The First Order

"Erm, you're…" Zhang Xiaoman looked at Yan Liuyuan's ferocious faceplate, not knowing how to address him. "Hero, is Ren Xiaosu the big brother you were referring to?"

Yan Liuyuan looked at Zhang Xiaoman. "Yes, my name is Yan Liuyuan."

Zhang Xiaoman said excitedly to P5092, "It's really Liuyuan. When the future commander was with me in the Razor Sharp Company, he mentioned several times he was going to look for his younger brother after taking out the Zong Consortium, and this search went on for over a year."

At this point, the Great Hoodwinker looked over at Yan Liuyuan. "Hello, I'm the Great Hoodwinker. I'm in charge of Fortress 178's fieldwork. Your brother previously requested I help look for you, but I couldn't find any news of you. I didn't expect you would actually go to the north. Do you know how much effort your brother has spent looking for you? He even made a trip to the Pyro Company's Sacred Mountains just to find you, but nothing came out of that."

Wang Yun was stunned. "So Ren Xiaosu went to the Sacred Mountains because he wanted to find him? It was way too dangerous at that time."

Yan Liuyuan listened to all of this quietly. So it turned out his brother had been looking for him all this while and even put himself in danger for him.

He asked again, "Where's my brother? My servant's hawk saw him at your defensive position."

"Oh, when he saw that the situation on the main battlefield had already been decided, he led his wife and a chubster with him to the northern side. He was talking about killing Black Robe first. You probably don't know who Black Robe is, right? It's an intelligent being that exists among the Experimentals," Zhang Xiaoman explained. "But he should be back soon. I feel that it won't take long for him to kill Black Robe."

But the moment he finished saying that, everyone saw Yan Liuyuan commanding the Wolf King to turn back, muttering, "Head north…"

The Wolf King started picking up speed as it ran.

The man and the wolf weaved through the battlefield, the barbarians posing no obstacle.

The Great Hoodwinker watched Yan Liuyuan's figure recede. "I can tell that the brothers have great affection for each other. I wonder if I can persuade him to have those nomads join the Prosperous Northwest. Y'know, our Northwest has very good pastures…."

Wang Yun suddenly said, "When Stronghold 176 was invaded the first time, someone saw him bring down the stronghold from far away. They didn't even know how he did it. These two brothers are really powerful. To be honest, we've really fought a very tough battle. Great Hoodwinker, if you had helped the future commander find him earlier, we wouldn't have had such a hard time fighting the barbarians. This young lord is probably capable of fighting an army of 20,000 by himself."

The era of the "Rise of Gods" had truly arrived. When this era first began, there were only two people powerful enough to take on the organizations on their own. But now, there were more and more of them.

However, Wang Yun suddenly had a thought. 'Why does it seem like all of these people have an inextricable link with Ren Xiaosu?'

And now, if the consortiums of the Alliance of Strongholds were to learn Ren Xiaosu's background, they would probably be glad he had no ambitions of vying for power, right?

When Yan Liuyuan got to the rear of the enemy, Xiaoyu was waiting outside the battlefield on her horse with Bulan Zir standing guard by her side. Xiaoyu asked, "Have you found your brother?"

"He went to the northern side." Yan Liuyuan grabbed Xiaoyu by the waist and carried her over from the horse. He placed her on the Wolf King's back and said, "Let's go and look for him."

…

In the wilderness, Black Robe hid its tracks as it fled northwards. While lying prone on the ground, it saw the wolves from afar and realized the expeditionary army's defeat was already decided.

Right now, it was not only the expeditionary army at Mt. Zuoyun that was starting to collapse. The barbarians over at Mt. Daniu would definitely pull a quick retreat as well after learning about the defeat at Mt. Zuoyun, right?

However, Black Robe was not dejected. Just as it had said to Valentin, it never expected the expeditionary army to be able to achieve the final victory.

It had urged the expeditionary army to come to the Central Plains because it coveted their northern kingdom. But at that time, the barbarians were simply too strong, especially that general Black Robe did not even dare to make a move against.

And now, only a few out of the 190,000-strong expeditionary army troops could return home after this campaign ended. This way, there would be more opportunities for Black Robe to strike later on. It did not even seem difficult anymore if Black Robe wanted to turn the entire northern kingdom into its own territory.

