They’re all yours to keep!”

Chapter 405: Staunch

Chapter 405 Staunch

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu like he was a treasure.

He was a military man, so he only required a moment to understand what the ability to drop a grenade accurately from a kilometer away could do for their assaults and sieges.

They could take out machine gun positions easily, as well as freely engage in urban warfare without breaking a sweat. If they encountered any defensive bunkers when attacking high ground, they would not have to worry either. The enemy’s fortifications on land were paper-thin in Ren Xiaosu’s presence!

Zhang Xiaoman said excitedly to Ren Xiaosu, “From now on, whoever tries to take any grenades from you is as good as trying to take my life!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “That’s not nice, is it?”

As he spoke, he stuffed a second grenade behind another dark window. The Zong Consortium soldiers who were about to sweep their machine guns were blown out of the window by the grenade.

Curious, Zhang Xiaosu asked, “Xiaosu, where do you even keep these grenades? I don’t see any hand grenades on you. Is this one power or two powers?”

Serious, Ren Xiaosu answered, “I only have one power, and it’s to open up a dark passage to a dimension with a small storage area I can put stuff in.”

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu felt this explanation was very illogical. After all, the Shadow Door did not have the ability to open another dimension.

However, even the supernatural beings themselves did not fully understand superpowers. Even if he made up something to fool an ordinary person, the other party would still believe them no matter how unbelievable it was. After all, these were already superpowers they were talking about, so why would they be based on logic?

Zhang Xiaoman was startled by Ren Xiaosu’s explanation. He called over his platoon commanders and said to them, “Remove all the grenades on everyone and hand them over to Ren Xiaosu. We’re going to start advancing in the direction of the artillery. Ren Xiaosu, I want you to blow up all of the arty!”

Ren Xiaosu had already saved more than a dozen boxes of grenades from the bandit lairs, with each box containing twenty grenades. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were given three grenades each as standard issue by the Supply Division of Fortress 178.

There were a total of 184 people in Razor Sharp Company. Excluding the platoon that stayed behind to man the mortars, there were a total of 154 people on the front line. The number of grenades they had numbered several hundred!

So when Ren Xiaosu grouped all of them together in his storage space, he felt so nervous his scalp went numb.

The Razor Sharp Company was sneaking through the rubble as they advanced. Whenever there was a spot where the enemy could be hiding, Zhang Xiaoman would remind Ren Xiaosu to bomb it from a distance.

On the flanks, Second Company and Third Company had similarly infiltrated into Shichuan Village. They could only watch helplessly as the Razor Sharp Company left them far behind in their wake.

Second Company and Third Company’s mission was to provide cover for the Razor Sharp Company on both flanks. But from the looks of it, the Razor Sharp Company did not look like they needed any support! The exploding of grenades could be heard everywhere inside Shichuan Village. What was even more surprising was that the Razor Sharp Company did not even encounter a “proper” enemy!

What the hell was going on?!

The buildings still standing in Shichuan Village stretched for up to six kilometers, and the Razor Sharp Company had only taken half an hour so far to advance 500 meters in!

They had planned to take this town within a fortnight, but it seemed that the Razor Sharp Company would only need two to three days to clear out the entire town now!

However, Zhang Xiaoman did not want to get greedy and risk advancing farther. Their enemies on the flanks were still there. If Second Company and Third Company could not keep up with their progress, they might very well find themselves surrounded by the enemies in Shichuan Village.

And there was also the problem of whether there was a sniper in this town. On top of that, no one knew whether there might be any traps hidden underground. Thus, it was better to wait for the other two companies to join up with them first before continuing the assault.

Zhang Xiaoman suddenly raised his arm and shouted for the troops to change their route. They were going to head towards Second Company to provide support, with Ren Xiaosu in charge of blowing up enemies while the rest provided cover for him. They would also have to verify that the enemies in the buildings they had passed by were all dead.

Although some enemies had been blown up by the grenades, they were still looking to take the fight to the Razor Sharp Company to the bitter end. If the enemy ambushed them at this time, that would be horrible. The number of people who died from fighting in this tough battle wasn’t the horrible fact, but that their carelessness could lead to the death of comrades. The former was unavoidable, but the latter was a matter of attitude.

Second Company was still having trouble dealing with a machine gun position behind a window at an intersection. Suddenly, an explosion rang out behind that window, and the enemy soldiers and machine gun were blown out from it!

When the commander of Second Company looked up, he saw Zhang Xiaoman waving to them. “Catch up! We’re gonna provide support for Third Company!”

A soldier from Second Company mumbled, “What does he think urban warfare is? He’s moving so freely?!”

By midnight, the Razor Sharp Company, Second Company, and Third Company were finally assembled together in an empty building. The soldiers upstairs from the Razor Sharp Company had set up several heavy machine gun nests and were on high alert to their surroundings. Downstairs, Zhang Xiaoman was holding a meeting with the commanders of Second Company and Third Company. “Hand over your remaining TNT and grenades to us.”

The commander of Second Company turned unhappy. “Hand them over to all y’all? Then what’re we going to use!”

Meanwhile, the commander of Third Company was worried about something else. “All of us are in this building. What if the enemy bombs this place? Wouldn’t we be annihilated right here?”

“Don’t worry.” Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, “All the artillery in Shichuan Village has been destroyed by our Razor Sharp Company!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” The face of the Second Company’s commander darkened. “The artillery positions are still at least 700 meters away from here. Tell me, how could you possibly have destroyed them all?”

“That’s confidential, so how can I tell you?” Zhang Xiaoman laughed. “I’ve gathered you all here for nothing other than telling you how ferocious our Razor Sharp Company is. Grenades are a divine weapon when put into our hands. It’s a waste to let y’all hold onto them!”

The commander of Second Company thought of how difficult it was to bring everyone together at one point. So it was just because he wanted to ask for their ammunition?

By now, they had advanced about two kilometers into Shichuan Village. With still a lot of enemies remaining on the northern side, there would be quite a few tough battles left to fight. So Zhang Xiaoman made Ren Xiaosu count the number of grenades they had left and realized there were not enough.

The eyes of Third Company’s commander darted around as he suddenly said, “Zhang Xiaoman, be honest and tell us what you want the grenades for. Earlier, I saw one of the enemy’s MG nests get destroyed before you even arrived. What exactly is going on?”

Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu, seeing him nod his head. Only then did Zhang Xiaoman say, “Ren Xiaosu’s power lets him throw grenades anywhere he wants within a one-kilometer radius. It won’t drop more than a meter from where he wants it to land! So y’all understand now, right? Hand the grenades to us and let the Razor Sharp Company clear a path forward. When the time comes, we can all share the credit!”

The commander of Second Company was still reluctant. “If we give you all our grenades, what are we going to—”.

“Li Haichen, you better think this through.” Zhang Xiaoman cut him off. “We’re in a war now, and those machine gun bullets are whisking past everyone blindly. Is your Second Company’s mission more important, or are the lives of your soldiers more important? Besides, by handing over the grenades to us and letting the Razor Sharp Company forge a path ahead, the mission can still be completed all the same!”

The commander of Second Company hesitated before finally saying with a sigh, “Alright, you can have them all! We won’t take a share of the credit either. Whatever really takes place should be reported as such. Our Second Company doesn’t want leftovers!”

Zhang Xiaoman happily gave him a thumbs up and said, “Alright, Second Company, you sure are staunch!”

Then Zhang Xiaoman turned to the commander of Third Company. “So is Third Company just as staunch?”

The commander of Third Company was annoyed. “Zhang Xiaoman, stop fucking rubbing it in!”

Chapter 406: Wiping out the Zong Consortium

Chapter 406 Wiping out the Zong Consortium

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the hundreds of hand grenades placed in front of him and was at a loss for words. Second Company’s Commander Li Haichen looked at Zhang Xiaoman and said, “Remember this: We gave the grenades to you so you can help reduce the number of casualties to our Second Company and Third Company. Don’t take the grenades and venture out too deep into enemy lines. Otherwise, even if you manage to achieve something great, I’ll still report y’all to the commander.”

In the end, Zhang Xiaoman managed to move Second Company’s Commander Li Haichen by giving the reason that this would help reduce the casualties for their side. During the attack on Shichuan Village last night, Second Company suffered more than ten casualties. They were all good friends who trained and got along well with each other. Any achievements in battle were not as important as staying alive, and this was the consensus among the officers of Fortress 178.

When it was time to fight the tough battles, they would fight the tough battles. But if there was a better choice, they would definitely prioritize the survival of their troops.

“Don’t worry one bit.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “We’re sister units, so why would we do something like that? Come, come, Ren Xiaosu, put away these grenades. We’ll continue attacking after night falls.”

Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as Zhang Xiaoman negotiated with Second Company and Third Company. A group of soldiers were smoking and chatting off to the side, and some of them had even taken off their shoes. The entire building was filled with a strange odor that was mixed with the smell of cigarettes. However, the cigarettes were different from those the private troops of the other strongholds smoked. Even while the soldiers were chatting, their guns remained in their arms at the most convenient positions.

Old Xu had mentioned to him that Fortress 178 was a different kind of place. At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought that since they were all strongholds, how different could they be? But now he understood what Xu Xianchu meant when he saw how different it really was.

Ren Xiaosu put away the grenades while asking Zhang Xiaoman, “I think we should be more careful during our attack. The layout of Shichuan Village is very complex, and the Zong Consortium has recently built some new buildings. We can’t guarantee that they might not have some tricks up their sleeves. I get the feeling that our attack on Shichuan Village has gone too smoothly.”

Things that went too smoothly would always make Ren Xiaosu a little uneasy.

Zhang Xiaoman didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You call this easy? If it weren’t for the fact that you could accurately drop those grenades, do you know how many of our people would have died in this town? You didn’t know, but Battalion Commander Zhou was prepared to sacrifice the entire Forward Strike Battalion here.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Is it that serious? He’s prepared to sacrifice the entire Forward Strike Battalion for this urban combat?”

“That’s right.” Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, “Only by taking Shichuan Village and clearing out the long-range artillery emplacements hidden here can the troops in the rear regroup at the FOB with no worries and carry out the next stage of the battle plan.”

Next to them, Jiao Xiaochen added on, “Wars these days are all about modern firearms and explosives. Our Forward Strike Battalion’s role is to clear all obstacles during the early stages of the war. After that, we’ll take on the temporary role of scouts to handle infiltration and recon in order to patch any missing map intel for the rest of our troops. We have basically no involvement in the main battles after that.”

“Then did we get sent here as cannon fodder?” Ren Xiaosu frowned. Why did it sound no different from being cannon fodder to him?

But Zhang Xiaoman immediately rejected any suggestion of that. He said seriously, “We’re not cannon fodder. Fortress 178 has never required cannon fodder to win a war. It’s just that the division of our fighting forces is different. Today’s sacrifices will lead to a victory for the rear forces. This is also the reason why all the candidates for the successor of Fortress 178’s commander must come through the Razor Sharp Company. Only those who have risked their lives before have the right to ask others to fight for him.”

Ren Xiaosu was silent. Jiao Xiaochen clapped him on the shoulder and said happily, “Commander Zhang came from the Razor Sharp Company. If we’re really cannon fodder, and if the commander was willing to be cannon fodder as well, then what makes us so special that we can reject the notion of that?”

Understanding dawned upon Ren Xiaosu. It was probably because of the current commander leading by example that Fortress 178 was such a cohesive force.

So what did it mean when Zhang Jinglin specially arranged for him to join Razor Sharp Company after he had said that he wanted to be posted to the most dangerous unit in the fortress?

“How long are we going to fight this war?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Until the Zong Consortium is completely destroyed, of course! We’re going to fight all the way northeast til we reach Mt. Pingluo.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Until a hyena like the Zong Consortium is totally destroyed, there won’t be any peace in the Northwest.”

That night, right after the sun set, the Razor Sharp Company led an attack into the interior of Shichuan Village.

During the day, the enemies in the town seemed to have received orders to take back the lost ground. But in urban warfare, it was always the attackers who were at a disadvantage. The route the enemy had chosen to break through was exactly where Second Company and Third Company were stationed.

The two company commanders were already filled with anger, and the more they thought about it, the more pent-up they got. Now that the enemy had come knocking on their door, they would definitely strike at them mercilessly.

When they broke through the enemy lines, the machine gun positions they captured still had heavy machine guns and ammunition that could be used. However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others from Razor Sharp Company did not take them because they were already carrying a lot of weight.

Now that all of these firearms and ammunition were in the hands of Second Company and Third Company, they wanted nothing more than to rain down a hail of bullets on the enemy. Several walls even collapsed from the heavy gunfire.

Li Haichen was roaring with rage from behind a machine gun as he fired at the enemy ruthlessly.

The defenders of Shichuan Village made several waves of attacks, but they were unable to break through the defensive line Second Company and Third Company had set up. They were forced to retreat.

After the second day of surprise attacks ended, the Razor Sharp Company led the rest of the troops to advance five kilometers into Shichuan Village. Only a small portion of the Zong Consortium’s troops were still putting up a stubborn resistance in some buildings in the north.

This battle made the defenders of Shichuan Village extremely sullen as they had thought their firepower could hold back the enemy. In this urban warfare, there were more than a dozen emplacements with sufficient firepower. There were also many soldiers hidden within buildings, ready to snipe any of the invaders.

But after two days, they suddenly felt like their defensive positions had been constructed out of paper. They simply could not hold back Fortress 178’s soldiers.

Sometimes, they would even get hit by a grenade before they saw any signs of the enemy!

It was too frustrating!

According to their initial plans, they would be laying waste to the entire Forward Strike Battalion of Fortress 178 here in Shichuan Village. But in the end, all it took was three companies from the Forward Strike Battalion to capture Shichuan Village.

In fact, if this hadn’t been urban combat, the effects of the grenades going off in an open space would not have caused as much destruction as it did.

But now, the dark houses that were supposed to act as a defensive barrier for the garrison ended up turning into targets for Ren Xiaosu to attack.

The next night, Battalion Commander Zhou Yinglong felt a little numb when Zhang Xiaoman gave him a sitrep. Zhou Yinglong had asked Commander Zhang Jinglin for more time to complete their mission. Only by having more time could they comfortably capture Shichuan Village in battle.

As such, the armored brigade to the rear temporarily slowed their advance. But as soon as he bought some time for the Forward Strike Battalion, Zhang Xiaoman, who was at the front lines, actually told him they might be able to take Shichuan Village by the next day?

Chapter 407: Adapting to the situation

Chapter 407 Adapting to the situation

People tended to get fatigued very easily when fighting a battle. On the battlefield, one couldn’t sleep in peace, and only true warriors could endure such mental exhaustion.

As the third night approached, Zhang Xiaoman ordered a firearms inspection while he gave everyone a pep talk. “I want all of you to fill your magazines to full. We’ll be putting an end to this battle tonight. I know you’re all exhausted—”

“We aren’t, Captain.” Jiao Xiaochen chuckled and said, “Ren Xiaosu has been forging a safe path forward for us on the front lines all this while, and we’re just here acting as his support, so we don’t feel tired at all.”

Zhang Xiaoman was speaking his most commonly used lines to motivate the troops before the final battle. Essentially, the closing stages of a battle was when it would get most dangerous, so he was hoping to lift the spirits of his troops and let them face the fight in tiptop condition.

He was never one to be good at giving pep talks. Therefore, he thought it would be better to speak while everyone was resting. But in the end, it turned out to be totally unnecessary.

After two days of high-intensity fighting, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were each more pumped up than the last.

This was unlike any of the battles they had fought in the past. They’d never had it so easy before.

Zhang Xiaoman said with a sigh, “Forget it. Let’s just get it over and done with. Everyone, take note. Battalion Commander Zhou and the other commanders suspect they hid some very destructive weapon systems inside this town. So if the enemy gets forced into a corner on the final day of battle, they might choose to activate those weapons.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Did Battalion Commander Zhou say what might be hidden in this town?”

“Probably weapons like artillery or something.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “We still lack good intelligence gathering at Fortress 178, so we don’t have a clear idea of how large the garrison here is or what weapons they have.”

On the intelligence gathering front, Ren Xiaosu really admired the Qing Consortium. Qing Zhen had made a most comprehensive preparation for the war and thought about potential futures as well.

Meanwhile, over at Fortress 178, the entire stronghold ran in a near leaderless state after Zhang Jinglin went away for more than a decade.

Although there was a stand-in commander during that period, he was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. As a result, the Northwestern man who had risen through the ranks of the military was mainly focused on ensuring their military readiness by constantly training and cycling the troops. He did not really develop the economy nor establish any intelligence gathering infrastructure, as those were not aspects he was good at.

During the day, the defenders of Shichuan Village launched a wave of frenzied attacks against the Fortress 178 troops. But after that wave was repulsed, there were no signs of activity from them anymore.

At that time, Zhang Xiaoman thought the Zong Consortium had learned their lesson after being beaten back. However, the shadow clone Ren Xiaosu had left outside started lurking behind enemy lines. He discovered the Shichuan defenders had slowly retreated during the attack.

Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. This attack probably acted as cover so the troops behind them could withdraw from the town, right? Only by retreating this way would Zhang Xiaoman and the others not detect them. But why were the defenders of Shichuan Village retreating?

Ren Xiaosu did not have time to think too much. “Captain, why don’t we retreat?”

“Retreat? We just won the battle and you’re calling for us to retreat?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.

“There’s danger here,” Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.

Zhang Xiaoman frowned. “We headed out here to the front line precisely because there’s danger, so how can we retreat? And if we retreat too far, much of the ground we gained will be lost for nothing.”

“The Shichuan Village defenders in the rear are retreating right now. There must a reason for that!” Ren Xiaosu said.

“How do you know they’re retreating? Haven’t you been here all this while?” Zhang Xiaoman waved it off. “We’ve fought all the way here, so we can’t retreat!”

“If we managed it before, we can do it again.” Ren Xiaosu said anxiously, “Let’s retreat! What if the Zong Consortium bombards the entire town with artillery?”.

“How could that be possible? We only have three companies storming this town. If they bombard the area with artillery, that’ll be no different from shooting a mosquito with a cannon.”

Zhang Xiaoman was just about to keep speaking when he realized he had been lifted up by Ren Xiaosu. Zhang Xiaoman was alarmed. “Put me down!”

However, Ren Xiaosu ignored what he was saying. He picked up Zhang Xiaoman and sprinted for the periphery of the town.

The action he took dumbfounded everyone in the Razor Sharp Company. Zhang Xiaoman roared on Ren Xiaosu’s shoulder, “Put me down, Ren Xiaosu. If you disobey my order, I’ll kill you!”

Ren Xiaosu said as he ran, “If there were only three companies here, the Zong Consortium definitely wouldn’t have fought so hard. But if the Zong Consortium knew that I was here as well, that would be different.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. For a while, he did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was trying to get at.

Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company, Second Company, and Third Company were still caught in a daze. Zhang Xiaoman suddenly sighed on Ren Xiaosu’s shoulder and shouted, “Let’s all retreat! Ren Xiaosu, if you don’t give me a satisfactory explanation afterwards, I’ll be sure to court-martial you.”

All the soldiers and officers looked at one another. What else could they do but retreat?

When they retreated all the way outside of Shichuan Village, Ren Xiaosu still kept on running for another two kilometers before stopping

Zhang Xiaoman nearly vomited from the bumpy ride on Ren Xiaosu’s shoulder. Putting everything else aside, Ren Xiaosu’s stamina was amazing. He ran several kilometers while carrying a person weighing over 50 kilograms without any problem!

But just as Ren Xiaosu placed Zhang Xiaoman on the ground, the Razor Sharp Company saw a huge fireball erupt in Shichuan Village. Explosions also burst from afar.

Even though they were several kilometers away, everyone could feel the ground shaking.

It was not an artillery bombardment. In fact, an artillery bombardment was not even required. The explosives left behind by the defenders of Shichuan Village was all it took for the entire abandoned town to get swallowed in a sea of fire.

Zhang Xiaoman stared at this sight in a daze. “How fucking evil! If we didn’t leave, I bet all three of our companies would’ve died.”

He did not pursue the issue of Ren Xiaosu forcefully carrying him away. At this moment, the soldiers from Second Company and Third Company were looking at the sea of fire with lingering fear in their minds.

Because of the explosions, everyone heard ringing in their ears.

“How did you know the enemy retreated?” Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu curiously.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Ren Xiaosu answered bluntly.

“Alright.” Zhang Xiaoman did not probe further. Instead, he thought for a moment before saying, “But you still have to listen to orders in the future. Have you forgotten that I said,”

“Captain, you said that we had to know how to adapt to the situation,” interrupted Ren Xiaosu

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Jiao Xiaochen. “Did I say that?”

Jiao Xiaochen answered honestly, “Yes, sir.”

Zhang Xiaoman laughed. This was the joy of having survived a disaster. He solemnly said to Ren Xiaosu, “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman, +1!”

This was truly a lifesaving act. Had it not been for Ren Xiaosu’s quick reaction, all three companies would have been wiped out in the explosions.

No matter how you put it, Ren Xiaosu’s arrival had certainly given their lives greater security.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu looked at his gratitude log in the palace and turned his gaze to the others.

Chapter 408: Reaping gratitude tokens

Chapter 408 Reaping gratitude tokens

Having managed to save lives, and so many of them in one fell swoop, how could Ren Xiaosu possibly pass up the opportunity to earn some gratitude tokens?

There were 184 men in the Razor Sharp Company. After two battles, not a single one of them had died. Meanwhile, Second Company and Third Company were not reinforced companies, so they only had 120 people each. With a small number of casualties suffered, Ren Xiaosu had saved a total of 397 people.

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and did not quite understand what he wanted. When Ren Xiaosu saw they had missed the hint, he explicitly expressed, “Ahem, shouldn’t y’all thank me for saving your lives?”

Zhang Xiaoman was confused. Both Second Company and Third Company were too.

They had never come across such a thick-skinned person before!

Although he had saved their lives, straight-up asking for their gratitude was too strange a request. Did he had some sort of condition that needed fulfilling?

It was not like they knew Ren Xiaosu needed gratitude tokens, so they just treated it as some strange fetish of his!

But even if they thought that, since their savior had made such a request, everyone would definitely not want to make it awkward for him. Second Company’s commander, Li Haichen, took the lead and thanked him first, followed by the others who did the same.

Ren Xiaosu calculated the number of gratitude tokens he got and was surprised to see that all 397 people across the three companies had earned him a gratitude token each. None of them was insincere!

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu realized all his tricks to try to earn gratitude tokens previously were too shameful. Only by sincerely saving someone could he get gratitude tokens easily.

Including the gratitude tokens he had earned earlier, Ren Xiaosu’s gratitude tokens now surpassed 800 again.

Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, “Ren Xiaosu, I remember what you just said on the run out here about the Zong Consortium not hesitating to use their artillery shells to bombard this area due to your presence? What’d you mean? Do you have a vendetta with the Zong Consortium?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, “I was just saying. Don’t take it seriously.”

He could not explain too much. When he barged into the Zong Consortium’s defensive front, he had used the Shadow Door to throw the Explosive Poker cards at their forces. Back then, not all the Zong Consortium’s soldiers were killed, so Zong Cheng would definitely know he possessed that power.

Although he had also used the Shadow Door multiple times during the urban combat, those who encountered it should all be dead. So Zong Cheng should not know he was still alive, right?

If Zong Cheng knew that Ren Xiaosu was still alive, he would probably not be able to eat or sleep well.

Zong Cheng had to be badly hoping to kill him, just as how he really hoped to kill Zong Cheng.

Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not want to talk about it, Zhang Xiaoman said, “According to the plan, we should have garrisoned Shichuan Village after we completed our mission. But now that the entire town has been destroyed, it looks like our plan will have to change. Let’s contact Battalion Commander Zhou and see where we should go next.”

The radioman immediately radioed Zhou Yinglong. Zhou Yinglong asked blankly, “What? You’ve captured the town already?”

Zhou Yinglong used to be shocked by the ferocity of the Razor Sharp Company. But now, he was getting used to it.

“Mhm.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Shichuan Village has been destroyed. I wonder how many explosives the Zong Consortium buried in that town. They actually blew up the entire place.”

“What?!” Zhou Yinglong was shocked. “Then are y’all alright?”

Zhou Yinglong was an expert at fighting wars, so he could immediately tell how dangerous it was when he heard what happened. However, Zhang Xiaoman calmly replied, “Fortunately, we discovered the enemy’s movements in time and ran the hell out of Shichuan Village.”

Zhou Yinglong felt that listening to the situation reports each day was really making his heart weaker. It was never as agitating as this in the previous wars they had fought!

However, it was a good thing they had managed to capture Shichuan Village. From now on, there would no longer be any threats in the surroundings of the forward operating base.

Zhou Yinglong said, “Return to the FOB to regroup. You’ll mop up the wilderness with the entire Forward Strike Battalion in two days.”

The “mop up of the wilderness” was to circle the forward operating base in a radius of 120 kilometers to eliminate any hidden threats. This was to prevent the Zong Consortium from leaving any guerrillas in the wilderness.

In the tales of teahouse storytellers, war was a struggle between the strategies of the talented. For Zhou Yinglong and the rest, war was just about getting the details right.

Just establishing a forward operating base required some extreme care and caution.

Only then would Commander Zhang have the foundation to execute his strategy.

After all, even skyscrapers had to be built on a good foundation!

Zhang Xiaoman finished communicating on the radio. He said with a grin, “Gentlemen, we can head back to the FOB and nap! Let’s get the chow hall to make us some delicious food. We’re the men of the hour!”

In the command post, Zhou Yinglong was sitting at the end of the table. If not for the Forward Strike Battalion’s special status, a battalion commander like him would not have the right to sit here.

The command post was considered sacred to the troops of Fortress 178. Every time the soldiers passed by the command post tent, they would imagine the day they could also sit in there to report about the battles.

At this moment, Zhang Jinglin looked at Zhou Yinglong with a smile and said, “You just went outside for a moment and can’t hide the joy on your face now that you’re back. What happened? Did your wife give birth to your second child?”

“Commander, what’re you talking about?” Zhou Yinglong said happily, “How can I possibly be contacting my wife when I’m in the base? I’m happy because my Forward Strike Battalion has already captured Shichuan Village! Luckily, they didn’t fail!”

Zhou Yinglong’s cocky expression was exactly the same as Zhang Xiaoman’s when he mentioned how fortunate it was they’d succeeded.

Actually, the entire Forward Strike Battalion had the same attitude.

“Oh?” Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “Didn’t you ask me for more time to complete the mission the day before yesterday? You said it wouldn’t be easy to take Shichuan Village and even tried to reason with me how difficult urban warfare was. So why have y’all suddenly achieved the objective today?”

Zhou Yinglong rolled his eyes and said, “That Ren Xiaosu you had join the Razor Sharp Company is a badass. Even if I personally joined the battlefield, the mission would not have gone so smoothly.”

“Let me hear about it,” Zhang Jinglin said calmly.

“That kid’s superpower is to open up a portal to anywhere within a one-kilometer range. This power seems to be specifically made for urban warfare.” Zhou Yinglong praised, “He can cripple an MG nest with a grenade from one kilometer away! Hell yeah!”

Zhang Jinglin smiled at the people around him and said, “Zhou Yinglong told me at the beginning that he didn’t want Ren Xiaosu, saying that he looked too skinny to fight. But I reckon that he won’t let Ren Xiaosu leave if someone tries to steal him away.”

Zhou Yinglong mumbled, “What I meant back then was that I don’t want useless people. I realize he’s useful now, and he even contributed greatly too!”

Meanwhile, the group of commanders at the table were thinking that Zhou Yinglong was too good at sucking up to others. He knew that Commander Zhang wanted to hear about Ren Xiaosu, so he specifically chose to share Ren Xiaosu’s heroic deeds with him…

But everyone knew that Zhou Yinglong was telling the truth, because Zhou Yinglong would not dare to lie in front of Commander Zhang.

Someone spoke up, “Just being capable isn’t enough. What’s he like?”

Everyone was judging Ren Xiaosu as a candidate to be the next fortress commander. So, capabilities aside, his conduct was something that mattered to them as well.

Chapter 409: Stupidity and bravery

Chapter 409 Stupidity and bravery

When Zhang Jinglin assigned Ren Xiaosu to the Razor Sharp Company in the war room, he was making his stand clear. Moreover, he even placed Ren Xiaosu under the spotlight and illuminated him for everyone to see.

As the commander’s choice, if he could not convince the masses or lead by example, Zhang Jinglin would not force the matter.

But since Zhang Jinglin made the choice, he was not afraid of everyone finding fault with his decision.

Back then, if Zhang Jinglin did not admire Ren Xiaosu, he would not have allowed Ren Xiaosu to become the replacement teacher of the school. However, Zhang Jinglin had not expected Ren Xiaosu to come this far at that time.

At that time, Zhang Jinglin had thought about getting Ren Xiaosu to be the schoolteacher because that arrangement would not affect the progress of the students. If Ren Xiaosu was a normal person, he would not be thinking about pulling him into this whirlpool of authority either. But even though he did not pull him in, Ren Xiaosu walked straight into it himself.

What Fortress 178 needed was not a good person as its leader. But of course, they could not be a bad person, or worse, a belligerent boor. When Zhang Jinglin first started looking at the commanders around him, he was surprised that none of them were suitable choices.

Until Wang Shengzhi delivered Ren Xiaosu right to his doorstep.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu was not the best candidate either. However, Zhang Jinglin felt that the young man had drive, and as long as he had that kind of motivation, his future was something Zhang Jinglin thought would be worth looking forward to.

However, these commanders believed the young Ren Xiaosu was only lucky to be chosen by Zhang Jinglin. Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin was thinking that Ren Xiaosu might not even be willing to remain at Fortress 178.

Zhou Yinglong could not answer the question about Ren Xiaosu’s character. “He should be alright…”

To be honest, Zhou Yinglong only cared about the sitreps. Why would he worry about whether Ren Xiaosu was a good person? To Zhou Yinglong, everything was fine as long as they won the battles.

Zhang Jinglin tapped his fingers on the table. “Hu Xinzhi, Chai Zhilong, your armored brigade and infantry divisions will need to get to the FOB a-sap. I’ll give you two three days. Fu Hong, your Engineering Battalion will need to hurry to the Blackstone River within half a month and build a bridge crossing there…”

Numerous orders were issued from Zhang Jinglin’s mouth as everyone realized this was not the time to be worrying over Ren Xiaosu. They still had a tough battle on their hands!

When the Razor Sharp Company returned to the forward operating base, Zhang Xiaoman went to the makeshift chow hall and shouted, “Lin Yuze, where’s Lin Yuze?”

Lin Yuze, who was the manager of the makeshift chow hall, walked out with a smile on his face. “Hey, if it isn’t Captain Zhang, our war hero.”

“Make some good grub. Our brothers are hungry after coming back from the front lines. We’re gonna shower first. After we’re done showering, we wanna see the piping hot dishes ready. Braised pork and braised chicken, those are two dishes we demand!” Zhang Xiaoman shouted.

Lin Yuze smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll make ’em just for you! There’s even barley wine for you to drink. Just be sure to not sneak it out of the base. After today, you can’t drink anymore.”

Normal soldiers couldn’t request the dishes they wanted or drink alcohol. Even an officer like Zhou Yinglong was not allowed to do so, as all officers and men were treated in the same regard.

However, war heroes were different. They could freely request whatever food they wanted that even the fortress commander could not eat. This had always been the tradition in Fortress 178. You would be given whatever you wished to eat after winning a battle!

Rules like these made the men in Fortress 178 understand one thing, and that was how they definitely had to win all their battles!

Allowing the Razor Sharp Company to drink alcohol was due to the fact that they would not be going on any new missions for the next two days. They were back to regroup and rest, after all, but not letting them sneak the alcohol away was in case they drank before their next battle and end up delaying everything.

Zhang Xiaoman swaggered out of the chow hall so much that even his shoulders were overflowing with arrogance. He was as smug as he could get.

When the soldiers from the Engineering Corps saw him, they laughed and said, “Zhang Xiaoman, you’re so damn fucking cocky!”

Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, “Can’t I be cocky after returning victorious from a battle? The mission that Old Zhou set for me was to capture Shichuan Village within half a month, but we managed to do it in three days!”

But just as he said that, Zhang Xiaoman felt his ass get kicked. When he turned around and saw it was Zhou Yinglong, he immediately smiled and said, “Battalion Commander, how have you been these past few days?”

Zhou Yinglong’s face darkened. “Don’t embarrass yourself. Hurry up and shower already.”

“Ah, alright!” Zhang Xiaoman turned around and ran off.

One could take a hot shower at the forward operating base, with the facilities here much more complete than expected. When Ren Xiaosu heard it was possible to take a hot shower, he wondered how these soldiers did it.

When everyone took off their clothes and walked into the showers, Jiao Xiaochen was shocked when he saw Ren Xiaosu. While wearing clothes, he thought that Ren Xiaosu looked quite thin. But now he felt Ren Xiaosu’s muscles exuded an aura of strength.

After they showered and dressed, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see two girls in nurse uniforms standing at the entrance of the showers.

Ren Xiaosu thought they were waiting for the other soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company, but when the two girls saw Ren Xiaosu, their eyes lit up. One of the girls took the initiative to walk up to him and whispered, “When you first arrived at the FOB, I took notice of you. Here, this hand cream is for you.”

With that said, the girl grabbed the other girl’s hand and ran off. The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers behind him were all jealous when they saw this scene. “I’m jealous again…”

“Why is Ren Xiaosu so popular with the ladies…”

Jiao Xiaochen smiled and said, “We’re just a group of rugged men from the Northwest. The moment Ren Xiaosu arrived, we were knocked off our perches. Also, the entire military knows he’s a supernatural being and that Commander Zhang thinks highly of him, so of course the girls would try to get to know him.”

As he finished speaking, an orderly ran over. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Are you Ren Xiaosu?”

“Yes, I am,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Commander Zhang has summoned you. He wishes to see you.” The orderly showed him the way.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Jiao Xiaochen and the others, “Y’all can eat first. I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Alright, we’ll leave some for you,” Jiao Xiaochen said in envy. He had actually been summoned to meet the Commander on his
own.

When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the command post tent, only Zhang Jinglin was inside. He was standing deep in thought in front of the sand table. Ren Xiaosu walked in and said, “Teacher.”

When Zhang Jinglin heard that, he was taken aback before smiling and saying, “I haven’t been addressed that way in a long time.”

Ren Xiaosu also smiled and said, “I really miss the school days.”

Zhang Jinglin glanced at him before sighing. “We can’t go back to those days.”

“Teacher, why have you called me here?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“I just thought of chatting with you to catch up.” Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, “The Razor Sharp Company has participated in two tough battles consecutively without anyone dying. Is that to your credit?”

“Not really.” Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “There was also some luck involved.”

“Do you know how hard it is to lead a company on the battlefield without anyone dying?” Zhang Jinglin asked.

“I know it’s very difficult.”

“If you know how difficult it is and still insist on achieving it at the risk of injuring yourself, that’s called stupidity,” Zhang Jinglin said calmly.

Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before replying, “Same goes for bravery.”

Chapter 410: The second weapon finally gets unlocked

Chapter 410 The second weapon finally gets unlocked!

When Zhang Jinglin heard Ren Xiaosu’s reply, he burst into laughter. “Well said! Same goes for bravery, huh?”

In reality, Zhang Jinglin did not know that for Ren Xiaosu, ensuring the survival of all his Razor Sharp Company’s comrades had become an obsession in the course of his revenge. That obsession dictated whether he was qualified to protect some things.

The things Ren Xiaosu wanted to protect in the past had been destroyed by the Zong Consortium. This led to Ren Xiaosu looking back on his beautiful vision from before and thinking about whether he could protect anything in this chaotic world.

As a result, he had even taken on the survival of the Razor Sharp Company as his personal mission. Only by ensuring that the Razor Sharp Company remained intact could he have the right to go to the Central Plains later to search for his family and friends to continue living in this chaotic world.

“I can sense conflict within you.” Zhang Jinglin said calmly, “It’s exactly the same as when I was young. Back then, everyone wanted me to pick up a gun, saying how the battlefield needed soldiers who could fire a gun, how it was no place for a useless medic. Sometimes, even I wondered if my persistence was correct, and whether I should also pick up a gun and attack alongside them?”

Zhang Jinglin continued, “At that time, I was thinking about bending to the will of this chaotic world. Only that way could I live a better life.”

“What happened?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Persistence is persistence. Being correct doesn’t matter.” Zhang Jinglin said, “Never deny yourself. Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.”

Ren Xiaosu silently muttered the words to himself. “Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.”

He suddenly realized Zhang Jinglin might have called him over because he saw the conflict inside him, so he wanted to tell him these words.

Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “Where do you plan on going after destroying the Zong Consortium?”

“To the Central Plains.” Ren Xiaosu said with certainty, “I want to find Big Sister Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others and bring them back.”

“Hm.” Zhang Jinglin asked again, “Will you return to Fortress 178?”

“I’m not sure.” Ren Xiaosu could not answer that question.

“You should know why I had you join the Razor Sharp Company. I won’t stop you from going to the Central Plains, but if there’s something you wish to protect, then Fortress 178 is your best choice.”

Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “Commander, if you don’t let me go and eat now, there won’t be any food left.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered he had just come out of the shower and had not eaten yet.

When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the chow hall, Zhang Xiaoman was already on the verge of blacking out.

Ren Xiaosu sat nearby and ate the food everyone had left for him. However, they had kept so much food for him that it felt like they were afraid he wouldn’t have enough to eat.

Zhang Xiaoman dragged Ren Xiaosu to drink with him, but Ren Xiaosu refused to drink anything at all. When Zhang Xiaoman realized he could not persuade Ren Xiaosu, he turned around to look for someone else.

While drinking, Zhang Xiaoman suddenly hugged Jiao Xiaochen and said, “Wei Yunlin, I missed you.”

Jiao Xiaochen quickly pushed Zhang Xiaoman off and chided him with a laugh, “You miss your wife now?”

Someone laughed at Zhang Xiaoman while drinking and said, “Your wife getting married to you is like sticking a flower in a cow pie!”

Zhang Xiaoman sobered up a little and said unhappily, “If she’s a flower, then cows ain’t gonna shit anymore!”

“Stop acting like it was a pity to marry her. You don’t know what kind of a treasure you’ve picked up. All you know is how to pretend to be tough when you’re outside,” Jiao Xiaochen said with a laugh.

Ren Xiaosu was an outsider in the noisy chow hall. He might be obsessed with keeping the Razor Sharp Company alive, but even now, it was very difficult for him to feel like he truly belonged in the Razor Sharp Company.

And he had the same feeling for Fortress 178 as well.

Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, was watching the Razor Sharp Company with his arms folded and laughing. He smiled at the chefs beside him and said, “See that? These are the war heroes of our army. They’re the ones who fought in the two battles recently, and they even won both of them.”

Someone muttered, “Chief Lin, is that young man sitting by them and eating also from the Razor Sharp Company? Why does it feel like he doesn’t fit in?”

Lin Yuze turned his gaze to Ren Xiaosu and saw him eating quietly. He looked unaffected by the noise around him. “Is he the guy called Ren Xiaosu?”

“Rumor has it that Ren Xiaosu’s a beast in battle, yeah? I heard that half the credit for capturing Shichuan Village goes to him. That young man looks so soft it doesn’t fit the descriptions at all!”

But then Zhang Xiaoman came up to Ren Xiaosu in his drunken stupor and clutched Ren Xiaosu’s left hand. “Bro! If it weren’t for you, our brothers wouldn’t’ve made it back this time. Thank you again for saving our lives!”

Then Lin Yuze and the chow staff watched with their jaws hanging as Zhang Xiaoman knelt on the ground to thank him. He nearly even kowtowed to Ren Xiaosu!

When someone had too much to drink, they were fucking capable of doing anything!

Ren Xiaosu had not finished his meal yet, but he quickly pulled Zhang Xiaoman up. “Can you fucking stop drinking already?!”

But while he was pulling Zhang Xiaoman up, his comrades from the Razor Sharp Company beside him also came over to toast him. “Thank you, Ren Xiaosu, for saving our lives!”

Ren Xiaosu did not expect his second weapon to get unlocked while everyone in the chow hall was watching.

After this group of Northwestern men had too much to drink, they started thanking him to no end. They easily said it seven or eight times in a row, and all of them were even sincere in their gratitude!

Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should keep some alcohol in his storage space in the future. When they had nothing better to do, he could get his comrades of the Razor Sharp Company together for a drink or two…

The voice from the palace said, “You have reached the number of gratitude tokens required to unlock the side quest’s weapon. Confirm unlock?”

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. “Unlock!”

The palace suddenly filled with a faint glow. Along the circular walls of the palace, a display cabinet that was originally shrouded in a dark fog brightened. The black mist within it slowly dissipated as well.

Ren Xiaosu looked at it and saw a large, black sniper rifle stored inside the long and extensive display cabinet.

Ren Xiaosu was guessing if the second weapon would be another saber, a sword, or perhaps, a bow?

But he did not expect a sniper rifle.

He was even more surprised that the sniper rifle also appeared on the back of the shadow clone.

It was like his originally unrelated skills would eventually undergo a chemical reaction and combine.

There were two black sniper rifles and two black sabers. When the sniper rifle was revealed behind the black mist, Ren Xiaosu immediately understood the properties of the sniper rifle. It had an effective range of 2,800 meters and did not need to be loaded with any bullets, and even the bullets could be conjured with his mind. He could also switch between incendiary bullets and armor-piercing bullets as he wished.

These days, the most effective sniper rifle in the world only had an effective range of 2,300 meters.

“Effective range” referred to the typical engagement distances in normal situations. As long as someone wasn’t shooting at a specific target, bullet drop need not be considered.

If a sniper calculated the trajectory precisely and had good marksmanship, hitting a further target would not be a problem at all.

For example, the maximum effective range of a sniper rifle was 2,300 meters. However, the longest recorded kill was at 2,475 meters.

Wait! While Ren Xiaosu was exploring the black sniper rifle in his mind, he discovered a type of bullet he had never seen before.

Under normal circumstances, there were generally several types of sniper bullets: white, red, green, brass, orange, and so on. The difference in color was to differentiate between normal lead bullets, armor-piercing bullets, incendiary bullets, and tracers.

But what was this black-tipped bullet?

Chapter 411: Selling medals

Chapter 411 Selling medals

A sniper rifle was very novel to Ren Xiaosu and he really liked it a lot. Otherwise, he would not have asked to learn about it from Yang Xiaojin.

Although supernatural beings now existed in this era, they were still not powerful enough to ignore the power of a sniper rifle.

Ren Xiaosu was unsure of what that black-tipped bullet was used for. After all, he did not have the chance to try it out and could only wait until he got into the wilderness to find out.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were still drunk as they stumbled around the chow hall. Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry as he carried these people back to their barracks two at a time. Meanwhile, the troops at the forward operating base all watched in amazement as Ren Xiaosu made more than 60 trips between the chow hall and the barracks to carry everyone back.

On the same day, news of Ren Xiaosu carrying his comrades back to their barracks became the talk of the forward operating base.

In the evening, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were still drunk after waking up. But when they heard it was Ren Xiaosu who had carried them back, they quickly thanked him, “Xiaosu, thank you for bringing us back. We definitely won’t drink that much again in the future. That was so embarrassing.”

However, Zhang Xiaoman realized Ren Xiaosu had turned unhappy. He heard Ren Xiaosu say, “Keep drinking! How can a man not have alcohol?”

If they did not drink, where would he get all his gratitude tokens from?

Before the drinking session, he only had a little over 800 gratitude tokens. But afterwards, he still had more than 500 gratitude tokens even after the new weapon was unlocked!

Ren Xiaosu even wanted to tell Zhang Xiaoman that they should stop going into battle and just keep drinking every day if they could.

After unlocking the sniper rifle, the palace issued another side quest for the third weapon. This time, it would require 10,000 gratitude tokens to unlock.

Ren Xiaosu did not even know where he was going to get so many gratitude tokens from.

Suddenly, Zhou Yinglong entered the barracks where the Razor Sharp Company was staying. When he detected the smell of alcohol in the barracks, he frowned. “Zhang Xiaoman, get up right now.”

Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company got out of bed and smartly stood at attention in two rows on either side of the walkway. Zhou Yinglong walked around and inspected them. “Look at how drunk you got! Do you know how to act like soldiers?”

Zhang Xiaoman muttered, “We’re all heroes. Aren’t we being assigned a new mission in another two days?”

Zhou Yinglong was so angry he laughed. “You aren’t obeying the chain of command after drinking, eh? You have to add the word ‘sir’ when you’re speaking to me!”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment before saying, “Sir! I’m a war hero!”

With a loud crash, Zhou Yinglong kicked Zhang Xiaoman to the floor. “You better sober up. Your Razor Sharp Company will be assigned a new mission tomorrow. Come and report to me after your head clears up!”

Upon hearing that there was a new mission, Zhang Xiaoman immediately got off the floor. “Battalion Commander, what mission is it? Is it urgent?”

“It’s a covert op. Come and talk to me after you’ve sobered up.” Zhou Yinglong left the barracks with his hands folded behind his back.

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers in the barracks all looked at one another. What was this covert op about?

In the past, covert operations like these would never be given to the Razor Sharp Company. Although they could handle the tough battles and defeat strong foes, infiltration and ambushes were not exactly what they were best at. So these covert ops were always carried out by the Reconnaissance Battalion. The soldiers in the Reconnaissance Battalion were savage. Whenever combat competitions were held in the military, the top ten places would almost always be taken by soldiers from the Recon Battalion.

So why was the Razor Sharp Company suddenly assigned to a covert op?

The next day, Zhang Xiaoman had a frown on his face after returning from Zhou Yinglong’s place. He said to the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company, “The main forces will be heading towards the Blackstone River in the north. Right across that river is Mt. Wuchuan, where the Zong Consortium’s defensive line is set up.”

“Then what about us?” Jiao Xiaochen asked.

“We’ll set off this afternoon and head to the front line at Mt. Qiangwan and Beiwan River before crossing to the flank of the main battlefield. We’re to destroy the bridge there to sever the supply lines east of the Zong Consortium. Then we’re to join up with our main forces at Mt. Wuchuan.”

“We’re only one company. Do they really expect us to infiltrate deep into the rear to sever the supply lines there? And we have to blow up the bridge too? The bridge there is heavily guarded by Zong Consortium troops.” Jiao Xiaochen was shocked. “Battalion Commander Zhou thinks too highly of us, right?”

“That’s the order.” Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone, “Pack up your stuff. We set off at 1600 sharp. We must reach the Beiwan River in seven days and blow up the Zong Consortium’s bridge there. We have to make sure that our main forces arriving at Blackstone River won’t have any worries of a rear attack.”

The Blackstone River and Beiwan River were in two completely different locations. Headquarters believed the potential price of breaking through at the Beiwan River was too costly, so they would rather build a pontoon bridge on the Blackstone River to attack the defensive line at Mt. Wuchuan, as it was much safer than going to Beiwan River.

The only thing they needed to worry about was that the enemies at Beiwan River might seize the opportunity to sneak attack the flanks of the main forces of Fortress 178 when the main battle broke out at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. Hence, they sent the Razor Sharp Company to cut off this route to prevent the Zong Consortium from being able to temporarily cross the Beiwan River.

The only problem was that this operation was too difficult. It was akin to letting the Razor Sharp Company infiltrate deep behind enemy lines on their own.

However, Zhou Yinglong said that the operation to blow up Beiwan Bridge had to be carried out in secret. There would be a predetermined time for the operation, so the fewer people carried out this operation, the better.

At this moment, most of the people at the forward operating base did not know what strategy headquarters had drawn up. But all of a sudden, the Razor Sharp Company announced they were going out to head for a multiday ruck. The group put on their field packs and carried their weapons and ran out of the forward operating base. Everyone thought the Razor Sharp Company would take at most three days to return from their training. But after a few days passed, they finally realized the Razor Sharp Company was not going to be coming back.

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company trekking in the wilderness all had a new medal on their chests. The medals were engraved with the word “Shichuan” on them and were obtained by all soldiers who had participated in the Battle of Shichuan Village.

Fu Rao mumbled as he walked, “Hey, Captain, how much do you think this medal can fetch?”

Zhang Xiaoman gave it some thought and said, “This was the first true battle since our military started its campaign. Since the raid on Mt. Dingyuan was against bandits, the Shichuan Village battle should hold a greater significance. Furthermore, there’s only a few hundred of these medals in total, so I estimate that it can be sold for up to 10,000 yuan.”

“That’s not too bad.” Fu Rao was overjoyed. “I’ll sell it once we get back.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard that. “Isn’t this medal a symbol of honor? Are y’all going to sell it just like that?”

He pondered over how he thought the Razor Sharp Company had a strong sense of honor.

“What’s the big deal?” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “Even if we sell the medal to someone else, would that make us feel any less honorable? Our third-class citations still exist, so wouldn’t it be better to exchange the medals for something more practical? Wouldn’t it be nicer to use that 10,000 yuan to buy some lamb chops?”

When they were given medals, their third-class unit citations that had been withheld previously were reinstated. However, all of this was carried out in secret, and they would probably have to wait until this operation was completed before the decoration ceremony would be made up to them.

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these thugs from the Razor Sharp Company were too shameless. They would even sell their medals for money? Yet a company like this was so fierce and fearless when it came to combat.

Chapter 412: Sniper

Chapter 412 Sniper

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “What kinds of medals are the most valuable? And who buys them?”

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, who would be interested in these things other than soldiers in the military?

“There are loads of buyers who want them.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a laugh, “Some of them are those who aspired to be soldiers but couldn’t pass their physical, businessmen collectors in the fortress, or parents who buy them for their children as a coming-of-age gift. The entire Fortress 178 has a population of more than 2 million people, so don’t underestimate their purchasing power.”

Ren Xiaosu finally understood why the residents of Fortress 178 had a strange sense of respect for those in the military profession. Perhaps it was because these soldiers had always been protecting them.

Zhang Xiaoman continued, “However, some of the medals can’t fetch a high price, like those that were given out to many soldiers, or the ones awarded for winning unimportant battles. Normally, families will only buy the medals that are worth a few hundred yuan for their children. But only the collectors are willing to seek out the kinds of medals like the ones we have. Shichuan Village was the opening battle of this war, and the number of people awarded with the medal isn’t that many either, so there’s definitely a much higher collection value to it.”

“Then if our Razor Sharp Company achieved great things again in an individual battle, wouldn’t we be awarded an even more valuable medal?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“But of course.” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “But how easy is it to do that? That would cost people their lives!”

Ren Xiaosu remained silent. The journey to Beiwan Bridge was a bumpy one. Along the way they passed by Shichuan Village, where the fire had extinguished. The entirety of the ruins were covered in a hazy darkness, making it seem like a purgatory of monsters.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at the town from afar and said, “I wonder what the world was like before The Cataclysm. Alright, stop watching! Everyone, go on alert! Who knows when we might stumble upon the enemy and end up in a battle?”

Shichuan Village was located more than 200 kilometers away from Beiwan Bridge. They would have to enter a mountain range first before they could stealthily infiltrate Beiwan River from here.

According to the intelligence reports, some of the Zong Consortium’s combat troops were scattered through the mountain range as part of the concealed sentries and guerrillas.

The Razor Sharp Company had to try to avoid them, not kill them. But if they could not avoid them, then whoever was braver would emerge victorious in battle.

Two hours after passing Shichuan Village, the Razor Sharp Company arrived at the foot of a mountain. The mountain range here looked very odd, with the sunny side of the mountain covered in shrubs while the other side was the bare yellow body of the mountain itself.

But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly crouched in pain with a frown. Right after, a loud crack came from the mountains. Zhang Xiaoman was startled. “Everyone, scatter and take cover. There’s a sniper!”

The difference between the sound of a sniper rifle and a normal rifle was enormous. So when the gunshot rang out, Zhang Xiaoman immediately reacted.

Zhang Xiaoman dragged Ren Xiaosu with him towards some rocks nearby. However, he wondered what made Ren Xiaosu react before the gunshot had even sounded.

Ren Xiaosu reacted like he was the one who had been shot. However, there were no injuries on him.

What Zhang Xiaoman did not know was that the sniper’s target was not actually Ren Xiaosu, but his shadow clone!

Ren Xiaosu had discovered that if a bullet went between the shadow clone’s brows, the backlash from the shadow clone would cause an even more intense pain to him. So he constantly controlled the shadow clone to make it move forward cautiously in case it was shot right between the eyes.

As for what would happen when it got hit between the eyes, even Ren Xiaosu didn’t know. All supernatural beings were still in the process of exploring their superpowers.

However, it was different this time. While the shadow clone was scouting a few hundred meters ahead, a sniper headshotted it squarely between the brows.

After the shadow clone was shot, it turned into a ball of black mist and dissipated. At the same time, the black mist reappeared within Ren Xiaosu’s mind palace and slowly started taking shape again.

From the looks of it, if the shadow clone were hit between the brows, it would result in the shadow clone dissipating immediately. Furthermore, it would take a long time for it to reform, taking around three days to get back to its original state.

The sniper’s marksmanship was great. This should be an advance-level, or perhaps even a master-level, sniper.

After the shadow clone got shot, Ren Xiaosu did not even know where the opponent was. He could only roughly determine that the enemy was to his 12 o’clock.

However, now that his opponent had hit their target, he wondered if they would shift to another location.

Ren Xiaosu panted, “This shot was aimed at a target from 400 meters away, and the sniper’s to our 12 o’clock, but I’m not sure if we’re still within their effective range.”

The effective range of a sniper rifle was really far. When deployed in the forested mountains, it had an intimidating and unpredictable power.

Next to him, seemingly unconcerned, Zhang Xiaoman said, “I didn’t expect the Zong Consortium to actually have a sniper waiting here in this mountain range. This is gonna be a tough nut to crack!”

Their entire company split up as the soldiers hid separately behind some rocks. Fortunately, the presence of the sniper was revealed in advance due to the gunshot that cracked. Otherwise, one of their platoons could have been wiped out by now.

Then Zhang Xiaoman took off his helmet and slowly poked it out from behind the rocks.

Bang! The helmet was sent flying by the formidable sniper bullet!

“Dammit.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “We’re within the enemy’s range!”

Jiao Xiaochen, who was ten meters away, shouted from behind the rocks, “Captain, what do we do now? This is a game of cat and mouse, and all we can do is hide here. Think of something, Captain!”

“You’re the fucking mouse, dammit!” Zhang Xiaoman was also upset. But how could he have any good ideas? If he revealed his head even a little, he would fucking be dead!

The supremacy of a sniper on the battlefield was perfectly displayed at this moment. A single person could suppress an entire company and keep them hiding behind some rocks while waiting for their deaths. This was a situation where the enemy could hit you but you couldn’t retaliate at all.

That was unless Zhang Xiaoman was willing to sacrifice his comrades as cannon fodder. By sacrificing a group of soldiers, the other troops could shift to a good tactical position.

Someone suggested, “Why don’t we contact the FOB and get them to send some reinforcements?”

Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, “They’d be too late. It’ll take at least three days to get here from the FOB. By then, this sniper will probably have called for support from the Zong Consortium’s guerrillas here in the mountain range as well.”

“Why don’t we wait and see who’s more patient then, us or the sniper?” Jiao Xiaochen said, “Or we can take advantage of nightfall to move away from here?”

“You’re such a fucking genius! You actually want to compete with a sniper on patience?” Zhang Xiaoman was so angry he laughed. “Since the sniper’s hiding in this jungle, his scope will definitely be optimized for night vision. Gunning you down will be a game for him!”

What could he do? Did this mean that someone would have to die out here?

Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. When Zhang Xiaoman saw Ren Xiaosu’s chest heave, he knew this was going to be bad! But in that instant, he saw Ren Xiaosu’s pupils turn crimson.

‘City Crusher! Activate!’

A second later, Ren Xiaosu dashed out from behind the rocks at an unbelievable speed!

When Ren Xiaosu ran out, a sniper’s bullet flew in as expected. But because Ren Xiaosu was moving too fast, the sniper’s shot missed its target this time!

Chapter 413: Ren Xiaosu in the Battle Between Snipers

Chapter 413 Ren Xiaosu in the Battle Between Snipers

When Zhang Xiaoman saw Ren Xiaosu take a deep breath, he felt that Ren Xiaosu could be about to try something dangerous. He wanted to stop Ren Xiaosu, but he was afraid he might throw Ren Xiaosu’s momentum off and end up harming him instead.

But to the surprise of everyone in the Razor Sharp Company, Ren Xiaosu darted out at a speed so quick it was blinding. He was moving way too fast!

Zhang Xiaoman was the only person who had noticed the unforgettable red glint in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. Was that his power? If that were the case, it would mean that Ren Xiaosu had two powers just like Xu Xianchu!

When Xu Xianchu revealed both of his superpowers, the men from Fortress 178 were all extremely envious of him and everyone was saying how he was the “chosen one” because of that. When most people did not even have any superpowers, Xu Xianchu wielded two superpowers of his own. He was truly a unique existence at Fortress 178.

But after today, he would not be the only one anymore. Zhang Xiaoman firmly believed that Ren Xiaosu must also have two superpowers!

Their Razor Sharp Company finally had such an impressive supernatural being as well!

However, Zhang Xiaoman could not help but worry about Ren Xiaosu’s safety. Although charging out like this was a little better than being pinned behind the rocks, they were still quite a distance away from the sniper. If Ren Xiaosu were thinking about killing that sniper, it would probably be very difficult to accomplish.

But the moment Ren Xiaosu ran out, he said, “Stay right here and don’t move! Wait until I get back!”

City Crusher’s effective duration was only 30 seconds, and Ren Xiaosu calculated that the valley where the sniper would be “blind” was probably still about half a kilometer away. But if he had to avoid the sniper’s shots, he would have to serpentine.

Sprinting across nearly 500 meters in the presence of a sniper was equivalent to suicide for the average person. But Ren Xiaosu had to take the gamble!

The sniper was hidden in the shrubs in the 12 o’clock direction like a sinister vulture. He was aiming at the Razor Sharp Company through his scope and observing their every move. After making sure there were no snipers in this company, he began the game of cat and mouse.

After the sniper fired a shot at the black shadow that he suspected was a supernatural being, the entire company got pinned behind some rocks. He wanted to slowly torture this group of people to their deaths.

The sniper knew he could lie among the shrubs for three straight days and nights, but he did not believe that this group of normal soldiers could do likewise.

Time would pass arduously slow for them if they just remained hidden behind the rocks and took cover. The sniper believed that in just six hours, the company hiding behind the rocks would break down and end up charging at him.

But that would be an inconsequential struggle.

However, events conspired against him. The sniper was not expecting someone so quick to appear from behind the rocks. He couldn’t even adjust his sniper rifle to take aim at the target!

That figure serpentined wildly into the open ground as the sniper tried to shoot him twice but failed in both attempts.

Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen were not the types to sit back and do nothing. Zhang Xiaoman shouted, “Jiao Xiaochen, the sniper has a semi-automatic rifle! You only have one chance, protect Ren Xiaosu!”

Jiao Xiaochen did not utter a word. He understood what Zhang Xiaoman meant.

He waited silently for a moment before he heard the crack of the sniper rifle. Then Jiao Xiaochen raised his mortar and loaded a shell into it. With a loud bang, the mortar round was lobbed at a specific angle towards a hillside to their 12 o’clock.

Jiao Xiaochen did not know where exactly the sniper was. They only used that moment when the sniper fired his rifle at Ren Xiaosu to provide him some fire support.

They did not think the shell would actually hit the enemy, but as long as they managed to disrupt him, that would be enough for Ren Xiaosu to safely get across the open terrain!

Ren Xiaosu might be very fearsome, but their Razor Sharp Company was not useless!

After the mortar blasted, no gunshots came from the sniper anymore. Jiao Xiaochen muttered, “Did we blast the enemy dead with that mortar attack?”

“Fucking dream on!” Zhang Xiaoman joked. “If you can hit the enemy with a single shot, that’ll be like Lu Yao falling in love with you. It’s absolutely impossible.”

“I’m already married. Why would you mention Lu Yao?” Jiao Xiaochen countered, “You’re the one who’s pining for her, right?”

“Which man in Fortress 178 doesn’t miss her?” Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and saw he had successfully run to a blind spot where the sniper could not see him. So he said, “Let’s remain safely hidden here and leave the rest to Ren Xiaosu. I believe he can take care of that sniper.”

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was gasping for breath as he hid in the valley. The sniper had given him a lot of pressure, and if he had not activated City Crusher, he probably couldn’t have dodged the enemy’s bullets.

Ren Xiaosu had only decided to run out from behind the rocks after carefully considering it. Previously, he and Yang Xiaojin had experimented to see if she could shoot him while he was moving at high speed.

Of course, Yang Xiaojin would not really fire at him and only made a judgment call. If Ren Xiaosu did not activate City Crusher, Yang Xiaojin could shoot him with 100% certainty. But once he activated City Crusher, Yang Xiaojin’s hit rate was reduced to 70%. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was still a little dejected. Even though he activated City Crusher, he could only reduce Yang Xiaojin’s hit rate to 70%?

But Yang Xiaojin remarked that it was because she was the one holding the rifle. If it were any other sniper, it would not be bad if they could have a 10% chance of gunning him down while he was in his “City Crusher” mode.

At that moment, Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say.

However, this was the reason why Ren Xiaosu took the gamble. In the end, it seemed that Yang Xiaojin was not bragging when she said that. As expected, she was much stronger than most other snipers.

As Ren Xiaosu steadied his breathing, he started thinking about something. The sniper had probably already shifted to another location. After the sniper’s plan to pin down the company behind the rocks had failed, he would definitely have to engage in maneuver warfare.

Ren Xiaosu had to find and finish off this enemy. Otherwise, if they were to be constantly followed by a sniper during their march, who knew when the Razor Sharp Company would meet with disaster.

He crept in the shadows and headed to that mountain in the 12 o’clock direction in an attempt to find any tracks of the sniper. He had to be extremely cautious. If he were not careful, he might end up dead to his opponent’s rifle. Ren Xiaosu plucked two shrubs and smeared the crushed up leaves onto his face and clothes for camouflage.

He suddenly remembered what Yang Xiaojin had said to him. “When two snipers meet in the wilderness, whoever reveals themselves first will die. That’s the rule for all snipers.”

Ren Xiaosu took out the black sniper rifle from the palace and muttered to himself, “I should be considered a sniper too, right?”

So then, where would the sniper shift to after leaving that 12 o’clock position in the mountain range? Ren Xiaosu carried his sniper rifle and slipped into the mountains. This was going to be his first hunt as a sniper.

Chapter 414: Setting up a counter-ambush

Chapter 414 Setting up a counter-ambush

When Ren Xiaosu was learning about sniper rifles from Yang Xiaojin, she gained a rough understanding of Ren Xiaosu’s current skill level. In her words, his Advanced Firearms Proficiency was already beyond that of most other people in the world.

However, snipers had always enjoyed a special status as the most outstanding marksmen in the world. If anyone encountered one, they would have to take extreme caution.

Ren Xiaosu knew well that it was dangerous for him to hunt down that sniper in the wilderness. That sniper’s marksmanship was probably much better than his.

But it did not matter. Ren Xiaosu was more adept at finding prey in the wilderness than his opponent was.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was crouching next to some shrubs and searching for any signs of the enemy’s whereabouts.

The sniper was very careful not to leave behind any trash throughout the day.

The sniper must have been carrying some individual field rations, but there were no signs of any discarded packaging. Most likely, the enemy had brought all the trash with him after eating, in case the discarded packaging exposed his whereabouts.

Even when he was moving about in the wilderness, he was very careful not to leave behind any footprints on the soft mud. He would take the stone path whenever there was one and was even prepared to pass through a small stream to shake off anyone who might be following him.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the shrubs in front of him and noticed some fallen leaves in an irregular pattern on the ground. When he saw this, he felt more confident.

The chase had been going on for an entire day. The sniper did not know if he was being tracked, but he had not moved too far away from his original ambush spot. He was just going about in a large circle as his mind was still on the company that had come into the wilderness. That glory was going to be his.

If he could kill an entire company, he would probably get promoted to major.

However, he wasn’t stupid. He had already called for reinforcements from the rear yesterday, and it was likely that the guerrillas coming to support him would arrive by today.

The situation yesterday was actually very dangerous. But fortunately for him, he had decided to leave the ambush site in advance. Otherwise, he might have died to the mortar attack.

The sniper was a little bewildered at the time. Just which fighting force was this company from? How did that spontaneous mortar attack drop so accurately on the spot he had ambushed them from?

But what was even scarier was that soldier who used pure speed to avoid his shots!

Actually, he had subconsciously thought of the famous Xu Xianchu from Fortress 178 when he first noticed that shadow clone through his scope. Even the bandits in the wilderness knew the shadow clone was Xu Xianchu’s symbol, so how could he not know?

If he killed Xu Xianchu, his promotion to major would almost be secured.

A sniper was a special type of soldier. Although they knew supernatural beings were very strong, they also understood that supernatural beings could not withstand a sniper’s bullets.

As such, the sniper subconsciously started searching for Xu Xianchu’s presence in the group. But since he had never seen him before, he could not tell which person in the group was him.

As such, the sniper decided to get rid of the shadow clone first. If he could not defeat the shadow clone, he would retreat.

In the end, he successfully defeated the shadow clone, and this made him grow in confidence. So a supernatural being was nothing more than that?

After getting rid of the shadow clone, he thought the entire company’s fate was in his hands. However, reality forced him to wake up.

Not everyone’s dynamic visual acuity was as strong as Yang Xiaojin’s, nor were their reflexes as fast as hers.

So when Ren Xiaosu sprinted out from behind the rocks, even the sniper found it difficult to catch a glimpse of Ren Xiaosu’s figure.

He barely fired three shots, and all three shots missed. Then he quickly got up and left, entirely dropping the idea of engaging the enemy here. The sniper knew that this supernatural being was more powerful than he had imagined. He needed a better opportunity to strike.

The sniper glanced at the sky. After delaying for a day, the guerrillas should be arriving very
soon.

But all of a sudden, a shriek came from the direction of Crow Pass. The sniper was lying within the shrubs and staying still, but when he heard the sound, he realized it was the guerrillas he had called for, and they had been attacked!

What was going on? Why would the guerrillas get attacked at Crow Pass?

He hesitated for a while but ultimately decided to head towards the site of the incident. But he immediately felt that something was off as soon as he got over the ridge and saw the situation at Crow Pass.

The sniper quickly turned around and went back behind the ridge to hide. A loud bang sounded in the distance as a bullet hit the position he was standing in a moment earlier!

It was a sniper! The enemy actually had a sniper too!

But that couldn’t be right! He had been observing the company for a long time and was very sure there were no snipers in that group. How could they possibly hide something as large as a sniper rifle?

If the enemy forces had a sniper, he definitely would not have tried to ambush the entire Razor Sharp Company all by himself.

And at this moment, the guerrillas coming through Crow Pass to provide support were all surrounded by red vines hidden under the shrubs. There were also strange plants next to them spitting out khaki-colored fruits at them.

When the fruit hit their bodies, it was so forceful that it broke their bones. Anyone who got hit in the chest would find that their ribs cracked. Those who were injured would even spit out a mouthful of blood!

The troops who arrived weren’t small in number. The sniper had called in to report the situation and stated that the enemy was a full company. As such, the guerrillas sent out two companies to meet up with the sniper to provide support. However, this group that was attacked first had arrived earlier as they were closer in the vicinity.

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They had thought that victory was already secured. Once the guerrillas arrived, they would definitely immediately finish off this unknown company from Fortress 178. But in the end, they did not even get to see the shadows of their enemy before this first guerrilla company suffered casualties to half their forces. The remaining half were still fighting the Brambles in a frenzy as they tried to escape the area controlled by the monstrous plants.

But Ren Xiaosu would not give them the chance to do so. After he threw a few grenades at them through the Shadow Door, Crow Pass turned silent again.

The sniper who was hiding behind the ridge was drenched in cold sweat. Were those brambles some sort of superpower? There were actually two supernatural beings in that company?

Moreover, the enemy seemed to have expected the arrival of these guerrillas and laid an ambush for them. And the true purpose of the attack on the guerrillas was to lure him out!

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, or else he would have died to that gunshot!

The enemy sniper’s marksmanship might not be great, but he was sufficiently treacherous!

The Zong Consortium sniper could no longer remain composed. He could not even determine how many enemies there were in these mountains and how many supernatural beings were among them.

He picked up his radio and called back to the headquarters at Beiwan River. “Poison Wolf to HQ, requesting assistance! Xu Xianchu of Fortress 178 has been discovered. I repeat, Xu Xianchu of Fortress 178 has been discovered, and there’s also the presence of another unknown supernatural being. One of the guerrilla companies has already been attacked! Please provide further assistance!”

The sniper did not dare to be overconfident anymore. He mentioned Xu Xianchu’s name as he was hoping that the command center at Beiwan River would send more troops to finish off the enemy in this mountain range.

Chapter 415: Regardless of method

Chapter 415 Regardless of method

Ren Xiaosu regretted that his shot missed. His marksmanship still was not good enough. Merely calculating the wind speed 0.1 seconds too late had allowed the enemy sniper to get away.

The enemy sniper was also quite the ruthless person. Otherwise, he would not be wandering in the mountains alone.

After Ren Xiaosu fired off his rifle, he moved off to another location. From the side of a hill, he quietly observed the Brambles as the guerrillas battled them. As a matter of fact, he had placed more than a dozen Brambles at that mountain pass, as well as over a dozen Potato Shooters.

In the face of firearms, these plants actually turned out to be pretty useful. If the enemies did not have flamethrowers, it would be very difficult for them to kill the plants with bullets, especially the Brambles with their bloodsucking ability that made them extremely lethal. They made the enemies lose their ability to resist in a short time.

These plants were an essential item to bring on a trip to the wilderness and commit murder and arson with.

Ren Xiaosu had already unlocked his second weapon, while the third weapon was still far in the future. So Ren Xiaosu loosened his purse strings and got more generous with his usage of the gratitude tokens in order to kill more enemies. After he got back, he would have to get Zhang Xiaoman and the others to help him earn back even more gratitude tokens. All in all, the benefits would be greater than the costs.

In fact, only 20 gratitude tokens had been consumed in the destruction of this particular Zong Consortium company. When he led Zhang Xiaoman and the others to victory and headed back to base for their celebratory drinks, they could earn him a few hundred more gratitude tokens.

Ren Xiaosu regretted that he didn’t kill the Zong Consortium’s sniper this time. But that was alright. He still had time to slowly toy with him.

It was very difficult to advance under the cover of the shrubs on a hillside while staying crouched. The shrubs growing here were at most half the height of a full-grown person, so remaining crouching for an extended period hurt his back badly.

If it were the average person who was pursuing the opponent, they would probably expose themselves to the sniper very quickly. However, Ren Xiaosu was not the average person.

That afternoon, Ren Xiaosu continued tracking the enemy sniper and headed east along the mountain range. By evening, just as Ren Xiaosu couldn’t determine whether he was heading in the right direction, he suddenly saw some hardtack crumbs on the ground.

Hardtack was a standardized food item in military field rations. It seemed like his opponent had replenished his energy at this spot.

For something like hardtack crumbs, even the person eating the hardtack would generally find it very hard to notice them as they were tiny.

This was the right direction. Ren Xiaosu crouched within the shrubs and looked around. He felt that he was very close to the sniper.

As the sun went down behind the distant mountains, the last sliver of twilight turned from red to gray. The moment night fell, the sniper noticed a helmet moving at where he had scattered the hardtack crumbs earlier. He sneered. Did he have to shoot at the helmet?

With a bang, a sniper bullet flew an unknown distance and towards the bottom right corner of the helmet. If someone were raising the helmet with their right hand, that person’s body would have to be at the bottom right side of the helmet.

It was very quiet in the mountains, but the sniper was too far away to determine from the feedback if he had hit the target or not.

He asked on the comms channel, “Anyone lying in ambush in the vicinity heard the sound of a bullet hitting something?”

“Heard a bullet hitting flesh,” someone replied. “We’re about 300 meters away from the target and kinda heard it.”

The sniper said on the comms channel, “Then the target should’ve been hit. Go over and check it out.”

“Roger that.” Some guerrillas moved quietly towards the spot the sniper had shot at.

A group of 120 soldiers from a guerrilla company was moving within the mountains. If one did not look carefully, they would not even notice the presence of this group.

Beiwan River was considered a key strategic location. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many guerrillas hidden in this mountain range that led there. There would also definitely be more than one sniper lying in ambush.

This mountain range was not the only route to get to Beiwan River, and most troops could not even pass through here, including the armored troops that were fitted with heavy firepower. But even so, the Zong Consortium was still being extra careful.

The guerrilla company headed up the mountain to surround the identified target. The company commander said softly on the comms channel, “The enemy is a supernatural being, so it’s very likely that he might not have died yet even though he’s been shot. Make sure to be on guard. Second Platoon will approach from 3 o’clock to prevent him from breaking through our encirclement.

“It’s late at night. If he breaks through our encirclement, the other platoons are to immediately put on your night vision goggles.”

Even if the enemy might have been shot, the Zong Consortium’s guerrilla company remained wary as they made their approach.

However, as the guerrilla company gradually tightened the encirclement, the company commander suddenly saw a ham hock at the spot where the bullet supposedly hit!

One of the guerrilla soldiers was stunned for a moment before asking on the comms channel, “Wait a minute, what’s a pig’s hindquarters doing here?”

“It’s a trap!” The company commander shouted into the comms channel, “Retreat, retreat!”

However, it was too late for them to retreat.

A second later, they discovered thin, red, thorny vines hidden within the shrubs coming for them. At the same time, a strange plant started shooting potatoes at them!

What the fuck was this?!

The sniper listened in shock to his comrades’ cries on the comms channel. He had already changed his ambush position with care. Through his scope, he once again saw the vines that looked like purgatory tentacles taking all life within its attack radius.

The Zong Consortium sniper was really afraid now. He did not even dare lift his head as he crawled into the distance and fled. He needed to rendezvous with the main forces of the guerrillas as this was not an enemy he could deal with!

That was two full companies that had perished! A total of 240 people died without knowing why they died.

However, the sniper could not understand how his opponent had carried that ham hock up the mountain!

Suddenly, grenades exploded behind him. The sniper was shaken. If grenades could be thrown at him, wouldn’t it mean the enemy was really close?

The sniper could feel despair in his heart, but he did not give up. Instead, he just continued crawling forward and even used a slope to expeditiously roll down the mountain.

This time, Ren Xiaosu had won another small battle.

The sniper had deliberately scattered some hardtack crumbs on the ground in an attempt to lure Ren Xiaosu in.

However, Ren Xiaosu kept wondering why a sniper who had always been very cautious would suddenly drop some hardtack crumbs. So he felt that something was not right. That was why he had set a trap to counter that.

However, Ren Xiaosu still regretted things. He was still very far away from the sniper and was unable to ascertain his exact location, so he simply threw two hand grenades through the Shadow Door in the general area. But unfortunately, he didn’t blow up his opponent.

Yang Xiaojin had said that snipers with an ego would sometimes insist on ending their opponents’ lives on a battlefield by shooting them.

But Ren Xiaosu did not have the least bit of ego and was only interested in killing his enemy. As for how to finish them off, the method was not that important. After all, he only had Advanced Firearms Proficiency, so what was there to be proud of?

As a soldier of the Razor Sharp Company, he just had to do it the most straightforward way. There was no need to care about how to achieve the objective.

Chapter 416: Double kill

Chapter 416 Double kill

Since his opponent had called for two guerrilla companies as backup, he had to kill them all!

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something didn’t seem right. Because he had been fucking pursuing a single sniper, he ended up killing two guerrilla companies instead?

How did he end up as the person behind the massacre of the guerrilla companies when he was just trying to kill the sniper?

If he continued hunting the sniper, would it mean that all the guerrillas in the entire mountain range were going to get wiped out?

But the problem was that if he did not get rid of the sniper, the Razor Sharp Company behind him could not risk trekking through this mountain range.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu knew it wasn’t that the Razor Sharp Company could not do anything about the sniper. If they really decided to risk it all, how could a single sniper wipe out 180 people who were determined to charge forward? The sniper probably did not even have enough ammunition on him to achieve that.

But it was just that this time, Ren Xiaosu was hoping that everyone from the Razor Sharp Company could return to the fortress alive. That was why he was so persistent in hunting down the sniper who was a threat.

He even wiped out two entire companies of guerrillas in the process.

As he continued moving east, Ren Xiaosu got a day’s march ahead of the Razor Sharp Company behind him. But that did not really matter since he could slowly make his way back and find the Razor Sharp Company after he had killed the sniper. He was no longer particularly worried about that sniper anymore. The mental state of a soldier on the battlefield was not unbreakable.

After the sniper had twice witnessed his comrades getting killed by the enormous Brambles, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

It was fortunate that he was a sniper, as having a strong mentality was always one of the key areas of training. As such, he could still keep his cool and continue fleeing.

If a normal soldier had witnessed such a terrifying scene, they would be terrified.

Many people who have not been in battle before would think there was no reason to be afraid of death. Even if their comrades were all dead, they would still fight to the bitter end.

But in fact, when they saw their comrades dying one after another next to them, the fear of an unknown death approaching would suddenly envelop them and devour all of those heroic words. They would not even have the ability to think properly.

This was what war was all about.

So the mental fortitude of recruits was completely different from that of veterans who had been in battle before.

Ren Xiaosu carefully followed the sniper. Even though he knew well that the sniper had already lost his will to resist, he was definitely not the only enemy hiding in this mountain range.

After rolling down the slope, the sniper did not even care to check for cuts or fractures and just fled to the eastern base as quickly as he could. The sniper rifle he was carrying in his hands felt particularly heavy as well.

The Zong Consortium sniper kept thinking about how to resolve his current predicament. He would definitely get summoned to a court martial after he returned.

He was the one who had called for reinforcements, and headquarters sent him two companies of guerrillas as requested. However, the guerrilla companies both encountered ambushes one after the other while he escaped alive.

The military police would probably take him away to be interrogated once he returned to the military base to see if he might be a spy.

To be honest, not even some spies could achieve what he did on the battlefield to such great effect.

Even if the military police ended up discharging suspicions of him being a spy, he would still end up a target for criticism for dereliction of duty. His bright future was definitely gone. It was all over the moment he opened fire on that shadow.

The sniper froze. While he was thinking about his situation, he seemed to have wandered into a clearing. This was a sniper’s taboo!

Even though the clearing only measured a short five meters in size!

The sniper suddenly accelerated and bounded into the shrubs in front of him.

But then he noticed a flash of light in the distance in his peripheral vision. The Zong Consortium sniper’s heart sank!

He felt a bullet passing through his abdomen, and the tremendous kinetic energy of the bullet surged through his body as his heart and lungs were torn to pieces.

This was the power of a sniper rifle. It could kill people in an instant without needing to strike them in the head.

But another sniper rifle boomed as well. Before the Zong Consortium sniper died, he showed a mysterious smile on his face. That was because he felt that someone would probably be taking revenge for him. Another sniper from the Zong Consortium had already arrived on the battlefield and confirmed Ren Xiaosu’s position when he fired that shot just now!

This was an arrangement he made with the other sniper. He would act as the bait to atone for his mistakes and deliberately walk into a clearing to lure the sniper from Fortress 178 into shooting him.

As far as he could tell, his opponent’s marksmanship was not that good. So he might still be able to survive if he moved quickly enough. This way, he wouldn’t have to be summoned to court martial when he got back to the stronghold.

He was gambling. As long as they could finish off that sniper from Fortress 178, they would win the bet.

The sniper was so strong mentally that he was still thinking about how to fight back even though he had already caused the deaths of 240 of his comrades.

Unfortunately, the plan just barely failed.

A few moments ago, Ren Xiaosu decisively pulled the trigger from his ambush point when he saw the Zong Consortium sniper exposing himself in the clearing.

At the same time, the other sniper in the distant mountain also pulled his trigger.

However, Ren Xiaosu had become really cautious now. He could not afford to be careless anymore after being given the lessons that others had sacrificed their lives to teach.

Ren Xiaosu’s position was exposed after he pulled the trigger, so he quickly grabbed his rifle and threw himself to the ground to his right right from his initial crouching position. A sniper bullet grazed the skin on the outside of his left thigh and hit the dirt behind him.

Ren Xiaosu could feel a burning sensation on his thigh. Even though the bullet had only grazed his skin, it tore through a fair bit of the muscle fibers in his left leg as well.

But Ren Xiaosu had no time to care about that. Ever since he started using the steam locomotive and shadow clone, he had experienced so much pain that his nerves were now as tough as steel!

Ren Xiaosu did not pause after falling to his right. Instead, he activated “City Crusher” once again and started a mad dash forward. The sniper continued firing shots at him. However, none of the bullets were able to hit the speedy Ren Xiaosu from a distance of over a 1,000 meters.

One shot, two shots, three shots… Ren Xiaosu kept his head on a swivel for the muzzle flashes in the distance as he ran.

When watching for a sniper, you should not depend on the sound of the shots since light travels much faster.

All of a sudden, he came to a stop and crouched like a statue. Then he raised his sniper rifle and took aim.

Yang Xiaojin had told him before that there was no need to be afraid when a sniper fired off a few shots in succession. When a sniper was forced to keep shooting at a fast-moving target, they could no longer aim their shots accurately at a target from over a 1,000 meters away by the fourth shot, because they had to adjust for the recoil.

Ren Xiaosu knew well that the chance of survival he fought for would only last for a brief moment.

As he inhaled, Ren Xiaosu heard only the sound of his own breathing around him.

Yang Xiaojin said that upon pulling the trigger, the heart rate, body temperature, sweat glands, and all other parts of the body should serve the will. In that moment, you could only dominate others by dominating yourself first.

Due to the hot and blazing afternoon sun, the crushed leaves Ren Xiaosu applied on his face had dried up. After he pulled the trigger, a pink mist erupted in the mountains in the distance. The mist seemed to form a rainbow in the shining sunlight.

Chapter 417: Comrades who shelter and protect

Chapter 417 Comrades who shelter and protect

After Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger and shot his enemy, he did not let his guard down. Instead, he turned around and ran into the wilderness behind him. No one stipulated that there could only be two Zong Consortium snipers here in the mountain range. Who knew if there were actually three of them?

At this moment, the wound on his outer left thigh that was grazed by the sniper’s bullet was still bleeding profusely. He had to limp along.

It was not that he could not endure the pain, but that his left leg was a little weak now since the muscle fibers were torn. No matter how strong his willpower was, he could not mend the muscle fibers in an instant.

So it was still those same words. The most dangerous moment when walking a tightrope was always the last three steps. Only those who could finish those three steps would be qualified to walk on a tightrope.

Ren Xiaosu had already exhausted quite a bit of his energy in this battle. Whether it be ambushing the guerrilla companies or outwitting the snipers, he had not encountered so many twists and turns before.

In reality, his enemy was not an elite sniper. In Yang Xiaojin’s words, there were no elite snipers in the entire Northwest, and none of them were a match for her.

Besides, Ren Xiaosu was also not a schemer. He had only ever learned how to fight and hunt. In the past, his targets had always been mindless animals. But this time, he was hunting down someone who had a mind of their own.

If a true hunter were here, they would probably have scoffed at Ren Xiaosu’s efforts. For example, should he have risked his life after the enemy’s third shot, should he have pursued the enemy this far, or did he actually have a chance to kill that sniper but didn’t realize it?

If Yang Xiaojin were present, she would probably think those snipers were extremely stupid and bad shots.

But no matter what, Ren Xiaosu was still making progress and learning from his experiences.

The deaths of his enemies were more important than anything else.

Ren Xiaosu hid in the bushes behind the mountain ridge for a long time. He wanted to see if there would be a third sniper out there and how the Zong Consortium’s guerrillas would react.

After all, two snipers and two companies of guerrillas had perished here, so they couldn’t possibly allow Ren Xiaosu and the others to get arrogant.

But it was also possible that the guerrillas would simply give up on defending the Beiwan River when they saw their enemies were not to be trifled with. That was also a possibility, but it still depended mainly on how their opponent chose to react.

After waiting for a long time, Ren Xiaosu did not see any more guerrillas getting sent here. It was as though they had given up on defending this mountain range.

After some thought, Ren Xiaosu decided to head back and join up with the Razor Sharp Company first. He wondered what it was like at the rear now after he had been out here hunting the enemy for almost two days.

All of a sudden, he saw a large number of troops heading straight for him from the north. Ren Xiaosu was shocked to discover they had not fucking given up on the mountain range yet. Instead, they had been taking some time to gather the troops to send a regiment directly into the mountain range. They were planning to wipe out their enemies in these mountains! They intended to surround him!

He had overplayed his hand! They were actually sending a full regiment to go after one company? This was going overboard.

Ren Xiaosu’s head was starting to hurt. The Razor Sharp Company was still thinking about passing straight through here to get to the Beiwan River to blow up the bridge? How were they supposed to pass through now?

He turned around and stooped low to make his escape. He had to get out of their perimeter first.

While running away, Ren Xiaosu wondered if he could plant some Brambles to kill some of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers. As there were too many of them, it would be unrealistic to wipe out the entire regiment. But it would be good enough if he could kill a portion of them.

However, Ren Xiaosu realized the sniper might have already reported to his rear forces about the possibility of some terrifying plants being hidden within the shrubs when he sought reinforcements.

As a result, the soldiers of the Zong Consortium’s main troops did not even walk through the areas where shrubs were growing. They traversed the shady side of the slope where there was no vegetation while remaining extremely cautious.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had noticed that some of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers were even carrying flamethrowers! With these around, the Brambles would be rendered useless. A fire could wipe them all out.

Even plants had their natural enemies.

When he saw this, Ren Xiaosu thought he did not want to create any unnecessary trouble. So he ran all the way back to the other end of the mountain while limping.

The Zong Consortium’s commander at the Beiwan River seemed to be really outraged by all of this. He seemed extremely determined to kill Ren Xiaosu no matter what.

While Ren Xiaosu was escaping, he realized these Zong Consortium soldiers always seemed to track down his exact location. Due to his injury, he was planning to shake off the Zong Consortium first before joining back up with the Razor Sharp Company. However, his plan was foiled.

