Chapter 235 : Title at End!
Zhuo Yatong furrowed her eyebrows as she shook her head and declined,
“No! He said that without his orders, no one is to move.”
Gu Manzi looked at Zhuo Yatong and demanded,
“But he could be in terrible danger right now. Are we just going to stay here and not care about him?”
The nearby soldiers turned their heads around and watched the argument. These few days, Yue Zhong’s display had already led them to be quite convinced about his ability. Yue Zhong had not only given them food and shelter, but he had also led them to victory against the Mutant Pig horde, raising their aspirations and morale to the max.
He did not abandon the heavily wounded warriors, but rather kept to his promises and provided support for them. Furthermore, in every battle so far, Yue Zhong had always charged up to the frontlines to fight, making those soldiers all approve of him.
Zhuo Yatong glanced at Gu Manzi before replying blandly,
“Let’s wait another 2 hours. If there is still no news about him, I will bring people to go in. Sister Manzi, how about entering the station with me?”
Gu Manzi’s face turned pale and she pondered for a while, before eventually replying,
“I don’t have the sort of strength that sister Yatong has. Even if I do go, I’ll just be a burden. I think I’d better wait out here for sister Yatong and brother Yue to return together.”
Zhuo Yatong glanced disdainfully at Gu Manzi as she said coldly,
“You shall just wait here then!”
Tong Xiaoyun walked up to Zhuo Yatong’s side, as she gripped tightly onto her Replica Tang Sword and said,
“Sister Yatong, I’ll go in with you! I believe that brother Yue will definitely be fine!”
Before the apocalypse, Tong Xiaoyun had been a very fragile loli who would shriek incessantly even at the sight of a cockroach. However, due to the harsh apocalyptic environment that she had suffered under, she had begun to undergo astonishing changes. After experiencing the battle to protect Clear Wind Camp with Yue Zhong, Zhuo Yatong and the rest, she started to become more courageous and confident.
Zhuo Yatong gave Tong Xiaoyun an extremely gentle smile:
“Mm! Sister Xiaoyun, you’ve got guts.”
Zhuo Yatong was also growing fond of this brave and cute little girl.
“They’re starting to band together! What do I do?”
As Gu Manzi looked at the growing relationship between Zhuo Yatong and Tong Xiaoyun, her face turned very pale and a trace of panic flashed past her heart.
The 2 hours passed by very quickly, and Yue Zhong still hadn’t returned yet. Zhuo Yatong decided to directly pick a few of the warriors from the First Company, intending to walk towards the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Station together with them.
“Miss Yatong! Let me take a few people to check instead!”
Just as Zhuo Yatong was about to set off, Xiong Zheng came over with a few of his men and said to her.
Even though Xiong Zheng had once been an enemy who had then surrendered, Yue Zhong still considered him as a very valuable asset, and had let him be in charge of an entire company. Xiong Zheng received all sorts of goods as remuneration for his work, and thus he held Yue Zhong in great esteem as well.
“Xiong Zheng, you are one of Yue Zhong’s generals. You must remain here to direct the troops if needed. My combat ability is higher than yours as well, so if there is any danger inside, I can somewhat protect myself. I’d better be the one to enter!”
Zhuo Yatong said firmly as she rejected Xiong Zheng’s suggestion.
Xiong Zheng did not press any further and warned,
“Please take care!”
During the battle to protect Clear Wind Camp, Xiong Zheng had seen Zhuo Yatong’s incredible fighting strength for himself, therefore he was fairly confident in her ability.
Leading Tong Xiaoyun and 6 warriors with her, Zhuo Yatong carefully made her way into the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Station.
“Attack helicopters!!”
As soon as they entered the encampment, Zhuo Yatong and the others saw those attack helicopters that had been entangled by the Devil Vines, and all of their eyes lit up. The combat potential of these attack helicopters was extremely formidable; even possessing just one of the helicopters would be sufficient to deter the nearby powers.
Since it was their first time seeing the attack helicopters, they couldn’t help themselves from moving forward a few steps towards the helicopters.
As Zhuo Yatong looked from afar, she saw the countless vines that had been severed by Yue Zhong, which were currently scattered on the ground about 5 or 6m away from the Devil Vines. She hurriedly shouted,
“Don’t go over!! It’s dangerous there!!”
