The First Order

“Look at him, then look at us,” Cheng Yu said peeved while crouching next to Vanilla. “Back when the plans were being drafted, why didn’t you ask the boss why she insisted that we come to a godforsaken place where birds don’t even defecate?”

In the Sacred Mountains, it was not an exaggeration to use “where birds don’t even defecate” to describe the place. There were really no birds that could be seen anywhere. Otherwise, Cheng Yu would not have to resort to doing the splits for a hardtack!

Fortunately, they had already joined up with Vanilla and the others. After all, Vanilla’s team members were all Anjing House hitmen. By helping each other out, they would definitely be more united than the outsiders no matter what. Therefore, there wouldn’t be a need to worry about food anymore. However, as Cheng Yu ate his hardtack, he saw that even Ren Xiaosu had someone taking care of his daily needs. This nearly caused him to throw the hardtack onto the ground.

Comparisons were really infuriating!

But Vanilla handed him a water bottle and said calmly, “What’s the point of comparing with him? Look at the other side.”

While they were eating breakfast, Li Shentan was served by more than a 100 Pyro Company members on the other side and being treated like a king. He did not even have to wash his face by himself. There were also some Pyro Company members washing his clothes next to the stream.

Vanilla was right. What was the point of comparing with Ren Xiaosu? If he wanted to compare, he should be comparing with this person instead.

Cheng Yu flinched. “Who can compare to him? He can control thousands of people like he’s playing a game. If I were him, I would’ve run off to a deserted place and abducted tens of thousands of people to become their ruler!”

“Someone secretly left the group last night.” Vanilla whispered, “When our teams joined up last night, there were 27 people in Cheng Yu’s group and 35 in mine. But look at how many people there are left now? Only 51!”

“Left? Where can they run to now? Since we’ve already come this far, I definitely won’t be satisfied if we don’t go into the Sacred Mountains and have a look inside.” Cheng Yu curled his lips and said, “Do you think it’s true that we can obtain a way to achieve immortality with the legendary No. 001 Experimental’s DNA after we capture it?”

“I think it’s true.” Vanilla said, “Someone has already confirmed with Li Yingyun of the Riders that the Experimentals did mention this when Stronghold 74 got destroyed. And think about it. To say nothing of the No. 001 Experimental, even those failed Experimentals have managed to live for more than 200 years. If the No. 001 Experimental appears, it’ll very likely introduce a revolutionary change to the lifespan of humanity.”

“I hope it doesn’t show up then.” Cheng Yu shook his head and said, “I don’t want to go through any more changes. This kinda life is already good enough, so I don’t wish that we can live that long.”

In fact, Cheng Yu represented the thoughts of most people in this era. They were no longer looking forward to any huge changes to their lives, and it was good enough living as they were with humanity developing slowly.

Was it a good thing to be able to live for a long time? Who the hell knew what other trouble those consortiums might cause?

“Let’s not talk about that for now.” Vanilla continued, “11 people have run away overnight. I suspect they aren’t scattered individuals but people from the same organization. In the battle yesterday, the Pyro Company suffered heavy casualties. Who knows how many T5-ranked experts have died? Y’know, not all the T5 combatants are in the Sacred Mountains. There’s other T5 combatants stationed at their other strongholds to guard the places, so only a few of them are likely left in the Sacred Mountains at this moment.”

Vanilla said this rather loudly as he did not intend to hide it from anyone. Or rather, he just wanted to bring up the topic so everyone could join in the discussion.

When Ren Xiaosu heard them talking about T5 combatants, he wondered if he should feel a little sad. After all, he had just experienced the pain of losing his “son.” That poor T5 combatant had died so soon after establishing a father-son relationship with him.

Vanilla added, “Why did they have to run away now of all times? They just had to disappear when the Pyro Company was left defenseless. I suspect they might’ve seized the initiative and headed into the core region of the Sacred Mountains by themselves.” Vanilla was saying this because he wanted everyone to get moving quickly so they would not fall behind and end up with nothing for the expedition.

But Li Shentan was in no hurry to leave. “Since someone is rushing off to die, why should we join them? Can’t you people look at your conditions first? Some of you have just eaten your fill, and some of you haven’t slept in two days, so how can you compete with others in your current state? Do you think the danger in the Sacred Mountains has already passed? Even though the T5 combatants have been killed, there’s still T6 combatants waiting for us.” Vanilla retorted, “Those 11 people are not dumb either. Since they’ve set off, it means they’re confident.”

Li Shentan waved it off. “There aren’t that many smart people in this world. Most of them are actually just overconfident. For example, you actually dare to rebuke me.”

Vanilla was confused.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, “Let’s get moving as soon as possible. There’s no need to give the Pyro Company a chance to redeploy. We might as well end this farce quickly.” “Alright! Let’s move out immediately!” Li Shentan stood up and got ready to set off.

move

Everyone at the campsite was stunned. They looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered why this young man’s words were so effective on Li Shentan.

Why was the legendary Demon Whisperer so obedient? Who on earth was this young man?!

Moreover, wasn’t that young man a little too arrogant in his speech? End the farce quickly? He would first have to be capable enough to speak as arrogantly as that.

While these words might sound arrogant to their ears, it was just an affirmative statement to Ren Xiaosu and Li Shentan. He was merely speaking his mind.

Ren Xiaosu was probably not that confident at the beginning, which was why he sneaked into the group and tried to find an opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

But now that Li Shentan and Ren Xiaosu’s maidservant had joined them, not even a few Sacred Mountains would be too difficult for them to take down.

After setting off early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu could see traces of human architecture from afar by noon. “Is that the Pyro Company’s research base up ahead?”

The buildings here were not the same as those Ren Xiaosu had encountered before. The structures found in the strongholds had always been designed practically. They were mostly boxy and rarely shaped strangely.

But at this research base in front of them, Ren Xiaosu could not make out any building designs that were repeated. Some of them were built in spherical or trapezoidal shapes, while some were simply covered with glass in full.

Ren Xiaosu even felt the buildings in front of him had unusual aesthetics. However, this research base was probably built a long time ago. Many of the buildings’ paint on their outer walls had even peeled off, making them look exceptionally mottled and worn out.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, “The rest of the world is always saying that there’s all kinds of strange creatures lurking in the Sacred Mountains, and that prehistoric pterosaurs can be seen soaring in the sky over it. They make it sound like the Sacred Mountains is full of demons and monsters. But look, we didn’t actually come across anything other than the tarantulas.”