During his escape, he hid on a ridge and observed his pursuers. He was surprised to see a dozen-odd Zong Consortium’s soldiers holding leashes for several huge hounds. The hounds were so large they could drag people off by themselves. Even those well-built adult soldiers were unable to keep them under control with the leashes.

Ren Xiaosu felt that these hounds could even be ridden as mounts.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized it was the smell of blood. Due to his outer left thigh that had been grazed by the enemy sniper’s bullet, an open wound had formed. It not only slowed him down a lot but also left behind a scent trail. Although he had already applied the black medicine onto the wound, that could not cover up the smell of blood.

It seemed like that was the reason why the Zong Consortium’s soldiers were able to keep chasing after him.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any better ideas to deal with these hounds. He could not just get rid of the smell by throwing away his bloodstained clothes. He could only try to find a stream and follow it all the way back to where the Razor Sharp Company was.

But there was no such stream in the vicinity.

By the next afternoon, the Zong Consortium’s soldiers let the hounds loose and allowed them to pursue Ren Xiaosu freely after realizing they still had not caught up with him after wasting so much time.

This put Ren Xiaosu in a fix. Even though he was injured, he could still move faster than the Zong Consortium soldiers. But the hounds were different. These animals had also fucking mutated!

The dozen-odd hounds did not have a single ounce of fat and could navigate through the mountains like they were moving on flat ground.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the shadow clone in the palace. The shadow clone had still not returned to its original form. He really had to be careful not to let anything hit the shadow clone between its brows again in the future. He would have to prepare a helmet for it just in case.

Seeing that the dozen hounds were getting closer, Ren Xiaosu made ready to fight!

He would not be afraid of these hounds if not for the Zong Consortium’s firepower at their rear!

Ren Xiaosu would have to kill the hounds out here as he did not wish to lead the Zong Consortium to where the Razor Sharp Company was.

But at this moment, he heard the ratatat of a machine gun coming from the hills on both sides of Crow Pass. Ren Xiaosu even heard someone shout, “Ren Xiaosu, get over here! We’ll cover you!”

He saw the Razor Sharp Company had already built a simple fortification on the hills on either side of Crow Pass. Fu Rao was shooting mercilessly at the hounds with a heavy machine gun he was wielding in his hands. In just a few seconds, he had already killed six or seven of the hounds that were chasing after Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. Was this what it felt like to have the support of comrades? When you needed to catch a breather, there would be someone standing behind you to shelter and protect you.

“What are you still standing there for? Get over here! Why are there so many fucking hounds chasing after you? Ren Xiaosu, how many enemies are pursuing you?” Zhang Xiaoman lamented, “Where did you go…”

Chapter 418: A triumph

Chapter 418 A triumph

After he limped up the hill, Ren Xiaosu hid behind the fortifications while panting. He said with a smile, “I killed the sniper. There were actually two of them out there. Oh, I also wiped out two guerrilla companies.”

Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “Stop bragging!” But when he saw over a 1,000 Zong Consortium soldiers pursuing behind the hounds, he immediately stopped laughing. “Did you really single-handedly kill two companies of guerrillas and two snipers as well?”

The members of the Razor Sharp Company were used to bragging all the time. So when Ren Xiaosu told them this shocking news, everyone thought that Ren Xiaosu was just boasting.

Ren Xiaosu said, “There are many more pursuers. We should retreat immediately.”

“That won’t do.” Zhang Xiaoman laughed. “Since you’re so fearsome, surely our Razor Sharp Company can’t hold you back, right? No matter how many enemies come today, we’ll wipe them all out!”

Ren Xiaosu realized that Zhang Xiaoman and his men had prepared extensively here. It looked like they were fully ready to spring this ambush.

“Captain,” Jiao Xiaochen suddenly said as he looked out into the distance, “I think we better retreat…”

Zhang Xiaoman gazed at the large number of Zong Consortium soldiers in the distance. As they were still very far away, the soldiers looked just like ants.

Zhang Xiaoman realized the Zong Consortium would not have sent so many soldiers to eliminate their enemies in the mountains if Ren Xiaosu had just been talking big. It looked like they were extremely determined to annihilate the advance guard of Fortress 178!

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Why did y’all choose to set up the ambush here?”

Zhang Xiaoman replied, “We were worried the situation would blow up and you would end up being pursued by the enemy, so we set up an ambush here with the intent of coming to your aid. But who would have thought the situation would get this serious!”

“That’s right.” Jiao Xiaochen said, “We were thinking that it would be great if you could kill the sniper. Once you achieved that, the guerrilla companies would definitely come after you. At that time, we would’ve stopped the enemy here at Crow Pass and killed them all. But who would have expected that you’d already kill the guerrilla companies and even managed to attract part of the Zong Consortium’s main forces after you? Haha, you’re too amazing!”

Zhang Xiaoman asked with concern, “How’s your injury?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already applied the black medicine on it.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Let’s make our escape now. There’s too many enemy troops out there.”

By this point, Fu Rao and the others had taken care of all the hounds. The Razor Sharp Company definitely couldn’t handle so many Zong Consortium soldiers. So fleeing was their best option.

However, Zhang Xiaoman changed his mind again and said, “Then what are we still hesitating for? Let’s go… But we can’t just run away like this. We have to pull off a big one against the Zong Consortium soldiers before we leave. Jiao Xiaochen, set your mortars up. Everyone, get ready and prepare for battle!”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “But there’s too many enemies.”

Zhang Xiaoman said in seriousness, “Do you think they’ll be carrying heavy weapons? They’re just guerrillas, while mechanized infantry can’t enter these mountains. So we’re assured of victory since we’re fighting them from high ground.”

“They’ve already heard our machine guns. They won’t charge up just to die, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Can’t you see that the commanding officer of those troops has already allowed emotion to rule his head? You’ve frustrated him.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “Do you think that everyone can become legendary generals? The Zong Consortium has been holing up in the North all these years and never fought a decent battle. Their officers are still far from being able to deal with spontaneity on the battlefield. Don’t think that every officer is a calm and intelligent person. If that were the case, there wouldn’t have been so many stupid battles in history.”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent.

Zhang Xiaoman said in amusement, “Do you think I’m belittling the heroes of the world? No, this is called knowing ourselves and knowing the enemy. If it were the Qing Consortium instead of the Zong Consortium, Commander Zhang might not be so willing to send out troops to open up the trade routes. If these were the Qing Consortium’s veterans, I would turn around right now and flee. But there’s also the strong and the weak among the consortiums. There must be a reason why the Zong Consortium was shoved aside by the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium. It’s not that we look down on them, but that they’re incompetent.”

Realized dawned upon Ren Xiaosu that in the minds of these boorish men from Fortress 178, the Qing Consortium’s troops were several times more capable than the Zong Consortium’s troops. To them, only the Qing Consortium was seen as a truly difficult opponent.

As though to confirm Zhang Xiaoman’s assessment, the approaching Zong Consortium soldiers continued to obey their orders and advanced forward using the cover of the valley. They did so even though they knew that their enemy possessed heavy machine guns.

They intended to wipe out the Razor Sharp Company with brute force!

Zhang Xiaoman waited for the enemy to enter their range. Once they did, he immediately issued the order to fire. Together with Jiao Xiaochen’s six mortar units, they mercilessly bombarded the Zong Consortium troops.

Although it was only a single attack wave, they nearly wiped out one of the Zong Consortium’s companies that came charging towards them. Only then was the enemy jolted awake.

The Zong Consortium troops retreated like the tide!

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman got up and packed his belongings. “Let’s quickly leave this place. The Zong Consortium’s fucking mortars will be coming in soon. They should’ve adjusted the angle of their mortars by now. It’ll be too late if we don’t leave now.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned by the sight. He had not said anything since Zhang Xiaoman’s decision to stay and fight. But at this moment, Zhang Xiaoman was actually running faster than a rabbit after “pulling off a big one.” There were no signs of that lofty spirit and soaring determination he displayed earlier.

Right after they retreated from the hill, the Zong Consortium’s artillery fire plowed into where they just were.

Zhang Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness we escaped fast enough. If not, we would’ve all died here. This time, we achieved great things. Including the companies Ren Xiaosu took out, we’ve defeated three companies of the Zong Consortium. Haha, that’ll be worth another third-class unit citation after we return. Who knows, we might even be given a second-class unit citation this time!”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Captain, weren’t you worried that they’d attack us with their mortars first?”

“No, they couldn’t determine our exact location at the start. Besides, they didn’t have enough time to adjust the angle of the mortars, so they couldn’t have hit us accurately.”

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly said in seriousness, “Captain, although I don’t know how well you know the Zong Consortium’s troops, let’s try not to underestimate them again in the future. What if shells rained down before we could make our escape? Wouldn’t all of us have died? I really hope that we can all return alive.”

Everyone looked at Zhang Xiaoman. The Razor Sharp Company had always followed Zhang Xiaoman’s orders as they braved the dangers on the battlefield. Even during their military exercises, he would specifically do the missions in the most dangerous way as a challenge to themselves.

It was precisely such behavior that made outsiders refer to people from Fortress 178 as those “damn fucks.”

Ren Xiaosu continued, “I’m not questioning the Captain’s combat methods, but I just hope that we can exercise a little more caution. After all, we might end up dying if we encounter a brilliant opponent. Even if that’s a one in a million chance, we still can’t afford to take the gamble.”

Zhang Xiaoman remained silent for a moment before saying, “Alright, we’ll do as you say!”

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers around him were shocked. Others had tried to persuade Zhang Xiaoman, but he never once heeded their advice.

“What are y’all looking at?” Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “Why is everyone staring at me? Am I that handsome? Retreat already!”

Since the Zong Consortium’s mechanized infantry could not enter the mountains, they would not have to be afraid of their continued pursuit. The Razor Sharp Company could run faster than the Zong Consortium.

Chapter 419: All the world's a stage

Chapter 419 All the world’s a stage

Zhang Xiaoman said as he walked, “HQ has made wrong estimations of the number of the enemy troops stationed in the mountains. If you hadn’t gone to scout ahead, the entire Razor Sharp Company would probably have been wiped out once we stepped into their perimeter. Speaking of, we still have to thank you for it.”

“Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, “That’s not really due to me. More importantly, we had to take out that sniper since we got pinned behind the rocks.”

“It’s not that we can’t do anything to the snipers. We could’ve charged out from behind the rocks together. His effective range is probably around a 1,000 meters or so, but we have six HMGs whose effective range isn’t any shorter than his weapon.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Why are so many snipers on the battlefield not given automatic sniper rifles? Is it because they don’t want it? Of course not!

“It’s every elite sniper’s dream to be able to use a fully automatic sniper rifle. No matter how accurate a bolt-action rifle is, it’s not as good as a full-auto rifle on the battlefield. Even the best snipers are afraid of the HMGS operated by recruits. A long-range HMG with a tripod that can provide effective cover is a natural enemy of snipers.”

This was an ironclad rule formed from the sacrifice of countless lives on the battlefield. So some of the more decent snipers would not choose to fire continuous shots and left right after carrying out a decapitation strike, the mark of a truly vicious sniper. Like the two snipers Ren Xiaosu had encountered. They were purely used for intercepting scouts who might try to infiltrate from this place.

On the battlefield, snipers could be used in more than one way.

Based on Zhang Xiaoman’s original plan, the enemy sniper was hiding on the mountainside and trying to pin them down. But Zhang Xiaoman was willing to minimize their losses if need be. By charging out from behind cover, they could catch their enemy off guard.

“But a lot of people would be killed that way,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“How can there be no casualties in war? It’s just some people dying. What’s there to be afraid of?” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. “If I can die on the battlefield, that would be an honor.”

How can there be no casualties in war? This seemed to be the conventional wisdom that Zhang Xiaoman frequently uttered.

However, that was where the problem lay. In his pursuit with the sniper, Ren Xiaosu decided to charge because he did not want anyone from the Razor Sharp Company to get killed. This was his obsession.

His thinking may have been naive, but that was just how he thought. If someone from the Razor Sharp Company got killed, it was like he would be unworthy of protecting anything anymore.

Zhang Xiaoman asked how there could be no casualties in war. To which Ren Xiaosu answered they wouldn’t know if they didn’t
try.

Regardless of what happened in the future, he had still managed to keep everyone alive this time.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in a serious tone, “Don’t just talk about me. You can’t continue risking your life like that either. You only live once, so we can’t keep letting you charge into battle like this.”

But Ren Xiaosu insisted, “I’ll make sure that all of you survive.”

Zhang Xiaoman felt something was wrong. Why did it suddenly seem like Ren Xiaosu was the company commander instead of him?

But now they were facing new problems. Since there was an error with the intel of the garrison forces in this mountain range, this route was no longer safe to take. However, they still had not completed the operation assigned to them by Zhou Yinglong to blow up the Beiwan Bridge.

“Bring the map over and let’s figure out an alternate path to the Beiwan River.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “We’re only 200 kilometers away from the Beiwan River now, so it’s really frustrating that we can’t get to it when it is right in front of us.”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “I’ve always been curious about something. This op should’ve been done by Recon, right? So why did they send our Razor Sharp Company?”.

Ren Xiaosu had been wondering about this for some time. In his opinion, the Recon Battalion should have been the ones responsible for infiltration, carrying out long-range raids, and bombing bridges. So why was the Razor Sharp Company made to do it this time?

Even if Zhang Jinglin liked to order him around, he wouldn’t have given such an illogical order, right?

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and explained, “Commander Zhou has already left the FOB with the rest of the Forward Strike Battalion and headed northeast. From the looks of it, they’ll pass through Shichuan Village to join up with us, but the Forward Strike Battalion suddenly changed their direction and advanced north after passing through Shichuan Village. They plan to arrive at Mt. Qiangwan within three days and assault it.”

“Why?” Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Mt. Qiangwan was not that far away from the Beiwan River. The mountain held a small base of the Zong Consortium, but it was extremely difficult to take due to the dangerous terrain. It could be regarded as an anchor in the vicinity of the Beiwan River, and the two locations had always closely supported each other.

“The Forward Strike Battalion and Razor Sharp Company have always been the advance guard of Fortress 178. The entire Forward Strike Battalion’s march to the east is to create the false impression that Fortress 178’s main forces are attacking the east. In that way, we can buy some time to build a pontoon bridge on the Blackstone River,” Zhang Xiaoman said.

Ren Xiaosu finally understood. Be it the Razor Sharp Company’s operation to bomb the Beiwan Bridge, or the Forward Strike Battalion attacking Mt. Qiangwan, all of it was a feint to cover up the true strategy. They just had to play their part well on this grand stage.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. “Did any of you see Xu Xianchu at the FOB?”

“Old Xu?” Zhang Xiaoman wondered. “I don’t think I saw him. He could still be stationed back at the fortress. After all, our military presence at the fortress is rather low now, so it’s essential to keep some of our main forces garrisoned at the fortress.”

Ren Xiaosu got lost in thought. Would someone like Xu Xianchu, who could make significant contributions on the front, be made to defend Fortress 178?

He felt that Xu Xianchu had been assigned on a different mission.

At this moment, the radioman came running over carrying the radio set on his back and said, “Captain, the Battalion Commander would like to speak to you.”

When Zhang Xiaoman answered the call, he heard Zhou Yinglong ask, “What’s the situation over there now?”

Zhang Xiaoman reported, “There’s a large number of Zong troops garrisoned within the mountain range leading towards the Beiwan River. We’re trying to find alternate routes to pass through it and assessing whether there’s a possibility of blowing up the Beiwan Bridge.”

Zhou Yinglong asked, “Were there any direct confrontations with them?”

“You can say so.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Ren Xiaosu killed two of their guerrilla companies. We also laid an ambush and killed another of their companies, so they’re just currently blind firing mortars at us. How ’bout it, Battalion Commander? We ain’t embarrassed you,
yeah?”

“Maggot, don’t you fucking get cocky.” Zhou Yinglong was so angry he laughed. “Before our troops here could even get close to Mt. Qiangwan, the scouts reported back to us that Mt. Qiangwan sent out reinforcements to the Beiwan River. After your attack there, the Zong Consortium probably thought our main forces were deployed to the Beiwan River! Let’s see how you shits are going to complete the op now!”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before turning anxious. “Battalion Commander, you should quickly start your attack on Mt. Qiangwan to lure the troops back there!”

“How the fuck am I supposed to lure them back?” Zhou Yinglong snapped. “We still have two days before we can get to Mt. Qiangwan. But thanks to y’all, we should have an easier time in our attack on Mt. Qiangwan.”

Zhang Xiaoman turned bitter. Orders were not to be taken lightly. Regardless of the situation, their objective was still to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. How were they supposed to launch their attack there now that enemy troops were concentrated at the Beiwan Bridge?

“I’m sorry,” Ren Xiaosu apologized as he glanced at the radio that was still transmitting. “It was all because of me that y’all are in this dilemma. Give all the TNT to me, I’ll go and blow up the Beiwan Bridge by myself.”

Zhang Xiaoman winked at him and said, “Are you apologizing because you’ve wiped out two of their guerrilla companies and killed two snipers as well? Matter of fact, without you, we’d’ve been surrounded by a regiment of the enemy. It’s OK. We’ll die together at worst. For the honor of Fortress 178, it’s totally worth it!”

Zhou Yinglong had yet to stop transmitting. He roared, “Who are you putting on an act for when I haven’t even hung up yet? What about dying together? Don’t you feel embarrassed putting on such a heroic act? Quit acting already! Y’all will rest for the next two days. Once we attack Mt. Qiangwan and attract the troops back here, y’all will launch a breakthrough on the Beiwan River!”

Chapter 420: Arrival of the Qing Consortium

Chapter 420 Arrival of the Qing Consortium

The Razor Sharp Company suddenly found themselves with a lot of time on their hands. They had never been this free before even when holding at the forward operating base. During that time, they still had to carry on with their physical and field training regimens. But right now, all they had to do was wait here quietly.

Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Xiaoman had put on an act for Zhou Yinglong because they knew that it would be impossible to blow up the Beiwan Bridge if Mt. Qiangwan had sent reinforcements to the Beiwan River.

No matter how capable their company was, they could not possibly fight against thousands of people with only 184 of them. Not even Ren Xiaosu could do that. Besides, they did not have that much ammunition to handle all those enemies either.

As for Zhou Yinglong, he was not a rigid person. He knew the Razor Sharp Company had done good enough. One company annihilating three companies of the Zong Consortium’s combat troops without suffering any injuries themselves was something unheard of in the entire military.

Therefore, he ordered the Razor Sharp Company to find a safe place and regroup. The Razor Sharp Company would only continue advancing to break through at the Beiwan River after the Forward Strike Battalion drew the firepower of Mt. Qiangwan.

Even though the Razor Sharp Company had gotten very far away from the mountain range, they still did not dare to set up a campfire. If the enemy’s scouts discovered them and used their firepower to attack them, they would surely suffer heavy casualties.

Zhang Xiaoman smiled mysteriously. He took out a small, silver flask and winked at the others. “Since we have nothing better to do, shall we all drink a little?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not expected Zhang Xiaoman to be so bold as to bring alcohol to the battlefield. “Are you crazy? You can’t drink now. We’re in battle!”

This time, it was Zhang Xiaoman’s turn to be stunned. Everyone would usually share the alcohol after he took it out, and that was that. But with Ren Xiaosu around, it was like someone was supervising them.

Zhang Xiaoman got upset. “I’m the company commander.”

“Then go ahead and drink.” Ren Xiaosu paused. “If you take even a sip, I’ll report you to the Disciplinary Committee.”

Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.

“We really can’t drink right now.” Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, “We don’t know when a bullet will come flying on the battlefield. Can you react in time if that happens?”.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t mind Zhang Xiaoman and the others drinking, but now was definitely not the time. He hoped to keep everyone in the Razor Sharp Company alive. So he could not afford to let things go wrong.

As they conversed, Ren Xiaosu snatched the flask from Zhang Xiaoman’s hands and stored it into his palace. “I’ll keep it for you for the time being.”

Then Ren Xiaosu went to relieve himself.

Someone laughed and said, “Ren Xiaosu behaves more like our CO.”

Someone else elbowed Zhang Xiaoman and said softly in a cheerful voice, “Captain, you lost your temper if we didn’t let you drink. Why were you so submissive this time?”

“It’s not like I can fucking beat him, can I?” Zhang Xiaoman snapped. “And what do you know? Have you forgotten who he is? He’s Ren Xiaosu! The one Commander Zhang assigned to the Razor Sharp Company!”

“So what?”

“What do you mean ‘so what’?” Zhang Xiaoman stared with eyes wide and said, “By assigning him to the Razor Sharp Company, it’s to show the entire army that he’s qualified to be the next commander. Seeing how fearsome Ren Xiaosu is, he will definitely survive until the end of the war. Even if you say he’s the heir of Fortress 178, that wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Never mind that we used to pick on him. Now that we’ve realized how qualified he is, we have to accept it, understand?”

Everyone pondered that and found it quite reasonable.

These gruff men from the Northwest might be a wild bunch, but they were still sensible. The other fighting forces of Fortress 178 might not be convinced by Ren Xiaosu yet, but their Razor Sharp Company had accepted him already. Zhang Xiaoman already regarded Ren Xiaosu as the next commander. Why else would he show such humility to him?

“To be honest, I admire Ren Xiaosu from the bottom of my heart.” Jiao Xiaochen said, “He doesn’t seem to have any problems except for being fond of people thanking him.”

“It’s no big deal saying thanks.” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “In this era, we should be happy that our lives can be saved in exchange for saying thank you. Since he likes to hear people thank him, let’s just thank him more.”

Ren Xiaosu came back from relieving himself. When he heard their discussion, he sat down right next to Zhang Xiaoman. “Then what are you waiting for? Why don’t we start now?”

Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.

Then, Fu Rao, who was in charge of nighttime surveillance, shouted on the communications channel, “This is bad! Something terrible has happened. There’s a large number of troops headed here from the south. They look like an independent regiment!”

Zhang Xiaoman immediately got up. Fortress 178 had not stationed any troops to the south. If these troops were coming from the south, they would definitely be enemies.

He immediately asked, “How far are they from our camp?”

The voice on the comms channel said. “At most three kilometers away.”

“What kind of troops are they? Are they from the Zong Consortium?” Zhang Xiaoman asked with a frown.

“No… their logo is that of a white ginkgo leaf.” Fu Rao said: “It’s the Qing Consortium’s mechanized infantry.”

“The Qing Consortium?!” Everyone was confused.

Shouldn’t the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium be fighting to the death in the South? Why would they suddenly have the strength to come and join the northern battlefield? Could it be that the Qing Consortium and the Zong Consortium had joined forces?

The war between the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium was full scale. All of Qing Zhen’s plans had been carried out as more than half of the Yang Consortium’s industries were destroyed. At the beginning, the Yang Consortium could rely on their ammunition reserves to fight the war. But after just two months, the entire Yang Consortium ended up passive.

There was a shortage of ammunition at the front lines, while the strongholds that had not suffered from the war directly were also faced with a shortage of supplies.

Qing Zhen was truly brilliant. By supporting the bandits in the North, he had shaken the Yang Consortium to its core at the lowest possible cost. He had really caught them by surprise.

Zhang Xiaoman had said to Ren Xiaosu that if it were the Qing Consortium’s troops they had encountered in the mountain range, he would have already fled.

It would be difficult to say who would win when an entire regiment of infantry faced another regiment. But there was no doubt that a company would lose against a regiment even if both sides had similar capabilities.

Therefore, an independent regiment from the Qing Consortium suddenly coming north didn’t sound like good news.

Only Ren Xiaosu was still sitting quietly next to the campfire. Zhang Xiaoman said, “Let’s retreat towards Mt. Qiangwan and join up with Battalion Commander Zhou. We can’t fight against this independent regiment from the Qing Consortium on our own!”

But Ren Xiaosu piped up, “They might not be here to fight us.”

“Are you crazy?” Zhang Xiaoman said in shock. “How can the Qing troops not be here to attack us when they suddenly appeared at a place so close to us?”

But Fu Rao suddenly said on the comms channel, “Wait a minute, Captain. Their mechanized infantry has stopped advancing. They’ve sent someone out to hoof it over to us.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed and stood up. “They’re probably here to look for me.”

Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was stunned. ‘You’re saying that the Qing Consortium traveled all the way north in the middle of the night with such a massive turnout of mechanized infantry just because they’re looking for you?’

Ren Xiaosu looked south and waited quietly. In reality, he was also unsure of the Qing Consortium’s intentions until he saw Tang Zhou.

Chapter 421: Helping the attack on the Beiwan Bridge

Chapter 421 Helping the attack on the Beiwan Bridge

Not including Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, the officers Ren Xiaosu was most familiar with in the Qing Consortium were Tang Zhou and Xu Man.

Tang Zhou was Luo Lan’s trusted aide, and Ren Xiaosu had saved his life before. Meanwhile, Xu Man, as Qing Zhen’s trusted aide, was the one who had been put in charge of consolidating the northern bandit groups.

When Ren Xiaosu saw Tang Zhou, Tang Zhou waved cheerfully at him. He also signaled to the other Razor Sharp Company soldiers to show that he was not armed.

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “You’re really quite bold to come over here without any weapons.”

“What’s the point of carrying a weapon?” Tang Zhou also smiled and replied, “There are so many people here, and with you around, I’d still end up dead even if I had a weapon on me.”

Zhang Xiaoman and the others watched quietly from the sidelines. They realized that Ren Xiaosu seemed to be very familiar with this person from the Qing Consortium. Moreover, the way this Qing officer spoke also suggested he understood Ren Xiaosu very well and knew how fearsome he was.

“Isn’t your Qing Consortium fighting a war in the South? Why have you suddenly come up here to the North?” Ren Xiaosu asked. The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company perked their ears up and listened. This was what they were most concerned about as well.

Tang Zhou said, “Boss Luo has received intel from his spy in the Zong Consortium. He knows you just won a battle against the Zong Consortium in the mountain range, so he sent me here to look for you.”

“How does Fatty Luo know that I’m in the Razor Sharp Company?” Ren Xiaosu asked in turn.

Tang Zhou smiled but did not say anything. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood it to mean that the Qing Consortium also had spies in Fortress 178.

It looked like Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had done quite a bit of prep work.

Just comparing the intelligence gathering alone, Fortress 178’s efforts were not as good as the Qing Consortium’s.

Getting back to the topic, Ren Xiaosu asked again, “So what are y’all doing here?”

“Mr. Qing Zhen believes you guys are here because you want to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. However, he said that there’s more garrison troops stationed here than you think. He was worried that something would happen to you, so he sent us here to help,” Tang Zhou said.

Zhang Xiaoman felt a tingling sensation. When Ren Xiaosu went to war, he could even get outside support?!

What was the relationship between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium? The Qing Consortium was already engaged in a very tough war with the Yang Consortium in the South, but they were still willing to send some of their troops to support Ren Xiaosu?

Importantly, it was the Qing Consortium’s mechanized infantry that had come this time. They were a force that would come in handy if they were placed on the other front.

Tang Zhou added, “Boss Luo mentioned he wanted to send you a nice present to congratulate you on moving to your new home once you settled down at Mt. Kushui. However, he didn’t expect that things would turn out this way.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. He took a deep breath and said, “And?”

“Boss Luo wanted me to ask you something on his behalf.” Tang Zhou took a look at Ren Xiaosu’s face and asked, “If he says that he didn’t know anything about Zong Cheng’s attack on you, would you believe him? The Qing Consortium did not have anyone inside Mt. Guan. We only had spies planted at Mt. Dingyuan.”

This had been troubling Ren Xiaosu ever since he discovered the Qing Consortium spy at Mt. Dingyuan. He would have liked to know if Luo Lan had known about this matter at that time, but there was no way to ask him that.

Even if Luo Lan had known about it, he had no obligation to inform him. So Ren Xiaosu could not possibly seek an answer from him. Although he did not ask, Luo Lan took the initiative and had Tang Zhou bring this up with him. Luo Lan was hoping to eliminate any bad feelings on Ren Xiaosu’s part by trying to be upfront about it.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I’d believe him.” Since Luo Lan was so honest about it, there was no need for him to make things difficult.

Tang Zhou continued, “Boss Luo said that you and him had scrapes of death together, and you also helped the Qing Consortium on more than one occasion. After our war with the Yang Consortium ends, he’ll send someone to help you find your friends downstream. If Fortress 178 can’t wipe out the Zong Consortium by then, he’ll also come to the North to assist you.”

Nearby, Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “Who are you looking down on? Our Fortress 178 will definitely end the war earlier than y’all!”

Tang Zhou chuckled, “You don’t have to yell at me. Those were Boss Luo’s own words.”

Luo Lan was a very loyal fat man with a strong sense of brotherhood. Ren Xiaosu had quite an understanding of Luo Lan after having known him for so long

This was probably because Ren Xiaosu had saved Luo Lan’s life. Therefore, the way they got along was always a little different. Although Luo Lan kept claiming that he had already repaid the favor, it was still something he kept close to his heart.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “What about those troops you came with?”

“Oh,” Tang Zhou replied, “they’re under orders from Mr. Qing Zhen to help you guys attack the Beiwan Bridge. You helped the Qing Consortium a great deal with what you did at Position 313. If it weren’t for you, I’m afraid that many of our soldiers would’ve died. Mr. Qing Zhen still thinks about that now.”

Zhang Xiaoman gasped. The Qing Consortium’s mechanized infantry had suddenly left their Southern Front and headed north just so they could help Ren Xiaosu fight a battle? What the hell was with Today? Was there something wrong with the world?

Even though Zhang Xiaoman and the others knew that Ren Xiaosu was very strong, that was purely based on his combat strength. Putting aside his combat capabilities, his status shouldn’t be that different from them since he was also a normal person.

But what happened here tonight subverted their expectations.

What happened to that refugee he claimed he was?

Everyone knew that both Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were very influential in the South.

It might seem rather easy to send a group of mechanized infantry to help attack the Beiwan Bridge, but if they really wanted to destroy the Beiwan Bridge, that effort could easily cost them tens of millions of yuan to achieve.

Luo Lan was truly sincere about helping Ren Xiaosu. At the very least, he was spending cold hard cash to help.

Actually, there had to be some intentions to stir up the situation in the North as well. The outcome of the war in the South would soon be decided, and some even assessed that the Qing Consortium would annex the entire Yang Consortium within half a year.

If Fortress 178 or the Zong Consortium were to move to the South during this time, that would interfere with their plans and create many unnecessary problems.

As such, the Qing Consortium wanted to speed up the progress of the war between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium to stir up the entire Northwest and Southwest. That way, no one party would have the energy to meddle in each other’s affairs, which was probably what Qing Zhen wanted.

But no matter what Qing Zhen’s goal was, Ren Xiaosu would still appreciate his help. Anyone was a friend as long as they helped attack the Zong Consortium. Besides, Luo Lan was genuinely sincere in helping.

After saying that, Tang Zhou prepared to bid farewell to Ren Xiaosu. “We can’t stay here for too long. After we attack the Beiwan Bridge, we still have to return to the Southern Front. Mr. Qing Zhen only gave us a fortnight to accomplish this objective.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Please give him my thanks. When this war is over, I’ll definitely make a trip to Stronghold 111.”

“It’s good to hear you say that.” Tang Zhou chuckled. “Well then, let’s meet again at Stronghold 111!” Then Tang Zhou turned around and left.

Zhang Xiaoman finally reacted at this moment. “Hurry up and contact Commander Zhou. This is a big fucking deal!”

When they finally managed to put the call through, Zhou Yinglong’s group was probably still on their night march. As such, he sounded a little impatient. “Didn’t I tell you to reorganize yourselves at wherever you are? Don’t tell me there’s trouble again?”

“No.” Zhang Xiaoman quickly explained, “A group of the Qing mechanized infantry suddenly appeared where we are and said that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan are offering to help Ren Xiaosu blow up the Beiwan Bridge. They’re advancing towards the Beiwan River right now. What’s more, they mentioned that Qing Zhen only gave them a fortnight to complete their objective. It seems to me that they’ll be storming the target!”

Zhou Yinglong was confused by what he heard. What did this have anything to do with the Qing Consortium? What the hell was this? Just what kind of a person had Commander Zhang chosen to be his successor?

Chapter 422: No man left behind

Chapter 422 No man left behind

At first, everyone was worried about the operation to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. But now, they no longer had to worry about it.

Zhang Xiaoman felt that everything seemed to always go quite well in battle when fighting alongside Ren Xiaosu. Never mind the battle at Shichuan Village, now that they were attacking the fully reinforced Beiwan River, the Qing Consortium stepped forward and said, “Don’t fear, we’re friends with Ren Xiaosu, so let us fight for you!”

Could he fucking be the “chosen one”? No wonder Commander Zhang chose him!

Of course, Zhang Xiaoman also wondered if Commander Zhang had done so because he valued the close ties between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium.

“Then what are we going to do now?” Zhang Xiaoman sat on the ground and pondered things. “If the Qing Consortium helps us attack the Beiwan River, we won’t have anything to do.”

Suddenly, the Razor Sharp Company became the idlest troops in all the Southwestern and Northwestern battlefields.

They had to communicate this matter to Zhou Yinglong. As a result, Zhou Yinglong made a quick decision. He ordered the Razor Sharp Company to get to Mt. Qiangwan in two days and attack that defensive anchor point together with the rest of the Forward Strike Battalion. They would coordinate a simultaneous attack with the Qing Consortium so that the Zong Consortium would be unable to react on this battlefront.

As for whether the Qing Consortium could blow up the Beiwan Bridge or not, Fortress 178 had backup plans if the Qing troops failed. So there was no need for them to tag along with the Qing Consortium to the Beiwan River.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the translucent shadow clone in the palace and said, “Can we leave a day later?”

Zhang Xiaoman estimated the time. “No, we’re still more than a 100 klicks away from Mt. Qiangwan. Even if we force marched, we’d just barely make it there in two days.”

Under normal circumstances, the average distance that troops could cover while marching with a heavy load was around 50 kilometers per day. If they force marched, they could travel at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour. However, they would not be able to move that fast as they had to carry a pack that weighed more than 30 kilograms each while maintaining their stamina.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Alright then, let’s just be pretty cautious during the journey.”

Without the shadow clone leading the way, the risk factor would increase greatly. He was hoping that they could wait until the shadow clone had returned to its original state before they set off again. But Zhang Xiaoman would definitely not listen to him. Military orders could not be disobeyed.

The next morning, the Razor Sharp Company set off towards Mt. Qiangwan in the northwestern direction. On their way there, Zhang Xiaoman did not drop his guard once. The three best soldiers, Fu Rao, Lin Ping’an, and Ren Xiaosu would constantly take turns to be the point man to scout ahead.

When Ren Xiaosu saw that Zhang Xiaoman was taking the situation seriously, he finally felt at ease. He even volunteered to be on point for longer, walking in front of the formation for two-thirds of the time.

Ren Xiaosu said he was fine with being on point throughout their march. But Zhang Xiaoman and the others disagreed, saying that there was no reason why he should be handling it all by himself. Since they were comrades, they could not let him bear the risk alone.

At noon, Fu Rao had just moved to the front of the formation to take point when Ren Xiaosu heard a gunshot in the mountain pass ahead of them. What followed was a cry of pain from Fu Rao.

He was stunned for a moment before he heard Zhang Xiaoman yelling at them to go prone. “Find a place to take cover! There’s enemies in the mountain pass!”

The company went prone and could see Fu Rao lying on the ground in the mountain pass with his abdomen bleeding. He shouted, “It’s not an ambush! It’s an encounter! Our enemy is an entire company, leave me!”

Ren Xiaosu watched silently as the scene unfolded. Encounters were all too common in war, but they were a little unfortunate. When they encountered the enemy in this mountain pass, they could see Fu Rao ahead of them but not the enemy hiding in the pass.

Zhang Xiaoman whispered, “An encounter implies that the enemy didn’t expect to see us here either. It seems that these troops were thinking of detouring to get to the rear of our Forward Strike Battalion.”

Some of the troops at Mt. Qiangwan got deployed to the Beiwan River as reinforcements, but Fortress 178 didn’t know if all of them had really gone there.

Bang! Another shot rang out from the pass. The enemy that was hiding behind the ridge shot at Fu Rao again.

The enemy was guarding the narrow terrain of the pass. If anyone rushed over to save him, they would also get shot. However, the enemy was more worried that their opponents would not rush over to save their comrade. As such, they decided to slowly torture Fu Rao in an attempt to lure the Razor Sharp Company into charging forward.

But Fu Rao was very tough too. He knew what he was facing. So he did not even whimper when the second shot hit him in the leg.

“Don’t worry about me! Contact the Forward Strike Battalion and surround them!” Fu Rao roared.

Ren Xiaosu wanted to throw a grenade at the enemy. But if the enemy discovered that there was a supernatural being here after the first grenade dropped, they might kill Fu Rao immediately and retreat in haste. The Razor Sharp Company could definitely win this encounter with Ren Xiaosu, but Fu Rao would die!

Ren Xiaosu got up and slowly made his way towards Fu Rao through the mountainous terrain. Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, “This is the enemy’s plan. We can’t fall for it. You and I are soldiers now, and Fu Rao knows what he needs to do. Everyone should also know that if I were the one laying on the ground, I wouldn’t want y’all to rescue me either!”

Ren Xiaosu looked back at Zhang Xiaoman and said calmly, “I already said no man left behind.”

Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. He suddenly felt faith burning inside him.

He saw Ren Xiaosu’s pupils turn crimson again, the depths of his eyes swirling with magma.

Ren Xiaosu started running fast as a cheetah. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu’s words were still echoing in Zhang Xiaoman’s mind.

Zhang Jinglin had said to Ren Xiaosu, “Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.”

The dark world was about to crumble. But before it truly crumbled, that flame should not be extinguished.

And that was what Ren Xiaosu was obsessed with!

Zhang Xiaoman lowered his voice and said, “If Ren Xiaosu successfully gets to him, block off the opening at the pass, and don’t let the enemy seize the chance to shoot at them.”

Ren Xiaosu bounded out. The entrance of the pass was an open door, while the mountainous terrain were the walls next to it.

When Ren Xiaosu leaped across the four-meter-wide “door” along the “wall,” it felt like his entire body had flown across at a low altitude.

While “flying” in midair, Ren Xiaosu grabbed Fu Rao’s arm and used the momentum to pull him away from the “door”!

When the Zong Consortium’s soldiers saw Ren Xiaosu’s figure, they started firing wildly at him. However, they couldn’t pull their triggers quicker than it took Ren Xiaosu to get to Fu Rao!

But in the instant Ren Xiaosu flew across the entrance, he identified the enemy’s position. Before he landed back on the ground, he threw out three grenades at the enemy.

Zhang Xiaoman shouted, “Charge! Show them no mercy! Where are the medics?! Get over there and save them!”

The moment Ren Xiaosu dropped back to the ground, he laid Fu Rao flat. Due to the inertia of the rescue, he had dislocated Fu Rao’s arm. Ren Xiaosu said to Fu Rao, “I’m sorry. It was difficult to control my strength.”

Fu Rao laughed dryly and said, “Why the fuck are you talking about strength control?! It’s great that I don’t have to die! Where’s the medic? Get over here! I feel like I can still be saved!”

Ren Xiaosu said to the medic who rushed over, “Extract the bullets first, then use the black medicine that I gave you and apply it on his wounds.”

Once he finished speaking, he took the lead and charged at the mountain pass!

Chapter 423: Witnessing history get made

Chapter 423 Witnessing history get made

Fu Rao, who was feeling extremely lucky just a moment ago, was now whining in pain. His injuries were like the ones Ren Xiaosu had suffered back then. Such internal injuries would only slowly heal after the black medicine that was applied onto the skin was fully absorbed. Ren Xiaosu reminded him repeatedly not to take it orally, otherwise, who knew what effect it would have on him?

When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned after taking care of the Zong Consortium company, Fu Rao struggled to get up and thanked Ren Xiaosu.

In the earlier situation, everyone knew the best option for the Razor Sharp Company was to let Fu Rao die a swift death before they avenged him.

If it were the past, everyone would definitely have done the same if they were stuck in a similar impasse.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at the way Fu Rao was moving and scolded, “Your dislocated arm has been reattached, huh? You’re all good again now, huh? Lie down and get some rest already! Brothers, set up the stretcher for him. You better fucking lie on the stretcher obediently til you’ve recovered from your injuries.”

His face pale, Fu Rao said to Ren Xiaosu, “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Fu Rao, +1!”

These words of gratitude were worth a great deal because it was given for a truly lifesaving act. Ren Xiaosu smiled and told Fu Rao to get well soon. After that, he went to the medics to get his wound bandaged as well. Ren Xiaosu had also been shot in the shoulder when he sprinted out during the skirmish.

However, Ren Xiaosu knew that it would take at most three days for this type of injury to be completely healed by the black medicine.

While the medic bandaged Ren Xiaosu’s wound, he said in surprise, “Ren Xiaosu, your muscles so strong that the bullet only penetrated an inch?!”

Everyone gathered around Ren Xiaosu and looked at his wound with curiosity. “Wow, is your skin bronze and bones steel?!”

Zhang Xiaoman was sitting cross-legged on the ground next to Fu Rao. Rather than going over to look at Ren Xiaosu’s wound, he was thinking about something else with his head lowered.

Fu Rao looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, “Captain, what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing much.” Zhang Xiaoman said softly, “Before I set off for the war, I told my wife that I might not make it back this time. After all, we know just how dangerous it is in our Razor Sharp Company. So I made it clear to her in advance so she wouldn’t get too upset.”

Fu Rao did not say anything and listened to Zhang Xiaoman talk to himself. “The people in Fortress 178 have had this thinking since childhood that it’s some kind of honor to die in battle. But if we really had a choice, who’d be willing to die in a gods-forsaken place like this? Don’t you think?”

Fu Rao kept quiet for a moment before saying, “Who wants to die?”

“We can’t die even if we want to now.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a helpless smile, “A lunatic has suddenly appeared on the battlefield saying he’ll make sure that all of us survive and won’t leave a man behind…. What a fucking lunatic!”

Zhang Xiaoman would be turning 30 this year. He had lived in Fortress 178 for 27 years and spent three years assigned to an outpost outside of the fortress.

His days at the outpost were very difficult. He had neither any communication nor entertainment to speak of, and the weather was also very cold all year round due to the outpost being situated at a high altitude making it rare for him to perspire.

To prevent the soldiers from developing renal failure, they did their physical training around a stove just so they would sweat.

During fall, winter, and spring, they couldn’t even drink water since it froze into ice. Their comrades on sentry duty had to chew on ice if they wanted to have a drink of water.

A decade of hardship, yet their dreams remained. Most people probably never understood just how miserable it was to chew on ice.

Zhang Xiaoman was prepared to die when he set off for this war. Just as he had said, “How can there be no casualties in war?”

When a soldier died in battle, his comrades would knock out one of his teeth and bring it back to Fortress 178 to place below the copper bell if their bodies couldn’t be brought back for burial. In that sense, it would be regarded as bringing their dead comrades back home.

This was so their souls could return to their hometown.

All of the veterans said that the fallen of Fortress 178 would watch over them whenever the copper bell rang.

But it was a little strange this time. A lunatic had sprung out of nowhere and claimed he would bring all of them back home alive.

“Only a lunatic would say and do something like that, right?” Zhang Xiaoman asked Fu Rao.

Fu Rao said calmly, “But I like this lunatic. I’m not only glad but also feel honored to be his comrade.”

“You feel honored?”

“He’ll be the commander of our Fortress 178 in the future. And right now, you and I are both witnessing history get made.”

After some reorganization, Zhang Xiaoman led everyone back to the place where the battle had broken out. He thought for a while and said, “Listen, we might encounter even more of the Zong troops on our way to Mt. Qiangwan. Why don’t we change into these dead soldiers’ uniforms and pretend we’re a Zong company?”

Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. “What if Battalion Commander Zhou’s Forward Strike Battalion encounters us and strikes us down in one shot?”

Zhang Xiaoman was left speechless for a moment. “We can just take a detour and not run into him, can’t we?”

“But there are a lot of bullet holes and bloodstains on the dead’s uniforms. If you pretend to be a defeated company, it might not be obvious at first glance, but any observant person will wonder why you can still fucking move and jump around after getting shot in the chest.” Jiao Xiaochen said in a speechless manner, “Captain, can you stop fantasizing? Also, wouldn’t they recognize their comrades?”

Zhang Xiaoman analyzed, “Look here, see if my analysis is correct. The Zong Consortium claims to have more than 200,000 soldiers. Are you sure they’ll recognize each other when they bump into one another on the road? For our troops at Fortress 178, we all live in the same stronghold for most of the year and can’t avoid seeing one another. Even if we don’t know everyone, we’ll still look familiar to each other. But their soldiers are normally scattered across a dozen strongholds, so it’d be natural if they don’t know the others since they’re only being mobilized for the war.”

Everyone looked to Ren Xiaosu. Zhang Xiaoman’s face darkened. “I’m the fucking captain here, so why’re all of you looking at Ren Xiaosu when I’m the decision maker? Are the words of a private more effective than mine?!”

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness to Zhang Xiaoman, “It really won’t work.”

“OK…” Zhang Xiaoman replied.

Jiao Xiaochen piped up, “After wiping out four enemy companies in this battle, we still haven’t suffered any casualties yet. Not even the Recon Battalion’s pathetic Flying Eagles are capable of that.”

The Razor Sharp Company of the Forward Strike Battalion and the Flying Eagle Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion had always been at odds with one another. The top ten competitors of the military combat tournaments were always from the Flying Eagle Company. They were accurate marksmen, well-versed in combat, knew many skills, and even had snipers within their ranks.

To them, the Razor Sharp Company was just a group of thugs who resorted to more unconventional methods while they were the real elites.

Meanwhile, from the Razor Sharp Company’s point of view, they were the ones who could fight and win tough battles. If the two sides encountered each other in a military exercise, they were destined to be rivals.

Of course, they both won some and lost some. The Razor Sharp Company had won 30% of the time while the Flying Eagle Company won the other 70% of the time.

Now that they had achieved such great success, they had definitely outperformed the Flying Eagle Company. Zhang Xiaoman suddenly said, “I’ve always disliked the Flying Eagles. They don’t call each other by their real names in the bases and use code names instead. What the hell is up with that pretentious act?!”

Chapter 424: Attacking the harbor

Chapter 424 Attacking the harbor

When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhang Xiaoman say this, his eyes lit up. “If you’re unhappy about them having code names, we can give ourselves code names as well.”

“Oh, right!” Zhang Xiaoman became excited and exclaimed, “My code name shall be ‘Screw the Flying Eagles’!”.

“Then my code name will be ‘Screw the Zong Consortium’! Fu Rao, you look like you’re in a vegetative state lying on the stretcher, so you can be called ‘Vegetable’!”

Fu Rao was instantly enraged while lying on the stretcher. “Why should I be called ‘Vegetable’? I’m totally fine!”

“Since you claim to be fine, show us that you can walk by yourself!”

Fu Rao was speechless.

These gruff men from the Northwest started laughing. Just half a day before, Fu Rao was dramatically calling out to be left there to die while Ren Xiaosu insisted on saving him.

But half a day later, they were back to bantering with one another. Perhaps this was what comrades were.

At this moment, everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Xiaosu, what’s your code name?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said with a smile, “My code name is ‘Thanks.’ You can just call me ‘Thanks’ from now on.”

Fu Rao and Zhang Xiaoman were confused.

Everyone realized that Ren Xiaosu would really resort to anything just to make them thank him. Ren Xiaosu was the one who suggested giving themselves code names. But actually, he was waiting for them to take the bait!

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was so happy that it felt like he was in a dream. If so many people called him that every day, wouldn’t he harvest a huge number of gratitude tokens soon?

Ren Xiaosu looked at the others. “I’m still a little unfamiliar with the code name I gave to myself. Why don’t you all call me it a few more times so I can get used to it?”

However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others turned around and left, ignoring him.

“Hey, is that how you treat your comrade? What’s the big deal with calling me by my code name!”

“Hey, hey, say my code name!”

And so, the plan to assign everyone in the Razor Sharp Company a code name died off just like that.

But before the Razor Sharp Company could advance any further north, they received another new order from Zhou Yinglong. This time, Zhou Yinglong wanted them to infiltrate from the rear of Mt. Qiangwan to destroy the ferries in the harbor there.

A tributary of the Beiwan River was north of Mt. Qiangwan. By destroying the harbor, they could prevent any defeated troops from leaving by the river after Mt. Qiangwan got captured.

Since they intended to win the war, they could not allow the enemy to have a chance to regain their effective strength.

Upon receiving this order, Zhang Xiaoman and the others could not rest anymore. They immediately infiltrated from the east side of Mt. Qiangwan and arrived at a destination about 10 kilometers east of the harbor within a day and a half.

At this moment, artillery was booming from Mt. Qiangwan. Supposedly, the Forward Strike Battalion and some reinforcements who arrived there later had been attacking the place for two days. But based on Zhou Yinglong’s estimations, it seemed like the enemy was still going to put up a fight for another week before capitulating. Therefore, Zhou Yinglong ordered the Razor Sharp Company to destroy the Zong Consortium’s route of retreat in advance.

Zhang Xiaoman was watching the garrison forces at the harbor through his binoculars from a hill. “I guess most of the troops have gone to join the battle, so there’s only one company stationed here now. Something also looks a little strange. Look, they’re loading some stuff onto the ferries. I wonder what they’re moving.”

“If it’s only one company, they’ll be easy to attack,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Currently, the Razor Sharp Company did not regard any enemy troops of the same tactical grouping as a threat. Zhang Xiaoman said, “It’s better to attack them sooner rather than later, so let’s do it now. After we take the harbor, we’ll retreat immediately and join up with Battalion Commander Zhou.”

They were going to conduct the operation immediately. The garrison troops at the harbor seemed to be moving around in a hurry. The soldiers were loading stuff onto the ferries with all their might with their guns slung over their shoulders.

There were seven medium-sized ferries docked at the harbor. When Ren Xiaosu and his company appeared, the Zong Consortium soldiers were all shocked. Before they could organize any effective resistance, the entire company was blown apart by Ren Xiaosu.

But all of a sudden, the radioman at the rear shouted, “Captain, Battalion Commander Zhou wants to speak with you!”

After instructing Ren Xiaosu and the others to blow up the ferries, Zhang Xiaoman walked over with a bewildered look. Weren’t they in the middle of a battle? Why would they radio him at a time like this?

When he answered the call, he heard Zhou Yinglong shout, “Where are you right now? Have you arrived at the harbor?”

Zhang Xiaoman said proudly, “We didn’t fail. We’ve already captured the harbor. We’re blowing up the ferries right now.”

Zhou Yinglong’s voice cracked as he shouted, “Hurry up and retreat! All of you, retreat now!”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “Why? Did y’all lose the battle?”

“It’s not that we lost the battle, but that all the enemy positions at Mt. Qiangwan have been abandoned. Those bastards of the Zong Consortium took advantage of the moment we temporarily withdrew from the mountain and escaped. They only left some soldiers behind to cover for them. The main forces are probably heading towards you as we speak!” Zhou Yinglong shouted.

Zhang Xiaoman felt his scalp tingle. “Zhou Yinglong, fuck your grandpa! Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

Then Zhang Xiaoman disconnected and shouted, “Pack everything and retreat!”

But just as he finished speaking, everyone heard chaotic screaming erupt!

No one could have fucking expected this. Didn’t they say it would still take another week for the enemy at Mt. Qiangwan to capitulate? So why were they retreating in advance?

What they did not know was that the Qing Consortium’s mechanized infantry in the Northeast had already blitzkrieged the Beiwan River and captured the position by storm.

The garrison troops at Mt. Qiangwan started panicking because of this. They did not know whether the Qing Consortium would turn their sights to them after they were done attacking the Beiwan River.

Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium’s headquarters wondered what the Qing Consortium was up to. Were they going to join in the conflict and start a full-scale war against the Zong Consortium, or would they leave after pulling off that attack? They did not want to end up becoming the next Li Consortium. Didn’t the Li Consortium get wiped out like this?! Therefore, the Zong Consortium decided to draw back all of their defensive lines and see what the Qing Consortium was up to.

However, this made life difficult for the Razor Sharp Company. It was too late for them to get away now. Several loud explosions boomed at this moment as Zhang Xiaoman turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and the rest of the Razor Sharp Company throwing TNT into the cabins of the ferries. Six of the ferries had already turned into massive fireballs and were burning so fiercely that the surface of the river resembled a fiery cloud.

Zhang Xiaoman said in a panic, “Stop, stop blowing them up! We have to fucking keep one for ourselves!”

The garrison troops of Mt. Qiangwan had almost reached the harbor. When Ren Xiaosu saw that there was at least one battalion of soldiers making their way over, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Get on board! We’re gonna escape on a ferry!” Zhang Xiaoman roared.

The Razor Sharp Company had only this path of escape left. All the other routes were blocked by the Zong Consortium soldiers who were retreating from Mt. Qiangwan!

The Zong Consortium soldiers in the distance sank into despair when they saw that the ferries had all been blown. Someone picked up a heavy machine gun and fired at the ferry that Ren Xiaosu and company were on. Fortunately, the powerful recoil sent most of the bullets flying up into the air, only managing to hit one person from the Razor Sharp Company.

Zhang Xiaoman shouted on the ferry, “Do any of you know how to drive this?”

“We don’t have anything like this in the vicinity of Fortress 178, so of course we don’t know how to drive it,” Jiao Xiaochen muttered.

Zhang Xiaoman crawled towards the cabin and said, “We have to get this running even if we don’t know how! If the ferry doesn’t move, we’re all gonna die!”

Chapter 425: What can I do? I'm also very desperate

Chapter 425 What can I do? I’m also very desperate

When they heard they were gonna die, all of the Razor Sharp Company turned anxious. Everyone crawled into the cabin to figure out how to start the ferry.

Someone grumbled, “If I had known, I would’ve captured some of their troops alive. Since they were the ones who drove the ferry here, they’ll definitely know how to operate them.”

Jiao Xiaochen looked at the person who said that and responded unhappily, “Hindsight’s 20/20. Were we even thinking of getting away on the ferry? Aren’t we only doing this because we got cornered in the harbor?”

Everyone was frantically pressing random buttons. As a result, someone tripped off something on a fluke, and the engine started running

Everyone got excited. “The engine’s going!”

“We’re saved, hahaha! Heaven hasn’t forsaken our Razor Sharp Company after all!”

But at this moment, someone said curiously, “But the ferry still isn’t moving.”

Then everyone saw Ren Xiaosu dash out of the cabin. Zhang Xiaoman shouted at him, “Don’t go out there. The fucking enemies are everywhere outside.”

“There’s a rope tying the ferry to the dock that has to be cut off,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“Even so, you still can’t go outside! You will be killed in the crossfire if you step out there like this.” Zhang Xiaoman roared.

Ren Xiaosu got an idea. He took out his saber and activated Shadow Door to reach the mooring line. But as Ren Xiaosu was unsure of where the rope was exactly, he started slashing randomly at the area.

The Zong Consortium soldiers who were running towards the harbor were stunned when they saw a hand appear out of thin air and slash a black saber around. For a moment, they were so stunned they were even afraid to charge forward!

“Hey, it’s moving. The ferry’s moving!” Zhang Xiaoman exclaimed.

Ren Xiaosu had finally managed to cut the mooring line. The Zong Consortium’s deserters could only watch with a forlorn expression as the bullethole-riddled ferry started moving slowly towards the middle of the river.

When they got a little farther, Ren Xiaosu and the others finally came out of the cabin. They watched helplessly as they got farther away from the shore. As they watched, they even puked their guts out.

No one in the Razor Sharp Company had been on a ferry before. Therefore, even though the ferry had only been moving for a dozen minutes, the troops were already puking so hard they nearly fainted.

Those who wanted to take the ferry did not make it aboard, while those who did not want to take the ferry were now drifting on it to some unknown destination.

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at their dejected enemies on the shore and thought to themselves, ‘What can we do? We’re also very desperate.’

At this moment, the Razor Sharp Company heard a choking sound as the ferry’s engine grew weaker. Zhang Xiaoman asked, “What the fuck is happening?”

“I dunno…”

The ferry was gradually losing power, and it seemed like it had been damaged when the enemy was firing that heavy machine gun at it!

“What fucking luck!” Zhang Xiaoman did not know whether to laugh or cry. He mumbled something unintelligible as he continued puking on the deck, “Quigly condact Medallion Commander Joe and hab him come and resgue us!”

But the radioman replied meekly, “Captain, our radio has been damaged.”

“What!” Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes widened. “That radio is a weapon with the same value as your life! How could you let it get damaged? Do you think I won’t boot you into the river?”

At this moment, everyone turned around and looked at the radioman. The radio set he was carrying on his back was utterly shattered. The radioman said in dismay, “When the enemy was shooting at us with the heavy machine gun from shore, I was in a hurry to get aboard and allowed the radio to be hit.”

Zhang Xiaoman sighed. “Forget it, the radio probably saved your life. It’s good that you aren’t dead.”

The Razor Sharp Company’s troops sat on the deck and looked around in hopelessness. No one knew where the powerless ferry was going to take them.

Now that even the radio set was damaged, they had truly become an isolated fighting force of.

They could not contact the main forces of Fortress 178, and neither could Fortress 178 contact them.

“Will we end up drifting to the Zong Consortium’s territory like this?” Jiao Xiaochen asked softly.

“Can you stop saying such depressing things…”

Zhang Xiaoman suddenly smiled. “That’s why they say that unexpected events can happen all the time on the battlefield. Do you remember what I used to say? Everything lies with fate, and no one has any control over it. No matter how many battles you’ve won in the past, fate will still deal you a bad hand if it really wants to.

“And sometimes, it can be extremely strange as well. It will seem like fate is hellbent on fighting you and not others….”

Too many unexpected things could happen in war. People even used to say that 30% of a victory in war was determined by tactics and strength. The remaining 70% was dependent on whether God wanted to keep you alive and let you win the battles.

After puking for the longest time, the Razor Sharp Company’s troops were getting hungry. However, they had already left the forward operating base for some time and had only brought along seven days’ worth of field rations with them. They did not have many provisions left.

Zhang Xiaoman led his men to search for supplies in the cabin but later realized it was completely bare. He asked in a startled manner, “Didn’t we see the Zong Consortium’s garrison troops loading stuff onto the ferries? Why isn’t there anything here?!”

“I don’t think they had enough time to load anything onto this ferry….”

When he heard that, Zhang Xiaoman said angrily, “Look at you guys. Couldn’t you have searched the ferries for supplies before deciding which ones to blow up?”

Ren Xiaosu and the others laughed. “Captain, you didn’t tell us you wanted to leave one untouched. Weren’t we told to blow up everything?”

Turning around, Zhang Xiaoman started preparing the Razor Sharp Company for worse. “Everyone, we don’t have many rations left, and we don’t know when we can reach shore. So for those of you who are seasick, stop throwing up. Even if you feel like throwing up, you should hold it in….”

Ren Xiaosu was standing on the deck of the ferry. He did not feel nauseous at all and was looking out at the vast Beiwan River covered in mist.

Zhang Xiaoman walked next to him and asked, “What’re you thinking about?”

“About where we’ll end up drifting to,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, “We have no way to ask for help now, and we can’t determine where we’re heading. Who knows what we’ll encounter next? If we drift towards the northern shore, that’ll be the Zong Consortium’s territory!”

But the more they feared it, the likelier it would happen. The ferry was still drifting in the middle of the river, but they were clearly getting closer and closer to the Zong Consortium’s territory in the north based on reference points on both sides of the shore.

“Don’t worry,” Ren Xiaosu said. “I will make sure everyone survives and that no man gets left behind.”

After he said that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked back into the cabin. The Razor Sharp Company’s troops watched as though magic were being performed as he threw out a wild boar, a goat, a box of hardtack, and a large box of bottled water from inside the cabin.

This was what Xiaoyu had prepared for him back when she found out that he could carry a lot of supplies with him. He had already spent the money to add a vacuum preservation function for his storage space, so these things would not turn bad no matter how long they were stored in it.

Ren Xiaosu said to his comrades of the Razor Sharp Company, “I reckon we’ll run aground on the northern shore within three days. If y’all don’t want to die, you should preserve your strength. We’ll have to fight our way out when we get to the Zong Consortium’s territory.”

Zhou Yinglong had already reported to Zhang Jinglin that the Razor Sharp Company had been forced to board a ferry to escape. Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin locked down this news in case the Zong Consortium organized their forces to go and capture them.

Chapter 426: Who does he think he is?

Chapter 426 Who does he think he is?

Zhang Jinglin had given Zhou Yinglong half a month to take Mt. Qiangwan. For this reason, he even sent an additional artillery battalion to provide greater fire support. However, no one expected the Zong Consortium’s troops to abandon their position at Mt. Qiangwan after the Qing Consortium defeated them at the Beiwan River.

If everything went according to plan, they would have escaped and preserved their remaining troops. But unfortunately for them, their ferries were blown up by Ren Xiaosu and company.

The Zong Consortium had already drawn back their defensive lines entirely while Fortress 178’s Engineering Battalion was successful in building a pontoon bridge across Blackstone River. The bridges that were constructed through current engineering technology and mechanical building equipment had no problems supporting mechanized troops crossing on them.

Once Fortress 178 built up their defensive line on the other side of the river, this road leading up north would finally be considered completely opened.

If everything else went smoothly, Fortress 178 would continue northwards to take the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, and there would be no further obstacles hindering them from traveling up north.

However, it could be foreseen that the front line at Mt. Wuchuan would truly turn into a bloody battlefield from here. Countless soldiers of the Zong Consortium and Fortress 178 would get buried there and never return home.

The Qing Consortium’s mechanized infantry had already left and were returning to their own front to continue the fight against the Yang Consortium. It seemed like it was just as Tang Zhou had told Ren Xiaosu, that they did not have any intentions of fighting in the war in the Northlands. They were only here to send him a gift on Luo Lan’s behalf.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong was very satisfied with the outcome of the battle at Mt. Qiangwan. Although they also suffered casualties, it was much fewer than he had expected.

When they gave chase towards the river, the Zong Consortium’s troops on the shore were forced to jump into the river one after another. However, Zhou Yinglong was shocked to see some shadows chasing and biting the Zong Consortium’s troops under the surface. In just a few minutes, the yellowish river turned blood red.

The rivers these days were not safe anymore.

Fortunately, the spring floods that Ren Xiaosu’s group were caught in were only snow melt from the mountains and had no strange creatures mixed in upstream.

Zhou Yinglong stood by the river and gazed at its surface. He attempted to establish communications with the Razor Sharp Company but could not get through at all.

He got his subordinates to check whether any of the Zong Consortium’s troops had relayed the news of Ren Xiaosu’s group back to the Zong Consortium’s headquarters, but they found out it did not happen.

The Zong Consortium knew that someone had taken their ferry away, but they did not know where it was headed.

Logically, anyone who did not want to die would not directly navigate the ferry towards the Zong Consortium’s territory.

Everyone thought the Razor Sharp Company would return and join up with the Forward Strike Battalion soon after seizing the ferry. However, the Razor Sharp Company simply disappeared after that.

After all, no one would have guessed that they would be so unlucky as to have their engine damaged by the enemy.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others were lying on the deck and looking up at the starry sky. The view of the vast galaxy in the night sky made them feel a little more relaxed.

However, they were definitely not in the mood for stargazing but were lying on the deck so that it would be more convenient for them to puke into the river. Having puked for the entire afternoon, there was nothing more for them to vomit other than water.

Zhang Xiaoman spoke up feebly, “I think we should’ve stayed on the shore and fought the Zong Consortium soldiers.”

“Yeah, that’s right…” Jiao Xiaochen replied, “I heard from Battalion Commander Zhou that whenever he gets so tired at the military base and goes home on his days off, he immediately recharges once he hears his son call him ‘Daddy.’ Hey, how about this? I feel like I’m dying now, so can you all call me ‘Daddy!'”

Someone shouted, “Fuck you! If I had any strength left now, I would get up and beat you up!”

Honestly, the members of the Razor Sharp Company would definitely have beat up Jiao Xiaochen if they were not currently seasick.

Next to them, Lin Ping’an asked, “Since y’all are married, you can talk with your wives if you wanna have kids. I don’t even have a girlfriend! Before setting off for our campaign, I wanted to confess to a girl but was too scared to do it in the end.”

“Why didn’t you do it?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

Lin Ping’an hesitated for a while. “Because an officer from the armored brigade is also wooing her. I feel like I’m inferior to him,”

Lin Ping’an, who was usually unafraid of most things, had turned cowardly in the face of such matters.

Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “There’s many others who are a lot more outstanding than you. Who does he think he is!”

Lin Ping’an was speechless. ‘Was I fucking asking you to comfort me?’

“But seriously, Ping’an, it’s possible that you’ll be promoted at least several ranks when we return. Once your rank is higher than his, you won’t be afraid anymore.”

Suddenly, everyone started getting concerned about their futures as well. As a company, they had already wiped out five companies of the enemy forces. Moreover, nobody knew if they might win even more glory with Ren Xiaosu in the future.

But most importantly, everyone felt they would return home alive. This was the faith Ren Xiaosu had instilled in them.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu walked onto the deck as though he were totally fine and took out a rope with a hook tied to its end.

There was a piece of meat hanging off the metal hook, and Ren Xiaosu cast it out into the water.

Lying on the deck, Zhang Xiaoman said helplessly, “How fucking frustrating. This seasickness is making us all feel like we’re dying, yet he’s in the mood to fish?!”

But surprisingly, a fish immediately took the bait after the makeshift hook was cast into the water.

Ren Xiaosu tugged on the rope as the fish struggled with all its strength in the water to get loose. But Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry either, so he waited for it to slowly get tired. He was mainly worried that the line would snap if he tried to forcefully pull it in.

After the fish stopped struggling in the water, Ren Xiaosu slowly retrieved the line and was surprised to see a huge black fish hanging from it.

as

“Isn’t this a snakehead[1]? But it looks twice as large as what I’ve seen before,” Ren Xiaosu muttered. “And its teeth are sharper as well.”

Suddenly, the snakehead fish slipped out of Ren Xiaosu’s hands and fell onto the deck’s floor.

However, the fish did not stay put in that position. Instead, it flopped over to Zhang Xiaoman with its mouth wide open. Zhang Xiaoman was scared to death. “Hey, hold down that thing! Ren Xiaosu, you did that on purpose, didn’t you? How can you not hold onto a fish with your immense strength?”

Ren Xiaosu sighed as he held the fish tightly in his hands. “We can’t see the underwater world, so we don’t know what changes it’s gone through. Anyway, let’s try not to fall into a river like this. Who knows what might be hiding underneath? But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. After The Cataclysm, humans have not reestablished the fishing industry on a large enough scale. After such a long period of reproduction, the fishes in the river alone might be enough to provide food for all the people in a stronghold.”

With Ren Xiaosu’s fearsome combat strength, people tended to neglect that he was a wilderness survival master as well.

Then Zhang Xiaoman climbed to his feet and grunted, “Look, is that the shore in the distance? The current’s pushing us towards it!”

As the saying goes, shit happens. In the end, they were still pushed towards the Zong Consortium’s territory by the current.

[1] The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a species of snakehead fish native to China, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea, ranging from the Amur River to Hainan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern _snakehead

Chapter 427: A lone fighting force

Chapter 427 A lone fighting force

As the ferry slowly approached the shore, a group of people lay on the deck and looked around cautiously. Zhang Xiaoman said, “There’s no lights out there, but it’s clear that there aren’t really any buildings on the shoreline. There probably aren’t any enemies around here.”

“This should be a very isolated place. We might’ve already drifted past the area where the Zong Consortium’s military is garrisoned.” Jiao Xiaochen analyzed, “We’re traveling at about 11 kilometers per hour on the river. Since it’s already been an entire day, we’re already very far away from the front, having drifted for more than 200 kilometers.”

“But we still have to be careful. It won’t be good if we encounter some refugees and they reveal our whereabouts,” Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone.

“If we encounter any refugees, do we kill them?” Jiao Xiaochen asked.

“This war has nothing to do with refugees, so don’t kill those innocent civilians.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a frown, “Have you forgotten about the rules of Fortress 178?”

“But…” What Jiao Xiaochen wanted to say was that since they had now ventured into enemy territory, it might be a disaster for them if their whereabouts got exposed by any refugees they met.

However, Zhang Xiaoman refuted, “No buts! How are we any different from the Zong Consortium if we kill civilians indiscriminately?”

“Alright then,” Jiao Xiaochen acknowledged.

Actually, this would increase the risk factor for the Razor Sharp Company. However, Fortress 178 had principles, so no one could really say whether this was the right decision or not.

Of course, Fortress 178 would not be so popular with the Northwestern people if they were not so principled.

In fact, some of the commoners living in the Zong Consortium’s territory were even saying that they were secretly leaning more towards Fortress 178 after war was declared between the Zong Consortium and them.

Ultimately, everyone felt they could live a better life and possibly get taxed lower if Fortress 178 managed to drive the Zong Consortium away.

“But where should we go after we get ashore?”. Fu Rao suddenly wondered. His gunshot wound had been healing for three days after the black medicine was applied to it. “In the area, the only route we can take to get back is by crossing the Beiwan Bridge, but that’s already been destroyed by the Qing Consortium. Besides, there might also be a lot of the Zong troops stationed there, so how are we gonna get back?”

“We’ll simply not go back then!” Zhang Xiaoman waved it off and said, “Our Forward Strike Battalion is mainly responsible for fighting during the early phase of the war. The Forward Strike Battalion’s mission ended after Mt. Qiangwan and the Beiwan Bridge were conquered, so it’ll become the armored brigade’s performance for the rest of the time. Why should we go back at this time?”

“We’re not going back? Why must we compare ourselves with the armored brigade? Our firepower isn’t as strong as theirs anyway. Despite us winning so many battles, they’ll definitely still be the ones credited with winning the war,” Jiao Xiaochen said doubtfully.

Zhang Xiaoman said, “That’s why we have to fight for the honor. Only those who are commended will be remembered by others, understand?”

“It’s pointless,” Jiao Xiaochen muttered.

“Why is it pointless?” Zhang Xiaoman asked with a sneer, “Do you know the highest mountain in the world?”

Jiao Xiaochen shook his head. “No.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stumped by his response. He had wanted to say that people only remembered the highest mountain in the world, not the second or third highest ones. However, the illiterate Jiao Xiaochen did not even know the highest mountain in the world, so how was he supposed to make the point that he wanted to make?

Ren Xiaosu piped up, “Didn’t Battalion Commander Zhou say that the fortress’s main forces will be fighting the war at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan, which is north of Blackstone River? How long do y’all think the battle will
go on for?”

“At least three months.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Although I despise the Zong Consortium, there’s way too many soldiers gathered at the Mt. Wuchuan front line, so it’s gonna take us several months to defeat them. Besides, our difference in strength is still quite relative since the Zong Consortium is also a modern army. If our Commander wants to break through the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, it won’t be that easy. They might even end up fighting for up to half a year too.”

Once the front line at Mt. Wuchuan was broken through, the Zong Consortium’s defeat in the war could basically be announced in advance.

Ren Xiaosu said, “At this moment, all of the Zong forces will surely assemble at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. So their rear guard will definitely be spread thin. Why don’t we attack their industry in the north then? Since those factories are located outside the strongholds, their garrison forces must be extremely weak. Some of the factories probably don’t even have any private troops stationed there!”

Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes lit up. “That’s a good idea. Ren Xiaosu, how did you come up with something like that?”

“It wasn’t my idea.” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “This method is what the Qing Consortium used against the Yang Consortium. Currently, the Zong Consortium’s situation is quite similar to the Yang Consortium’s. They’re both defenseless in the rear.”

Qing Zhen’s means of dealing with the Yang Consortium had shown Ren Xiaosu the way.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked at one another. If they were a normal company, they would never be able to disrupt the entire industry of the Zong Consortium in the north. From what the Qing Consortium had gathered, the Zong Consortium had organized enough bandits to form an entire regiment.

But they could still choose to attack some of the factories!

Jiao Xiaochen said with a smile, “That’s a really good idea. We won’t even have to wreak havoc since just giving the Zong Consortium a headache will work. Let’s make a plan and see which of the Zong factories we should attack.”

But when these words were spoken, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He said, “What I meant was, we should attack all of them….”

Everyone on the deck fell silent again. Zhang Xiaoman gave a hollow chuckle and said, “Oh, stop joking!”

“I’m not joking.” Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, “Y’all probably haven’t come across the private troops of the strongholds for many years. The regiment formation has been a mess for a long time. They probably can’t even hit the bullseye at 50 meters at a gun range.”

“What if the Zong Consortium deploys their regular troops to pursue us?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.

“Then we run.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry, I have a way to deal with that.”

Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company thought that Ren Xiaosu was just a supernatural being with two superpowers, which was already very formidable.

But actually, Ren Xiaosu still had a trump card up his sleeve. It was a move that would deal the Zong Consortium and Zong Cheng the fatal blow. It would be the straw that broke the camel’s back!

With a thud, the ferry ran aground on the shore. The Razor Sharp Company jumped off the boat one after another, and in just two minutes, they finished assembling and began to infiltrate the coast in a wedge.

In a place they were unfamiliar with, it was unthinkable to spread out their forces. So they had to move together as a group. They would either survive together or die together.

Looking down from above, the forces of Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium were distinctly separate from each other in the south and the north. In the east, a route led to the Central Plains, while the Gobi Desert was to the west and stretched all the way to the Alxa League[1] in the north.

But now, there was a strange company mixed among that distinct distribution of fighting forces as the Razor Sharp Company advanced north.

As Zhang Xiaoman walked in formation with the others, Ren Xiaosu had already sent his shadow clone out while nobody was paying attention. Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoman said, “Brothers, we can’t call for reinforcements this time. This is a treacherous path we’re walking, and none of us can turn around. If I die, y’all must remember to bring my molars back home.”

Ren Xiaosu said coldly, “You’d better not die. If you do, I’ll knock all of your teeth out before I choose a good-looking one to bring back.”

Zhang Xiaoman shuddered in fear. “You’re too fucking ruthless.”

[1] Alxa League is one of 12 prefecture level divisions and 3 extant leagues of Inner Mongolia. / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alxa_League

Chapter 428: The Zong Consortium's contingency plan

Chapter 428 The Zong Consortium’s contingency plan

At Qing Consortium’s Stronghold 111, the manor that stood on Mt. Ginkgo had been empty for some time.

After the coup in the Qing Consortium, Qing Zhen did not choose to stay at that luxurious manor. Instead, he moved into the barracks of Stronghold 111’s garrison and lived alongside the soldiers. He ate his meals every day in the chow hall and rejected any special treatment that the kitchen police offered him.

At the beginning, the Qing Consortium’s soldiers who were his supporters were saying how it would be difficult to get to see him in the future. But to their surprise, they got to see him almost every day now.

In their private conversations, the generals even said that Qing Zhen was too compassionate towards his subordinates. They felt that a lot of people might learn they could win the support of their subordinates by living in the same conditions and not seeking to be treated with special privileges. But knowing so did not mean they would practice it as well.

But when Qing Zhen heard what was being said about him in private, he admitted frankly that he had moved into the barracks because he was afraid of getting assassinated. Living under the same roof with the troops and sharing the same meals was because he was worried about being poisoned.

When the generals heard this, they did not know how to respond. However, they were already used to hearing him speak hard truths in such a casual manner. When they were planning the coup, Qing Zhen told them they might die if they charged up Mt. Ginkgo. But didn’t they still do it in the end?

So after the generals learned about Qing Zhen’s worries, they all reassured him that the military base near Stronghold 111 was the safest place of all. No matter how powerful the supernatural being that broke in was, they would never walk out of the place alive.

Qing Zhen could only shake his head and smile, because he knew very well how difficult it was to deal with the supernatural beings these days. Moreover, the supernatural beings were still getting stronger.

At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing in front of a huge sand table. However, the terrain on the sand table was not the Southwest but the Northwestern battlefield between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium.

There was a clear and distinctive separation between the red and blue flags on the sand table. The blue flag represented the Zong Consortium in the north, while the red flag represented Fortress 178 in the south.

Suddenly, Qing Zhen picked up a tiny red flag and seemed like he wanted to place it somewhere in the north. But he didn’t know where to place it.

Next to him, Luo Lan, who was making eyes at the secretary, suddenly asked, “And which fighting force does this flag represent?”

“The Forward Strike Battalion’s Razor Sharp Company,” Qing Zhen replied calmly. “If you harass my secretary again, I’ll have Qing Yu throw you out.”

“Would that child, Qing Yu, dare to throw me out?” Luo Lan brushed it off. He slapped the secretary’s butt and said to Qing Zhen after harrying her out, “Since you don’t lust after women, why not let me have her rather than having others take advantage of her?”

“I bet you’re running out of the black medicine Ren Xiaosu gave you.” Qing Zhen glanced at Luo Lan. “Let’s see what you’re gonna do when it runs out.”

Luo Lan felt a pain in his chest. “I forgot to tell Tang Zhou to get some more black medicine from Ren Xiaosu when I sent him north. Dammit!”

“Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company have already passed the Beiwan River and are continuing north.” Qing Zhen remarked, “If something happens to him, you’re gonna be out of black medicine for the rest of your life.”

“What? Why’s he heading further north? The Zong troops are all over the place there,” Luo Lan said in surprise. “When did this happen?”

“About two days ago. The news was relayed back a little late this time.” Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, “I wonder if he was forced to go there or if he chose to do it so he could kill the enemy himself. So don’t ever underestimate a supernatural being’s determination for vengeance. That’s also why I chose to move into the barracks.”

News of Li Shentan’s revenge on the Li Consortium had already begun to spread, with several versions, either from the rumor mill or as told by those in the inner circle of the Li Consortium, going around. They were all about how that young man had buried the entire Li Consortium into the Underworld. Even people in the Central Plains probably knew about this.

“This is the era of ‘The Rise of Gods.'” Qing Zhen said with a sigh, “In the end, we have two supernatural beings around us, and one of them loves money too much.”

Nearby, Zhou Qi, who was lying in an armchair and pretending to be sleeping, opened his eyes and said, “Please don’t insinuate things in my presence. Is it wrong of me to love money?”

Qing Zhen glanced at Zhou Qi and continued, “At this point, I think that Ren Xiaosu’s superpower is still to be determined. I’m afraid that the Zong Consortium will have a problem on their hands now that he’s headed north into their territory.”

Luo Lan walked to the sand table. “Where do you think he’ll go?”

Qing Zhen thought for a moment before answering, “No matter where he goes, he’ll definitely appear in front of those Zong Consortium hyenas at the end.”

Then Qing Zhen placed the red flag down on the position of Stronghold 146. “Pass along my orders. If our planted spy at Stronghold 146 encounters him, I want him to do his best to assist Ren Xiaosu. In comparison, I’d rather be neighbors with that damn group from Fortress 178.”

As Stronghold 146 was the Zong Consortium’s headquarters, Luo Lan could not understand why Qing Zhen was so sure that Ren Xiaosu would go there.

“Who do you think will win between the Zong Consortium and Fortress 178?” Zhou Qi asked.

“It’s a smart move for the Zong Consortium to compact their defensive line. They know it’ll be difficult to fight Fortress 178 if their field army is scattered across the wilderness, so they might as well take the fight to the front line at Mt. Wuchuan,” Qing Zhen said with a smile. “Once the real war kicks off, it’ll be easy to lose sight of the important information in battles or have situations where orders are not conveyed properly even with the aid of modern comms. Also, the Zong Consortium will definitely have a contingency plan. After hiding in cowardice for decades, the hyena must have some kind of trump card for daring to bare their fangs all of a sudden.”

“A trump card?” Zhou Qi asked, “So you think the Zong Consortium will win?”

“No.” Qing Zhen shook his head and said, “We’ll be underestimating Zhang Jinglin if you put it that way. I’m guessing he’s waiting for the Zong Consortium to play their trump card first. Once the Zong Consortium initiates that plan, they’ll be presenting the entire Northwest on a platter to him.”

Although Luo Lan and Zhou Qi could not understand what Qing Zhen was trying to say, they knew he had already figured something out.

Zhou Qi muttered, “Why are you acting so mysterious? You should quickly think of a way to deal with the Yang Consortium instead of talking about the Zong Consortium all the time. Have you got nothing better to do?”

“The Yang Consortium is no longer a threat to us,” Qing Zhen said calmly.

At this moment, an officer walked in and said, “The Yang Consortium’s envoy has been escorted here. Would you like him to come in?”

“Mhm, bring him in,” Qing Zhen said.

The Yang Consortium’s envoy was escorted into the command center. However, he looked very comical as he was all bound up. This was probably because the troops were worried that he would try and assassinate Qing Zhen.

But the Yang Consortium’s envoy was not angry. He put on a smile and said, “Dear Mr. Qing Zhen, patriarch of the Qing Consortium, I’m here to speak with you on behalf of Yang Lichen.”

“Don’t waste my time. If you have something to say, speak,” Qing Zhen said lightly.

The envoy looked at the people around him. He had planned on holding secret talks with Qing Zhen and had mentally imagined how to emulate the ancients and be a good lobbyist. However, he was tied up the moment he came in and had several guns pointed at him as well. In such a situation, he really couldn’t fake it any longer.

He said bluntly, “Yang Lichen wants to form an alliance with you. Currently, there are expectations for him to become the Yang Consortium’s CEO. If you help him out, he’s willing to gift you both Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99 once the deed is done.”

Chapter 429: A real life fairy tale

Chapter 429 A real life fairy tale

Everyone in the command center fell silent. Zhou Qi and Luo Lan stared at the envoy like he was a fool. However, they did not say anything.

Qing Zhen smiled ambiguously at him and said, “How would Yang Lichen like me to help him?”

“He’ll supply you with the defensive deployment map of the front line at Ziyang, and you’ll only be required to help him destroy the garrison there.” The envoy put on an ingratiating smile and said, “To show our sincerity, I even brought the defensive deployment map with me.”

Qing Zhen raised his eyebrows and smiled at Zhou Qi. Then he said to the envoy, “How do I know that your defensive deployment map is real? Leave it with me first. I’ll decide whether to help your boss after I analyze it. Enough! Men, take him out. And make sure he leaves the defensive deployment map behind.”

With that, a group of fierce soldiers escorted the Yang Consortium’s envoy out.

Zhou Qi jumped to his feet and said, “Is he a fucking idiot or what? Why are they still fighting among themselves at a time like this? Does he think we’re playing games with the Yang Consortium? And what did he mean by gifting Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99 to us? Who gave him permission to gift us something we already own?”

Qing Zhen said calmly, “Yang Huaiyin from the younger generation of the Yang Consortium is the one guarding the front line at Ziyang. As for Yang Lichen, he’s also a family member of the Yang Consortium. However, he was cast aside years ago and was made overseer of a stronghold to take charge of the factories’ production levels in its vicinity.”

“Hehe.” Luo Lan laughed and said, “Reality will always be stranger than fiction. The things you encounter in real life don’t happen in stories. It’s no wonder that Yang Lichen was ostracized. So it’s because he’s actually an idiot.”

“In the battle at Stronghold 88, the Li Consortium’s nanosoldiers charged in and went on a frenzied killing spree. I suspect the nanomachines in their bodies were controlling them rather than the other way around.” Qing Zhen said, “In that battle, the Yang Consortium’s core figures were basically all in Stronghold 88. Now that the Yang Consortium is without a leader, the entire Yang Consortium has started fragmenting. Thus, many of those who used to be ostracized would rather fight for control of the Yang Consortium than think about how to win the war.”

Yang Lichen was not the only one who sent their people here. Others had done the same.

Of course, not all of them were that stupid. The majority of them said they would stop resisting and hoped to be granted an official position in the stronghold in the future. Meanwhile, people like Yang Lichen were difficult to find even among the idiots.

The outside world thought the Qing Consortium would get exhausted in the war with the Yang Consortium. But in reality, the Qing Consortium was just putting on a front.

After all, the Southwest and Northwest were not the only places in this world. There was also the Central Plains.

“But there’s also smart people in the Yang Consortium.” Qing Zhen said with a smile, “Yang Huaiyin, who is taking charge of the front line at Ziyang, he said he didn’t want to resist anymore and sought an official position. He even sent the defensive deployment map of the front line at Ziyang to me. However, the defensive deployment map wasn’t entirely real. He was trying to set a trap for me.”

Luo Lan said with a sigh, “For a huge organization like the Yang Consortium with their glorious past, who would’ve expected them to end up in this state?”

Qing Zhen looked at the sand table and said calmly, “You should never reveal your trump cards or intentions. Else, you can only wait to be slaughtered. This chess game is not over yet.”

“Oh, right.” Luo Lan asked, “What are we gonna do about the Experimentals to the south?”

Qing Zhen frowned slightly. Ever since the Li Consortium was destroyed, and with both the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium’s forces returning to the North, the South’s defenses were practically empty. The Qing Consortium could not possibly keep too many fighting forces guarding the South. So the territories that used to be under the Li Consortium’s control were no longer able to hold back the Experimentals.

After the Yang Consortium’s defeated troops escaped with their tails tucked between their legs, Qing Zhen left a brigade in the South to ward off the Experimentals. But with so many strongholds in the region, how could a single brigade defend them all? Besides, their main objective there was to take over the strongholds and force the former officials to surrender their assets.

In less than two months, the Experimentals had occupied yet another stronghold and turned it into their territory.

It was like a purgatory filled with demons in the fallen stronghold.

If the Qing Consortium had not left behind an entire brigade, perhaps even more people would have died.

Qing Zhen thought for a while and said, “Let Qing Yi know that he has 15 days to capture the front line at Ziyang. After that, he is to lead the troops south to exterminate the Experimentals. I don’t want to see any more people dying.”

For a person who had orchestrated the entire war in the Southwest to suddenly say that he did not want to see any more people dying sounded extremely absurd. However, no one knew what Qing Zhen was thinking at this moment.

Luo Lan asked, “After they defeat the Yang Consortium, the soldiers will be exhausted. Shouldn’t we let them rest rather than making them head south immediately? Why don’t you use-“

“No, we can’t use that,” Qing Zhen interrupted. “We can’t simply do as we please with some things.”

Luo Lan stood up and dusted himself off. “Alright then, I’ll oversee the takeover of the Yang Consortium’s strongholds. I think those old fogeys should be quite rich. After the war’s over, it can’t be that our Qing Consortium keeps getting poorer, right? You’re not suited to handle such rotten matters, so leave it to me.”