After being berated by Zhuo Yatong, those 6 warriors immediately stopped advancing and returned back to her side.
Zhuo Yatong observed the surroundings carefully, before bringing the party further into the depths of the dense forest.
“These were all killed by him!”
Zhuo Yatong and her party hadn’t traversed the forest for too long, before they came across multiple monstrous-looking Mutant Water Snakes lying dead on the ground. All of them had been beheaded cleanly in one strike.
Seeing the corpses of these gigantic Mutant Water Snakes, all of those present began to worship Yue Zhong’s combat prowess even more.
Zhuo Yatong brought the others with her as she followed the trail of corpses; eventually, they came to the clearing where the huge tree covered entirely with pink flowers was growing.
All of them saw the behemoth that was over 80m long and 2m in diameter. It was reminiscent of a prehistoric monster, yet it had still been bombarded into chunks, leaving everyone with a peculiar feeling in their hearts.
The Type 2 Mutant Water Snake looked like the flood dragon from Chinese myths, yet a huge beast as such had actually been disposed of by Yue Zhong. Everybody’s reverence and admiration for him instantly reached the peak.
Right at this time, they saw White Bones, who always went campaigning with Yue Zhong: holding a large axe, it stood quietly beneath the huge tree. There was the corpse of a Mutant Water Snake lying at its feet.
Upon seeing White Bones, all the members of the party relaxed. They recognized this ‘person’ who had always followed Yue Zhong, as if it were his perpetual shadow. White Bones’ strength was tyrannical, and aside from Yue Zhong and Zhuo Yatong, ‘he’ was also currently one of Clear Wind Camp’s top combatants. White Bones’ loyalty to Yue Zhong was known to everyone as well.
(TN: Poor folks, they don’t know that they’re referring to a sack of bones)
(Divinecelestialbeinglol: skeletons have rights too)
Zhuo Yatong walked up to White Bones and said,
“Mr. Iron Bones! May I ask where Yue Zhong is?”
After Yue Zhong had used Skill Points to enhance it thrice, White Bones now possessed some initial intelligence. It stared at Zhuo Yatong and recognized her as Yue Zhong’s woman, eventually extending one of its hands and pointing a finger to the top of the huge tree.
Zhuo Yatong continued to ask,
“Can I go up to see him?”
White Bones directly extended its axe in front of Zhuo Yatong to block her path, using this action to signify that she couldn’t do so. Yue Zhong was currently undergoing a crucial point in his growth. As Yue Zhong’s summon, White Bones would definitely not allow anybody to go and disrupt him.
Zhuo Yatong also did not insist and she proceeded to give an order to one of the warriors beside her,
“Liu Guang! Both you and Zhang You go and notify Xiong Zheng, let him know that Commander Yue is safe and sound, and is currently resting. Tell him not to worry and to continue waiting.”
“Yes! Miss Yatong!”
Liu Guang and the other soldier Zhang You replied, before immediately going back the way they came from.
After receiving the information that Yue Zhong was fine, everyone heaved a sigh of relief and continued to wait quietly for his return.
Eight hours. The rampant energy inside his body constantly alternated between hot and cold, causing Yue Zhong to constantly toss from side to side. As his body temperature fluctuated between ice-cold and blistering hot, Yue Zhong endured this torture for an entire eight hours. Only then did he slowly wake up.
[Congratulations on successfully evolving and becoming an Evolver. Your innate evolution attributes are Spirit and Endurance, making you a Dual Attribute Evolver.
You are currently already a Level 40 Enhancer; this time’s evolution has let you gain 10 points of Spirit and 10 points of Endurance as bonus enhancements for opening the entrance to evolution. On top of that, you have gained additional enhancements of 39 points in Spirit and 39 points in Endurance for rising up in level. In total, you have gained 49 points in Spirit and 49 points in Endurance.]
[Your current occupation is Dark Knight. Since you have become an Evolver and your level is above 30, you have gained the passive skill ‘Heart of Darkness’.]