Moreover, Black Robe was thinking how great it would be if the Central Plains people could surround and kill the general here. In that way, it would no longer have any opponents up in the Far North.

But while thinking about that, Black Robe gradually stopped in its tracks. When it saw the young man looking at it in the wilderness up ahead with a smile, its suddenly got worried.

Just over a month ago, it was this young man who had caused its entire body to turn completely black. Whenever Black Robe thought of this, it felt a deep hatred for Ren Xiaosu.

Moreover, the other party had even displayed his killing resolve on the opposite peak yesterday.

Black Robe might seem powerful, but it always felt some apprehension and fear deep down inside. It had appeared extremely confident while in the presence of humans, but if that was really the case, it would not have fled in such a hurry.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Black Robe, who was in front of him. "What? Are you planning to escape to the North now? The expeditionary army's war is not over yet, and you're already thinking of fleeing?"

Black Robe said in a hoarse voice, "What's that got to do with me? It suits me just fine if they lose."

Ren Xiaosu wondered, "Don't you find it tough living like this? You're always thinking of fighting and killing all the time. After causing all that trouble in the Southwest, you came to cause trouble in the Central Plains again. A thing like you should not be alive in this world."

Black Robe said in a low voice, "I also want to lead a quiet life, but can I really live as normal as you all? Can you humans accept me? You can't, right? Will you all allow anomalies like me to live among you when it's human nature to ostracize those that are different? Perhaps you all will place me captive in a zoo to exhibit to others or turn me into a specimen. Isn't that what humans like to do? I was also a human in the past, so I know exactly how humans treat anomalies. There's no possibility for us to coexist!"

"You must've gotten your logic wrong." Ren Xiaosu wondered, "You were clearly the one who hunted down humans the moment you appeared, so why would humans want to get along peacefully with you?"

"I only kill people because I want to survive. When the Qing Consortium went into the Jing Mountains and saw us, didn't they also try to capture all of us?" Black Robe said fiercely, "There's no point in me telling you all this. What are you doing here? Did you come to debate me? What, you still wish for us to choose a side and try to convince each other? Save it!"

In that instant, Black Robe suddenly took a step back as a sniper bullet flew over from the wilderness in the distance. Surprisingly, Black Robe wised up this time and dodged it in advance!

Black Robe started laughing hysterically. "I know you set an ambush for me, but you shouldn't be using the same trick…"

While laughing, Black Robe looked down the gaping hole in its chest.

Black Robe was sure it had dodged the bullet, so why did it still get shot?

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin's voice crackled through the earpiece, "I figured out what's unique about the black bullet. Once a target's been shot by it, the second shot will definitely kill it if the target did not die the first time around regardless of where it hits. I already had it in my scope, so it really did dodge the trajectory of my shot in advance."

As the black bullet's second shot could change its trajectory, this shot was a surefire kill!

Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard this. This was the first time he learned the black bullet had such an effect.

Black Robe looked at its chest silently. In its world, it was the ruler, and the world revolved around it. Therefore, Black Robe never thought it would die as easily as this.

However, it could feel its life force draining away after the black bullet pierced its chest.

Black Robe looked at Ren Xiaosu and said dumbfoundedly, "I clearly dodged that. No, that's not a normal sniper bullet. What is it…"

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "My dear opponent, that's the argument our side has presented."

Black Robe could not accept this as it slowly fell to the ground. It wanted to firmly commit this young man's face to its memory. However, it suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu was not looking at it but someone behind it.

As Black Robe fell to the ground, Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the huge wolf rushing towards him from the south. With no one around in the wilderness, the sight of that huge wolf and the people riding on its back came as striking yet such a surprise.

Ren Xiaosu had been waiting for this day for so long that he thought it would never arrive. They were standing at two ends of a long river of time, separated by a stretch of galaxy and a bottomless black hole.

He could not see the end of it no matter how far he looked.

In his life's journey, he once walked for an extended period alone and saw the lights in his life go out one by one. Wudi was gone, and Xiaoyu and Liuyuan had gone missing as well.

In that period, he felt a little lost and alone.

Actually, at certain points, he could somewhat understand the loneliness Zero had mentioned.

This was a feeling of not seeing anyone waiting for him in that dimly lit boulevard when he turned around, followed by all the lights going out.

Ren Xiaosu stood quietly in place and watched as the other party approached him quickly. He suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

I finally found you.