Now that Qing Zhen was the Qing Consortium’s CEO, he had to take care of his image. Hence, Luo Lan volunteered to take charge of the seizure of people’s assets.

Previously, Luo Lan had also overseen the seizure of the Li Consortium’s territories. The officials and businessmen of the Li Consortium got horrified whenever Luo Lan’s name was mentioned. That was because Luo Lan’s methods for pilfering their assets were known to be brutal.

Some of the officials who used to work for the Li Consortium insisted they did not have any money at all because they did not want their gold to be seized.

However, all of them still ended up confessing after they were hung from their roofs and severely beaten for three days and three nights by Luo Lan.

There were also methods like not allowing them to sleep and physical torture that Luo Lan resorted to. These were all methods that were used to deal with spies, so how could the officials possibly endure it?

As of this moment, it was unknown how many people were cursing him behind his back. Everyone was claiming that Luo Lan was a cannibal.

But all the assets that were seized by Luo Lan would get put into the Qing Consortium’s account. He did not keep any of it for himself.

Quoting Luo Lan, why would he need the money when his brother was the Qing Consortium’s CEO? He didn’t even have to pay out of his own pocket wherever he went.

Qing Zhen was previously the Qing Consortium’s Shadow. And now, Luo Lan looked like he had become Qing Zhen’s Shadow.

Qing Zhen looked at Zhou Qi. “I want you to make a trip to the Central Plains. Things are already brewing over there, so it’s time to act.”

“You seem quite trusting of me this time.” Zhou Qi said with a grin, “Weren’t you afraid I would turn against you at the last minute? But now you’re actually assigning such an important task to me?”

Qing Zhen said, “No one can afford to pay you what I paid.”

Zhou Qi whistled. He no longer carried himself in a cultured and respectable way anymore and acted more like a mercenary. He said with a smile, “Boss’s generosity knows no bounds! The war in the Southwest will be over soon, and the entire Southwest will be flying the flag of the Qing Consortium. Looks like I made the correct decision back then!”

However, Qing Zhen suddenly said after a long silence, “I don’t think it’s worth being happy about.”

Qing Zhen stood next to the sand table and looked at the entire layout. Luo Lan suddenly remembered that his younger brother once said he actually preferred cultivating flowers to this.

Chapter 430: The petty Wang Congyang

Chapter 430 The petty Wang Congyang

On the only route from the Northwest to the Central Plains, Li Shentan, Si Liren, and Hu Shuo were sitting under the shade of trees to avoid getting heatstroke. Leaning against the tree trunk, Li Shentan sighed and said, “The weather is really getting hotter and hotter these days. I wonder when the war in the Northwest will end.”

Little Liren was scooping out a watermelon with a spoon next to him. The huge case she had been carrying was on the ground by her side. Si Liren looked up at Li Shentan. “Didn’t you say that we’re going to the Central Plains? Why’d we end up coming here? We’ve been here for three days already. Big Brother Shentan, what exactly are you waiting for?”

“Well, didn’t Ren Xiaosu join Fortress 178 to fight the Zong Consortium?” Li Shentan said, “He must want to kill everyone from the Zong Consortium, dontcha think?”

“Mhm.” Si Liren nodded.

“Then look at it this way. Since the Zong Consortium has so many people, there’s probably gonna be some of them who’ll go into hiding in the Central Plains to avoid the calamity. So we’re here to help Ren Xiaosu catch the fish that slip through his net.” Li Shentan chuckled and said, “In this way, no one from the Zong Consortium will escape.”

“Are we going to capture them?” Si Liren asked in seriousness, “But where are we gonna lock them up?”

“Uh, that was just an example. We’re actually gonna kill them.” When Li Shentan talked about killing people, it looked like it was nothing to him.

Hu Shuo had been meditating next to them. Li Shentan looked at him and said, “Grandpa, are you sure this is the only route for the Zong Consortium’s people to head to the Central Plains?”

Hu Shuo said with his eyes closed, “No, there’s many other routes leading east. But if they’re driving, this is the only road they can take for now. How can those self-important people who’re used to living comfortably in the strongholds possibly try to pass through the treacherous mountains on foot? If they had the courage, they wouldn’t be fleeing to the Central Plains.”

“That’s true.” Li Shentan nodded.

Hu Shuo’s mental fortitude was excellent. Even in the wilderness, he did not show any signs of being fazed, nor did he feel bored about meditating with his eyes closed.

All of a sudden, the sound of vehicles approaching from afar rumbled. Li Shentan said with a smile, “Here they come!”

These vehicles had traveled here from the Northwest. As Fortress 178 did not have access to this road, so it could only be someone from the Zong Consortium.

Li Shentan and Si Liren started approaching the convoy. They had already decided not to let any surviving members of the Zong Consortium leave here.

Si Liren waved her hand, and the huge chest flew towards her like it was light as a feather, allowing her to carry it on her back at will.

But just as the convoy was turning past a hill, Li Shentan and Si Liren saw a steam locomotive speed out of nowhere in the wilderness and smash ruthlessly into the convoy, flipping over all of the vehicles. The steam locomotive that appeared out of thin air was moving extremely fast. It looked like this was premeditated.

The vehicles that had been hit were sent rolling across the ground. When these vehicles finally came to a stop, the people inside were either dead or injured.

The vehicle at the head of the convoy had even been squashed like a can of sardines.

When the people who were still alive tried their best to climb out of the vehicles, the steam locomotive with four carriages that had just gone past turned around and smashed into them once more. It looked like it was determined to kill everyone in the convoy.

Li Shentan, Si Liren, and Hu Shuo watched, their jaws dropping. They were about to make a move, but little did they expect that someone even more violent than them would appear.

What was going on? Who had such a huge grudge against the Zong Consortium?

“Wh-Who is that?” Li Shentan said in surprise.

“It’s probably someone seeking revenge,” Hu Shuo said. “Let’s watch from the shadows for now.”

Although there were trees around here, the view of the surroundings was relatively clear. The person controlling the steam locomotive should have spotted them, yet they did not attack them.

After all, Si Liren was floating in the sky with a huge chest on her back, so it was obvious that the three of them were not to be trifled with.

The steam locomotive slowly dissipated. It had not killed everyone in the convoy yet, and one of the vehicles even managed to escape nearly unscathed.

Wang Congyang stepped out from behind a hill at this moment. He was the one who had been controlling the steam locomotive.

Wang Congyang glanced at Li Shentan’s group in the distance, then crouched beside the rearmost overturned off-road vehicle of the convoy and sneered, “Don’t go any further. Return and tell that bastard, Zong Cheng, that our score hasn’t been settled yet. I’ll have plenty of time to settle things with you people in the future, but for now, I’ll be happy to get the interest.”

Wang Congyang was someone who would seek revenge over the smallest of grievances. Otherwise, he would not have kept making trouble for Ren Xiaosu.

He not only possessed capability and courage but also a high level of restraint. Although he was from one of the earliest batches of supernatural beings to awaken their powers, he constantly remained under the radar and was willing to suffer the disdain of his superiors in the private troops. That was why Wang Congyang would not foolishly seek an opportunity to kill Zong Cheng after Zong Cheng had plotted against him. However, he definitely wanted to get back at him for it. If he had the chance to get his revenge, he would undoubtedly take it.

Shouldering his backpack, Wang Congyang walked to the other off-road vehicles, acting like no one was around as he pried open one of the trunks and took out the gold in it.

After taking away a portion, he suddenly said to Li Shentan, “It was fate that we met. Thank you for not interfering. Someone from the Zong Consortium is diverting the gold in this vehicle to the Central Plains. I’ve only taken half of it. You guys can have the rest.” As Wang Congyang spoke, he slowly retreated backwards. He was so cautious that he did not even want to approach Li Shentan’s group.

Stunned, Li Shentan watched this play out. To be honest, they had not expected this turn of events. He asked Wang Congyang, “Did you have a grudge against the Zong Consortium?”

“Of course,” Wang Congyang replied. “What’s in that chest you’re carrying?”.

Li Shentan glanced at the case on Si Liren’s back and said, “You talking ’bout this? There’s a statue of a deity inside it.”

Wang Congyang was stunned. He thought the little girl was carrying something valuable, but how could he have known it would turn out to just be a statue? Then he asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, we also have a grudge against the Zong Consortium…. Well, I guess it’s considered a grudge.” Li Shentan laughed and said, “Why don’t you stay around? We can kill the Zong Consortium’s people together.”

Wang Congyang smiled. “I appreciate your kind offer, but I’m used to being alone and not making friends with others. So let’s just bid farewell.”

Wang Congyang was a bold but careful person. He had never felt any sense of belonging to any organization or force and would never trust anyone either. He was just pursuing a good life. Yes, it would be fine if he kept living in wealth.

Li Shentan said with a smile, “You said it yourself. It was fate that we met. My name is Li Shentan. What’s yours, brother?”

Wang Congyang’s pupils contracted. How could he not have heard of it before? This name had already spread throughout the entire Southwest and Northwest. However, he had not expected to encounter this demon here!

Wang Congyang said cautiously, “I’m just a nobody, so there’s no point mentioning it.”

Li Shentan said with a smile, “It looks like you’ve heard of my name.”

Wang Congyang said with a smile, “How can I not have heard of the Demon Whisperer? I just wonder why you guys are here.”

During their conversation, Wang Congyang retreated backwards quickly and conjured the steam locomotive once more. Then he jumped onto it and fled into the distance.

Li Shentan stroked his face. “Am I that frightening?”

Si Liren giggled and said, “No.”

Li Shentan watched the steam locomotive depart and sighed. “I guess only such emotionless people with no attachments to the world can survive in this chaotic world.”

Chapter 431: Sneaking into the North

Chapter 431 Sneaking into the North

Li Shentan did not finish off the person from the Zong Consortium Wang Congyang had deliberately left alive. He squatted next to the overturned vehicle and asked with a smile, “Can you contact your boss right now?”

The man was still dangling from the backseat of the vehicle. As the vehicle was flipped with its chassis facing up, the man was unfortunate enough to have his foot stuck and could not move at all.

When Li Shentan reached out and opened his clenched fist, the squashed vehicle actually started uncrumpling as though it were an expanding balloon.

When the man could move again, he kowtowed to Li Shentan. “I have a satellite phone, so I can get him right away!”

Li Shentan nodded and said with a smile, “Give him a call then. You heard what that person said just now. Since he asked you to report back to the Zong Consortium, you should report it quickly.”

“OK, OK.” The man was traumatized and did whatever he was told. Part of it might have been the effect of Li Shentan’s hypnosis or maybe panic.

Li Shentan looked into his eyes and said, “A supernatural being who can control a steam locomotive has attacked you all. He said he wanted to take revenge on the Zong Consortium and has taken away all the gold.”

When the call went through, the man hurriedly reported the situation. The person on the other end of the line did not even grumble and just hung up in silence.

Li Shentan sighed and said, “Why isn’t there any reaction? Alright, there’s nothing left for you to do. You can end yourself now.”

With those words, the man stood up and limped quickly towards a rock on the roadside. He rammed himself into it and died.

Next to him, Hu Shuo asked, “What was the point of having him make that call?”

“Grandpa,” Li Shentan smiled and said, “wouldn’t it be fun if that starts a chain reaction?”

Hu Shuo looked at Li Shentan. He felt a sense of anguish when he heard it was about having fun. The old man understood that his grandson did not have a healthy mind, but he knew exactly what caused it. Most people who had experienced those situations would also find it difficult to live like a normal person, wouldn’t they? So all he could do was protect his grandson while he still could. Whatever he wanted to do, he would be there with him.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who had just reached the shore, was unaware that the big picture in the South had been decided. Li Shentan was guarding at the Zong Consortium’s escape route and saying he wanted to help Ren Xiaosu eradicate all of the Zong Consortium’s people. He also did not know that Wang Congyang had actually been hiding in the Zong Consortium’s territory for over a month after escaping from the valley, and he even pulled off a big ambush against the Zong Consortium before swaggering off.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leading the Razor Sharp Company along the shore while moving in a crooked fashion.

When the group of thugs from the Razor Sharp Company disembarked from the ferry, they could barely maintain the wedge. However, they seriously underestimated the aftereffects of seasickness. After all, this group of people had been seasick on the ferry for two days and two nights. They did not have much to eat during this period, and even when they did eat something, they ended up vomiting it all out. The entire group was tottering around and could not even keep to a straight path!

When Ren Xiaosu asked them whether they were alright, they still answered that they were fine!

After coming ashore, they would definitely have to do something. Ren Xiaosu suggested that they change out of their uniforms first.

Zhang Xiaoman had suggested they put on the Zong Consortium’s khaki uniforms and impersonate the Zong Consortium’s soldiers to catch the enemy by surprise. But there were too many holes in the uniforms they could gather at that time, so Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea.

Right now would be the correct moment for them to put on the Zong Consortium’s uniforms. They almost certainly wouldn’t encounter any friendlies in the place they were stepping foot in. There would only be enemies here.

On the northern shore of the Beiwan River was a farming settlement. But at this moment, there were weeds everywhere in the fields, and the fields looked hardly taken care of.

In the territories controlled by the consortiums, it would not be enough to just own factories. Without a supply of food, they couldn’t support many people. So the consortiums also commanded the refugees to cluster farm like how they managed their factories. Farming was basically the same as working in a factory.

“Looks like the farmer refugees have also been recruited to fight the war,” Zhang Xiaoman muttered. “Look at all these crops. They’re dying with no one taking care of them.”

Farming was definitely not as simple as “sowing in spring and reaping in fall.” If there were no one to clear the weeds, they would end up growing even better than the crops.

“What the hell!” Jiao Xiaochen said, “Look, the corn is about to bear ears, right? We don’t even have this to eat in the fortress, yet they don’t cherish what they have.”

“However, it can also be seen how great of an exaggeration the Zong Consortium made when they claimed they had 200,000 soldiers.” Zhang Xiaoman spat on the ground. “How can a group of farmers fight a fucking battle? No wonder I thought the enemy’s marksmanship was piss-poor in the Battle of Shichuan Village. I think there’s probably a lot of similar cannon fodder deployed at Mt. Wuchuan as well.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “If the refugees here had been recruited, they might have left in a hurry and not taken their clothing with them. Let’s look around and put on whatever we can find first before searching for the Zong Consortium’s military uniforms.”

“It’ll be easy to find clothing left behind by the refugees here,” Zhang Xiaoman replied. “What’ll be difficult is getting our hands on the Zong Consortium’s military uniforms. We have to obtain those that are clean and not bloodstained. You can’t possibly expect to capture an entire company of Zong Consortium soldiers alive, right?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “We can just look for a garment factory. The Zong Consortium’s garment factories must all be producing those military uniforms now. We can choose whatever size we like after we take one of the garment factories.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. This idea had not crossed his mind before.

But before they could walk much further, they came across some simple ranch houses near the farming settlement that were neatly arranged in rows. It looked like these were the refugees’ living quarters.

There were a lot of clothes inside, but they were all filthy.

But at a time like this, they could not be particular. Everyone in the Razor Sharp Company took the clothes from the houses and changed into them.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone humming and approaching from behind the row of houses. It was even a girl’s voice that he heard.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry, it’s just some normal refugees, and they aren’t carrying any weapons.”

When they heard Ren Xiaosu, everyone was relieved. They did not even care how Ren Xiaosu knew that.

Zhang Xiaoman said in a low voice, “They’re probably refugees who came here to escape from the war. Don’t alert them. We’re also refugees now. Hide the guns inside the house and then head out.”

The moment they stepped out, everyone was surprised to see an old man holding a little girl’s hand standing in front of them. The old man and the little girl were also stunned. They had not expected so many people to suddenly appear here.

Zhang Xiaoman smiled kindly and said, “Sir, we are refugees passing by this place. Do you have any food that we can eat?”

“Refugees?” The old man said in a startled manner, “I don’t think y’all’re refugees?”

Zhang Xiaoman was taken aback. “Why do you say that?”

The old man trembled while replying, “This is the first time I’ve seen refugees carrying a mortar…”

Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Jiao Xiaochen. when he saw Jiao Xiaochen still carrying the mortar in a daze, he kicked him right in the crotch. Only now did the Razor Sharp Company finally snap out of their seasickness.

Zhang Xiaoman said angrily, “Why’re you still carrying the fucking mortar?”

Jiao Xiaochen climbed back to his feet and muttered, “Captain, you only told us to leave our guns in the houses. You didn’t say anything about the mortar!”

Chapter 432: Forced by circumstance

Chapter 432 Forced by circumstance

The old man looked at the Razor Sharp Company not knowing how to react. Instead, it was the little girl who started laughing when she saw Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen bickering with each other.

A child’s world was a simple one. They still did not understand how terrifying this world was.

Ren Xiaosu asked the old man, “What’s the stronghold closest to here?”

“That would be Stronghold 144,” the old man replied truthfully. “It’s about 60 kilometers to the west.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. “So can you confirm our location now?”

“Yes.” Zhang Xiaoman nodded. “Stronghold 144 is the Zong Consortium’s granary, as 70% of the farming settlements are located near it. You could say it’s a stronghold that was specially built for handling food stores, just like what Stronghold 114 is to the Qing Consortium.”

“Oh, I see.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “Then let’s start by attacking the areas around Stronghold 144 first.”

Jiao Xiaochen suddenly asked, “What should we do with this old man and the little girl? Are we just gonna let them go? What if they report us to the Zong Consortium?”

The old man immediately turned anxious. “Sir, don’t you worry. We definitely won’t report y’all to the Zong Consortium. Y’all’re from Fortress 178, right? To be honest, we were all hoping that you would come here as well.”

The Zong Consortium had oppressed the refugees too much. As a result, they had lost the support of the refugees.

Ren Xiaosu said, “If all the young and able adults weren’t already conscripted by the Zong Consortium, we might’ve been able to organize the refugees into an armed force behind enemy lines and encircle the stronghold. When I attended Mr. Zhang’s lessons, he once mentioned that such a division won…”

These words startled Zhang Xiaoman and the others quite a bit. However, they did not have the conditions to recreate something like that right now.

From the company, someone asked, “Grandpa, is there any food here?”

They were asking this because their rations were running out. Although there was the food that Ren Xiaosu had brought, Xiaoyu only prepared enough for him alone.

Based on Xiaoyu’s plan, the provisions would be enough to last Ren Xiaosu three months in the wilderness without needing him to constantly look for something to eat.

Although there was plenty of food, it was not sufficient for the entire Razor Sharp Company. Three months’ worth of food for a single person would only last two days for 184 people. Therefore, it was extremely urgent that they find food first.

Although Ren Xiaosu could plant some of the Potato Shooters, he would only use a method that would consume his gratitude tokens as a last resort.

The old man said, “How could we still have food? It’s all been seized by the Zong Consortium. They even found and took the food that we stashed away.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the basket the old man was carrying and saw it was filled with wild vegetables. It seemed like he had taken the little girl out earlier to dig for them. The old man was not lying.

“Then what should we do?” Jiao Xiaochen asked.

Zhang Xiaoman gave a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry, we can go and blow up the factories. There’s so many workers in the factories, so how can they not have food there?”

When everyone heard this, they immediately headed west. They were going to seek uniforms and food at the same time.

It went better than they expected. It didn’t take them long before they came across a factory that had a continuous trail of white smoke gushing out of its chimney.

The Razor Sharp Company had meticulously planned to attack it from two different directions. However, they did not even encounter any presence of a decent garrison around it, with only two private troops guarding the place. When they saw Ren Xiaosu and company, they instantly knelt on the ground and begged for mercy without any resistance.

Furthermore, all of the refugees in the factory also came outside promptly and lined up.

Zhang Xiaoman wondered, “You only have two people guarding the entire factory?”.

The private troops who were kneeling on the ground said, “The rest have been transferred to the Zong Consortium’s combat troops.”

“Alright then!” Zhang Xiaoman seized their weapons and said, “Bring out the food y’all eat here. We want to take some of it with us.”

The two private soldiers hesitated a little but still ended up doing as they were told.

However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were shocked when they saw the moldy cornbread that was brought out. He said in surprise, “Is this all you have in this factory? Can any refugees step forward and answer me?”

One of the refugees said, “Sir, this is what we usually eat.”

Zhang Xiaoman’s face darkened. It was no wonder the Zong Consortium was unpopular with the people and that the old man had said they were all hoping for Fortress 178 to invade. It turned out the refugees were leading miserable lives.

Ren Xiaosu sighed. Although the Qing Consortium was also an organization that exploited its refugees, the refugees in their factories at least had enough to eat. It wasn’t about how good the Qing Consortium was, but how the other organizations made them look better.

Jiao Xiaochen broke a moldy top of cornbread in half and saw that there were even grain chaff mixed into it. “Is this thing really edible? Wouldn’t you die after eating it?”

“Sir, it’s enough as long as it keeps us alive,” the refugee replied.

As this was a bronze smelter, the Razor Sharp Company could not find any clothes nor the Zong Consortium’s military uniforms. This upset Zhang Xiaoman a little. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “We can’t eat this. We’ve also eaten horrible food before, but we really can’t eat something that’s already moldy. It’ll affect our combat effectiveness.”

“I think it’ll be the same at the other nearby factories,” Ren Xiaosu lamented. “So if we want something to eat, we’ll have to find it at the Zong Consortium’s stronghold.”

“Since Stronghold 144 is known as the Zong Consortium’s granary, we’ll definitely find food there. Besides, if we can destroy that ‘granary,’ it’ll trouble the Zong Consortium quite a bit. If their troops don’t have any food to eat during the war, they might just stage a mutiny.”

“Dream on!” Zhang Xiaoman joked. “There should be at least a regiment garrisoned inside Stronghold 144, so how’re we supposed to attack it?”

Ren Xiaosu piped up, “We can attack their baggage train first!”

Initially, the Razor Sharp Company did not wish to come into contact with any of the Zong Consortium’s regulars since they were behind enemy lines. But now, they had no choice but to fight. If they did not fight, they would starve to death. Their hand was forced by circumstance.

No one could have expected that the bloodshed about to take place within the Zong Consortium’s territory would actually be sparked by a search for food.

Two days later, the Zong Consortium’s headquarters suddenly received news that a convoy moving provisions had been attacked by a small group of enemy troops outside Stronghold 144. As the enemy was only a single company from Fortress 178, they did not manage to completely wipe out the supply column.

Currently, Stronghold 144’s garrison infantry regiment was pursuing this company with all its might.

A general at the headquarters on the front line frowned when he received this news. As Stronghold 144’s geography was unique, Fortress 178 would have to cross a river to be able to attack that place. But since Fortress 178 did not have any ships, the Zong Consortium did not worry too much about this place when they were previously considering their strategic plans.

But to their surprise, something just had to happen at Stronghold 144.

The headquarters issued an official document to Stronghold 144 to order the infantry regiment’s commander to eliminate this company that came from Fortress 178. He was to ensure the safety of the rear supply lines!

But just a few hours after the document was sent, Stronghold 144 relayed the news that the regiment had lost sight of the enemy.

The general at the headquarters who was in charge of logistics was enraged. “How could you even lose sight of the enemy inside your own territory?! Find them! Locate this company no matter what! Otherwise, you won’t have to be the regimental commander anymore!”

Chapter 433: Your regimental commander is dead

Chapter 433 Your regimental commander is dead

Actually, the general who was in charge of logistics had bypassed the chain of command by issuing the order directly. However, no one said anything about it since whoever was in charge of logistics would usually be close to the higher-ups.

The Razor Sharp Company had not actually disappeared and were instead hiding in the bronze smelter they had arrived at first. On one hand, they had to watch over the refugees in the factory to prevent them from running off and revealing their whereabouts. On the other hand, they shared a portion of the provisions they had robbed from the Zong Consortium with the refugees to win them over.

At first, everyone was still on edge as they were afraid something could happen. After all, Ren Xiaosu’s idea of hiding in the factory was a bold one. They were surprised that none of the refugees had any intentions of tattling on them. But of course, they did not have the chance to do so either.

The refugees said that being a snitch was more trouble than it was worth. Even if they tried every means possible to escape from here and went to inform the Zong Consortium, they would not be given any rewards.

The Zong Consortium’s harsh treatment of the refugees was evident.

Some of the refugees even requested that Ren Xiaosu and company equip them with firearms as they hoped to join the battle to fight the Zong Consortium together.

Zhang Xiaoman naturally did not agree. But he sighed emotionally and said, “If a civilization wants its people to fall to its knees, then the people will show that civilization the pride of their savagery.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman in surprise. “You’re quite cultured.”

“I didn’t think of it.” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “Commander Zhang said it.”

After they successfully seized the food, the Razor Sharp Company hid in the factory again and lay in wait for another opportunity. Meanwhile, the infantry regiment was not expecting the Razor Sharp Company to be so bold as to hide right under their noses.

“Currently, the garrison of Stronghold 144 must be conducting a thorough search for us. If an enemy appeared to our rear as well, we’d definitely have a headache like them too,” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile.

Amid their chattering, the factory carried on with its usual operations. Only in this way would it not seem suspicious.

Ren Xiaosu said, “The Zong troops will definitely come around to ask if there are any suspicious figures around. At that time, we can determine whether they’ve split up into groups or concentrated their forces to search for us. If they have split up, we can seize the opportunity to attack them.”

Although the general in charge of logistics at the Zong Consortium’s headquarters was furious, he also felt that the matter was not actually that serious. They had already guessed that this company might have been the one that accidentally made the river crossing at Mt. Qiangwan, but it would be fine as long as they were not the main forces of Fortress 178.

After all, a regiment’s strength was ten times that of a company’s. It was obvious who would win.

The infantry regiment left behind a battalion to defend Stronghold 144, while several companies were deployed to search in all directions. According to their plans, if a company encountered the enemy, they should stall and call for reinforcements. It would then take at most two hours for two of their companies to surround the enemy.

But less than two days later, headquarters received yet another report that a company from the garrison infantry regiment of Stronghold 144 had been wiped out and that the enemy remained on the loose. On that same afternoon, another company was wiped out by the enemy. This company that was killed had actually gone to support the first company that was taken out.

Headquarters was alarmed. What was this turn of events? Didn’t the enemy only consist of a single company? How did they manage to wipe out two companies of theirs?

The Zong Consortium’s infantry regimental commander was not an idiot. He immediately combined his fighting forces and no longer split them up.

This regimental commander even went to the battlefield to have a look. He was surprised to discover that the enemy did not suffer any casualties in the previous battles. What the hell was with this combat effectiveness? A supernatural being had to be part of this Fortress 178 company!

The regimental commander frowned as he stood on the battlefield and wondered how he should resolve this thorn in the side. His responsibility for staying behind at Stronghold 144 was to ensure that the logistics and provisions to the front line were kept safe. If this problem remained unresolved, he probably wouldn’t keep his position as the regimental commander.

But then a pink mist erupted from the regiment commander’s chest, and his entire body was knocked backwards.

The soldiers around him grew anxious. “Sniper! Sniper! Save the CO!”

But how could the regimental commander who was shot in the chest by a sniper rifle possibly survive that.

To be honest, the Zong Consortium had never fought tough battles before. Most of the officers at the grassroots level did not even have the awareness to keep a lookout for snipers.

No one could have expected that a sniper would actually appear here. How could an elite soldier like a sniper be attached to an infantry company? Just how many troops from Fortress 178 had crossed the river?!

Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium’s headquarters was still waiting for news of the annihilation of the Razor Sharp Company. However, they were told about the regimental commander’s death instead.

When the general who was in charge of logistics heard this news, he wanted to curse out loud. He immediately handed the case over to the Department of War for them to handle. This was a big deal. There was a need to appoint a new regimental commander, and someone had to be held accountable as well!

In fact, Ren Xiaosu was also unaware that he had killed the regimental commander of Stronghold 144’s garrison. He was purely trying his luck when he found a commanding point to observe the battlefield from. But when he spotted the regimental commander in his scope, he decisively took a shot at him.

After Ren Xiaosu scurried off from his sniping position, he even asked the palace, “What’s my firearms proficiency now?”

The voice from the palace answered, “Master.”

Not bad, not bad at all. Ren Xiaosu was happy. Ever since he killed the two snipers in the mountain range, he felt that his skill should have improved.

This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had raised one of his skills to master, so he still felt a sense of accomplishment. After all, he did not achieve this by copying but through his actual skill and training.

Ren Xiaosu did not fire a second shot because he saw the Zong Consortium troops armed with heavy machine guns. If they somehow managed to react and attack his position with the heavy machine guns, he might not survive.

After joining back up with Zhang Xiaoman and the others, Zhang Xiaoman asked him, “Any success?”

“Yeah, I killed an officer,” Ren Xiaosu answered.

“An officer? What was his rank?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

“You think I could tell?” Ren Xiaosu said. After all, the scope was not some kind of divine artifact. At that great a distance, a person would appear as small as an ant.

Zhang Xiaoman nodded. “Alright, I don’t think it’s anyone important anyway. Let’s head back to the factory and lie low for now.”

This time, they stayed hidden for seven days straight. The Razor Sharp Company did not even see any signs of the Zong Consortium’s companies pursuing or searching for them during this period. Zhang Xiaoman joked, “Why have the Zong Consortium’s troops ceased their search? Ren Xiaosu, could you have killed their regimental commander?”

Ren Xiaosu laughed. “As if we could get that lucky! Don’t even think about it. I doubt that officer would be anyone as important as the regimental commander since he doesn’t even have the awareness to keep a lookout for snipers.”

But unbeknownst to them, a chain reaction had already started due to Ren Xiaosu’s sniping of the infantry regimental commander.

It would even go on to affect the situation at the front line too.

All because the Zong Consortium now suspected that there had to be more than one company from Fortress 178 that had infiltrated their rear lines.

Chapter 434: Your new regimental commander is dead too

Chapter 434 Your new regimental commander is dead too

The Razor Sharp Company did not feel like they had really done much. To them, they had at most eliminated two companies while Ren Xiaosu killed an officer. As for how he killed the officer, the Razor Sharp Company was numb to it and not particularly concerned.

In their opinion, this was trivial. Compared to what they had done previously, it was nothing at all.

However, that wasn’t the case for the Zong Consortium. At this moment, the Zong Consortium had recalled an elite officer from the front line to Stronghold 144 to take over as the new commander of the infantry regiment there.

This young officer’s performance at the front line was without peer. The Zong Consortium’s higher-ups had even intended to let him take responsibility for guarding Position 128 on Mt. Wuchuan.

In the end, to resolve the matter at hand, they ordered him to return from the front line to take charge of the encirclement operation in the rear.

Someone suggested they should just arrange for a full regiment to be redeployed to the rear to carry out the encirclement.

However, one of the generals at the headquarters rejected this suggestion. “Fortress 178 does not have a fleet. Although our defensive line at the southern shore of the Beiwan River has been crushed by the Qing Consortium, the waterway still remains under our control. There are no other vessels on that river, and even if there were, we would’ve spotted them already. Therefore, this fighting force from Fortress 178 that’s currently sneaking around in our backyard must be the troops that boarded the ferry at the harbor behind Mt. Qiangwan. That ship can fit 300 people on it at most, so this is the intel we have to work with.”

“Mhm, the 1237th Regiment from Stronghold 144 isn’t weak either. If Zong Jing still can’t handle this matter with a regiment at his command, he’s probably not that capable after all,” a middle-aged general said calmly.

At this moment, everyone stopped talking. This general actually brought up the internal strife between the factions of the organization the moment he spoke.

Just like most other organizations, the Zong Consortium had cracks in the foundation. Otherwise, no one would have secretly transferred their assets out.

Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang, who were from the Zong clan’s main branch, were currently considered the frontrunners to lead the Zong Consortium. Meanwhile, this young officer named Zong Jing was from the fourth ancillary branch, and they were all considered competitors with one another.

In the end, one of the generals in Zong Jing’s branch said, “The enemy has a sniper, so we have to deploy our most elite snipers to Stronghold 144 as well, since the battle at Mt. Wuchuan has not reached its climax yet.”

This was considered a quid pro quo, to which the other generals agreed to.

Stronghold 144 was about 500 kilometers away from Mt. Wuchuan, and the Zong Consortium had built a simple concrete road to link up these two locations. But due to tectonic movements and a lack of maintenance, the road was already riddled with potholes and cracks.

Currently, Zong Jing had the most elite snipers from the Zong Consortium traveling with him.

The off-road vehicle was driving down the road at a top speed of only 50 kilometers per hour.

Zong Jing had set off during the night to head to Stronghold 144. As he was traveling light, he arrived in the territory that was overseen by Stronghold 144 by the next afternoon.

Zong Jing was also getting very impatient. He was hoping to deal with the threat in the rear as quickly as possible so he could return to the front line where it was more feasible for him to gain accolades for a promotion.

Before he even arrived at the stronghold, he was already making arrangements with the deputy commander of 1237th Regiment via a phone call. The first thing he did was to order his deputy to quickly search the nearby factories. While reading the situation reports, Zong Jing realized the previous regimental commander had missed out on checking the factories and had a feeling that the enemy troops might be hiding in one of them.

Thus, the second-in-command sent out several companies to check on the twenty-something factories in the area.

As expected, while he was still on the road that night, his second-in-command contacted him and reported that their troops had engaged the Fortress 178 troops in battle at a bronze smelter.

Zong Jing heaved a sigh of relief. It was just as he had guessed. Right after, he asked about the outcome of the battle but was met with evasiveness from his second-in-command, who told him that because there were too many factories, he had no choice but to split up the troops to check on each of the factories. He said that only a single company went to check on the bronze smelter, and they ended up being defeated by the enemy.

Zong Jing went silent for a while before asking about the number of casualties the enemy had sustained. He was told they suffered no casualties at all.

In fact, before the company could even get close to the bronze smelter, Ren Xiaosu’s shadow clone had already taken out most of their troops. The shadow clone rushed into the company’s formation and slashed the radio operator and his radio set first. Then it started slashing all over the place within the formation before telling the Razor Sharp Company to come and clean up the mess.

But it didn’t just end there. The shadow clone also hunted down the Zong Consortium’s soldiers who were fleeing into the wilderness. In the end, the company that went to the bronze smelter was wiped out before they could even see the main entrance of the factory.

The second-in-command only reacted after he realized he couldn’t contact this particular company after half an hour had passed. But by that time, the Razor Sharp Company had already sent the refugees away and blown up the bronze smelter before escaping themselves. He didn’t even have an idea of where they had fled.

All of this was thanks to the fact that there was a war going on at the front line. Otherwise, Stronghold 144’s troops were definitely not a force that Ren Xiaosu could beat. However, Ren Xiaosu only dared to attack the Zong Consortium in their own territory precisely because of that.

Zong Jing was starting to burn with worry. It would be not appropriate for him to chide his new second-in-command in the call. After all, how could he tell him off so quickly when he was freshly posted to this regiment himself? If the other party did not cooperate with him as a result, that would be even more troublesome.

His second-in-command asked: “Should I send some troops to go and escort you? If there’s any danger, they’ll at least be able to protect you.”

Zong Jing was really frustrated. Although he wanted to learn from the higher-ups to act patiently, he was still young and unable to rein in his anger. He couldn’t help but criticize, “There’s no need. Continue tracking the enemy. Even though you can’t do your duty, you sure are great at being an asskisser. If you can’t locate the Fortress 178 troops within the day, you won’t need to stay around in 1237th Regiment any longer. I’ll ship you north to mine.”

Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company was marching west in the wilderness. Thanks to Zong Jing, they could no longer hide comfortably in the factories anymore. Zhang Xiaoman was cursing at Zong Jing, “I wonder which Zong bastard is so cunning that they actually guessed where we were hiding.”

“What’d you expect?” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “We can’t treat the other party like they’re idiots. It was only a matter of time before the Zong Consortium found out.”

When they heard the sudden rumble of a vehicle driving in the wilderness, everyone threw themselves on the ground. Some of them hid in ditches while others took cover behind trees.

over

They had not been walking on the main road as that would be a death wish. However, they were marching parallel to the road in case they lost their bearings. If they encountered the Zong Consortium’s convoys, they might even be able to rob them again.

After all, their provisions were running out again.

An off-road vehicle sped past them on the road. Jiao Xiaochen mumbled, “It’s not a convoy….” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Chuckling, Zhang Xiaoman chided him softly, “That vehicle came from the direction of the front lines. Even if they are a convoy, it would only be an empty vehicle. Eh? Where’s Ren Xiaosu?”

They looked around and were surprised to see Ren Xiaosu lying on a hill and holding a large black sniper rifle in front of him.

With a loud bang, a huge dust cloud kicked up around where Ren Xiaosu lay. He had fired an incendiary bullet that hit the off-road vehicle right in the gas tank.

Everyone saw the off-road vehicle explode into a fireball in the wilderness. The vehicle parts were blasted into the air before landing on the ground, scattering everywhere.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others watched in shock as Ren Xiaosu put away his sniper rifle. They only knew that Ren Xiaosu was capable of sniping, and this was the first time they had witnessed the process themselves. Including the sniper rifle, how many powers did Ren Xiaosu have? Three?!

Stunned, Zhang Xiaoman wondered if Ren Xiaosu might even possess more than three superpowers.

When Ren Xiaosu came back over, Zhang Xiaoman asked, “Why did you shoot them?”

“Why not?” Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, “If they can travel in an off-road vehicle, they should at least be lieutenants, right? In that case, why not just kill them?”

“True…. Let’s hurry and leave. It’s time to switch locations.” Zhang Xiaoman led the Razor Sharp Company and escaped into the depths of the wilderness. The Zong Consortium was tracking them closely, so they had to find a place to lie low for a bit.

But when news of Zong Jing’s death was reported back to headquarters, the Zong Consortium’s central command fell so quiet that only their heartbeats could be heard.

Chapter 435: Pursuit

Chapter 435 Pursuit

Zong Jing, who was from the fourth ancillary branch of the Zong clan, was also one of the frontrunners of the younger generation. But it was only because Zong Cheng was a supernatural being that he, as a normal person, had mostly been overlooked.

Of course, they were only outstanding because they were compared with the other members of the Zong Consortium. If this comparison included everyone else, then Qing Zhen, who was a similar age to them, had already surpassed their achievements by becoming the head of the Qing Consortium. But because of Qing Zhen’s coup, the Zong Consortium’s Board seemed to have started becoming wary of the troops controlled by the clan’s family members. They were all worried that what happened to the Qing Consortium would play out in their organization as well.

The fourth ancillary branch of the Zong clan knew that Zong Jing was definitely not comparable to Zong Cheng or Zong Xiang, but still, he couldn’t just die like that!

Moreover, Zong Jing had taken two of the most elite snipers from the Zong Consortium’s military with him. As a matter of fact, the cost of training a sniper was comparable to training a fighter pilot before The Cataclysm!

“I’ll deploy the recon battalion to Stronghold 144.” A general said gloomily, “I want to make sure these Fortress 178 troops will never return home!”

“Seconded! It’s better to leave such pursuits in the wilderness to the recon battalion. Besides, the front at Mt. Wuchuan doesn’t require them either. But more importantly, we can’t allow these Fortress 178 troops to find out about our contingency plans,” the general sitting at the end of the conference table said in a low voice.

Everyone was cowed by the words. The contingency plans seemed extremely important.

Moreover, Stronghold 144 was the Zong Consortium’s granary, and the military rations at the front line could only last for about 15 days. If they did not resolve the problem of the infiltration quickly, the battles at the front line might get affected as a result.

“It’s decided then. Order the recon battalion to set off immediately. As for the role of the infantry regiment’s commander, I recommend Zong Han take over. The defeat we suffered at the Beiwan River has already proven that Zong Han is not suitable as a brigade commander, so demote him and make him report to Stronghold 144 instead.” “Seconded, but let’s not make the same, stupid mistake as the previous time. Have the 1237th Regiment send some troops to receive him.”

All of the Zong Consortium’s generals were upset. Although this issue did not really affect the Zong Consortium as a whole, these troops from Fortress 178 that had infiltrated their rear lines were a thorn in the side and a niggling source of pain.

They were about to begin the final battle at Mt. Wuchuan, yet they still had to redeploy their troops to the rear.

However, the Razor Sharp Company evaporated into thin air and did not appear again around Stronghold 144 for the next seven days.

When the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion arrived, they started tracking from the area where Zong Jing was attacked. These soldiers were all experts at hunting people in the wilderness, so it would be easy to find the tracks of an entire company if they wanted to.

For example, trampled grass, human excrement, and other tracks that suggested people had been there before would all alert them.

But when they followed the trail to a small stream, the tracks stopped abruptly. The Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance troops realized that the Razor Sharp Company had made use of this small stream to escape, but they could not ascertain where they had gone.

This left the Zong Consortium in a very uncomfortable position.

For example, someone wouldn’t be disgusted by seeing a palm-sized spider at home but that it disappeared right after one turned one’s eyes away for a moment.

Three days later, three military factories in the vicinity of Stronghold 145 fell under attack. These three factories were not technologically advanced in any way either. They were just factories that manufactured the most common bullets, hand grenades, and mortar shells.

The defenses at the military factories were still pretty tight, yet the mysterious troops from Fortress 178 seemed to have come prepared and were able to blow up all three factories in a
day.

Of course, the Razor Sharp Company was only able to make such swift attacks because they had the refugees helping them. How else would they have gotten such detailed information on where to attack?

After blowing up the factories, the Razor Sharp Company once again made use of the stream to leave so that they could hide elsewhere in the wilderness. Some of the Zong Consortium’s generals were going crazy with rage. “It looks like Fortress 178 was fully prepared for this. How could those troops have made the river crossing accidentally? They’re obviously trying to copy the Qing Consortium’s tactics and are targeting our military factories! Tell the garrisons of those strongholds that if anything happens to the other military factories under their watch, I’ll have all of them executed!”

Immediately, all of the military factories in the north were placed under lockdown. It looked as though all of them were facing a formidable enemy, as they split up half of the troops garrisoned in the strongholds to head out and protect the military factories.

Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion lived up to their expectations of locating the Razor Sharp Company. At some point, from atop a distant hill, they even managed to catch a glimpse of the retreating figures of the Razor Sharp Company.

The Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion was cursing at this in their minds. Why weren’t these troops from Fortress 178 following a proper route? Were they just randomly moving and going wherever they liked?

At the start, the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion was chasing after them from behind. When they spotted some disorderly tracks, they thought the Razor Sharp Company was deliberately trying to mislead them. However, after almost catching up to them a few times, they suddenly felt that from the unconcealed manner that this group of soldiers were moving, it did not suggest that they were trying to intentionally leave behind a trail to mislead them. It purely felt like they had just taken the wrong route and were turning back to retrace their steps!

But the more it felt like this, the more disgusted the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion grew. After the Razor Sharp Company’s attacks on the military factories, they felt that they had more or less figured out what the Razor Sharp Company was thinking

Hence, the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion took a shortcut as they wanted to set up an ambush for the enemy, but they did not see the Razor Sharp Company appear even after a long time had passed. It was only then that they realized the Razor Sharp Company had turned around again.

What the hell was this? Weren’t they afraid that there would be pursuers behind them? They actually turned around?!

In fact, the Razor Sharp Company had only turned around because Fu Rao had lost his Shichuan Village medal. They turned back to see if they could find it. After all, the medal was worth 10,000 yuan.

Of course, the Razor Sharp Company was not treating this as a game either. When Fu Rao asked to turn around to search for his lost medal, he had sought Ren Xiaosu’s permission to do so. Then Ren Xiaosu said that he happened to want to turn around as well.

There was actually another layer of safety for the Razor Sharp Company, and that was the shadow clone that was roaming the wilderness.

In fact, as long as their presence was small enough, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to stay hidden in the wilderness. If the Razor Sharp Company was any larger in size, they would not be able to resort to such guerrilla tactics.

“So where do we go now?” Zhang Xiaoman asked.

“That group of soldiers pursuing us makes things a little tricky. I feel like their overall quality is much higher than the Zong soldiers we defeated before.” Ren Xiaosu frowned.

If it were a normal unit, they would have abandoned the chase long ago. However, these troops were much more difficult to deal with. Ren Xiaosu had also planted a few of the Brambles as a trap for them. But in the end, they were not even hindered by it. When the enemy troops saw the strange red vines hidden within the patches of grass, they avoided them entirely.

Even if someone accidentally got entwined, the others would definitely try their best to rescue them. As such, it was very difficult for the Brambles to cause any casualties.

“We can’t just keep letting them chase us like this. We nearly had a close range exchange of fire with them on many occasions already.” Zhang Xiaoman thought for a while and said, “Why don’t we attack them frontally?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I suspect that they might also have snipers. How could there be no snipers in such an elite battalion? So I think it’s still better to avoid them for now.”

“Then what should we do?”

Chapter 436: The annoying recon battalion

Chapter 436 The annoying recon battalion

“Come on, let’s forced march. We’re turning back to Stronghold 144 while they’re busy setting up an ambush ahead!” Ren Xiaosu decided.

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company did not question Ren Xiaosu on how he knew the enemy had taken a shortcut and gotten ahead of them to set up an ambush. They were used to this.

But suddenly, Ren Xiaosu frowned. This reconnaissance battalion was able to react much faster than he had expected. When the enemy saw that the Razor Sharp Company had not fallen for their ambush, they immediately pursued them again!

“They’re really annoying.” Ren Xiaosu frowned. However, he also gained something unexpected.

His shadow clone was lurking in the wilderness and taking the most concealed routes to get everywhere. These routes were also the favorites for a sniper to take.

His shadow clone had come face to face with an enemy sniper. However, when a sniper encountered something as powerful as the shadow clone, it was easy to imagine what would happen. All it took was a single slash and it was over.

However, the Zong Consortium’s reconnaissance battalion was still rapidly closing in on them. The troops had switched from their previously patient pursuit into a headlong attacking chase. It was as though they wanted to overwhelm the Razor Sharp Company right here with their strength and numbers.

An ORBAT like the reconnaissance battalion was always the strongest in terms of individual combat effectiveness. Some people would even refer to them just as spec ops.

Although the Razor Sharp Company had also won their fair share of battles, the difference between them and the reconnaissance troops was still huge. Be it their physical strength, marksmanship, or tactics, the Razor Sharp Company was nowhere near the level of the recon troops.

Seeing the distance between the two combatants closing, Ren Xiaosu did not even use his shadow clone to slow them down. If it got struck in the center of its forehead again in a crossfire, the situation in which Fu Rao got struck down would probably repeat itself. His shadow clone was now his most important scout.

Ren Xiaosu tried to activate the Shadow Door to throw some grenades at the enemy. However, the enemy’s recon troops were well-trained. As soon as the Shadow Door opened up in the darkness, it was greeted with a hail of bullets.

Fortunately for Ren Xiaosu, he did not look through the Shadow Door at a direct angle. Otherwise, the bullets would probably have penetrated and struck him! If he had put his arm out, it would most likely would’ve been shot to mincemeat too.

arn

They were facing a strong opponent this time!

It was Ren Xiaosu’s first time coming up against such a well-trained unit in battle. This was just like the sense of oppression he felt back when he faced Xu Man’s troops from the Qing Consortium in the Jing Mountains.

“Xiaosu, are we gonna get out of here this time?” Jiao Xiaochen asked rather nervously. “I heard that people call out the names of those closest to them in times of fear?”

Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. “Then d’you know who ‘fuck’ is?”

Zhang Xiaoman did not know whether to laugh or cry. He said, “How the fuck are you still in the mood to crack shitty jokes? Why don’t you leave on your own first, Xiaosu? You can move fast, so bring the others along with you. I’ll stay behind and form a defensive line with 1st Platoon to cover you all as you leave!”

When a decision was called for, someone would have to sacrifice themselves to ensure the survival of others.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. “Why are you always trying to sacrifice yourself? Don’t worry, with me around, it’ll be hard to die even if you really want to.”

Suddenly, a black steam locomotive spewing black smoke from its smokestack phased into reality as it sped out of a gray fog.

When Zhang Xiaoman and the others saw something that large appearing in front of them, the warriors of the Razor Sharp Company felt very humbled. At the same time, they were very shocked by the sight of it. This was probably another one of Ren Xiaosu’s superpowers.

Speaking of which, just how many powers did Ren Xiaosu have? This was throwing common sense out the window! It would have been fine if he only had two or three powers, but why were there still more being revealed?

“Hop on!” Ren Xiaosu said, “I’ll take y’all for a spin.”

“Damn, it’s my first time riding a train…”

While muttering, everyone got onto the train, each faster than the last. After all of the Razor Sharp Company had boarded the steam locomotive, it started traveling north, traversing the mountains like they were a roller coaster.

When the enemy recon battalion that was pursuing them saw this sight after stepping out from a mountain pass, they could only stop in their tracks and stare in bewilderment, not knowing what to do.

The commander of the recon battalion nearly went crazy with anger. ‘If you had such a power in the first place, you should have used it long ago! We’ve been chasing after you for two days, yet you only revealed such a hack now?! Why! By not showing off a power like that, does it make you feel closer to the ground?’

The commander of the recon battalion felt like a mess. “Radioman, hurry up and notify HQ about this. Which stronghold is north of here? Tell them to be on guard with everything they’ve got. There’s a train heading for them right now!”

However, after Ren Xiaosu’s steam locomotive drove north for dozens of kilometers, it suddenly made its way back towards Stronghold 144. Having already attracted so much attention from the enemy, wouldn’t it be asking to die if he continued heading further into enemy territory?

Moreover, the Zong Consortium’s stronghold garrisons in the north would surely be waiting for them by now.

Therefore, it was better to return to the vicinity of Stronghold 144 instead. It was easy to choose between fighting or leaving. If he decided to flee in the end, he could just cross the Beiwan River.

Although the steam locomotive was traveling through the mountains like there were no obstacles, it was still a particularly “exciting” ride. Sitting down, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company held tightly onto the armrests in the carriages while yelling, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Ren Xiaosu guffawed. “See? Didn’t I tell y’all that when people get scared, they shout ‘fuck,’ not the names of those closest to them?”

The steam locomotive was moving at a very fast speed. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the wilderness. A few hours later, the steam locomotive returned to the territory of Stronghold 144 once more. Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked ahead of the train and said, “There’s some troops up ahead. Looks like about two companies of soldiers. Why don’t we get some target practice while we’re on the train?”

“Two companies? They’re probably troops escorting a supply column. We don’t have a lot of rations left, so why don’t we hold them up?” Zhang Xiaoman said, “But can your steam locomotive stand it?”

“It’s strong! Let’s do this!” Ren Xiaosu roared carefreely. The strong winds on both sides of the steam locomotive howled as it traveled alone across the vast wilderness.

It had been a long time since Ren Xiaosu felt so carefree!

The steam locomotive was rapidly approaching the two companies of soldiers. However, when it got closer, they realized these troops were not part of the supply columns.

The deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment had just led two companies to receive Zong Han, their new regimental commander, and escort him back to Stronghold 144.

They had heard that Zong Han used to be the commander of the brigade that was stationed at the Beiwan River. Due to his defeat at the front line, he got demoted to regimental commander. However, everyone knew that Zong Han had the backing of the Zong clan’s main branch, so he would surely rise again someday. Therefore, they still had to serve well for him.

The deputy commander sat in the passenger seat of the troop transport truck while Zong Han took the off-road vehicle. Suddenly, the driver of the troop transport truck shouted, “Oh no, there’s a train approaching us from behind!”

As the steam locomotive had followed the convoy of vehicles, only the driver had noticed it in his rearview mirror. When the deputy commander heard that, he was amused. “How can there be a fucking train out here? That thing only runs between Stronghold 145 and Stronghold 146!”

“But there’s really a train!” the driver said in panic.

The deputy commander peeked out of the window in his confusion and was greeted by the sight of a black steam locomotive surging towards them. Black smoke was puffing out of the steam locomotive’s smokestack as it whistled!

Chapter 437: Chain reaction

Chapter 437 Chain reaction

“Quick, avoid it! Get out of the way!” The deputy commander watched as the steam locomotive got closer and closer. He went numb with fear and could only wonder why something like that would suddenly appear out in the wilderness.

Segments of railroad tracks were materializing and joining up at the front of the train as a loud metallic clanging rang out while it surged forward. The driver tried his best to speed up, but if he went too fast on this uneven road, the truck would flip over!

“Soldiers in the back, set up the HMGs and prepare to fire!” The deputy commander shouted, “Prepare for battle!”

While the vehicles drove over the uneven ground, the soldiers of the 1237th Regiment were hastily setting up the heavy machine guns at the back of the trucks. As the road was too bumpy, it took them a long time to even load the ammunition.

The radio in the truck crackled to life. Zong Han, who was in the off-road vehicle up front, asked, “What’s going on? Why did a train suddenly appear behind us?”

“It should be an enemy attack, but don’t worry, Regimental Commander, we’ll definitely stop the train behind us!” The deputy commander turned around and shouted to the soldiers, “Fire!”

The machine guns were going ratatat, but the troops realized these normally unstoppable killing machines of the battlefield could only cause some sparks to fly as the bullets ricocheted off this strange steam locomotive in front of them!

The steam locomotive was traveling much faster than the convoy. Ren Xiaosu frowned as he endured the pain and said, “When we pull up to them, I want all of you to get up and start shooting! Remember to look out for any supplies that they might be carrying!”

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers hid under the windows of the carriages, which acted as natural defenses for them. This was clearly a quick pursuit battle, yet it felt like an ambush instead.

This Zong Consortium’s convoy consisted of ten troop transport trucks and a single off-road vehicle. When the steam locomotive caught up and began traveling parallel to the convoy, the Zong Consortium soldiers fired crazily at it.

But even their bullets would run out at some point. When the Zong Consortium’s heavy machine guns finally required reloading, their soldiers were greeted by the sight of multiple automatic rifles and some heavy machine guns poking out from the train’s windows and firing at them.

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers did not even have to reveal their heads since they remained crouched under the windows as they fired.

The scene could not look any stranger than what was happening.

The Zong Consortium troops were shocked. What kind of fucking power was this?

They wanted to take cover, but the problem was that they did not even have a place to hide. The troop transport trucks were just covered by a simple sheet of canvas, and it wasn’t like it was bulletproof!

As soon as the exchange of fire started, many of the Zong Consortium soldiers were downed by the gunfire.

Ren Xiaosu shouted from the front of the train, “I’ve had a look! This convoy isn’t carrying any supplies. Let’s leave!”

With that, the steam locomotive turned away and headed in a different direction in the wilderness.

It was not that Ren Xiaosu did not want to take out this group of Zong Consortium soldiers. But when they fired at the steam locomotive, Ren Xiaosu still felt the pain. He was already sweating as he could not take it much longer.

Fortunately for the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment, he survived the attack. He had also been hit by bullets, but since he was sitting in the passenger seat, the side door helped to lessen the velocity of the bullets. Hence, the gunshots wounds he suffered were not too deep. He got slightly lucky as the recoil of the heavy machine guns was so strong that their aim became erratic and mostly missed him.

After all, the Razor Sharp Company’s troops did not even show their heads and were only hit whoever was unlucky enough to get in their blindfire.

The deputy commander recalled that he vaguely heard Ren Xiaosu shouting. So they had fucking come here to steal supplies, and at the same, took the opportunity to shoot at his troops?

The deputy commander stared blankly at the steam locomotive as it disappeared into the distance. They were leaving just like that?! What kind of fucking troops were these?

Suddenly, the deputy commander’s expression changed. He picked up the radio and said, “Regimental Commander? Are you OK, Regimental Commander?”

The driver in the off-road vehicle picked up his radio and replied, “The Regimental Commander… has fallen in the line of duty….”

The deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment was on the verge of tears. Did Fortress 178 have a grudge against their 1237th Regiment or something? Why were they always targeting the commanders of their regiment? In less than half a month, three of their regimental commanders had died! This must have been on purpose! Who had the regimental commanders provoked?!

On the train that had gotten far away, the Razor Sharp Company’s troops were cheering. “That was such a fun battle, and the enemy did not even get to see any of our faces! I dare say that we killed at least half of their two companies. That makes how many companies we’ve wiped out so far?”

“Lemme see…” Zhang Xiaoman started counting on his fingers. But after a long time, he still could not come up to an exact figure.

Jiao Xiaochen suddenly asked, “Did you get that person in the off-road vehicle just now? It didn’t look like the driver was killed. Did we not hit him?”

They had been so focused on avoiding getting shot that no one dared to look out of the steam locomotive before it fully turned away.

Ren Xiaosu thought back and said, “The passengers in the front and back should all be dead.”

“I wonder who it was that died,” Jiao Xiaochen mumbled. “I reckon the officer was not a junior officer this time. My guess is that it’ll be a battalion commander at the least.”

“Haha, who cares?” Zhang Xiaoman said, “As long as they’re dead, that’s all that matters!”

Actually, even the Razor Sharp Company themselves did not know they had already killed three regimental commanders. After all, it was unlikely that a regimental commander would be so bored that he’d flit around outside.

They also did not know that the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment was on the verge of a breakdown at this moment.

The Zong Consortium’s headquarters once again received news of a death, Zong Han. The generals called for an emergency meeting, and one of them said, “There must be a spy among us. How else would the people of Fortress 178 know about Zong Han’s redeployment and go ambush him?”

“That’s right. The enemy wants the 1237th Regiment to fall into disarray so they can disrupt the supply lines at Stronghold 144.” One of the generals said, “There must be an insider who leaked Zong Han’s whereabouts.”

Suddenly, a middle-aged man looked over at the staff officer who was listening by the side. “What did you say about the method the enemy used to attack them?”

“It was a steam locomotive!” the staff officer replied.

That middle-aged general sneered and said, “This was all Zong Cheng’s doing. I remember that he had deployed his troops to ambush a supernatural being named Wang Congyang, and that supernatural being’s power is to summon a steam locomotive.”

“However, the steam locomotive that appeared this time seems a little different. The train that was previously mentioned only had four carriages, but the train that appeared today had sixteen!”

“The powers of supernatural beings are not something that we can really assess. What if the superhuman can freely change the number of carriages as they please? I’ve never come across a repeated superpower in the world before.” The middle-aged general sneered and said, “It was Zong Cheng that didn’t handle this matter properly. He’s still young, after all, so maybe we should not rush to place him in too important a role. My 131st Brigade won’t be playing along with you all anymore. I’m going to hunt down those troops from Fortress 178 myself.”

“I don’t think you should do that.” Someone asked in confusion, “Your 131st Brigade is in charge of one of the most important positions at Mt. Wuchuan. Who will guard the front if your troops leave?”

“That’s none of my business. If we don’t get rid of these Fortress 178 troops, it will be a disgrace if word gets out.” The middle-aged general turned around and left the headquarters.

It wasn’t really as righteous as it sounded when he said that he would hunt down the Razor Sharp Company. In reality, the assets he had tried to transfer to the Central Plains were all in Wang Congyang’s hands! That was the wealth he had spent the greater part of his life amassing!

With the appearance of the steam locomotive, this middle-aged general had immediately found his adversary. He was going to take back all of his assets.

Chapter 438: The deputy commander makes a run for it

Chapter 438 The deputy commander makes a run for it

In the Zong Consortium’s headquarters, the general sitting at the end of the conference table had a grim expression on his face. However, this was not due to Zong Han’s death, but because Zong Wu actually disobeyed his orders and pulled his 131st Brigade out from Mt. Wuchuan!

The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were the trusted troops of Zong Wu. As they had undergone training in Stronghold 149 for several years, their allegiance lay with Zong Wu and not the consortium.

In the past, no one bothered about him over that. But after this time, the patriarch of the Zong Consortium would probably have to deal with him. However, that would have to wait until the war was over.

Although the Zong Consortium had not been united all along, they still maintained the same goals. At the very least, no one dared to break the status quo like now. Zong Wu was actually using the military influence that he had to openly defy his battle orders. Instead of guarding the front, he decided that he wanted to capture the troops from Fortress 178.

If it continued like this, the morale of the Zong Consortium would plummet!

Instantly, the generals in the headquarters fell silent. No one knew what the others were thinking

Actually, the matter of Zong Wu transferring his assets was initially kept secret. But there was no such thing as a perfect secret, so everyone already knew about it.

was

“We’ll now move on to discussing the situation affecting the stability of our rear lines.” Zong Ying, the commander of the frontline forces, said, “Does anyone have any
opinions?”

Everyone had assumed this was just a company of soldiers that likely consisted of a supernatural being and a sniper. Later on, it felt like there might have been more than one company involved. But up until then, no one felt that a single unit could be enough to affect the entire war.

But all of that had changed today. The appearance of that steam locomotive meant that this small group of soldiers had great mobility, and not even the reconnaissance battalion could catch up to them in the wilderness.

Thus, this small unit from Fortress 178 had suddenly become a huge threat because no one knew what exactly they would do next.

The main issue was that Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company did not have any clear objectives of what they wanted to achieve. They would spontaneously start a battle if they felt confident of winning. If they did not think that they could win, they would just run away. No matter what actions they took, the results were all that mattered…

They operated by the motto: Even we don’t know what we want to achieve!

This unpredictability proved to be very fatal in the war. The Zong Consortium could no longer sit idly by as the enemy troops messed around in their territory!

Zong Ying, the commander of the frontline forces, wore a dark look. He never expected that he would have to worry over a small company when he was in charge of over a 100,000 troops!

Someone spoked up, “I also think that we have to get rid of this unit in the rear. However, hasn’t Zong Wu already taken his 131st Brigade to handle them? Isn’t a single brigade enough? He’s also leading a mechanized brigade that’s well-equipped, so just let him deal with them…. There’s no way we can call him back now anyway.”

“That’s not enough.” Zong Ying said, “Attach two supernatural beings to his brigade.”

Next to him, a general who was in charge of managing the supernatural beings nodded and said, “Alright, but we only have a total of five supernatural beings. If we lose any of them, that could affect our subsequent plans.”

Zong Ying looked at him coldly. “Now is not the time to consider the future. I want those troops from Fortress 178 to die in our Zong Consortium’s territory. Also, there’s no need to appoint a new commander for the 1237th Regiment anymore. Just have the deputy take over as the acting commander.”

Being appointed the acting commander was a good thing. If one did not make any mistakes in that duration, the appointment would likely be made permanent as a result.

But at this moment, a staff officer said, “I’ve just received news that the deputy commander has run away.”

Zong Ying ws confused.

The simple-minded Razor Sharp Company did not know how huge of a chain reaction they had set off. This series of events even managed to affect the main forces of Fortress 178.

At this moment, Zhang Jinglin was being briefed on the sitrep. The key point of the report was that the Zong Consortium’s 131st Brigade had suddenly retreated from the front line and abandoned their position entirely.

This was extremely odd. In fact, the Zong Consortium’s 131st Brigade was causing a lot of trouble for Fortress 178 on the front lines. That mechanized unit was extremely difficult to deal with.

Hu Xingzhi, who was the commander of Fortress 178’s armored brigade, frowned and said, “It’s very out of character for them to suddenly abandon their position entirely. They retreated just like that while we were still shelling them. In the end, we were only shelling an empty space. But the good thing is that we’ve already captured that position, so it’ll save us a lot of trouble.”

“Do y’all think that this might be a scheme by the Zong Consortium?” Zhou Yinglong mumbled. “They did blow up all of Shichuan Village, after all, so they had better not have buried something destructive in the position we just captured!”

Hu Xingzhi shook his head. “I thought the same as you at the beginning, so I ordered our troops to immediately carry out checks after seizing the position. We found no problems at
all.”

“That’s weird…”

“Not only that,” Wang Fengyuan, the director of the intelligence agency, said from beside them, “every one of you should know that our Fortress 178 was quite late to the intelligence gathering game. However, we’ve got a pretty good network spread through the Zong Consortium. I’ve received updates via radio that the Zong Consortium has also moved their recon battalion back to the rear. However, our intelligence agent is still quite low-ranking, so we don’t know exactly what is happening over there.”

“Also, the Zong Consortium’s supply lines have suddenly changed, so that could somehow be related to this. Originally, they were transporting their supplies from Stronghold 144, but they have temporarily switched to using the backup supplies at Stronghold 145.”

“It’s the Razor Sharp Company,” Zhang Jinglin said.

As soon as Zhang Jinglin spoke, the entire headquarters quieted. Zhang Jinglin said calmly, “I think the Razor Sharp Company might be causing quite a bit of trouble for the Zong Consortium in their rear. That’s why they had to deploy their recon battalion and 131st Brigade back, to deal with the Razor Sharp Company.”

Zhou Yinglong cautiously asked, “Commander, are you serious? There’s only a hundred-some men in the Razor Sharp Company. How could they possibly kick up such a huge fuss? I know those bastards very well. They’re not capable of something like that.”

“Ren Xiaosu’s in the Razor Sharp Company now.” Zhang Jinglin said, “With him around, there’s definitely such a possibility. Otherwise, it’d be very difficult to explain why the Zong Consortium is acting so strangely. Moreover, for a unit like the recon battalion to be moved back to the rear, they must be fighting a very targeted battle. Apart from the Razor Sharp Company, would the Zong Consortium have any other enemies at their rear?”

“I don’t think so,” Zhou Yinglong answered.

Everyone knew the Razor Sharp Company were the only Fortress 178 troops who were currently behind Zong Consortium lines. It was just that everyone had a feeling that they would not trouble the enemy so badly. As such, they found the idea a little unbelievable.

But after eliminating all of the possible scenarios, the Razor Sharp Company’s presence behind enemy lines was still something they could not deny.

“No matter how they did it, and no matter what they’re doing now,” Zhang Jinglin looked at the commanders around him and said, “we have to pressure the Zong Consortium even more on the front lines now. We can’t let them deploy more troops back to deal with the Razor Sharp Company any further, so we’ll have to press even harder in order to help the Razor Sharp Company in the rear. After this, we’re going to implement a more detailed battle plan.”

“Understood.” Everyone nodded.

But the commanders of Fortress 178 were all very curious as to what the Razor Sharp Company had done behind Zong Consortium lines.

The troops from both sides were still at the stage of testing each other’s capabilities at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. But a series of dominoes that had been toppled by the Razor Sharp Company brought the tempo of the war to a more intense level.

Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company that was the cause of all these happenings was currently hiding in the mountains and eating roasted potatoes.

Chapter 439: A brief reorganization

Chapter 439 A brief reorganization

“Ahh, this potato smells so good!” Zhang Xiaoman retrieved a charred potato from the campfire with a tree branch. Before it even cooled down, he had already opened his mouth and bit into the potato. Instantly, the entire makeshift campsite was filled with a unique aroma of roasted potatoes.

At this moment, they were situated at the edge of the Zong Consortium’s territory. The reconnaissance battalion that was pursuing them was probably still around 200 kilometers away, so they did not have to worry about enemy troops for now.

For the next few days, they could finally eat some fresh rations. The moment everyone bit into the potatoes, it felt like their life was complete.

“How exciting it is to be fighting a war alongside Ren Xiaosu.” Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, “In the past, I’ve never thought that our Razor Sharp Company would actually kill so many enemies. I was still expecting that half of our troops would get sacrificed in the Battle of Shichuan Village.”

“Oh, where’s Ren Xiaosu?” Fu Rao asked.

“He said he was going to catch some fish,” Jiao Xiaochen answered. “I’ve realized something. With Ren Xiaosu around, it wasn’t even necessary to bring our rations. We’ll never starve since he can find food at any place.”

As they chatted, the company of soldiers removed their shoes and leaned back against the rocks next to them in contentment.

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were all thinking they were probably the most leisurely fighting force on the battlefield right now with the most freedom to do whatever they wanted.

Hiding behind enemy lines, they did not have to listen to anyone’s orders and did as they liked.

“Do you think we’ll be awarded a second-class decoration when we return this time?” Fu Rao asked, “Will we be given some rare medal for our achievements?”

Someone said, “You’re trying to ask if there’ll be a more valuable medal given out, right? Haha!”

Fu Rao was from a poor family, so he always felt a little inferior around others. There was a woman he liked but did not dare confess to, and in the end, he could only watch as someone from the armored brigade snatched her away from him.

In the beginning, the Razor Sharp Company did not actually have the practice of selling their medals. After all, it was a badge of honor that was bestowed to them for their contributions. But there was one time when Fu Rao asked that if he was the only one to sell off his medal, would that make him look like he did not have a collective sense of honor? His mother had fallen sick and he needed the money urgently. Although medical allowances were a thing in the stronghold, his mother needed a controlled substance for her illness, which was more expensive.

In the end, Zhang Xiaoman asked him why he did not sell off his medal when the rest of them had already sold theirs.

With that, Fu Rao started to feel more at ease, and selling war medals became common practice within the Razor Sharp Company.

Back when Fu Rao wanted to turn around to search for the medal he lost, Zhang Xiaoman and the others agreed to do so without a second thought. As for the medal they found, that was actually Zhang Xiaoman’s.

After all, how could it be that easy to find a thumb-sized medal out in the wilderness?

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman analyzed, “Look, our military’s most impressive award is the Nebula Medal that buyers in the black market offer 200,000 yuan for. However, we don’t stand much of a chance of getting that since it’s only awarded to the most outstanding soldiers with the greatest contributions in war. But I think we can try to aim for the Star Medal instead. That medal can still fetch over 50,000 yuan on the black market!”

Fu Rao’s eyes lit up. “That much?”

“You had better believe it!.” Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, “Once you receive the Star Medal, you can pay off the debts incurred from your mother’s medical treatment.”

“Hehe.” Fu Rao said with a silly smile, “Then what kinds of contributions do we need to make to get that award?”

“We should’ve already earned enough battle achievements. Since we don’t have that many people in our unit and were made to fight this battle by ourselves, the standards could probably be lowered a little. We were lucky to take advantage of our enemies in the rear to stand out with our contributions.” Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment before saying, “We’ve already wiped out at least six companies, but that’s probably only enough to earn us the Star Medal. If we can add a few more kills involving the more important Zong Consortium officers, we’ll definitely qualify for the Nebula Medal.”

“More important officers? What rank would those officers have to be?”

“They would have to be regimental commanders at least.”

“Then how can we possibly achieve that? For someone like a regimental infantry commander, they’ll surely be heavily protected.” Fu Rao shook his head in disappointment.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu returned with several dozen fish strung up through their gills on a straw rope. He said, “If y’all want to earn a medal, then earn the best one there is. Let’s aim for the Nebula Medal with our achievements. Y’all have yet to count the three factories that we destroyed, and who knows what else we can achieve later.”

Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes lit up. “Why don’t we take the fight to Stronghold 144? That stronghold is the Zong Consortium’s granary, so if we can cut off the food supply to the Zong troops, it would definitely be a great achievement from us. With so many of Stronghold 144’s troops already wiped out by us, their defenses must be quite empty.”

“As if it would be that easy. We might’ve been successful in our attacks on the Zong combat troops in the wilderness, but for a small unit like us to break into a stronghold, that’s nothing more than a death wish,” Ren Xiaosu said testily as he skillfully skewered the gutted fish onto the branches.

Jiao Xiaochen came up with a bad idea. “Why don’t we poison Stronghold 144’s water source at the river? We can either throw some animal carcasses in to spoil the water. That’ll cause a lot of misery to Stronghold 144.”

But Zhang Xiaoman retorted, “Then wouldn’t the stronghold residents suffer as well?”

“Well, that’s true….”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. After a while, the aroma of roasted fish drifted into the air. He spoke up, “Let’s have fish for the next few days. They’re really easy to catch. It feels like there’s too many of them in the river.”

Zhang Xiaoman came over. “Xiaosu, skip the fish talk for now. Do you have any good ideas? What should we do next?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, “We can at most pull off another attack in the vicinity of Stronghold 144 before we leave again. Think, is there anything other than food that requires a constant supply in wartime?”

Zhang Xiaoman clapped his hands. “I’ve got it! Let’s destroy their garment factories so their soldiers on the front line have no uniforms to wear!”

The entire Razor Sharp Company looked at Zhang Xiaoman in silence as the sight of Zong Consortium soldiers fighting naked in battle appeared in their mind’s eye. It was an awful sight that made their eyes bleed!

“Uniforms aren’t a necessity.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head with a dark look. “Even if new uniforms can’t be sent to the front line, they can still wear their old and tattered ones. It wouldn’t cause much of an impact.”

Zhang Xiaoman gave it some more thought. “Then let’s attack their footwear factories! Boots wear out very quickly in war, so it would surely cause a huge impact if they don’t get new ones to wear, right? It’ll hurt their feet if they don’t have boots to wear.”

The Razor Sharp Company continued looking at Zhang Xiaoman in silence. This time, Ren Xiaosu ignored him.

Ren Xiaosu thought about all the effort they had put in so far to deal with the enemy, and all that was just so they could make the Zong Consortium soldiers have no boots to wear?

It actually felt quite good thinking about it, but the problem was that there were too many footwear factories around. Something like that did not require much technical know-how to make, and some of the factories were even located inside the strongholds.

Jiao Xiaochen piped up, “There’s one thing the Zong Consortium really can’t do without. If its supply is stopped, they can’t fight anymore.”

“What is it?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Their oil supply! Gas and diesel! The Zong Consortium has many mechanized troops that can cause a lot of trouble for our forces. But without oil, their mechanized troops are as good as scrap metal.”

Chapter 440: Are you a sore loser?!

Chapter 440 Are you a sore loser?!

In modern warfare, there were myriad uses for gasoline and diesel. Without it, mechanical equipment such as tanks, trucks, and off-road vehicles could not be operated. How were the tanks supposed to operate when the time came for them to roll out? Would the armored brigade troops push them into battle?

So when this suggestion was proposed, everyone’s eyes lit up. Jiao Xiaochen said, “I’m guessing that the Zong Consortium’s attention is already on us, so it won’t be easy for us to launch another attack on Stronghold 144. But we’re a highly mobile force and can take the battle elsewhere quickly.”

Zhang Xiaoman felt like he could already see the end of this war. “That’s right. If we can lay waste to all of the Zong mechanized troops, I would definitely protest against Commander Zhang, the old bastard, if he doesn’t award us the Nebula Prize!”

Everyone looked at the arrogant Zhang Xiaoman without saying a word. Zhang Xiaoman rubbed his face in awkwardness and coughed. “Excuse me, I got too proud.”

Zhang Xiaoman was the typical thug in their company. Ren Xiaosu said, “We still haven’t gotten down to cutting off the supply lines for their oil supply. But since we’re about to depart from this area, we have to bring something with us to eat. Who knows if it’ll be easy to look for food farther in the north? Once we find the oil refineries there, we’re gonna destroy them all!”

The plan was immediately put into effect. The Razor Sharp Company set off the next day. Since Ren Xiaosu had already revealed his Steam Locomotive power, there was no point in holding back anymore.

In this war, Ren Xiaosu was no longer apprehensive about keeping too many secrets. Instead, he tried to come up with more ways to use his powers to the best of their potential so he could live up to his determination of getting revenge.

In the morning, the Razor Sharp Company took the steam locomotive as they prepared to ambush the convoys traveling on the supply lines. While they waited, they were bored out of their wits. But before any convoys could arrive, they heard a loud rumbling.

This distant rumble sounded like heavily armored vehicles rolling across the ground. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What’s that sound?”

“We’ve got fucking tanks incoming!” Zhang Xiaoman was startled. He picked up his binoculars and observed the troops that had just appeared on the horizon. “What are these mechanized troops doing here? Shouldn’t they be engaged in battle at Mt. Wuchuan? Or is our intel outdated? How has the situation changed at the front lines?”

Fu Rao muttered, “Could we have already lost?”

The Razor Sharp Company fell silent for a moment. That was actually a very reasonable assumption. After all, why would an armored brigade suddenly appear at the rear if the war hadn’t ended yet?

And from the looks of it, the armored brigade even seemed like they were still at full strength.

“That’s impossible.” Zhang Xiaoman firmly denied it. “Even if the Zong Consortium is really strong, we still have a lot of Fortress 178 troops in the war. So how can we be defeated so quickly? These mechanized troops must be here for us!”

Pfft! Ren Xiaosu who was next to him drinking from a canteen spat out a mouthful of water onto Zhang Xiaoman. Zhang Xiaoman wiped his face and said unhappily, “What’s wrong?”

“An entire armored brigade coming to fight an infantry company like us?” Ren Xiaosu was shocked but could not figure out why this armored brigade would appear here either. “Has the Zong Consortium gone mad?”

Didn’t their Razor Sharp Company only wipe out several of the Zong Consortium’s companies, a few convoys, and several junior officers while giving their recon battalion the slip for two days?

‘Well, alright, although we did go a little overboard, that still shouldn’t warrant sending an entire armored brigade to attack us! Is there really a need for that? Huh? Is there? Are you a sore loser?!’

“What should we do now?” Zhang Xiaoman looked to Ren Xiaosu.

“What’s the point of fighting if they’re really here for us?” Ren Xiaosu said. Who knows how painful it would be for him if the tanks fired at the steam locomotive? He did not even know if he could endure such great pain.

“Retreat, retreat! If this armored brigade is really here for us, it’ll be a great achievement if we can lure them away from the front lines.” Zhang Xiaoman was not panicking and even got a little excited as he said, “Let’s head north now to attack the oil refineries!”

The Zong Consortium’s headquarters had just come up with their next battle plan as the original needed revising. This was because Fortress 178’s troops had suddenly started attacking them relentlessly at Mt. Wuchuan, putting immense pressure on them.

The two sides had been probing the other’s strength with their attacks. But all of sudden, it had turned so intense that it felt like it was the final battle already.

This was Fortress 178 trying to buy time and space for the Razor Sharp Company in case the Zong Consortium deployed more troops back to the rear to deal with them.

And they were successful in achieving this objective. The Zong Consortium’s frontline commander, Zong Ying, was calling Zong Wu three times a day to request him to divert the armored brigade back to the front lines. In the end, Zong Wu ignored him, which left Zong Ying fuming mad!

This was too maddening!

He was even tempted to tell Zong Wu that he would make up for the gold he lost, so just hurry up and bring the armored brigade back to the front line!

At this moment, the generals at the Zong Consortium’s headquarters knew that Zong Wu was likely to leave the Zong Consortium for good after capturing that person who had seized his gold. It was either that, or he would end up forming a new consortium of his own. After all, Zong Wu did control an army now, and that was something that could truly help him survive in this chaotic world.

But would the Zong Consortium let him off so easily? Zong Ying had attached two supernatural beings to Zong Wu’s forces to hunt down the Razor Sharp Company together. However, these two supernatural beings had another mission as well. After the primary objective was achieved, they would immediately kill Zong Wu to prevent the armored brigade from leaving with him.

Moreover, if Zong Wu were not dead, how would Zong Ying establish his authority in the future? How would he answer to the elders of the Board?

“Zong Wu will definitely not return to Mt. Wuchuan. We’ll have to think of another plan,” Zong Ying said with a dark expression.

But at this moment, a staff officer came in to report, “Those troops from Fortress 178 in our rear have suddenly destroyed three of our oil refineries in a day!”

Zong Ying jumped out of his seat. “They destroyed what?!”

“Our oil refineries. But there’s no need to worry, Commander. It was just the cooking oil refineries that were destroyed,” the staff officer hurriedly explained.

Zong Ying heaved a sigh of relief. “Why the fuck did those Fortress 178 troops destroy those factories? So that we won’t have oil to cook with? Or did they have other goals?”

One of the generals hesitated for a moment before asking, “Could it be that they were trying to destroy our crude oil refineries but blew up the wrong targets?”

“That’s impossible.” Zong Ying coldly rejected this possibility. “How could such elite troops make such a rookie mistake? They must have some other motives. Send orders down to study the connection between the oil refineries that were destroyed!”

A general asked, “But what if they really just wanted to destroy our crude oil refineries?”

Zong Ying hesitated for a moment. “Tell the crude oil refineries to go on full alert! Raise the readiness of the garrison troops at those refineries!”

The crude oil refineries had their own garrison forces to defend them. If Ren Xiaosu and the others knew the importance of fuel in wartime, how could the Zong Consortium not know?

Meanwhile, Jiao Xiaochen was complaining to Zhang Xiaoman on the train, “Captain, if we can’t find the right target next time, why don’t we just give up? The Zong Consortium must’ve started taking precautions at those refineries.”

Zhang Xiaoman shouted at the top of his lungs, “Can you blame me for that? Huh? When we questioned the refugees on where the oil refineries were, they were so enthusiastic to answer us. At that time, none of you doubted what they said either, so why are you blaming me now!”

“We aren’t blaming you….”

Listening to this noise, Ren Xiaosu could feel the back of his head throbbing.

Chapter 441: Idiotic

Chapter 441 Idiotic

Hope was always such a beautiful thing, and the mindset of the Razor Sharp Company was very simple. Wasn’t it just crippling the Zong Consortium’s mechanized troops from the perspective of cutting off their fuel?

However, reality was cruel. They were in an unfamiliar place and did not even know where the oil refineries were located.

When they found some refugees to ask for directions, the refugees answered all their questions enthusiastically. Furthermore, the refugees promised to keep it a secret.

But when the Razor Sharp Company arrived at the oil refinery and discovered that it was only a factory producing canola oil for cooking with, they were shocked!

After attacking three factories in a single day, they did not even come across one proper crude oil refinery and were exhausted to death. In the end, Ren Xiaosu was forced to bring everyone back to the uninhabited wilderness to figure out their next steps.

And so, the plan to attack the crude oil refineries was abandoned. They had already attacked three oil refineries, after all, so the Zong Consortium would easily figure out what the Razor Sharp Company was up to. As such, the actual crude oil refineries would most likely be heavily guarded by now.

“Then what should we do?” Jiao Xiaochen asked while smearing some cooking oil they had stolen onto a fish for grilling.

Actually, what Ren Xiaosu and the others did not know was that if they had taken the steam locomotive and headed straight to Stronghold 144 before the 131st Brigade arrived, they might have been able to destroy the Zong Consortium’s granary.

After all, half of the garrison infantry regiment’s troops had already been wiped out in their previous skirmishes, and a further three of their regimental commanders were killed one after the other, including a deputy commander who fled from his position. The remaining troops had fallen into disarray without a leader.

If they really launched an attack on the stronghold, the enemy might not be able to organize an effective defense against them.

Unfortunately, their intel was outdated. They still did not know they had already killed three of the 1237th Regiment’s commanders.

“Then let’s just destroy some of their factories as and when we encounter them.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Didn’t we say that we could learn from the Qing Consortium’s tactics? They just destroyed whatever installations they came across and wiped out the entire Yang Consortium’s industry as a result.”

Jiao Xiaochen said, rolling his eyes, “Can we compare to the Qing Consortium? They had over a 1,000 troops to fight their enemy.”

Ren Xiaosu was not participating in the discussion with the Razor Sharp Company because he knew it would be very difficult for them to come to a conclusion. It was better for the Razor Sharp Company to not have any plans at all. By doing so, the enemy would not be able to sense a pattern in their attacks, and that would prevent them from being caught in a meticulously planned ambush.

On top of that, he was also wondering about the whereabouts of Zong Cheng at this moment. He had heard that Zong Cheng was in charge of the garrison troops at the Zong Consortium’s main stronghold. Luo Lan even disdainfully said that the garrison troops were where the family members of the Zong Consortium got posted.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. “Where’s the Zong Consortium’s HQ?”

“In Stronghold 146. It’s about 400 kilometers away from here.” Zhang Xiaoman said in surprise, “Xiaosu, don’t tell me you’re thinking of attacking their headquarters? We don’t have enough people for that. There should be at least a brigade garrisoned at Stronghold 146 right now. It’s their headquarters, after all, so it’ll definitely be different there.”

“I’m not.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I was just asking.”

He kept pondering this. That was a whole brigade they were talking about. It seemed like he could only wait for Fortress 178 to join up with them here before they could attack the Zong Consortium’s main stronghold together. Otherwise, he would be seeking an early death if he led the Razor Sharp Company in by himself.

But at this moment, the sound of armored vehicles could be heard out in the distance again. It sounded like the armored brigade that was chasing after them had caught up.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. “How did they manage to find us?”

“I don’t know.” Zhang Xiaoman was a little confused. By rights, they should not have left any tracks when they left their previous campsite today.

“Let’s not worry about that for now. That armored brigade can’t move as fast as us. We can discuss that after we get away from here.”

But just as they were about to leave, a young man suddenly walked over alone from afar with a knife in his hand. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others and, with a smile, said loudly, “I’ve finally found you people—”.

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Xiaoman reacted in double-quick time and started firing at him.

But to everyone’s surprise, when the bullets arrived in front of the young man, a glow resembling a yellow honeycomb structure appeared and blocked the bullets.

“Why can’t you let me finish speaking? That’s so rude.” The young man shook his head and said with a smile while looking calm and collected, “One of you here should be Xu Xianchu, right? And which one of you might that be?”

Right at this moment, a bright yellow glow suddenly appeared again behind the young man like an impregnable stronghold. But this time, the young man looked down in astonishment as the black tip of a blade emerged through his chest. Blood was flowing out from it as well. With that, he could no longer say another word.

Then Ren Xiaosu put the black saber away and closed the Shadow Door. He asked, “Who the fuck are you?”

The young man slumped to the ground as the aura around him faded away.

Zhang Xiaoman replied, “He’s probably a supernatural being from the Zong Consortium. Why does he look and seem kinda idiotic?”

Ren Xiaosu’s expression changed. When they were making their way through the mountains to the Beiwan River, someone had seen his shadow clone. That was probably how the enemy determined that Xu Xianchu was among their company.

He couldn’t allow this supernatural being to continue rambling. Otherwise, his secret would be exposed. Zhang Xiaoman and the others had still not seen his shadow clone yet. Thus, he went straight for the kill. But Ren Xiaosu had not expected him to die so easily.

Ren Xiaosu also knew that the overall quality of supernatural beings in these times was quite inconsistent. Not everyone had combat experience, and some of them could even be quite arrogant too. Yang Xiaojin had told him that a supernatural being in the Central Plains had immediately announced that they were going to rule over the entire Central Plains after their power was awakened. In the end, that supernatural being was killed in the shooting spree that ensued.

There were also those who said they wanted to protect the peace but ended up getting killed as well.

In any case, there were all kinds of people out there, and not everyone was as careful as Wang Congyang.

However, the supernatural being they met today was exceptionally stupid. Who knew how the Zong Consortium had raised him?