[Level 5 Passive Skill: Heart of Darkness. Once you have learnt this passive skill, all your Dark Knight class-related skills will automatically gain 1 point in enhancement.]
[Level 2 Skill: Art of Fear (+1 Enhancement)… Skill can used on a single target within a radius of 300m. It can also be used indiscriminately within a distance of 60m. Effect of skill has been strengthened.]
[Level 2 Skill: Night Enhancement (+1 Enhancement)… You temporarily gain 2 additional points in all 6 major attributes when in darkness.]
[Level 3 Skill: Tamer Technique (+1 Enhancement)… The number of intelligent beings that you can tame has now increased from 1 to 2.]
[Level 3 Skill: Devil Flame (+2 Enhancement)… Devil Flame’s damage output has increased threefold compared to its power before enhancement.]
[Level 2 Skill: Shadow Steps. (+1 Enhancement). Upon activation, user gains an extra 35 points in Agility for 5 minutes, requires 10 points of Stamina.]
[Level 2 Skill: Encompassing Body Armor (+1 Enhancement)… Duration, 30 minutes.]
[Level 3 Skill: Summon Special Skeleton (+4 Enhancement).]
[Your Special Skeleton has evolved and gained new skills.
New Skill 1: Sharpen! This skill allows the Special Skeleton’s bones to become sharper.
New Skill 2: Basic Intelligence. This ability allows your Special Skeleton to possess basic intelligence. It is now capable of independent judgement.]
[Special Skeleton (White Bones): Level 30
Strength: 59 (10)
Agility: 59 (10)
Vitality: 59 (10)
Stamina: 59/59 (10)
Spirit: 59/59 (10)
Endurance: 121 (10)
Possesses Skills:
Skill 1: Utilizing Bones Ability
Skill 2: Strengthen Bones.
Skill 3: Bone Manipulation.
Skill 4: Feign.
Skill 5: Return to Hell.
Skill 6: Immediate Summon.
Skill 7: Sharpen.
Skill 8: Basic Intelligence.]
[Summon Special Skeleton], [Shadow Steps] and [Devil Flame] were actually all active skills that were linked to the Dark Knight class. This was why Yue Zhong was able to select the hidden profession Dark Knight as his class back then.
Yue Zhong quietly assessed the changes to himself after evolution. After swallowing that scarlet fruit, he had finally become an Evolver. Due to his evolution, his own strength had also changed tremendously. This applied especially to the Level 5 Passive Skill [Heart of Darkness], which instantly gave a huge boost to his power.
Other than that, due to his status as a Dual Attribute Evolver, Yue Zhong’s evolution potential was now much greater than other people’s.
“I’ve finally become an Evolver!”
Yue Zhong could feel the earth-shaking changes in his body and he thought to himself elatedly.
Ever since he had come across Yao Yao, the first Evolver he had ever met, Yue Zhong had always hoped to become an Evolver as well. It was just that those natural Evolvers he knew were all geniuses with outstanding aptitude, who had only awakened their inner potential and become Evolvers due to a stroke of luck.
Yue Zhong’s aptitude was mediocre (TN: pffft who needs aptitude when they have plot armor?) and he was only able to reach his current state by constantly putting in effort. He had to depend on that strange scarlet fruit to awaken his natural abilities as an Evolver, and it actually turned out that he was a Dual Attribute Evolver with unlimited potential.
Yue Zhong could vaguely guess the key to his evolution,
“The fruits here were probably the key to my evolution. That Type 2 Mutant Water Snake must have been guarding them.”
As Yue Zhong expected, the Type 2 Mutant Water Snake had precisely been guarding the scarlet fruit, waiting for it to mature. If it had been successful in swallowing the matured scarlet fruit, it could continue evolving to eventually become a Type 3 Mutant Beast. It was just that the strange scarlet fruit hadn’t completely matured yet, and the Type 2 Mutant Water Snake just happened to meet its end at Yue Zhong’s hands.
In reality, the strange scarlet fruit that Yue Zhong had consumed still hadn’t fully matured; otherwise, if it had, it would have benefited his evolution a whole lot more.