“Forget it, let’s not bother with him anymore. We have to move since our position might’ve been compromised.” Then Ren Xiaosu summoned the steam locomotive for them to get away from here, leaving behind the corpse of the supernatural being alone in the wilderness. The Razor Sharp Company did not even give him another look.

But what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that this supernatural being was actually arrogant for a reason. That was because in the three months since he had been recruited by the Zong Consortium, they had been testing the hardness of his “defense system.” Subsequently, they discovered that he was even able to block artillery shells that were fired at him from reaching his body.

Therefore, the sudden appearance of this supernatural being was actually to stall the group before the armored brigade arrived. If it were anyone else, they might not have been able to keep the Razor Sharp Company from escaping

But to his surprise, there was really nothing that Ren Xiaosu’s black saber could not cut. The palace had said that it was the sharpest weapon of all, and it seemed like it was really not lying. It was definitely the sharpest weapon with nothing else coming close.

Thus, the supernatural being perished.

Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company rode the steam locomotive off into the distance again. When Zong Wu, who was pursuing them from behind, saw that they had gotten away again, he cursed angrily, “I thought you all said that the guy was a very powerful supernatural being? Why can’t he even stall the enemy for a while?! Piece of shit!” Then Zong Wu looked at the other supernatural being standing next to him and said, “Are you also a piece of shit?”

That supernatural being’s eyes twitched. “I’m definitely more powerful than him, but my expertise is in locating other supernatural beings, not fighting them. I’ve already sought out so many supernatural beings for the Zong Consortium…”

Zong Wu waved him off impatiently. “Alright, alright, I get it already! So where are they now?”

“My power can only be used three times a day, and I’ve already used it three times today. Furthermore, the effective range cannot exceed a 100 kilometers.”

“And you dare say that you’re not shit.”

Zong Wu was starting to get anxious over his gold, so how could he still be in the mood to play nice with this supernatural being?

When this supernatural being heard that, he got a little annoyed. He did not bring up the doubts he had either. Based on the power of his perception, it was clear that there was only one supernatural being among the enemy. So then, why was everyone saying there were two, or even three of them?

Wasn’t that really strange?

Chapter 442: The deputy regimental commander helps clear things up

Chapter 442 The deputy regimental commander helps clear things up

Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company were having a discussion on the train, and Zhang Xiaoman wondered out loud, “How did the armored brigade find us?”

“I don’t know. Could the things we took from that factory we destroyed have GPS trackers on them or something?” Jiao Xiaochen asked.

“It can’t be. We only took away some cooking oil from there and nothing else. There wasn’t really anything valuable anyway.” Zhang Xiaoman asked everyone, “Did y’all take anything with you?”

“No.” The soldiers all shook their heads. “We’re in the middle of a war, so why would we do something so stupid that we affected our comrades? We definitely did not steal anything.”

“Then could we have a spy among us?” Zhang Xiaoman scolded, “Who’s the traitor? I’ll give you a chance if you own up right now!”

“I think you look more like the spy!”

“That’s right, I also think that the captain looks like a traitor.”

A proper discussion had suddenly devolved into a nonsensical bantering. Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “There’s definitely no spy in our company. It should be a supernatural being with related powers that found us, I think? Since the Zong Consortium thinks so highly of us, and even sent an armored brigade after us, there’s no reason they would only send one supernatural being to do the job. There must be another one out there.”

If there were a spy, it would not have been so easy for them to take out the enemies at the Beiwan River and Mt. Qiangwan. The infantry regiment of Stronghold 144 would also not have found them so difficult to handle either.

Moreover, the fatality rate of the Razor Sharp Company had always been extremely high. Sending a spy in would be too risky since the spy would most likely get killed once they reached the front line. No matter how stupid the intelligence agency’s director at the Zong Consortium was, they would not place a spy in the Razor Sharp Company. There was little value in that and the chances of dying were extremely high.

It was only when Ren Xiaosu joined the Razor Sharp Company that it suddenly became a very important fighting force.

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu’s guess was that this was the doing of a supernatural being.

After all, it was very difficult for normal people to understand the miracles of supernatural beings.

“If this armored brigade still manages to find us despite our attempts to get away, then what?” Jiao Xiaochen asked. “I’ll be very disgusted if we can’t shake them off our tail.”

Just the thought of being pursued by more than 4,000 troops and not knowing when they would catch up really made them nervous.

“That supernatural being must have some way of finding us.” Ren Xiaosu frowned as he thought about it. Not even a supernatural being could be omniscient and be able to find anyone they wanted. There had to be conditions for a power like this.

The shadow clone had a maximum control range of only one kilometer, and the Shadow Door’s maximum effective distance was also at one kilometer. Therefore, he did not believe that the enemy’s supernatural being’s power was not limited by distance as well.

Actually, the person whose expertise was searching for other supernatural beings had made great contributions to the Zong Consortium.

Take, for example, the only three supernatural beings around someone like Qing Zhen. Including the one who had shielded him from the sniper attack and died, there were four of them.

This was not to say there was a lack of supernatural beings in the Qing Consortium’s territories. People like Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu also lived under the Qing Consortium rule, but they stayed hidden by keeping a low profile as they were not willing to use their powers to work for others.

Therefore, there were still quite a lot of supernatural beings around. Ren Xiaosu felt that the number of supernatural beings within an organization’s territories should be in the double digits at least, but not all of them had been identified yet.

However, it was different at the Zong Consortium’s territories. For example, that kinda idiotic supernatural being Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company had encountered earlier, as well as Han Yang who had been hunted down by Yang Xiaojin, they were all found by this person who could sense the existence of other supernatural beings. After locating them, they were forcefully recruited into the Zong Consortium’s military.

Of course, the Zong Consortium was not harsh on them. They were all treated very well so they could be brainwashed into serving the organization.

Meanwhile, this supernatural being who could locate other supernatural beings played too important a role. Just for this mission alone he had an entire company of recon troops assigned to protect him. This recon company was only responsible for protecting him and did not have to do anything else.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before turning the steam locomotive away from the Zong Consortium’s territory at full speed. He wanted to see if he could shake off this armored brigade by getting as far away from them as possible.

But after traveling for quite some time, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw an off-road vehicle up ahead driving east. Due to the bad conditions of the road, the off-road vehicle was not moving too fast.

“Eh? Why’s an off-road vehicle all the way out here?” Zhang Xiaoman asked. “There should be no presence of the Zong Consortium’s military in this remote area.”

“I wonder who it is.” Jiao Xiaochen said, “But it’s someone from the Zong Consortium for sure, so why don’t we kill them?”

“Don’t get anxious.” Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Whoever’s in that off-road vehicle is definitely at least an officer. Let’s capture them and see if we can get anything from an interrogation.”

At this moment, the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment was driving the off-road vehicle by himself to escape from the Zong Consortium’s territory. He did not even bring his wife along, or it would definitely have aroused the suspicion of others.

At this moment, his wife might just be cursing at him back at Stronghold 144.

But he had to flee! The Zong Consortium’s headquarters had suddenly said that he would be promoted to the position of regimental commander, but that damn unit from Fortress 178 was precisely targeting whoever was the regimental commander!

Although, this deputy commander wasn’t very sure of that either. It could have just been a coincidence that three of their regimental commanders were killed one after the other, but he still could not help but feel very nervous.

But while he was fleeing, he suddenly noticed the steam locomotive approaching him in the rearview mirror. Alright, that confirmed it! He was now sure that the opponent was really out to kill the commanders of the 1237th Regiment. He had fled this far away, yet they were still chasing after him! ‘This is fucking crazy! I already said that I don’t want to be the regimental commander!

However, this was also not exactly a coincidence. After all, the deputy commander was just trying to escape, while the Razor Sharp Company was doing the same too. As both parties were essentially going in the same direction, how could they not run into each other?

If the steam locomotive traveled further for another 100 kilometers or so, Ren Xiaosu would even get to see Li Shentan again.

The appearance of the steam locomotive quickly forced the off-road vehicle to stop. The deputy commander was also very decisive in doing so. He got out of the vehicle with his hands in the air. “I surrender! Don’t kill me! I already said that I won’t become the regimental commander, so why are you still pursuing me? I’m really not going to be the regimental commander!”

Ren Xiaosu and the others hopped out of the steam locomotive with puzzled looks on their faces. What the hell was this guy talking about?

“What regimental commander?” Zhang Xiaoman pointed his gun at the deputy commander and slowly approached him. “Is there anyone else in the vehicle?”

“No, there’s no one other than me!” The deputy commander was close to tears when he saw Zhang Xiaoman’s fierce expression. There were more than a 100 people surrounding him, so he felt like he wouldn’t survive this even if he had ten lives!

“What did you mean by that just now? What about the regimental commander?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown.

The deputy commander was also confused. “Aren’t you specifically hunting down our 1237th Regiment’s commanders?”

Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked at each other in confusion. What the hell was he going on about? When the deputy commander gave them a detailed explanation, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company only had two words: “Holy shit!”

“We’ve killed three regimental commanders already?!” Jiao Xiaochen was shocked.

Ren Xiaosu was extremely shocked as he listened to the deputy commander’s account. Meanwhile, the deputy commander looked at the Razor Sharp Company and thought to himself, ‘What’s with the shocked expressions on all of your faces?’

“We should at least be worthy of a Star Medal now, right?” Fu Rao mumbled.

“I bet it’s even possible that we’ll get awarded the Nebula Medal…”

Ren Xiaosu cut him off and said, “Don’t get off topic. Are there any supernatural beings within the Zong Consortium who are good at finding people?”

The deputy commander was taken aback but said, “Finding people? I don’t know about that, but I do know there’s a supernatural being who’s good at searching for other supernatural beings.”

Chapter 443: Raiding Stronghold 144!

Chapter 443 Raiding Stronghold 144!

The Razor Sharp Company had been in the Zong Consortium’s territory for some time now. While they had gained many victories, they were essentially running around like headless chickens due to a lack of intel.

How blind was the Razor Sharp Company on the battlefield? Most of the time, they only knew they had won but did not know who they had won against, they didn’t know who else was coming to attack them.

But now that they had suddenly caught the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment, the Razor Sharp Company was suddenly enlightened through him on what they had achieved.

Ren Xiaosu was still most concerned about why the armored brigade was constantly able to find them, and he was able to find out about this as well from this deputy commander. “So there’s actually someone who can find other supernatural beings, and he even managed to recruit quite a few of those he found? Did you say that he can only sense the presence of other supernatural beings who are within a radius of a 100 kilometers?”

“That’s right. He was even escorted to Stronghold 144 to search for a supernatural being who lived there. I only found out there was someone like that at that time.”

The deputy commander sat on the ground obediently and accepted his interrogation. Off to the side, Fu Rao asked softly, “Did we really kill three regimental commanders?”

“Yes, Li Mingli, Zong Jing, and Zong Han. Of these three people, Zong Han was originally the brigade commander at the Beiwan River…”

Fu Rao was overjoyed. Based on what this deputy commander was telling them, their Razor Sharp Company had really achieved something great! The Star Medal that was worth 50,000 yuan was surely in the bag now!

This time, the money he owed for his mother’s medical bills could finally be repaid!

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman chuckled as he looked at the deputy commander and said, “If we didn’t encounter you, I wouldn’t’ve known that I was so awesome!”

Beside him, Jiao Xiaochen said, “What’s that got to do with you? Shouldn’t it all be thanks to Ren Xiaosu?”

Zhang Xiaoman glared at Jiao Xiaochen. “No wonder your jawline seems more chiseled now. So it was because you’ve been practicing talking back to others in recent days, huh?”

Jiao Xiaochen was at a loss for words. ‘What the hell are you getting at?!’

As for the deputy commander, he did not even dare to make a sound for fear of angering this damn crowd.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “We discovered that an armored brigade is pursuing us. Why? Our unit’s so small. There’s no need to deploy an armored brigade after us, right?”

“The higher-ups thought that a lot of you had infiltrated our territory in the rear,” the deputy commander explained cautiously. “But I don’t really know about the armored brigade since that was after I left.”

“Then what’s going on at Stronghold 144 right now? What’s the situation with your 1237th Regiment?”

“Before I escaped, the troops of the 1237th Regiment were in a state of disarray.” The deputy commander said softly, “There weren’t many garrison troops who stayed behind in Stronghold 144 in the first place, but a further half of them were taken out by your unit afterwards. I can’t be sure of what happened after I fled, but I guess there’s no one left in Stronghold 144 to manage the troops. As for the other officers of the 1237th Regiment, they’re mostly divided and not on good terms.”

“I know what we should do now!” Ren Xiaosu exclaimed.

During that afternoon, the Razor Sharp Company brought the despondent deputy commander with them and made their way to Stronghold 144.

At this moment, the armored brigade should still be tracking them in the northward direction. However, the tracking radius of that supernatural being was only up to a 100 kilometers. The steam locomotive had gone far beyond that distance and shaken them off long ago.

The armored brigade might sound like an intimidating force, but the marching speed for tanks and armored vehicles in the wilderness would not go beyond 60 kilometers per hour. Most tanks these days could only travel at a maximum speed of around 80 kilometers per hour on flat terrain. With that kind of speed, how could they possibly catch up to the Razor Sharp Company?

Therefore, the Razor Sharp Company had to compete in speed with the armored brigade at this moment! You want to pursue and kill us, right? Happy chasing then! Good luck!

When the steam locomotive arrived at the gate of Stronghold 144, it completely ignored the garrison troops on top of the walls that were firing their machine guns at it. Before the garrison troops could adjust the angle of their close-range guns, the steam locomotive had already smashed right through the gate.

Ren Xiaosu spat out a mouthful of blood. However, he just looked at the deputy commander as though it was nothing and said, “Where’s the granary!”

The deputy commander said numbly, “To the east.”

When he decided to flee, it was not only because he did not want to accept the role of regimental commander, but that he was also worried about being accused as a spy and getting arrested. After all, three regimental commanders had died while he was their second-in-command. At the same time, the enemy seemed to be able to predict where the regimental commander would show up. So would you dare to say that it had nothing to do with you, the second-in-command?! The link was too obvious!

Perhaps they might not touch him while the war was still going on, but someone would surely be held accountable after the dust had settled.

The deputy commander knew he was not a spy, but Ren Xiaosu looked at him as though he was suggesting: You are now!

Ren Xiaosu said kindly to the deputy commander, “You’re now an unofficial member of our Razor Sharp Company, so strive to perform well and be a useful person to our stronghold and bring glory to it!”

The deputy commander felt a sense of bitterness. He had intended to ask if he could be released after Stronghold 144’s granary was destroyed, but when he saw Ren Xiaosu’s gun pointing at him, either intentionally or unintentionally, he did not dare to speak anymore.

Who could he possibly reason with?!

Just as this deputy commander had said, Stronghold 144 was as good as a paper tiger at this moment. It was not as daunting as the Razor Sharp Company had imagined it to be, and the garrison troops in the stronghold were completely unable to organize an effective defense.

The steam locomotive continued making its way to the granary located in the east of the stronghold. The warehouse over there occupied an extremely large area, and the harvest from the fertile farming settlements near Stronghold 144 for the past five years were all stored there.

There was a checkpoint equipped with heavy firepower located right in front of the granary, while the high walls surrounding it were protected from entry by barbed wire.

However, the steam locomotive driven by Ren Xiaosu did not enter the granary through the main entrance. Instead, it crashed through a wall and charged in. “Zhang Xiaoman!”

“Sir!” Zhang Xiaoman replied.

“We’ll only set fire to the granary from aboard the train. Don’t get any ideas about fighting anyone, ya hear me?”

“Yes, sir!” Zhang Xiaoman replied excitedly.

But this left the other soldiers with a strange look on their faces. Why was Zhang Xiaoman suddenly acting like a platoon commander under Ren Xiaosu?! ‘Fucking Zhang Xiaoman! For someone who’s always giving off the vibes of an upright person, you’re actually starting to pander to the future Commander?!’

The Razor Sharp Company was leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, so it was too late for the 131st Brigade, which was still in the north, to head back to Stronghold 144. By the time they made it back here to help out, the entire Stronghold 144 might have been wiped out already.

After the Razor Sharp Company had broken into Stronghold 144, someone suggested that they fire at the residents to create chaos. However, Zhang Xiaoman firmly stopped that from happening and said that Fortress 178 would not do such things.

The stronghold’s Water Dragon Division was in charge of emergency services like firefighting, but how could they put out fires faster than the Razor Sharp Company was starting them?

Meanwhile, when the remaining garrison troops of the 1237th Regiment saw that the situation had turned hopeless, they decided to stop fighting back and simply packed their belongings to flee from the stronghold!

No matter the outcome, the 1237th Regiment would bear responsibility for what happened here. So if they did not flee now, it was not as though their lives would be good after the dust settled. Everyone knew how ruthless the Zong Consortium was when it came to handling such matters!

While the garrison troops were escaping, someone even said, “Was that the deputy commander that I saw on that train?”

The commander of Third Company said harshly, “I said long ago that he’d likely be a spy, but all of you did not believe me back then!”

Chapter 444: The Zong Consortium's plans

Chapter 444 The Zong Consortium’s plans

“Why do I feel like our attack on Stronghold 144 seems way too easy?” Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly, “Could something go wrong? We had better be careful.”

More than half the granary was burning, but the armored brigade was still only making its way back from the north at this moment. By the time the armored brigade arrived back at the stronghold, the Razor Sharp Company would probably have already scooted off somewhere.

The Razor Sharp Company met with almost no resistance from the stronghold. Although it was quite chaotic inside the stronghold, that was mainly due to the residents panicking. Next to him, the deputy commander was at a loss for words when he heard what Ren Xiaosu said. ‘You call this easy? You’ve already killed three regimental commanders, while I, the second-in-command, have also fallen into your hands. So what do you mean by easy? Is that even something a human would say?’

As the granary burned, Ren Xiaosu realized that one-third of it was actually empty. He asked the deputy commander, “Have the grains been transported to the front line already?”

“No,” The deputy commander shook his head. “The generals bought most of it up before the war began using a number of different identities.”

“You mean they have to buy their own food when they go to war?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “No, they were planning to sell the grains to the residents once the war started. The higher-ups don’t actually know about this. The generals said that if the grains were sold to them first, they would make up for the reserves once the grain prices dropped back down, and no one would discover it. After all, the original battle plan did not require too much food.” The deputy regiment said, “At least, it wouldn’t all be used up.”

Oh well. It seemed that this time, Ren Xiaosu had inadvertently helped to cover up for the Zong Consortium’s generals who had secretly stashed away the grain reserves. With everything burned down, no one would know that a third of reserves here had gone missing.

However, Ren Xiaosu was unhappy that even though their attack on the granary had a huge impact on the war, it was definitely not enough to deal a fatal blow to the Zong Consortium. As their food reserves had already been spread out, the Zong Consortium would surely have a way to get back all those missing grains.

At this moment, all of the generals in the Zong Consortium’s headquarters looked very solemn. Zong Ying suddenly slammed his fountain pen onto the table. “What the hell is with that Zong Wu? We’ve already allowed him to lead his 131st Brigade to hunt down the enemy, and even sent two supernatural beings to back him up, so how did he allow the enemy to set fire to Stronghold 144 right under their noses? And what are the garrison troops at Stronghold 144 doing? Can’t they even organize a defense? How could they let the enemy burn down the granary just like that!” Zong Ying was about to explode. “I want their regimental commander executed—”

Before he could finish speaking, Zong Ying suddenly remembered the 1237th Regiment did not currently have a commander, and even the second-in-command had run away too. He did not even have someone to pin the blame on to blow off steam!

A general said, “Commander, since things have come to this point, we have to think of a countermeasure.”

“Gather all the grain reserves from the various strongholds, and the grains that you people are holding, I want them handed over as well. This matter determines the success or downfall of the consortium, so stop with your selfish little schemes! Did you think I didn’t know what you’ve done?” Zong Ying sneered.

He meant to gather all of the grain reserves of the entire Zong Consortium to send to the front line, including whatever grains he could collect from the residents of the various strongholds.

There were also a lot of grainstuffs that were in the possession of the generals.

When they learned that a war was imminent, many of the generals had wantonly started purchasing an increased amount of grains and hoarded them. They knew that when war broke out, food prices would increase.

As half a kilogram of rice was only worth about a yuan or so, most people wondered how something like that could make anyone any money. But during a war, the price of rice could go up to five, or even ten yuan.

At that time, the stronghold residents would not want to starve to death, right? Therefore, whatever money they had would eventually fall into the hands of the generals who hoarded the grains.

Who wouldn’t want to earn ten times the profits? They were looking to rip off the strongholds’ residents!

Suddenly, one of the generals said, “What should we do with the troops from Fortress 178? We can’t just let them continue to make trouble in our rear, right?” Zong Ying also felt very helpless about this. He knew that if the Razor Sharp Company were allowed to continue making trouble as they wished, he would most likely end up with no time to focus on fighting the war. But now that they knew what the Razor Sharp Company was capable of, they felt there was almost nothing they could do about them. The blitzkrieg was the coordinated use of aircraft, tanks, artillery, armored and mechanized infantry, and other types of armed forces to create an overwhelming local superiority in combat power to break through the enemy’s defenses. This allowed the forces to quickly get past any tactical maneuvering to encircle the enemy in order to eliminate them.

Now that there were no longer aircraft, they could only rely on their tanks for such tactics.

If a tank moving at 60 kilometers per hour on the battlefield could be called a blitzkrieg, what would the opponent who could travel at 120 kilometers per hour be? Comparing the speed of their tanks to the steam locomotive, it was just as good as a tractor. How could they possibly chase it! “We’ll implement our contingency plans in advance.” Zong Ying said coldly, “If Fortress 178 thinks they can win the war just like that, they’re underestimating our Zong Consortium! I’m gonna massacre Fortress 178!” On that night, multiple pontoon bridges in Blackstone River remained still in its choppy waters. This was the supply line Fortress 178 relied on for their march to the front line, and it was also a lifeline for them. Hence, these structures were bound to be built very sturdily. Every day, the Engineering Battalion repaired and maintenanced them.

But in the dark of night, more than a 100 speedboats started approaching the pontoon bridges on Blackstone River in a frenzy. At first, these speedboats were being rowed with oars by the soldiers in them. This way, they were able to quietly approach the bridges until they were about ten kilometers away.

But once they got to within ten kilometers of the pontoon bridges, the engines of the speedboats roared to life as they flew towards them. On these speedboats were also large quantities of TNT!

When Fortress 178’s defending troops near Blackstone River discovered this, it was already too late.

They fired their heavy machine guns and tried to intercept the speedboats, but there were too many of them. Furthermore, it seemed like all of the enemy troops were determined to fight to the death and did not mind sacrificing themselves.

Explosions could be heard everywhere. Before the speedboats crashed into the pontoon bridges, the Zong Consortium soldiers on the speedboats activated the detonators attached to the TNT.

The instant the detonators ignited, the TNT went off and broke all the pontoon bridges in half.

As the Zong Consortium soldiers recklessly crashed into the pontoon bridges and detonated the explosives, the bridge Fortress 178 relied on to cross the river broke apart and drifted downstream.

In an instant, Fortress 178’s troops were split between both sides of the river again. The Fortress 178 troops on the northern shore could no longer retreat, while their supply lines had been cut off.

The commanders on the northern shore all turned to Zhang Jinglin. “Commander, what should we do? We’re—”

Zhang Jinglin, who was at the military base, frowned as he looked into the distance at the inferno on the river. “Get ready for a last stand!”

However, the plans of the Zong Consortium were still not finished. A group of the Zong Consortium’s elite troops had already set off from the Alxa League behind them, plunging into the Gobi Desert like a sharp knife, as they headed straight for Fortress 178 in the Northwest!

Chapter 445: A precarious situation

Chapter 445 A precarious situation

To the west of the Alxa League was the vast Gobi Desert. In this day and age, no one would venture there for no good reason as that was a truly deserted place.

So when the war began, even though everyone knew the distance between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium’s Stronghold 146 was not particularly far, very few people would even have any ideas about using the Gobi in their plans.

If a military unit wanted to pass through there, it was basically a pipe dream.

However, the Zong Consortium had been plotting to take over Fortress 178 for a long time.

The territory the Zong Consortium occupied had far fewer resources than Fortress 178, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium. In fact, the level of their resources could not even compare with that of the Li Consortium.

Therefore, expanding to seek further resources was something the Zong Consortium had to do. Only with a large amount of resources could they support their ambitions.

But where were the resources? At Fortress 178, of course!

Importantly, Fortress 178 occupied a broader territory beyond the Northwest. The land in that territory held 90% of the mineral resources that were available to the Alliance of Strongholds, as well as a vast amount of natural gas, crude oil, and various types of metal ores.

In the Zong Consortium’s view, these resources were simply wasted in the hands of that damn group from Fortress 178 if they did not make use of them.

Several years earlier, the Zong Consortium had quietly established a secret troop to transport supplies into the Gobi. And now, they had established a massive forward operating base in a little oasis within the desert.

All of this was done so that one day, a ferocious army could make use of this forward operating base to pass through the Gobi and deal a fatal blow to Fortress 178.

Actually, the Zong Consortium already knew that Fortress 178 was going to attack Mt. Wuchuan from the southern bank of Blackstone River. They also knew their Zong Consortium’s route to the south for any incursions would be cut off once Fortress 178 blew up the Beiwan Bridge. However, everything was still going according to the Zong Consortium’s plan. This was because Fortress 178 would also not have a path of retreat.

Zong Ying had received some very reliable intelligence a long time ago. Currently, there was only one independent brigade garrisoned in Fortress 178, with the rest of the stronghold’s forces deployed in full force for the war.

As a result, the almost defenseless Fortress 178 was now like a deserted island with no one to protect it.

As long as the Zong Consortium could occupy Fortress 178, even if Zhang Jinglin and his men repaired the pontoon bridge, they would have no home to return to, nor would there be any fortress left for them to defend.

When the supplies for Fortress 178’s troops got cut off, the Zong Consortium could manipulate them at will.

According to Zong Ying’s calculations, his troops would cross the Gobi Desert and reach Fortress 178 in another seven days for the confrontation!

Zong Ying narrowed his eyes as he wondered if Zhang Jinglin had already guessed all of this by now. He assumed so, since cutting off their path at Blackstone River showed his plans pretty obviously. But so what if he could guess it? There was no way that Zhang Jinglin could stop him from occupying Fortress 178.

Troops were sacrificed as cannon fodder so he could lure Zhang Jinglin to the northern shore of Blackstone River. In the end, he was the superior tactician.

Although there was a small episode in between involving the Razor Sharp Company, that was not too great of a concern. Even if that company was extremely capable, they couldn’t affect the big picture.

Although the granary had been burned down, the Zong Consortium could still last for a month with their food reserves. This one month would be enough for him to bring the Fortress 178 troops to their knees. After all, Zhang Jinglin would be cut off from his supply lines as well, wouldn’t he?

At the thought of being able to defeat Zhang Jinglin, a military leader long famous, Zong Ying felt an uncontrollable sense of excitement in his heart.

At his position, only power and unprecedented victory could arouse his desires.

Meanwhile, the armored brigade’s Commander Hu Xingzhi, who was standing beside Zhang Jinglin, looked at him and said, “Commander Zhang, the Zong Consortium has cut off our main forces’ retreat route. They must be plotting something against us. Sir, please think of something.”

Zhang Jinglin looked at Hu Xingzhi. “We must make a stand. Everyone, we’ll have to take Mt. Wuchuan as quickly as possible if we want to make it out of this alive. Inform the Engineering Battalion behind us to quickly rebuild the pontoon bridge, and check how long they will need!”

A staff officer hesitated for a moment before saying, “We asked about that earlier. The Engineering Battalion on the southern shore said that it would take ten days! They could build a simple pontoon bridge instead; that will be faster, but it’s useless if the mechanized infantry can’t cross the river on it.”

Ten days…

Even if they could rebuild the pontoon bridge within ten days, they would still need another seven days to get back to Fortress 178. That would be too late!

Suddenly, Zhou Yinglong ran back from the front line. “Commander! Commander! The Razor Sharp Company has called in!”

Everyone was startled. They never expected the Razor Sharp Company that was behind the enemy lines to actually reestablish communications with them.

The Razor Sharp Company had just finished their attack on Stronghold 144. Not only did they burn down the granary there, but they also stole a satellite phone from within the stronghold. It was only then that they were able to contact Fortress 178’s troops again.

Zhang Jinglin took the satellite phone and answered it. On the other end of the line, Zhang Xiaoman’s loud voice yelled excitedly, “Commander Zhang? Is that Commander Zhang?”

“Yes, this is Zhang Jinglin, please speak,” Zhang Jinglin said calmly. “We’ve burnt down the granary at Stronghold 144 and wiped out seven or eight of their companies. We even killed three regimental commanders of their 1237th Regiment, and the deputy regimental commander is in our hands now,” Zhang Xiaoman said cockily, as though he were afraid Zhang Jinglin would not award them the Nebula Medal. He thought he should list all of their contributions in one fell swoop.

The commanders beside Zhang Jinglin were stunned. They had not expected the Razor Sharp Company would achieve so many important objectives. It was no wonder the Zong Consortium had to deploy their troops back to deal with them in the rear. Was this even a fucking company? Even an independent brigade would most probably not achieve what they had done.

The Razor Sharp Company was simply too fearsome!

However, everyone did not cheer up because the current situation of the war could no longer be changed by burning down a granary, killing a few regimental commanders, or wiping out several companies. However, Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, “You all did very well, but you have to be careful as well.”

“Commander Zhang, don’t worry, we suffered no casualties at all!”

The commanders started gritting their teeth. None of them could have imagined the Razor Sharp Company could do so many things without suffering a single casualty.

Zhang Jinglin laughed and gave Zhang Xiaoman a few instructions before handing the phone to Zhou Yinglong. He did not mention a word about Ren Xiaosu throughout the entire call, but everyone knew Ren Xiaosu must have done a great job in this battle.

Zhou Yinglong took the phone and said to Zhang Xiaoman, “Alright, we know y’all’ve done well, but now’s not the time to go over all of your achievements. Retreat to a safe location. We’re in a precarious situation over here.”

Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “Precarious?”

Zhou Yinglong hesitated for a moment and sighed as he briefly explained the current situation. The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers beside Zhang Xiaoman were all listening to the call as well. Everyone was suddenly at a slight loss of what to do. How did the situation suddenly turn so disadvantageous for them?

Furthermore, the Zong Consortium might even capture Fortress 178 soon? Zhang Xiaoman thought about his wife and child. What about that girl Fu Rao liked? What about everyone’s dream lover, Lu Yao?

Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, “Don’t worry, Battalion Commander. If they can attack Fortress 178, we can also take the fight to their Stronghold 146. Those old geezers of the Zong Consortium’s Board are all located in Stronghold 146. If we kill them, the Zong Consortium will immediately descend into chaos.”

Zhou Yinglong scolded him with a laugh. “What are you talking about? There’s an entire brigade garrisoned in Stronghold 146 right now, so do you think you can attack them that easily? Hurry and get out of there! I want y’all to flee in the direction of the Central Plains,”

But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another voice. “Is Mr. Zhang still listening? Can I just ask if it’ll be of any help to the situation if we destroy Stronghold 146?”

Zhang Jinglin stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Yes.” “Alright, I’ll go and attack them then.”

The commanders listening to the call from the side felt that this voice sounded a little unfamiliar, but they all knew it was probably Ren Xiaosu talking.

But this Ren Xiaosu was way too arrogant. How could the Razor Sharp Company possibly be capable of taking Stronghold 146?

Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, “It’s impossible for you all to destroy Stronghold 146.” “Mr. Zhang, do you still remember what you told me?” Ren Xiaosu asked calmly. “You said that if one knows how difficult the situation is and still insists on doing it at the risk of injuring themselves, that is called stupidity. But do you remember what my response to you was?”

Zhang Jinglin recalled the moment Ren Xiaosu had told him that the same went for bravery.

Chapter 446: Lone operation

Chapter 446 Lone operation

Zhang Jinglin attempted to persuade Ren Xiaosu not to take such a risk. However, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have made up his mind already. He did not give Zhang Jinglin the chance to continue talking and ended the call.

By rights, with Zong Ying as the commander of the military, the battle over here should not have been affected even if the Zong Consortium were attacked in the rear. But in reality, that wasn’t the case at all. The reason the Board was the Board was that they had absolute influence and control over the military. It was just that they had temporarily appointed Zong Ying as the commander-in-chief.

Currently, the various fighting forces were temporarily under Zong Ying’s command. After the war ended, Zong Ying would only be the commander of his own fighting force and would still need to listen to the Board’s orders.

So when Ren Xiaosu asked Zhang Jinglin whether it would be of any use if he captured Stronghold 146, Zhang Jinglin replied in the affirmative.

That was where the Zong Consortium was held together. Just as when the Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88 was destroyed, it had caused the entire Yang Consortium to immediately turn into a pile of loose sand and scheme against each other, the Zong Consortium would be no exception either.

If Zong Ying led all the frontline troops for another ten years, perhaps his personal influence would be enough to turn the tide of chaos and pull everyone together. But right now, Zong Ying was not capable of doing so.

If the troops from Fortress 178 were defeated, Ren Xiaosu would no longer have an avenue of support for him to destroy the entire Zong Consortium.

Perhaps the Qing Consortium would think about attacking the Zong Consortium in the future. But after they did that, the Qing Consortium would definitely enter a long postwar period, requiring huge amounts of manpower and resources to rebuild the strongholds.

Not only that, but the Qing Consortium would also have to spend a long time to bring the Yang Consortium’s and Li Consortium’s strongholds under their control in order to absorb their resources.

After Ren Xiaosu ended the call, Zhang Xiaoman and the others rubbed their hands in glee. “What should we do? Should we attack Stronghold 146? Haha, we even managed to shatter Stronghold 144, so Stronghold 146 should be easy too!” The other soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at Ren Xiaosu. Some of them had said they wanted to attack Stronghold 146, but Ren Xiaosu had denied them at that time. But this time, Ren Xiaosu did not mock Zhang Xiaoman. Instead, he urged the soldiers from the Razor Sharp Company to hurry up and get aboard the train.

The steam locomotive was traveling at full speed in the wilderness, and no one could figure out which direction they were heading. They just assumed they were going towards Stronghold 146.

Everyone on the train was having a lively discussion. “How do y’all think we should attack Stronghold 146? We’ll have to quickly wrap things up, won’t we? Otherwise, when that 131st Brigade hears the news and rushes back, we might end up facing two brigades in battle.”

On the train, Ren Xiaosu pulled the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment over and asked, “How’s the combat effectiveness of that garrison brigade in Stronghold 146?”.

“They’re obviously one of the most elite fighting forces of the Zong Consortium. Their equipment’s all the latest and the best since they represent the image of the Zong Consortium. Even the family members of the Zong Consortium who get posted there to serve their ‘tour of duty’ have to be the most outstanding members of the organization. Of course, they don’t really have any actual combat experience.” The deputy commander said meekly, “You all aren’t really thinking of attacking Stronghold 146, are you? I’m not trying to pour cold water on you, but with just this many of you, it’s really no different from suicide if you assault Stronghold 146.”

The deputy commander was thinking, ‘If you fucking want to die, don’t drag me in!’

Then the deputy commander saw the direction they were traveling and said, “Eh, this isn’t the right—”

“Keep quiet,” said Ren Xiaosu as he looked at him. “I’ll let you leave with them when we reach a suitable location, or would you rather come with me to Stronghold 146?”

Wait a minute! There was too much information contained in those words!

The deputy commander was shocked. The route this young man had taken was clearly not to get to Stronghold 146. From what he had said, it was likely this young man was planning to go to Stronghold 146 alone!

The steam locomotive suddenly came to a stop in the wilderness. Ren Xiaosu shouted, “Time to get off!”

The sound of guns being cocked came from within the carriages as the Razor Sharp Company assumed it was time to prepare for battle.

But after they got out of the train, Zhang Xiaoman was caught off guard when he did not see Ren Xiaosu getting down with them. Instead, the train sped off into the distance again!

“Hey, wait up, Ren Xiaosu, where are you going? What is this place!” Zhang Xiaoman chased after him for a short distance, but the train sped off so fast that he could not catch up at all. Besides, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of turning back.

Jiao Xiaochen pointed his gun at the deputy commander. “Where are we?!”

“We’re in the easternmost territory of the Zong Consortium. If we were to continue traveling for another ten kilometers, we would be leaving the Zong Consortium.” The deputy commander said with difficulty, “Put down your gun first. I didn’t know he would do this! When we were traveling here, I realized that something was amiss when I saw the direction we were heading. But that young man warned me not to breathe a word to anyone about it!”

Zhang Xiaoman said resentfully, “Goddammit, it’s all over now! Ren Xiaosu must be worried that it’d be too dangerous for us to go to Stronghold 146, so he deliberately dropped us off at a safe place and went there by himself!”

There were no other possibilities! It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu had been so quiet along the way. So it turned out that Ren Xiaosu had planned this way in advance, and he even ensured that he dropped them off somewhere first without a fluster.

Zhang Xiaoman passed this information to Zhang Jinglin and the others through the satellite phone. All of the commanders also fell silent. Zhou Yinglong suddenly said to Zhang Jinglin, “In any case, I’m convinced.”

He was referring to the move that Zhang Jinglin had made when he arranged for Ren Xiaosu to join the Razor Sharp Company. Zhou Yinglong was the first senior officer to express his support for Ren Xiaosu, although his position was the lowest among the other commanders.

The other commanders still did not say anything yet. After all, there were still many requirements to pass if one were to become the fortress commander. They would like to observe Ren Xiaosu further if he could make it back alive from Stronghold 146.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was making his way over to attack Stronghold 146. But rather than saying that he was going to raid them, it might be better to call it a sneak attack.

After some thought, Ren Xiaosu still felt that it would be safer for him to go to Stronghold 146 by himself. He could not bring the Razor Sharp Company with him when he knew they would die there.

Therefore, he might as well drop off Zhang Xiaoman and the others somewhere far away so it would be impossible for them to come over to help him. In fact, it would take at least ten days for them to reach Stronghold 146 if they wanted to head there on foot.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu had still given it very careful consideration. If it were him alone, he could use many methods to calmly get into Stronghold 146 to observe the situation first. Whether it be climbing over the stronghold walls or sneaking in on the undercarriages of the Zong Consortium’s transport trucks, there were more chances of pulling it off with fewer people in the group. If he had brought along the Razor Sharp Company, they would truly have to fight their way in.

Ren Xiaosu dematerialized the steam locomotive when he was about to reach Stronghold 146. Then he started walking alone in the wilderness so he would not be discovered by his enemies in advance.

He remained hidden outside of Stronghold 146 for a full day and night to see if there were any good ways for him to sneak into the stronghold.

However, Ren Xiaosu discovered that the vehicles entering Stronghold 146 had to go through extremely strict security checks. From afar, he could see through his sniper rifle scope that the security guards were thoroughly checking all supplies that were being brought in and had never failed to investigate the undersides of the vehicles either.

As such, he could only scale the stronghold walls like he did when he climbed the steep cliffs on the back of Mt. Dingyuan. Fortunately for him, there was a gap between the patrol times of the troops on the stronghold’s wall, and that one-minute gap would be more than enough for him to fully take advantage of.

Chapter 447: The fortune teller

Chapter 447 The fortune teller

As Fortress 178 got forced into a corner at Mt. Wuchuan, the damn band of soldiers fought so fiercely they forced the Zong Consortium to retreat.

As the saying goes, an oppressed army fighting with desperate courage is sure to win, and that was exactly what happened here.

It was as though Zhang Jinglin, who was at the front line himself, had suddenly turned the matter of their retreat route being cut off into something positive. All the soldiers of Fortress 178 shared a bitter hatred for the enemy, so all of them fought like they were unafraid of death.

Of course, this was something that could only be accomplished with many years of faith. However, this would not change the crisis that Fortress 178 was facing at the moment.

For the past two days, Zhang Jinglin had not spoken much at all. A commander went to inquire with him on how to handle and resolve the Zong Consortium’s sudden attack on Fortress 178, but he just said that he had not thought of a plan yet.

The commanders found it a little strange that Commander Zhang seemed to be at a loss for what to do. Usually, he could make a resolute decision no matter how difficult things got. But why did it seem like the Zong Consortium was leading him by the nose now?

What was the point of winning the battle here at Mt. Wuchuan when they were on the verge of losing their homes?

The commanders were so anxious that they got a little mad, and one of them even had a lot of his hair turn gray overnight. Everyone’s friends and family were still back at Fortress 178.

Someone privately asked Lin Yuze, the chow hall manager, “How’s the Commander’s appetite been the past few days?”

Someone was trying to figure out from Zhang Jinglin’s behavior if he had any contingencies for their situation. If he had any, his appetite would probably remain the same. But if he didn’t, he would most likely not eat as much as he usually did.

The commanders of Fortress 178 all knew about Zhang Jinglin’s habits. This one was an eccentricity of Zhang Jinglin’s they had figured out long ago.

Lin Yuze said with a bitter expression, “Commander Zhang has not eaten for two days already.”

The commanders of Fortress 178 all had a bitter look on their faces. Commander Zhang was so worried this time that he did not even eat?!

Although Zong Ying had suffered successive defeats here at Mt. Wuchuan, this frontline commander knew the situation was going to change in a few more days. But the problem was that there had to be an explanation for this matter.

This explanation was necessary to appease the Board. Being victorious was not the only thing that mattered in war. Amid all the battles, there would still be a lot of people seeking to reproach whoever was responsible for certain results in order to get rid of their opponents.

Furthermore, a lot of people were also eyeing Zong Ying’s position, seeing that once the contingency plan succeeded, this would truly be an unprecedented victory. To be honest, a lot of people were looking to steal the fruits of Zong Ying’s labor.

The Board had already sent someone to inquire about the matter. Meanwhile, Zong Ying squarely pinned the blame on Zong Wu, saying that if Zong Wu had not withdrawn an anchoring force like the 131st Brigade from the front, the defeat at Mt. Wuchuan could definitely have been avoided.

After all, the defensive position the 131st Brigade was guarding was an extremely important one. However, Zong Wu had abandoned the interests of the organization just because his diverted assets had been seized by someone. This was as good as desertion!

Meanwhile, this action of withdrawing from the battle at the last minute had in turn affected the overall situation of the war by disrupting the plans at the front lines.

On the other hand, the Board had also contacted Zong Wu regarding the same matter, only to hear him yelling at the top of his lungs and claiming that if Zong Ying could not even guarantee the safety of the rear, how were they supposed to win the war?

Both parties were pushing the blame on the other with their excuses. However, Zong Wu, who was leading the 131st Brigade, had already lost track of the Razor Sharp Company’s whereabouts. He knew his sudden withdrawal from the battlefield would no longer be his main charge. Instead, diverting his assets during the war and planning his getaway would make the Board even more suspicious of him. What would he face after the war was over? It would surely have to be a torrent of investigations!

Hence, the thing that would surprise everyone still happened. Zong Wu had actually taken the 131st Brigade and fled! Although the mechanized infantry were very reliant on logistics from the rear, the fact that Zong Wu fled showed that he must have found an organization that would take him in in the Central Plains.

Who wouldn’t welcome a surrender from someone if a mechanized army came included with them!

With the desertion, everyone from the Zong Consortium was disgusted. Meanwhile, Zong Ying heaved a sigh of relief as the matter overshadowed the defeats he had suffered, and no one cared about that anymore.

What Zong Ying should really be doing right now was to stay at the top of Mt. Wuchuan to continue defending against Stronghold 178’s attacks. If the Zong Consortium were to get beaten before their contingency plan could be pulled off, that would be the real joke.

…

The night was silent in Stronghold 146, and Ren Xiaosu guessed that a curfew might have been implemented. It couldn’t be that no pedestrians would be out walking the streets otherwise. Occasionally, he could even see troops patrolling the place.

It wouldn’t be difficult for Ren Xiaosu to avoid the patrols. What was difficult was finding out where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium were.

Ren Xiaosu had defined the operation this time as a decapitation strike. His purpose was not to destroy the entirety of Stronghold 146, nor was he going to fight against the brigade that was garrisoned here. Instead, he was seeking to cripple all of the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium so they would fall to the same fate as the Yang Consortium.

But Ren Xiaosu thought of a very serious problem. If Zong Cheng was the commander of the garrison brigade for Stronghold 146, wouldn’t he also be around in the military base here?

Other targets aside, Zong Cheng was the one he wanted to kill the most.

Figuring out a way to sneak into the base, as well as finding out where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium were located, were the first things that Ren Xiaosu had to face.

But how was he supposed to find them?

Ren Xiaosu hid under a small bridge all night. The next day, he started strolling on the streets like it was nothing. He realized the residents of Stronghold 146 all looked lifeless. There was no one talking on the streets, and the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

He did not know what the Zong Consortium did during their rule over these citizens to make them completely lose their spirits. It was only after entering the stronghold that Ren Xiaosu realized that the Zong Consortium had not only lost the hearts of the refugees but also the hearts of the stronghold’s residents.

But he did not try to strike up a conversation with any of them. Surely he could not pull a random person aside to ask them where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium lived, could he?

While Ren Xiaosu was walking the streets, a person holding a white banner upright suddenly walked over to him. He saw two words written on the white banner: Divine Foresight.[1]

Ren Xiaosu was stunned as this was his first time encountering a fortune teller on the streets. But such things were just interesting to look at. He had heard that a 100 percent of fortune tellers were frauds who used their skills to cheat others.

But as the two of them walked past each other, the fortune teller suddenly grabbed Ren Xiaosu by the arm. Ren Xiaosu turned around and grabbed his wrist, locking the fortune teller’s arm as he carried him into a small alley.

Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized no one had noticed them. Then he said, “Who are
you?”

The fortune teller started sweating from the pain. “Let go of me! I’m just a fortune teller! I noticed from your aura that you might encounter a bloody calamity in the coming days, so I wanted to read your fortune for you.”

“Oh?” Ren Xiaosu was amused to hear that. Telling others they would encounter a bloody calamity was a trick fortune tellers used. To resolve this “calamity,” one would have to pay them money to avoid it. “I’m not that stupid. Go and scam others. I’m not that gullible to fall for something like that.”

“Why don’t you know what’s good for you?” The fortune teller said in a speechless manner, “I’m really sincere about telling your fortune. My divinations are quite accurate.”

“Accurate?” Ren Xiaosu sneered. “Then what can you divine for me?”

“I can divine anything!” said the fortune teller.

“Then riddle me this: Given the quadratic function f(x) = ax2 + bx +c, the maximum value occurs when x = 1. What is the relationship between f(-1), f(0), and f(4) in terms of value?”

The fortune teller was confused.

Ren Xiaosu continued sneering. “Didn’t you say that you can divine anything?” [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_fortune __telling#Appearances

Chapter 448: A bloody calamity

Chapter 448 A bloody calamity

The fortune teller did not know whether to laugh or cry. “I’m a fortune-teller. If you ask me to interpret dreams, calculate your chances of marriage or future prospects, I can do that for you. But why would you ask me to solve a math problem? That’s science, while I’m a practitioner of magic. The two don’t mix.”

Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before saying, “You said you can interpret dreams, right?”

“That’s right.” The fortune teller nodded enthusiastically. “I can interpret all kinds of dreams.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Then listen carefully. I had a dream about a question related to quadratic function f(x)…”

The fortune teller was dumbfounded. ‘What fucking dream is that? Can’t a guy help others read their fortunes even if he does not know how to solve quadratic functions! What the hell!’

Ren Xiaosu sneered. “You can’t interpret that, right? So you’re really a fraud.”

But the fortune teller suddenly said, “Based on your facial structure, I can tell that you have a friend who’s like family but is not related to you by blood. I also know you’ve experienced a turning point in your life at the age of 17, while water is the source of your mishaps!”

This time, it was Ren Xiaosu’s turn to be stunned. However, he still did not believe the fortune teller. He lifted him off his feet and asked coldly, “Just who the hell are you? How did you know these things?”

His “younger brother” was Yan Liuyuan, and didn’t Ren Xiaosu experience the greatest calamity of his life in that flood? Even though the fortune teller mentioned all these, Ren Xiaosu’s natural instincts told him not to believe this was something that could be figured out through divination. Instead, it was likely that some people with ulterior motives who knew about those matters were using it to get close to him.

But when the fortune teller noticed that Ren Xiaosu did not believe him, he smiled wryly. “I can also tell that you got into grave danger when you were in your teens, but you probably don’t even know how you managed to escape it. The Northwest is where you will prosper. If you still don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can
do.”

Ren Xiaosu loosened his grip on the fortune teller. Very few people knew about his past, and not even those back at Stronghold 113’s town knew about it. But it was true that he really did not know how he had escaped from the wolves.

This fortune teller dared to bring up something like that with such certainty, so could he really know how to read fortunes?

Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment before saying, “You’re saying that I will face a bloody calamity in the next two days?”

“That’s right. It’s extremely ominous!” The fortune teller said, “But I didn’t get to look at it carefully just now, so you’ll have to let me have a look again.”

Ren Xiaosu said noncommittally, “Then divine for me how to resolve it.”

Then Ren Xiaosu released his grip from the fortune teller. However, he kept his guard up in case the fortune teller sneak attacked or attempted to escape.

However, the fortune teller did not try to escape. Instead, he turned around and carefully observed Ren Xiaosu, who put on an expressionless face. If the fortune teller told him he would have to pay up to avert the calamity, he would kill him on the spot.

But the more the fortune teller looked at him, the more startled his expression became. “You won’t fucking be the one facing the bloody calamity, you’ll be the one bringing a bloody calamity upon others…”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

“What nonsense!” Ren Xiaosu’s heart skipped a beat but refused to admit it. “I’m just a resident of the stronghold. Why would I bring a bloody calamity upon others?” “Are you really a resident of this stronghold?” The fortune teller laughed and said, “You can’t fool me. Your ‘aura’ makes you look really out of place in this stronghold. If you even lived here for longer than three days, you wouldn’t look like that.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered why the conversation seemed to be getting more and more mystical. He asked, “Then why don’t you tell me if I’ll be able to achieve what I wish to do?”

“Oh, I can’t divine that.” The fortune teller said, “I cannot predict something so specific. Usually, I can only provide a word of warning to those whose fortunes I’ve read.”

“Then what would you like to say to me?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown.

The fortune teller looked at Ren Xiaosu again for a long time before suddenly saying in surprise, “Eh, why’re there so many intersections in your life? I’ve never met anyone like you before…. I can’t divine, no, I won’t read your fortune any further!” Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Had he just wasted his fucking time here for nothing?

He pulled the fortune teller back. Ren Xiaosu was starting to believe him a little. “Let’s disregard everything for the moment. Can you help me divine where the people I want to kill are? If you can’t tell me that, you won’t be leaving today.”

“Oh.” The fortune teller thought for a while before saying, “They’re right here in this stronghold.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Be more specific.”

The fortune teller broke free from Ren Xiaosu’s grasp and said with a smile, “They’ll be gathering in the northeast in the coming days, but you’ll only have one chance to strike.” Then the fortune teller turned around to leave. Ren Xiaosu did not stop him this time.

Ren Xiaosu believed 60% of the fortune teller’s words. But fate was still something he didn’t know well, so he still had doubts.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked in a loud voice, “Wait a minute, have you ever read fortunes for people living in the South?”.

“I’ve read quite a lot of people’s fortunes. Who are you referring to? I can remember the names of all those I’ve told the fortunes of.”

“Li Qingzheng!”

“Oh, I told him he would meet his benefactor in the future.”

Ren Xiaosu kept quiet and did not say anything else. Now he believed 80% of the fortune teller’s words! However, could there really be such a mystical person in the world? Could this fortune teller also be a supernatural being?

Normally, anything that Ren Xiaosu could not understand would immediately be deemed as superstition. But now that he actually encountered it, he did not know whether he should trust the fortune teller.

Li Qingzheng had told him he had met a fortune teller who said he would meet a benefactor who would bring him into the stronghold. However, Ren Xiaosu thought that fortune teller might not be that reliable. Even though Li Qingzheng had really entered the stronghold, it was not to enjoy life on the inside but to experience a disaster.

More importantly, the fortune teller also did not say there were beings like the Experimentals in the stronghold he would be entering. If he had said so earlier, Li Qingzheng would definitely not have wanted to go in.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu only kept in mind the one thing the fortune teller had said. The people he wanted to kill would be gathering in the coming days, and he only had one chance to strike. He was targeting 13 people, including Zong Cheng. As each of them wielded a lot of power, if he tried to kill them one by one, he would probably get hunted down by the entire stronghold after eliminating the first target. Simultaneously, the other targets would go into hiding.

So if his enemies gathered together, that would be the best opportunity for Ren Xiaosu to get them. But how was he supposed to find out where they would be gathering?

After turning a corner, the fortune teller quickly ran off. “What a close shave! I nearly died, and I didn’t con any money out of him!”

In the east, the Razor Sharp Company was marching through the wilderness. Then Zhang Xiaoman looked disconcerted when they heard the sound of armored vehicles moving. He quickly beckoned the others to hide inside a gully nearby to avoid being discovered by the enemy. “Why is this fucking armored brigade chasing us around relentlessly? I thought you said they could only locate other supernatural beings? So how did they follow us all the way here?” Zhang Xiaoman looked at the deputy commander. “Did you lie to us? Do you think I won’t stab you to death?”

The deputy commander was already in tears. “I’ve already said everything that I know.”

However, it was no time to argue. The armored brigade was right in front of them. However, Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company discovered this armored brigade was not coming for them but heading towards the Central Plains.

Chapter 449: A spy in Fortress 178

Chapter 449 A spy in Fortress 178

After the armored brigade continued to rumble their way towards the Central Plains, Zhang Xiaoman muttered, “That’s strange, why are they headed in that direction? Doesn’t that road lead to the Central Plains?”

“Could they have some other plans?”

“Is it possible that they’re fleeing?”

“That can’t be, right? Hasn’t the Zong Consortium gained the upper hand in the war? So why would they suddenly need to flee?”

The Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers could not figure out what was going on. But after the armored brigade advanced dozens of kilometers further, it was suddenly stopped by a smiling young man who was none other than Li Shentan.

Zong Wu, the commander of the 131st Brigade, shouted into the radio, “Run him over! Whoever that is, just go over him!”

But when the armored brigade was about to collide into Li Shentan, he suddenly raised his right hand and a turbulent “wave” rippled through the ground as an earthen wall suddenly got pulled up. The armored brigade could only stomp on the brakes and come to a quick stop. If they hadn’t, some of the armored vehicles and tanks could’ve been destroyed if they had collided into the thick earthen wall.

I

Li Shentan said with a smile, “To think that I was worried that I wouldn’t be of much help to Ren Xiaosu. Who could’ve guessed that an armored brigade would suddenly show up at our doorstep?”

“Are you going to hypnotize them?” Si Liren asked.

“Of course,” Li Shentan said with a smile.

“Do we need to make them come out of the armored vehicles? How are you going to hypnotize them if they remain inside?” Si Liren wondered.

“Sound can be used for hypnotizing people as well. Everything in this world can act as a medium for hypnotism.” Then Li Shentan picked up a small stone and flicked it with his fingers. The stone bounced off a tank and produced a ringing sound.

It was a strange sound that felt like an intimidating force that could shake the hearts of people. Then the faces of the armored brigade’s troops turned blank.

But even a powerful supernatural being like Li Shentan found this a little strenuous on himself. It seemed that this was his limit.

Li Shentan calmed himself down and spoke to the armored brigade, “Where is your brigade commander? Step forward.” Zong Wu walked out of an armored vehicle and stood in front of Li Shentan in a trance.

A ways away, Hu Shuo happened to emerge from the forest. “Little Liren, look what I brought for you. Haha, I found a watermelon
patch.”

As it was summer, the harvesting season for melons had arrived. However, Hu Shuo was stunned when he saw the armored brigade in front of Li Shentan.

Little Liren’s eyes lit up. “Grandpa Hu Shuo is amazing.”

Li Shentan glanced at both of them before turning back to face the armored brigade. He said calmly, “After you hear a finger snap, you’ll head to Stronghold 146 and launch an attack there. Remember, you’re to only kill the Zong Consortium’s people after breaking into the stronghold, and you will neither resort to deploying your mechanized equipment nor killing the innocent indiscriminately.”

With a snap of his fingers, the armored brigade turned around and headed straight in the direction of Stronghold 146.

Hu Shuo said curiously next to him, “Looks like you’re avoiding killing the innocent this time.”

Li Shentan looked silently at the huge case Si Liren was carrying on her back. “In the past, I used to think that I was always right. I felt that whoever was in my shoes would also act with no qualms like I did.”

“Then what about now?” Hu Shuo said with a smile.

Li Shentan sighed and said, “Some people are like a blazing torch. Even after they’ve stopped burning, they’ve still affected us a little.”

“But I’m a little curious. Why do you choose to stay here and not head to the Zong Consortium personally?” Hu Shuo asked, “If you go there, can’t you help them even more?”

Li Shentan took a watermelon from Hu Shuo and said with a smile, “Let’s not talk about that anymore and just enjoy the watermelons.”

Earlier, when the Razor Sharp Company watched the armored brigade rumble off into the distance, they climbed out of the gully and continued heading towards the interior of the Zong Consortium’s territory. But before they could get far, they heard the rumbling of the armored vehicles again. Zhang Xiaoman’s mood soured as he led everyone to crawl back into a gully again. The Razor Sharp Company was speechless by now. What was this armored brigade doing by going back and forth? Were they playing games? Were they done yet?

But this time, the armored brigade was moving much faster than before, like they were in a hurry to get somewhere. The Razor Sharp Company was utterly confused by this and felt that something was amiss.

The battle at Mt. Wuchuan had already been going on for an extended period as the battle between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium went back and forth in this vast mountain range. The ferocity of the battle was vividly reflected here.

In order to capture Position 129, half of Zhou Yinglong’s Forward Strike Battalion had been sacrificed, with this position alone changing hands more than 20 times!

Zong Ying had just evaded getting punished by the Board and was no longer holding out hope for getting so lucky again. So he transferred all of that pressure onto the generals under his command, ordering them to defend the position until the troops in the Gobi arrived at Fortress 178. Even if they had to fight to the death, they would have to defend their position!

As for Fortress 178, there was actually no other way out for them anymore. Not only that, but everyone also knew that Fortress 178 was facing imminent danger. Therefore, almost all of their troops were so enraged that it seemed like they had gone mad!

Zhou Yinglong had not gotten any sleep for the past two days and two nights. Position 129 proved much more difficult to take than he had imagined. Almost every time they won the position, it was due to his superpower that they pulled it off.

A huge, gray boar appeared again at Zhou Yinglong’s side and charged at Position 129. The wild boar was so tough it did not even fear the heavy machine guns firing at it.

But Zhou Yinglong was not Ren Xiaosu. Each time he used his superpower, there was a time limit for it. The past two days had exhausted him mentally many times, leaving his eyes deeply sunken like he was at death’s door.

The commander of Second Company advised him, “Battalion Commander, do rest a bit more. If you carry on like this, I’m afraid you won’t hold out for much longer.”

But Zhou Yinglong retorted, “If we don’t hold Position 129, how will our armored brigade pass through Pass 177 safely? It’s not that I don’t want to rest, but even if you and I have to die here, we must make sure that the enemy cannot target the armored brigade!” Similar battles such as the one happening at Position 129 were taking place throughout Mt. Wuchuan. As multiple infantry brigades advanced in oblique order, they won more and more territory as soldiers got sacrificed one after another.

amo

But it was only by relying on these soldiers to engage in tug-of-war battles that the armored brigade would have a chance to continue venturing further into the battlefield.

Not only the Forward Strike Battalion, but the Reconnaissance Battalion too had crossed swords many times with the Zong Consortium’s guerrillas in the mountains. As both sides ran through the battlefield, it was as though they were dancing with death on a tightrope every time there was an exchange of fire.

Almost nowhere in the vast Wuchuan Mountain remained in a perfect condition. The soldiers were already exhausted from fighting, but if an officer came up to them and asked for volunteers to storm a certain summit, these exhausted soldiers would immediately step forward to fight to the death.

This was what war was.

Even without the Zong Consortium’s contingency plans, Fortress 178 would still have attacked with the same fortitude to take Mt. Wuchuan. However, Fortress 178 was able to win even more battles than they would have as the soldiers were currently filled with intense rage.

But at this moment, troops from the Intelligence Department of Fortress 178 were quietly surrounding the 103rd Infantry Brigade’s command post. When they arrived at the tent of the command post, the soldiers who were temporarily reorganizing their forces looked at them in surprise. One of them who spotted a familiar comrade asked, “What’s the matter? Why have y’all shown up here all of a sudden?”

As he said that, the infantry brigade’s soldiers gathered and tried to stop the Intelligence Department’s troops from advancing any further.

Although both groups were fighting on the same side, the intelligence agencies of every organization always had a cruel streak to them. So when these intelligence troops descended down to their “territory,” all of the infantry soldiers had an ominous feeling.

The director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division of the Intelligence Department said coldly, “Get out of the way. We’re here on official duty.”

The soldiers of the 103rd Infantry Brigade thought of stopping them, but they were surprised to see Zhang Jinglin walking towards them alongside Wang Fengyuan, the Intelligence Director, from a distance.

With the appearance of Commander Zhang, the soldiers of the 103rd Infantry Brigade finally gave up any hopes of stopping them and opened up a path. The 2nd Military Intelligence Division’s troops walked into the command post tent and led Brigade Commander Li Xiang out.

Zhang Jinglin looked at Li Xiang and asked, “Why?”

Chapter 450: A citywide search!

Chapter 450 A citywide search!

Li Xiang knew that the Intelligence Department must have found some evidence against him and somehow intercepted his relaying of information to their enemy. Otherwise, they would not arrest him right during the war. As such, he did not bother to explain himself.

Zhang Jinglin also did not say anything else. “Take him away. As of today, Zhou Yinglong will concurrently serve as the commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade.”

Zhou Yinglong’s promotion had been fast-tracked because of the war. On one hand, it was due to the Razor Sharp Company’s contributions that the Forward Strike Battalion accomplished many great things. On the other hand, this war had so far been tragic. Fortress 178 had fought to the point where there was barely anyone left to deploy to the battlefield. Zhang Jinglin frowned as he watched Li Xiang get taken away. He was only worried about whether the intelligence leaked by Li Xiang would inconvenience Ren Xiaosu greatly.

Next to him, Wang Fengyuan lowered his head and said, “Commander, I wasn’t observant enough and allowed him to relay the intel. If I had discovered it earlier, Ren Xiaosu would not have to—”.

“It’s not your fault.” Zhang Jinglin shook his head. “There are too many tasks waiting to be done in intelligence gathering, so it’s great that you sniffed him out. When we were cleaning up and purging the Zong Consortium’s elements, Li Xiang was clearly on our side. It was inevitable that he confounded your judgment as even I find it hard to believe.”

“But for Ren Xiaosu to infiltrate into Stronghold 146 alone…”

Zhang Jinglin replied, “Don’t worry, he isn’t a reckless person and will only act if he is confident. All we need to do is wait for a miracle.”

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was still trying to figure out Stronghold 146’s layout as quickly as possible so he could capture all the Zong Consortium higher-ups in one fell swoop.

But when he went out onto the streets again that day, he realized the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were putting up wanted posters everywhere. All of the electrical poles in the stronghold had several posters pasted on them, and all of them were for the arrest of the same person: Ren Xiaosu!

Before anyone could gather around to have a look, Ren Xiaosu found an electrical pole with no one around it and went up to have a look. He was surprised to see a portrait of himself on it.

As the portrait was a sketch, there were some differences. But it was still really well-drawn. Although there were some differences, anyone who saw the wanted poster would definitely find him extremely familiar.

As described on the wanted poster, Ren Xiaosu was currently likely to be in the vicinity of the stronghold or might even have infiltrated into the stronghold alone. If any residents discovered the whereabouts of this person and reported it to the garrison brigade of Stronghold 146, they would receive 200,000 yuan as a reward for the tip. Ren Xiaosu pouted. Was he only worth 200,000 yuan?

While he felt unhappy about that, his thoughts turned to, ‘There must be a spy in Fortress 178 that told the Zong Consortium about my location.’

He did not know if the troops of Fortress 178 were aware of this spy, but if the spy were allowed to continue relaying intel to the enemy, it could be disastrous for Fortress 178.

Suddenly, a platoon walked in the direction of Ren Xiaosu. He immediately lowered his head so they would not notice him. But when the platoon walked past him, the platoon commander at the front of the group sensed something was wrong. He turned to look at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Hey, you, raise your head!”

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took off in the opposite direction. With a leap, he jumped over a wall and landed inside a small yard.

Before the platoon could even raise their guns to shoot at him, Ren Xiaosu had already disappeared from their sights.

This platoon immediately blew their whistles and shouted into their radio, “Suspicious personnel spotted! Suspicious personnel spotted! Requesting reinforcements!”

The search party in Stronghold 146 was a wide net. Once they received the intelligence report from the spy at Fortress 178, they got ready to cast it.

It was not that Ren Xiaosu was incapable of winning against a standard platoon, but if he did not manage to kill them all at once, they could get a chance to warn the other members of the search party. If Ren Xiaosu got held back in such a situation, it would probably be over for him.

At this moment, the benefits of acting alone could vividly be seen. If he was leading the Razor Sharp Company, he would probably have to look out for their safety. But since he was alone, he was extremely mobile and could shake off any pursuing troops whenever or just start an all-out fight with them.

When Ren Xiaosu landed inside the yard, he was startled by the sight of a woman collecting dried laundry. He did not stop and jumped over a wall into another yard.

As screams rang out one after another, the cries of the stronghold residents were a signal to help the search party track him down.

When he finally jumped out into an alleyway, he encountered two Zong Consortium soldiers who were trying to intercept him.

When the two soldiers saw Ren Xiaosu, they were about to raise their guns to shoot him down. But the moment Ren Xiaosu landed in front of them, he grabbed hold of their gun barrels, and a hint of his shadow could be seen darting out from behind him. Once the shadow disappeared from sight, blood started seeping from the slit in the necks of the two soldiers.

They were surprised, as they could not even make out what that shadow darting from behind Ren Xiaosu was.

A large-scale pursuit was launched in Stronghold 146, and that wide net gradually closed down on Ren Xiaosu.

When the pedestrians in the streets saw the Zong Consortium soldiers pursuing their target with so much urgency, they immediately hid in the buildings on the street, afraid they would get themselves entangled.

All of the Zong Consortium soldiers were listening in on the radio and could hear random shouting. “Target has crossed Fuxing Road. I repeat, target has crossed Fuxing Road. He is now moving eastwards on Zhangheng Road at a fast pace!”

“The target has downed several of our soldiers again. He has jumped into the residents’ houses on Zhangheng Road and is still moving east!”

More than a 1,000 Zong Consortium soldiers were scattered all over the streets as residents living in the vicinity eavesdropped on the soldiers’ shouts from their windows. They were surprised when they realized that all of these elite members of the Zong Consortium’s garrison were actually pursuing just one person. Many of them had thought the big commotion was caused by a group of soldiers from Fortress 178 infiltrating into the stronghold.

The Zong Consortium soldiers realized the target they were pursuing was not human at all. Disregarding how fast it could move, any scattered troops who got separated from the main force would instantly be killed. Some of those who were slain did not even manage to finish their reports about the target’s whereabouts.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was using his rifle because he realized the enemy’s encirclement was gradually closing in on him. Even if he did not use the rifle, he could not hide his whereabouts. He could only resort to every means available to break through the encirclement so he could open up a path of escape for himself.

Ren Xiaosu’s firearms proficiency had been raised to master, so how could these normal soldiers compare with him? Even if he suddenly encountered the Zong Consortium platoons in the streets, Ren Xiaosu could still immediately suppress them with his rifle.

Some soldiers attempted to form a defensive line in front by hiding behind some walls. But before they could even react, a grenade suddenly appeared at their feet and the newly established defensive line was blown up into pieces.

Ren Xiaosu had already started his killing spree, and there was no way back from it!

Fighting to the death was something Ren Xiaosu long understood!

Chapter 451: The spy in the sewers

Chapter 451 The spy in the sewers

The Zong Consortium was still tightening their encirclement. In the buildings on both sides of the streets, some residents watched silently as Ren Xiaosu flitted past them so quickly they could only see his afterimages. It shocked them when they realized it was just a young man who had turned Stronghold 146 upside down.

Could it be that this supernatural being had already surpassed the strength of the consortium’s troops?

Gradually, the Zong Consortium’s troops set up blockades along several traffic arteries, even mounting heavy machine guns at many key spots. The western part of Stronghold 146 had turned into a “cage.”

Ren Xiaosu narrowed his eyes and sprinted. He tried breaking through two defensive lines of fire, but the problem was that there seemed to be an endless stream of Zong Consortium soldiers remanning the positions.

All people would get exhausted no matter what. Even Ren Xiaosu, who had a strong level of fitness, would get tired as well.

However, the Zong Consortium’s troops were also at a loss. The platoons who had not encountered Ren Xiaosu yet were terrified because they realized most of the troops on the radio that encountered him were dead. Was the enemy really human?

But when Ren Xiaosu found himself getting lost on the streets, a manhole cover on the ground was suddenly pushed aside by someone underneath it. Ren Xiaosu found the sight to be extremely familiar.

The person in the manhole waved wildly at him. “Here! Over here!”

Ren Xiaosu jumped straight down. But the moment he got into the sewers, he grabbed the person by the neck. “Who are you?”

The grip on the man’s neck was so strong his face reddened. “Boss Luo wanted me to bring you a message.”

“What message?” Ren Xiaosu lifted him effortlessly.

“He said that you had better not die. If you want to die, make sure to leave some black medicine for him.”

Ren Xiaosu was so annoyed he laughed. “Which way do we go?”

“Left, go left!”

Ren Xiaosu confiscated the person’s weapons and went left all the way. It was not that he was returning kindness with enmity, but that he had to be extremely cautious at this moment. Who could know if this fellow were sent by the Zong Consortium to trick him on purpose?

The man did not get angry even though he was being carried around like that. “Mr. Qing Zhen told me that you’d definitely come to Stronghold 146 someday. That was why he asked me to help you when I saw you. However, I really did not expect that you would cause such a big commotion.” “Oh? Did I cause a big commotion?” Ren Xiaosu said absent-mindedly.

“Is that not big enough of a commotion?” The man said with a wry smile, “Currently, the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium living in the stronghold feel unsafe as they’re afraid you’ll kill them if they drop their guard. Before I came to pick you up, you killed several hundred of the stronghold’s garrison troops, didn’t you? Even though the buildings provided you with cover as you took on the brigade by yourself, you’re still the most fearsome person I’ve come across in my life. You might as well be called the God of War.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyebrows twitched. This guy was really good at flattery. However, it seemed that this person also held a rather high position in the Zong Consortium since he knew so much. How else could he be so knowledgeable about the higher-ups? He asked the spy, “Where does the left lead?”

“We have to get out of their perimeter first.” The spy said, “I’ve already prepared a safe house for you where you can wait for things to die down.”

“I don’t have time to wait any longer.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Tell me, where are those Zong Consortium higher-ups?”

The Qing Consortium spy who was being carried around turned anxious and said, “The Zong Consortium’s higher-ups? You still think you can kill all of them at this point? There’ll be at least half a brigade of soldiers guarding them while the other half tries to capture you. Do you really think you’re a god?”

COSS

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. Noticing no response, the Qing Consortium spy said with a wry smile, “What’s more, the Zong Consortium higher-ups are all currently scattered across the stronghold. Once you kill any of them, the entire stronghold’s forces will descend upon you again. At that time, I won’t be able to get you out of their perimeter again. Mr. Qing Zhen said I could prioritize my own life over the mission.”

As Ren Xiaosu listened to him speak, he continued walking without saying a word. Then he asked, “Which direction leads to the garrison base?”

The Qing Consortium spy gasped. “Are you thinking of attacking their base while it’s empty?!” What was at the garrison base? There were ammunition depots, and the strategic headquarters was located within it as well. Even if Zong Cheng were not there, he could still cause some trouble to the garrison brigade of Stronghold 146 by killing some of their staff officers and commanders.

Ren Xiaosu understood this might not be the most important thing he should be doing, but attacking the enemy’s weak point was still his best option right now.

Who could have thought he would be so bold as to venture into the enemy’s garrison base by himself? No matter how brave someone might be, they wouldn’t do something like that, right?

Ren Xiaosu understood that he might only get a chance if he could create enough chaos to make the Zong Consortium’s troops constantly run about.

He was running out of time. The Zong Consortium’s troops would probably cross the Gobi soon and arrive at Fortress 178. The only way to make Zong Cheng recall them was to hit them hard here!

Time waited for no man!

However, the spy rambled, “Even if the base is almost defenseless, there are still at least 500 troops stationed there. If you go, you’ll be committing suicide.” “Which way?”

“Turn right up ahead.”

Ren Xiaosu took out six vials of black medicine and stuffed them into the spy’s hands as they walked. He did not have time to repack the black medicine, so he gave them directly to the spy after trading for them in the palace

“Thank you,” Ren Xiaosu said.

The spy said happily, “Hehe, don’t mention it. Put me down after we get up close. I know how to find my way back.” With the black medicine in hand, Boss Luo would definitely reward him handsomely when he got back to the Qing Consortium. He would have almost nothing to worry about for the rest of his life.

Putting everything else aside, Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo would never treat their loyal servants badly.

Ren Xiaosu thanked the spy as he had risked his life to rescue him. This was despite the fact that he had not used his trump card yet, and it would still prove very difficult for the Zong Consortium brigade to encircle and trap him.

But if he sustained an injury while breaking through the encirclement, and if the enemy used hounds to chase after him, that would only make his next plans harder to carry out.

Moreover, the spy had taken a great risk in the circumstances. Since the spy was willing to risk his life to rescue him, he would bear it in mind.

After walking for a dozen kilometers and taking many turns, the spy said with great familiarity, “Here we are, the Zong Consortium’s garrison base is right in front of us. Although the sewers also pass underneath the base, the center is reinforced with rebar grates, and there’s no way to get through them. You’ll have to figure out how to get in
yourself.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded and finally put him back on the ground. “Go back and tell Fatty Luo and Qing Zhen that I’ll repay them in the future.”

As of today, the brothers no longer owed him any more favors. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who owed Qing Zhen and Luo Lan a great big favor. Whether it be the help the Qing Consortium gave to capture the Beiwan River, or the spy they sent who risked his life to assist him, Ren Xiaosu could no longer ignore these two brothers.

A moment later, the spy saw Ren Xiaosu draw a black saber out of thin air. He started slashing, and he cut through the rebar grating in front of him like it was paper. The Qing Consortium spy’s jaw dropped. So it turned out the area he couldn’t get into was no obstacle for Ren Xiaosu at all. Come to think of it, he was someone who fucking dared to take on a brigade by himself!

Before Ren Xiaosu proceeded any further, he looked back at the spy and asked, “Friend, what’s your name?”

“Zheng Yuandong,” the spy said. “I’ll remember you.” Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked into the darkness.

Chapter 452: Strategies revealed!

Chapter 452 Strategies revealed!

The Zong Consortium’s troops were double timing it deep in the Gobi. They had already charted out this route and knew there was an oasis that could even allow their mechanized infantry to travel through.

If not for this route, they would only be able to launch a surprise attack with their infantry. However, that strategy would be significantly less effective.

Before the Cataclysm, it seemed that this path used to be a forest. No one knew who it was who planted so many trees here that it created oases, but it eventually helped to create some form of life out here.

However, it started turning back into a wasteland after many years of neglect.

Actually, not many people cared whether this place would revert back into a desert. More importantly, this disappearing oasis had presented the Zong Consortium with a final opportunity to achieve their ambitions.

The Zong Consortium’s higher-ups termed this “Heavens’ Route” as it was an opportunity given by the Heavens for them to usurp Fortress 178.

The Zong Consortium had not been preparing for nothing over the past few years. If they did not have a contingency plan like this, they would not have dared to poke at Fortress 178 so much in recent years.

“We’ll arrive at South Lake soon. After we pass there, we’ll stop for a two-hour reorganization before heading straight for Fortress 178!” The Zong Consortium’s general said delightedly to his deputy commander next to him, “In this war, we’ll be the ones to get recognized for our outstanding contributions. Without our painstaking planning all these years, and our crossing of the Gobi to deal a fatal blow to Fortress 178, we’d probably only have a very slim chance of winning!”

“Sir, you really are wise,” the adjutant laughed reservedly.

When he laughed, he ended up eating a mouthful of sand. They had been traveling in the Gobi for several days already. Even with the cover of the oasis that was disappearing, it was still a very tough journey to make. But no matter how much they were suffering in these moments, it would still be worth it. They would definitely go down in the annals of history!

The Zong Consortium’s general said in high spirits, “This battle will be a good opportunity for us to make a name for ourselves!”

As the mechanized infantry in the rear continued to roll over the hard ground, it swept up a large cloud of sand and dust in the desert. When the Zong Consortium’s general listened to the sound of the armored vehicles moving across the gravel road, he found it extremely sonorous and pleasant.

He asked his adjutant, “Notice anything unusual? This is a critical period, so we have to be even more careful.”

“Don’t worry.” The adjutant said, “We’ve become so familiar with this place over the years, and Fortress 178 doesn’t have any military facilities in the Gobi at all, so how would those damn fucks know we are?”

But a moment later, they heard an ear-piercing noise approach them. These combat troops were the Zong Consortium’s most elite fighting force, and the soldiers were the highest quality in the military.

So when the ear-piercing noise screeched, all of them were horrified. It was the sound of missiles flying through the air and heading towards them. “We’re under attack! We’re under attack!”

A few loud explosions boomed as several missiles landed on their column. Suddenly, the Zong Consortium’s troops were enveloped in a large cloud of dust and smoke.

The Zong Consortium’s general was already prone. He did not understand why a group of soldiers from Fortress 178 was lying in ambush here.

As he lay on the ground, he had a quick look around at his surroundings. When the dust and smoke dissipated slightly, he saw black dots appearing on the horizon in three directions. Fortress 178 had come prepared!

The Zong Consortium’s general was surprised when he realized they had actually walked right into Fortress 178’s trap that wrapped them up into a bag!

The incoming mechanized infantry of Fortress 178 swept up a huge cloud of smoke and dust on the road. The Zong Consortium’s general immediately ordered his troops to launch a counterattack. But when an artillery shell flew towards their enemy, a black cauldron suddenly appeared in front of the targeted troops and blocked it.

However, that huge black cauldron did not stay put there. It flew around in the air and blocked another five or six artillery shells in succession. It was very difficult to even catch a glimpse of a flying missile with the naked eye, yet all of the artillery shells were blocked one after another!

When the artillery shells impacted against the black cauldron, they exploded. Once the wind blew, the gray smoke from the explosion dissipated immediately.

Many of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers were stunned. What the fuck was that?!

“Xu Xianchu?!” The Zong Consortium’s general was bewildered. “How can Xu Xianchu possibly be here? Isn’t he at the rear of our Zong territory?! Didn’t someone report that they spotted his shadow back there?!”

Someone in the Zong Consortium headquarters had mentioned this. They said that Xu Xianchu had disappeared from the battlefield, and it seemed like Zhang Jinglin had made some other arrangements for him. It was likely that Zhang Jinglin had seen through their intentions and sent Xu Xianchu to stop their advance through the Gobi.

But when someone suddenly relayed some new intel with claims that Xu Xianchu was seen with that company in their rear displaying his superpower, they were relieved.

But the Zong Consortium general in the Gobi could never have expected that Xu Xianchu would suddenly appear in front of him like magic.

Did this Xu Xianchu know how to fly?!

At the same time, Xu Xianchu, who had just blocked the artillery shells from landing, was clamoring for war at the rear of the troops. “Attack without mercy and surround them from three directions! We may let this Zong general slip away, but their troops must be destroyed here in the Gobi! Charge!”

When the soldiers of Fortress 178 witnessed for themselves that their commanding officer could even block artillery shells, their morale gained a huge boost. However, Xu Xianchu was just putting on a brave front at this moment and doing his best to hold on. It was obvious that he was experiencing pain all over his body from the backlash transmitted by the black cauldron. In fact, it was nearly not tough enough to withstand the force of the artillery bombardment. But he knew well that whether Stronghold 178 could win the war all depended on whether his army could score a beautiful and resounding victory here!

Xu Xianchu had been lying in ambush here for nearly a month now, and all of the men from Fortress 178 were stretched to their limits.

However, was Fortress 178 able to stand intact in the Northwest for so long because of how well-equipped they were? No, so was it because one of their troops was worth a hundred of the enemy’s? It was not that either.

It was because they could endure hardships more than any other troops in the world. It was because they treated hardship as a routine while living in the harsh Northwestern frontier!

This was going to be a vicious battle where their final strategies were revealed.

Zhang Jinglin just received news from Xu Xianchu’s troops that they were exchanging fire with the enemy. Because of the surprise, the ambush troops of Fortress 178 had gained the upper hand!

Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin. “Will Ren Xiaosu blame us?”

It was obvious what Wang Fengyuan was getting at. Actually, with this contingency plan, the Zong Consortium’s trump card would be easily staved off as long as they stepped into the trap Fortress 178 had set up. Once that happened, Fortress 178 would no longer be in an as perilous situation as they were expecting.

There hadn’t actually been a need for Ren Xiaosu to head to Stronghold 146 at all.

When Zhang Xiaoman called them the other day, Ren Xiaosu had volunteered to head to Stronghold 146 to take out their Board members. Zhang Jinglin had wanted to stop him, but he could not reveal his plan.

Back then, Zhang Jinglin and Wang Fengyuan were thoroughly investigating the issue of the spy. Even though they knew there was a spy among the commanders, they did not manage to discover who it was. So to ensure their plans would not be leaked to the Zong Consortium, Zhang Jinglin could not talk about their plans to the Razor Sharp Company at that time.

During that call, any details that were brought up could easily get caught by the spy. As such, Zhang Jinglin decided he could not let the soldiers of Fortress 178 bear such a risk.

Chapter 453: A potential estrangemen

Chapter 453 A potential estrangemen

Earlier, more than a dozen units of Fortress 178’s fighting forces had secretly left the forward operating base. For example, Zhou Yinglong had instructed the Razor Sharp Company to launch an attack on the Beiwan River on the pretense of heading out for their cross-country training. Then they never returned to base again. Likewise, the independent regiment Xu Xianchu was previously in was deployed to the western side of Blackstone River.

The deployment of these troops was actually to make it difficult for the spy to figure out the situation. Once these troops left the forward operating base, all communications with them would be handled personally by Wang Fengyuan.

Furthermore, Zhang Jinglin had stopped eating for two days and lost quite a bit of weight in order to deceive the spy as well.

It was also at this time that they locked onto Li Xiang as a suspect. When Li Xiang went to eat, he would pretend to casually ask Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, “How has the commander’s appetite been recently?”

As an infantry brigade commander, Li Xiang was not authorized to participate in the drafting of battle plans. So he could only use Zhang Jinglin’s appetite to gauge whether Fortress 178 had any contingency plans.

This was because it was known to everyone in Fortress 178 that Commander Zhang’s appetite would drop whenever he was troubled.

If the spy were not caught, that plan could only remain hidden in his head. But Zhang Jinglin knew that if he did not reveal his plan, he would not be able to stop Ren Xiaosu.

By the time the spy was caught, Ren Xiaosu had already split from the Razor Sharp Company and could no longer be contacted.

Therefore, Wang Fengyuan immediately consulted with Zhang Jinglin on Ren Xiaosu after they caught the spy.

But it was too late by then. Zhang Jinglin could only hope that Ren Xiaosu would survive by himself.

Wang Fengyuan whispered, “Fortunately, he got the Razor Sharp Company somewhere safe. Otherwise, this would’ve weighed on my conscience for the rest of my life if those glorious troops had gotten wiped out.”

“That was expected of him,” Zhang Jinglin said calmly.

Zhang Jinglin knew this deep down. The moment Ren Xiaosu decided to head to Stronghold 146, he would definitely have arranged for the Razor Sharp Company to be placed somewhere safe. This was just like how the young man had arranged for Li Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan to stay at the town’s school back then. Zhang Jinglin understood this young man very well.

Just as expected, Ren Xiaosu went to Stronghold 146 alone. Meanwhile, Wang Fengyuan had received reliable intel from their spy hiding in a residential building that the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were conducting a citywide search for Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu had fought his way out of the predicament and was nowhere to be found.

Zhang Jinglin looked at Wang Fengyuan and said calmly, “Even if he blames me, I’ll still accept it. I have my duty to uphold, so I can’t be indecisive.”

Zhang Jinglin had a clear picture of what his priorities were when it came down to Ren Xiaosu and everyone else at Fortress 178.

Wang Fengyuan was stunned. He was worried if this would estrange the young man from Fortress 178.

When Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin, he realized he was not as calm as he had claimed.

It was just that he was pretending to fool the spy. Now, he was really worried.

…

The battle in the Gobi did not end that quickly. The Zong Consortium troops who were tasked with crossing the Gobi were extremely tough soldiers. Even though they had been ambushed, they were still able to immediately form a strong defensive line to fight back and retreat at the same time.

This mission was the Zong Consortium’s entire hope for the war. Therefore, every soldier here not only had to go through a strict political assessment but also undergo extremely tough military training as well.

But Xu Xianchu was not surprised by that as he already knew what kinds of troops he would be facing.

Actually, there were still some flaws with Fortress 178’s plans. For example, would the absence of a key supernatural being from the main battlefield like Xu Xianchu impact their plans negatively?

However, Zhang Jinglin was left with no other choice. Xu Xianchu’s mastery of command in small-scale military operations, as well as the application of his superpower in a small-scale engagement’s attack and defense, were outstanding. Therefore, Xu Xianchu was definitely the best candidate to command the ambush troops in the Gobi.

But what Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu had not expected was how Ren Xiaosu had helped to plug that gap.

Of course, it remained to be seen whether Xu Xianchu would feel grateful to Ren Xiaosu after he found out.

The battle in the Gobi continued. The Zong Consortium had waited too long for this day, and so had Zhang Jinglin.

But if the Zong Consortium was staking everything on the Gobi mission as their final resort to turn the tables, it could only be said that they had made the wrong decision.

Actually, Fortress 178 had already gotten closer to winning the war now that it had progressed to here.

After Zhang Jinglin’s plan to catch the Zong Consortium in their own trap was completed, Fortress 178 suddenly made significant progress in the battle at Mt. Wuchuan.

When they were previously trying to capture the summits, Fortress 178 had faced tough battles. At that time, the Zong Consortium generals were even thinking that Fortress 178’s troops did not seem so tough after all.

Actually, Fortress 178’s weapons and equipment were not as good as what the Zong Consortium had. Moreover, the Zong Consortium outnumbered Fortress 178 by more than two to one. However, the Zong Consortium generals consciously chose to ignore those conditions and felt that as long as they could defeat Fortress 178, it would show that they were more powerful than them.

But in that raging storm of a battle, the Zong Consortium suddenly realized the Fortress 178 troops were seemingly undefeatable.

No matter how many troops they piled on them, Fortress 178’s soldiers who were stretched to their limits were still able to go a little further.

Even though some of the positions had changed hands many times, the actual duration it took Fortress 178 to win back a position was only two to four hours. Meanwhile, it might take up to a full day and night for the Zong Consortium to win it back from Fortress 178.

There were clearly far fewer Fortress 178 troops on the battlefield, but even when the Zong Consortium troops barely managed to win back a position, they would find some of the enemy soldiers pretending to be dead while clutching explosives in their arms just so they could perish together with the Zong Consortium soldiers.

This kind of war with no end in sight was like fighting an enemy that could never be defeated. Just the thought of it would terrify anyone.

…

After the successful ambush of the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi, Zhang Jinglin immediately ordered the mechanized infantry that were reorganizing themselves to fully deploy onto the battlefield. Zhou Yinglong had fought hard to open up safe passage for them to proceed. These mechanized infantry would deal the Zong Consortium troops a fatal blow. It would be the straw that broke the camel’s back!

And surprising many people, the pontoon bridge on the Blackstone River had been rebuilt in just three days. Originally, they had estimated it would take 15 days before the mechanized infantry could cross again.

When Zhou Yinglong went for a break in the rear, he even fell asleep on his meal tray while eating. The medics in the rear quickly carried him away. After cutting open his uniform with scissors, they realized the newly promoted brigade commander had sustained tiny wounds all over his body. There were two pieces of shrapnel stuck in his thigh that weren’t removed until now.

The nurse cleaning his wounds was shocked when she saw his injuries.

There was another nurse working in the temporary medical center who was the wife of one of the troops. She looked at her husband’s wounds and scolded him tearfully for being careless while bandaging it.

The soldier said impatiently, “Can’t you stop crying? I have to rejoin my squad after you’re done bandaging my wounds. We’re the ones who took those positions. Now that we’re close to victory, I can’t let those li’l bastards claim all the credit!”

“Get lost then, go claim your credit! I’ll settle the score with you when we get home.” After the nurse tied a bowknot to finish off the bandage, she chased her husband off tearfully.

Chapter 454: I can’t say

Chapter 454 I can“t say

Some of the commanders who had already returned from the front line were discussing the battle that took place in the Gobi. This was something they were not even aware of previously.

Back then, some of them had realized Xu Xianchu had gone missing. But with nearly a 100,000 troops deployed all over the battlefield, and Zhang Jinglin splitting up more than a dozen units to various locations to mislead the enemy, everyone did not think much of it at the time.

It wasn’t until today that they realized Xu Xianchu had been sent to the Gobi to the northwest!

At this moment, Wang Fengyuan came into the chow hall with his meal tray. Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, asked proudly while serving him, “How was my acting?”

“It was perfect.” Wang Fengyuan laughed heartily. “The commander told me it was all thanks to you that we caught Li Xiang this time.”

“Hehe, I’ve been paying close attention since that bastard sneakily asked me about the commander’s appetite.” Lin Yuze said as he scooped up a large ladle of meat for Wang Fengyuan, “But still, it was all thanks to your subsequent actions. Otherwise, we could only have remained suspicious of that person.”

“There’s no need to be humble.” Wang Fengyuan shook his head. “After all, we only knew who to investigate after he displayed some unusual behavior.”

At this moment, a large group of commanders gathered around Wang Fengyuan. “You asshole, you must’ve known about the commander’s plan from the start, right? Why were you so tight-lipped? You didn’t tell us anything at all.”

Wang Fengyuan snapped, “What if any of you turned out to be spies? Even now, I still suspect there’s a spy among you people.”

The commanders around him got annoyed for a while. But as they were used to Wang Fengyuan’s manner of speaking, they never took it personally since a long time ago.

When Wang Fengyuan was flushing out the spy, his methods were brutal and he did not give a damn about anyone. He was only answerable to Zhang Jinglin.

Even back at Fortress 178, Wang Fengyuan lived in seclusion every day and never had a drop of alcohol. Wang Fengyuan used to have a wife, but there was one night when she overheard him talking in his sleep. It turned out Wang Fengyuan was also a very ruthless person. He actually separated from his wife right after that and only occasionally visited his child during the day.

At that time, Wang Fengyuan’s child just got born. Whenever he went to visit his child after that, the child would only address him as uncle. However, Wang Fengyuan never once complained no matter how unbearable it felt and spent his life in seclusion for over a decade.

When his subordinates sometimes saw Wang Fengyuan smoking alone outside the office, they always felt that he had a lot of things weighing on his mind.

Next to him, Chai Zhilong, who was the commander of an infantry brigade, asked, “Fengyuan, since it’s no longer a secret, why don’t you share with us what happened? We were all worried when Commander Zhang stopped eating for two days.”

Wang Fengyuan smiled ambiguously at them. “I think there’s no harm in sharing it with y’all now since the commander’s given me permission to talk about it.”

Sharing their victorious exploits at this moment would surely boost the morale of the troops. When someone heard that Wang Fengyuan was willing to share, they said excitedly, “Tell us, did the commander really go hungry for two days? Didn’t y’all have Lin Yuze serve him some food secretly?”

Wang Fengyuan did not know whether to laugh or cry. He did not expect this group of people to actually be concerned about this matter instead. He said, “Who said that the commander’s appetite gets affected whenever he’s troubled?”

The commanders looked at one another. “That’s not true?”

Wang Fengyuan smiled. The other commanders suddenly realized the rumor was a trap. For example, by letting an opponent think that you had the habit of touching your nose when you were bluffing in three-card brag, you could fake a tell to lure your opponent into a trap and deal them the fatal blow.

Of course, that was only the most basic example. The rumors of Zhang Jinglin having no appetite whenever he was troubled had been circulating in the stronghold for nearly 20 years. However, that was proven to be false today.

Wang Fengyuan said, “When the commander is really troubled, he’ll smoke more than two packs of cigarettes a day. That much is true.”

However, Chai Zhilong, who was next to him, pointed at Wang Fengyuan and chided him jokingly, “You’re fucking laying a trap for us, right? When I was serving as an orderly for the commander, he could also smoke two packs of cigarettes if he was in a good mood!”

Wang Fengyuan raised his eyebrows. “You’ve revealed the commander’s personal habits without permission. Go and pen a 3,000-word long apology letter.”

Chai Zhilong’s expression immediately changed. “But I never said anything!”

Wang Fengyuan ignored his protest. Rules were rules.

Chai Zhilong pulled a long face.

Reveling in schadenfreude, someone patted Chai Zhilong on the shoulder, then turned to ask Wang Fengyuan, “Tell us then, how did Commander Zhang discover that the Zong Consortium was planning to use the Gobi to get to Fortress 178? Hasn’t Commander Zhang been away from the fortress for more than a decade? Didn’t he only just return? Besides, no one at Fortress 178 has mentioned something like that before.”

Wang Fengyuan sneered. “The plan itself was given to the Zong Consortium by Commander Zhang several years ago. When the Zong Consortium began provoking us more frequently, Commander Zhang guessed their FOB in the Gobi had most likely finished construction. That was when he decided to come back.”

The commanders realized Commander Zhang had not been idle outside either. Everyone turned their gaze to Wang Fengyuan again. So it turned out Wang Fengyuan must have been keeping in touch with Commander Zhang ever since he secretly left Fortress 178. However, this bastard was so tight-lipped the others were totally unaware.

“Bastard, I didn’t expect you to be so good at bluffing when you’re so terrible at intelligence gathering,” Chai Zhilong muttered.

Chai Zhilong stunned himself. Wait a minute! Wang Fengyuan had been the intelligence director for over a decade now and was always complaining to others about how difficult it was to gather intelligence. Although he also started making some progress in recent years, no one knew exactly what progress he had made.

Everyone would always make fun of Wang Fengyuan in private, saying the intelligence agency of Fortress 178 was where one waited for retirement.

But today, it seemed that Wang Fengyuan and Commander Zhang were really the prescient people. If Wang Fengyuan was not capable, wouldn’t Commander Zhang have removed him from his post long ago?

How could Commander Zhang be so careless in his duties?

When they thought of this, everyone started seeing Wang Fengyuan in a different light.

So it seemed that even the Zong Consortium’s plan to cross the Gobi was leaked by Zhang Jinglin to them? Could it be that Commander Zhang had intended to destroy the Zong Consortium for a long, long time?

But Commander Zhang had still not returned to Fortress 178 at that time, right? So was Wang Fengyuan responsible for all this?

“When did that happen?” someone asked.

Wang Fengyuan thought back and replied, “I don’t remember.”

The commanders around him scowled. ‘As if you would fucking forget! Like hell we’d believe that!’

But then a commander asked about something unrelated. “Fengyuan, you must’ve known there was someone like Ren Xiaosu, right? Tell us more!”

Wang Fengyuan thought for a moment. “I still can’t talk about it.”

“Is it because he’s not gotten out of danger yet? I heard he went to Stronghold 146 by himself. Is it true?” Chai Zhilong asked.

“Yes.” Wang Fengyuan did not hide this from them. After all, the Zong Consortium knew about this as well.

Chai Zhilong muttered, “That kid is way too fierce. He even dares to go to Stronghold 146 by himself? Then what’s he doing now? Did you get our agent in the north to give him some help?”

Wang Fengyuan shook his head. “I can’t say.”

He had already said all that he could say. The rest of the information would have to be kept secret. The commanders around Wang Fengyuan dispersed. They also needed to reorganize themselves as quickly as possible since they were still required to fight on the northern front. After all, even though they were close to victory today, they still had not captured any of the Zong Consortium’s strongholds.

Chapter 455: Sneaking into the Zong Consortium’s military base

Chapter 455 Sneaking into the Zong Consortium“s military base

As Fortress 178’s troops emerged victorious at the front lines, Ren Xiaosu, who was moving through the sewers, had finished cutting through the rebar grating in front of him. He was quietly infiltrating deep into Garrison 146’s military base.

Every time he passed by a manhole cover, he would listen carefully for any movements overhead.

Ren Xiaosu could clearly hear footfalls above him as Zong Consortium soldiers walked around in their hard-soled boots.

Since he could not just climb up there, he could only estimate the number of garrison troops remaining in the base based on the movements above his head. He needed to do this so he could find a good opportunity to take action.

Through his careful observation, Ren Xiaosu realized the soldiers here still maintained an extremely strict patrolling routine even when the rest of the troops were conducting a citywide search for him.

Approximately every five minutes or so, a platoon would walk past overhead. The margin of error in their timing did not exceed ten seconds.

Sometimes, light from spotlights outside would seep in through the two holes on the manhole cover and illuminate Ren Xiaosu’s face.

Ren Xiaosu cautiously found a manhole cover where the patrols seldom passed by and got a bold idea.

The manhole cover above his head was welded shut, leaving only two holes for drainage purposes. If it were anyone else who had infiltrated into this place, they would definitely be driven to despair. It was no wonder the Qing Consortium spy from earlier had not even thought about infiltrating the military base through the sewer system.

Fatty Luo’s trusted method for escape and concealment back at the Li Consortium did not seem like it would work in this military base.

But not even this was enough to stop Ren Xiaosu. He did possess the black saber, after all. It was precisely because the defense here was the tightest that he chose to break in from here to get aboveground.

This was because even the Zong Consortium’s soldiers would not expect someone to break in quietly through the manhole covers since they were welded shut, especially when the sewer system was reinforced with rebar grating.

Ren Xiaosu started to slowly and effortlessly cut open the manhole cover with his black saber.

Then he waited in silence. Suddenly, he heard footsteps slowly approaching the manhole cover he was under. When the enemy passed by, Ren Xiaosu flipped open the manhole cover quietly and leaped out.

He pounced onto the enemy like a cheetah. Before the spotlights could sweep across again, he had already broken the neck of his enemy and dragged the corpse into the sewers, closing the manhole cover after him.

His shadow clone had assisted him throughout the entire process. After the manhole cover was closed, it went all quiet again aboveground as though nothing had happened.

Ren Xiaosu had a quick look at his surroundings when he was aboveground just now.

His current position was at the edge of the base. Most of the buildings here consisted of one-story barracks, but there was a narrow five-story tower that stood out from among the structures. Could that be the administrative building of the garrison troops’ headquarters?

Ren Xiaosu mentally estimated that he was around 200 meters away from the tower.

Ren Xiaosu made a decision. Although he had not yet seen where the ammunition depots of Garrison 146 were, he knew he should set his sights on that narrow tower if he wanted to destroy the central command of these troops.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu needed to get a change of clothes. Only by changing into the Zong Consortium’s khaki uniform could he minimize his chances of being suspected.

Even if it could make the enemy hesitate for only 0.1 seconds, that would still be worth it. Sometimes, that 0.1-second reaction time could determine the difference between life and death.

He quickly took the uniform off of the Zong Consortium soldier he had just killed and happily prepared to change into it.

He did not even use the black saber earlier because he was worried the clothes would get stained with blood.

But Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Not for any other reason but because he realized the enemy was a little too short and his uniform was too small.

Ren Xiaosu was 18 years old and a supernatural being as well. He had grown from his original height of 178 centimeters at the age of 17 to 184 centimeters. This was considered very tall even among males, especially in an era where malnutrition was prevalent.

This meant it might not be easy to find the right size of uniform.

But Ren Xiaosu was not someone who was easily discouraged. Since the plan was still feasible, he would have to find a way to execute it no matter what!

However, he would have to act quickly. Once the Zong Consortium discovered that a soldier had gone missing, his plan would have more or less failed.

When he grabbed a second Zong Consortium soldier, Ren Xiaosu frowned again and let out a sigh. ‘No! This soldier is still too short.’

And the third soldier Ren Xiaosu grabbed, ‘No! This one’s too big!’ This soldier’s uniform made Ren Xiaosu look like he had put on a costume. Although Ren Xiaosu was built, his physique was still thin because his strength and agility were evenly balanced.

Ren Xiaosu was not expecting much anymore, but when he caught the fourth person, he saw a glimmer of hope in his plan. ‘The size of this person is just right this time!’

“Phew.” Ren Xiaosu finally heaved a sigh of relief. He was worried he would end up capturing and bringing all of the soldiers in this base down into the sewers he was hiding in.

But at this moment, an alarm blared in the garrison base. It seemed the missing personnel had already attracted the attention of the Zong Consortium garrison troops.

Ren Xiaosu quickly got changed and took the soldier’s access card before climbing out of the sewers. Then he walked to the tower as casually as he could.

The patrolling platoons that were on rotational break quickly reassembled at the barracks. Immediately, an even more rigorous search team armed with live ammunition was formed.

Troops were relaying the orders as they passed each other, “We have some soldiers who went missing. Search every corner of the base immediately!”

“Conduct a blanket search and follow up on any tracks that are found!”

“The enemy might’ve already infiltrated our base!”

Ren Xiaosu felt these Zong Consortium troops were really quite alert. But it was not a big problem as he had already gone into the tower he identified earlier.

The tower was illuminated with incandescent white lights inside. When Ren Xiaosu was about to swipe his access card to pass through the security entrance, the guard outside eyed him suspiciously as though he found this person a little unfamiliar. “Sir, please show me your ID.”

Ren Xiaosu tried to bluff his way through. He looked at the guard and said calmly, “You don’t know me? Can you say you recognize every soldier in the base?”

The guard replied earnestly, “Well, sir, it’s true that I can’t recognize every soldier in our brigade, but I can still recognize the regimental commanders when there’s so few of them.”

Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback. Did he kill yet another regimental commander?! He had not even gone through boot camp before, so how could he know how to recognize the Zong Consortium’s military ranks? Moreover, the regimental commander he killed was also wearing a standard combat uniform like the rest of the soldiers. It was just that there was a slightly different insignia on his collar. So he thought it was just an ordinary officer like a platoon commander or a non-commissioned officer with an appointment. However, he did not expect it to be a regimental commander.

A second later, Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. For such tightly guarded places, it seemed it would really be impossible to sneak past the defenses. It was not that his plan was unfeasible but that the enemy’s security was too tight.

Since he could not sneak in, he would just have to kill his way in!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly made his move. Before the guard could react, Ren Xiaosu landed a knifehand strike onto his opponent’s neck. The strike whooshed through the air.

The guard collapsed onto the ground lifelessly. Ren Xiaosu looked up at the surveillance camera and knew that from this moment on, the soldiers in the entire base would start pursuing him with all their might.

But before that happened, Ren Xiaosu would first cripple the military’s central command in this tower.

He would rather face a defenseless base than head out to the stronghold to face the massive search force. He was only hoping that his arrival would send Stronghold 146 spiraling into chaos.

Only amid the chaos would he have a glimmer of hope to clinch victory.

Chapter 456: Breakthrough!

Chapter 456 Breakthrough!

The alarm in Garrison 146’s military base was getting more and more deafening. It even got to the point where almost half of the stronghold could hear it now. When the residents furtively opened their windows and looked out towards the base, they heard the heavy footsteps of soldiers running around. The troops that were originally searching for Ren Xiaosu in the stronghold were rushing back towards the base.

Some residents were bewildered by this. When they heard during the day that the Zong Consortium troops had been unable to capture the young man who had broken into the stronghold, everyone found it unbelievable. After all, there was an entire formation of Zong Consortium troops stationed here, while the other party was only a single person.

Yet they couldn’t even capture him?

At that time, the person who brought up the matter said, “My brother-in-law is a regimental commander in the Garrison 146 troops. He was the one who told me about it.”

However, many of those he told did not believe it and felt he was just bragging. They said that if his brother-in-law were a regimental commander, then their father would be the brigade commander.

After all, the situation was so chaotic that everyone was getting extremely unsettled, and it felt like the war was starting to affect the people in Stronghold 146. As such, no one really took that young man’s words seriously.

After all, who would believe that a brigade could not even deal with a lone enemy who had entered the stronghold?

But at this moment, they were finally a little convinced after hearing the ear-piercing alarm.

The young man had not only escaped the pursuit of the garrison troops in the daytime, he was even bold enough to attack the base of the Zong Consortium’s garrison?

After Ren Xiaosu killed the guard at the entrance, he immediately headed upstairs armed with his black saber. When someone saw him kill the guard through the surveillance camera, they rushed down. The alarm in the tower blared as well. All of a sudden, a commotion broke out in the administrative building.

Two of the soldiers who rushed down had their guards up in the stairway. They had seen clearly through the surveillance camera how unbelievably skilled the enemy was. When the enemy took out the guard earlier, he even smashed the brick wall beside him at the same time.

But before they could even come face to face with Ren Xiaosu, they saw a hand reach out of a shadow cast by the stairway’s handrail. It then dropped a grenade at their feet!

An explosion blasted in the tower. Ren Xiaosu did not have time to tussle with these Zong Consortium soldiers who were hiding in the shadows and trying to shoot him. It would be too troublesome if the enemy’s troops managed to group up and surround the tower.

The troops in the tower all rushed down, with some of them adopting a defensive formation in the stairways and corners while they waited quietly for Ren Xiaosu to show up.

However, this method would only be effective when dealing with normal enemies. Against Ren Xiaosu, that was too passive a tactic.

Ren Xiaosu was rapidly taking down the enemy troops one by one. The soldier in the control room who was in charge of monitoring and reporting Ren Xiaosu’s movements could only watch as he ran through the corridors like a ghostly presence, and his every move was also ferocious like a beast’s.

Through the surveillance feed, he watched an officer rush out of a room holding a pistol. But the moment he stepped out of the room, a black saber slashed onto his shoulder and his arm fell onto the ground together with the gun.

Right after, the young man kicked the officer so forcefully his entire body was mangled.

How much strength would he need to be able to do that? The bones in a human body were extremely tough!

As grenades exploded one after another, the soldier in the control room saw the security monitors turning black one by one. However, he could do nothing to stop the young man’s advance.

Every few seconds, a security monitor would either go black or turn into static.

The soldier in the control room suddenly felt like he was watching a paranormal movie. Such scenes would usually take place right before the appearance of a ghost as it slowly wrang the fear out of its victim’s heart until it bled.

Earlier in the day, this soldier had heard about how his fellow comrades of the search party were unable to apprehend the wanted criminal.

When everyone was eating in the chow hall, they even made fun of their comrades outside the base for being too weak and unable to capture a single person.

But when he saw with his own eyes how fearsome the enemy was, he understood what havoc a person like him could cause in the stronghold’s city by relying on the blind spots the buildings provided.

Without intense firepower suppressing him, no one could do anything. This young man was practically invincible in the smaller battles, so it required the deployment of a much larger force to kill him.

Wait a minute! The enemy had already moved to… The soldier in the control room was startled. He picked up his gun and looked behind him only to see the locked door of the control room being slashed open right at this moment.

That black saber left a terrifying crack in the steel door, and the soldier inside was met by Ren Xiaosu’s cold stare through it.

He was so nervous with keeping his eye on the security monitors that he forgot the enemy had already arrived at the control room’s doorstep. The soldier was scared out of his wits even though he only saw part of the enemy’s face through the crack.

After slashing through the closed steel door, Ren Xiaosu did not even bother to enter when he saw there was only one person inside. He just threw a grenade in through the crack before he continued moving forward.

Ren Xiaosu used to use the grenades sparingly as he had very few of them on hand.

But when he led the Razor Sharp Company to destroy three military factories some time ago, they seized so many grenades it was unimaginable for Ren Xiaosu. Right now, even he was unsure of how many grenades he had exactly.

No one from the Razor Sharp Company would fight Ren Xiaosu for the grenades. They just handed all the grenades they found over to Ren Xiaosu.

At this moment, the battle at Mt. Wuchuan had benefited Ren Xiaosu’s cause as the number of troops in Garrison 146 had decreased by several times after their soldiers were deployed to the front lines.

There were usually two supernatural beings stationed at the garrison base as well. However, only one remained at this moment, and that supernatural being was none other than Zong Cheng himself. It was just that no one knew where he was right now.

So Ren Xiaosu did not encounter any particularly effective resistance as he made his way upstairs in a killing spree. After all, he could casually drop grenades anywhere in the building as he wished while the enemy had to be cautious.

There was a large amount of information stored here, and many of those who were in the building were the Zong Consortium’s own people. As such, they still harbored fantasies that as long as one of them could gun down Ren Xiaosu, he would definitely be done for. But none of them managed to hit Ren Xiaosu, and most of them died before they could even see him.

Besides, half of those in the administrative building were clerical staff officers, while the remaining half consisted of officers equipped with pistols and some normal garrison troops. As soldiers guarding a place like this, the garrison troops were not equipped with grenades at all!

Blood was flowing down the stairway and trickling onto the next level with audible dripping sounds.

After Ren Xiaosu rushed up to the third story, a person stealthily climbed out of a closet in an office on the second story. He did not even have the courage to put up a fight just now. At this moment, he realized he might still have a chance to escape. The explosions had already moved on to the upper floors!

The chubby officer finally managed to get out of the closet after some struggling. But when he walked to the corridor, he suddenly slipped and fell heavily onto the ground.

Due to the sticky blood that was flowing on the ground, the floor was very difficult to walk on. If one could not find their balance, they would surely slip and fall.

When the chubby officer landed on the ground, he let out a cry in pain. But he regretted it immediately as he wondered if that would have attracted the enemy’s attention. But the enemy was already upstairs, surely he wouldn’t turn back to kill him, right?

But before he could stop worrying, he suddenly saw someone throw a grenade out of a shadow next to him!

Chapter 457: Restoring the armor

Chapter 457 Restoring the armor

Silence fell over the administrative building. As Ren Xiaosu strolled through the bloodsoaked environment, the enemies in the building had apparently all died. Only the sound of blood flowing could be heard in the background.

While he walked up the stairway to the fourth story, Ren Xiaosu realized he encountered almost no resistance. He felt that this was a little odd.

He found a locked door between the third and fourth stories, and it seemed like it was not usually accessible to even the officers of this building.

Clang! Ren Xiaosu cut open the door. Before proceeding up to the fourth story, he hid stealthily behind a window and took a look outside. He saw more than a 100 soldiers already gathered below the tower.

With a glare, Ren Xiaosu began to search through the entirety of the fourth story. It would still take a while for the brigade outside the base to get back. If there were 500 Zong Consortium soldiers in the base, there would only be about 300 soldiers below the tower after taking into account the 100 or so troops he had just killed.

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was hoping he could attract an even greater number of Zong Consortium troops back to the base. This was so he would get a better opportunity to kill the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups once he rushed out of here. As such, Ren Xiaosu believed that his plan of breaking into the Zong Consortium’s base had achieved its goal of disrupting their plans.

When he slashed open another locked door, Ren Xiaosu was startled. He instinctively thought of ducking into the corner to hide as he saw 30 soldiers standing inside this spacious room!

But Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on. After he broke into the room, the soldiers did not even move. They just stood like statues.

Ren Xiaosu cautiously looked at them and was shocked to discover he actually knew these soldiers! Weren’t these the Yang Consortium’s nanosoldiers?!

When Yang Xiaojin was assigned to exterminate the bandits, her third uncle had sent a platoon of nanosoldiers to ensure her safety.

But Ren Xiaosu never saw those nanosoldiers again after Yang Xiaojin suddenly took him on another route to the valley.

But shouldn’t these nanosoldiers have continued marching north with Zong Cheng? Even if they had failed to exterminate the bandits or encountered something unexpected, it didn’t make sense that they would be standing here like statues.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu remembered what Zhang Jinglin had told him. “We have evidence to suspect that Zong Cheng’s superpower allows him to gain control of others.”

A conjecture popped up in Ren Xiaosu’s mind. Could these nanosoldiers have fallen under the control of Zong Cheng to become his trump cards?

At this moment, the voice from the palace in his mind said, “Nanomachines not paired to a consciousness have been detected. Would you like to establish a connection?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. In the past, he could only reset the nanomachines of nanosoldiers who had died, so why was it different this time?

Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu remembered what the palace had said. He realized the condition required for the palace to reset the nanomachines was not dependent on whether a person was dead but whether there was any consciousness controlling them.

And these nanosoldiers had been put into some kind of a sleep mode after being controlled by Zong Cheng. Therefore, were their “consciousnesses” forcefully suspended by Zong Cheng as well?

Living like this could not be more miserable since they did not have control over their own lives.

“Reset them!” Ren Xiaosu answered.

Since his last battle in the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu often missed the feeling of having those nanomachines. That was because the armor was like a lifeline that could allow him to ignore the effects of standard firearms for a short duration!

Although he missed having them, he had not had the opportunity to search for more new nanomachines. He had almost given up hope, so he was surprised he could actually reunite with the nanomachines here in the Zong Consortium today.

As the saying goes, you search high and low only to find it when you least expect it.

“Removing remote access protocol…

“Resetting to factory settings…

“Restarting system…

“Pairing successful.”

As a silvery stream gathered towards Ren Xiaosu, he could feel that familiar power returning to his body.

He heard shuffling footsteps from downstairs again. It sounded like the troops gathered outside had run out of patience and were going to launch an assault.

But Ren Xiaosu chose to ignore them this time and focused on receiving all the nanomachines.

What were several hundred Zong Consortium soldiers in the face of the armor? Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of security spreading in him.

Once he regained this power, the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups living in Stronghold 146 had better start praying hard for themselves!

This was Ren Xiaosu at his peak! And Stronghold 146 was destined to be his final battlefield in the Northwest!

No! Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt it was unnecessary for the Zong Consortium higher-ups to even pray anymore. They might as well just prepare for their deaths.

But before all of the nanomachines were fully integrated into his body, the nanosoldiers in the room suddenly charged at him. It seemed like they had received a command from someone. Ren Xiaosu frowned. Zong Cheng must have reached somewhere close enough for him to control the nanosoldiers!

Zong Cheng!

When this name flashed through Ren Xiaosu’s mind, all he felt was a killing intent.

Although all of the nanosoldiers charged at him, these nanosoldiers without nanomachines were fragile as a paper to Ren Xiaosu.

At the same time as the nanosoldiers were activated, a man darted in from outside to coordinate with them to kill Ren Xiaosu. This person that had just arrived was Zong Cheng!

Ren Xiaosu sneered as he drew out his saber to slash at him. But the moment Zong Cheng came into the room, he suddenly realized something was not right. He backed off immediately and just managed to dodge Ren Xiaosu’s black saber that was coming at him!

Zong Cheng stared blankly at the nanosoldiers who were heavily injured and shouted at Ren Xiaosu, “Where’d all the nanomachines go? Why have the nanomachines in these nanosoldiers disappeared?”

Ren Xiaosu guided the remaining stream of nanomachines into his blood vessels while explaining patiently, “Isn’t it normal that there’s no nanomachines in nanosoldiers? You don’t get a wife in a ‘wife cake.'[1]”

Ren Xiaosu was now certain that even though Zong Cheng could control others, he could not control them in the way he could control his shadow clone, whose sensory perception would give feedback to his own senses.

Otherwise, Zong Cheng would not have rushed into the room at all.

Zong Cheng was not in the mood to crack lame jokes with Ren Xiaosu at a time like this. When he realized that one of his trump cards had been nullified, he leaped out of a window in the hallway behind him without hesitation. He had decisively jumped from the fourth story in an attempt to join up with the garrison troops below to escape. He knew full well he was no match for Ren Xiaosu!

Jumping from the fourth story was better than dying on the spot!

But this time, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not allow him to continue living.

If he missed this chance to get him, Zong Cheng would probably conceal himself and escape from here. At that time, it would be difficult to find him again in the sea of people.

So for Ren Xiaosu, this was his only chance to get him.

Ren Xiaosu instantly covered his entire body with the armor and stood by the window. He saw Zong Cheng limping towards the Zong Consortium’s defensive line while shouting at them, “Kill that man at the window! Fire at him!”

But as the hail of bullets hit the armor, they could only see sparks flying!

Under the gazes of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers, a huge and massive armored being suddenly leaped and crashed down in front of them without any fancy moves.

With this leap, Ren Xiaosu took out the Zong Consortium’s defensive line in the most dominating fashion!

[1] A sweetheart cake or wife cake or marriage pie is a traditional Cantonese pastry with a thin crust of flaky pastry, and made with a filling of winter melon, almond paste, and sesame, and spiced with five spice powder. “Wife cake” is the translation of lou po beng from Cantonese, and although the meaning is “wife”, the literal translation is “old lady cake”, paralleling the colloquial usage of “old lady” for “wife” in American English. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetheart_cake

Chapter 458: Killing spree

Chapter 458 Killing spree

Zong Cheng was a supernatural being the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups had been watching closely since his appearance. Because his superpower allowed him to control others, this was an extremely useful skill in the eyes of the authority figures.

Although this was a time where supernatural beings were rising up in the world, and their individual combat prowess was also being magnified to the extreme, they were still only human.

No matter what powers a supernatural being had, they would inevitably possess a physique far superior to a normal person’s, and that was why Zong Cheng dared to jump down from the fourth story. If it were a normal person, they would have fractured all of the bones in their body. However, Zong Cheng only sprained his foot.

Zong Cheng was normally the person in charge of the brigade garrisoned at Stronghold 146 due to his status as a family member of the Zong Consortium’s main branch. As he was also a supernatural being, all the soldiers and officers of the brigade followed his lead.

In the eyes of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers, Zong Cheng was a powerful and mysterious person. When Zong Cheng received the news and rushed back to the base, many of the soldiers felt the situation would get under control as he was back.

No matter how powerful the enemy in the administrative building was, would they not be able to handle him with a supernatural being and several hundred elite soldiers on their side?

But the reality was that Zong Cheng had jumped out of the window in an extremely pathetic manner after they had just formed the defensive line at ground level. His previously glossy hair was also in a disheveled state while his expression betrayed a look of fear.

As a core figure of the Zong Consortium, he usually portrayed himself as a very powerful man. However, he was not actually as powerful as everyone thought.

Zong Cheng’s jump dealt a severe blow to the morale of the entire garrison. This was even more damaging than any physical injuries they could receive. They suddenly felt that the enemy they were facing was invincible.

If even a supernatural being like Zong Cheng was trying to escape, what could these normal soldiers do against the enemy?

But Zong Cheng did not care about that. Since his trump card was now lost, he only thought about fleeing.

This was when a huge object leaped out of the window from the fourth story and landed on the defensive line below. No one expected the enemy would be so strong that he could just tear apart their defensive formation so easily.

With such an imperious gesture, the enemy’s intentions were fully laid out even if he did not say a word: I dare to stand before you for I fear none of you!

Although the soldiers at the defensive line were badly shaken, they still knew what they had to do. They immediately consolidated their firepower and started shooting at the armored being.

After some modifications by Wang Yuchi, An Yuqian, and the rest of the students, the armor looked even more menacing now and exuded an aura of violence.

The armor no longer had a flat and smooth surface. Instead, it was made up of a dense honeycomb structure that was carefully engineered by An Yuqian. To others, the surface of the armor looked just like a dull matte finish. But upon closer inspection, they would discover it was made up of countless honeycombs.

A physical structure like this not only required fewer materials to build but was also far more useful for shock absorption than a smooth and flat surface.

As countless bullets rained down at the armor, Ren Xiaosu’s gaze remained dead set on the escaping Zong Cheng.

Zong Cheng was limping towards the outside of the base, and it could be seen that he did not care about the survival of the soldiers behind him.

As he was a supernatural being, he could run faster than normal people even with a sprained ankle. At this moment, Zong Cheng was enduring the pain in his ankle as he fled desperately to join up with the Zong Consortium’s main forces in Stronghold 146.

He had injured the soft tissue in his ankle during the jump and torn his cartilage. If he continued running like this, he might not be able to fully recover. But even if he had to lose his leg from overexertion, it was still better than losing his life!

Not only that, Zong Cheng even commanded the other soldiers to intercept the enemy as he made a run for it.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the Zong Consortium soldiers in front of him and suddenly charged towards Zong Cheng.

The Zong Consortium soldiers who tried to block Ren Xiaosu were weak as toys. In just a few seconds, Ren Xiaosu broke through the defensive line.

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was throwing grenades at the enemy as he fought them, as though it cost him nothing at all.

Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu had still not forgotten he was here to wipe out the troops of Stronghold 146. If he could kill the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups as well, that would be even better.

Now that he was in his peak condition, he would kill as many Zong Consortium soldiers as he could. Only by doing so would the Zong Consortium be afraid of him. When he would try to kill the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups later on, he would face less resistance from the troops.

At this moment, the Zong Consortium’s base was no longer able to organize any new forces to stop him. The remaining soldiers who luckily survived could only watch in fear as Ren Xiaosu continued his pursuit of Zong Cheng.

They suddenly realized that this supernatural being that had appeared out of nowhere must have had some sort of a feud with their brigade commander. And the brigade commander they usually feared so greatly was not as strong as they had imagined!

Of course, they could never have expected that Han Yang, the person their brigade commander relied on the most, had already been sniped by Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness. Furthermore, those 30 nanosoldiers were like a gift Zong Cheng had been putting aside for Ren Xiaosu and waiting for him to claim.

If Zong Cheng had controlled other supernatural beings, that would have really given Ren Xiaosu a headache. But to him, those nanosoldiers were no threat at all but a pleasant surprise!

When Zong Cheng reached the gate of the base, he was overjoyed. He saw that some of the troops from the search party had returned at this moment as reinforcements!

He shouted at them, “The enemy is right behind me! Kill him!”

Approximately 500 of the Zong Consortium’s troops had returned. As this was a battalion, Zong Cheng was finally able to feel more at ease.

As he had controlled the nanosoldiers, he knew full well that the usage of the nanomachines was limited by a power source. If a nanosoldier were to fully unleash the power of the nanomachines, they would only last around ten minutes. With the number of troops here, he could easily pile them on him and finish him off.

And the enemy was all by himself. The last time the Zong Consortium attacked Ren Xiaosu in the wilderness, he had only managed to get away because he had Wang Congyang’s steam locomotive supporting him!

And besides, that supernatural being who could trigger a giant earthquake was not in Stronghold 146 either!

At the thought of Wang Congyang’s name, Zong Cheng still grew angry. Although Wang Congyang claimed he had a grudge against Ren Xiaosu, he still helped him secretly!

And because of Wang Congyang’s seizure of Zong Wu’s assets, the higher-ups had indirectly pushed the blame on him as well. Someone privately reminded him that the elders felt he should have killed off Wang Congyang when he made his move on him back then. How could he have allowed such a powerful supernatural being to get away?

But there was no time to think about that anymore. He would just have to kill Ren Xiaosu first!

But when Zong Cheng turned around, he suddenly saw a steam locomotive breaking through the Zong Consortium’s formation and charging at him!

The Zong Consortium troops who had just returned did not even have time to react as more than half of them got crushed like they were toy blocks.

Zong Cheng was a little bewildered. Why had the steam locomotive suddenly appeared here when he did not see Wang Congyang around?

Chapter 459: Destroying the formation

Chapter 459 Destroying the formation

When he saw the steam locomotive approaching, Zong Cheng had an epiphany. After considering the doubts that had accumulated in his mind in recent days and analyzing them further, he surmised that the steam locomotive was probably not Wang Congyang’s doing at all. Instead, it was probably Ren Xiaosu’s own power!

Although Zong Cheng did not really want to accept such a presumption, he had no other choice.

And once this presumption was established, many things that happened previously could finally be explained. For example, why had Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone appeared at two different locations? Xu Xianchu had admitted before that he could not control the shadow clone beyond a distance of one kilometer.

And for example, Wang Congyang’s steam locomotive was known to only have four carriages, but why did the Zong Consortium’s troops keep seeing one that had 16?

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu’s superpower was that he could copy the superpowers of other supernatural beings!

This made Zong Cheng even more fearful. If supernatural beings were the gods of the world, what kind of existence would a supernatural being that could outrageously copy the powers of other supernatural beings, and even further enhance them, be?

When Zong Cheng attacked Ren Xiaosu’s group, he did not give a fuck about this young man. His target had all along been Yang Xiaojin and the organization backing her, the Saboteurs.

Now, Zong Cheng realized that he had made a huge mistake.

Suddenly, Zong Cheng stopped a military off-road vehicle that was speeding back to the base. He dragged the Zong Consortium soldier out of the driver’s seat and threw him onto the ground. Then he drove the vehicle away!

As the night curfew had already been imposed on Stronghold 146, there were no pedestrians out on the streets. Only the Zong Consortium’s soldiers could be seen patrolling.

But no matter how many soldiers came back as reinforcements, Zong Cheng was not going to turn around anymore. He just shouted into the vehicle’s walkie-talkie and commanded all of the Zong Consortium soldiers in Stronghold 146 to come back to hold off Ren Xiaosu.

Zong Cheng thought to himself, ‘There should be an extent to how much supernatural beings can use their superpowers, right?’ For example, he could only control 30 to 50 people with his power. In that case, there also had to be a limit for the Steam Locomotive. Didn’t it get blown into thin air after being bombed by the land mines in the wilderness?

As long as he had enough soldiers, he could crush Ren Xiaosu.

Zong Cheng regained his composure slightly. One by one, the Zong Consortium’s troops started returning to the base, with the largest consisting of a full company, while the smaller groups were made up of individual platoons.

These sporadic forces would not be enough to stop Ren Xiaosu. Zong Cheng looked at his surroundings and immediately ordered through the radio, “I’m leading the target towards Zijing Road now. All soldiers in the vicinity of Zijing Road, organize a defensive formation immediately and mount HMGs. Make sure to stop the steam locomotive that’s chasing me!”

This would be the most effective method. Zong Cheng knew he could not run away aimlessly and should instead lead Ren Xiaosu to where the Zong Consortium’s soldiers were the most concentrated so they could take him out while he was exhausted!

It was destined to be a sleepless night in Stronghold 146 tonight. The alarm that blared through the night, along with the explosions and gunfire, would make it difficult for any residents in the stronghold to fall asleep.

As some people watched quietly from a residential building on the street, they got a strange feeling. During the day, it was the Zong Consortium that was chasing after the young man. But now that it was nighttime, why had it suddenly become the young man chasing after the Zong Consortium soldiers while driving a train?

Why had the roles suddenly reversed?

Clarion and pleasant clangs of metal rang out as the steam locomotive traveled. This was the first time the residents in the stronghold witnessed a superpower with their own eyes.

A child leaning against the windowsill shouted to their parents, “Daddy, it’s a toy train!”

There were railroad tracks and trains that operated between Stronghold 146 and Stronghold 145, and many of the residents had taken them before. But in recent years, the Zong Consortium had been preparing for the war so intensively that the trains had become an exclusive means of transport for the military.

When the adults heard their child’s words, the father said with a complicated expression, “My child, that is a real train.”

Zheng Yuandong, the Qing Consortium’s spy, was standing at a window somewhere in the stronghold. He had just witnessed with his very own eyes an off-road vehicle of the Zong Consortium fleeing with a train chasing behind it.

Zheng Yuandong had heard of car chases before, but this was the first time he saw something like that, and this one even involved a train.

Zheng Yuandong was probably one of the few who really knew what was happening here. He was the one who had personally led Ren Xiaosu into the base, while the steam locomotive had come charging out of there. Without even needing to analyze, he guessed what was going on.

It was just that he could not understand why this young man was being so vicious.

After Zheng Yuandong led Ren Xiaosu to the garrison base, he went back and reported to Luo Lan that it was probably the end for that kid. After all, he would definitely be done for by barging into such a tightly defended base by himself.

At that time, Luo Lan remained silent for a while before saying, “I understand. He made his own choice.”

Even an idiot could sense the sadness in Luo Lan’s tone when he said that.

But what was he supposed to tell Boss Luo now?

He could say, “I’m sorry, I made a mistake. It wasn’t the end for that young man. It’s the Zong Consortium that was done for…”

Zheng Yuandong quietly climbed to the roof of a building. He was moving freely on top of the buildings and could leap five to six meters across buildings with a single step even though the gap felt like a gulf.

Although he was not a supernatural being, he was one of the toughest spies in the Qing Consortium’s secret troops.

Zheng Yuandong chased after the train for the entire time and saw for himself how the steam locomotive was smashing through every obstacle. The young man in the train calmly pursued the off-road vehicle in front of him and even threw several grenades from time to time.

Ren Xiaosu had already put away his armor and stored the nanomachines back into his body to recharge it for the next battle. When he turned his head, he saw Zheng Yuandong leaping and scurrying across the roofs. He smiled and waved at Zheng Yuandong. He also signaled for him to stay away in case he accidentally got hurt.

Just what kind of mental fortitude did he need to have to remain smiling in the face of all the danger around him?

He wanted to tell Luo Lan every detail about today’s events so the Qing Consortium could reassess the capability of this young man from an objective point of view!

Ren Xiaosu had pursued Zong Cheng until they were in the vicinity of Zijing Road. The traffic lights were still flashing at the huge intersection, while the neon lights on the surrounding buildings were still lit up.

Hundreds of Zong Consortium soldiers stood guard at this intersection armed with a massive amount of weapons as they waited for the strange steam locomotive to enter their kill zone.

Even Zong Cheng could not help but step on the brakes when he saw the formation up ahead and wondered if they would be enough to stop Ren Xiaosu!

But before the steam locomotive could arrive, something strange suddenly landed at the Zong Consortium’s position via the Shadow Door.

A soldier looked over and caught sight of it. He was surprised to see four playing cards lying on the ground.

He saw four “sixes,” with the spade, heart, club, and diamond suits shining extraordinarily bright.

At first, some of the soldiers did not even realize what was going on. They thought it was their fellow comrades who had accidentally dropped the cards and were wondering who had brought them here. If their commanding officer found out, they would probably be severely punished.

But before they could figure it out, they saw the four “sixes” grow brighter and brighter. With a loud boom, the Explosive Poker instantly blasted close to a 100 people into the sky!

Chapter 460: Proxy murder

Chapter 460 Proxy murder

The explosive power and destructive range of these Explosive Poker cards were a dozen times greater than those of a grenade!

It would be great if a grenade thrown into a defensive position could blow up a few people. So if Ren Xiaosu still had to rely on his grenades here, he would probably get shot to death first in a confrontation with the defensive line.

Ren Xiaosu had been keeping these four “sixes” as his trump card for a long time. He had always decried how difficult it was to get the higher value cards from Explosive Poker. He had been looking forward to witnessing the might of the Jokers. However, gathering four “sixes” proved to be the limit after he tried collecting the cards for a long time.

In that instant, a huge shockwave surged outwards like a tidal wave. Some of the residents in the surrounding were secretly watching from their homes. But when that shockwave swept through, the people hiding behind their windows were pushed backwards.

The glass windows of the off-road vehicle Zong Cheng was in were instantly shattered while the body shook nonstop.

He heard a ringing in his ears and suddenly lost his sense of hearing!

Looking at the Zong Consortium’s defensive position burning up in flames in front of him, Ren Xiaosu rammed straight through it, sneering as he stood in the cab unit.

The Explosive Poker’s four “sixes” were powerful enough to destroy this formation of a few hundred people.

Ren Xiaosu estimated that a little less than half of the soldiers at this position were fortunate enough to not die. But what could they do even if they survived? These Zong Consortium soldiers had already lost their fighting spirit after the blast.

They did not even have the ability to think straight anymore.

Zong Cheng’s ears were still ringing as he stepped on the gas and continued to escape. Fortunately, he was pretty far away from the defensive line when the blast occurred, or he would have died in the explosion.

Ren Xiaosu had tried to use the Shadow Door to kill Zong Cheng by dropping some grenades on him. However, as the two of them were moving at high speeds, and with the Shadow Door having some margin of error as well, Ren Xiaosu did not manage to succeed even after several attempts.

But Ren Xiaosu gave up trying when he noticed the situation at Zijing Road and wondered where Zong Cheng would lead him in the course of his escape.

It was not that he was intentionally teasing Zong Cheng. But if he were to only kill him, that would probably have too small an impact on the overall situation of the war.

Ren Xiaosu’s reason for coming to Stronghold 146 was to resolve the problem Fortress 178 was facing. He was unaware that the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi had already been intercepted by Xu Xianchu, nor did he know about the might of Zhang Jinglin’s contingency plan.

So now that Ren Xiaosu was in enemy territory, he decided he had to seriously consider the big picture as well after he had calmed down.

Where could Zong Cheng escape to in his panic? Where would the Zong Consortium’s fighting forces in Stronghold 146 be concentrated? At the side of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups, of course!

Zheng Yuandong had told Ren Xiaosu before that half of the brigade at Stronghold 146 was trying to capture him while the other half was in charge of guarding the Zong Consortium’s Board members.

At this moment, the soldiers searching for Ren Xiaosu were still scattered across the stronghold, so Zong Cheng could not organize them effectively within a short time. Therefore, in Zong Cheng’s eyes, it would only be possible for him to be saved by the troops who were currently guarding the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups.

Actually, Zong Cheng had just realized this as he was fleeing from Ren Xiaosu. Looking into the rearview mirror, he found that the steam locomotive behind him was constantly keeping its distance. In a way, it felt like Ren Xiaosu was walking a dog.

He had planned on leading Ren Xiaosu to a place with the largest number of troops so they could wear him down. But now, it felt more like he was leading Ren Xiaosu to attack the Zong Consortium troops in the stronghold.

Zong Cheng’s face was covered in blood. His scalp had been cut by shrapnel that got blasted out of the massive explosion. With the blood flowing down his face, Zong Cheng appeared even more savage.

He was not stupid, so he immediately understood the scattered defensive forces had given Ren Xiaosu a sweet taste of things to come. Now, his opponent was deliberately letting him lead the way so he could find the other troops in the stronghold, which was where the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups were!

Zong Cheng was stuck between a rock and a hard place. While he watched the steam locomotive in the rearview mirror, he considered whether he should continue heading to where the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups were. If he led Ren Xiaosu there and dragged in the Board members, he would probably bear the consequences after the war.

But Zong Cheng got the thought, ‘But where else can I go now?’ Although the Board members’ residences were at three separate locations, and even though some of them were elders from the same family branch as him, what choice did he have?

He could only head to where the elders of the Board were. After all, their troops were more elite and orderly.

Zong Cheng was struck by another thought. Since there were more than 2,000 soldiers in the defensive forces guarding the elders, that should be more than enough to stretch Ren Xiaosu’s mental strength to the limit, right?

In fact, Zong Cheng was not wrong to think this way. From any normal person’s point of view, there should be limits to a supernatural being’s power no matter how ferocious they were. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had just been chased around by the search party in the stronghold. If he was really as powerful as a god, why would he have needed to hide from his pursuers?

In reality, the Zong Consortium had committed a strategic mistake tonight. They did not expect that Ren Xiaosu would actually head to the Zong Consortium’s base. Due to the search party being scattered across the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu had gained the upper hand there. Furthermore, the Zong Consortium made another mistake, which was Zong Cheng misjudging Ren Xiaosu’s mental strength.

He thought he could completely wear down Ren Xiaosu by having an overwhelming number of people on his side. But actually, not even Ren Xiaosu knew the limits of his mental strength.

Zong Cheng calmed down a little. Since he had judged that Ren Xiaosu would soon get stretched to his limits, he could probably make an issue out of this matter to boost himself.

Although the crisis was imminent, politicking could still turn bad happenings into good outcomes.

He only needed to lead Ren Xiaosu to the territory of the other two Zong Consortium factions. On the one hand, he could wear down Ren Xiaosu with the number of troops standing guard there, and on the other hand, he could dispose of his dissidents with Ren Xiaosu’s “help”!

As a matter of fact, it was not always smooth sailing for him and Zong Xiang in the Zong Consortium. That was because the Zong Consortium’s third and fourth houses had joined forces to fight against their main branch, which was the most authoritative in the organization.

As there were still more than a 1,000 soldiers combined under those two family branches, they should be more than enough to wear Ren Xiaosu down in two separate battles. After that, his main branch would swoop in and clear up the mess before he opened up peace talks with Fortress 178. In that way, not only would the influence of his main branch not decrease, it might even grow stronger. Then, after a few years of rebuilding, he could make a comeback!

When he thought of this, Zong Cheng yanked on the steering wheel and drove in another direction.

The pursuit had been going on for almost an hour. Zong Cheng was speeding to the third house’s territory with Ren Xiaosu chasing him. The troops outside of the third ancillary branch’s manor had already set up Czech hedgehogs to stop any vehicles from entering. They also had guards standing by with heavy weapons in waiting.

When Zong Cheng was about to arrive at the manor, he shouted on the radio, “Move the hedgehogs away and let me through!”

The soldiers were somewhat hesitant, but Zong Cheng yelled again, “I’m Zong Cheng, Commander of the 107th Combat Brigade. I’m ordering all of you to move the hedgehogs away right now and prepare to face the enemy!”

Although the troops guarding outside the third ancillary branch’s manor were also under the 107th Combat Brigade, they were mainly responsible for protecting the manor. As the battalion commander was the eldest son of the third ancillary branch, he didn’t really heed Zong Cheng’s orders.

An officer just stared at Zong Cheng from the forward position as the off-road vehicle approached. However, it did not look like he would be stepping aside. He did not have any intention of letting Zong Cheng through.

Chapter 461: A spent force

Chapter 461 A spent force

After arriving outside the manor, Zong Cheng realized he might have taken too big of a risk. The third ancillary branch was refusing to save him?

Zong Cheng was terribly upset as his ears were still ringing. Zong Cheng said coldly over the radio, “Fourth Brother, aren’t you afraid the main branch will take revenge on you later if you refuse to help me? Our main house might not be able to do anything about the entire third house, but do you think you can get away if we’re only fighting against you? There’s only one supernatural being pursuing me, so the troops here are enough to handle him!”

Fourth Brother was the eldest son of the third ancillary branch, as well as the commander of the 1229th Battalion which was under the 107th Combat Brigade.

Fourth Brother lividly pondered this for a few seconds before saying, “Move the hedgehogs aside and let Zong Cheng through.”

Seeing that the hedgehogs had been shifted away, Zong Cheng was overjoyed. Then he floored it and drove forward.

However, he did not stop after entering the defensive position and continued driving deeper into the manor. He was going to escape from the western entrance of the manor.

When Fourth Brother saw Zong Cheng continuing to flee, he felt that something was wrong. If the troops here were really enough to handle the supernatural being as Zong Cheng had claimed, why would he still need to run away?!

The Zong Consortium’s Fourth Brother growled, “Zong Cheng, you treacherous bastard, you’re despicable!”

“Sir, what should we do now?” the deputy commander of the 1229th Battalion asked.

“Defend the position! As if a supernatural being can take on an entire stronghold all by themself!” the Zong Consortium’s Fourth Brother said.

As the steam locomotive approached the manor, Ren Xiaosu resorted to his usual tactic again and started dropping grenades on the defensive line to break it up. In between, he also threw out four “fives” from the Explosive Poker deck he had. However, the power of four “fives” was much weaker than that of four “sixes.”

Then three soldiers on the Zong Consortium’s defensive position carrying RPG launchers fired at Ren Xiaosu!

As the steam locomotive was a really large target, how could the RPGs miss?

But as they waited for the RPGs to explode, they saw the huge steam locomotive transforming into black mist. A second later, an armored being sprang out of the mist.

While still in midair, he contorted his body and dexterously dodged the incoming RPGs by passing through the gaps between them.

When the armor-clad Ren Xiaosu landed on the ground, he started charging forward, making the entire ground quake as he did so. The Zong Consortium’s soldiers felt a sense of powerlessness. Seeing that their bullets were totally ineffective against their enemy and with their RPGs missing him entirely, they didn’t know how to deal with him!

However, Ren Xiaosu did not engage the enemies here any further. He was only looking to destroy the manor quickly with his grenades and kill as many of the enemy’s troops as possible.

The third house was doomed.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu could not guarantee that all the places he had just attacked would end up getting destroyed, nor could he finish off the soldiers and members of the Zong Consortium who had survived the blasts. Whether or not they were killed was all down to luck.

After the third ancillary branch’s manor was attacked, an old man crawled out from under the ruins. When the Zong Consortium’s battalion commander saw that his father was alright, he immediately ran forward to help him up. “Father, let’s retreat. We can’t stay here any longer!”

The old man looked especially comical when the combover used to cover his bald head were scattered. He snapped, “Retreat? Haven’t you realized by now? This is the main branch’s scheme! Zong Cheng has more than a 1,000 soldiers under his command, yet he couldn’t even stop a supernatural being? No matter how strong a supernatural being is, they don’t have an endless amount of mental strength. So why was that supernatural being still up and running? It’s obvious that Zong Cheng is taking this chance to eliminate his dissidents!”

The expression on this battalion commander’s face turned extremely sullen. Earlier, when Zong Cheng entered the defensive position and continued fleeing, he had already thought that something was amiss.

The elder’s expression turned dark. “That little shit, Zong Cheng, has turned against our Zong Consortium, so don’t blame me for not caring about our family ties! Call the fourth branch immediately! We must unite against the main branch!”

After so many years of infighting within the Zong Consortium, Zong Cheng’s first thoughts after encountering Ren Xiaosu’s attack on Stronghold 146 was to lead him to wipe out the third and fourth ancillary branches. At the same time, he also wanted to use the third and fourth houses’ strength to wear down Ren Xiaosu.

Meanwhile, after the third house was implicated, they did not choose to flee, nor mention anything about organizing a search party to hunt down Ren Xiaosu. Instead, they immediately wanted to join up with the other faction to get their revenge!

But when their call to the fourth ancillary branch connected, the person answering immediately said, “That little shit, Zong Cheng, brought a supernatural being to our manor. Hurry over here! We need reinforcements!”

The third house fell silent. It seemed that the fourth house was done for as well.

Stronghold 146 was in utter chaos now. However, Zong Cheng could no longer clearly hear the nearby explosions due to the ringing in his ears.

He looked in his rearview mirror and was surprised to see the armored being still chasing after him. However, it seemed to have slowed down somewhat.

Zong Cheng sneered to himself. He felt that his plan had probably succeeded. Zong Cheng did not even consider the possibility that Ren Xiaosu might be tricking him. Even if Ren Xiaosu were a god, he would still get tired after battling for so long!

He took a phone out of his pocket and called his father. As soon as the call went through, Zong Cheng quickly said, “Father, that Ren Xiaosu should be at his limits. I’ll lead him to our manor right away, so get ready for battle. After we kill him, we can consolidate the resources left behind by the third and fourth houses.”

On the other end, his father shouted, “Don’t you fucking bring him here!”

But Zong Cheng could barely hear anything due to his tinnitus. He said, “OK, I’ll bring him over right away!”

Then Zong Cheng ended the call and focused back on driving. He even looked at the fuel gauge. Although the gas tank was close to empty, there was enough for him to drive back to the entrance of his manor.

But as he was making his escape, Zong Cheng suddenly felt an inkling of danger. He saw the Shadow Door appear next to him in the vehicle, then felt a saber gently slash him before disappearing.

Zong Cheng was shocked. When the black saber disappeared, he immediately began to inspect his wound. However, he realized that it was just a superficial injury. Learning this, Zong Cheng felt slightly relieved. It looked like his enemy had missed.

But before he could dwell any further on it, the Shadow Door appeared again. He felt another slash that left a wound on him that was neither shallow nor deep.

Would Zong Cheng still not understand what was going on at this moment? His enemy was obviously trying to torture him!

Ren Xiaosu clearly had the chance to kill him, yet he did not seem to be in a hurry to do so.

Zong Cheng felt humiliated. This was his first time facing this type of situation.

There was nothing he could do but step harder on the gas pedal and continue to escape.

At this moment, Zheng Yuandong was standing on the roof of a tall building that overlooked the stronghold. He was stunned by what he saw.

Previously, he thought he had overestimated Ren Xiaosu’s abilities. But right now, this Qing Consortium spy was finding it a little hard to believe. A lone supernatural being was absolutely dominating the entire Zong Consortium’s Stronghold 146?

Zheng Yuandong knew that a lot of what was happening here was mainly opportunistic. For example, Ren Xiaosu had disrupted the entire Zong Consortium plan by attacking their military base. While the troops that were scattered around the stronghold wanted to return as reinforcements, they were not as mobile as Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, they could only rush back in small waves like servers sending dishes to a table in a 10-course dinner.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu would not have achieved this either if he were not ruthless enough.

Zheng Yuandong had seen for himself how Ren Xiaosu had used an unknown method to somehow blow up the Zong Consortium’s defensive positions. Furthermore, he could even protect himself with steel armor, drive a steam locomotive, and not feel threatened by firearms and explosives.

Zheng Yuandong had taken a shortcut to the manor of the Zong Consortium’s main house. When he saw how the third and fourth houses were destroyed, he knew that Ren Xiaosu’s next target would most likely be the main house.

But Zheng Yuandong was worried about how Ren Xiaosu had wasted some time to destroy the manors of the third and fourth ancillary branches.

As such, the Zong Consortium’s main branch had already reorganized some of the stray troops and gathered them outside of their manor.

Chapter 462: A surprise attack

Chapter 462 A surprise attack

Smoke was rising up in the stronghold. What was initially a starry night had now turned into a smoky sky in the middle of the night. It was as though a calamity had suddenly descended upon the stronghold.

Zong Cheng was driving an off-road vehicle through the empty streets as he fled for his life.

Zong Cheng was covered with slash wounds as he tried unsuccessfully to evade the Shadow Door. It was a pest as Ren Xiaosu continuously tortured him throughout the pursuit.

Fortunately, a small group of reinforcements appeared and managed to delay Ren Xiaosu a little. This allowed Zong Cheng to get away from the endless torture of being cut by the saber.

The stronghold residents no longer dared to watch the commotion. All of them hid in their bathrooms at home, afraid that a sudden attack would deal them collateral damage.

The Zong Consortium troops scattered across the stronghold streamed towards the main branch’s manor, with someone giving them orders to assemble through the radio.

The Zong Consortium’s higher-ups in that manor were panicking. They could only hope that it was not too late! Zheng Yuandong finally made it here as well. He concealed himself on the roof of a tall building and watched the situation unfold. The sky in the distance was filled with smoke and fire, like it represented the Zong Consortium’s future going up in flame. Although the Zong Consortium was beginning to collapse on the fronts, they could still rely on their vast territory to fight a strategic war if they compacted their defensive lines once more. As Fortress 178 had too few soldiers, if they continued to march into the heartland where Stronghold 146 was, the worry was that their battlefront would get overextended.

But everything changed with the arrival of a young man at Stronghold 146.

In fact, Zheng Yuandong had figured out what Ren Xiaosu was here for. Wasn’t he just looking to kill the core figures of the Zong Consortium? Anyone could have guessed it! However, he did not believe that Ren Xiaosu could achieve that at the beginning.

At this moment, Zong Cheng looked behind him through the rearview mirror and noticed the speed of the pursuing armored being was slowing down bit by bit. Zong Cheng immediately knew why this was as he had also used nanomachines before. They were starting to run out of juice!

Estimating the time, he knew Ren Xiaosu could not handle such a drawn out battle even if he had recharged the nanomachines during the pursuit.

As the manor was just in front of him, Zong Cheng floored it again. The soldiers outside the entrance automatically moved the hedgehogs aside for him. After Zong Cheng passed through successfully, they returned to their defensive formation. Those cold and unfeeling firearms and heavy weapons were all aiming at the end of the long street.

Although Zong Cheng’s father was extremely furious by what he had done tonight, the Zong clan’s patriarch could not bear to see his son die before his very eyes.

Zong Cheng’s father was already 71 years old. Both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were born when he was at an advanced age, so they were extremely precious to him.

The Zong clan’s patriarch used to have another son, but he died of lung cancer.

This was considered a secret within the Zong clan. Two years after the eldest son of the main branch had passed away, his wife got pregnant again. Initially, the members of the Zong Consortium were furious and thought the eldest son’s widow had dishonored the family name. However, the Zong clan’s patriarch stood his ground and took the widow, who was also his daughter-in-law, as his concubine.

In modern civilization, concubinage was a regressive practice. Further, she was his own daughter-in-law.

Only then did the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups finally understand what had happened. So it turned out the Zong clan’s patriarch had committed an immoral act. Who else could the widow’s child belong to? It was clear the Zong clan’s patriarch was responsible!

But the Zong Consortium’s main branch was firmly in power, so everyone kept quiet as though nothing had happened. Even Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were unaware of this.

However, there were also rumors within the family that Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang might not be the biological sons of the Zong clan’s patriarch. After all, the patriarch was so old.

As for whether the patriarch had done any paternity tests, no one knew.

Zong Cheng had already driven into the manor. Initially, the patriarch wanted to punish him severely. But when he saw Zong Cheng’s body covered in blood and wounds, he could not bear to do so anymore. He slapped his face, but that just made Zong Cheng’s tinnitus even worse.

The patriarch held his anger back and said, “Stand aside. We’ll talk about what you did after tonight.”

Someone off to the side noticed that Zong Cheng was still in a daze, so they hurriedly pulled him aside.

The bulky armored being rounded a corner and appeared in front of everyone!

In an instant, all the firepower outside the Zong Consortium’s manor burst with the intention of annihilating the enemy at the end of the long street. But the armored being did not slow down at all. Instead, it sped up and moved even faster!

Zheng Yuandong was standing on the roof of a tall building in the distance as he watched the scene unfold. Under the dark sky, the Zong Consortium’s position was like an insurmountable mountain. A violent storm of firepower was created in the atmosphere, while the aggressive armored being approached it ruthlessly in an unpredictable fashion.

The sound of the steel armor stomping on the ground reverberated like a heavy war drum that was as loud as thunder!

“Is this kid really going to continue charging forward?” Zheng Yuandong mumbled, “The Zong Consortium has called so many troops back here, and Ren Xiaosu should also be at his limits now. He can’t be that fearless, right?”

But just as he finished, he discovered the armored being had picked up speed again.

The cold and unfeeling steel armor had remained quiet throughout the battle. But amid the silence, it seemed to be roaring at the Zong Consortium with rage. The clouds of dust that had been kicked up by stray bullets hitting the ground trailed behind the steel armor like a solitary flag waving in the wind as it charged forward!

“I’m convinced.” Zheng Yuandong sighed. Before this era of the rise of supernatural beings, he was the most elite Qing Consortium spy around. His assassination methods were extremely direct and efficient, and he was a remarkably strong fighter.

Even after this era began, Zheng Yuandong still felt that he could kill them even though they were supernatural beings.

But tonight, Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly upended his thinking. All of a sudden, he understood that the era he belonged to was truly over.

“No, I can’t accept this!”

In his boundless solitude, Zheng Yuandong’s gaze was fixated on the prominent armored being out in the distance. Suddenly, a resolute strength started growing in his heart. It felt like it was bursting with the force of erupting magma, the bombardment of artillery fire, and the destructive winds of a tornado.

That ambition that had accumulated in him over the years burst forth.

A second later, Zheng Yuandong looked at the armored being in astonishment. He had actually awakened his superpower?!

This was the power he had been desiring for a long time. Even after witnessing the birth of so many supernatural beings, Zheng Yuandong had yet to awaken his superpower.

But just as he was about to give up on that happening, the sight of how that young man battled on had triggered the immeasurable unacceptance in him.

This was what shocked Zheng Yuandong the most. He knew he would not have felt so agitated if he did not see that armored being charging forward with such an indomitable
spirit.

“Since my power has been awakened, does it mean I can help him now?” Zheng Yuandong wondered.

But before he could come to a decision, he saw the armored being suddenly turn left and run away just as it was about to reach the Zong Consortium’s position.

Zheng Yuandong and the Zong Consortium’s troops were all dumbfounded by the sight. The armored being ran away just like that?

Whatever happened to that indomitable spirit?

Zong Cheng and the others were also confused by the events as they watched from the manor. The Zong clan’s patriarch frowned. He looked at Zong Cheng and asked, “What’s going on? Why did he run away?”

Zong Cheng said, “Can you speak louder?!”

The patriarch felt his blood pressure shoot up again and got the urge to slap Zong Cheng. But before he could do so, the orderlies around them shrieked in agony and pain.

The Zong clan’s patriarch immediately turned around. The young man who had come to kill them had arrived behind them without anyone realizing it!

He was holding a black saber, looking invincible!

Chapter 463: Comrades

No one knew when the young man arrived at the rear of the Zong Consortium. Even Zheng Yuandong, who had been observing the situation, was unsure.

Actually, Zong Cheng's assessment was not wrong. Ren Xiaosu's nanomachines were really at their limits, with the power source almost completely exhausted.

Ren Xiaosu was also not too confident of forcing his way into a position that nearly a 1,000 soldiers were guarding. After an entire night of fighting, he could not endure the backlash from the steam locomotive anymore.

But Zong Cheng and the Zong Consortium's higher-ups were right in front of him, so how could he possibly give up now? If Ren Xiaosu gave up at this point, then he might as well have killed Zong Cheng earlier.

If he did not kill Zong Cheng tonight, he would not be able to take it lying down.

As such, Ren Xiaosu put his armor onto the shadow clone during the pursuit while no one was paying attention. On one hand, he would not have to worry about himself falling into a dangerous situation even if the nanomachines died midway. On the other hand, the armor solved the problem of the shadow clone getting hit by any stray bullets between its eyes.

As the shadow clone was launching its frontal assault on the defensive position while wearing the armor, Ren Xiaosu barged in from the side of the manor. The troops in the Zong Consortium's manor were all concentrated at the front. Throughout the night, Ren Xiaosu had used his actions to mislead Zong Cheng into thinking he would launch a frontal assault.

But just as everyone had gotten used to his movements amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu decided to execute the decapitation strike at the weakest point of the enemy!

Before Ren Xiaosu, the defenses at the back of the manor were practically useless.

Zong Cheng was shocked when he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu attacking from behind. Then Ren Xiaosu grabbed one of the Zong Consortium's higher-ups as a human shield as he sped towards him.

Zong Cheng shouted without any regard for the human shield, "Kill him. Ignore the human shield and open fire!"

But the Zong Consortium's soldiers hesitated for a moment. Importantly, the human shield Ren Xiaosu was holding was Zong Cheng's uncle.

As Ren Xiaosu held Zong Cheng's uncle and advanced, he sneered at him, "Ask them to save you. Otherwise, I'll kill you right away."

Zong Cheng's uncle got so anxious that he swore at Zong Cheng, "Zong Cheng, you little bastard! How dare you ignore my safety—"

Suddenly, Zong Cheng raised his gun and shot his uncle dead before he could finish speaking. The soldiers around them and the Zong clan's patriarch were stunned.

While they were momentarily stunned, Ren Xiaosu was already bearing down on Zong Cheng.

But to everyone's surprise, Zong Cheng, who had long been highly regarded as a supernatural being by the Zong Consortium, did not even put up a fight. Instead, he pushed his father into Ren Xiaosu's saber!

With a slash, the Zong clan's patriarch was beheaded!

A moment later, Ren Xiaosu threw the human shield in his hands aside and charged Zong Cheng at full speed. As the black saber in his hands cut through the night, it gleamed with a menacing aura.

In an era where firearms and explosives were clearly king, this saber was like the Sword of Judgment that was capable of slicing through anything.

When the Zong Consortium's soldiers saw that Ren Xiaosu had nothing to shield himself with after throwing aside the body, they immediately aimed their guns at him. But before they could even pull the trigger, the shadow clone had already come back!

The shadow clone ran in a frenzy and crashed into the Zong Consortium troops. The sound of their bones breaking was so loud that it sounded like firecrackers being set off!

When the shadow clone barged into the defensive line, it showcased an almost unparalleled level of individual combat power!

"City Crusher!" Ren Xiaosu roared.

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took a small step forward and slashed the saber horizontally!

The glow of burning flames in the distance seemed like they were projecting images on the clouds above. Ren Xiaosu could see Xu Jinyuan enjoying his corn, Jin Lan wearing a silly smile on his face, Yan Liuyuan standing next to Big Sister Xiaoyu as he angrily brought about that disastrous earthquake, as well as that ray of hope that had been destroyed.

From that moment onwards, Ren Xiaosu would often recall those scenes over and over every night. He uncovered these "wounds" in his heart again and again just so he could remind himself not to forget the anger of that day.

Even when others thought that it was normal for people to die in war, he wanted to ensure that everyone in the Razor Sharp Company survived and that no man was left behind.

When not even Zhang Xiaoman himself believed he could survive, Ren Xiaosu still insisted on trying.

So when Ren Xiaosu was finally confronting Zong Cheng at this moment, it was as though all of the Underworld's spirits of vengeance had followed him. As it turned out, when he was filled with all this hatred, he wasn't that different from Li Shentan at all.

If he did not have that ray of light left in his heart, he would even want the entirety of Stronghold 146 to perish together with the Zong Consortium.

"Die!" As the black saber slashed across Zong Cheng's waist, Ren Xiaosu watched as Zong Cheng gave him an incredulous expression. Then he turned around and left.

Behind him, the shadow clone started slashing at the enemies without restraint in a bid to protect him. Moments before a hail of bullets could rain down on him, Ren Xiaosu made his retreat. He no longer had any lingering thoughts of fighting the enemy.

It was not that he did not want to continue killing them, but that he must not do so anymore.

The Zong Consortium was about to fall apart now that their leaders were dead. Shortly after, the troops from Fortress 178 would arrive to destroy the place, so he did not have to continue taking further risks.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had been shot.

No matter how unexpected it was that he would attack from the enemy's rear just now, there were still some Zong Consortium soldiers who managed to react. So Ren Xiaosu expected he would get shot.

As of this moment, Ren Xiaosu had sustained two gunshot wounds to his abdomen. He had to shake off the Zong Consortium's pursuit as quickly as possible so he could extract the bullets and apply the black medicine on his wounds.

But something else unexpected happened. The shadow clone that was now without the armor got shot again between its eyes. It poofed into a lump of black mist before dissipating away.

Ren Xiaosu frowned. He could hear people shouting behind him. Some of them were shouting for medics, while others were alarming everyone else to the presence of an assassin.

Ren Xiaosu's pursuers chased after him relentlessly. Although Ren Xiaosu had already leaped out of the manor and run two streets away, he still could not shake off the Zong Consortium's troops.

Ren Xiaosu could even hear off-road vehicles roaring to life behind him. The Zong Consortium was enraged!

Was he cornered now? Ren Xiaosu smiled. So what?

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around with his saber raised. He stared at his pursuers at the end of that long street, while the rumbling smoke and cloudy sky seemingly came to a standstill. "Come at me!"

No one had expected that Ren Xiaosu would turn around, nor think that he would dare to take on a 1,000 people when he was already injured! But when his pursuers saw this, they subconsciously stepped on their brakes. They even had thoughts of turning around and fleeing.

It felt gratifying when they were chasing after him, but in the course of the pursuit, they never really thought what would happen if they caught up to him. Did they make a suicidal decision to chase him?

Although, the Zong Consortium's soldiers knew that, with their numbers, they could simply pile up on the young man and crush him to death. But why would they do that? Who would see it now that the Zong clan's patriarch was dead?

Furthermore, many of them would probably die in the process.

But when their vehicles came to a stop, they saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly turn around and bolt.

"Fuck, we've been had! That kid is at his limits!"

"After him!"

Of course, some of the troops had figured out what was at stake here, so they completely gave up on pursuing him.

With this temporary cessation, the pursuers halved.

But even though the number of pursuers halved, there were still a lot of them. Some of the troops wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu so they could get a reward. After all, someone would have to take over as the new patriarch of the Zong Consortium, so whoever came to power would definitely have to establish their authority by taking the head of their enemy. And the Zong Consortium would probably not be able to unite for as long as this young man remained alive.

Although, they were never really united in the first place.

Therefore, the Zong Consortium soldiers who were still pursuing Ren Xiaosu were mostly the ambitious ones.

But as Ren Xiaosu fled madly while pressing on his wounds, someone suddenly shouted, "Ren Xiaosu, over here, quick!"

Ren Xiaosu was startled. Who was calling out to him?

He turned his head to the voice and saw Zhang Xiaoman waving at him cheerfully. Meanwhile, Jiao Xiaochen and the others were busy setting up mortars and heavy machine guns on the street corner.

As for the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment, he was lying helplessly off to the side with his hands and feet bound.

After Ren Xiaosu dropped them off in the wilderness, the Razor Sharp Company had taken the risk of plundering a military factory to seize the military transport trucks and off-road vehicles in it, all so they could get to Stronghold 146 as quickly as possible!

As everyone in the stronghold was attracted by the firepower surrounding Ren Xiaosu tonight, no one noticed the east gate had been breached by the Razor Sharp Company. They did not even encounter any proper resistance!

Zhang Xiaoman was standing there in high spirits as he grinned, illuminated by the burning sky. "Get over here! We've come to save you!"

Ren Xiaosu clutched his abdomen and walked over slowly. "What are y'all doing here?"

Nearby, Fu Rao was loading ammunition into a heavy machine gun. "Didn't you say that in our Razor Sharp Company, no man gets left behind?"

Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. Suddenly, he mimicked Zhang Jinglin's tone and said, "Ren Xiaosu, do you still remember what I said?"

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before saying with a smile, "You said that people always die in battle. The battlefield is a place where we have to put our trust in fate. Everything lies with fate. No one can control it."

Zhang Xiaoman laughed again. "Do you still remember what your reply was?"

Back then, Ren Xiaosu had said, "How would we know if we don't try?!"

All of the Razor Sharp Company was in this together. One for all, and all for one! Since someone had declared that no man from the Razor Sharp Company would be left behind, they would have to keep their word no matter what.

Zhang Xiaoman's cheeks looked especially stiff in the illumination of the fiery glow, but he suddenly turned cute.

He spat on the ground and said with a smile, "Let's give them a fucking good beating!"

In that instant, four heavy machine guns started spitting out a barrage of fire at the end of the long street. The oncoming Zong Consortium troops were all caught off guard and fell to the ground like dominoes.

Someone in the past had killed more than 3,000 people in a single afternoon using two heavy machine guns rigged at an intersection. Since the development of firearms, many people had forgotten that in the history of human warfare, heavy machine guns were ranked highest among all weapons for ability to kill.

Zheng Yuandong was watching this quietly from afar. He had planned to rush to Ren Xiaosu's rescue, but he discovered that his comrades had already made it to Stronghold 146.

Looking at the way the Razor Sharp Company was providing cover and support to each other, Zheng Yuandong suddenly wished he was not a spy anymore. He wanted to return to the Qing Consortium to look for his own comrades.

Chapter 464: A surprise attack by the armored brigade

Ever since Ren Xiaosu entered Stronghold 146, he had been fighting by himself. Even though he encountered Zheng Yuandong, who was a Qing Consortium spy, the man merely showed him the way forward and never participated in his battles.

Just as Zheng Yuandong had said, his personal safety still took precedence over other matters even if Luo Lan had requested him to assist Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu could understand that since it was how the world worked.

But things were different after the Razor Sharp Company broke into the stronghold. While Ren Xiaosu was injured, this group of lunatics set up terrifying heavy machine guns in the streets of the stronghold and claimed the lives of the pursuing Zong Consortium soldiers, providing shelter and protection for Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu was leaning against a wall as he pressed down on his wounds. As there were shops and residential buildings on both sides of the street, some residents in the house behind him were shivering in fear at everything that was going on. But even in his battle to seek revenge tonight, Ren Xiaosu was still very careful to not cause the deaths of any innocent residents. This was all because Zhang Xiaoman had previously said that Fortress 178 had its own set of principles they abided by.

“How did y’all manage to find me?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

The Razor Sharp Company was unfamiliar with the layout of Stronghold 146. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had been fighting a highly mobile battle tonight, so it should have been difficult to locate him.

Zhang Xiaoman smiled while reloading. “After we got into the stronghold, there was a fortune teller waiting for us at the gate. He even pointed out your position to us. At first, we didn’t believe him. But after that, we actually heard gunshots coming from the position he pointed to.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Is the fortune teller you’re talking about a thin, middle-aged man with a mustache who wears a pair of sunglasses and holds a banner that has the words ‘Divine Foresight’ written on it?”

“Eh?” Zhang Xiaoman was amused. “How did you know?”

The Zong Consortium’s troops had been thoroughly defeated by the Razor Sharp Company’s heavy machine guns. In fact, that momentary burst of fire earlier had even beaten many of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers into submission. The soldiers in the off-road vehicles could not even fight back in the face of the heavy machine guns peppering them.

If it were under normal circumstances, these Zong Consortium troops would certainly not be so fragile. But now that more than half of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups had either been killed or wounded, the morale of the Zong Consortium’s troops was affected.

So when the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company saw their enemies screaming in defeat, their morale was lifted. Jiao Xiaochen asked, “Xiaosu, you know that fortune teller too?”

“I guess so.” Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Could that fortune teller be the real deal? But why would he guide the Razor Sharp Company to save him?

Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “He’s one of our Fortress 178’s people. I’ve only heard of him, and I didn’t expect to bump into him here.”

Ren Xiaosu was completely dumbfounded. “He’s from Fortress 178?”

“That’s right.” Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, “Before we came here, the intelligence director, Wang Fengyuan, called and informed us that someone would receive us at Stronghold 146. He managed to match the code word with us, so that fortune teller is indeed an agent of Fortress 178 assigned here to the Zong Consortium in the north. He’s in charge of the planted spies over here.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was amiss. He said unhappily, “That guy’s code name is ‘Divine Foresight’?”

“No, his code name is ‘Great Hoodwinker.’ I heard that his code name used to be ‘Divine Foresight,’ but it was changed to ‘Great Hoodwinker’ because he’s always scamming his comrades of their pay.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly did not feel so good. He had believed 80% of the fortune teller’s words. But now that he thought about it, it could have been Zhang Jinglin who told him about Ren Xiaosu having kin who was not related to him by blood.

And he still had the cheek to say, “The Northwest is where you will prosper.” Could it be that Zhang Jinglin or Wang Fengyuan were “channeling” their attempts through the Great Hoodwinker to try to make him stay?

Regarding the fortune teller’s prediction that the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups would be gathering these few days, that was probably intel they had received about a meeting that would be held soon. Then, through the fortune teller, Ren Xiaosu would be guided on how to wipe out the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups.

So when Ren Xiaosu asked this Great Hoodwinker to divine his future for him, the man immediately fell silent. How could someone like that fucking be trusted?!

But how did the fortune teller know about Li Qingzheng? Could it be that he was also a swindler during the time he spent in the South?

Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was skeptical about him. He felt that there was something strange about this Great Hoodwinker.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Has the Great Hoodwinker always been assigned here in the North?”

“I dunno,” Zhang Xiaoman replied.

Ren Xiaosu felt that he wouldn’t get to the bottom of this for the time being, so maybe he should treat his injuries first….

While the Razor Sharp Company was firing at the Zong Consortium’s troops, Jiao Xiaochen saw Ren Xiaosu using his fingers to directly extract the bullets out of his wounds. He saw Ren Xiaosu in such great pain that his veins were throbbing. His face was flushed red, but he never made a sound.

This group of gruff men from the Razor Sharp Company were totally shocked. Everyone liked to boast about how they were such warriors, especially when it was politically convenient to be known as a warrior back at Fortress 178. If one could not bear hardship, everyone would make fun of them.

But no matter how tough they were, they still wouldn’t resort to extracting bullets from their wounds personally.

After the Zong Consortium troops were completely defeated, the entirety of Stronghold 146 was a mess. Zhang Xiaoman and the others gathered around Ren Xiaosu. “Do you need anesthetics? Your wounds look—”

But before they could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu had already extracted the second bullet. He clenched his teeth and applied the black medicine onto his wounds. “That’s OK, I’ll recover in three days.”

All of a sudden, Zhang Xiaoman and the others heard the rumbling of armored vehicles rolling on hard ground. The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were shocked. “Fuck, could it be that armored brigade?”

They had come across the 131st Brigade at the edge of the Zong Consortium’s territory. At that time, they were even chased into hiding in a gully on two occasions.

After the armored brigade left, the captured deputy regimental commander guided the Razor Sharp Company to plunder a military factory and got their hands on some vehicles. Then they took a shortcut and rushed to Stronghold 146.

On the way here, they did not encounter the armored brigade again. As such, they forgot about them.

But when they heard the sound of the armored vehicles, Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked horrified. No matter how ferocious they were earlier, they could not possibly face an armored brigade head on!

“Run! Let’s get out of here quickly!” Zhang Xiaoman roared.

Ren Xiaosu asked weakly, “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Get into the vehicle!”

With that, a group of people carried Ren Xiaosu into their vehicle. Then they stepped on the gas and drove off in the opposite direction of the armored brigade.

The Zong Consortium troops in front were taking cover at a corner of the street to discuss their countermeasures. The only remaining regimental commander of the Zong Consortium’s combat brigade was trying to contact the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups, but he realized he could not reach anyone of them.

But when they heard the roaring of engines, someone peeked out and nearly pissed his pants. “They’re charging! Regimental Commander, they’re charging!”

The regimental commander also quietly sneaked a peek and was surprised to see the Razor Sharp Company’s vehicles speeding towards them. The regimental commander nearly pissed his pants as well. “Run, run, run!”

All of a sudden, the entire stronghold was plunged into chaos again.

Chapter 465: Tears of humiliation

Zheng Yuandong, who was already planning to leave Stronghold 146, was still standing on the roof of the tall building and thinking about life.

But midway through his thoughts, he saw a heavily armed armored brigade entering Stronghold 146 via the east gate.

Zheng Yuandong was a spy whose main responsibility was keeping tabs on the decisions of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups and the movements of their key fighting forces. However, he never heard anything about the Zong Consortium deploying an armored brigade to Stronghold 146 before.

However, he was very familiar with the structure of the Zong Consortium’s military forces. He immediately noticed the insignia of those troops and realized it was the 131st Brigade! Didn’t these troops get fucking led away by Zong Wu? Why had they come back here again?

The situation in the stronghold right now was basically this: The defeated Zong Consortium troops were being pursued by the Razor Sharp Company, which in turn was being pursued by the armored brigade. It was total pandemonium with everyone driving their vehicles around in panic.

The Zong Consortium troops at the front were driving hastily as they were scared out of their wits by the Razor Sharp Company. They did not even stop their vehicles for a moment as they fled from the east to the west.

After driving for more than ten kilometers, they were about to reach the west gate.

Suddenly, the west gate opened. It seemed that some of the Zong Consortium soldiers were also starting to abandon their posts and had opened the gate to escape.

The regimental commander of the Zong Consortium troops said in a trembling voice, “Of all the troops in the stronghold, why must they chase us?”

A soldier suddenly said, “I think I hear the sound of armored vehicles and tanks behind us.”

The regiment commander grew ever more flustered. “What? Fortress 178’s armored brigade has arrived as well?”

They could not even see what the situation behind them was, much less notice the unit insignia of the pursuing troops at the rear. As the regimental commander held a very high rank in the military, he knew full well that there were no friendly troops in the vicinity. Therefore, he assumed the sound of the armored vehicles belonged to Fortress 178.

As they fled in panic, their ability to think rationally was destroyed. Although it was unrealistic that Fortress 178’s campaign would have reached here already, these troops could no longer think properly. If even Stronghold 146 could be rampaged through by a lone supernatural being, what was impossible?

Zheng Yuandong was stunned by this sight. He watched with his own eyes as the three forces tried to overtake each other until all of them finally disappeared into the distance.

“Whatever, it’s none of my business. I’ll just return to the Qing Consortium.”

The entire Northwest had descended into chaos. If Zheng Yuandong wanted to leave, now was the best time to do so.

After the Razor Sharp Company and armored brigade exited from the stronghold’s west gate, they started driving south. The Zong Consortium troops ahead of them were nearly driven to despair. Didn’t they already escape from the stronghold? So why were those people still chasing after them? Did they not want Stronghold 146 anymore?

Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company did not stop driving or attack the vehicles in front of them.

They were clearly very close to the enemy ahead of them, but there was only one path, and it was only wide enough for two vehicles to drive side by side on. If any vehicles ahead of them rolled over, the Razor Sharp Company would get caught between the wreck and the armored brigade behind them.

Suddenly, one of the Zong Consortium soldiers took a look behind. “Eh, the vehicles they’re driving look like those from our military. Could they share the same radio frequency?”

The regimental commander turned around to have a look and realized it was true.

He immediately had the soldier in the passenger seat try every frequency to see if he could get in touch with the Razor Sharp Company and discuss some workaround to the situation.

Sure enough, after he switched to an encrypted frequency and shouted into it, a reply came from the other end.

The regimental commander was overjoyed. “Friends from Fortress 178, please don’t pursue us anymore. We’ll be retiring to the countryside to farm, so can you guys please stop?”

However, the other party answered, “No!”

The regimental commander turned furious and shouted, “Do you really have to be so ruthless?”

The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at each other, then at the armored brigade not too far behind them, and realized they did not know how to respond.

The Zong Consortium troops in the front roared, “Then surely we can stop our vehicles! We’ll surrender! Fortress 178 doesn’t kill captives, right?!”

Zhang Xiaoman was starting to get anxious. “No stopping, keep driving! If you dare stop, I’ll kill you!” ‘There’s only one fucking road out here and the shoulder’s full of muck, so if y’all stopped here, wouldn’t we get blocked as well?’

When the regimental commander in front heard this, tears of humiliation rolled down his cheeks. ‘Why aren’t you accepting our surrender? Must you really force us to flee?’

“Could those fucking Fortress 178 troops think that it’s fun to torture us like this?”

“That might be possible…”

But at this moment, one of the soldiers finally saw a full view of the armored brigade that was the farthest back while making a large turn. He wondered, “Wait a minute, isn’t that armored brigade in the rear our comrades?”

“What?!” The regimental commander was surprised. He did not care about the danger anymore and peeked out to look back. The paint on the exterior of the armored brigade clearly showed them to be their Zong Consortium troops.

The regimental commander picked up the vehicle’s walkie-talkie and started laughing arrogantly. “To the pursuing troops of Fortress 178, my advice to you all is to surrender quickly. You’re clearly surrounded by us, so what’re you trying to bluff!”

But just as he finished speaking, he was greeted by a hail of bullets from behind. The regimental commander was so frightened that his hands trembled again.

Zhang Xiaoman’s voice came from over the radio, “My advice to you is to keep driving. We don’t know if anything will happen to us, but if you dare stop, y’all will definitely be the first to suffer!”

The Zong Consortium’s regimental commander nearly started shedding tears of humiliation again. He swore into the walkie-talkie and said that the Razor Sharp Company would definitely pay the price, and that the Zong Consortium’s troops behind them would never let them off.

On the Razor Sharp Company’s side, Jiao Xiaochen sat in the back of a truck and wondered, “Wait a minute, even though we’re in range of the tank behind us, why didn’t they open fire at us? Furthermore, the Zong Consortium’s armored brigade is way too quiet back there.”

Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “Something must be wrong with them. Why else would we have gotten forced into taking cover in the gully twice without being attacked? I think they should’ve discovered us back then, but I wonder why they didn’t open fire on us?”

At that, Ren Xiaosu widened his eyes. “Tell me, what happened?”

Jiao Xiaochen related the incident and said curiously, “I feel that something strange is going on.”

A conjecture popped into Ren Xiaosu’s mind. He ordered, “Turn, let’s not follow these defeated Zong Consortium troops anymore. The armored brigade behind us probably isn’t here to attack us but to chase after the Zong Consortium’s troops in front of us.”

Then the Zong Consortium’s troops in front saw the Razor Sharp Company turning into the wilderness through their rearview mirrors. The regimental commander immediately felt a sense of relief. He had been saved. But after being chased around like a dog for so long, how could he just let the matter rest?

The regiment commander shouted to his soldiers, “They’ve been intimidated by us, but we can’t just let them escape like that—”

After the Razor Sharp Company departed, the Zong Consortium troops were the only ones left in front of the armored brigade. With a loud boom, the armored brigade’s tank to their rear opened fire!

The Zong Consortium’s regimental commander was stunned. He could only watch helplessly as the truck at the back of his convoy suddenly turned into a fireball. “What’s going on?”

The soldiers started crying. “Regimental Commander! The armored brigade is here to attack us!”

Chapter 466: Total strength: 184, present strength: 183

The other day, when Li Shentan hypnotized the armored brigade, he had ordered that they could only kill the Zong Consortium soldiers and not the innocent.

Li Shentan’s hypnotism could be called magical and was different from Zong Cheng’s superpower that allowed him to turn a person into an obedient machine. Li Shentan’s power allowed him to insert specific commands into a person’s subconsciousness.

The targets hypnotized by Li Shentan would even have the ability to think on their own. To put it simply, they could distinguish between who the Zong Consortium soldiers were and who were not.

Although Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company were also driving the Zong Consortium’s vehicles, they were dressed in refugee clothing.

Therefore, even though the armored brigade was chasing after the Zong Consortium troops from behind, they could not indiscriminately kill the innocent Razor Sharp Company that was blocking their way.

But once the Razor Sharp Company departed from the chase, the armored brigade immediately started firing at the Zong Consortium troops.

How could a group of routed soldiers stand up to a full armored brigade?

Or rather, the strongest defensive unit that remained across the Zong Consortium’s strongholds in the entire Northwest right now was Stronghold 146’s garrison brigade, with the rest of the Zong Consortium troops still involved in the battle at the front lines.

Therefore, the 131st Brigade did not have any worthy opponents in the rear.

The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were sitting quietly in the armored vehicles. As they had not rested for a long time, dark circles were appearing under their eyes.

But they could not sleep, at least not until the moment they were finally at death’s door.

The Razor Sharp Company watched as the armored brigade drove off, then turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. “What’s happening?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. “I think someone called Li Shentan might be controlling them.”

Ren Xiaosu did not have any actual proof of that, though. Even though their Razor Sharp Company was clearly within range of the armored brigade, they did not get fired upon. Ren Xiaosu just felt that something was off. It was just his intuition.

Thinking of what he had witnessed back at the Li Consortium’s stronghold, the people who were hypnotized by Li Shentan would basically push themselves to their limits as though they had gone crazy, so this armored brigade would probably not last much longer either.

Seeing that the armored brigade was heading straight for the next stronghold, Ren Xiaosu thought that Li Shentan might have just done Fortress 178 a huge favor. Or was Li Shentan’s intention actually to help Ren Xiaosu?

But no matter what, this armored brigade would definitely bring a great surprise to the Zong Consortium.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How’s the war going for Commander Zhang and the others in the south?”

“It’s still going well, but the Zong Consortium is putting up quite a resistance on the battlefront. Although we’ll definitely win, there’ll have to be some sacrifices on our side as well.” Zhang Xiaoman sighed.

“Besides, Xiaosu, the Zong Consortium will definitely plunge into chaos now that you’ve killed more than half of their higher-ups,” Jiao Xiaochen said.

When Ren Xiaosu heard that Fortress 178 could win the war, he felt more at ease. However, the deputy commander who had been captured by them said, “That might not be the case. Zong Ying is the frontline commander of the Zong forces, so he’s still pretty well respected by the military. Besides, he’s been expanding his influence in recent years too. Because of that, the Zong higher-ups have kept him in check for the past three years. Now that the Zong higher-ups are no longer in control, who knows? He might just take the opportunity to consolidate the Zong Consortium and become the new—”

“That won’t do. I’ll have to inform the commander about this,” interrupted Zhang Xiaoman.

Then he dialed a number on the satellite phone and repeated the deputy commander’s words to Wang Fengyuan. However, Wang Fengyuan said, “Don’t worry, Zong Ying won’t survive beyond tonight.”

After saying that, Wang Fengyuan hung up.

Zhang Xiaoman and the others exchanged glances. Ren Xiaosu said, “It seems like Commander Zhang has a plan to deal with him.”

Truth be told, Fortress 178 did have contingency plans for that. Ever since Xu Xianchu ambushed the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi, those contingency plans started taking effect one after another. For example, there were still quite a few lucky survivors from the Zong Consortium’s third ancillary branch in Stronghold 146 who were looking to escape, but they were suddenly met by that fortune teller who stopped them from leaving.

At the front lines, Zong Ying did not even know danger was approaching.

After being in hiding for over a decade, Zhang Jinglin had destroyed the Zong Consortium as soon as he returned to the Northwest. From this moment on, Fortress 178 would no longer have any opponents in the Northwest. Only the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 remained in the entire Southwest and Northwest, which were separated by a river.

If anyone else had gone to ask Wang Fengyuan, he would definitely not have revealed anything to them. Only the Razor Sharp Company could receive such treatment and get some information out of him.

Not everyone was capable of destroying Stronghold 146.

When the Fortress 178 commanders at the front lines heard that Stronghold 146 in the north had been taken by the Razor Sharp Company, jealous expressions appeared on their faces.

Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company had completed their mission. There was basically nothing left for them to do on the battlefield. The Razor Sharp Company had already received their orders to march back south to rendezvous with Zhou Yinglong’s Forward Strike Battalion where they would reorganize themselves before returning to Fortress 178.

Zhang Xiaoman said happily, “We’ll definitely earn the Nebula Medal this time since half the Zong higher-ups were killed by our Razor Sharp Company. We’re clearly just a company, yet it feels like we’re a brigade instead.”

“Ptui.” Jiao Xiaochen scolded jokingly, “You’re such a shameless captain. What we achieved was obviously all Ren Xiaosu’s credit. What has it got anything to do with you? Without Ren Xiaosu, we might not even have survived to now.”

“But Ren Xiaosu is also part of our Razor Sharp Company.” Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “We’re in the same unit, understand?”

As the exhausted soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company sat in the vehicle, they felt a sense of relief. Everyone knew the war in the Northwest was finally coming to an end. The remaining battles had nothing to do with them.

But when everyone thought back on the details, it seemed like it was just as Jiao Xiaochen had described. If Ren Xiaosu were not around in this war, they would probably have died long ago.

They had captured Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, attacked the Beiwan River to distract the enemy’s firepower from the main forces, crossed the river at Mt. Qiangwan into the Zong Consortium’s territory, took out the logistic lines of Stronghold 144, wrecked their military factories, and eventually destroyed Stronghold 146 entirely.

It was no wonder the commanders at the front lines felt a little jealous. Although the Razor Sharp Company did not really engage in any tough battles, they had done more than what most of the other fighting forces had contributed, and all of this was even achieved with only 184 of them!

Someone sneaked a glance at Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting in the vehicle. After this war, there would probably be no one who would not be convinced by Ren Xiaosu, right?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was still far from being qualified as the fortress commander since knowing how to fight and being an able commander were two different matters.

But there was still plenty of time in the future. Everyone felt that this young man would grow up to be like Zhang Jinglin and become the backbone of Fortress 178 someday.

Ren Xiaosu, meanwhile, quietly leaned back in his seat and watched the dust and smoke get swept up by the strong wind in the distance . No one knew what he was thinking right now.

When the troops were about to arrive at the rendezvous point, it was already evening. Zhou Yinglong had been waiting at the entrance of the camp for a long time. Not only Zhou Yinglong, but Wang Fengyuan, Zhang Jinglin, and the other important commanders were here as well.

The rendezvous point was the Northern Headquarters of Fortress 178.

After Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company jumped out of the vehicles and limped, Zhou Yinglong kicked him and said, “Why are you pretending to be injured when you’re not?”

Zhang Xiaoman quickly stood to attention and said with a cheeky smile, “It makes us appear even more valiant, no?”

As they spoke, the Razor Sharp Company assembled behind Zhang Xiaoman. Zhang Xiaoman shouted, “Count off!”

“1!”

“2!”

“…”

“182!”

Throughout the counting off, the voices of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were sonorous. However, the count-off ended at 182. Zhang Xiaoman thought that something was not right. “Why are we short one person?”

There should be 184 of them in total, including Zhang Xiaoman himself. But why was one of them missing?

Jiao Xiaochen wondered, “Hey, wait a minute, where’s Ren Xiaosu?”

“That’s right! Where’s Ren Xiaosu!”

Zhang Jinglin stood calmly in front of the formation. Many of the commanders had only stayed behind because they wanted to see what that legendary Ren Xiaosu looked like. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu had disappeared?

Zhou Yinglong looked at Zhang Xiaoman. “What’s wrong with you? How could you lose Ren Xiaosu?”

Zhang Xiaoman was also starting to get anxious. “Did any of you see Ren Xiaosu just now?”

“Yes, he was still around a moment ago. He was just sitting there in the bed of the truck. I dunno where he suddenly disappeared to.”

“Yeah, I saw him as well!”

Zhang Jinglin sighed. “Never mind, leave him be.”

Zhang Jinglin knew that Ren Xiaosu had temporarily joined Fortress 178 because of the Zong Consortium. But it was also because of the destruction of the Zong Consortium that he had left again. His heart did not belong here, after all.

Wang Fengyuan whispered, “Could he really have felt estranged?”

Zhang Jinglin shook his head and said, “It’s not important.” Then Zhang Jinglin looked at Zhang Xiaoman and said, “Carry on.”

Zhang Xiaoman stood to attention and swung his hand up energetically close to his ear in a salute. “Reporting in, Commander! The Razor Sharp Company has assembled. …”

Zhang Xiaoman was full of pride when he spoke. But now that the Razor Sharp Company was short one person, he somehow felt very empty and miserable inside.

Ren Xiaosu actually left without bidding farewell.

Thinking back on the times they spent together for the past month or so, the difficulties and dangers they faced were deeply imprinted in their minds.

As he kept speaking, Zhang Xiaoman grew depressed. Zhou Yinglong snapped at him, “Haven’t we already won the war? So what’s with that expression of yours?!”

“Battalion Commander, sir! We had made an agreement that no man would get left behind, but we’ve failed to bring Ren Xiaosu back with us!”

Everyone suddenly fell silent. No one had ever expected that the entire Razor Sharp Company would truly survive the war.

The dying sun blood-red. [1]

[1] This is the last line from the ci poem, Loushan Pass, by Mao Zedong. Mao wrote this poem after the Red Army defeated the KMT after a fierce battle and occupied the pass. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loushan_Pass |

Fierce the west wind,

Wild geese cry under the frosty morning moon.

Under the frosty morning moon

Horses’ hooves clattering,

Bugles sobbing low.

Idle boast the strong pass is a wall of iron,

With firm strides we are crossing its summit.

We are crossing its summit,

The rolling hills sea-blue,

The dying sun blood-red.

Chapter 467: Zong Cheng’s death

As the Zong Consortium’s battle continued in the north, an off-road vehicle was speeding towards the Central Plains. The sky was vast and blue while the ground stretched endlessly into the horizon. As the vehicle drove on, it resembled a comet shooting across the sky with an exhaust trail.

It was as though getting here made it feel like the troubles of the war were cast far away.

But instead of taking the main road, this vehicle suddenly made a detour at some point and drove into the extensive mountain range.

The young man deliberately parked the off-road vehicle in an extremely remote place and got out. He took out all of his belongings before pushing them over into a ravine.

He probably did this so no one would discover his whereabouts. This young man was extremely careful and took so many precautions to hide his tracks. In fact, to avoid whatever he was trying to avoid, he even planned to trek across the treacherous mountain range.

The young man wore a backpack. The water and food he had inside were enough for him to trek all the way to the Central Plains on foot.

Suddenly, this young man turned his head and looked at his homeland with a hint of nostalgia and hatred on his face. He promised himself that he would return someday.

But when he turned back around, someone on a small hill in the mountain range ahead smiled at him and said, “What are you looking at?”

The young man was shocked. He turned around and drew a pistol from his waist, ready to shoot. He reacted like a bird startled by the twang of a bow.

But as he turned around, the man sitting on the hill chuckled and snapped his fingers. Then the young man’s face turned blank.

“Let’s play a game.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “The game is called ‘Twenty Questions.’ So, what’s your name?”

“Zong Cheng, Zong Xiang,” the young man answered.

Li Shentan was stunned. “Why do you have two names? Besides, Zong Cheng doesn’t look like you.”

“I used to be called Zong Xiang, but now I’m known as Zong Cheng,” the young man answered. “I planted a seed within Zong Xiang with my superpower and turned him into a puppet.”

Li Shentan was a little surprised. Even he did not expect that Zong Cheng would possess such a power. Thinking about it, wouldn’t this mean that Zong Cheng would be as good as immortal as long as he planted a part of his consciousness in others?

Furthermore, the Zong Consortium’s members had probably not realized this was something that could be done.

Within the Zong Consortium, both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang could be considered competitors. Since there could only be one patriarch of the organization, there would have to be clearly defined winners and losers.

Both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were from the main branch of the family. Previously, some people from the third and fourth ancillary branches tried to sow discord between them, but little did they know that Zong Cheng had put Zong Xiang under his control a long time ago.

Moreover, Zong Xiang continued living in the Zong Consortium like a normal person, so no one discovered that something like that could have happened.

This power was way too strange. If the other organizations’ leaders were to also fall under Zong Cheng’s control, wouldn’t it be extremely easy for him to bring them down?

Although Zong Cheng could only control a small number of people, Li Shentan had not expected this power could actually get branched into a different power.

Li Shentan asked, “Do you have any other ‘seeds’ out there? Is it the same for everyone you gain control over?”

“No.” Zong Xiang said, “The seeds are extremely rare. Only by controlling a fixed group of people for an extended time can I draw on their mental strength to create the seeds. There was supposed to be another seed out there, but I didn’t have the chance to use it.”

“That’s good.” Li Shentan said with a smile, “It’s such a disgrace that I have a similar power as someone like you.”

At this point, a flash of anger and struggle appeared on Zong Xiang’s face. It was as though he was trying to break free from Li Shentan’s control. But before he could really react, his consciousness was once again suppressed by Li Shentan.

Li Shentan’s superpower seemed to be a natural “nemesis” against other mind controlling supernatural beings such as Zong Cheng.

Li Shentan posed a few more questions to him regarding the Zong Consortium’s war efforts and found out that the Zong Consortium was plagued by multiple crises and could no longer resist Fortress 178.

He also found out about how the 131st Brigade had gone back to Stronghold 146 and caused a huge ruckus there.

Li Shentan said with a helpless smile, “To think that rather than helping, I nearly got in his way instead? But what happened sounds quite interesting.”

To someone like Li Shentan, interesting things had become something he looked forward to in life.

“Alright!” Li Shentan thought for a moment and said, “That’s it for my questioning. You can end your life now.”

When he said that, Zong Xiang’s expression suddenly distorted. It seemed like there was a constant struggle between unacceptance and anger within him. Li Shentan sighed and said, “It seems that I’m still not strong enough to make a supernatural being choose between life and death.”

Then Li Shentan picked up a stone and flicked it between Zong Xiang’s eyes. Only at this time could Zong Cheng be considered truly dead.

Off to the side, Si Liren looked at Zong Xiang’s corpse, used to seeing things like this. “Big Brother Shentan, where do we go now? To Fortress 178?”

“No.” Li Shentan shook his head and said, “I think Ren Xiaosu will probably leave the Fortress 178 troops very soon. That’s not where he wants to be, at least not for now.”

“Then where are we going?”

“We should go and do something more interesting,” Li Shentan said with a smile. He looked at the case on Si Liren’s back and teased, “When they said you were a carrying pole back then, I didn’t believe it at first.”

Si Liren wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a carrying pole. Stop calling me that.”

“Sure, little carrying pole.”

Li Shentan turned around and headed off in the direction of the Central Plains. Hu Shuo was nowhere to be seen, and no one knew where he had gone.

…

The war in the north continued. Zong Ying, the commander at the front lines, immediately summoned all of the Zong Consortium’s generals at the battlefront to a meeting after receiving news that Stronghold 146 was in trouble.

But the moment the generals stepped in to the headquarters, they were immediately arrested. Then Zong Ying arranged for his trusted aide to carry out the consolidation process.

Of the generals here, Zong Ying had the most troops under him. The other generals had not expected Zong Ying to be so ruthless and decisive to arrest them immediately after trouble broke out back at Stronghold 146.

Zong Ying said to them, “The Zong Consortium is currently facing a crisis, so we need to be united.”

What he meant by “united” was that they should submit to Zong Ying and let him lead them. And since everyone was arrested, they could not refuse his proposal to unite together.

The Zong Consortium’s generals looked at one another. They were not expecting Zong Ying to immediately bare his fangs now that the majority of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups had been taken out or injured.

But one of the generals could not understand. “We’ve already been defeated in the war. Even if you control all of the frontline troops now, you still can’t win against Fortress 178, isn’t that so?”

“We’ll head north.” Zong Ying said, “We have to continue marching north of Stronghold 146. This place isn’t safe anymore. We can rebuild when we get farther north and wait for our chance to make a comeback.”

The generals were taken aback. Was Zong Ying planning on bringing everyone to the Northern Steppe? Were they supposed to completely abandon everything they currently had?

Not only that, Zong Ying was even planning to take these frontline troops on a pillaging expedition as they made their way north. They would take whatever valuable items from the Zong Consortium’s strongholds and turn them into ruins.

As for what would happen to the stronghold residents after that, it was something for Fortress 178 to consider.

Someone asked, “How should we shake off the pursuit from the Fortress 178 troops?”

“I’ll have Zong Xing to help me deal with them, of course. If we head another 170 kilometers north, we’ll arrive at Fuzhi Bridge. After we cross it, we can blow up the bridge. Since it will take several days for Fortress 178 to build a pontoon bridge, there’ll be enough time for us to make our retreat,” Zong Ying explained.

Zong Xing was one of the few veteran generals left in the Zong Consortium. When everyone started to withdraw from the front lines, Zong Xing still held his ground and fought for every inch of territory.

Normally, neither the younger generals nor the veteran generals were too fond of each other. The veterans always felt that the young ones did not feel a sense of belonging to the clan.

But what Zong Ying uttered here decided the fate of Zong Xing.

Zong Ying looked at the Zong Consortium’s generals and said with a smile, “There’ll always be a need for sacrifices in war. Of course, what I mean is the sacrifice of others.”

Chapter 468: Zong Ying’s death

The Zong Consortium troops at Mt. Wuchuan were suddenly withdrawn, and only one unit was left behind to put up a stubborn resistance at the most dangerous position on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the rest of the troops started plundering through their own territory. The Zong Consortium strongholds in the north were being looted by their own forces.

On the same evening, Zong Ying’s troops arrived at Fuzhi Bridge. As he stood on the bridge and watched the transport vehicles passing by, he suddenly sighed and said to his second-in-command next to him, “I wonder when we can return after going north this time. Remember, bring along the refugee fishermen from the various strongholds, as well as those who specialize in animal husbandry.”

In reality, Zong Ying had already been scheming to retreat north for some time. He had not expected things to go so smoothly and that someone would actually give him a hand in getting rid of the majority of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups.

The Northern Steppe was situated outside of the stronghold perimeter. It was a place where wild beasts ran rampant.

But what threat could those wild beasts possibly pose to professional soldiers?

His second-in-command said, “A lot of our troops have deserted over the past few days, but they’ve all been caught and killed.”

“Well, it’s very normal that some people tried to escape.” Zong Ying said with a smile, “In their opinion, they would rather become refugees than go north to herd sheep. Don’t worry, killing a few people and streamlining our troops as we make our way there isn’t exactly a bad thing, and we can make use of it to intimidate the other soldiers as well. After all, it’ll be a tough life from now on.”

For now, Zong Ying wanted to use an extreme form of coercion to band these routed Zong Consortium troops together and bring them north.

These troops would be his investment.

They wouldn’t even need an armored brigade once they get to the Northern Steppe. After all, mechanized troops would be useless without fuel.

His second-in-command asked, “Commander, when can we return here?”

“We’ll return when Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium start fighting.” Zong Ying laughed and said, “No two tigers can share the same mountain, so there’ll definitely come such a day. How can Qing Zhen possibly give up on the lucrative North when he’s such an ambitious person? Let’s go, we’ll just wait and see.”

In truth, Zong Ying did not know whether he could return here. Even if Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium started fighting, the Zong Consortium would not have the strength to re-enter the stage. They would only be able to watch others perform on the stage while waiting in the wings.

But politics was always a mixture of truth and lies. Even if Zong Ying did not have any intention of returning, he could not tell his soldiers. Only by giving these people a glimmer of hope would he be allowed the time to consolidate his power.

All of a sudden, a water arrow shot out from the river under the bridge. Zong Ying was utterly shocked when he sensed danger. No one expected such a surprising turn of events to happen here!

This was an attack by a supernatural being!

Zong Ying quickly pulled his second-in-command in front of him to block the water arrow attack. But when the water arrow was about to hit, it suddenly lost shape and transformed into many fine water needles.

Zong Ying hid his entire body behind his second-in-command. In that instant, his second-in-command was riddled by the needles.

The nearby supernatural being who was responsible for protecting Zong Ying finally reacted and spat a cloudy mist.

The cloudy mist transformed into a majestic hawk in the air and hovered over Zong Ying’s head, ready to protect him at all times.

But before Zong Ying could breathe a sigh of relief, a huge, translucent killer whale jumped out of the turbulent river and leaped over the bridge.

The killer whale was formed from water. As it leaped over everyone’s heads and landed back into the river, it caught the hawk in midair and dragged it down into the water.

The supernatural being next to Zong Ying coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground with a depressed look.

However, the attack did not stop there. Suddenly, some dark clouds started gathering in the sky and snowflakes began falling.

The falling snowflakes were as sharp as blades, and they quickly pierced through Zong Ying’s chest before disintegrating into nothingness.

Zong Ying fell to the ground.

This ambitious general of the Zong Consortium failed to realize his ambitions in the end. But there was nothing much to feel indignant about before he died. The supernatural attack he witnessed here today was obviously not done by a single person. Several supernatural beings had worked together to ensure he was killed.

And the variation of attacks in the water clearly told Zong Ying that his successful destruction of the pontoon bridge at Blackstone River that day was just a deception to trick him into thinking that Fortress 178 was out of retreating options, and it was not that they could do nothing about those speedboats he sent.

Before Zong Ying died, he gave a mental sigh. The old era was over, after all.

…

After being briefed, Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin and said, “Commander, Zong Ying is dead. Just as you had expected, they were intending to leave via Fuzhi Bridge. Commander’s foresight is amazing!”

Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, “So you’ve also learned how to flatter others, huh? If their intentions were to shake us off, that was the only route they could have taken. This isn’t about having amazing foresight.”

Everyone thought Fortress 178 did not really have any supernatural beings in their service, but that was not the case at all.

In Wang Fengyuan’s words, “Their superpowers came from being frozen.”

The soldiers had suffered daily hardships at the border outposts. In winter, their breaths would even condense into ice when they exhaled. That freezing and harsh environment hammered out their strongest willpower.

But it was not enough to just freeze. They also had to possess the most sincere belief in the world.

Did the soldiers choose to be in such a harsh environment for themselves? Of course not! Was it for meritorious service and promotion? It was not that either.

They did it because they wanted to protect the stronghold.

Therefore, belief and hardship were indispensable factors for the awakening of their superpowers.

Yang Xiaojin had once said to Ren Xiaosu, “When a disaster comes, mental strength becomes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.”

While wild animals evolved to become stronger, and plants turned more bizarre, what was it that humans had? Evolution of mental strength was the proper path for humans to embark on.

But of course, it didn’t mean that everyone would become supernatural beings just because they had suffered hardships. The secret force in Fortress 178 that was made up of supernatural beings was also another secret that Wang Fengyuan kept.

Wang Fengyuan continued, “Commander, the frontline troops have captured a supernatural being. He’s the one that can locate other supernatural beings. According to him, he found an opportunity to escape after the 131st Brigade defected. He intended to return to the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, but he got captured by us instead.”

“Oh?” Zhang Jinglin’s interest was piqued. “Bring him in.”

Then the supernatural being was pushed into the headquarters by several people outside. It was a plump young man, and he was shouting, “I can help you guys locate other supernatural beings. After you find them, you can round them up and place them under your control. I’m very useful, so don’t kill me!”

Zhang Jinglin asked him with great interest, “What is your effective detection range?”

“I can locate any supernatural being within the radius of a 100 kilometers.” The delicate-looking supernatural being shouted, “There must be more supernatural beings hidden in Fortress 178. I can help you to find them.”

Chapter 469: Alliance

Chapter 469 Alliance

Zhang Jinglin looked at the supernatural being in front of him and said with a smile, “Do you have any other superpowers? What’s your name?”

“My name is Xun Yeyu.” The fair-skinned fatty said, “And no, I don’t have any other powers.”

Zhang Jinglin nodded and said to Wang Fengyuan, “Bring him to Fortress 178 and see if we can locate any other supernatural beings living there. However, there’s no need to force them to join us. Just record their powers in a register.”

Xun Yeyu’s eyes widened. “You’re only registering them? Aren’t you going to place them under your control so they’ll work for you?”

“Our Fortress 178 does not need to resort to restricting the freedom of others in exchange for their strength.” Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, “Have a nice stay in Fortress 178, and don’t get yourself involved in the war anymore.”

Then Zhang Jinglin had someone take Xun Yeyu away.

The Zong Consortium had completely lost control of their strongholds in the north. Actually, Zhang Jinglin knew that Zong Ying would withdraw from the front line, but he did not try to stop him.

If those troops put up a fierce resistance at Mt. Wuchuan, it would only serve to increase the casualties that Fortress 178 suffered.

Furthermore, since Zong Ying had taken the initiative to pull out of the battlefield with his troops, would the remaining generals who harbored their own plans be able to organize an effective resistance the moment Zong Ying died?

Some of them would simply occupy a stronghold in hopes they could become the overseer. But once the Fortress 178 army arrived, these people would immediately lose will and surrender the stronghold.

Everything they did was futile in the face of overwhelming strength.

Fortress 178 had already deployed an extremely professional team to handle the takeover of the strongholds. This unit had a very clear purpose and operated meticulously. They would forcefully clean up the old ruling hierarchy in the strongholds by killing them.

This directive had been established long ago as Fortress 178 did not have time to deal with such pests courteously.

At this moment, Wang Shengzhi’s organization sent another delegation to discuss the matter of opening up the transportation lifeline with Fortress 178.

Previously, they did not have an in-depth discussion about it because Zhang Jinglin had yet to conquer the entire Northwest.

The consortium Wang Shengzhi belonged to was extremely influential and powerful in the Central Plains, and they formed a triumvirate with two other consortiums. The remaining consortiums in the region simply served to accentuate the big three, or perhaps, just had no ambitions to expand further.

Therefore, Wang Shengzhi previously stated to Zhang Jinglin that both sides would get their demands. Fortress 178 wanted the resources of the Central Plains, while the Central Plains was eyeing the resources that Fortress 178 had. However, the Wang clan would only deal with whoever was fully in control of the Northwest. Otherwise, it would be meaningless.

Although Wang Shengzhi had rushed to make the trip to the Northwest, it did not mean he would bend his principles to reach a deal.

Now that Zhang Jinglin had become the ruler of the Northlands, they could finally start discussing all kinds of deals.

However, Zhang Jinglin simply smiled and expressed that he was not qualified to be the ruler of the Northlands. How could a frail scholar be worthy of such a title? But someday, a new ruler would surely appear in the Northwest, and that was something that even he was eagerly awaiting.

The representatives of the Wang clan were a little surprised. Why did the words “a new ruler would surely appear someday” sound like what the ancient tribes would say? And it even carried a hint of feudal superstition too?

Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, “That was what our Great Hoodwinker claimed, but I believe that person will definitely return someday.”

There were only a few key points brought up in the discussion.

They first talked about the minerals and resources Wang Shengzhi needed, then discussed how to set the prices and what resources would be exchanged between the two sides, as well as how to collect the tariffs. Then they proceeded to talk about how to build the controlled access highway to link up the Northwest and the Central Plains and how it would be managed. Wang Shengzhi’s intention was that they would take charge of restoring all the accessways, whether it was the railway or the highway.

However, Zhang Jinglin rejected Wang Shengzhi’s goodwill and expressed that the Northwestern people should resolve the issues in the Northwest by themselves. The Northwestern people would restore the Northwestern accessways, while the Central Plains people would repair the Central Plains portion. That way, neither party would be on the losing side.

Third, Wang Shengzhi proposed they send troops to expel the wild beasts in the vicinity of the trading routes so as not to affect the safety. However, that offer was also turned down by Zhang Jinglin.

Seeing that they were planning to construct a railway that led to the Central Plains from the Northwest, the commanders of the fighting forces of Fortress 178 did not know whether it was a good thing or not.

But in the end, Zhang Jinglin still felt it would not be feasible for them to remain content with staying here in the corner of the Northwest for the long term. If they had to face the enemies further northwest, they would have to obtain the resources they were lacking to progress.

What surprised Zhang Jinglin was that Wang Shengyin, the younger sister of Wang Shengzhi, was still part of the delegation this time.

Wang Shengyin was also a little fatigued after having to travel back here again from the Central Plains. But when she arrived at the headquarters of Fortress 178, she pretended to casually ask about Ren Xiaosu’s whereabouts. She asked why she had not seen Ren Xiaosu around, and if he was injured or had been killed in action.

It was only then that she learned of all the things Ren Xiaosu had done in the North, including his departure from Fortress 178 without farewell.

Even the people of Fortress 178 did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gone.

Wang Shengyin appeared a little crestfallen at this.

…

At the same time the visitors from the Wang clan were here, Luo Lan represented the Qing Consortium and also dropped by the Northlands. He was here to discuss an alliance between them and Fortress 178.

Luo Lan’s offer was clear: Both sides would get along as friendly neighbors and not interfere with each other’s affairs, as well as cooperate with each other to guard against the Central Plains.

In other words, he regarded the Central Plains as potential enemies and wanted to prevent them from plotting against the Southwest and Northwest.

Of course, there were also disagreements about this among the commanders of Fortress 178. “The Qing Consortium is overly ambitious. They can’t afford to deal with us yet as they are currently busy taking over the Li Consortium and Yang Consortium’s strongholds. If we get along peacefully with them now, what’ll happen when they start a war with us in the future?”

“That’s right. I heard that the Experimentals in the South are giving them a headache. After the Qing Consortium’s main forces captured the front line at Ziyang, they immediately turned around and headed back south. This shows that the Qing Consortium does not have the capacity to deal with us for now. That’s why they’re suggesting that we get along peacefully.”

Zhang Jinglin glanced at them and said, “I’ve already made up my mind to sign an alliance treaty with the Qing Consortium. However, there’s one condition we must reject. We cannot allow the Qing Consortium to build their railway to connect with ours.”

Wang Fengyuan said in a low voice, “Commander, the concerns everyone’s brought up are valid too.”

Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, “If another war breaks out at this time, wouldn’t our situation be the exact same to what the Qing Consortium is going through? If we start warring again, the Qing Consortium’s main forces will immediately be deployed here to the North. Then the South will truly become a paradise for the Experimentals. If that happens, who knows how many people will have to die?”

Wang Fengyuan understood what Zhang Jinglin meant. He intended to let the Qing Consortium focus on dealing with the threat of the Experimentals first.

That was the most crucial matter for now.

“What else does that Fatty Luo want?” Zhang Jinglin asked.

“He’s also looking for Ren Xiaosu.” Wang Fengyuan said, “I told him that Ren Xiaosu has already left our territory.”

Nearby, one of the generals muttered, “Why are all of them looking for Ren Xiaosu? This is so odd.”

Half a month later, the Razor Sharp Company was the first of the troops to return to Fortress 178. When they entered the fortress, the residents lined the streets to welcome them back. Someone held up a red banner that read: “Welcome home, war heroes!”

Zhang Xiaoman wore the Nebula Medal on his chest. This award was the highest honor he could receive in Fortress 178.

There was a joyous atmosphere on both sides of the street as children followed behind the military transport trucks. A middle-aged woman stuffed whole baskets of eggs into their vehicles, while Lu Yao, the goddess of the fortress, organized a concert put on by the cultural troupe for these victorious warriors.

When Lu Yao saw them, she also asked, “Which one of you is Ren Xiaosu?” However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were at a loss for words.

Looking at the cheering crowd in the fortress, Zhang Xiaoman really wished Ren Xiaosu could be here to enjoy this honor with them.

They were only given this honor because of Ren Xiaosu.

Zhang Xiaoman had another Nebula Medal in his possession that belonged to Ren Xiaosu. For now, it would be placed with him for safekeeping.

Zhang Xiaoman somehow felt that the young man would return someday. At that time, he would personally help Ren Xiaosu wear the Nebula Medal.

…

End of Volume: Ruler of the Northlands

Next Volume: Alliance of Assassins

Chapter 470: The Anjing House

Chapter 470 The Anjing House

Stronghold 73 was located at the intersection of three rivers in the south of the Central Plains, but come every summer, the blazing hot sun in the sky would vaporize the water in the river.

When the seasonal plum rain[1] passed over the middle and lower reaches of the river, the high atmospheric pressure system would affect airflow in the lower altitudes and inhibit rain clouds from forming, leading to summer droughts as the surface temperatures reached extreme highs.

As such, Stronghold 73 was also known as “The Furnace.”

In an official residence on the north side of Longyang Avenue, some people were arguing endlessly in a clan meeting that was in progress. More than a dozen luxury cars were parked in the square outside the official residence. The chauffeurs were standing in a corner smoking and chatting as they waited for the big shots to come out.

Inside the conference room, someone said in a loud voice, “The Wang clan in the north has already opened up their trade route with the Northwest. If we let them carry on developing, wouldn’t that make us sitting ducks?”

Someone retorted, “Don’t always be spoiling for a fight. Our priority now should be to continue our spread east. The Qinghe Group over there cannot be underestimated.”

The person who made the retort was a bearded, middle-aged man. He had a calm look on his face, and his black tie and dark blue military uniform made him appear exceptionally solemn.

The person who spoke earlier sneered, “Zhou Shiji, the Qinghe Group is content with exercising sovereignty within their own territory and has never gotten involved in any competition for resources in the Central Plains. What’s there to be afraid of? I don’t think you realize yet who our true enemy is.”

“It’s not that I deem the Qinghe Group to be an enemy, but I’ve heard that they’ve mastered how to create superhumans. My opinion’s that we should get our hands on a similar method first.” The bearded, middle-aged man adjusted the pen and paper in front of him and placed them neatly together.

“But they don’t seem to have that many superhumans in their organization,” someone else countered.

“In this current climate, it’s time that we start paying more attention to superhumans.”

Internal strife was playing out between the main and conservative factions of the clan, but this meeting was destined to have no outcome.

It took another two hours before these Zhou Consortium big shots finally walked out of the official residence. One by one, the important figures from the conservative faction bid farewell to the representative of their faction, Zhou Shiji. There was even someone who invited him for drinks, but he turned them down.

As Zhou Shiji walked down the gravel road in front of the official residence, the protocol officers and security personnel were waiting in front of the car. After the protocol officer opened the car door for Zhou Shiji, Zhou Shiji nodded at him before getting into the car.

The luxury black car drove out of the official residence with two motorcycle escorts in front and behind. The assistant officer sitting in the front passenger seat held a document and said, “The people who met up with the Qinghe Group have returned. They said the other party rejected our proposal as usual.”

Zhou Shiji was resting with his eyes closed and his expression showed no signs of being affected.

Someone was watching the movement of the convoy with a pair of military binoculars on a roof of a tall building in the distance. When the person was sure of it, he turned around and brought out three white doves from a cage behind him and tossed them into the sky.

The sound of the white doves’ flapping wings would make anyone joyful.

Elsewhere, someone was cautiously hiding in a residence and watching that tall building.

When he saw three doves taking flight from the tall building, he said to his three armed companions next to him, “The target is taking the route that was briefed to us. Get ready to fight.”

“This assassination attempt can only succeed. Failure is unacceptable!”

“Do you think we’ll get the chance to join the Anjing House after we pull off this job?”

Based on what they said, the Anjing House sounded like an organization rather than a temple. After all, it didn’t make sense that one would only be able to join a temple after killing people.

But at this moment, a young man suddenly walked out from the shadows next to them. He let out a foul breath and said with a grin, “I’ve finally found y’all. However, the Anjing House is not a place that characters like you can join.”

These four hitmen quickly pointed their guns at the young man. “Where’d you pop out of? Were you hiding in the kitchen all this while?”

Holding a glass of juice in his hand, the young man chuckled softly and said, “Don’t get so anxious. Let me finish my juice first.”

As he spoke, the four hitmen’s gun barrels twisted like a pastry twist.

Five minutes later, the young man walked out of the building. There was a bright scarlet stain on his white shirt that indicated the fate of the four hitmen in the building.

He frowned at the sight of the bloodstain, then reached up to wipe it clean.

When the stronghold bell rang out in the distance, the white doves in Ping’an Square got alarmed by the sound and took off into the sky.

Then the young man took out a paper crane from his pocket and wrote on it, “Mission accomplished. Please deposit the commission into my account. The targets are extras that don’t know who the mastermind is.”

After the message was written, the paper crane took flight into the sky by itself and crossed the turbulent river, going north.

This paper crane would help to bring back news of what had happened here. As it flew among the white doves, it did not look out of place at all.

As for where the paper crane would fly to, the young man did not know either.

…

On a mountain road in the north, a young man was trekking across the treacherous mountains. He was moving down the river, apparently searching for something along the way. But at the same time, he seemed afraid he would miss something.

The mountains here were yellowish brown, and only after heading further east did the landscape start transforming into a grassy green.

The young man looked a little disappointed when he did not find any tracks here.

But it was also a good thing that he did not see any corpses since that would mean the people he was looking for might still be alive.

He walked and walked until half a month had passed. Actually, he could probably have crossed the mountain range within four or five days if he had traveled at full speed. But as he was searching for tracks along the way, it delayed his travels by quite a bit.

The young man slowed when he heard a ruckus up ahead. Before he could walk much further, he saw a group of refugee workers in safety helmets cutting wood.

When these workers saw the young man, they were stunned. “Friend, where did you come from? Why did you walk out of the mountain range?”

“Actually, I lost my way and got here by accident. I’m from the Northwest.” The young man said with a smile, “Bros, where are y’all from?”

“We’re lumberjack refugees from Stronghold 61.” The oldest lumberjack wondered, “The Northwest? A lot of people fleeing there have arrived here recently. I heard that there’s a war going on. Did you escape from the war? ”

“Yes.” The young man smiled and said, “I escaped here to get away from the war. The fighting there is too deadly.”

“Oh, I heard that the superhumans over there are extremely powerful. Someone escaped from Stronghold 146 and is staying in our town. They claimed that Stronghold 146 was destroyed by a young superhuman. Are the superhumans these days that fearsome? They can even destroy a stronghold by themselves?”

The young man was stunned before replying with a smile, “I dunno about that. I haven’t been to Stronghold 146 before.”

“Oh, news doesn’t really flow that well over there, so it’s understandable that you don’t know about it.” The lumberjack nodded. “My name is Xu Yahui. If you’re lost, you can come back with us later and settle down in town. But you definitely won’t be allowed into the stronghold. Friend, how should I address you?”

The young man smiled. “Thank you, bro, I’m Ren Xiaosu.”

[1] The East Asian rainy season, commonly called the plum rain (Chinese: 梅雨; pinyin: méiyǔ), is caused by precipitation along a persistent stationary front known as the Meiyu front for nearly two months during the late spring and early summer between China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_rainy_season

Chapter 471: White paper crane

Chapter 471 White paper crane

The lumberjacks had to complete their tasks for the day before returning to the stronghold. In the meantime, Ren Xiaosu chatted with this group of workers while waiting for them to finish.

After Ren Xiaosu departed from the Razor Sharp Company without saying goodbye, he did not immediately venture deeper into the Central Plains from the Zong Consortium’s territory. Instead, Ren Xiaosu headed south and found the place where the flood occurred. From there, he marched all the way eastward while looking for tracks of Yan Liuyuan and the others along the riverbank.

The valley had formed a new river channel. Almost every year, the landscape here would be different from the previous year. The river that flowed downstream from the snowy mountains was like time washing away the familiarity of what used to lie here.

As he followed the river, Ren Xiaosu even saw the settlement where his family used to live and the place where Yang Xiaojin taught him how to use a sniper rifle.

But times changed, and things were no longer as they used to be.

Ren Xiaosu did not manage to find any leads with regards to Wang Fugui and the others even though he was about to reach Stronghold 61.

One of the lumberjacks sighed and said, “Kid, you sure are lucky! You actually came out alive after getting lost in the mountains!”

Ren Xiaosu asked, “What’s in the mountains?”

“There’s a herd of boars in there.” The lumberjack exclaimed exaggeratedly, “And they’re especially ferocious.”

Ren Xiaosu thought silently, ‘Is this lumberjack referring to the herd I ate for dinner a few days ago?’

But he did not say anything and just played along, “Ah, that was a close call then. Fortunately for me, I didn’t encounter them.”

He asked the lumberjacks as he sat next to them, “Bros, do y’all usually work around here?”

“Yes.” A lumberjack who just sat down to take a break said, “We’re chopping down trees for the Wang clan and have been working in this area for the past few months. Years ago, we were logging in the north. However, the Wang clan said that we had to practice sustainable logging and should not chop down trees in the same area. So we got sent here instead. The place where we used to cut wood in the north is being replanted with trees.”

Someone said with a smile, “Don’t you find it strange? After all that effort to chop down the trees, they’re replanting them? I wonder what on earth they’re thinking.”

Ren Xiaosu did not answer that question and continued asking, “Did you see anyone drifting down from upstream?”

The lumberjacks paused for a moment. “Are you looking for your family?”

“Yes.”

“In fact, bodies often drift down from upstream, probably due to the war in the Northwest. But we haven’t come across anyone who’s still alive by the time they drift all the way here.” A lumberjack shook his head. “This is the only river that we can still see bodies adrift on. Apparently, this river is formed by the snow melt from the mountains, so there’s no carnivorous fishes in it. If it were the other rivers, any bodies would’ve already been devoured by the fish.”

Ren Xiaosu’s heart stopped for a while and he said nothing more. In reality, he had always been afraid to hear about the bad outcomes. But it did not really matter since he would continue to look for them.

Besides, it wasn’t like these lumberjacks came here every day. Perhaps they might have just missed them? That was still plausible.

The lumberjack looked at Ren Xiaosu. “I’ll tell you now that although the Wang clan doesn’t reject those who flee here from the Northwest, nobody’s allowed to enter the stronghold. So former stronghold residents like you should be mentally prepared to become refugees like us. You’ll only be allowed to do menial work to support your family.”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Bros, I think y’all’ve gotten the wrong impression. I’m actually a refugee too.”

When the lumberjacks heard that Ren Xiaosu was also a refugee, they turned friendlier and asked about the differences between refugees in the Northwest and those in the Central Plains.

In the end, the lumberjacks came to the conclusion that the refugees in the Northwest did not have a better life than them.

Although they were also tired from their constant busy lives, being a class lower than the stronghold residents, and distrusting their fellow townspeople, at least they did not have to worry about starving to death or eating moldy cornbread.

A lumberjack said with a smile, “After a busy day of work here, we can still head back to town and enjoy a bowl of hot lamb stew.[1] If we pay a little more, we can even get to eat a burger.[2]”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “The refugees here can afford to buy meat?”

“Haha, the lamb stew we have is only the broth, as if there’s any meat in it. It’s great that we can even enjoy meat broth.”

Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It truly was great to even have meat broth to drink.

In comparison, the Central Plains was indeed wealthier than the Southwest and Northwest. This was true since ancient times.

In the evening, the leader of the logging team drove back to town with a truckload of wood. As the workers sat on the wood in the back of the truck, someone asked Ren Xiaosu, “Did you ever meet Fortress 178’s troops while you were in the Northwest? We heard from the stronghold residents who fled from the Northwest that the Fortress 178 troops are extremely strong, especially that company of soldiers who utterly defeated the Zong Consortium in the North. They even burned their granary!”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “I’ve only heard about them. I haven’t met them before.”

“C’mon, tell us about ’em. Everyone in town’s been discussing what’s going on in the Northwest recently. It sounds even more exciting than the storyteller’s tales.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “I heard that the company of soldiers did not initially plan on crossing the river to the north, but they thought that it was not good to drag the war on for too long. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, so they felt that they had the obligation to cross the river to finish the war in the North. But even though the company is powerful, the most powerful one of them is still the supernatural being in their ranks. I heard that he’s extremely brave, mighty, and handsome…. Later on, he headed north by himself to Stronghold 146. That battle was a storm…. By the way, he’s that supernatural being y’all were mentioning earlier…”

As he continued relating the story to them, the lumberjacks got so engrossed they did not notice they were almost back in town. “Huh, we arrived so soon?”

But at this moment, a strong gust of wind blew past them. It seemed that there was something white flapping its wings in the sky, but it was pushed down by the wind. Ren Xiaosu felt that something was not right, so he jumped up from the truck and grabbed the white object with his hand.

When he opened his fist, he was surprised to see a small and exquisite paper crane. The paper crane looked alive and was wriggling its body and glaring at Ren Xiaosu.

Although this paper crane did not have any eyes, Ren Xiaosu had this bizarre feeling that the tiny little thing was really staring at him.

As the paper crane’s wings were extremely sharp, Ren Xiaosu accidentally cut his finger on one.

When Ren Xiaosu let go of his hand in pain, the paper crane started flapping its wings again and tried to escape. But before it could fly out of his palm, Ren Xiaosu caught it again.

Ren Xiaosu unfolded it curiously. Inside the squarish white piece of paper, a message read, “The war in the north has ended. The Qing Consortium has signed an alliance treaty with Fortress 178.”

‘Is someone trying to relay this information to the Central Plains?’ Ren Xiaosu wondered. However, even he did not know about the alliance between the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178.

Before he could figure it out, a lumberjack asked, “Why would that white paper crane suddenly fly here?”

The lumberjacks did not clearly see what Ren Xiaosu did with the paper crane. They just felt that it was a little strange to see it flying here.

[1] Paomo is a specialty of Shaanxi cuisine and is a typical food eaten in the city of Xi’an. It is a hot stew of chopped-up steamed leavened bread, cooked in lamb broth, and served with lamb meat, sometimes substituted with beef. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paomo

[2] Roujiamo, (Chinese: 肉夹馍; pinyin: ròujiāmó; lit.: ‘meat sandwiched in bread’) the Chinese hamburger, is a street food originating from the cuisine of Shaanxi Province and widely consumed all over China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujiamo

Chapter 472: Robbery

“Maybe it was blown here by the wind,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“Do y’all remember?” A lumberjack said in a low voice, “The storyteller in town once told a story about these white paper cranes. He said that a very mysterious organization likes to use paper cranes to relay information. Ren Xiaosu, is there anything written on it?”

Ren Xiaosu tightened his fist and said with a smile, “There’s nothing on it. That storyteller must have made that story up. Why would anyone use paper cranes to relay information?”

“That’s true.” Everyone heard what Ren Xiaosu said and did not question him any further.

But Ren Xiaosu was actually startled to hear that. He had a feeling that the “mysterious organization” might just turn out to be real.

But how could an organization like this let him intercept their means of communication so easily?

Could it be a coincidence? Or was it intentionally arranged?

As Ren Xiaosu was cautious by nature, he would always delve further whenever he encountered something strange.

But he did not consider whether it would be a problem for anyone else to try to catch the paper crane. Perhaps they might even be killed by the small paper crane if they tried to catch it.

He intended to refold the paper crane as he wanted to see if it would try to fly off again. But after unfolding it, Ren Xiaosu realized he did not know how to refold it. He never learned something like this before. So Ren Xiaosu placed the piece of paper into his storage space.

The paper crane was probably the power of some supernatural being. Ren Xiaosu turned to look in the direction of Stronghold 61 as that was where it was flying towards.

Perhaps that supernatural being was at Stronghold 61 right now?

When they reached the entrance of the town, the leader of the logging team parked the truck and jumped out of the vehicle. He said to Ren Xiaosu, “A lot of people in town fled here from the Northwest. If you want to find your family, you can start looking for them here. If they’re not here…”

He did not finish the sentence. What the team leader was implying was that if they were not here, they would probably be dead.

The team leader said, “I live on the west side of town. If you have nothing to do and want to earn some money, you can come to look for me in the western part of town. It just so happens that we have a lot of work recently.”

“Thank you, bro, but I don’t think I need a job yet.” After thanking him, Ren Xiaosu started his search in town. He went looking for Wang Fugui and the others shack by shack.

The town here was huge and was many times larger than those he had seen in the Southwest and Northwest.

A lot of the escapees who fled here had already set up their shacks. Many of them had ashen looks on their faces with hints of despair.

A lot of these high and mighty stronghold residents were probably unable to accept that they’d suddenly become refugees. Some of them had brought along their money and thought they could continue to live a comfortable life when they got to the Central Plains.

However, all of the strongholds under the Wang Consortium had stopped accepting the Zong Consortium’s currency. When people came here to do business in the past, the Zong Consortium’s currency could be used. However, that was no longer the case.

It was as though the Wang Consortium firmly believed that the Zong Consortium would suffer a crushing defeat.

As such, these escapees were forced to pawn their gold jewelry in order to survive.

One of the stronghold residents was following a refugee and saying he wanted to work to earn some money for food. However, he was rejected by the refugee because he was too old and did not look like he was strong enough to do labor.

Some of the stronghold residents scolded these refugees for daring to look down on them. As a result, the refugees gave them a good thrashing and even spat on them.

Of course, some stronghold residents quickly accepted their fate and did whatever they could to trade for some food.

Although the refugees in the Central Plains had it better than those in the Southwest and Northwest, they still had to work in exchange for food. This was the ironclad rule that was constant everywhere.

…

Ren Xiaosu was disappointed that he could not find any trace of Wang Fugui and the others here.

At this moment, he was feeling a little lost. How was he going to look for Wang Fugui and the rest in this sea of people?

It was at this moment that a rat-faced worker from the logging team quietly approached Ren Xiaosu and said, “I’ve been following you around for some time. You haven’t found your family yet? That’s alright, I have some friends in this place. As long as you have money, they can help you locate them.”

Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw the lumberjack’s eyes looked rather shifty. It seemed that the man had guessed that Ren Xiaosu had some money on him after overhearing the conversation between the team leader and him about not needing a job yet.

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “I’ll be depending on you then. If you can find my family, I’ll be sure to reward you handsomely.”

“Follow me then. It’s not convenient to talk here in town.” Then the lumberjack turned around and led Ren Xiaosu out into the wilderness.

Before they could get far, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “How much farther do we have to walk?”

“Hehe, we’re almost there.” As he spoke, the lumberjack arrived at a mound and whistled loudly.

Suddenly, three people emerged from behind the mound. The lumberjack looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “You must be carrying some money on you, right? Hand it over and we’ll let you live.”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “How many escapees have you robbed using this method? I thought that the people here did not need to shut their doors at night? Wasn’t there something known as artificial intelligence here?”

Wang Shengyin and Wang Shengzhi had said that in the territories controlled by their Wang clan, people did not need to close their doors at night because there was an artificial intelligence that could analyze criminal behavior extremely accurately. Only a few people could avoid getting caught after committing a crime.

But it didn’t seem like that was the case now!

The lumberjack sneered, “That’s only applicable in the stronghold. What does it have anything to do with us refugees? Hurry up and hand over all your money!”

“Alright then,” Ren Xiaosu muttered. So it turned out the Central Plains were just like the Southwest and Northwest. There was also a clear distinction between refugees and stronghold residents.

The lumberjack’s vision suddenly went black. Right after, he fell backwards with his chest hurting. The rusty metal knife in his hand dropped to the ground with a clang.

His three accomplices were no exception either as all of them suffered a sudden blow.

Ren Xiaosu put the four of them together and said nicely, “I’ll ask y’all some questions. Well… I’d just like to find out more about the local customs and conditions here in the Central Plains. Don’t be too nervous. Just answer the best you can.”

These refugees who tried to rob Ren Xiaosu realized they had stubbed their toes on an iron plate! No, how could this only be an iron plate? It might as well be a fucking mountain that was several kilometers thick!

In this recent period, they had tasted the sweetness by robbing escapees who fled here from the Northwest. Moreover, the stronghold residents were very timid and would immediately cower in fear at the sight of a knife.

However, they did not expect to rob a superhuman today.

When Ren Xiaosu started questioning them, the exchange went on for the entire night. The four refugees in front of him nearly broke down from his interrogation. When day broke, he returned to town alone and did nothing but stand at the door of the only tavern in town and waited for it to open.

Not only was he hungry and looking for something to eat, he had also heard there was a storyteller here who brought up something about white paper cranes.

Chapter 473: Listener

The town’s tavern was only open for business at noon, so Ren Xiaosu returned here and waited. The refugees were up early and headed to the factories in groups to earn their keep for the day.

It was very difficult for refugees to save up money. They already earned very little each day, yet the consortium still operated shops that sold meat stew, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as had gambling dens all over town. The Central Plains did not ban alcohol, probably because of the relatively rich foods that were found here.

When it was time for the workers to go home, those entertainment shops would be advertising their businesses at their workplace entrances. After a hard day of work, everyone just wanted to reward themselves, so they would spend the money they had just earned.

In this town, there was always a place that pandered to their desires.

Zhang Jinglin once said this was a world meticulously designed by the consortiums. It seemed like he was not wrong at all.

People-watching the refugees, Ren Xiaosu recalled the days when he and Yan Liuyuan were still living in the town at Stronghold 113. Although that period was more difficult than now, it was still exceptionally wonderful in his memory, so much so that he would deliberately forget some of the suffering he had been through, forget about the time when he could not fill his stomach, forget how he was ostracized by others, and forget the feeling of falling asleep in fear.

Then, there would only be happy memories left.

Humans are optimistic creatures.

To this town, Ren Xiaosu was an unfamiliar face. But with the increased number of stronghold residents who had fled here from the Northwest in recent days, no one really cared about his arrival.

The stronghold residents who had fled here would hide in the corner and worry about their future lives.

Suddenly, a young woman ran out of the back door of the tavern with a notebook and pen in hand. She was looking for these escapees to ask them some questions.

Ren Xiaosu leaned in close to listen and discovered this young woman was actually asking the escapees from the Northwest about the war over there. She wanted to know how the war had started and if there were any heroic deeds that took place or any particularly powerful figures in it.

The young woman wasn’t asking the escapees to tell her stories about the war for nothing, though. There would be a payment of one steamed bun for every story told as an exchange of equal value.

Although payment of a single steamed bun sounded really cheap, to these escapees who had no idea of how many meals they had skipped, this bun was worth their life, so they would say everything they knew.

A middle-aged man said, “Zong Ying, the commander of the Zong Consortium’s front line this time, is still a very capable leader. He used a scheme to make Fortress 178—”

Interrupting, the girl, around 18 years old, shook her head and said, “Didn’t the Zong Consortium already lose? I don’t want to hear about the Zong Consortium’s side of the story, I only want to listen to what Fortress 178 has done.”

The middle-aged man blanched and his heart bled. He used to be a bureaucrat in the Zong Consortium’s ranks, but as a result of losing the war, he had to drag his family away from his hometown. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough yet, he now had to speak heroically of the enemy’s deeds. Was this young woman here to fucking add insult to injury?

The young woman said earnestly to him, “If you don’t have a story to tell, I’ll just ask someone else. Grandpa is still waiting.”

The middle-aged man quickly stopped her from leaving. “I’ll tell you, I will! Besides, I used to be a high-ranking official, so I definitely know more details than anyone else. When Stronghold 146 was being destroyed, I was right there myself!”

The young woman was very happy when she heard that. “Really? Then quickly tell me about it. If it’s interesting, I’ll give you another steamed bun!”

When this middle-aged man heard he could get another steamed bun, he immediately started relating the story without a care for his previous status. He was afraid the other escapees would steal this opportunity from him.

Once he started, he droned on for more than two hours. Ren Xiaosu went next to them and listened. But as he kept listening, his expression became stranger.

At the beginning, the middle-aged man was able to relate the story rather factually. He talked about why Fortress 178 wanted to start a war against the Zong Consortium and why the Zong Consortium had been provoking Fortress 178 in recent years. Truly, this middle-aged man was quite the eloquent speaker. His rhetoric was so good that it made people relish listening to him. There were some things that even Ren Xiaosu did not know about.

And then he touched on the actual war, from the attack on Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan, to Shichuan Village being taken, to the Beiwan River being broken through, and finally Stronghold 146 getting destroyed.

All of those incidents revolved around Ren Xiaosu. While he was on the subject of Stronghold 146 getting destroyed, the middle-aged man started talking about how that mysterious young supernatural being had utterly crushed the entire Zong Consortium’s combat brigade.

As the girl listened to the story, she wrote it down in her notebook. She wrote very fast, and the more she listened, the brighter her eyes became. She asked, “Is there really such a bold and powerful person in this world?”

“He’s not just bold and powerful.” The middle-aged man sighed and said, “I was inside the manor of the Zong Consortium’s third house at the time. I saw with my own eyes how he wrapped himself in steel armor and managed to dodge three RPGs. After that…”

At this point, the middle-aged man suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in surprise, “Have we met before?”

The Zong Consortium had sketched a wanted portrait of Ren Xiaosu. Nearly all of the Zong Consortium’s higher-ups had seen that portrait before. But as it was not the responsibility of this middle-aged man to catch Ren Xiaosu, he only took a quick glance at it. Now he felt a shocking sense of familiarity when he saw Ren Xiaosu. However, he could not recall where he had seen him before.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I also fled here from the Northwest. We might’ve met there before.”

“That’s possible.” The middle-aged man nodded.

Next to him, the young woman urged, “You haven’t finished the story yet. Hurry up and finish the rest of it.”

The middle-aged man was stunned. When he raised his head again to take another look at Ren Xiaosu, he realized he had already left.

Ren Xiaosu did not want anyone to recognize him yet. He felt it would be better for him to keep a low profile now that he had arrived at the Central Plains. Although the Central Plains were prosperous, the “undercurrents” of this place should be similar to that of the Southwest and Northwest.

He understood that although the war in the Central Plains had not yet begun, everyone already knew of the intentions of the consortiums here to fight for the Central Plains. He did not wish to get embroiled in these matters.

Furthermore, the Pyro Company was here. The Central Plains was the home field of the Pyro Company. In this place, the Pyro Company would no longer be as easy to deal with as before.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized the escapees were probably all former stronghold residents, and some of them were even formerly people of status. So then, why were there no refugees who escaped here as well?

But Ren Xiaosu realized his thinking was wrong. The escapees could only be former residents of a stronghold. In fact, they would also have to be high-ranking officials linked with the Zong Consortium.

The refugees in the Northwest were very welcoming of Fortress 178. Once Fortress 178 arrived in the Zong Consortium’s territory, they would definitely lower the refugees’ taxes and improve their living conditions. So why would any refugee want to escape from there? In fact, they probably could not wait for Fortress 178 to arrive.

As for the normal stronghold residents, they did not have to worry about the war affecting them at all. Only the high-ranking officials would worry about getting removed from the system!

After all, during the time the Zong Consortium was in power, the high-ranking officials caused quite a lot of trouble for the stronghold’s residents and refugees. Ren Xiaosu had been to many strongholds, so he knew the Zong Consortium’s officials were definitely not any better than those from the Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, or the Yang Consortium.

At the thought of this, Ren Xiaosu cast aside his sympathy for the escapees. None of those who could come here despite their guilt would be good people.

The waiter in the tavern pushed open the creaking wooden door. Ren Xiaosu got up and walked in.

Chapter 474: A cell phone

In truth, Ren Xiaosu had come to the tavern because he wanted to listen to stories.

When he got a rough understanding of the rumors surrounding the Anjing House, he suddenly heard an interesting but terrifying saying about how there was no one in this world the Anjing House could not kill.

This was an extremely secretive organization whose members were scattered and acted independently, yet it was also very powerful at the same time.

One of the more interesting stories about the Anjing House spoke about how the heir of a small consortium entrusted the Anjing House to assassinate his biological father in order to inherit the family business earlier.

In the end, after a week, the Anjing House said they had completed the mission. However, the heir realized his father was not dead yet. Hence, he angrily accused the Anjing House of being untrustworthy. He had already paid the fee, but the Anjing House had broken their promise. The fee was equivalent to five or six years of his savings as the heir of the consortium, and it was a huge sum that normal people would never get to see in their lives!

However, the Anjing House calmly replied to that consortium’s heir, “You said you wanted your biological father killed. Your mother’s bodyguard from more than ten years ago, who’s also known to you as Uncle Wang, has been killed. He’s your actual biological father.”

Along with that reply, the Anjing House also sent a DNA paternity test report to the heir.

The heir of the consortium was stunned. What kind of a fucking twist was this? He did not even know when the paternity test was done, much less how the Anjing House could have learned of such a secret.

This heir apparent of the small consortium almost had a mental breakdown.

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether this incident had really happened, but he was very interested in the ability of the Anjing House to find people.

Furthermore, he had a long chat with the lumberjacks who tried to rob him yesterday and found out from them that there was even a rumor among the people that if you helped the Anjing House carry out a mission, you could choose not to be paid monetarily and get them to do something of equal value for you instead.

However, all of this was just hearsay. After all, they were just some rumors the refugees had heard, so Ren Xiaosu understood well that these rumors were most likely fabricated.

For example, there were now even rumors about him, the war hero of Fortress 178, being over two meters tall and not ever taking his eyes off his gun while sleeping. He was even known to be more inclined towards certain subjects.

What the fuck did it mean to be more inclined towards certain subjects?

Ren Xiaosu was perplexed. He could understand the basis of the other rumors, but who the fuck would spread rumors about him being more inclined in certain subjects at school? There was no fucking basis to that rumor at all! And what did that have anything to do with combat?

After the tavern opened for business, he went inside and ordered two dishes. Then he noticed the young woman, who had gone around earlier taking notes as she listened to stories from the Northwest, helping a blind old man towards a chair in the middle of the tavern.

Ren Xiaosu understood now that this young woman was the granddaughter of this storyteller. The reason why she was just now asking people to tell their stories was so she could collect more material for her grandpa.

Ren Xiaosu became even more interested in what tales the storyteller would weave. This was because, when the young woman was listening to the stories earlier, she would occasionally interrupt the middle-aged man to analyze the logic of what he said. Clearly, she was very particular about the veracity of the stories.

When the young woman saw Ren Xiaosu, she greeted him with a smile. Meanwhile, the tale that the storyteller narrated today was about the war in the Southwest, and the main character was Qing Zhen.

In the story, there was also a supernatural being who acted as the Qing Consortium’s spy and helped to bring down the Li Consortium’s Divine Arms Battalion.

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips in satisfaction. Although he was no longer out there fighting wars, the legend of his deeds was still spreading to many places.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though he clearly did not wish to get involved in those disputes, it was as though everything that happened in the Northwest and Southwest were somehow related to him.

Ren Xiaosu had come here because he wanted to listen to stories about the Anjing House, but he was not in a hurry to know. If this topic wasn’t touched on today, he was fine with coming back again tomorrow to listen. The storyteller would definitely talk about it someday.

That night, after Ren Xiaosu left the tavern, he went to the grocery store closest to the stronghold to trade his gold for money. When he saw the owner of the grocery store, Ren Xiaosu felt as though he had seen Wang Fugui again. It was just that this owner was not as benevolent as Wang Fugui.

Ren Xiaosu decisively bought a brick house with the money he exchanged for, and it even came with a backyard too! Suddenly, the entire town was abuzz with news that a rich man had arrived.

Every day, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything other than dumping corpses in the morning and going to the tavern to listen to the storyteller from noon until night. The storyteller would only tell two stories a day, while there would also be a preview of what would be talked about in the next session.

The reason for dumping corpses was that his exchanging of gold for money had alarmed some of the ruthless people in town. When they saw that Ren Xiaosu was able to so generously afford a brick house, they started getting ideas to rob him.

There were constantly people climbing over the wall of Ren Xiaosu’s house in the middle of the night. However, all of them would always disappear after that like rocks sinking into the sea.

These people were all very secretive in their actions. A lot of people only realized the ruthless people in town seemed to be lessening after they had been missing for a few days…

At first, nobody thought much of it. Slowly, the atmosphere in town became much more peaceful when the ruthless people who often liked stealing from others started going extinct.

There were also some ruthless people who sensed that something was amiss and decided to run away. They felt like someone was secretly hunting them down in this town.

This rumor was spreading around the town: “Someone is purposely hunting down the ruthless lawbreakers.”

Initially, Ren Xiaosu still had to trade his gold for more cash. But after killing so many of the ruthless people, the money he had on hand started increasing instead of decreasing.

Since Ren Xiaosu was not a good person either, he did not feel bad about spending this ill-gotten gains.

And to his surprise, he found an old cell phone on one of the people.

Although the cell phone was very basic and worn-out, it was not enough to stop Ren Xiaosu’s curiosity for new stuff.

Ren Xiaosu had also seen an instructional manual for a cell phone from before The Cataclysm in the Yang Consortium’s library. However, he had never seen an actual cell phone before and only had experience using a satellite phone.

The cell phone did not have a charger, and there was nowhere in this town where it could be charged. However, this problem did not stump Ren Xiaosu since he had the nanomachines.

As he waited for the cell phone to finish charging to turn it on, a glimmer shone in Ren Xiaosu’s eyes. This was the first time he had come across such a “high tech” daily necessity.

However, after studying it for a long time, Ren Xiaosu realized this device only had the functions of sending and receiving text messages, as well as taking pictures. But who would that refugee be sending messages to? The mailbox was empty, and so was the photo album.

Or could it be that the refugee who had it previously was only holding onto it but had never used it before?

He went outside and asked around. Some refugees said some of the Wang Consortium’s big shots in the stronghold had been using cell phones for a long time now. Ren Xiaosu did not think too much about it and assumed the refugee had gotten it from robbing the escapees.

As the number of people looking for trouble decreased, Ren Xiaosu was finally able to calm down. He started to concentrate on listening to all of the stories that were told, such as the Pyro Company secretly capturing supernatural beings, or the Qinghe Group in the Central Plains that had a method to create supernatural beings. As long as one could complete eight mysterious challenges, they could unlock the genetic code to awaken their power. However, no one in the outside world knew what these eight challenges were.

Chapter 475: Lamb stew

There was another supernatural organization called the Riders that operated under the Qinghe Group, but the Riders did not participate in the competition for resources and had been searching for something for more than a 100 years now.

Then the storyteller touched on the Saboteurs and spoke of how it had quietly changed from purely fighting against the use of nuclear weapons in its earlier years to having different aims now that the group had gone through some reorganization in its ranks.

The customers in the tavern were all old-timers, so they had heard many stories from the storyteller before. Therefore, when stories were repeated, they would appear uninterested and only focused on drinking.

Only Ren Xiaosu was listening attentively from the beginning til the end. Some of the customers beside him could not help but wonder who he was. This was because the spending level at this tavern meant that not anyone could come here just because they wanted to. Now that a rich man had suddenly appeared in town, everyone would definitely pay a little more attention to him.

However, they realized Ren Xiaosu would just sit there alone and listen to the stories being told every day. He did not try to interact with them at all. The esquires in town were all thinking to themselves that he was probably some family member of the Zong Consortium that had escaped the war and that it was only a matter of time before his pockets were emptied.

Ren Xiaosu listened to the stories every day, and his life became unusually peaceful. But one day, he received a text message on the old and worn-out cell phone he carried around. “Stronghold 67, C Rank. Takers, please reply.”

This text was very perplexing, so Ren Xiaosu did not bother with it. He was just using the cell phone as a camera, and he found it quite novel.

Ren Xiaosu used the cell phone to take pictures of the beautiful sunset. When he saw the sumptuous lamb stew in the tavern, he took a picture of it as well. He thought that when he got reunited with Liuyuan in the future, he could show him the pictures and let him know what the legendary lamb stews were like.

The stew in the tavern was different from those sold at the market stalls in town. It was slightly more expensive but also had meat.

After ordering the stew, the waiter in the shop would even give each customer two flatbreads and let them break it themselves. The easier they tore, the better.

Some people said that if you didn’t break the bread yourself, or if you didn’t do it properly, the chef would secretly spit in your stew.

On this day, Ren Xiaosu came to the tavern and realized the storyteller was not there. Curious, he asked the waiter, “Where’s the storyteller?”

The waiter smiled and said, “You must not know since you’re a new customer. The old man doesn’t come here every day. He occasionally takes a break too; when depends on his mood.”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this wouldn’t do. He was looking forward to listening to more stories. Hence, he resolutely asked the waiter where the storyteller lived and went to knock on his door to make him go to the tavern to tell his stories.

The old man was stunned as well. “Young man, I’m only in the storytelling business because I don’t want to work in a factory. You showing up at my door now suddenly makes me feel like I’m back in the days when I was still working at the factory before I went blind.”

Ren Xiaosu felt a little embarrassed by his words. However, the old man sighed again and said, “When I heard that you were showing up at the tavern every day, I thought that it was because you were interested in my granddaughter. But now it seems like you just really want to hear my stories. Tell me then, what stories would you like to hear? We won’t be going to the tavern today. After all, I might not tell the stories that you want to hear in front of so many people.”

The young woman next to him turned a little shy and hid back in her room. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He suddenly realized that although this old man had blindness of the eyes, his heart was not affected.

This world was really a strange place. Some people were not blind, yet they could not see the truth of things.

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he did not bother hiding it anymore. He bluntly said, “Grandpa, I want to hear stories about the Anjing House.”

The storyteller smiled. “That’s not something a normal person should hear about.”

“Do you feel that I’m normal?”

“You’re right. You’re not normal at all. I’ll tell you then.”

Although the Anjing House had not been established for that long, it was an exceptionally mysterious organization since its inception. Their extraordinary strength was not self-proclaimed. In all these years, there were indeed no missions the Anjing House could not accomplish.

Only the world’s best hitmen could get a chance to join the Anjing House. Not only would the Anjing House assign missions to these hitmen, but it would also ensure their safety and provide them with facilities.

“That yarn about the Anjing House killing the biological father of the heir of a small consortium, the one about that Uncle Wang, did it really happen?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“It was a real incident.” The storyteller nodded with a smile.

“So does it mean that by completing a mission for the Anjing House, I can get them to help me do something of equal value? For example, to help me find someone?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Yes.” The storyteller smiled and said, “So you’re not looking to have someone killed for you but just looking for a person instead?”

“If I want to kill someone, I can do that myself,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly. A certain aura of arrogance belied the way he spoke.

But the storyteller did not take it to heart. He only sighed. “Times have indeed changed.”

Ren Xiaosu asked again, “Do you think that the Anjing House is a good organization or an evil one? I’m not trying to judge them or something, but since I need their help to find some people, I have to at least know if they are dependable.”

Ren Xiaosu was worried he might end up compromising Wang Fugui and the others’ safety by getting the Anjing House to look for them.

The storyteller thought for a moment and said, “All these years, the Anjing House has always had a very clear criteria for the people they kill, and their targets were also deserving of death. Many of them are the radical members of the main factions in various consortiums, while the important figures of the conservative factions are usually protected through missions that seek to kill hitmen who target them. However, due to the extremely high price of that, the Anjing House has rarely handled such missions personally in recent years.”

“They don’t personally handle the missions? Then who do they get to do it?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned.

“They hire some of the hitmen who are waiting for the trials.” The storyteller smiled and said, “The Anjing House dispersed a bunch of cell phones a few years ago, and it’s said that the phones can only send and receive text messages and take pictures. The purpose of sending and receiving texts is for the Anjing House to issue missions and wait for interested hitmen to accept them. The mission details include the mission rank and hitmen rank that can accept it. As for the camera, that’s necessary for taking pictures of the body after the mission’s been completed. The pictures are automatically sent to the Anjing House.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was absolutely taken aback. Cell phones?! Cell phones that could only send and receive text messages and take pictures as well? Using text messages to take on missions, and the missions are even ranked?

Didn’t he have one just like that in his hands?!

However, the old man said that after taking a picture, the cell phone would automatically send it over to the Anjing House….

Ren Xiaosu recalled the lamb stew in his photo album and suddenly fell deep into thought.

The people at the Anjing House probably did not think they would receive a photo like that either.

“Haha, how magical,” Ren Xiaosu laughed awkwardly.

The old man continued, “After completing a series of missions, you can rise from D rank to A rank. Only then will you be qualified to participate in the formal trials to join the Anjing House.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, “Grandpa, how do you know about all this? Normal people don’t tell others these stories, right? So how true is all of that?”

The storyteller paused for a moment, then said with a smile, “How do you think I lost my eyesight?”

Chapter 476: Please don’t send pictures of lamb stew again

Chapter 476 Please don“t send pictures of lamb stew again

Ren Xiaosu had gained a lot of knowledge by finding his way to the storyteller’s house. At least, he realized what the old cell phone he had “picked up” was used for. Furthermore, he was also able to learn a bit more about the Anjing House.

Ren Xiaosu returned to his own house and turned on the cell phone again. After hesitating for a while, he sent a text message back to the other party. “Accept mission.”

He hesitated because he did not know what kind of future he would face after sending this text. Today’s events would bring about a change in his life once again.

The other concern he had was that Stronghold 67 was quite far away from Stronghold 61, so it would take him some time to complete the mission.

But this was probably the best way for him to find Wang Fugui and the others now, wasn’t it? Based on his strength alone, it would truly be very difficult to find them in such a vast sea of people.

Perhaps he could have used Wang Shengzhi’s influence to look for them by frankly explaining the situation to him, but Wang Shengzhi knew exactly who he was and knew very well how Zhang Jinglin viewed Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, it would be hard to guarantee that the Wang clan would not get any other ideas from this relationship.

But the Anjing House did not know who he was. He would be anonymous to them, so there would still be some room for a buffer.

While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about all that, the old and worn cell phone lit up. It was a text from the other party: “The holder of this cell phone has not reached C-rank yet. Unable to accept mission.”

Ren Xiaosu froze. It turned out that all the thinking he did had been for nothing since he was not even allowed to accept the mission.

He looked at the cell phone in his hand in disbelief. Was the previous owner of this phone a pig? The phones were dispersed a few years ago, so why was the previous owner still a D-rank?

Besides, the Anjing House was also really odd. ‘Since you already know that I’m a D-rank, why are you mass sending me a C-rank mission?’

But before he could cool off, the other party sent him another message. “Please don’t send pictures of lamb stew again.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Well, alright then! He would just have to continue waiting patiently.

Ren Xiaosu still went to the tavern every day. If the storyteller was there, he would listen to the stories he told. If the storyteller did not go, he would just sit there and read. This humble tavern actually started exuding the feeling of a library because of Ren Xiaosu’s antics.

As for where the books came from… well, he had been to Stronghold 88’s library, after all, so there was no reason for him to return empty-handed since he had entered a treasure trove like that!

And with Stronghold 88 already destroyed, Ren Xiaosu felt he had actually helped save a great wealth of human knowledge!

Didn’t they say that people in the Central Plains could get rich overnight if they discovered research from a lab? This meant humans still valued knowledge.

Most of the research found in labs were either completed or about to be completed technologies. Once a consortium found it, they could immediately open up a new field of technology. So even though the research could be sold for money, the books in Ren Xiaosu’s possession might not fetch sky-high prices.

After Ren Xiaosu’s visit to the storyteller’s place, when the storyteller met him again in the tavern, it was as though that meeting never took place. Both parties kept quiet about it in tacit agreement.

Instead, it was the storyteller’s granddaughter who became closer to Ren Xiaosu. Sometimes, when she went outside to pry for more stories, she would come back and tell them to Ren Xiaosu in detail before telling the storyteller.

The storyteller was not angry about this either. He just vaguely hoped that Ren Xiaosu could receive a mission soon and then quickly scram.

The days passed, and the number of stronghold residents who fled here from the Northwest decreased. All those who should have escaped had already escaped. Those who did not manage to escape in time would have been dispatched by Fortress 178.

Some of the escapees gathered together and went to block the gate of Stronghold 61 every day, saying that they wanted to make a political appeal to the Wang Consortium. They also said they used to be people of status and that the Wang Consortium should not treat them like this.

It wasn’t that these refugees were stupid, but that they really had no other choice.

Many of these escapees had brought their families with them. Their entire family was going hungry, but they had already sold off everything that they could. Therefore, being so starved and unable to take manual labor, this was the only option left.

At the beginning, the Wang Consortium did not even want to bother with them. After all, 90% of these people were former Zong Consortium officials who did not even know how to use technology.

Some of them were originally in the field of technology, but after holding their elevated positions for so long, they had already lost relevance. Therefore, to the Wang Consortium, they were completely useless.

Later on, the town administrator felt it would become a problem if these people blocked the gate day in and day out, so he simply ordered for them to be beaten up.

Only then did the escapees start behaving.

Some of them started performing manual labor, while others continued to think of crooked ways to survive.

And so, the refugees in the town of Stronghold 61 were very happy. Seeing that these former stronghold residents were worse off than them, they were all gloating on the inside.

There were even some refugees who went to make fun of the families of these former officials. Although they did not really dare to be too harsh, it was still quite an unbearable sight to watch.

In the evening, Ren Xiaosu returned home after having dinner at the tavern. While he was doing some reading, there came a sudden knock on the door.

Ren Xiaosu walked over to answer the door. When he opened the door, he held his black saber in one hand behind his back. The nanomachines in his body were also getting restless and ready to form the armor at any moment.

However, when he opened the door, he saw a beautiful, middle-aged woman standing outside of it. The woman seemed to have specially cleaned her face and hurriedly put on some makeup with cosmetics brought over from the Northwest. She had even changed into a beautiful qipao.

Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, “Anything the matter?”

The woman asked softly, “Can I go inside and talk?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu rejected her.

The woman did not expect Ren Xiaosu to be so difficult. She got a little anxious and said, “We’re all escapees from the Northwest, and I’m from Stronghold 146 as well. Since we were all fellow Zong Consortium residents, can you let me trade for some food?”

In these recent days, Ren Xiaosu was living the most comfortably among all the escapees. Of course, in the eyes of the other refugees, Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee like them, as even he had said so himself.

Therefore, when the other escapees found out that Ren Xiaosu was leading such a good life, they started getting ideas about him.

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. “Trade with what?”

“With myself,” the woman said through clenched teeth. She spoke while deliberately posing her body so that Ren Xiaosu could see her legs under the slit of her qipao. The woman had maintained her figure really well.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “I suggest that you quickly go home and change out of these clothes. It can get quite dangerous when it turns dark.” Then he slammed the door shut.

A man’s voice rang out from behind the door. He lowered his voice and asked, “What happened? Is he not interested?”

The woman, who felt rather humiliated by all this, sobbed, “What kind of husband forces his wife out to sell herself?”

The man said angrily, “Then what’s the point of having you as my wife? Or do you prefer that all of us wait until we starve to death?”

Chapter 477: First come, first served

Chapter 477 First come, first served

Ren Xiaosu’s lifestyle did not change because of the attention he was getting from the escapees. When you got hungry, you would just have to work and find ways to survive. This was the worldview he had been inculcated with since childhood. No one owed you a living, and you had to rely on yourself for everything.

Although life in town was very cruel, as long as you were willing to work, there would always be a way to survive.

In the end, the beautiful woman did not manage to get anything from Ren Xiaosu. However, she seemed to be filled with humiliation and anger as she presented herself to a provisions store owner in town.

The boss had a mouth full of yellow teeth and did not wash his hair and feet. If this were the past, the woman would not even have looked at him.

But surprisingly, even though she had presented herself to someone, she still secretly gave the food she had received to her husband who scolded her earlier. This puzzled Ren Xiaosu a little.

But there were too many strange things in this world that Ren Xiaosu did not have the time to waste on.

This woman was not the only one. There were also many other escapees who tried to seek help from Ren Xiaosu. They all hoped Ren Xiaosu would offer them a bite on account of them being fellow former Zong Consortium residents.

The escapees even discussed with each other to see who used to be from the same stronghold as Ren Xiaosu, and whether they had seen this young man around before. This way, they might just be able to get closer to him if there was an acquaintance who could link them up.

But slowly, the escapees realized none of them knew Ren Xiaosu at all…

Not in their wildest dream would they have expected that Ren Xiaosu was not from the Zong Consortium at all. Rather, it turned out he was actually the supernatural being who destroyed Stronghold 146 all by himself in the deep of night.

When the escapees finally stopped pestering Ren Xiaosu, he received a new text on his cell phone. “Stronghold 62, D-rank. Any takers, please reply.”

He had finally received a D-rank mission. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little touched. He immediately replied, “Accept mission.”

The moment he sent it out, the other party replied with a new text. “The target is Ma Dewei, a manager at the sand plant outside of Stronghold 62. He once killed nine refugee workers. Reward: 20,000 yuan.”

The text was simple, and there were two pictures attached as well. One was Ma Dewei’s picture, and the other was a blueprint of the plant.

As for how to use this information to kill Ma Dewei, that would be up to the hitmen themselves.

Ren Xiaosu realized the organization behind this cell phone was probably also trying to protect the hitmen by assigning them specific ranked missions. It was to prevent the weaker hitmen from foolishly sending themselves to their deaths.

The missions that D-ranks could receive would not even require them to enter the strongholds, and the targets were just factory managers.

Legend had it that it would be extremely costly for the Anjing House to undertake a mission. However, this referred to the missions that were undertaken by the actual members of the Anjing House. But according to the storyteller, people like Ren Xiaosu were extras who would not even pass the trials to join the Anjing House.

Ren Xiaosu immediately set off for Stronghold 62. His current location was about 190 kilometers away from the target, so it would probably take around three to four hours to get there if he were to use the steam locomotive to travel in the wilderness.

Even now, Ren Xiaosu had to be a little cautious when driving the steam locomotive. As such, it would be better to travel there on foot in case he were seen by others along the way.

In the tavern, the guests were all puzzled when that youth who usually sat by the window did not appear today.

The storyteller’s granddaughter asked the waiter curiously, “Did he come by today?”

“I didn’t see him.” The waiter shook his head and teased, “Why, Xiaolu, you miss him?”

The girl named Xiaolu rolled her eyes and kicked the man in the ass. “Go and get the steamed buns for me. My grandpa’s making me go out to get more stories.”

“Alright!”

The customers in the shop were starting to get used to the young man sitting in the tavern every day. Now that the young man had suddenly disappeared, they found it a little difficult to adjust to.

Some people even wondered if he had spent all his money already. After all, not even an esquire living in town could handle coming to the tavern every day.

Speaking of which, that esquire dressed really poorly too.

Xiaolu was bored stiff as she stood by the window where Ren Xiaosu often sat. She was leaning her arms on the windowsill and waiting for the waiter to bring the steamed buns to her.

In this town, only she and her grandpa knew that Ren Xiaosu was not an ordinary person. In fact, he was even the most extraordinary kind there was.

…

Ren Xiaosu slowly walked into the town at Stronghold 62. He smiled and asked around if there was any place near Stronghold 62 that he could get some work to do. He told the people he approached that he had been starving for several days and wanted to look for a factory where he could do some manual labor.

The people in town were used to this. There were many refugees like Ren Xiaosu who wanted to look for a factory to work at.

Someone told him that if he wanted to fire bricks at the brick kiln, he could go north; if he wanted to carry ore from the mines, go west; and if he wanted to scoop out sand, go south. Any of the other factories required people with craftsmanship and would only take those who were skilled, so it would not be feasible to head to those places to earn money.

Ren Xiaosu nodded and thanked the person. Then he walked south. He looked up at the sky. It was only noon now, so there was no need for him to rush. It would be better if he carried out the assassination at night.

He had once killed a factory manager. Wang Congyang’s elder brother, Wang Dongyang, had died to his hand.

It was really easy to kill a factory manager. Although they were armed with guns, Ren Xiaosu could even ignore it if it were just a pistol…

But this did not mean that Ren Xiaosu would rush over recklessly and kill the target. He still hoped he could do it safely by always staying undercover.

In the wee hours of the night, Ren Xiaosu, who had been resting in a patch of bushes in the wilderness, suddenly opened his eyes.

He walked toward the factory with cautious footsteps. When he reached the outer wall of the factory, he leaped over it and went inside.

In the dead of night, no one noticed an uninvited guest had broken into the factory.

Ren Xiaosu hid in the shadows and calmly watched the patrolling refugee workers pass him by. They did not even seem to have realized Ren Xiaosu’s presence at all.

After they left, Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed up the building. But when he reached the fourth floor, he was stunned. This was because he saw through the window that Ma Dewei was already lying in a pool of blood.

What the fuck!

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. He had come all the way here and had been hiding in the bushes all night, but the mission target had already died?

Wait. Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he might have missed out on something very important. He recalled the process of accepting the mission. Since the text for the mission was sent out as a group message, it meant a lot of people could receive the message. So a lot of people could accept it!

Ren Xiaosu sent a text. “Has someone completed the Ma Dewei mission? Wasn’t I the one who accepted the mission?”

In the end, the other party replied, “First come, first served.”

Ren Xiaosu felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head. He would actually have to steal away the mission from others?!

Then why the fuck did he go through all that effort to stay low? Wasn’t that just troubling himself for nothing?!

Chapter 478: Path of the Hitman

Chapter 478 Path of the Hitman

Ren Xiaosu returned to Stronghold 61’s town angrily and waited for further missions to be assigned through the texts. When Xiaolu saw he had returned, she even asked quietly if the mission had been completed.

How was Ren Xiaosu supposed to answer? Was he supposed to say his mission was intercepted by someone while he was hiding in the bushes?

For the next half a month, he received a total of seven missions through the cell phone. However, five of them were to be carried out in strongholds too far away from Ren Xiaosu.

He would never make it there in time.

As for the two missions that were nearby, one of them was to kill an esquire in town. This mission was easier, but the reward was relatively low as well.

The other one was to kill one of the town’s administrators. As the difficulty was similar to that of killing a factory manager, the reward was 20,000 yuan as well.

However, without exception, every time Ren Xiaosu arrived at the scene, he would discover the mission had already been completed.

This made Ren Xiaosu even angrier. Where were the promised five completed missions within two months? And what happened to moving up to A-rank quickly?

Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the hardest part of the assassination missions would be the killing. But now he finally understood the hardest part was to be the first to finish a mission.

The threshold for a D-rank mission was so low that even some of the refugees and ruthless townspeople could do it. This meant that any random person could easily snatch a mission from him.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if there would be fewer people trying for the missions as the ranks went up. After all, the higher the rank, the fewer hitmen there would be.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu received a new text. “The target is Zhao Yanbo, the former warden of Stronghold 146’s prison. He bullied female prisoners while he was still in office and has escaped to the town outside of Stronghold 61. Reward: 20,000 yuan.”

Then a photo of Zhao Yanbo was sent over. Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Wasn’t this person the middle-aged man who had forced his wife to offer herself to him?

Ren Xiaosu got a pleasant surprise. He had already made three trips in vain in the past half a month. It was only because he was too far away from those targets that others could get to them before him.

This time, the assigned mission was right next to him!

If someone else went ahead and stole his mission again this time, Ren Xiaosu swore to himself that he would start eating while doing a handstand!

It was evening, and the townspeople were already back in their shacks. The number of people on the streets was starting to lessen.

Ren Xiaosu changed into his attire and even put on a cap as he walked out of his house.

Zhao Yanbo had been living quite well recently. Although it was not as good a life as he had at the Zong Consortium, at least he would not starve to death with his wife secretly bringing food back to him.

This person had no other pursuits in life anymore. He hid in the shack every day and would secretly ask his wife for some money from time to time to buy alcohol.

When Ren Xiaosu located Zhao Yanbo, he was merely hiding in his shack and drinking some alcohol.

However, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to make a move yet. Instead, he hid in the shadows not far away and waited there quietly.

Three hours later, someone suddenly sneaked in from outside of town. He took out an old phone and checked the text. But just as his phone lit up, he heard someone behind him say cheerfully, “Here on a mission?”

The hitman was shocked. He tried to turn around and swing his sword at whoever said that, but before he could turn around, he was knocked unconscious by a knifehand strike.

Ren Xiaosu squatted down and took the cell phone away from the hitman. He sneered and said, “How dare you try to steal my mission? I’ll see how you can steal it away now without your cell phone!”

He happily looted the money the hitman had on him and threw the cell phone into his storage space. He was finally able to vent his anger after wasting the past half a month.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not kill the person because he was unsure if this hitman was evil or not. At least this hitman was here to kill someone who was an actual villain.

After he finished up, Ren Xiaosu dragged the hitman over to the side and continued waiting in ambush patiently.

As long as no one replied to the mission assignment text message with a picture of Zhao Yanbo’s death, then this mission would not be considered complete, and there would constantly be new hitmen coming here.

Currently, Zhao Yanbo was still unaware of what was happening outside because of him.

Ren Xiaosu was filled with a sense of frustration after having waited for half a month for nothing. He wanted to vent this frustration, but the people who had stolen the missions had already left the crime scene. Even if he wanted to blow off some steam, he did not know who he could vent to.

Now that the assigned mission area was right next to him, he could easily carry it out without any trouble.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu felt he could not always have others stealing his missions away. So how should he solve this problem?

Ren Xiaosu’s thinking had always been different from others. Everyone else would try to treat the symptoms of their problems, while Ren Xiaosu would look at the root of the problem. Wouldn’t it be better to solve it by taking care of those people who created the problems for him?

Today, all he needed to do was wait patiently and knock out the hitmen who responded to the mission. Afterwards, he would just have to take their phones. That way, wouldn’t he be the only hitman left in this vicinity?

After that, he could do whatever missions he wanted, and he could even do them whenever he wanted!

In fact, he could even pick and choose which missions to take. If the mission was too troublesome, he could totally ignore it! ‘I want to keep a low profile too, but I can’t!’ Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu nearly laughed out loud.

This was perfect!

That night, the mission to kill Zhao Yanbo remained incomplete. More and more hitmen arrived at his door, but all of them were taken out by Ren Xiaosu.

Although the other hitmen also had problems related to finishing a mission first, they never once thought of Ren Xiaosu’s method. It was simply impossible for them to carry out.

These hitmen who answered to the mission were only D-ranked. They had not even seen a superhuman before, so they weren’t a match for Ren Xiaosu.

These people were basically D-ranked because they could only get to D-rank. After all, not everyone could complete five missions within two months. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was only stuck at D-rank because he did not manage to complete any of the missions until now!

But not everyone was like Ren Xiaosu. Even though he had already become a legendary supernatural being in the Northwest, he was still meddling in these low-level missions here.

If the other hitmen knew about this, they would definitely curse Ren Xiaosu for being shameless.

In one night, Ren Xiaosu had already taken away five cell phones from other hitmen. He estimated there should still be some more hitmen in the stronghold controlled by the Wang Consortium, so as long as he continued seizing cell phones, he would get to pick any mission he wanted one day.

At dawn, Ren Xiaosu decided to stop waiting. He went straight to Zhao Yanbo, who was sound asleep, and twisted his neck. He did not have any reservations killing these Zong Consortium lackeys.

After Ren Xiaosu took a photo of the scene, he received a text as expected. “Mission accomplished. You have a time limit of two months, a total of 60 days, starting today, to advance to C-rank. Mission reward of 20,000 yuan to be transferred to the anonymous account 1583850 in the Wang Consortium Bank. The password is 666666.”

As the sun rose, the sky brightened and the red glow of dawn followed.

Ren Xiaosu finally let out a sigh of relief. His Path of the Hitman had finally begun.

Chapter 479: The paper crane appears again

Chapter 479 The paper crane appears again

In a certain house, someone curiously muttered, “There seems to be a problem with the D-rank mission near Stronghold 61.”

“What’s the problem?” a shrill voice asked from close by. “What problems can there be for a D-rank mission?”

“In the past, these D-rank missions would be completed not long after they got assigned. Look, the average completion time is four hours, but the last two missions were only completed after a day.”

“Eh? Is that true?” The other person went over. “Oh, it’s really true. One took 21 hours, the other one took 23 hours. What’s going on here? Are there no qualified account holders around Stronghold 61?”

“That can’t be. There were a total of 11 qualified account holders who accepted both missions.”

This meant 11 hitmen must have accepted the missions. But even with so many hitmen taking on the jobs, problems were still encountered.

“Could it be that these two missions’ targets were harder to kill? Which missions did you assign?”

“They were both very simple D-rank missions. The goal was to clean up some of the more corrupt Zong Consortium officials. What’s more, they aren’t protected by any bodyguards.” The person who started this discussion asked doubtfully, “Could something have happened?”

“Then who completed those two missions?”

“It’s that dumbass who sent us pictures of lamb stew.”

“Pfft.” The person next to him burst into laughter. “It must be a newly qualified account holder, and he actually managed to complete the missions smoothly too?”

“That’s not the case either. He did take a few missions before. But perhaps because he was too far away from them, he did not manage to complete those missions. I think this qualified account holder should be in the town of Stronghold 61.”

“Report this to the boss.” The person next to him said as he chewed on a cracker, “Put this information into the latest mission summary report. Although D-rank qualified account holders are not that big a deal, we should still let the boss know.”

“Sure.”

The person beside him suddenly thought of something. “By the way, did those people who accepted the missions at Stronghold 61 take on any other missions after that?”

“Let me see.” The first person who spoke was surprised to find that all the qualified account holders that had gone to Stronghold 61 to carry out the missions had disappeared without sending another text.

He was puzzled. Could they have taken a break? So they did not take any further missions for the time being?

However, among the 11 people, there was someone who was still taking missions without fail. Even if the targets were far away, he would still attempt it.

“This won’t do. We have to inform the boss as soon as possible.”

…

During this period, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything else. He just peacefully remained at the small tavern and waited for new missions to be assigned before going “fishing.”

The thought of going to the other strongholds to complete missions had also crossed his mind, but they were way too far away and he was not at all familiar with the places. He might as well stay here for now and familiarize himself with the organization behind the cell phones.

In just half a month, he had already collected more than ten cell phones in his storage space. But to his disappointment, in this same time frame, the other party had only issued two missions related to Stronghold 61.

In this duration, more than a dozen missions related to the other strongholds were issued. But due to the distance and his unfamiliarity, Ren Xiaosu did not venture there.

Ren Xiaosu made a rough calculation. If he could only advance to C-rank after completing five missions in 60 days, then the missions related to a single stronghold would definitely not be enough for him to achieve that. After all, assassinations could not keep occurring in the same stronghold over and over.

‘I would have to take this step by step,’ Ren Xiaosu thought.

At this moment, he received a new text on his cell phone: “The target is Zhang Cengran, the former Director of the Taxation Department of Stronghold 144. He escaped to the town outside Stronghold 61. Reward: 20,000 yuan.”

Ren Xiaosu was delighted. This was someone else he was familiar with. He did not expect that the Anjing House would keep sending out missions to kill these officials like they had something against them.

But based on the previous mission assignments, the organization behind the cell phone would always write a summary of the evil deeds committed by the person they wanted killed, as though to lessen the guilt of the hitmen. Meanwhile, the D-rank missions were mainly focused on the factory managers who bullied the people or some extremely terrible town administrators.

But Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand. Would anyone really pay to have these people killed?

He did not understand the reason and went to ask the storyteller. In the end, the storyteller said, “My guess is that the missions assigned to the account holders of these cell phones were all issued by the Anjing House themselves. After they accept the incredibly well-paying missions that required superhumans to complete, they pay a portion of it to the superhuman who completes it and uses their own part of the commission to maintain the mercenary hitman system. This acts as their assassin trial selection and, at the same time, eliminates the targets they want to kill.”

As for what their exact purpose was, only they themselves knew.

Ren Xiaosu did not want to think too much about it anymore. He headed straight to the shack where Zhang Cengran was living. This was the third time he had to carry out a mission at Stronghold 61. By the time he was done with it, there would probably be no more cell phones left in the area, right?

When he was about to reach the shack where Zhang Cengran was living, Ren Xiaosu took a careful detour to deliberately observe the surroundings.

Although it was easy to deal with a former fat cat like him, what if something unexpected happened?

As a result, Ren Xiaosu saw a tiny white paper crane sitting atop a pole next to Zhang Cengran’s shack.

It was already dark. If Ren Xiaosu had not seen a thing like this before, he might not have noticed it at all.

The paper crane was facing Zhang Cengran’s shack, and Zhang Cengran was currently sleeping on the inside.

The situation gradually turned weird. The paper crane was staring at Zhang Cengran while Ren Xiaosu kept his eye on the paper crane…

Ren Xiaosu was quite sure he had not spotted any paper cranes during his previous missions. It must have been his recent actions that had attracted the attention of the other party, so they wanted to see who the one causing trouble was.

However, he was also quite sure this paper crane’s feedback was not immediate. Why else would there be a need to send messages via notes? It would have been more direct to just talk to it instead.

Furthermore, he had also caught a paper crane before. Since that paper crane had seen his appearance before, if it could transmit a message immediately, the other party would probably have tried to capture him long ago.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu decisively activated Shadow Door and grabbed ahold of the paper crane.

The paper crane was caught off guard. When it was grabbed, it tried to spread its wings to cut Ren Xiaosu’s finger. With the sharpness of those wings, a normal person would most likely get their fingers cut off. But this time, Ren Xiaosu had learned his lesson and moved even faster than it could react. He immediately threw the paper crane into his storage space once he grabbed ahold of it.

Now, there were two paper cranes in the storage space. The first one had even been unfolded back into a piece of white paper.

Wouldn’t gathering a 1,000 paper cranes bring good luck to the person he liked? Ren Xiaosu’s thoughts started running wild.

On this mission, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t get any new cell phones, probably because he had already wiped out all of the qualified account holders of the cell phones nearby.

Chapter 480: The boss

Chapter 480 The boss

Ever since Ren Xiaosu completed the mission to assassinate Zhang Cengran, he did not leave his yard for two days straight. He even planted five Potato Shooters in the yard to prevent anyone from sneaking up on him.

But to Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, everything seemed normal even after he caught the paper crane. The other party still deposited the reward money into his anonymous account, while further missions were still systematically sent to him as usual. Nothing had changed at all.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little pained about the five gratitude tokens he had spent. He even thought of setting up a stall in town to start selling potatoes.

Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu would definitely lead a very good life wherever he went, and neither would he need to do any farming. He could just plant a few Potato Shooters in his own yard, and it would not only prevent thieves, but he would also have potatoes to sell every day. He would have no worries about having no money to spend.

The reason why he could sleep with peace of mind every day was due to the existence of the Potato Shooters. Even though they might be weak, supernatural beings would still grimace in pain if they were not careful. As for the average person, needless to say, their bones would at the minimum break if they got hit.

Ren Xiaosu unfolded the second paper crane in the yard, but there was nothing written on it. This disappointed him a little.

The supernatural being who controlled the paper cranes probably did not care about losing one or two of them, right?

As he unfolded it, he was also paying attention to how the paper crane was folded. After all, he wanted to see if the paper crane would come back to “life” if he refolded it again.

When he finally felt that he understood how it was folded, he encountered a common issue faced by all craftsmen:

The eyes: “Alright, I got it!”

The brain: “No, you don’t!”

When Ren Xiaosu reached the tavern, the storyteller was sitting calmly in his chair and relating the story of Qing Zhen’s encirclement operation of the Experimentals to the customers. No one knew where this news had come from, but it was said the Qing Consortium had already driven the Experimentals out of the strongholds in the south. The former residents of the Li Consortium’s strongholds were even praising how good of a person Qing Zhen was, as though they had already forgotten that he was actually the biggest winner of the war in the Southwest.

However, the Experimentals still remained a potential threat. That was because no one knew where they would move to after taking refuge in the mountains.

At this moment, Ms. Xiaolu was sitting in Ren Xiaosu’s usual spot. When she saw Ren Xiaosu, she waved happily at him and asked, “Where have you been to the past two days?”

“I was just sleeping and lazing around at home,” Ren Xiaosu explained with a smile.

“Oh.” Xiaolu did not probe further. She had a new red hairband securing her braided hair at the back of her head. “Grandpa is telling a new story today that he just heard about. He said that there’s also many people escaping the Southwest. However, those escapees are much worse off than the Zong Consortium’s escapees. Their journey of escape hasn’t been smooth at all, and many of them were killed by wild animals that roam the mountains. Apparently, some people ran into the Experimentals, and only a few of them survived the encounter.”

When he heard about the Experimentals again after such a long time, Ren Xiaosu recalled how threatening they were in his encounter with them back in the Jing Mountains. He felt that Qing Zhen had at least handled this matter correctly.

Regardless of the war, they would have to deal with these unreasonable creatures first.

Then Ren Xiaosu asked, “Xiaolu, do you know how to fold a paper crane?”

Xiaolu’s dainty face turned red in embarrassment. “Who would take the initiative to ask for paper cranes from a girl? Shameless!”

After saying that, Xiaolu ran out to the backyard of the tavern with her pigtail swinging behind her.

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

When the storyteller heard their conversation at the side, he was furious. How dare this young man try to flirt with his granddaughter in front of him!

Ren Xiaosu felt helpless. He truly wanted to learn how to fold paper cranes. Didn’t they say that all girls knew how to fold them?

With that thought in mind, he felt that the supernatural being who could control the paper cranes was quite like a young woman.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt he had to go out to find a place to lie low for a bit during this period. After stealing so many cell phones, even a fool could probably guess that something must have happened to those D-rank hitmen at Stronghold 61.

Moreover, he could not help but to go into hiding after intercepting two of the paper cranes in succession. Otherwise, who was he going to seek justice from if they came down to attack him?

Ren Xiaosu bade the storyteller farewell. When the old man heard he was leaving, he looked quite happy.

But when Ren Xiaosu said he would still be back after some time, the old man’s smile immediately disappeared.

After all, Stronghold 61 was the nearest stronghold in the Central Plains from the Northwest.

Ren Xiaosu went home and changed into a set of clothes he did not usually put on. Then he headed straight out of town with his head kept low.

Just as he was about to walk out of town, he suddenly saw a girl wearing a cap and dressed in a neat combat uniform walking towards him. Ren Xiaosu subconsciously wanted to call out Yang Xiaojin’s name as he got extremely excited at that moment.

But he immediately realized that something was off. The other party was not a girl, but a woman. Judging from her figure and appearance, she was a mature woman who was about eight years older than Yang Xiaojin. She was probably around 28 years old.

Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin usually only donned sports outfits and rarely wore the combat uniform of the military. Although the cap that Yang Xiaojin usually wore was not brightly colored, it was not dark-colored either. But the cap this woman had on was simply black in color.

What left Ren Xiaosu a little puzzled was that he felt a strange sense of familiarity from the woman. Perhaps she had a certain demeanor that was similar to Yang Xiaojin. But upon careful observation, Ren Xiaosu realized there was a difference. This woman’s demeanor was far more rational and cold than Yang Xiaojin. It was like she had seen the ugly side of the world.

Ren Xiaosu walked past her with his head lowered and quickly left the Stronghold 61 town. He felt that if he didn’t leave now, he might be targeted.

After Ren Xiaosu left, the woman turned around and looked suspiciously at his back. But she quickly turned around again and continued on her way.

She came to the outside of the shack where Zhang Cengran had been killed. By now, the corpse in the shack had already been removed and buried by the townspeople under the orders of the town administrator.

The woman frowned as she looked up at the electric pole the paper crane had previously been sitting on. No one knew what she was thinking.

Then she lowered her head and took out a cell phone similar to the one Ren Xiaosu had and sent out a text. “From now on, forward all information regarding 1583850’s missions to me directly.”

“Yes, Boss.”

1583850 was referring to Ren Xiaosu’s anonymous account number.

The woman walked towards the tavern where Ren Xiaosu often hung out at. It might have been a coincidence or maybe she went there on purpose, but she happened to sit at the window where Ren Xiaosu usually sat.

As soon as she entered the place, the storyteller, who was sitting in a chair in the middle of the tavern, suddenly said with a smile, “If y’all want to hear about the aftermath, please join me at the next session.”

After he said that, the storyteller called Xiaolu over and said, “Let’s go back home. I’m tired today.”

The woman wearing the black cap also got up and left. She walked to the door of the storyteller’s house with a sense of familiarity. The storyteller smiled at Xiaolu and said, “My dear, please go and buy a bottle of soy sauce. We don’t have any left at home.”

Xiaolu did not say anything. She just turned around and went out the door.

The woman looked at the storyteller and asked, “Did anyone strange recently appear in town?”

The storyteller smiled as he shook his head. “No.”

…

Chapter 481: A-rank mission

Chapter 481 A-rank mission

A middle-aged man and a young man were riding their motorcycles and heading towards Stronghold 63, which was more than 300 kilometers away from Stronghold 61.

The two men were covered in a layer of dust as though they had been sleeping out in the wilderness for several days. But even so, the middle-aged man’s eyes were brimming with a radiating vigor. He looked extraordinarily energetic.

Traveling eastwards from Stronghold 61, that yellowish tinge of brown between the prodigious mountains could hardly be seen anymore. The landscape was starting to be covered in greenery, and rivers could be seen running from time to time. The scenery of the wilderness refreshed those who saw it.

It was said that this place was a large sanctuary for birds before The Cataclysm, with an excellent ecological environment as a conservation park.

It was the birds that needed human protection at that time. But when humans encountered birds now, they needed to protect themselves.

Although birds rarely initiated attacks on humans, they bore grudges. There was someone in the past who had stolen some eggs in the wilderness and ate them. As a result, he got chased by a flock of birds for more than a 100 kilometers. In the end, that person was covered with peck wounds and a thick layer of bird droppings all over him.

The bird droppings were plastered all over his body and it made him look like a statue.

After parking their motorcycles in the wilderness, they camouflaged themselves with a green tarp. It would be too eye-catching if they rode their bikes for the rest of the journey from here, so they could only proceed there on foot.

Enjoying the scenery of the mountains, the middle-aged man suddenly said emotionally, “I see in lush mountains such charm allure, I expect they see the same in me!” [1]

The young man next to him opened his mouth and thought of asking his master if he had quoted the poem in the wrong situation, but he did not dare to speak up in the end.

The middle-aged man continued, “Disciple, do you know why I bought a new cell phone this time and gave it to you instead of your junior brother? You should know that this phone is truly a treasure. Without it, it would be really quite pointless to be a hitman. If you can get into the Anjing House with it someday, that would mean you’ve really succeeded!”

“I don’t know,” the young man answered honestly and shook his head.

“It’s because you don’t talk nonsense,” the middle-aged man praised. “Your junior brother always likes to talk back to me. I’ll be sending him to the construction site to hone himself.”

“Master, are we here to carry out a mission this time?” the young man asked.

“Of course.” The middle-aged man said proudly, “It’s mainly to let you see the world and gain some experience. You’ve been my disciple for many years, and now that you’ve learned how to kill people, you naturally have to carry out a mission on your own. For now, Master will bring you along to do a few D-rank missions. You should learn as much as you can as we go along!”

“Master,” the young man said meekly, “will the missions be too difficult?”

“Difficult?” The middle-aged man laughed and stroked his handlebar mustache. “How can it be difficult when I’m a C-rank hitman doing a D-rank mission? Do you know that some hitmen remain at D-rank their entire lives and are unable to advance to C-rank?”

The young man’s eyes lit up when he heard this. “Then when will Master be promoted to B-rank?”

The middle-aged man looked at his disciple and hesitated. “Soon, I’ll get there very soon.”

“Master, if you’re already this strong, how powerful are the A-rank experts?” the young man asked as he was always curious to find out about such things.

The middle-aged man suddenly sighed and replied, “A-rank hitmen are all superhumans or extremely terrifying characters, so I definitely don’t stand a chance. I once witnessed an A-rank expert killing someone, but I didn’t even understand how they did it. Of course, even among the A-ranked hitmen, there’s only a small number of superhumans.”

As the two of them talked, they arrived at the town outside Stronghold 63. The middle-aged man sneaked a glance at his cell phone. “We’ve just received a mission. It’s at a factory nearby! Let’s go, we have to set off immediately! There will be people competing for these D-rank missions!”

They dashed to the nearby factory. The young man was still a little worried. “Master, the target is already in the factory. Shouldn’t we infiltrate after it turns dark? We’ll be seen easily if we go in like this.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? How have I always taught you? Don’t worry, it would be a joke if a C-rank expert like me can’t even complete a D-rank mission!” The middle-aged man sneered with a haughty expression on his face.

But as they were about to arrive at the factory, someone suddenly called out to them, “Hey… are you two here for a mission?”

The middle-aged man immediately turned around and fired a pistol fitted with a silencer without hesitation. But in the blink of an eye, he saw the masked youth who had spoken a moment earlier disappear. He did not even manage to land a shot at him!

“It looks like you’re really here for the mission.” The young man said with a laugh from behind them, “You two should rest for a bit. I’ll be confiscating your cell phone so you won’t fight with me for missions in the future.”

After that, a gust of wind blew from behind the middle-aged man. He immediately realized the young man had gone to their rear to try to knock him out!

Although he realized it, his body couldn’t keep up with the events!

The opponent was a superhuman! This speed was beyond the limits an average human could reach!

The middle-aged man found that his body couldn’t keep up with his opponent’s movements even after he had trained for so many years. The young man was simply too fast!

However, this middle-aged man was also considered a veteran. He had placed a thin layer of steel plate around the inner collar of his shirt. First, that could prevent someone from slitting his throat with a dagger, and second, it could stop them from targeting his carotid artery!

In order not to kill them, Ren Xiaosu held back from using his full strength. However, he realized the middle-aged man did not pass out and was only grimacing in pain after landing a blow!

Meanwhile, his disciple had already fainted. The middle-aged man turned around and made a run for it.

While Ren Xiaosu was surprised, the middle-aged man nearly wanted to curse out loud. How was this a fucking D-rank mission? Huh?

Didn’t the Anjing House verify the hitmen’s identities before distributing the cell phones? Had they fucking gone crazy to hand a D-ranked cell phone to a superhuman? What the hell was wrong with the Anjing House?!

Besides, why would a superhuman come and attempt a D-rank mission? Just how much more shameless could you get? Did you lack this bit of money?!

However, his opponent did not seem to be going all out for the kill. Otherwise, he could have just killed them instead of knocking them out. The middle-aged man knew his opponent had held back.

Thinking of this, the middle-aged man did not even try to resist anymore. He immediately shouted, “I have money, I can give you money!”

But as soon as he said that, his vision went dark and he lost consciousness.

Ren Xiaosu squatted down next to them and started searching their bodies. To his surprise, he actually found two cell phones on them. This was a great harvest.

Ren Xiaosu decisively placed the cell phones into his storage space and continued to wait for more victims.

When the middle-aged man came to, he found another four or five people lying next to them. He quickly slapped his disciple to wake him up and then patted himself down to see if his opponent had left him anything.

The middle-aged man was overjoyed when he realized his money was still there. Could it be that this superhuman was not after money?

But a moment later, he was dumbfounded. His two cell phones were gone!

At this moment, the middle-aged man finally understood this superhuman was actually guarding the mission so he could seize everyone’s cell phones!

It was over! They were all done for!

To think that he even bragged to his disciple that it would be a simple mission. In the end, they did not even get the chance to lay eyes on the target for the mission. Just which goddamn superhuman had come to pull this prank on them!

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu noticed a text message on his cell phone: “The targets in Stronghold 63 are from the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad. They are currently located in the residential building at 476 Xianyang Street. A-rank. Reward: 500,000 yuan. Up to three people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.”

[1] This is a line from a poem entitled “Woe Is Me” to the tune of “Congratulations to the Bridegroom” by the poet Xin Qiji.

Chapter 482: The more chaotic, the merrier

Chapter 482 The more chaotic, the merrier

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw the mission to kill the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad. The organization behind the cell phone must really have a grudge against the Pyro Company. Why else would they offer such a high bounty for them?

He had fought Midnight before, so Ren Xiaosu roughly knew how strong they were.

These people might seem like supernatural beings, but they were only genetically modified and possessed a stronger physique than normal people. Although they were far more powerful than normal people, they still couldn’t hold a candle to supernatural beings.

After all, the current level of power that supernatural beings had was far more explosive and stranger.

Yang Xiaojin once said the Pyro Company had even more powerful fighting forces within their ranks, but Ren Xiaosu could not really judge as he had not encountered them before.

The reward this time was secondary. More importantly, the hitmen could earn a one-time right to seek refuge with the Anjing House.

Who had not faced a dangerous situation in their lives? Even Ren Xiaosu had encountered such situations many times.

For example, after getting injured, anyone would require an extremely safe place to recuperate. At such times, deaths were the most likely to occur because even supernatural beings could get killed by normal people.

Therefore, having a secret safe house and trusted protection would definitely be everyone’s first choice.

Was the Anjing House trustworthy? At the very least, they had an extremely reliable reputation among all hitmen. Why else would everyone want to join them?

Therefore, the Anjing House’s offer of protection for those who completed this mission would definitely tempt many people.

It was rare for a hitman to meet a good end, and this was something every hitman knew.

Ren Xiaosu frowned when he saw the text. The mission happened to be posted at Stronghold 63, which was right next to him. However, it was an A-rank mission, so he couldn’t accept it even if he wanted to.

He would have liked to take on the Pyro Company too. After all, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have a grudge against them.

However, he was only D-rank right now. Including the mission just now, he would be considered as having completed two missions at Stronghold 63. Even though he should be able to get promoted to C-rank, he was still far from getting to A-rank.

Therefore, this mission did not seem like it had anything to do with him…

Wait. Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that even though he could not accept the mission, he could still go and watch how the A-rank experts conducted their mission since the address was made known to him.

When he got there, he could just hide in the shadows and watch those hitmen take on the Pyro Company. The fiercer the fight, the better!

At this moment, one of the greatest characteristics of human beings was vividly reflected in Ren Xiaosu—he just wanted to watch chaos ensue. The more chaotic it was, the merrier.

…

Just as Ren Xiaosu made up his mind to sneak into Stronghold 63, a person in a house somewhere muttered, “That 1583850 has completed yet another mission. According to the timeframe, he’s already completed five missions within 60 days. Should we promote him to C-rank?”

The man next to him said, “Didn’t you notice that ever since he went to Stronghold 63, those D-rank missions in the vicinity have also been delayed for more than 20 hours before they were completed? Moreover, it seems the six account holders who accepted the mission initially have all disappeared as well….”

“Mhm…”

The person next to him said, “I definitely won’t believe it if you say it had nothing to do with him. He must be the one who stole the other hitmen’s cell phones at Stronghold 61.”

The Anjing House was not stupid. These suspicious missions were all completed by the account holder 1583850, so even a fool would know there was something wrong with this guy!

After what happened at Stronghold 61 a while ago, they had begun investigating the case. Even though their boss had personally made a trip there, she was still unable to catch the culprit.

“We better consult with the boss to see how we should handle this.”

When they sent a text to their boss, she replied, “Don’t alert him. Promote him to C-rank and then observe what he gets up to. Don’t group send him any more details of D-rank missions either in case he tries to harm the other D-rank hitmen.”

The two people in the house asked again, “What if he kills the other hitmen?”

Their boss replied, “He won’t.”

Anjing House had encountered many hitmen with different personalities. For example, some of them had unique fetishes or could get extremely unruly. But as long as they could complete their missions, the Anjing House would not be too bothered.

It was just that the candidate they encountered this time was a bit too much.

The two members of the Anjing House in the building were responsible for assigning missions and allocating resources, and this residence was their safe house.

Since their boss did not give any clear indication, they would just have to go with their boss’s instructions.

When Ren Xiaosu received the text saying he had been promoted to C-rank, he had already quietly sneaked into Stronghold 63. He wanted to observe what would be taking place here.

When Ren Xiaosu sneaked into a stronghold this time, he did not have to hide under a vehicle. He could just leap over the walls and into the stronghold now.

The Wang Consortium’s stronghold looked even more prosperous than the other strongholds. At 10 PM, colorful neon lights were still flashing in the streets and illuminating the night in the stronghold, making it seem like day.

However, the difference between this Wang Consortium stronghold and the other places was that there was a surveillance camera installed on the streets every 100 meters.

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu heard that if people stayed in a hotel or ate in a restaurant in the Wang Consortium’s strongholds, they would need to swipe their ID cards. All the people in the stronghold city were like a dataset being supervised by an artificial intelligence.

Regarding the Wang Consortium, Ren Xiaosu had heard much about them. For example, every young man here who was of suitable age would be required to serve in the military.

If they chose to default on their service, their entire family would be implicated and get expelled from the stronghold.

In addition, if anyone encountered a thief on the streets, whoever was nearby would be obligated to catch them once the artificial intelligence issued a warning. If an adult man saw a thief but pretended not to see them, he would get punished as well.

If an elderly person fell down on the road, the person next to them had to offer their help. If the elderly person turned around and accused that person instead, then it would be the elderly person who would be sentenced.

All of this was judged by the pervasive artificial intelligence.

There were thousands of laws like these all across the Wang Consortium’s territories, and everyone had to memorize them and take a test on them during their school years.

The storyteller said this was based on the Legalism school of thought that originated from the State of Qin from before The Cataclysm. The governance of the organization was based on the rule of law.

They did not believe in human nature and only trusted rationality and law.

Ren Xiaosu was at a loss of words regarding this system. Of course, it was a good thing that everyone should stand up for others. However, he would be unwilling to live in a stronghold like this.

It was not that a system like this was bad. In fact, it was actually quite good since the stronghold residents could lead a very safe life at the minimum.

However, Ren Xiaosu would not be able to get used to it. He had no intention of judging the good and bad sides of a governing system for the various consortiums. He only felt that there would not be enough freedom if his every action fell under the supervision of others.

Ren Xiaosu could not walk around freely in a stronghold like this. That was because the legendary artificial intelligence’s database did not have his profile. Once the surveillance cameras detected his presence, it would sound the alarm.

Moreover, if a hitman could not carry out a mission perfectly and avoid all the surveillance cameras in a stronghold like this, they would definitely end up being wanted by the entire Wang Consortium. The artificial intelligence would also be able to help analyze where the hitman was hiding.

Ren Xiaosu was curious to know how the A-rank hitmen would assassinate someone in a stronghold like this.

Chapter 483: What’s with the posturing?

Chapter 483 What“s with the posturing?

The bounties paid out for missions conducted in the Wang Consortium’s strongholds had always been higher than those conducted at other strongholds. This was because most of the hitmen were put in a very dangerous position for conducting a mission here. Furthermore, they would have to escape from all strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Wang Consortium after completing such missions. If they got spotted by the surveillance cameras again when entering the Wang Consortium’s strongholds, an arrest order would be immediately triggered.

Ren Xiaosu realized there would be surveillance cameras appearing on the tall buildings of this stronghold from time to time. It seemed that the Wang Consortium had also taken into consideration that there could be supernatural beings like him flying over roofs and scaling walls. So he had to remain extremely cautious to avoid getting spotted by them.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that as long as the cameras were not placed everywhere and covered all the blind spots, he would have a chance to take advantage of it.

At the bottom of the text he received earlier, a map with the approximate location of 476 Xianyang Street was attached. It was simple and easy to understand.

Ren Xiaosu lithely advanced in the direction of the neon lights. During this period, his presence was almost captured by the cameras several times. Fortunately, the speed of the cameras’ rotation was relatively slow and he managed to get to the vicinity of the mission’s target.

Ren Xiaosu found a 12-story building and climbed to the roof with his bare hands. After ensuring there were no surveillance cameras on the roof, he carefully laid in wait there.

This location was not exactly the best spot to observe 476 Xianyang Street from. That was because there were some buildings blocking his view, and the distance was 900 meters away. Usually, snipers would not choose to shoot from this distance. Moreover, the target was Midnight, whose strength surpassed that of normal people.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not choose to go to the best observation spot since if he could judge where the best positions were, the A-rank hitmen would surely know as well. Who knew if there might already be someone waiting there at this moment?

476 Xianyang Street was a apartment complex five stories high. Ren Xiaosu could not tell which floor the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad was hiding in, so he could only wait patiently in the shadows.

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was a little impressed by the Anjing House at this moment. He wondered how they managed to discover the whereabouts of the well-hidden Midnight in a sea of people.

Ren Xiaosu conjured up his black sniper rifle out of thin air and quietly scanned the surroundings of 476 Xianyang Street through the scope. However, he was puzzled by why there were no suspicious people around. The faces of the pedestrians walking past were never repeated and no one loitered around in the vicinity either.

Something was strange. Could it be that he was the first qualified account holder of the cell phones to arrive at the scene because he was the nearest to the target?

Ren Xiaosu sat on the top of the building with his large sniper rifle and continued to wait quietly.

No one would expect a strange person could have sneaked his way into the middle of an A-rank mission. He wasn’t here to do the mission and just wanted to watch the commotion.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned serious when he saw five people walking out of the apartment complex. The demeanor of the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad was totally different from that of the normal stronghold residents. Normal people might not notice it, but how could Ren Xiaosu, who often dealt with supernatural beings and elite soldiers, not be able to tell? Moreover, Midnight had always been a group of five, and it just so happened that there were five of them here.

Ren Xiaosu placed his sniper rifle in position and began to slow his breathing. Yang Xiaojin had said that controlling one’s breathing was one of the keys to unlocking the shackles of the body.

If no one from the Anjing House came here to carry out the mission, then he would not mind helping Yang Xiaojin kill off some members of the Pyro Company.

He had nothing better to do anyway.

All of a sudden, fireworks shot up into the sky in the western part of the stronghold for some reason. The brilliant fireworks made crackling sounds as they burst open in the sky and emitted a colorful glow. This loud sound caused all of the stronghold residents to look to the west.

Not far away, a flash suddenly came from a tall building just as the fireworks exploded in the sky. A member of Midnight was immediately killed on Xianyang Street.

Ren Xiaosu quickly shifted his scope and saw that that building was the most ideal location for shooting. With a firing distance of 600 meters, it had the best view of that building at Xianyang Street.

A young man was lying on the roof of the building. It looked like he was already taking aim at his next target. Ren Xiaosu could even tell that the sniper was using a Blaser R93 Tactical.[1] The best feature of this gun was that the bolt action design allowed for much steadier follow-up shots.

Bang! Another shot rang out from 600 meters away. Then another member of Midnight was sniped dead before they could even find a place to take cover.

Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment and realized snipers were actually among the A-rank hitmen. In truth, it was rather expensive to train a sniper these days. Meanwhile, this sniper who could maintain his accuracy even though he was firing continuously and at such a fast rate was definitely not an amateur. He might even previously be the trump card of a certain elite unit.

But how could the Pyro Company be so easy to deal with? No matter how powerful and sneaky a sniper was, how could they possibly wipe out the entirety of Midnight on their own?

But before Ren Xiaosu could dwell further on it, he suddenly saw through his scope a person climbing up the building across from where the sniper was located with his bare hands. In an instant, the sniper was attacked and killed by the person.

This person’s speed and strength were far superior to the Midnight squad that Ren Xiaosu had previously fought!

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. The information provided by the Anjing House was erroneous. It turned out there was more than one team from the Pyro Company here, and they actually had a contingency plan too! Moreover, it was a technologically advanced fighting force that was lying in ambush.

The members of Midnight that were shot by the sniper were merely bait.

Seeing that the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building had killed the sniper, Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling. Wasn’t it said the Pyro Company’s fighting forces always consisted of five people per team?

Then where were the other combatants? When he looked at the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building through his scope, that combatant suddenly turned around and grinned at him. Then he made a throat-slitting gesture.

In that instant, another person pounced from the edge of the building onto the rooftop where Ren Xiaosu was. The enemy was dressed in black, and it was as though he had merged with the night.

But an even darker shadow suddenly appeared from the darkness beside him. When the shadow raised the black saber in its hand and slashed, it cut the approaching member of the Pyro Company in half.

From the beginning to the end, Ren Xiaosu did not even turn around to look. He continued to maintain his steady breathing.

Distance: 617 meters. Wind speed: 15m/s. Humidity…

The moment the opponent made that throat-slitting gesture, Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger with a sneer. From a distance like this, the firepower of his anti-materiel sniper rifle[2] was enough to ignore any external factors, unless strong winds were blowing.

With a shot, the exhaust from the sides of the gun swept up the dust around Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, that member of the Pyro Company was sent flying backwards by the huge inertia of the bullet.

Ren Xiaosu was afraid his enemy would be wearing a bulletproof vest, so he even resorted to using armor-piercing bullets that could shoot through tanks.

Seeing that the enemy was utterly dead now, Ren Xiaosu stowed his gun and muttered, “What the fuck is with your posturing!”

Ren Xiaosu quickly moved in another direction as he said that. As the gunshot was incredibly loud, it would attract the attention of many people.

Meanwhile, three members of that advanced fighting force from the Pyro Company still had not shown themselves.

[1] The Blaser R93 Tactical is a German bolt action sniper rifle, based on the Blaser R93 design. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaser_R93_Tactical

[2] An anti-materiel rifle (AMR) is a rifle that is designed for use against military equipment (materiel), rather than against other combatants (“anti-personnel”). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle

Chapter 484: Breaking free from fate!

Chapter 484 Breaking free from fate!

Ren Xiaosu had only entered Stronghold 63 because he wanted to take a look at the commotion that would be happening. After all, he would not get any reward for completing the A-rank mission. Meanwhile, it was clear the Anjing House had had a feud with the Pyro Company for some time. As such, he was unwilling to get embroiled in this dispute.

But that member of the advanced fighting force from the Pyro Company had to make that provocation and even sent someone after him. This could not be tolerated.

Ren Xiaosu put away his sniper rifle and relocated to another position. As he left, he continued observing Xianyang Street. He was surprised to see an old sugar painter[1] sitting by the roadside boiling sugar syrup to make snacks for children. He suddenly reached into the pot with his ladle and scooped out a spoonful of caramelized sugar. Then he quickly painted something on an aluminum plate in front of him with the large ladle.

In the blink of an eye, the old man finished drawing a lifelike peacock. Right after, the sugary peacock on the aluminum plate suddenly flapped its wings and flew up into the sky!

The peacock drawn with sugar syrup had actually come to life.

The amber-colored peacock flying in the sky immediately pounced in front of the remaining three members of Midnight.

However, the old man did not stop there as he reached into the pot with his ladle again. He scooped out another spoonful of golden syrup and painted a dragon on the aluminum plate!

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. This was the first time he had seen such a magical superpower. It seemed possible to draw anything as long as one believed it was alive!

When he was observing through his scope earlier, he thought the old man was just a normal artisan. There were even many children who went to buy the old man’s sugar paintings, and everything looked very normal at that time.

But now, he displayed an even more magnificent side of the superhuman world to Ren Xiaosu!

The amber dragon did not attack Midnight but stood close guard next to the old man. Then he started drawing a tiger.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt the old man might be reaching his limits soon. He seemed to be having difficulties as he painted the tiger.

At this moment, five people suddenly jumped out of a window from a nearby residential building and surrounded the old man. Ren Xiaosu was shocked. This should also be the Pyro Company’s contingency plan, right?

In that instant, Ren Xiaosu realized the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad had actually been used as bait to capture the superhumans who came to encircle them!

Across the entire Alliance of Strongholds, everyone knew the Pyro Company was particularly interested in superhumans. And Ren Xiaosu had already faced Midnight before. What they really wanted was the genetic data of superhumans. They wanted to create even more powerful human beings, and this was the evolutionary path they had chosen.

Therefore, this mission might appear on the surface like it was the Anjing House looking to exterminate the Pyro Company. But actually, it was a trap set by the Pyro Company to kill their superhumans.

Although the Pyro Company used to have a presence in the Southwest, Qing Zhen had clearly expressed his disgust for them. He even fought a tough battle with the Pyro Company and drove them out of the Southwest.

Hence, the influence the Pyro Company had in the Southwest was extremely weak. The enemy they faced there was Qing Zhen, someone who controlled an entire military and was skilled at war.

But here in the Central Plains, the Pyro Company called this their territory!

Furthermore, the Pyro Company seemed to have an endless number of genetically enhanced soldiers. They possessed a stable way of creating superhumans, and it was an advantage no other organization could compare with.

Actually, only the Qinghe Group could compare with them. However, it seemed the Qinghe Group didn’t possess a lot of superhumans, and they did not really care about the competition for resources in the region either. Usually, they would not attack others unless they were provoked. Furthermore, they did not hold any political stances.

Ren Xiaosu had already jumped over to another rooftop. He could hear footsteps behind him shuttling between the roofs, and they belonged to the members of the Pyro Company who were chasing after him.

His opponents were getting closer and closer.

The entirety of Stronghold 63 was in chaos now. When the residents on the streets who were enjoying their nightlife heard the gunshots, they quickly fled from the scene of the assassination while screaming.

The night became chaotic, and even the colorful neon lights suddenly appeared dull and depressing.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu came to a stop. He pulled out his large, black sniper rifle again and aimed it at the members of the Pyro Company who had surrounded the old man.

As he was moving at a very rapid pace while fleeing, his heart rate had increased.

He took a deep breath.

The moment before the sniper pulled the trigger, the hormones, blood, muscles, and heart in their body would all have to serve the will. At that time, even the chaotic night sky would come to a standstill.

Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger and a thick layer of smoke burst out from the muzzle with a bang. As the bullet passed through the rifling of the barrel, it started spinning rapidly, carrying with it a huge amount of kinetic energy.

In the rifling, the grooves were the spaces that were cut out, and the resulting ridges were called lands. In the black sniper rifle’s barrel, the perfect angle and twist rate made the bullet start spinning the moment it was fired out of the chamber, This allowed the bullet to break free from any external restrictions with its immense kinetic energy and let the shot go further and more accurately.

It was breaking free from fate!

The elongated bullet passed through the gap between two buildings and squarely hit a member of the Pyro Company. The spinning bullet quickly penetrated through his muscles, and the massive friction of the bullet ripped the muscle fibers like it was cotton!

Death!

Through the scope, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man in a black suit and white shirt on Xianyang Street break off the pole of a metal street lamp on the side of the road with a wave of his hand. Then it floated over next to him as though it were a weapon.

But before he could rush to the old man’s rescue, he realized a sniper was helping them kill their enemies.

The young man was stunned for a moment before asking through his earpiece, “Did we send any other snipers here?”

Someone replied through the earpiece, “No, there’s only one A-rank sniper who accepted the mission, but he’s already dead. But the sniper who opened fire just now avenged him.”

“That’s strange. Where did that sniper come from then?” The young man looked in the direction of where the bullet came from, but that building was already empty.

Suddenly, another three figures flashed across the roof of that building. The young man said worriedly into his earpiece, “I’ll take care of the Pyro Company members on Xianyang Street first. The sniper to my 7 o’clock is being pursued by three members of Dusk. Can anyone go to his aid?”

“It’s too late. He’s too far away from us.”

Everyone stopped talking. Due to the distance, they could only pray the sniper would get lucky and not be caught by the members of the Pyro Company.

The battle was chaotic. Even the Anjing House members could not fully understand what was happening on the battlefield. There were not many talents like Qing Zhen in the world who were strategic geniuses, after all. Most people only knew how to adapt their plans as the battle developed.

It didn’t matter if it was the Anjing House or the Pyro Company; they were all the same.

However, neither of them could have expected that the sniper who had appeared out of nowhere would become the key to turning the tide of the situation.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was frequently jumping across various buildings as he fled all the way west. But a second later, he halted in his tracks.

It was not that he could not run anymore, but that he did not want to continue running.

[1] Sugar painting (糖画) is a form of traditional Chinese folk art using hot, liquid sugar to create two dimensional objects on a marble or metal surface. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_painting

Chapter 485: No more running!

Chapter 485 No more running!

Ever since he escaped from Stronghold 146, Ren Xiaosu had not experienced getting chased by anyone in the past two months. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was odd. Didn’t he only come here to watch the commotion? Why did the Pyro Company start chasing after him then?

Although he had shot and killed another member of the Pyro Company just now, they were the ones who attacked first!

‘I might have been holding a sniper rifle on the roof, but it was only because the view was clearer through the scope. I really did not intend to attack anyone! I don’t care whether you believe it or not, I only wanted to have a look! So since I was only here to have a look, and you all tried to attack me, I’m forced to fight back!’

In the entirety of Stronghold 63, it was estimated that there were only ten people from the Pyro Company’s advanced fighting force in total. However, the Pyro Company ended up splitting half of their forces to attack him even though the Anjing House was the one attacking them…

Who was he supposed to bring the attention of this injustice to?

Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. Could he defeat the three members of the Pyro Company? Yes!

When he thought of this, Ren Xiaosu wondered why the hell he should keep running.

Ren Xiaosu came to a stop on the roof of a building. The three members of the Pyro Company were chasing after him in a triangular formation when they saw Ren Xiaosu stop in his tracks and were bewildered.

Although they did not witness how Ren Xiaosu killed their comrades earlier, they knew he must be an extremely powerful supernatural being if he could kill two members of their Dusk squad in a row.

As the three members of Dusk came to a gradual stop, the two sides were now facing each other on the roofs of two buildings, separated by a gap of more than 20 meters.

Ren Xiaosu’s fighting spirit was so fired up that it felt like an intimidating presence that could fill people’s hearts with fear. Suddenly, the three members of Dusk were a little afraid to chase after him anymore.

Thinking about it calmly now, the three of them had only pursued the enemy when they saw him running away just now. But now that they had caught up to him, they were finally able to consider if they could defeat him or not.

As sirens rang out in the distance, a continuous stream of Stronghold 63’s security forces started heading over to encircle the area. They were looking to capture all the members of the Anjing House and the Pyro Company in the stronghold.

The three Dusk members looked at each other and got ready to make a move. No matter how powerful their opponent was, he was all by himself at this moment. As they were genetically modified super soldiers, how could they not take care of one person if the three of them attacked all at once?

“We can’t wait any longer. If we don’t kill him today, we’ll be seen as defective goods when we return.”

“Kill him!”

But before they could come to a decision, they saw Ren Xiaosu slowly take a few steps back. The three Dusk members wondered, “Is he going to run away again?”

Then they unexpectedly saw Ren Xiaosu starting to charge towards them from the opposite building.

Those few steps back that he took were actually to facilitate his run-up!

“Open fire!”

The three of them aimed their silenced guns at Ren Xiaosu and started shooting rapidly. With their physiques, they could easily match Ren Xiaosu’s movement speed as they kept their aim on him.

But before they could even pull the trigger, Ren Xiaosu’s armor immediately covered his entire body.

In the eyes of the three Pyro Company members, the figure leaping over from the opposite rooftop gradually got larger. Then it suddenly turned into an indestructible armored being that no one could lay a finger on.

This turn of events was really shocking. When the bullets from the pistols hit the armor, they could only leave behind a white mark without causing any substantial damage.

“Wait, it’s him!” A member of the Pyro Company roared, “What’s he doing here!”

After the battle in the Northwest, any organization that had paid attention to the situation there would know there was a young man who could conjure up a set of armor and had single-handedly destroyed a stronghold.

Any organization with ambition would have to keep abreast of such developments, after all. Although the Northwest was a remote place, it would be extremely stupid of them if they did not even know about an important development like that.

Not only that, but they also had to purchase the information and intel regarding this young man from the various secret intelligence organizations.

But to their surprise, the two secret intelligence organizations that were usually the most familiar with the happenings in the Southwest and Northwest expressed they did not have any specific information about this young man.

After Fortress 178 marched into Stronghold 146, the first thing they did was not to take over the resources of the stronghold but to search for all of the wanted portraits of that young man and destroy them.

When the members of the Pyro Company realized the enemy they were facing turned out to be that legendary figure, they immediately turned gloomy!

One of them shouted into their radio, “We’ve encountered—”

Before he could finish speaking, a black shadow dashed into them from behind. The black saber pierced the chest of the person speaking, and blood instantly filled the alveoli of his lungs. When he tried to speak, blood started gushing out of his throat.

The remaining two people quickly fled in two different directions. Their speed was comparable to that of the best of the best among superhumans and might even be a tad faster than them.

In an instant, their powerful brains figured out their best escape routes.

However, they were shocked to find they could only cover two steps before they were quickly caught up to. Although they were fast, Ren Xiaosu was even faster!

Even without activating City Crusher, Ren Xiaosu’s physical fitness had almost placed him above all the other members of Dusk.

As fireworks shot up into the rousing night sky again, the chaotic mixture of sirens, gunshots, screams, and shouts filled Stronghold 63 with the smell of blood and smoke.

Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone brushed past each other as the two figures blocked the two escaping members of Dusk separately. Their movements were so exact that they looked like two sets of synchronized machines!

Since he had used his armor here, he could not allow any of the Pyro Company members present to leave alive.

Seeing that these two members of Dusk had jumped off either side of the roof to the other roofs, Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone jumped after them. The strong force they generated as they leaped off from the rooftop even shattered the waterproof layer of the rooftop.

When Ren Xiaosu got ahead of the Dusk member in midair, he turned around and slashed his saber. His opponent had wanted to pull out a saber from his belt to block the slash, but Ren Xiaosu pressed down on his hand in the air. No matter how hard he tried, he could not draw the saber from his belt. Then Ren Xiaosu stabbed the black saber into his heart fast as lightning.

‘Why are you so strong?’ This was the only thought the member of Dusk had before he died. Ren Xiaosu kicked off him in midair and flew towards the roof on the opposite building. Due to the great inertia, he slid for five to six meters on the building’s rooftop on one knee before finally stopping.

Meanwhile, his shadow clone on the other side was even more efficient at killing its victim. Even Ren Xiaosu had to admit that his shadow clone’s physical fitness was much stronger than his…

Ren Xiaosu panted as he recalled his shadow clone while he stood on the rooftop. Afterwards, he quickly fled the stronghold. After experiencing so much tonight, he had no need to risk his life here anymore.

As for who would come out victorious in the battle between the Anjing House and the Pyro Company, that had nothing to do with him.

Chapter 486: Leaving with a flick of his robes after the deed is done, / Deeply hiding his glory and fame.

Chapter 486 Leaving with a flick of his robes after the deed is done, / Deeply hiding his glory and fame.

Ren Xiaosu felt that copying the power of the shadow clone was the wisest choice he had made ever since he was able to duplicate the superpowers of other supernatural beings.

Having lived in this chaotic world for so long, his shadow clone had achieved many great feats for him. Without it, Ren Xiaosu could not have done many things.

Of course, the shadow clone also had its shortcomings. For example, it could not use the sniper rifle independently since it couldn’t calculate the complex trajectory of a shot and other external factors. As such, the accuracy of its shots had always been poor.

When Ren Xiaosu left the stronghold, he even went past the troops of Stronghold 63 that were heading over to encircle the enemy. However, the soldiers below could not see him at all as he was leaping across the roofs of buildings.

A superhuman who was among the troops suddenly looked up into the sky. He had a feeling that something had leaped over their heads. However, the other party was moving too fast, so he thought he might have been hallucinating.

“Did you all see anything unusual over our heads just now?” the superhuman asked.

“No.” The soldiers shook their heads.

“Forget it, let’s deal with the problem at Xianyang Street first. If we encounter any resistance, kill on sight! Set up checkpoints at all the main thoroughfares!”

After escaping from the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu did not even bother staying in town to watch. He just continued running all the way into the wilderness.

If he was going to leave, he would have to do so decisively. So Ren Xiaosu decided to head straight for Stronghold 61 where he could wait and see while things settled down.

On the way, he even received a C-rank mission that was to be carried out in Stronghold 63. However, he instantly decided he would give that up this time.

Hitmen had to complete three C-rank missions within 90 days before they would get automatically promoted to B-rank. But Ren Xiaosu thought that since Stronghold 63 was already such a mess, he would not want to go back there to carry out that mission no matter what!

…

At this moment on Xianyang Street, the amber-colored dragon that was painted from the sugar syrup grabbed a member of Dusk and threw him into its mouth. Then it crushed the enemy’s bones to pieces.

Only one of the three remaining members of Midnight was left. He was still firing his weapon and trying to shatter the golden dragon. But even as the amber dragon was hit by the bullets, it only shed bits and pieces of sugar while still maintaining its ability to fly.

Meanwhile, the tiger the old man had just painstakingly painted stood guard next to him. The old man said palely, “I can’t hold on much longer. Quickly finish them off!”

Although the peacock, dragon, and tiger all looked extremely ferocious, the old man was already at his limits. To be honest, he did not expect another team of Dusk members to ambush them from nearby!

This old man was only an A-rank hitman. He was also only risking his life this time for the sake of joining the Anjing House.

Next to him, the young man who could manipulate metal said with a smile, “Please calm down, old man. They don’t have a way out anymore.”

The young man strolled towards Dusk along the empty boulevard. One of the members of Dusk tried to shoot him, but his gun flew out of his hand and floated in front of the young man.

Then the Dusk member tried to draw the saber from his belt, but even that was seized by the young man.

The leader of Dusk sneered, “Vanilla, it’s such a pity that we failed to finish you off the previous time.”

The young man named Vanilla said with a smile, “That just means that the Heavens haven’t failed me. You didn’t expect that I would appear here, right? Remember to bring a ceramic saber next time.”

The moment he finished saying that, all the sabers and metallic objects floating next to Vanilla flew towards Dusk.

But at this moment, the members of Dusk revealed their extremely powerful physiques. The metallic objects that were rapidly flying over could not even touch their bodies once they dodged.

Although Vanilla could manipulate metal, and even a large quantity of them at once, the speed at which he controlled the metal was still not fast enough!

However, the remaining three members of Dusk decisively turned around and started retreating after dodging Vanilla’s attack. Meanwhile, the young man who could manipulate metal did not chase after them.

The old man panted and said, “Why didn’t you finish them off?”

“There will naturally be supernatural beings from Stronghold 63 who will encircle them. If we go after them, how are we gonna get out of this place?” Vanilla smiled and said, “We need them to attract the attention of Stronghold 63 right now. Besides… haven’t you realized that I couldn’t land a hit on them at all…”

“Alright then, I’m going to retreat as well.” The old man said, “All the members of Midnight have already been killed, along with a member of Dusk as well….”

Vanilla said with a smile, “Don’t worry, the boss will definitely reward you accordingly.” At this moment, he heard a voice speaking in his earpiece. Vanilla was stunned for a moment before saying to the old man with a smile, “Congratulations, 1383792. The boss has said you can participate in the next round of trials to gain entry into the Anjing House. You may come with me to the safe house now.”

The old man was surprised. “Really?”

“The Anjing House has never made promises lightly, so please follow me. Once you’ve officially joined the Anjing House, you will get your own code name. To be honest, it’s really quite difficult to remember your current name and number.” Vanilla turned around and walked off.

…

The pursuit in Stronghold 63 would still continue for some time, and there would be two or three superhumans involved in the chase. In Vanilla’s opinion, the Pyro Company members would suffer terribly even if they did not die.

As the Anjing House had been dealing with the Pyro Company for a long time, they were not in a hurry to eliminate them. In fact, neither side was able to do this now, so they could only slowly scheme against each other.

After they left, a few sporadic paper cranes started flying around in the night sky. Some of them quietly tailed the Pyro Company members while the rest went to the places Ren Xiaosu had fought at.

The paper cranes first went to the rooftop where Ren Xiaosu had been attacked. Then it followed Ren Xiaosu’s escape route all the way to the place where he had killed three members of Dusk.

The small and delicate paper cranes circled around the rooftop, as though they were recording all the details of the location without missing any corners.

Soon after, the paper cranes fluttered their wings and flew higher into the sky. They cautiously flew up several hundred meters before continuing to fly towards Stronghold 61 where they would update the information they saw to their host.

A day later, someone in a house received a new text message. The more they read it, the more shocked they were. “The boss said the sniper who appeared that night wiped out the entire Dusk squad? I wonder where this superhuman popped out of?”

“Surely not, right? Didn’t they say that even Vanilla could do nothing about them since they were so determined to escape?”

“And the boss also said that this guy’s an incredibly skilled sniper. It seems that he can adjust his heart rate while moving about on the battlefield. A powerful sniper who also has an extremely strong superpower in close combat. Just where did such a monster pop out of? Why haven’t we heard of him before?” The person reading the text said, “By the way, the boss was asking if anyone went to do that C-rank mission in the vicinity when it was assigned later on?”

“It’s been completed, but not by 1583850.”

“Do you think that 1583850 could be this superhuman?”

“I don’t think so. Why would such a ruthless superhuman bother with our D-rank missions? Do you think they’ve got nothing better to do?”

Chapter 487: a Mysterious Hitman

Chapter 487 a Mysterious Hitman

The Smoke in Stronghold 63 Had Already Dispersed. A Small Battle Was Not Enough to Cause Much Damage to the Stronghold, After All. Moreover, the Civilians Were Not Affected by the Battle Between the Two Sides, So Casualties Involving the Stronghold Residents Were as Good as Negligible.

But to the Wang Consortium, the Actual Controller of Stronghold 63, This Was a Challenge to Their Authority by the Anjing House and the Pyro Company.

If People Like the Elderly Sugar Painter and Vanilla, Who Could Manipulate Metal, Were to Enter Any Strongholds Under the Wang Consortium’s Jurisdiction Again, a Citywide Search Would Be Immediately Triggered Once They Got Identified by the Surveillance Cameras.

The Reason Why the Price for Killing a Target in the Wang Consortium’s Strongholds Was So High Was That Most Hitmen Could Only Conduct One Mission in Them.

Not Everyone Could Parkour—fly Over Roofs and Scale Walls—like Ren Xiaosu.

At This Moment, Hundreds of Employees Were Sitting and Busying Themselves in a Huge Control Room Within Stronghold 62. In This Control Room Were Several Hundred Security Monitors, and the All-white Interior Radiated a Strong Sense of Technology.

Wang Shengyin Pushed in Wang Shengzhi in His Wheelchair. He Looked at the Staff Members and Said With a Smile, “Show Me the Ai Report From Last Night. Let’s See What It Says.”

“When the Anjing House Assassin Known as Vanilla Entered the Stronghold, the Ai Issued an Early Warning and Signaled That This Person Had Trespassed Into the Stronghold. He Sneaked in on a Truck That Was Transporting Frozen Pork.” a Staff Member Said, “We’ve Already Located the Truck, but the Owner is Nowhere to Be Found. There’s a Specially Modified Compartment in the Truck, So Vanilla Must Have Hidden in It to Enter the Stronghold.” With That, the Staff Member Handed a Document to Wang Shengzhi.

The Whole Analysis Report Was Fully Documented. Other Than That Elderly Sugar Painter, the Others Were All Identified by the Surveillance and They Had Received Advance Warning of the Intrusion.

Wang Shengzhi Had Actually Predicted a Long Time Ago That This Small Battle Would Take Place. However, the Staff Members Did Not Understand Why It Was Allowed to Happen.

Perhaps Wang Shengzhi Had Planned to Let the Pyro Company and the Anjing House Build Even More Resentment Between Their Two Organizations.

Wang Shengzhi Was Flipping Through the Report When He Suddenly Noticed the Final Analysis. He Saw Nine Photos, and in Each One of Them a Blurry Figure Was Captured Leaping Across Roofs.

The Staff Member Next to Him Explained, “This Person Constantly Kept His Activities to the Roofs and Was Even So Cautious That He Avoided All Our Surveillance Cameras on the Roofs of the Buildings. These Photos Were Only Taken by a Surveillance Camera on a Tall Building in the Distance After Our Ai Spotted Him.”

Wang Shengzhi Nodded and Looked at the Follow-up Analysis Report: “the Suspect is 1.84 Meters Tall and Possesses an Unknown Power. The Six Pyro Company Members Who Died That Night Were Likely Killed by This Person. This Includes One Member of Midnight and Five Members of Dusk. This Suspect is Extremely Dangerous, and It is Recommended That We Go All Out to Pursue Him.”

“Did You Manage to Find Any Trace of This Person’s Whereabouts After That?” Wang Shengzhi Asked While Looking Up.

“No.” the Staff Member Shook His Head. “the Ai’s Analysis Showed That He Should Have Already Fled From the Stronghold.”

“is He a Member of the Anjing House?” Wang Shengzhi Asked.

“No, Please Turn to the Last Page of the Report. The Ai Analyzed All the Participants of the Battle and Which Organization They Belong to. He’s the Only One With No Known Links to Any Organization,” the Staff Member Said While Shaking His Head.

Wang Shengyin Looked Curiously at the Blurry Figure While Standing Behind Wang Shengzhi. She Said, “Why Do I Feel Like This Person Looks So Familiar? It’s as if I’ve Seen Him Somewhere Before.”

Everyone Looked at Wang Shengyin in a Stunned Manner, Only to See Her Shaking Her Head and Saying With a Laugh, “the Pictures Are Too Blurry, So I Probably Mistook It for Someone Else.”

Wang Shengzhi Shook His Head and Said With a Smile, “Since This Person is Classified as Extremely Dangerous by the Ai, We Must Be Careful When We Find Him Next Time.”

…

When Ren Xiaosu Returned to Stronghold 61, He Did Not Head Home Immediately but Went to the Tavern Instead. Ren Xiaosu Had Not Had a Warm Meal for Several Days, So He Needed to Get Something to Eat First.

Before He Even Reached the Tavern, Ren Xiaosu Could Already See Ms. Xiaolu Sitting by the Window From a Distance. It Seemed Like She Was Folding Something on the Table With Her Head Down. When She Heard the Sound of Footsteps, She Looked Up and Saw Ren Xiaosu.

But Just as Ren Xiaosu Was About to Greet Her, He Heard Xiaolu Shout Before Sweeping Everything on the Table Into Her Arms. Then She Ran Into the Backyard of the Tavern.

Ren Xiaosu Could Only Wave at the Air With His Raised Hand.

As He Walked Into the Tavern, the Storyteller Was Relating a Story to the Customers. “Everyone Here Might Not Know That Something Major Has Taken Place in Stronghold 63. It’s Said That the Pyro Company and Anjing House Have Been at Loggerheads With Each Other for a Long Time, So Both Sides Laid a Trap for the Other at Stronghold 63. The Pyro Company Wanted to Capture the Superhumans of the Anjing House, While the Anjing House Was Looking to Take Down the Pyro Company Members in One Fell Swoop. An Old Man Was Seen Waving His Hand Over an Aluminum Plate, and It Turned Out That the Dragon He Painted With Some Sugar Syrup Ended Up Soaring Into the Sky…”

Ren Xiaosu Was Stunned When He Heard This. The Incident at Stronghold 63 Had Just Happened Two Days Ago, but the Storyteller Already Knew About It?

However, He Was Not Too Bothered by It. After All, He Already Knew This Storyteller Was No Ordinary Person, and He Was Not Particularly Concerned About Where His Intel Came From Either.

It Happened That He Also Wanted to Hear How the News in the Outside World Portrayed This Skirmish.

The Storyteller Continued, “However, the Pyro Company and the Anjing House Were Not the Protagonists of This Battle. It Was Someone Else! In the Battle, Although the Pyro Company Had Sent Out a Total of 15 Members, a Mysterious Visitor Ended Up Killing Six of Them Single-handedly….”

Ren Xiaosu Listened to the Story and Realized He Was Involved in at Least Half of the Storyteller’s Tale.

At This Moment, Xiaolu Reentered the Tavern From the Backyard. She Sat Down Across From Ren Xiaosu and Asked Casually, “Did You See What I Was Doing Just Now?”

“No.” After Ordering a Bowl of Lamb Stew From the Waiter, Ren Xiaosu Smiled and Said, “So What Were You Doing Just Now?”

“Nothing Much.” Xiaolu Changed the Subject, “You Should Quickly Go Home and Have a Look After You’ve Eaten. Recently, the Townspeople Have Been Saying That Your Yard is Haunted. There’s Always the Sound of People Howling and Screaming in There in the Middle of the Night, but No One Dares to Go in and Check It Out Since They’re Afraid of Being Devoured by the Ghosts.”

Ren Xiaosu Froze. How Could a Spooky Event Like This Happen to Him? But After a Brief Pause, He Roughly Understood What Was Going on.

Ren Xiaosu Asked, “Were There Any Other Strange Occurrences in Town Lately?”

Xiaolu Sneaked a Glance at the Storyteller Before Whispering, “Don’t Tell Grandpa That I Was the One Who Told You. You Had Better Be More Careful These Days. It Seems That Someone’s Been Looking for You, but Grandpa Helped You to Hide the Truth.”

Ren Xiaosu Grinned From Ear to Ear. “Thank You.”

“Grandpa Didn’t Want Me to Tell You, So You Must Not Tell Him About This.” Xiaolu Happily Lowered Her Voice and Reminded Him.

A Ways Away, the Storyteller Was Midway Through the Story. His Voice Clearly Paused for a Moment, and He Nearly Forgot About the Latter Part of the Story That He Was Telling. What the Hell Was Going on!

Chapter 488: Inclined towards certain subjects

Someone once mentioned that when one of the five senses of a person is “switched off,” the other senses become heightened. These five senses referred to sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

The human body did not only have five senses but also a legendary sixth sense, which was the soul.

Some people asked, “Do humans really have souls? Can humans really exist in the form of a soul or even have the ability to influence reality?”

Someone had once tried to gradually switch off their taste, hearing, sight, and so on with each passing year. After switching off his senses one by one, the remaining senses would be greatly enhanced. It was as though those deactivated senses ended up being concentrated on one sense, the sense of touch.

Then, at the moment when his emotions fluctuated the most violently, he ended his life, thus effectively ending his sense of touch as well.

Some people said that from that moment on, he existed only in the form of a soul, which was also the sixth sense. But no one could verify this since no one had ever seen the soul of that extreme person before.

Getting back to the topic of the five senses, some people’s hearing would become exceptionally good after they went blind. However, this was uncommon. Instead, people who went blind usually ended up with a better memory than that of able people.

The storyteller was the type who had great hearing and memory. So he could hear very clearly what Xiaolu said to Ren Xiaosu.

His granddaughter was actually whispering secrets to an outsider while trying to keep it from him?

After eating, Ren Xiaosu slowly walked back home. Although he was now a familiar face in town, the impression that most people had was that he was someone rich.

Previously, it was not only the refugees who came to seek help from him. There were also others from the world’s oldest profession that came knocking on his door in the middle of the night offering their services. However, he rejected all of them. Sometimes he would just drive them away without even opening the door.

As for the spooky event Xiaolu had mentioned… he already guessed what was going on.

Seeing that the lock on his house door was still intact, Ren Xiaosu opened the door with his key and headed straight for the backyard. There, he saw five people lying on the ground and smashed potatoes everywhere.

These five people were all normal people, and they were long dead from the Potato Shooter’s attacks.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not feel the least bit distraught when he saw a few bone knives scattered around the backyard. If a normal person were living here, they would probably have been killed by these people.

Everyone in town knew Ren Xiaosu was rich, so there would always be thieves trying to enter his house every now and then. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would have to kill them himself, then put their bodies away in his storage space and take them to the wilderness to bury.

But now, he did not have to do that anymore. The Potato Shooters would help him do all the dirty work.

The “haunting” was probably just the screams of these intruders when they got hit by the Potato Shooters after climbing into the backyard.

When Ren Xiaosu thought about it, he also felt that it must have been eerie that night.

A newly established recruitment office in town was offering high pay to workers to build roads.

Fortress 178 and the Wang Consortium had reached a consensus. The roads in the Central Plains would soon be extended to the Northwest, and there would be a highway for vehicles and a railway leading to the former Zong Consortium strongholds.

Due to the frozen ground, they could not build the railway further into the depths of the hinterlands of the Northwest. Construction would get too difficult, and the maintenance cost would be extremely high.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu received another text message. “The targets in Stronghold 61 are from the Pyro Company’s Midnight squad. They are currently located in a residential building on 137 Lingbao Road. A-rank. Reward: 1 million yuan. Up to five people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This mission was very similar to the mission that took place in Stronghold 63 a few days ago. Moreover, the Anjing House increased the difficulty and reward of the mission this time. Previously, the mission allowed hitmen to work in groups of three, but that had expanded to a group of five this time.

Actually, the number of hitmen working together was not important. All it meant was that this mission’s reward would be given out as five sets!

It looked like the Anjing House was going all out against the Pyro Company this time. They had issued another mission with them as targets again this soon? Suddenly, it felt like these two heavyweight organizations were going to fight each other to the death.

It could also be because the ambush enraged the Anjing House and made them determined to clear out the Pyro Company from the Wang Consortium’s territory at all costs.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not plan on getting involved this time. He realized that every time he tried to stay out of something, trouble would automatically come looking for him even if he were just watching the commotion as a spectator.

He had caused too much of a commotion in Stronghold 63. If the Anjing House and the Pyro Company came looking for him together, he would be in deep trouble.

Furthermore, who knew if the Anjing House might have issued this mission at Stronghold 61 because they were trying to flush him out? How else could there be such a coincidence?

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu decided he would just stay home and catch up on sleep. In the evening, the sound of gunfire suddenly came from the stronghold. There were even loud explosions too, and this woke Ren Xiaosu up.

However, he headed to the tavern for dinner as though nothing had happened. When he arrived at the tavern, the storyteller was resting and eating dinner. It was nothing too special, just a bowl of biangbiang noodles.[1]

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Where’s Xiaolu?”

The storyteller did not answer him. Instead, he asked in turn, “Aren’t you going into the stronghold to have a look?”

“Why would I go in there? I don’t want to get involved in that mess.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he said to the waiter, “I’ll have a bowl of biangbiang noodles; make it extra spicy. I heard that y’all purchased fresh watermelons. Cut one for us. I’ll have some together with Grandpa here.”

The storyteller “stared” at Ren Xiaosu with his cloudy eyes. “Haven’t you already had your fair share of messy situations?”

“Only when I’m forced by circumstance,” Ren Xiaosu said with a laugh.

All of a sudden, the storyteller asked, “Let me ask you a question. If a watermelon is cut into three pieces, each portion will be 0.333, right?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “That’s right.”

“0.333 multiplied by 3 equals 0.999. Then I ask of you: Where did the remaining 0.001 go?” the storyteller asked calmly.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. “It’s on the knife? Yes, it’s on the knife!”

The storyteller paused for a while. “You’re indeed inclined towards certain subjects….”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned serious. He was only fooling around earlier. Of course he knew about the recurring decimal sequence.[2]

But about being “inclined towards certain subjects,” didn’t that rumor come from the Northwest? The storyteller was obviously referring to something else by bringing that up.

Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, “So Grandpa already knows who I am?”

“People always say that only fearsome dragons cross the river, but how many river-crossing dragons can there be in the world?” The storyteller slurped up the remaining noodles in his bowl. “I’m warning you! A dangerous person like you better not get near my granddaughter!”

Then Xiaolu came in from the backyard with a watermelon. “Grandpa, the waiter said that you wanted to eat some watermelon? I’ve already cut some for you.”

The storyteller threw his chopsticks on the table. As if the watermelon was cut for me!

[1] Biangbiang noodles, alternatively known as youpo chemian in Chinese, are a type of noodles popular in the cuisine of China’s Shaanxi Province. The noodles, touted as one of the “eight strange wonders of Shaanxi” (陕西八大怪), are described as being like a belt, owing to their thickness and length. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biangbiang_noodles

[2] The infinitely repeated digit sequence is called the repetend or reptend. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_decimal

Chapter 489: Reacquainted With Zhou Yingxue!

Ren Xiaosu Didn’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry at the Storyteller’s Words. Since When Did He Get Any Ideas About His Granddaughter? That Was Absolutely Untrue, Alright!

But at This Moment, the Two of Them Noticed the Intensity of the Battle in the Stronghold Did Not Decrease Even After Such a Long Time. Instead, It Seemed to Be Getting Even More Intense!

Ren Xiaosu Understood That the Previous Battle at Stronghold 63 Had Only Ended So Quickly Because of His Sudden Involvement. After All, the Members of Dusk Were Not Weak. If Typical Superhumans Encountered Them, They Might Even End Up Dying at Their Hands.

The Pyro Company’s Fighting Forces Had Always Had a Huge Advantage Due to Their Numbers, Probably Because They Could Mass Produce Them.

Ren Xiaosu Suddenly Sighed and Said, “an Eye for an Eye Makes the World Go Blind.”

But the Storyteller, Who Was Listening Intently to the Sound of the Fighting, Replied With a Serious Look, “This is Not About Vengeance but a Struggle Between the Ideals of Those Two Organizations. You Have to Understand That Without Their Ideals, They Would Not Be Known as an Organization.”

Ren Xiaosu Was Stunned. Perhaps That Was the Source of Qing Zhen and the Saboteurs’ Conflict as Well. Qing Zhen Saw Nuclear Technology as a Gift From Nature and Felt That Humans Should Make Good Use of It. However, the Saboteurs Felt That Humans Should Not Possess a Weapon That Was Powerful Enough to Destroy Themselves With. That Was Because There Were No Bounds to Humanity’s Greed and They Would Never Be Satisfied With What They Had. Even if Qing Zhen Could Ensure That He Would Not Use Them, Could He Do the Same for His Descendants?

If Those Gruff Men of Fortress 178 Did Not Have the Belief to Guard Their Stronghold, They Probably Would Not Have Such Strong Willpower Either.

However, It Was Not Something Ren Xiaosu Should Be Considering Right Now. He Never Got the Idea of Establishing an Organization Before, So These Were Not Things He Needed to Care About.

The Battle Was Getting Louder and Louder. It Was So Loud That Even the Refugees in Town Stopped in Their Tracks Outside the Stronghold Walls to Watch What Would Happen Next.

A Raging Fire Was Burning Inside the Stronghold. The Blazing Flames in the Sky Were So Bright That the Red Glow Illuminated the Faces of the Refugees Dressed in Rags.

“It Seems the Anjing House Has Not Gained the Upper Hand in the Battle Yet,” the Storyteller Said With a Sigh.

Ren Xiaosu Asked, “Grandpa, Are You on the Side of the Anjing House?”

The Storyteller Said With a Smile, “Normal People Would Find It Very Difficult to Have a Good Impression of Organizations Like the Pyro Company. No Matter How Good They Might Have Been in the Past, the Current Pyro Company Has Already Gone Astray on the Path of Genetic Evolution.”

“Do You Mean That the Pyro Company Used to Be Good?” Ren Xiaosu Asked.

“Apparently, Even Though They Were Also Somewhat Extreme During the Pre-cataclysm Times, They Would Still Show Some Restraint in Their Behavior.” the Storyteller Said, “When the World Lost Order After the Cataclysm, Their Ambitions Started Growing Too Rapidly.”

Ren Xiaosu Muttered, “but It Doesn’t Feel Like They’re That Powerful….”

The Storyteller Was Left Speechless for a Moment. He Snapped, “How Can You Say That They Aren’t Powerful When They’re an Organization That Controls Ten Strongholds and Has a Ripple Effect on the Entire Alliance of Strongholds? You Only Think That They Aren’t Powerful Because You’ve Killed Several of Their Members Before. But What if You’re Facing a 100 Members of Their Advanced Fighting Forces? An Organization That Can Mass Produce Super Soldiers Should Never Be Judged Based on the Strength of an Individual Soldier. You Have to Multiply That by the Numbers They Have.”

Ren Xiaosu Smacked His Lips. “Alright…”

As Soon as His Voice Trailed Off, Ren Xiaosu Suddenly Heard the Voice From the Palace State, “Quest: Take in an Injured Person for Three Days.”

Ren Xiaosu Was Stunned. It Had Probably Been Two Months Since He Heard the Palace Assign Him a Quest. As a Matter of Fact, Ever Since He Encountered the Superhumans Who Could Manipulate Metal and Summon a Painted Dragon at Stronghold 63 a Few Days Ago, He Became Really Eager to Learn Their Powers.

If He Had That Dragon Painting Power, It Could Come in Quite Handy to Entertain His Children With in the Future! Ahem, Perhaps He Had Gotten a Little Too Far Ahead of Himself.

Even Though He Wanted to Learn Those Powers, He Could Not Do Anything Without a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll. Hence, the Palace’s Quests Were Essential.

But There Had to Be a Reason Why the Palace Would Suddenly Assign Him a Quest to Take in Someone Who Was Injured.

Ren Xiaosu Got Up to Leave. The Storyteller Asked From Behind Him, “Where Are You Going? Didn’t You Say That You Don’t Want to Get Involved in That Mess?”

Ren Xiaosu Snapped, “I’m Going Home to Sleep!”

He Wasn’t Looking to Get Involved in Any Chaos, but Based on What the Palace Had Said, It Was a Clear Sign That Trouble Had Come Looking for Him Instead!

On His Way Back Home, Ren Xiaosu Kept Walking Past Other Refugees Who Were Watching the Ruckus From Town. As the Refugees Did Not Have Any Activities to Keep Them Entertained at Night, They Really Hoped the Fighting Would Go on for Longer When They Saw a Battle Going on in the Stronghold.

After All, Those Big Shots Responsible for Stirring Up Trouble Had Always Looked Down on the Townspeople. Even if Battles Broke Out Occasionally, the Hostile Forces Would Not Do Anything to the Refugees. That Was Because They Still Needed Refugees to Work for Them as They Could Not Let the Factories Go Unmanned!

When Ren Xiaosu Arrived at the Entrance of His Home, He First Checked the Main Door and Found That the Padlock Was Still Intact. However, He Caught a Whiff of a Sweet, Metallic Odor Coming From the Inside the House Through the Gap in the Door. It Was the Smell of Blood.

He Opened the Door With His Key Calmly. But as Soon as He Pushed Open the Door, He Saw a Pathetic Figure Attack Him With a Dagger From Inside the House. To Ren Xiaosu’s Further Surprise, Two Vines Sprouted Out From the Ground as Though They Were Trying to Grab Ahold of His Ankles.

But the Attacker Seemed to Have Aggravated a Wound With This Surprise Attack on Ren Xiaosu. This Caused the Attacker to Lose Control of Their Movement, and the Vines That Sprouted Out of the Ground Also Withered Away.

Ren Xiaosu Easily Grabbed the Attacker’s Wrist That Was Brandishing a Dagger at Him. However, He Gasped When He Realized the Wrist Was Very Slender. It Turned Out This Was a Woman’s Wrist.

However, Ren Xiaosu Was Not Really Someone Who Would Go Soft on Women. He Immediately Landed a Knifehand Strike on the Attacker’s Carotid Artery So He Could Properly Size Her Up Afterwards.

However, He Was Surprised by What He Saw. The Attacker Turned Out to Be an Old Acquaintance of His!

Zhou Yingxue!

Why Would That Yang Consortium Spy, Who Had Tried to Get Close to Him by Seducing Him at Stronghold 88 Only to End Up Jumping Rope With Him, Appear Here? And She Even Looked Like She Had Been Seriously Injured?

When Stronghold 88 Was Destroyed, Ren Xiaosu Had Also Apprehended Zhou Yingxue. But at That Time, She Had Anxiously Pleaded With Him to Allow Her to Go Save Her Mother. As Such, He Let Her Off After Some Consideration.

He Had Not Expected to Encounter Her Again Here.

Ren Xiaosu Carried Zhou Yingxue to the Backyard and Saw the Potato Shooters Were Putting on Their Best Behavior. Zhou Yingxue Probably Escaped Being Attacked by the Potato Shooters Due to Her Power to Manipulate Plants.

Zhou Yingxue Had Even Controlled Two Vines on the Ground to Attack Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu Snapped at the Potato Shooters, “Did Y’all Not Attack Her Just Because She Can Manipulate Plants? Why Are Y’all So Useless?”

The Five Potato Shooters Gently Spat Out a Few Potatoes as Though They Were Trying to Get Back Into Ren Xiaosu’s Good Books. ‘here, Have Some Potatoes.’

Ren Xiaosu Did Not Know Whether to Laugh or Cry. What the Hell Was This?

He Looked at Zhou Yingxue, Who He Had Thrown to the Side. Then He Listened to the Gunfire That Was Still Ringing Out in the Stronghold. The Wang Consortium’s Troops Had Probably Been Alerted Now Since the Gunfire Seemed to Have Only Gotten Even More Intense.

Chapter 490: The mystery of the mission assignments

Chapter 490 The mystery of the mission assignments
the fighting in the stronghold continued until late into the night, but even then, it did not stop. ren xiaosu could still hear gunfire coming from the stronghold in his yard every now and then.

ren xiaosu thought that if he had not been at stronghold 63 two days ago, that battle would probably have also lasted this long.

fortunately, the battle in the stronghold had attracted the attention of stronghold 61’s garrison troops. otherwise, the enemy might have already come searching for zhou yingxue.

he wondered if zhou yingxue had been seen by anyone when she fled?

but how should he handle zhou yingxue now? after he tied her up, ren xiaosu suddenly remembered he had also bound her like this in their last encounter. always meeting under such circumstances just did not feel right to him.

zhou yingxue gradually came to. when she regained consciousness, she struggled for a bit in the chair and realized she could not move. then she looked up at ren xiaosu and said, “what are you trying to do? why are you here? are you here to arrest me? don’t tell me you’ve joined the pyro company or the wang consortium?”

“hold it right there!” ren xiaosu said, “this is my fucking house. you were the one who intruded into my house in the middle of the night, so how dare you ask why i’m here? is that even appropriate? shouldn’t i be the one asking what you’re doing here? what are you plotting against me?”

when zhou yingxue heard that, she got so angry she nearly flipped. who was plotting against you?!

but zhou yingxue could not understand why this was ren xiaosu’s residence. wasn’t this place in the town outside stronghold 61?

in zhou yingxue’s opinion, ren xiaosu was a much stronger supernatural being than her, so he shouldn’t be living in a town like this.

but she had lost too much blood and could not think straight anymore. she only barely managed to argue back, “lie! continue lying! how can a person like you possibly be living here?”

after that, zhou yingxue quietly watched as ren xiaosu held up a key and lock. when he gently twisted the key, the padlock opened.

seemingly afraid that zhou yingxue could not see it clearly, ren xiaosu relocked the padlock and twisted the key again. just like that, he repeated the process many times.

it was like he was mocking zhou yingxue silently.

zhou yingxue could feel her head starting to hurt. “stop it, stop opening it already!”

she could not understand why there was such an annoying person in this world!

ren xiaosu chuckled and said, “this is the padlock on my house door. the plants in the backyard were planted by me. the chair you’re sitting in was made by a carpenter i hired. on the nightstand next to the chair are books from stronghold 88’s library that i stole—i mean, borrowed.”

with that, zhou yingxue was finally convinced. she kept quiet for a while before asking, “what’re you doing here? where did you all go after stronghold 88 was destroyed? were you the ones responsible for that?”

ren xiaosu asked, “you were partly in charge of the intelligence work at the yang consortium, so how can you not know that it was the li consortium’s nanosoldiers who were responsible for it? you must’ve encountered those soldiers that lost their minds that night, right? by the way, did you manage to save your mother?”

“yes, i got her out.” when zhou yingxue recalled that she had only managed to save her mother because ren xiaosu decided to let her go, her anger subsided a little.

but when zhou yingxue thought about it again, she felt that something was not right. ren xiaosu was the one who had tied her up at that time. she had just finished her grocery shopping and was about to return home to cook for her mother. however, she met this guy on the way and was knocked out by him!

zhou yingxue asked, “what do you want from me now?”

“come, i want you to answer some of my questions.” ren xiaosu smiled and said, “are you a member of the anjing house?”

“no.” zhou yingxue shook her head. “at least not yet.”

“then you must be an a-rank hitwoman, right?” ren xiaosu said with a smile, “since you’re a woman, it’s not convenient for me to body search you. where do you keep your cell phone? hand it over.”

zhou yingxue no longer possessed the charming aura she had back at the library. instead, she was wearing a tight-fitting, black t-shirt and a pair of pants that gave her a rather nimble look.

actually, zhou yingxue was not exactly the beautiful type and could only be considered slightly above average-looking. however, she possessed a certain demeanor that made her stand out.

zhou yingxue suddenly asked, “how do you know about the anjing house and the contract killers?”

“ahem.” ren xiaosu said with restraint, “coincidentally, i’m also a contract killer myself.”

zhou yingxue was really stunned this time. “you’re also an a-rank hitman?”

“no, i’m a d-rank….” ren xiaosu took out a d-rank cell phone that he had snatched from someone but never used before.

zhou yingxue burst into laughter. “what? you’re a d-rank?! you must be kidding, right? how can a supernatural being like you be a d-rank hitman?”

ren xiaosu said unhappily, “is it that funny? aren’t we supposed to complete the missions and get promoted slowly? didn’t you also start off as a d-rank?”

“of course not.” zhou yingxue belly laughed. “when supernatural beings make their known identities, they’ll be issued a new cell phone, and the missions assigned through them will also be different. you stole that phone from a d-rank hitman, right? you can’t receive any a-rank missions. also, an a-rank hitman’s cell phone is matched to their fingerprints.”

“that can’t be. i can receive a-rank missions too.” ren xiaosu was puzzled.

hold on! actually, he had not received any a-rank missions before. but ever since he stirred up all that trouble at stronghold 61 and 63, he started receiving them.

he took zhou yingxue’s cell phone from her right pants pocket. her phone was much more exquisite than his, and the camera’s quality was also clearer. there was also an area reserved for the fingerprint scanner to unlock the cell phone.

so was he only receiving information about the a-rank missions because the anjing house had given him special treatment after realizing he was the one who stirred up all that trouble?

if so, he would have to be more careful when he performed his missions from now on.

although he could also get promoted to a-rank by declaring himself to the anjing house that he was a supernatural being like zhou yingxue, he did not want to expose his identity.

he had thought about stealing an a-rank hitman’s cell phone, but the anjing house required a-rank hitmen to switch to new cell phones that had fingerprint verification software. each a-rank hitman would get a phone that could only be unlocked specifically by them.

therefore, every killer needed to change to a new cell phone after they got promoted to a-rank. if he had to swap for a new phone, he would have to deal directly with an anjing house member to get his fingerprint id set up. wouldn’t his identity still get exposed?

ren xiaosu asked, “did a member of the anjing house personally hand you your new cell phone?”

“no.” zhou yingxue shook her head. “it was delivered to me by a white paper crane. the anjing house has never questioned the identities of the hitmen. whether they wish to keep their identities secret or publicize it, that’s all up to them.”

realization dawned upon ren xiaosu. so that’s how it was. it was all good as long as there was no need for him to meet them in person. and he could finally confirm that the supernatural being who controlled the paper cranes was from anjing house. he wondered what position that person held within the anjing house.

it was probably not an important position, right? after all, from the looks of it, that supernatural being was merely a messenger of sorts…

suddenly, zhou yingxue said, “untie me, please. i need to clean my wound. i’ll tell you whatever you want to know after that. if i don’t treat my wound soon, i’ll die….”

Chapter 491: The girl I like is much prettier than you

Chapter 491 The girl I like is much prettier than you
ren xiaosu glanced at zhou yingxue’s wound. “don’t worry, it’s not a fatal wound. you won’t die within the next three days.”

zhou yingxue was furious. what did he mean that she wouldn’t die within the next three days? “it’s not like i only want to live for three days. if i’m dead, who’s gonna take care of my mother? she’s over 50 and has been diagnosed with cancer! do you think i chose to become a hired gun for my own sake? i needed to make money to treat her illness!”

when he heard this, ren xiaosu went silent for a moment before untying her ropes. he just could not bear to hear such things.

zhou yingxue heaved a sigh of relief. she considered herself to have made the right bet this time. ren xiaosu was still someone with principles. if he could let her go the previous time, he would do the same this time.

if it had been someone unprincipled, they would not care about the life and death of her mother. back then, zhou yingxue would definitely not have escaped from their clutches and could even end up being humiliated before her death.

she was fortunate she bumped into ren xiaosu.

but upon further thought, would zhou yingxue have been tied up easily by anyone if she had not encountered a powerful supernatural being like ren xiaosu?

after her ropes were undone, zhou yingxue said in a low voice, “i have to treat my wound, so can you go outside for a while?”

“why do i have to go outside when you’re treating your wound?”

zhou yingxue said softly, “i have to undress.”

ren xiaosu calmly replied, “if you’re gonna say that, i won’t feel sleepy anymore….”

“i know that you’re not that sort of a person,” zhou yingxue said softly.

ren xiaosu raised an eyebrow but did not say anything in the end. then he walked out to the backyard to peel some potatoes.

zhou yingxue heaved a sigh of relief again. she was lucky to meet a principled man like him in these current times. she suddenly wondered why a powerful supernatural being like ren xiaosu would have a bottom line. if she hadn’t been let off by ren xiaosu before, she would definitely find this unbelievable.

while she was taking off her t-shirt slowly in the room, some rustling came from the room. even so, ren xiaosu still continued peeling his potatoes as though no one were around.

zhou yingxue was quietly watching from the room. when she realized ren xiaosu was really not going to come into the room, she suddenly made her way towards the main door. she wanted to take this opportunity to escape.

however, ren xiaosu’s voice drifted in. “do you believe i won’t kill you if you take another two steps?”

zhou yingxue immediately froze. she explained, “i’m just looking for a sewing kit to stitch up my wound. i have a very deep knife wound that needs to be stitched up.”

a sewing kit and a vial of black medicine were thrown in from the outside. “apply this medicine after the wound’s been stitched up, and remember to thank me after that.”

zhou yingxue felt helpless. she realized that even though she was an a-rank hitwoman who would usually bring fear to people, she still felt a sense of powerlessness at all times when facing ren xiaosu.

back at stronghold 88, the young man appeared to be a very harmless person. how could anyone expect that he would actually be this terrifying? it was only later on that she understood how powerful ren xiaosu was after she had fallen into his hands once.

even if the official members of the anjing house were here, they would probably not be able to do anything about ren xiaosu either.

zhou yingxue could only focus on treating her wound. while stitching it up, she asked, “why did you also become a contract killer for the anjing house?”

ren xiaosu answered while peeling potatoes, “to make money.”

“then you could have just declared to the anjing house that you’re a supernatural being,” zhou yingxue said as she did not understand. however, she then realized it. “no, wait! you don’t wish to reveal your identity?”

ren xiaosu said with a deadpan voice, “you know too much.”

zhou yingxue shuddered in her mind and quickly changed the subject. “but with your strength, you should’ve been promoted to the next rank very quickly. why are you still stuck at d-rank?”

“i just bought the cell phone recently.” ren xiaosu asked, “are you done changing?”

“yes.”

ten minutes later, zhou yingxue growled as she sat on the chair and looked at the rope that was retied around her body, “we’re old acquaintances, and i’m an injured girl, so how could you do this to me? do you still consider yourself a man?!”

however, ren xiaosu was lying on the bed and sleeping soundly as though no one were around. before sleeping, he even patiently instructed, “because of you, i’m still awake when it’s close to daybreak. stop your whining, or i’ll have to gag you. can you be more conscious of things?”

zhou yingxue did not say anything else. she realized ren xiaosu still had his gun pointed at her even when he was sleeping.

it was already noon when zhou yingxue slowly woke up in her chair. although she had slept a little last night, she did not have a good night’s sleep in the slightest.

when she woke up, she could smell an aroma coming from the kitchen. curious, she asked, “what are you cooking?”

“potatoes,” ren xiaosu answered calmly. “don’t you know what those plants in my backyard are?”

zhou yingxue replied blankly, “no.”

although she was also capable of getting friendly with plant life, she could only control the plants that were planted with her superpower.

in reality, zhou yingxue’s power was not strong at all. or at least, in actual combat, she was far inferior to the supernatural beings who could manipulate metal and summon a painted dragon.

it wouldn’t be too much to say that she was one of the weakest a-rank hitmen around…

at this moment, an alert rang on zhou yingxue’s cell phone. ren xiaosu picked it up and was surprised to see a text message. “please reply ‘1’ if you’re still alive and have already fled from the scene. please reply ‘2’ if you need a safe house or require any assistance.”

ren xiaosu untied the rope for zhou yingxue and said, “reply with 1 yourself.”

zhou yingxue was a little confused. “what’s the point of tying me up here? if you’re afraid i’ll expose your whereabouts, wouldn’t it be more convenient for you to just kill me? if you’re not afraid that i’ll leak your secret, why not just let me go instead? that would be safer for you since i won’t be found here if anyone searches your place.” but then zhou yingxue panicked. “don’t tell me you intend to keep me here as a mistress!”

“what the hell are you babbling about?” ren xiaosu snapped, “just stay here quietly for three days, and then you can go wherever you like after that. as for my place getting searched, you don’t have to worry about that. those hitmen and the members of the pyro company in the stronghold have likely already been killed. that’s why the wang consortium did not conduct a follow-up pursuit to come after you. in any case, i didn’t even see any wanted posters.”

zhou yingxue’s mind was a mess. she felt that the situation had only become utterly confusing after she encountered ren xiaosu. she could not understand what he was after. he even requested her to jump rope with him the previous time, so he was obviously not a normal person.

curious, zhou yingxue asked, “you really don’t want to take advantage of me?”

ren xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “the girl i like is much prettier than you!”

zhou yingxue got so angry she nearly flipped out again. he might as well have answered that he wanted to take advantage of her! she really could not accept this injustice!

ren xiaosu found it a little strange when he saw zhou yingxue sulking. why was this woman so weird? when he expressed that he did not want to impose upon her, she got angry!

Chapter 492: Black marke

Chapter 492 Black marke
zhou yingxue looked at ren xiaosu. “the girl you like is yang xiaojin, right?”

ren xiaosu stayed silent and did not answer her question.

zhou yingxue continued, “if it’s yang xiaojin, then i admit that she’s indeed much prettier than me. but didn’t you leave stronghold 88 with her? why don’t i see her around?”

zhou yingxue remembered that ren xiaosu and yang xiaojin were tasked with heading to the valley to the north to exterminate the bandits some time ago. but after that, yang xiaojin was nowhere to be seen.

ren xiaosu glanced at zhou yingxue. “mind your own business. have you heard any news regarding the saboteurs in the central plains while you were here?”

“no.” zhou yingxue shook her head. “although the saboteurs have been active in the central plains in recent years, their organization is much more secretive and vigilant than we thought. some people say they’re hiding behind another organization and giving orders remotely, but no one knows which organization it is.”

“alright.” ren xiaosu sighed. although he had already been in the central plains for two months, he still had not found any of them.

the fighting in stronghold 61 finally stopped. the refugees had already gotten tired of watching the commotion in the middle of the night, but they were somehow unable to fall asleep when they returned to their shacks. when they woke up in the morning to go to work at the factory, all of them had dark circles under their eyes and were yawning.

but on their way to the factory with the other workers, they were still discussing last night’s battle with great enthusiasm and speculating happily about how the battle might have broken out.

unlike the gloomy expressions on the stronghold residents, the refugees did not feel that the battle had anything to do with them.

the refugees and stronghold residents seemed to be living in two different worlds. there was even a clear distinction between their stand on matters and values.

ren xiaosu would often get emotional when he saw such things happening, but zhou yingxue did not care about these matters. the only question she had for ren xiaosu was, “why are we always eating potatoes for every meal!”

ren xiaosu said nonchalantly, “just make do with it. it’s great to even have potatoes to eat.”

then ren xiaosu untied the rope for zhou yingxue and stuffed two boiled potatoes into her hands. zhou yingxue took advantage of this rare free time to quickly stretch herself to prevent her joints from going stiff.

ren xiaosu was still rambling, “yesterday, you asked me why a supernatural being like me would live in a town? that’s because i was originally a refugee. you’re already getting sick of eating potatoes after having them for two meals. but did you know that the refugees in the northwest and southwest don’t even have potatoes to eat sometimes? who wouldn’t like to eat rice and noodles every day? but can they afford to have those?”

zhou yingxue was stunned. then she asked in a whisper, “do you usually only eat potatoes too?”

“no.” ren xiaosu shook his head. “i usually eat at the tavern since i have money.”

zhou yingxue was surprised. she wanted to smash the two potatoes in her hands onto ren xiaosu’s face, but she dared not do it as she really could not afford to offend him.

zhou yingxue said with a stern expression, “i want to eat at a tavern too.”

“i think you’re thinking too much.” ren xiaosu chuckled and said, “do you really think that the wang consortium’s people are all deadbeats? you’re gonna swagger around in town after creating trouble in their stronghold?”

zhou yingxue immediately felt aggrieved. why did she, a supernatural being, feel so powerless before ren xiaosu?

back when she was at stronghold 88, many young and talented people had tried wooing her. she was also one of the top performers in the yang consortium’s intelligence agency in terms of assassination, intelligence gathering, and infiltration. otherwise, she would not have been able to escape the stronghold while the other a-rank hitmen fought for their lives there.

but a supernatural being like her was now reduced to eating potatoes to survive.

wait a minute. zhou yingxue suddenly asked, “where did the plants in your backyard come from?”

zhou yingxue finally felt that something was off. she had seen ren xiaosu make those plants spit out the potatoes with her own eyes. that sight almost upended her understanding of things. shouldn’t potatoes grow underground?

ren xiaosu said with a smile, “they were already around when i bought the house.”

“do you think i believe that?” zhou yingxue said stubbornly.

“then i must have bought the seeds from someone.” ren xiaosu chuckled.

“nonsense, i’ve never seen anyone selling strange seeds like that on the black market before.” zhou yingxue frowned.

“black market?” ren xiaosu’s interest was piqued. “there’s even something like a black market in the central plains?”

“you’ve never seen a black market before?” zhou yingxue was taken aback. “there’s always illicit trading hubs like that everywhere, and the things they sell there are all banned items.”

“are there any flying treasures that can soar in the sky? or perhaps legendary magical weapons? aren’t we in the era of supernatural beings?” ren xiaosu asked curiously.

“no, there’s nothing like what you’ve mentioned there.” zhou yingxue rolled her eyes. “the main trades involve firearms and medicine, as well as some pre-cataclysm technology that various small groups dug out from somewhere. finally, there’s also intel trading. i also bought my initial cell phone from the black market.”

ren xiaosu gasped. “you can even buy a contract killers’ cell phone on the black market? how much does a cell phone cost?”

“500,000 a piece!” zhou yingxue said.

ren xiaosu was startled. “that much? the reward for a d-rank mission is only 20,000 yuan!”

“but if you get promoted to c-rank, you can easily earn it back after completing five missions.” zhou yingxue said, “besides, some cell phones are not purchased by hitmen. they’re bought by some important figures who are enemies of the anjing house as a form of self-preservation. although they can’t receive details of a-rank missions, they can receive missions that are b-ranked and below. if the anjing house releases a mission that targets them, they can make preparations in advance.”

“eh, doesn’t the anjing house know about this?” ren xiaosu wondered.

“they don’t seem to care,” zhou yingxue said.

“what else can you find on the black market?” ren xiaosu asked.

“oh, there’s many hitmen that stay long term near a black market, because those places have the safest hotels around. whenever the anjing house releases group missions, the hitmen there can form a party with the help of the hotel and disband after the mission is completed.” zhou yingxue said, “for example, the mission at stronghold 63 two days ago, or the mission at stronghold 61 yesterday, they could both be carried out as a group.”

realization dawned upon ren xiaosu. when he saw the text messages, he was wondering how those hitmen were supposed to work in groups when they usually hid their tracks and did not know each other.

so it turned out that there was a whole other world in this underworld organization.

ren xiaosu became a little interested in the black market. he wondered what level he was at compared to the other hitmen on the black market. furthermore, there should be a lot of a-rank hitmen there as well, and he might even get to meet the members of the anjing house too. simply thinking about it, anyone would know that this would be a place where supernatural beings gathered.

he would finish the quest of taking in the injured zhou yingxue soon. after that, how great would it be when he could use the skill duplication scroll to copy a superpower? he still had his mind set on that sugar painting power.

“bring me to the black market in two days,” ren xiaosu told zhou yingxue.

Chapter 493: Hostage and railroad

Chapter 493 Hostage and railroad
it was now september, and the nights at fortress 178 were already getting chilly. the residents working outside the fortress began to return home with a rich amount of pay. due to the generous wages received from working outside the fortress, many residents would return home to rest after working for half a year outside. for the rest of the winter, they would be on break.

of course, that was also because winter in the northwest was freezing cold.

a lot of residents were still working in the factories outside the stronghold. by the end of october, the roads outside would be blocked by snow.

at that time, only the soldiers of fortress 178 would be left outside to guard the border outposts. they would be manning their positions throughout the winter without any entertainment and would also have to perform sentry duty. as such, some people would teach themselves a craft, learn the harmonica or accordion, as well as pick up many other strange skills while on duty.

it was not because they were eager to learn new skills; rather, they were bored. this was just their way of coping with the loneliness at those border outposts.

in the evening, six off-road vehicles drove in from the southwest direction. the convoy was like a sharp arrow flying true at fortress 178.

when they were about 170 kilometers away from fortress 178, they were suddenly pulled over by the patrolling troops. the patrol from fortress 178 came through the vehicle intercom, “you are now entering a zone with restricted radio communication. please turn off your radio equipment and pull over for inspection.”

luo lan, who was in one of the off-road vehicles, chuckled and said, “let’s pull over then. fortress 178’s defensive measures have always been really strict, and even our qing consortium can’t compare to them in this area. after all, their mission is to guard against external enemies.”

all six of the off-road vehicles turned off their onboard radios and slowly pulled over. on the side of the road, three platoons stood up in the wilderness and approached them in full combat gear.

luo lan got out of the vehicle first and raised his hands high. wearing a pair of sunglasses on his face, he looked like a crime lord who engaged in smuggling. “friends, i’m luo lan from the qing consortium. i’ve already informed your commander zhang about this trip!”

a fortress 178 soldier calmly said, “please wait a moment. i need to report this to the general staff first.”

as he spoke, the other soldiers’ guns stayed aimed at luo lan. however, he was not flustered at all.

beside him, zhou qi curled his lips and said, “why’re they acting like we’re bandits? let’s quickly deal with the business here. we still have to hurry to the central plains. it’s turmoil over there.”

“don’t get so anxious,” luo lan said with a smile as he looked at the black muzzles of the guns pointing at him. “why aren’t you behaving like a subordinate at all? as a subordinate, you should understand that any business of the qing consortium’s leader has to be handled with the utmost urgency.”

zhou qi adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses. “i’m not a subordinate. i’m just working for money.”

“haha, we shouldn’t be thinking about anything other than our objective,” luo lan said with a laugh.

when the soldiers of fortress 178 saw how this fatso kept a straight face, they were somewhat impressed. he was a brave person indeed.

suddenly, the company commander to the rear agreed to let them through after contacting the general staff and confirming the legitimacy of luo lan’s visit to fortress 178.

but before the fortress 178 troops allowed them to carry on with their journey, they collected all their weapons and made the group transfer to the patrol vehicles to proceed on.

when the convoy arrived at fortress 178 in the night, xu xianchu came out to receive them instead of zhang jinglin.

luo lan looked at xu xianchu with a smile. he put his arm warmly over xu xianchu’s shoulder and praised, “brother xu is such a young and promising man. i’m sorry you had to suffer in the private troops of our qing consortium’s stronghold. how about this? why don’t you come back to the southwest with us? i guarantee you’ll have meat to eat and wine to drink, and you’ll also get to enjoy a life of endless riches.”

xu xianchu politely rejected his offer. “stop dreaming.”

however, luo lan was unfazed. he continued with a laugh, “it gets freezing cold in the northwest every winter, and it isn’t as prosperous and interesting in the fortress compared to our south. if you go back to the southwest, i’ll find ten concubines for you!”

next to them, zhou qi said with a sigh, “fatty luo, you really sound like the villain of a story right now.”

luo lan said unhappily, “although i’ve committed murder and arson, i’m still a good person overall.”

“pfft.” zhou qi and xu xianchu spurned him at the same time.

“alright, enough chattering for now. let’s get down to business.” luo lan said to xu xianchu, “hurry up and find a place to swap documents so we can leave.”

when xu xianchu led luo lan and the others to a remote and quiet street, he said, “commander zhang informed only me about today’s meeting, so you don’t have to worry about your secrets getting revealed. and while we at fortress 178 don’t claim we’re better than others in most things, we definitely have the least number of spies from other organizations active here.”

“alright, enough with your bragging. i know you all are capable.” luo lan chuckled.

then xu xianchu asked, “where’s the hostage you brought along? is it this four eyes beside you?”

zhou qi said unhappily, “i have a name, y’know. what do you mean by four eyes?”

however, luo lan gave a hand signal to a soldier behind him. xu xianchu was taken aback for a moment. “is that the hostage the qing consortium is sending us? y’all better not be sending someone unimportant to us.”

the soldier took off the peaked cap, and a head of black, silky hair rolled down behind her back like a waterfall.

luo lan said with a smile, “this is the woman our qing consortium leader is fond of. will she do?”

xu xianchu frowned and looked behind him. then a middle-aged soldier walked out and said, “she’ll do.”

luo lan was amused. “you must be wang fengyuan, right? i’ve heard so much about you!”

xu xianchu did not say any more. if wang fengyuan said that she would do, then it was definitely enough.

wang fengyuan did not answer luo lan. “aren’t y’all afraid that by sending her to us, we’ll use her against your qing consortium in the future?”

“don’t worry, our qing consortium does not have any plans of unifying the world. i hope that our two sides will never need to fight each other!” so saying, luo lan turned around and left.

zhou qi chased after him and asked, “we’re leaving just like that? why didn’t i hear about qing zhen liking a girl?”

luo lan answered in disregard to the question, “that lady was originally an opera performer in stronghold 111. she was even a ‘main lead’ too. back when the board was trying to get ahold of qing zhen’s weakness, they realized he had never been to the same opera theater twice. he just left whichever girl performed to fate.

“even though they did not know which girl qing zhen had his eyes on, what the board did not do wrong was to shutter all the theaters and arrest all the women. then, qing zhen realized it was useless even if he visited a different theater each time. the moment he stepped into the arena, his opponents would all be cruel beyond imagination. moreover, the opponents he would be facing in the future would definitely be much crueler than the last.”

zhou qi sighed and said, “so qing zhen decided to send her here as a hostage? that’s even more bewildering.”

“hehe, zhang jinglin is one of the few honorable people left in the world. sending her here to be a hostage is actually the safest choice.” luo lan said with a grin, “soon, it will no longer be safe at our qing consortium. at that time, qing zhen won’t be able to divert his attention to protect her anymore.”

“but fortress 178 did not exchange hostages with us, so why should we hand over a hostage to them?” zhou qi wondered.

luo lan said firmly, “for the railroad of course.”

the qing consortium had wanted to connect their railroad to fortress 178’s railroad and open up a route to the central plains. however, zhang jinglin rejected them.

after two long months of negotiations, the two sides finally reached a consensus on this point. although the qing consortium paid a heavy price, qing zhen thought it was worthwhile. he even took the initiative to offer a political hostage to fortress 178.

luo lan understood that this girl might appear to be a hostage on the surface, but it was actually so that fortress 178 could protect her. as long as the qing consortium did not declare war on fortress 178, this would be the safest haven for her.

zhou qi clicked his tongue. “she’s no ordinary person either, judging by how calm she was even after being sent here as a hostage.”

“well, any woman my younger brother likes would definitely have to be extraordinary.”

Chapter 494: A new world

Chapter 494 A new world
when luo lan and the others departed, the fleet of off-road vehicles left a cloud of dust in their wake as they drove all the way eastwards. their destination this time was the central plains.

on the way, luo lan did not even dare to open the windows. he was worried he would end up eating sand if a gust of wind blew in. “only those people from fortress 178 treat this godforsaken place as treasure and guard it so wholeheartedly. we’ll be arriving at the fascinating world in the central plains soon. i’m getting a little excited just thinking about it.”

zhou qi was sitting next to him, but he had been silent for some time, apparently thinking about something. he suddenly said, “i can understand you all want to open up the railroads, but everything is already safe and peaceful in the southwest, so why are you still constantly acting like there’s danger at every corner?”

zhou qi used to be the secretary for the qing consortium board. so even if he looked slovenly right now, he was not stupid.

judging by qing zhen’s move to send that girl to the northwest, the qing consortium was already determined to form an alliance with fortress 178. “and how did you guys manage to persuade fortress 178 to agree to let us build the railroad? y’know, it’ll take less than a day to get from stronghold 111 to fortress 178 if the railroad gets completed.”

in this way, if the qing consortium launched a first strike in the future, the railroad would be a lifeline that could transport soldiers and military supplies continuously as long as a stable forward operating base was established. it would probably be much faster to transport their soldiers there than to deploy their mechanized infantry!

“wait,” zhou qi said to himself, “could it be that you have a common enemy? but where’s this enemy? it’s like you’re all facing a formidable foe.”

“to say that it’s a formidable foe would be an exaggeration.” luo lan chuckled and said, “at worst, you can say that we’re preparing for a rainy day! we’ve also paid a heavy price for this outcome. first, if fortress 178 encounters external enemies again someday, our qing consortium’s troops will have to rush to the battlefield as support.”

“what?” zhou qi was stunned. “did zhang jinglin agree to let you station our troops next to him?”

“of course not.” luo lan shook his head. “from today onwards, the qing consortium will have to open up a corridor in the southwest through the mountain range in the west. that corridor will cut through the hinterlands of the plateau. if someone attacks fortress 178, we’ll have to support and outflank them from behind.”

“it won’t be easy to open up a corridor in the mountain range.” zhou qi sighed.

“it wasn’t easy to get fortress 178 to agree to us connecting railroads either. all i can say is that both sides made their concessions and put in a lot of hard work to reach a deal,” luo lan said calmly.

“alright, even if zhang jinglin believes you’ll support them when the time comes, who’s the qing consortium’s enemy?” zhou qi asked.

“the wang consortium in the central plains.” luo lan said with a smile, “can you imagine that? actually, i also didn’t expect qing zhen to care so much about that wang consortium initially.”

“that’s interesting.” zhou qi’s interest was piqued. “i heard that wang shengzhi is wheelchair-bound and always treats others with kindness. why would you be afraid of a person like him?”

“we aren’t afraid of anyone.” luo lan looked at the loess outside the window. “but not all is as peaceful in the qing consortium as you think. the qing consortium has become the most powerful organization on the surface in the entire alliance of strongholds, with more than 40 strongholds under its control. as our consortium grows more powerful, a lot of people will start paying more attention to the southwest.”

“then what does it have anything to do with the wang consortium?” zhou qi asked this question as he understood very little about the wang consortium.

“wang shengzhi spent ten years uniting the wang consortium and opened the most important resource route in the northwest. he also worked hard to implement a mandatory military service during this time. it might not look like anything at first, and the wang consortium does not have a lot of active troops at the moment, but things will change as time passes. once a war breaks out, almost all of the wang consortium’s adult males under the age of 35 can immediately bear arms and become soldiers,” luo lan calmly explained.

“they only implemented military service.” zhou qi said in confusion, “you can’t solely use that to accuse them of being ever ready to wage war against others, can you?”

“it’s not only that. qing zhen also said the wang consortium’s been purchasing silk at high prices since years ago. the zhou consortium’s territory has some of the most suitable places for silkworm breeding, so many of their refugees fled into the mountains to breed silkworms while the wang consortium quietly purchased their silk at high prices. they even provided the refugees with supplies too. guess what? two years ago, the zhou consortium discovered they had fewer and fewer refugees, and many of their factories had shortages of manpower. they nearly did not have enough food to feed their people!” luo lan chuckled and said, “of course, the wang consortium did many other things too.”

“i’d like to know how qing zhen views the wang consortium.” zhou qi frowned.

luo lan said calmly, “he said the wang consortium has the ambition of unifying the alliance of strongholds.”

“so zhang jinglin agreed to your proposal because he and qing zhen have the same thoughts, and both parties will work together secretly to fend off any future danger?” zhou qi sighed. “can’t we all just lead a peaceful life? isn’t it quite good to just make some money, chase some skirts, and enjoy a life of luxury? why’s there always someone who wants to conquer everything in the world?”

luo lan said with a smile, “you and i have witnessed a great deal of the greed of humans, but wang shengzhi is doing this not for greed… and that’s the scariest thing about him. also, the qing consortium still has some old rivals from years ago. for example, the leader of the saboteurs never let go of her prejudice against us. and the pyro company has been unhappy with us for a long time too….”

“if you put it that way, it feels to me that everyone in the world is an enemy…” zhou qi said in a speechless manner. “i’m more curious if the qing consortium really has a nuclear base.”

luo lan chuckled and said, “guess.”

zhou qi curled his lips. “stop acting so mysteriously.”

luo lan lamented, “if only we could’ve gotten ren xiaosu onto our side. that would’ve been great. with him stationed at stronghold 111, my brother wouldn’t have to sleep in the barracks every day.”

“who are you looking down on?” zhou qi said unhappily, “didn’t i used to stand guard at his side? what? you don’t believe i can protect him? how’s ren xiaosu better than me?”

“are you brave enough to attack stronghold 146 all by yourself?” luo lan asked.

zhou qi paused for a moment. “never mind! but who’ll protect qing zhen now that i’m going to the central plains?”

“there’s a guy called zheng yuandong who’s returned.” luo lan said with a smile, “he’s even more powerful than i imagined.”

“zheng yuandong?” that name sounds quite familiar.”

“you should be more familiar with his codename, eternal night. he’s now a supernatural being.”

the convoy’s journey to the central plains did not take long at all. luo lan and zhou qi’s mission to head to the central plains seemed to have suddenly become more important. they were looking to use gold to obtain cheap friendship amid the chaos in the central plains. then they would try their best to delay the thing they worried most about for as long as possible until the day it arrived.

this way, qing zhen would have more time to consolidate the resources in the southwest.

of course, it would be even better if they could nip the threat in the bud.

“by the way, what’s up with that qinghe group?” zhou qi asked, “aren’t you guys worried about them too?”

“there’s nothing to worry about.”

Chapter 495: The guy I like has never led a pampered life

495 The guy I like has never led a pampered life
the qinghe group was located in the heartland of the central plains. but unlike other consortiums that often controlled several to over a dozen strongholds, the qinghe group had only ever controlled one. based on its sequence number in the alliance of strongholds, that should be stronghold 66.

but over the years, the people from the qinghe group did not care that it was called stronghold 66 and simply referred to it as luoyang city.

over time, other people also began to call that stronghold luoyang city.

it was unique just like fortress 178.

before the alliance of strongholds was established, the qinghe group had already shown they had a strong side. they had a fixed and stable organizational structure, and many technologies that had been preserved from the pre-cataclysm times. of course, they did not manage to preserve all of them.

at first, the other consortiums were constantly wary of the qinghe group. but after time passed, everyone realized they did not seem to be interested in expanding their territory at all.

moreover, the qinghe group had never gotten involved in the competition for resources in the central plains all these years. they seemed to only be persistently searching for something.

but there was something even stranger. the person currently in charge of the qinghe group was surnamed xu. the leadership role had been passed down from father to son through old xu’s family lineage. it was said that his ancestors used to sell sanitary pads. later on, a tech expert named xu nuo emerged, and he became wildly successful working under the big boss of the qinghe group.

however, it seemed that the big boss of the qinghe group did not have any offspring, so the xu clan took over stewardship of the qinghe group. however, they always insisted they were only minority shareholders. when they located the heir of the major shareholder, they would step down and make way for that person to take over.

this stand later became a joke that circulated around. who would step down to make way for others in this age of wastelands?

up to the present, the qinghe group had become a very special existence in the central plains. it was located between the wang consortium, the chen consortium, and the kong consortium. the wang consortium occupied the northwest section of the central plains, which connected to fortress 178. the kong consortium was located in the northeast that connected to the sea and guandong.[1] meanwhile, the zhou consortium was situated at the intersection of three rivers and spread downwards to the south.

although there were more than a dozen other consortiums in the central plains, these three consortiums were the most powerful here.

however, the qinghe group was special not because of its unique geographic location but because of how it conducted itself. luoyang city possessed the largest institution of higher learning in the entire alliance of strongholds, and it had a model of teaching that was closest to the pre-cataclysm times.

meanwhile, the establishment of universities in the other consortiums was done only to serve the research of their own technologies. all of them had a very utilitarian focus. as all the different research subjects were done for the sake of improving the power of the consortium someday, the children of other consortiums were not allowed to study at their universities.

but unlike other universities, anyone could take part in the exams for qinghe university. they taught a variety of subjects, and they even included the arts in this age of wastelands.

when such courses were set up initially, many consortiums jokingly criticized how there could be any space for the arts to survive in these times.

furthermore, when the other consortiums acquired the cultural heritage from before the cataclysm, they focused heavily on laboratory data and some technological research results. meanwhile, the qinghe group collected everything they could get their hands on and even sent their own people to look for such items. they seemed to be particularly interested in calligraphy, paintings, and antiques, claiming they were treasures of mankind.

a consortium like this was like a different existence in these wastelands. there really wasn’t another consortium that behaved like them in this world.

at this moment, the students at qinghe university just finished their classes. on campus, the students walked out of their classrooms happily with their backpacks. some of them rushed to the next building for their upcoming classes, while others who did not have any more lessons simply went to attend their club activities.

a girl wearing a cap walked out of the school alone with her schoolbag, her back straight.

someone behind called out to her, “yang xiaojin!”

yang xiaojin calmly looked back. “what’s the matter?”

there were a lot of people on the other side, and the person who spoke was a very tall college student. he was wearing a white shirt and had a very sunny smile on his face. he smiled at yang xiaojin and said, “we have a social this evening, and i’d like to invite you to join us. since school started, you’ve always been going around on your own. are you still getting used to the lifestyle in luoyang city?”

yang xiaojin shook her head. “i only came here to gain more knowledge. i’m not interested in any socials.”

the people behind the male student were whispering among themselves. someone who seemed to be cheering him on said in a low voice, “don’t be shy! hurry up and say it.”

the male student hesitated for a moment before suddenly saying, “yang xiaojin, i like you. can you give me a chance? i can—”

“i already have someone i like,” interrupted yang xiaojin.

that male student froze. he did not know what else to say and started to back down.

yang xiaojin shook her head and said, “see, your feelings for me aren’t even that deep. if i reject you today, you’ll just fall in love with another person tomorrow. your ‘like’ is just you trying your luck. once you hit a stumbling block, you immediately back down.”

off to the side, someone whispered, “she’s going too far.”

the male student struggled and said, “then who do you like? the president of the student council? or…”

yang xiaojin shook her head again. “he’s not in luoyang city. you think that the president of the student council is outstanding because you guys haven’t had a chance to see the outside world yet. the guy i like has never led a pampered life.”

however, yang xiaojin was not sure whether ren xiaosu was still alive or not. she had witnessed the scarlet red spear penetrate his body right before her very eyes. the saboteurs had promised to help her get revenge, but the condition was that she had to do ten things for the organization first.

for the past two months, she kept asking her aunt if there was any news of ren xiaosu. however, all she received was a negative answer.

in order to gain a clearer understanding of the qinghe group, her aunt arranged for her to continue with her studies at qinghe university. however, yang xiaojin was never just a normal student. she had killed people before and had also accompanied someone in building a future filled with hope in the wilderness until that hope was shattered.

but it didn’t matter to her. she believed that ren xiaosu was still alive, and she would locate him sooner or later.

yang xiaojin turned around and left. she walked along kaiyuan avenue back to her home in luoyang city. then she constantly stripped her sniper rifle and cleaned it.

after repeating the process several times, she personally reloaded gunpowder into all the different types of bullets that she had. if the students at school saw this scene, they would probably be shocked. this was not a toy a girl should have.

it was during this time that yang xiaojin slowly calmed down. actually, under her calm appearance, a warm heart was hidden within.

she went to the kitchen to cook a meal for herself. after she finished, she crushed the remaining onion she had and squeezed out the juice.

yang xiaojin took out a thin brush before retrieving a paper crane from her pocket and unfolding it. she dipped the brush into the onion juice and wrote a few lines of words on the paper. after that, she refolded the paper crane.

the paper crane spread its wings as though it had suddenly come to life. then it flew off into the west.

when the recipient received the paper crane, the handwriting inside would be revealed by slightly heating the paper over an open flame.

[1] guandong: often referring to northeast china where the three provinces of heilongjiang, jilin, and liaoning are located in china. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/northeast_china#names

Chapter 496: The Riders organization

Chapter 496 The Riders organization
there were many ways to write a secret letter, such as using a mixture of aminophenazone tablets dissolved in water. through a special process, handwriting written with that mixture could be displayed. another example was to write with a mixture of starch water with rice water. after lightly wiping the paper with an iodine solution, the hidden message would also be revealed.

but yang xiaojin had chosen to use onion juice this time only because this method was relatively simpler. besides, if someone wiped the piece of paper with an iodine solution first, they would not be able to see the handwriting clearly even if they heated it over an open flame afterwards.

when the onion juice was absorbed by the paper, it would start burning at a lower temperature than the paper. therefore, the writing would turn brown when slightly heated.

as yang xiaojin watched the paper crane fly away slowly, it was as though the expectations in her heart were carried off with it. she hoped it would bring good news to her the next time it flew back.

…

ren xiaosu and zhou yingxue were trekking in the wilderness. as the wang consortium had begun arresting suspicious people recently, they thought that traveling in a car would make them too noticeable, so they decided against using one.

the two of them could have gotten their hands on two motorcycles, but they did not know how to ride them…

ren xiaosu’s quest of taking in zhou yingxue had been completed. but to his disappointment, he was only rewarded with the basic skill duplication scroll and not the perfect skill duplication scroll. in other words, he still did not have a scroll that could allow him to copy another’s superpowers.

however, that was not a big problem. there would be other quests in the future, and a perfect skill duplication scroll would surely appear again.

the black market zhou yingxue had talked about was located at the intersection between the wang consortium, the kong consortium, and the zhou consortium. it was situated in a ravine not too far away from luoyang city.

luoyang city was under the control of the qinghe group. in fact, this was the only stronghold the qinghe group possessed.

the organizer of the black market chose to be located near luoyang city as it was convenient for the criminal underworld in the three consortiums to travel there to make purchases. it was close to everywhere.

on top of that, the qinghe group had never cared about such activities as long as nothing too serious arose in the black market.

ren xiaosu asked, “then can anyone get into the black market as they wish?”

“of course!” zhou yingxue said, “this black market is really big as it occupies the size of an entire county from before the cataclysm. it also gets very lively there. many fugitives who are wanted by the various consortiums usually end up hiding there. the rich can also go and hire them to do their dirty work.”

ren xiaosu nodded and said, “alright then, you’ll pretend to be my subordinate after we get there.”

zhou yingxue refused to accept this. “why have i become a follower all of a sudden? i’m a supernatural being for goodness’ sake!”

ren xiaosu turned around and looked at her calmly. zhou yingxue’s tone grew meek. “alright, alright, so be it if i have to act as your subordinate… wait, that won’t do. a lot of people in the black market have seen me before. when we had to work in groups to complete the a-rank missions, we even had to declare our superpowers to each other. if i get recognized by others and it turns out that i’m your subordinate, how powerful would you have to be?”

ren xiaosu thought that it sounded quite logical. he glanced at zhou yingxue and said, “then i guess you can tell others that i’m your assistant.”

with that, zhou yingxue said happily, “in that case, you should behave like an assistant. you can’t order me around again.”

“whatever!” ren xiaosu waved her off impatiently. “you can rest easy.”

when the two of them were about to reach the periphery of the black market, someone from the black market organization came over to ask them something. they did not ask about their identities and only asked what they were here for. they even checked to see if they needed help to book a hotel room.

zhou yingxue said with an arrogant look, “i want to book two hotel rooms.”

“then do you want to rent a car or schedule a massage?”

“not for the time being.”

“alright.”

after saying that, the people from the black market organization left politely. before departing, they even wished them an enjoyable time here.

ren xiaosu smacked his lips. “the service in this black market feels really good.”

zhou yingxue said, “i wonder who’s controlling the black market behind the scenes. they’ve not only made this into a place to trade prohibited goods but also created a solid spending economy. if you spend enough money here, they’ll even send you an invitation to an organized vacation by the beach come every spring. there’s even a massive casino here, and the dealers inside are all dressed…”

ren xiaosu asked, “dressed even more revealing than what you wore in the library back then?”

zhou yingxue’s expression darkened immediately. “must you bring that up?”

ever since zhou yingxue left the yang consortium, she seemed to have turned into a different person. in the past, she had to do certain things because of her job. but now, she was living more for herself.

a supernatural being leaving a consortium was like a bird flying out of a cage.

of course, zhou yingxue was still willing to dress sexily. however, she did not need to deliberately show herself to other men now.

as soon as they entered the black market, sure enough, someone immediately recognized zhou yingxue and came forward to greet her cordially.

some things were different from what ren xiaosu had expected. he thought the previous mission carried out in stronghold 61 was a failure, but many people at the black market were saying that zhou yingxue and the others had completed their mission really well by wiping out all the members of the pyro company at stronghold 61.

however, ren xiaosu realized there was some uncertainty in zhou yingxue’s eyes. he decided he would get to the bottom of it when he had a chance to clarify.

when someone saw ren xiaosu, they said curiously, “this is…”

zhou yingxue coldly waved it off. “he’s just my assistant. you don’t have to care about him.”

ren xiaosu was speechless.

in an instant, ren xiaosu was completely ignored by the group of snobs in front of him. meanwhile, zhou yingxue was enthusiastically surrounded by a crowd who asked her for details of the battle.

most of these people made a living by trading intel. if they could receive any vital information by saying something nice to zhou yingxue, why not?

however, ren xiaosu found that zhou yingxue was not stupid either. she spoke flawlessly without revealing any useful information at all.

all of a sudden, he saw someone lead a group in from outside the black market. the person at the very front was quite strange, and their faces were even covered with red scarves. some of the followers looked very young, and they might even be students who were still attending school.

when those people who had surrounded zhou yingxue in the black market realized they could not get any useful information out of her, they left. they started crowding around the young man whose face was covered with a red scarf instead. ren xiaosu asked in a low voice, “who is that person?”

“he is a member of the riders.” zhou yingxue whispered, “since this place is very close to the qinghe group, we often get to see them around.”

“then who’re those people behind him? they look really young,” ren xiaosu wondered.

“i heard that they’re the students of qinghe university. qinghe university has a rule that students must travel the world, but they can only do so under the protection of the riders.”

Chapter 497: Social Learning class

Chapter 497 Social Learning class The member of the Riders organization with a red scarf on his face passing by with a group of students following him was just a simple interlude. Whenever they passed by a particular building, the Rider member would point out to the others what the place was. He would even explain to the students behind him what people did here.Actually, this field trip felt more like a fall tour. Or rather, it was a kind of social learning class for the college students to see what the outside world was really like.

Ren Xiaosu believed this Rider must have brought these stronghold students to look at the refugees’ living conditions before bringing them here to the black market.

After the group of students passed by, Zhou Yingxue said, “It’s getting late, so let’s head to the hotel we reserved and rest up. I’ll show you around the place tomorrow. There’s nothing much to see in the black market at night since no one’s selling anything at this time. The rich have all gone to waste their money in the vice establishments. As for the poor, they’ll be waiting outside to run errands for the bosses inside.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Let’s go.”

But as they made their way to the hotel, they suddenly realized the Rider was also taking the students in the same direction as them.

On the way there, Ren Xiaosu saw a brightly lit hotel up front and asked, “Is that the hotel we’re staying in?”

“Yes.” Zhou Yingxue nodded. “It looks like these people from the Qinghe Group are also staying there.”

The hotel appeared quite elegant, and there were parking lots outside and waiters in white uniforms welcoming guests. The white marble flooring at the hotel entrance looked spotlessly clean. Ren Xiaosu found it very difficult to believe that a place like this could be hidden in such a remote area. It was even more luxurious than what could be found in the strongholds.

Zhou Yingxue said softly, “The other black markets have to worry about extremely high commissions and being cracked down on by the consortiums, but the security and stability of this place have gradually become the first choice of many mob bosses. In recent years, many mob bosses have settled down here and are treating this place as their headquarters.”

When the two of them stepped into the lobby, the waiter first brought them some warm white towels, then indicated with a smile that they were complimentary. Ren Xiaosu saw the member of the Riders calmly instructing the students from the Qinghe Group as they were checking in, “It’s good for you all to come out here to see the world, but don’t let this good thing turn into a bad thing. If I find anyone sneaking into the brothels or the casino, they’ll be expelled once we return to Luoyang City.”

During the conversation, the Rider looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu looking at him. He nodded courteously with a smile. However, there was a certain feeling to that polite smile that would keep people at arm’s length.

Zhou Yingxue whispered, “The Riders are extremely proud and have always been quite antisocial.”

“I can see that.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

After the Rider led his group away, the pretty receptionist said to Zhou Yingxue with an apologetic face, “Hi, Ms. Zhou. I’m sorry, but only one of the two rooms you reserved is left. It’s Room 1005.”

Zhou Yingxue was stunned. “This is the first time I’ve encountered something like this. How can there be a problem when we reserved the rooms in advance?”

The pretty receptionist said guiltily, “I’m really very sorry. The main reason is we suddenly had over 20 guests that arrived from the Qinghe Group. They didn’t make a prior reservation, so… You should also know that members of the Qinghe Group are priority customers at our hotel.”

Before Zhou Yingxue could argue with her, someone suddenly walked into the lobby. When he saw Zhou Yingxue, he said with a smile, “Well, if it’s isn’t Zhou Yingxue! I heard the previous mission went very smoothly? But it seems like you were the only A-rank hitman in your team who made it back alive. You’re truly a powerful superhuman!”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the person who spoke. His hair was combed back and he was dressed in a tight suit. He was wearing a pair of leather shoes but did not have any socks on. Ren Xiaosu asked, “Who is this? He can’t even afford to buy socks?”

The man standing across from him got so angry he laughed. “What’s with the lame joke!”

However, Zhou Yingxue frowned and said, “Assistant, don’t let him come near me. But don’t get into a fight either. Fighting isn’t allowed in this hotel. I’m gonna head upstairs to get some rest first.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue in astonishment. After getting her room key, she turned around and walked into the elevator. Ren Xiaosu just stood quietly outside the elevator while the man attempted several times to get past him to grab ahold of Zhou Yingxue’s arm. However, Ren Xiaosu kept standing in front of him like a competent bodyguard…

After Zhou Yingxue went upstairs, the man left angrily. “To think that she’s already keeping a gigolo after completing just one A-rank mission.”

Ren Xiaosu’s eyes twitched as he headed upstairs as well. If Zhou Yingxue had not explicitly said that fighting was not allowed in the hotel, the guy in front of him would probably have been killed on the spot.

After knocking on the door and entering the room, Ren Xiaosu swaggered towards the sofa and sat down. Zhou Yingxue went over meekly and squatted as she began to massage Ren Xiaosu’s legs. “I was just trying to act realistically. I didn’t really mean to order you around. Besides, he’s really annoying….”

Ren Xiaosu grunted in acknowledgement. “Who is he?”

Zhou Yingxue explained as she massaged Ren Xiaosu’s legs, “His name is Zhao Haocheng, and he’s also an A-rank hitma. I’m not sure if he has any superpowers, though. He was supposed to be part of the group that performed the mission at Stronghold 61, but after I appeared, someone else invited me and kicked him out of their team. I heard he’s double-crossed his teammates before.”

“Oh, so you mean you took over his spot in the group? No wonder he was so sarcastic.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Actually, he did not mind helping Zhou Yingxue a little. He also understood why she had deliberately told him that this was a gathering place for hitmen to team up to complete missions and even conceded to him that he was stronger. This was actually because Zhou Yingxue knew that her superpower was too weak and that she couldn’t complete an A-rank mission on her own.

Therefore, Zhou Yingxue’s main purpose in bringing Ren Xiaosu here was to let him form a team with her to perform the missions. To put it bluntly, she wanted to ride on his coattails to complete the missions.

“Alright, you can stop massaging. You’re a supernatural being, after all,” Ren Xiaosu snapped.

Zhou Yingxue cursed in her head. So what if she was a supernatural being? She had already been knocked out by him a few times, so what dignity of a supernatural being did she still have left! She was close to becoming his maidservant already!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “What else do you know about the Qinghe Group? Why does this hotel treat them with such esteem? Are they extremely strong in combat?”

“The combat strength of the Qinghe Group has always been a mystery. Many people said the founder of the Qinghe Group was already a supernatural being before The Cataclysm, but that has not been verified.” Zhou Yingxue gingerly sat next to him and said, “But what is known is that of the 12 satellites that the Alliance of Strongholds still have, the Qinghe Group controls seven of them. Moreover, the electricity in the black market is actually also provided for by the Qinghe Group.”

“So, the Qinghe Group is the big boss behind the black market?”

Chapter 498: A new mission

498 A new mission Ever since arriving in the Central Plains, Ren Xiaosu felt like he had entered a whole new world. It was a world where not only the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 existed but also many other strange organizations such as the Pyro Company, the Anjing House, the Qinghe Group, etc.The world was much bigger than he knew. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin once said she would come here after finishing her business in the Southwest. Thinking about it, when she was willing to stay with Ren Xiaosu in that deserted valley, it showed her attitude about him.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that the person behind the biggest and most professional black market in the Central Plains was most likely the boss of the Qinghe Group. If he could come to such a conclusion, others would definitely be able to as well.

However, the reason why everyone left this black market unchecked was probably also due to the uncaring attitude displayed by the Qinghe Group. Since an organization like them did not have the ambition to rule over the Central Plains, others would naturally be able to turn a blind eye to some unimportant matters.

“Let’s go and check out what the black market is like at night.” Ren Xiaosu got up and headed out. Zhou Yingxue followed him, but she curled her lips in silence. Wasn’t he just curious to see the sensual temptations of this world? He must have been tempted after hearing what she said about the croupiers and brothels. There were indeed no good men!

However, Zhou Yingxue still obediently followed him. After they left the hotel room, the two of them returned to their roles as an A-rank hitwoman and her assistant respectively. Zhou Yingxue’s expression could not get any more arrogant than it was.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like Zhou Yingxue was a little bit addicted to being in-character for her role…

When they passed by the legendary brothel, a group of beautiful women in uniform were standing at the door and smiling at the passersby. Ren Xiaosu asked, “What uniform is this? I haven’t seen any soldiers wearing it before.”

“They say it’s the uniform of flight attendants from the Pre-Cataclysm times. I’m referring to the cabin crew of a plane,” Zhou Yingxue explained.

Ren Xiaosu didn’t respond.

The black market was a real eye-opener to him. It was no wonder those mob bosses were willing to stay here. According to Zhou Yingxue, there was even a housing block specially built here in the black market. The villas there were sold to the mob bosses at astronomical prices.

Moreover, the people from the black market organization had been eliminating wild beasts so frequently in the surrounding mountain range that there was not even a snake to be found.

But Zhou Yingxue asked, “Aren’t you gonna go into the brothel to have a look? Didn’t you come out in the middle of the night because you wanted to see this?”

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“I just wanted to have a look from the outside.” Ren Xiaosu asked in confusion, “Why would I go in?”

Zhou Yingxue was shocked right then and there. Was he really just here to have a look?!

When they came to the entrance of the casino, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He and Zhou Yingxue both saw that Rider from earlier wearing a red scarf hoisting a student out from inside.

Although the student looked like he was around 50 kilograms, the Rider held him in his hand as though he were a featherweight.

They saw the Rider throw the student mercilessly to the ground. “You’ve violated the order about going out without permission. Head back to Luoyang City yourself. You’ve been expelled from the school!”

The student got up from the ground in a pathetic manner and said, “What gives you the right to make such a decision when you’re just here to protect us?”

The Rider said coldly, “If you can make it back to Luoyang City, you’ll understand why I can make a decision like this.”

Ren Xiaosu muttered, “It seems that the Riders have a lot of authority within the Qinghe Group.”

“Of course.” Zhou Yingxue nodded. “They’re all devotees to the founder of Qinghe. The current leader of Qinghe, Xu Ke, also reveres them greatly. Apparently, only by completing eight challenges can they become true devotees.”

“Then why did the student confront him?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Probably because the Riders do not have any actual duties within the Qinghe Group.” Zhou Yingxue was not too familiar with the internal workings of the Qinghe Group.

“I think he’s just young and immature. His family must’ve already told him, but he still went into the casino out of curiosity. He’s only getting angry out of embarrassment at being caught red-handed.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “Look, he can’t bear to face that Rider now. This shows that he still understands the Rider’s standing within the Qinghe Group. He was just too pampered and had nothing better to do.”

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Zhou Yingxue looked strangely at Ren Xiaosu. ‘Aren’t you also around the same age as that student!’

“Do you know anything about the founder of Qinghe?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“A lot of information was lost after The Cataclysm, and only a few people in the Qinghe Group know about it. It seems that there were some secrets hidden in the history of the founder’s life experience. Everyone’s guessing that if we learn about his life, we’ll know how he became a supernatural being in the times before The Cataclysm.” Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, “Frankly, everyone’s actually quite curious about this secret.”

“What’s the name of the founder?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“He was called Ren He.” Zhou Yingxue said firmly, “But that’s not a secret anymore.”

“Let’s go, we’re heading back to the hotel.” Ren Xiaosu turned around and left.

Zhou Yingxue could only follow and say, “Then what’re we gonna do next?”

“We wait.”

…

When they returned to the hotel at night, Zhou Yingxue quietly placed a pillow on the couch for herself. With just one reserved room left, she was forced to accept that she would have to sleep on the couch.

Ren Xiaosu swaggered to the bed and lay down on it. He did not have any intentions of being gentlemanly. In a huff, Zhou Yingxue covered herself with a thin blanket.

However, Zhou Yingxue had a particularly peaceful sleep this time. It was though she was no longer worried that Ren Xiaosu would do something to her.

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She slept all the way until dawn when she suddenly woke up. Then she saw Ren Xiaosu move a chair over and sit down calmly next to her. Zhou Yingxue was immediately jolted awake as she quickly wrapped herself up in the blanket. She carefully probed, “What are you doing?!”

Ren Xiaosu calmly asked, “Had a dream?”

Zhou Yingxue was stunned. “How did you know… No, I didn’t have any dreams!”

“Then what did you mean when you said those words in your sleep?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“What did I say?”

Ren Xiaosu said with a deadpan expression, “You were saying that you wanted to kill me.”

Zhou Yingxue was so scared she almost cried. “I was just talking in my dream. Who takes the things that people say while dreaming seriously?”

Ren Xiaosu did not argue with her. He got up and said, “Go and wash up. We have business to handle.”

Zhou Yingxue quickly got out of her blanket on the couch. “What business?”

“We have a mission.”

A text message had appeared on their cell phones at the same time. “The target in Stronghold 73 is Zhou Xilong. He advocated the development of nuclear weapons and once took his subordinate’s wife for himself. He’s suspected to be protected by a superhuman. A-rank. Reward: 1 million yuan. Up to five people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.”

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Ren Xiaosu placed the cell phone into his pocket. He had to carry it around at all times. If he put it away in the palace, he would not receive any texts.

However, he suddenly felt that the Anjing House and the Saboteurs seemed to have a common goal in that they both had a hostile attitude towards nuclear weapons. Could there be any connection between the Anjing House and the Saboteurs? But he had not heard Yang Xiaojin mention it before.

Chapter 499: Ren Xiaosu’s problem-solving method

Chapter 499 Ren Xiaosu“s problem-solving method

Even among the A-rank hitmen, there were very few superhumans. Therefore, it should be just enough to hire several A-rank hitmen to deal with the big shots of these consortiums.

Dealing with the Pyro Company, though, would prove to be a bit more difficult.

However, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to any mission that would require him to deal with the Pyro Company, because it would be more challenging for him.

At this moment, the telephone in the room rang. When Zhou Yingxue went to pick up the phone, she heard a pleasant voice say, “The guest in Room 1209 has entrusted the hotel to extend an invitation to those interested in working in groups. If you’re interested, you can go straight to Room 1209.”

“Alright, got it.” After Zhou Yingxue hung up, she looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Shall we go?”

“This hotel is amazing. They can actually be entrusted to assign missions to the hitmen directly? How far is Stronghold 73 from here?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “I think it should be quite far, right? I’ve never received any missions over there before. Is it possible that the missions are assigned according to different regions?”

“It’s around 600 kilometers away from here. Actually, I don’t really want to accept this mission,” Zhou Yingxue said, “because I’ve never been to Stronghold 73 before, and I’m not familiar with that place at all. However, the Anjing House does assign missions according to regions. It seems that if you’re in the Wang Consortium’s territory, you’ll only receive missions related to the Wang Consortium. But in this black market, it’s a little special. As long as you’re here, you can receive missions related to all three consortiums.”

Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. So this was the reason. It was no wonder Zhou Yingxue said that a lot of hitmen came here to stay in the black market after completing their missions. Not only could they enjoy themselves at the vice establishments, but they could also receive more missions here!

The location of this black market was really unique.

He said to Zhou Yingxue in a serious tone, “Then let’s hurry to Stronghold 73 in case someone steals our mission away. Also, I don’t think it’ll be necessary to work on this mission with others. The two of us should be good enough.”

Zhou Yingxue heard something very interesting. “Do you have to compete for D-rank missions with others?”

Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Don’t you have to compete for A-rank missions with other people as well?”

“Of course not!” Zhou Yingxue said, “As long as someone forms a party and jointly submits the mission application to the Anjing House, the mission will not be given to other people. And the Anjing House will assess whether your team is qualified enough to accept the mission. If not, it won’t be approved. Therefore, they definitely won’t approve our application if we apply for it using my status as a single A-rank hitman.”

Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So it turned out they would still need to form a party with others after getting promoted to A-rank? Under normal circumstances, when the Anjing House allowed several people to work in a group for a mission, it would be easier to get approval for it if a team applied.

Although it seemed like there was an additional condition, the hitmen had nothing to complain about. Everyone believed in the capability of the Anjing House’s intelligence gathering, and it was also for the sake of their safety by having every one form their parties freely for the job.

“Do you think we should accept this mission?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Zhou Yingxue gave it some thought before saying, “I think it’s a bit dangerous since we’re unfamiliar with the location. So it’s better not to accept it.”

“Then let’s go! We should have a look at what our teammates are like this time,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Zhou Yingxue was confused. ‘Did you listen to what I said?’

After discussing for about ten minutes, Ren Xiaosu decided on taking on the mission. Zhou Yingxue followed him and rolled her eyes at his back for a long time. ‘If you had already intended to accept the mission, you could’ve just said so. What was the point of asking me for my opinion?’

However, Zhou Yingxue did not dare to speak even though she was angry. A maidservant had no rights to complain.

The two of them took the elevator to the 12th floor and headed to Room 1209. To their surprise, the door was already open when they arrived. They saw five people sitting inside, and one of them was Zhao Haocheng, the man Ren Xiaosu stopped outside the elevator last night.

The Anjing House had only allowed the hitmen to work in a group of five. So even if they had more people, the total reward would still be the same. So now that there were already five people in the room, it meant they might have gotten here too late.

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself: ‘So we still have to compete for A-rank missions with other people after all….’

When Zhao Haocheng saw Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu, he laughed and gloated, “Unfortunately, there’s no spot for you this time.”

The other person, who was the occupant of Room 1209, apologized to Zhou Yingxue, “I’m sorry, but we already have enough people.”

Zhou Yingxue said coldly, “Zhao Haocheng has a record of double-crossing his teammates. Are you still willing to carry out the mission with someone like him?”

Zhao Haocheng’s expression darkened. “Zhou Yingxue, I’m warning you! You better not slander people willy-nilly. You were the only one who returned after completing the mission at Stronghold 61. Why?! I doubt you can explain that, right?”

“At the very least, I won’t double-cross my own teammates.” Zhou Yingxue sneered.

The occupant of Room 1209 remained as polite as before and said apologetically, “Since there aren’t many A-rank hitmen around and the social circle isn’t that big, I, as the initiator of the mission, am not willing to offend the two of you. As such, I can only say first come, first served.”

Zhou Yingxue turned around to leave while Ren Xiaosu followed her and acted obediently like an assistant.

After they left, Zhou Yingxue was planning on returning to their room. However, Ren Xiaosu pressed the first floor button in the elevator. When he got downstairs, he headed straight out of the black market.

Zhou Yingxue asked, “What are you doing? We can just go back to our room and continue waiting for another mission. You don’t have to get so angry that you wanna leave this place immediately, right?”

“I’m gonna leave the black market, but it has nothing to do with me being angry.” Ren Xiaosu looked strangely at Zhou Yingxue, giving her a look that wondered why she was so peculiar to think like that.

Annoyed, Zhou Yingxue followed Ren Xiaosu and complained, “I wonder what those people are thinking! When that Zhao Haocheng double-crossed his teammates, he had not expected one of them to survive. However, very few people knew about this. The teammate who survived later died due to the serious injuries he suffered. The dead tell no tales, so he’s starting to act arrogantly again.”

As they walked up a hillside, Zhou Yingxue saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly take out a sniper rifle. He acted like no one was around as he set up the gun and lay down on the ground. Then he looked through the scope. “Don’t they have a full team? I’ll wait for Zhao Haocheng to come out of the hotel and kill him. That way, we’ll have a spot.”

Zhou Yingxue was shocked. ‘So this is your way of thinking? If their team is full, you’ll simply kill one of them so that they’ll be short of people? This way, we can go on the mission with them!’ What kind of logic is that?! Is this something a human would do?

She still did not know that Ren Xiaosu had stolen more than 20 cell phones from a group of D-rank hitmen in order to carry out his own missions successfully.

Ren Xiaosu’s way of solving problems had always been this straightforward!

Ren Xiaosu glanced at her. “Didn’t you say that Zhao Haocheng double-crossed his teammates? I consider this getting rid of evil for the people.”

Zhou Yingxue did not say anything else. Although she felt this method of killing Zhao Haocheng was a little violent, she still felt a little happy when she saw Ren Xiaosu standing up for her.

“Thank you for standing up for me,” Zhou Yingxue said softly.

Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “Who cares whether you’re angry at him. I just want to do the mission, that’s all.”

Zhou Yingxue suddenly became even angrier.

Chapter 500: Revenge

Chapter 500 Revenge

Ren Xiaosu was very particular about the position of his ambush. He had observed the terrain near the black market and found there were only three exits around it. If the team were to head to Stronghold 73 at the Zhou Consortium’s territory to conduct their mission, they would have to take the route Ren Xiaosu was ambushing.

When Zhao Haocheng and the others drove out of the black market, a sniper bullet penetrated the window of the off-road vehicle without any warning and killed Zhao Haocheng in the backseat.

Next to Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue was watching quietly all this while and was a little puzzled. How did the young man next to her seem to know everything? He could even use a sniper rifle this well?

She could just imagine how terrifying a supernatural being would be after learning how to snipe.

Other snipers had to carefully guard against sneak attacks of supernatural beings in close combat. However, this young man before her did not have to worry about that at all. If normal supernatural beings sneak attacked him, they would only find that they could not beat him in close combat either.

And now, a well-known A-rank hitman had died just like that. Ren Xiaosu really did not hesitate when it came to killing people.

Ren Xiaosu stowed his sniper rifle and went down the hill. Zhou Yingxue followed and murmured, “Will they still let you join their team after you’ve killed their teammate?”

“Since Zhao Haocheng had to die no matter what, we’re just gonna have to take it one step at a time,” Ren Xiaosu said slowly. In his opinion, if someone were always plotting against him behind his back or would possibly sabotage him in the future, he might as well just kill that person now.

Ren Xiaosu had already said he was not a good person, and neither was he willing to be one.

However, he asked, “This team is also very strange. Even though they know that Zhao Haocheng is problematic, why did they still accept him as their teammate? Most people wouldn’t want someone like him as their teammate. If it were me, I’d rather offend him than work with him.”

“Who knows?” Zhou Yingxue said as she followed Ren Xiaosu.

When they got down the hill, Zhou Yingxue reverted to her arrogant expression and walked towards the convoy with her assistant, Ren Xiaosu.

By now, the other four A-rank hitmen in the convoy had already dumped Zhao Haocheng’s corpse on the side of the road. They picked up a cloth to wipe down the interior of the vehicle as it was covered in blood.

However, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue did not expect that when the other A-rank hitmen saw them, they actually laughed happily. “Welcome aboard?”

Zhou Yingxue wondered, “Why does it look like you guys don’t mind that your teammate’s just been killed?”

The occupant of Room 1209 said with a smile, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Wu Tong. My good friend was among the teammates Zhao Haocheng killed. I wanted to set a trap to kill him this time and thought it’d be quite difficult since he was so alert. However, I didn’t expect you to kill him with a sniper rifle. Speaking of, I still have to thank you for taking revenge for my friend.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that it made sense if it was like this. Otherwise, he really could not understand why the other party did not kick Zhao Haocheng out of their team. After all, they could choose their team members freely, and it was not like the Anjing House forcefully assigned Zhao Haocheng to them.

So Zhao Haocheng had probably not expected that someone would come after him for revenge.

In such a person’s world, he probably felt that no one would have any friends since he did not have any friends himself either.

However, Wu Tong and the others thought of Zhou Yingxue as the sniper who opened fire just now. Wu Tong praised, “I never expected that Ms. Zhou Yingxue is not only a superhuman but a sniper. No wonder you managed to wipe out the Pyro Company’s Dusk in Stronghold 61.”

Ren Xiaosu learned from Zhou Yingxue that the Pyro Company had actually gained the upper hand when she was fleeing. Not only was she seriously injured, but some of their team members had also been killed by the Pyro Company.

However, everyone was now saying they had done a beautiful job and that the Pyro Company members were completely wiped out.

Something must have happened after Zhou Yingxue fled from Stronghold 61.

On that night, the battle at Stronghold 61 lasted for a very long time. Ren Xiaosu suspected it was the Wang Consortium that had wiped out the Pyro Company but later claimed it was the Anjing House’s doing.

In fact, the same thing happened at Stronghold 63. When Vanilla was conducting his mission, he retreated the moment he realized the members of the Pyro Company were fleeing in the direction of the Wang Consortium’s troops.

Ren Xiaosu always found that a little strange. Could it be that the Wang Consortium only appeared to be capturing the members of the Anjing House on the surface but were actually siding with them privately? Why was the Anjing House acting like the Wang Consortium’s shadow then? Could it be that the two parties were somehow cooperating?

Of course, Ren Xiaosu would probably be even more sure of this point if he knew about Qing Zhen’s opinion of the Wang Consortium.

But he could not understand what interests the Wang Consortium and Anjing House had in common.

Perhaps not even Qing Zhen understood.

Wu Tong looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Ms. Zhou, this is…”

“Oh, he’s my assistant, my spotter,” Zhou Yingxue said coldly.

Ren Xiaosu paused for a moment, then convincingly took out a scope that was specifically used by spotters from his backpack.

This kind of monocular had a professional, scientific name called the spotting scope. Its magnification and field of vision were much higher than that of a sniper rifle’s scope. Even under poor visual conditions, the spotting scope would still clearly show the landing point of a bullet in the distance so the sniper could be guided to correct the trajectory deviation.

Under normal circumstances, snipers carrying out decapitation strikes would usually bring along a spotter who was equipped with a spotting scope. This spotting scope was even given to Ren Xiaosu by Yang Xiaojin. She probably did not expect that Ren Xiaosu had also become a sniper now.

When Wu Tong and the others saw that Ren Xiaosu had even brought a spotting scope with him, they thought Zhou Yingxue must be quite the professional…

Since he was her spotter, nobody asked any other questions. After all, it would be quite good to have a sniper in the group.

But they did not know that Zhou Yingxue was already starting to feel uneasy. By using Ren Xiaosu to show off, she would definitely have to return the favor afterwards!

However, she really enjoyed the envious looks of the others.

During the entire day, the convoy only managed to travel 150 kilometers because of Zhao Haocheng’s incident. Wu Tong estimated the time and calculated the remaining two days were enough for them to reach the vicinity of Stronghold 73.

They planned to abandon their vehicles and travel on foot when they reached the periphery of Stronghold 73. From there, they would each think of a way to sneak into the stronghold and finally rendezvous at 191 Longyang Avenue, which was Wu Tong’s safe house in Stronghold 73. Other than Zhou Yingxue, the other four A-rank hitmen mainly performed missions related to the Zhou Consortium’s strongholds.

Wu Tong joked to Zhou Yingxue, “Don’t tell me y’all don’t have a way to sneak into the stronghold?”

Zhou Yingxue calmly said, “You don’t have to worry about that.”

After the tents were set up for the night, Zhou Yingxue went straight into Ren Xiaosu’s tent. She explained while massaging his legs, “There was really nothing I could do when they assumed I was the sniper. I can’t explain to them that I’m not a sniper, right?”

Table of Contents

1: A sickness in the head
2: This world has never trusted tears
3: A palace
4: : Luck is a type of skill too
5: The school
6: Walls and science
7: Substitute teacher
8: Something really is wrong with his head

9: Ask me if there's anything you don't understand

10: Side quest
11: Easily worth millions
12: A grateful heart, thankful to you
13: This is reality
14: Deception
15: Promoting your own product
16: I ll make it cheaper for you
17: Totally unexpected
18: It’s quite simple
19: Why didn’t you run faster then?
20: Wolf pack
21: Family standing
22: Guns!
23: Boss Luo
24: Ren Xiaosu, the drug dealer
25: A banner
26: Save the mother or the baby?
27: Giving in to temptation
28: Caught off guard
29: The sorrows of our era

30: Ren Xiaosu, that guy who’s sick in the head

31: A new opportunity
32: Dreams are always the opposite of reality
33: What are you waiting for?
34: The misfortune of others
35: Maxing out on gratitude tokens!
36: Parents watching their children die
37: The outside world
38: Negotiating the terms
39: Yang Xiaojin
40: I want to be with my crackers!
41: Resolve it by yourself
42: Losing one’s home
43: First time in his life
44: Just two bites
45: What kind of doctor are you?
46: A mysterious death
47: Eerie woods

48: All human behavior and motivation stems from the fear of death

49: Stop here, ye who live
50: The horror in the canyon
51: It’s only reasonable
52: Face bugs
53: A clear conscience
54: The escape
55: A temporary alliance
56: A new skill
57: Supernatural being!
58: I brought money!
59: A boar runs into a tree
60: I like you

61: Attitude changes faster than flipping through a book!

62: Preserve your dignity
63: All of them have disappeared
64: Satellites
65: Withdrawal symptoms
66: A businessman
67: It’s not like you have nothing left
68: Master Skill Duplication Scroll
69: Got what they deserved
70: Storage rights
71: Ren Xiaosu’s perfect skill
72: Ghost
73: A Pre-Cataclysm civilization
74: Pyro
75: Prehistoric birds
76: Chains
77: The Qing Consortium
78: No retreat

79: Not a single snowflake in an avalanche is innocent

80: Experimentals
81: A ruined civilization
82: Tobacco and liquor
83: A peculiar child
84: Gunshots at midnight
85: Mr. Zhang
86: Northern Frontier
87: Living specimen
88: Shadow, Qing Zhen
89: A product of genetic modification
90: Rounding up Ren Xiaosu
91: Fighting alone

92: Intentions revealed! A midnight assassination!

93: What a scam!

94: Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!

95: Dead ends everywhere
96: I want to thank myself seven times
97: Reevaluating the level of danger!

98: Recreational activities of the Experimentals

99: Going home!
100: Image down the drain
101: Leaving Stronghold 113
102: A love gone dead
103: The walls collapse
104: A real disaster
105: The wolves are coming
106: Roaring engines
107: The grace of dripping water
108: Sneaking into the stronghold
109: I want to thank myself again
110: Robbery
111: Liu Bu’s elder brother
112: Wild vegetables
113: A balanced state of mind
114: The Great Sage Equal to Heaven
115: It’s you
116: 72 Transformations
117: You have to go!
118: Epidemic
119: Where is the Western Paradise?
120: House arrest
121: Stupid or just playing dumb?
122: Nightfall
123: Someone must be sacrificed
124: 10,000 years from now!
125: Forced by circumstances
126: A lunatic wouldn’t admit they re crazy

127: Gaining legal resident status in the stronghold!

128: Headache spell
129: Instigating Chen Wudi’s defection
130: A brush with death
131: Inside the stronghold!
132: Going to school!

133: Where has Senior Apprentice Brother gone?

134: Encountering Yang Xiaojin again!
135: Contamination
136: Xu Xianchu is here!
137: Obsessed with fame and fortune
138: Pyro
139: Leaving an escape route
140: In the name of justice
141: Silencing witnesses
142: Transfer student, Ren Xiaosu
143: Perverse
144: Each other’s secret
145: Bicycle
146: Helping out a classmate
147: Switching classes
148: Unrest in the stronghold
149: A brewing storm
150: Lunatic
151: You don’t seem like a good person
152: The two Ren Xiaosus
153: Copy! Shadow Door!
154: Research results
155: A seedy shop selling black medicine
156: That’s such a miracle
157: Dong Funan has issues!

158: Three battles with the White Bone Specter

159: Hypnosis

160: Tiger and pig

161: Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium

162: Rebuilding Stronghold 113
163: A series of strange happenings
164: The Qing Consortium is too petty!
165: Ren Xiaosu, you re a good guy
166: The price of freedom
167: Dead end

168: Gaining a new understanding of Ren Xiaosu

169: Reforming Dong Funan

170: Straight-A student, Yang Xiaojin

171: There’s no such place as Heaven in this world

172: Rules of the wilderness!
173: The disappearing Experimentals
174: Qing Zhen’s defection
175: A new item in the palace!
176: Getting ready to flee
177: New neighbor, Yang Xiaojin
178: Li Shentan’s present
179: The ratlike Qing Consortium
180: They re all guilty
181: Wait for me
182: Against the current
183: Running out of time!
184: Rescuing Yang Xiaojin
185: Exposing each other
186: An unfinished quest
187: I ll carry you
188: Experimentals in the sewers
189: The gratitude tokens that disappeared
190: The Mountain Obliterator

191: Look at how big and round this cauldron is

192: I m giving you an out
193: Parting ways
194: Zixia
195: Respect the old and care for the young
196: Stealing bicycles
197: The Wolf King’s act of goodwill
198: The escapees attempt robbery
199: Jiang Wu turns superhuman!
200: It wasn’t my fault
201: Escapees form cliques
202: The Li Consortium’s army
203: Exemption from military service
204: Master, don’t get too upset
205: The outpost’s new recruit, Ren Xiaosu
206: Middle of nowhere
207: Birth of the Lord of Wolves
208: Don’t believe in superstitions
209: Returning the favor
210: Trade complete
212: Attacking an outpost
213: Acquiring even more nanomachines
214: Chen Wudi’s adaptability
215: A new member for the outpost
216: The teacher of the outpost
217: Reunited with Liuyuan
218: Yan Liuyuan
219: Li Shentan’s gift
220: Encountering the Pyro Company again!
221: Hu Shuo’s true strength
222: Rather die than admit to it
223: Encircling the wolves!
211: Investigation Division
224: Meat is our staple food
225: Ren Xiaosu, the snake catcher
226: Stealing nanomachines for fun!
227: Well, I don’t care!
228: The wolves turn intelligent
229: Chen Wudi’s question
230: Another image down the drain
231: Captain Ren Xiaosu
232: Complications arise
233: On the brink of war
234: Each other’s secret
235: Qing Zhen’s crosstalk performance
236: The beginning of a disagreement
237: Massing for war
238: Treachery
239: Ren Xiaosu’s plan

240: The law is unenforceable when everyone is a criminal

241: Encountering the nanosoldiers
242: Triple identity, Ren Xiaosu!
243: Mooching
244: An excellent harvest of gratitude tokens

245: Abandoning vehicles and entering the mountains on foot!

246: The Qing base

247: Qing Zhen seizes command

248: The Office of Special Investigations guards against spies!

249: Standing up for Chen Wudi

250: Side quest unlocked: Seeds!

251: Crazy plants!

252: An old friend, Tang Zhou!

253: Quadruple identity, Ren Xiaosu!

254: Hunting nanosoldiers

255: Cooperating for a win-win situation

256: Ambushing the Divine Arms Battalion

257: Finding the spy within three days!

258: A mysterious sniper

259: The Office of Special Investigations probe

260: Gaining yet another identity
261: Ren Xiaosu’s promotion
262: Leading the troops out of a predicament
263: Ren Xiaosu’s first battle!
264: Heroes
265: Previously kept secret
266: Live targets on the battlefield
267: No harm in having more skills
268: On the verge of war
269: The Heroes Battalion requests battle!
270: Qing Zhen set me up!
271: The lifesaving Heroes Battalion!
272: Quest complete!

273: A thorough investigation of the missing nanomachines

274: Separately interrogated
275: Treachery and loyalty
276: City Crusher!
277: I don’t have a choice
278: The depreciated Qing Consortium currency
279: Make money, make money, make money!
280: Encountering Hu Shuo again
281: An explosive rescue
282: Nearly beaten up!
283: Breaking in
284: The stronghold gets destroyed
285: My reinforcements have arrived!
286: Will of iron!
287: A world without the Great Sage
288: A glass of wine

289: Humans do not relate to each others joys and sorrows

290: Yan Liuyuan the hunter
291: Regaining consciousness
292: Self-treatment and setting of bones
293: The Yang Consortium’s refugee camp
294: Liuyuan has matured
295: Yan Liuyuan’s Curse Manipulation power
296: Willpower
297: Family
298: A unique way of using curses
299: The might of poker!
300: We were only playing Fight the Landlord!
301: Creating chaos

302: A dangerous situation, a rescue by Yang Xiaojin

303: Heading north to Stronghold 88
304: Cast aside
305: A 21-kilometer-long mountain road
306: Chapter 306
307: Arriving at Stronghold 88!
308: Encountering Luo Lan again
309: The Bronze Ram of the Yang Consortium
310: The northern land’s Zong Consortium
311: The young man in the library
312: The librarian
313: Under watch
314: Spare Me, Great Lord
315: Controlled fusion
316: Encountering Lu Yuan again
317: A precious quality
318: Get over here and help me!

319: The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself

320: A gulf and a natural divide
321: The guest from Stronghold 178
322: Dumbfounded
323: Two weeds
324: Commander Zhang

325: Look at this cauldron, it’s so big and round

326: New rules
327: The special Yan Liuyuan
328: Visiting to deliver some gifts
329: The zealous Yang Yu an
330: Exterminating the bandits
331: The parent-teacher conference
332: The origin of a disaster
333: Blessed with mines in the backyard
334: Zong Cheng the magician
335: Acting alone
336: The people supporting the bandits
337: Sniping is a natural talent
338: Civil strife among the bandits
339: Conceited bandits
340: She’s mine now
341: Trapping
342: The people from Stronghold 178
343: Surrendering together
344: Depends on my mood
345: Is it cozy in the tent?
346: No pain, no gain
347: Strict discipline
348: Why pretend
349: Building houses for our fellow villagers
350: Ulterior motives
351: Dumbfounded!
352: Seeds of faith
353: Family
354: Wang Congyang
355: Thunder
356: Steam Locomotive
357: I ve surrounded all of you
358: Scene of the accident
359: Duplicating a superpower!
360: In a good mood today
361: We have a spy
362: Harboring evil intentions
363: Delivering warmth to the valley
364: I ll wait for you here
365: The fall of the Li Consortium

366: The start of Qing Zhen’s territorial expansion

367: Towards the wilderness of hope
368: A gift
369: Getting ready for battle
370: Come and kill me!
371: As brilliant as a star
372: Don’t you die

373: I want my sorrows to become the sorrows of this era

374: Yang Xiaojin’s revenge
375: Traveling together
376: Zhou Yinglong
377: Too tough to die
378: Mysticism
379: The two great jinxes

380: Attitude switches faster than flipping through a book!

381: Fortress 178!
382: To fight or not to fight
383: Razor Sharp Company
384: Observing Ren Xiaosu
385: The Razor Sharp Company is invincible
386: Swiftly taking Mt. Dingyuan
387: A pledge
388: War fanatic
389: Don’t alert the enemy
390: I ve already taken Mt. Guan
391: The copper bell
392: Zhang Xiaoman’s dream
393: Sudden appearance on the battlefield
394: A spy in the bandit lair
395: Blessed be the good man
396: How can we know if we don't try?
397: The might of the Razor Sharp Company
398: Third-class decoration
399: The petition
400: Urban warfare
401: A happily married life
402: As long as we're still around
403: Bickering before battle
404: Power revealed
405: Staunch
406: Wiping out the Zong Consortium
407: Adapting to the situation
408: Reaping gratitude tokens
409: Stupidity and bravery
410: The second weapon finally gets unlocked
411: Selling medals
412: Sniper
413: Ren Xiaosu in the Battle Between Snipers
414: Setting up a counter-ambush
415: Regardless of method
416: Double kill
417: Comrades who shelter and protect
418: A triumph
419: All the world's a stage
420: Arrival of the Qing Consortium
421: Helping the attack on the Beiwan Bridge
422: No man left behind
423: Witnessing history get made
424: Attacking the harbor
425: What can I do? I'm also very desperate
426: Who does he think he is?
427: A lone fighting force
428: The Zong Consortium's contingency plan
429: A real life fairy tale
430: The petty Wang Congyang
431: Sneaking into the North
432: Forced by circumstance
433: Your regimental commander is dead

434: Your new regimental commander is dead too

435: Pursuit
436: The annoying recon battalion
437: Chain reaction
438: The deputy commander makes a run for it
439: A brief reorganization
440: Are you a sore loser?!
441: Idiotic

442: The deputy regimental commander helps clear things up

443: Raiding Stronghold 144!
444: The Zong Consortium's plans
445: A precarious situation
446: Lone operation
447: The fortune teller
448: A bloody calamity
449: A spy in Fortress 178
450: A citywide search!
451: The spy in the sewers
452: Strategies revealed!
453: A potential estrangemen
454: I can’t say

455: Sneaking into the Zong Consortium’s military base

456: Breakthrough!
457: Restoring the armor
458: Killing spree
459: Destroying the formation
460: Proxy murder
461: A spent force
462: A surprise attack
463: Comrades
464: A surprise attack by the armored brigade
465: Tears of humiliation

466: Total strength: 184, present strength: 183

467: Zong Cheng’s death
468: Zong Ying’s death
469: Alliance
470: The Anjing House
471: White paper crane
472: Robbery
473: Listener
474: A cell phone
475: Lamb stew

476: Please don’t send pictures of lamb stew again

477: First come, first served
478: Path of the Hitman
479: The paper crane appears again
480: The boss
481: A-rank mission
482: The more chaotic, the merrier
483: What’s with the posturing?
484: Breaking free from fate!
485: No more running!

486: Leaving with a flick of his robes after the deed is done, / Deeply hiding his glory and fame.

487: a Mysterious Hitman
488: Inclined towards certain subjects
489: Reacquainted With Zhou Yingxue!
490: The mystery of the mission assignments

491: The girl I like is much prettier than you

492: Black marke
493: Hostage and railroad
494: A new world

495: The guy I like has never led a pampered life

496: The Riders organization
497: Social Learning class
498: A new mission
499: Ren Xiaosu’s problem-solving method
500: Revenge