After guessing how this matter came about, Yue Zhong immediately plucked the remaining 6 fruits and placed them into his Storage Ring. He did not know if there would be another chance for him to wait for these fruits to ripen, and so the best choice was for him to pluck these half-ripened fruits right now; even though the effects from eating them certainly wouldn’t be as effective, it was still better to have them kept safely with him.
“Since these fruits were obtained from fighting the Mutant Water Snakes, I shall call them ‘Snake Birth Fruits’. These Snake Birth Fruit flowers might also be useful towards evolution- I’ll get someone to pluck all of them later.”
Yue Zhong glanced at the pink flowers that covered the entire Snake Birth Fruit Tree, before climbing down nimbly.
The moment he climbed down from the tree, Yue Zhong saw Zhuo Yatong, Tong Xiaoyun and a few warriors waiting for him below.
When he saw them, he felt extremely touched, yet a little upset at the same time. He asked sternly,
“How come you guys are here? Didn’t I tell you to wait outside? It’s very dangerous here!”
Within the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Camp, there were all sorts of dangerous Mutant Plants growing all over the place. If they had been just slightly careless, then they could very well have all perished in this place.
Tong Xiaoyun felt a bit wronged and refuted him, saying,
“We’re only here because we were all concerned about your safety!”
When Yue Zhong saw that Tong Xiaoyun dared to answer back, he raised an eyebrow and was preparing to scold her, to let her understand the importance of complying with military orders.
“That’s enough, Sister Xiaoyun!! Husband was also just worried about our safety.”
Zhuo Yatong patted Tong Xiaoyun’s shoulder, before walking up to Yue Zhong’s front and looking straight at him. As always, she spoke in a voice as gentle as water,
“It’s my fault! I disobeyed your orders and brought people to find you without permission. No matter how you want to punish me, I will still have no complaints ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .”
Yue Zhong saw the tender expression of Zhuo Yatong and he was not able to let out his angry rebuke. After all, Zhuo Yatong only brought people over to find him because she was concerned..
“Just this once! Let’s go!”
Yue Zhong could only say something like this before he led them out of this place.
This time around, for the sake of gaining control over the entire Mechanized Infantry Brigade Station all in one go, Yue Zhong brought over the entire Battalion from Clear Wind Camp. As soon as he returned to the camp, he immediately ordered all the troops to enter the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Station. The troops began to frenzily transport all the weaponry and equipment that they could find in the encampment.
There were all sorts of advanced technology, such as Type 69 Tanks, Z-9 Attack Helicopters, multi-barrelled rocket launcher vehicles, armored command vehicles, meteorological radar vehicles, ammunition supply vehicles, anti-tank artillery vehicles, Type 95 SPAAA Vehicles, HJ8 Anti-tank Vehicles, unmanned surveillance aircraft…
All this greatly widened the horizons of Yue Zhong and his team, since they were essentially country bumpkins who had never seen such advanced weaponry before.
Xiong Zheng found Yue Zhong and inquired with both excitement and helplessness,
“Boss Yue! How should everyone move these away?”
Although there were many Type 69 Tanks, attack helicopters, IFVs and all sorts of other vehicles that had damage caused to their armors by those Mutant Plants, there were still some undamaged armored vehicles. Yue Zhong and his men managed to find 10 intact Type 69 Tanks as well as some other armored vehicles that were free from damage, such as a few HJ8 Anti-tank Vehicles.
However, the greatest problem lay right there, as there weren’t enough people in Yue Zhong’s team who were able to drive these advanced weapons of war. Driving a tank certainly was not as easy as driving a normal car. Furthermore, even the number of people who knew how to drive large vehicles in Yue Zhong’s Battalion was less than 30.
Yue Zhong pondered for a while, before firing off a series of orders,
“Let’s first use those jeeps to transport as much light weaponry as possible! I remember we have 4 people in this Battalion who have operated bulldozers before, let them drive four of the Type 69 Tanks back…”
Not long after, an enormous vehicle fleet brimming with modern weaponry departed from the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Station, driving into the distance. This vehicle fleet was much larger than the one that had originally come to the station.
Yue Zhong’s team transported back a large amount of firearms, ammunition, bazookas and grenade launchers, grenades, landmines and various other types of light weaponry. As for those armored vehicles, they did not take as many. This was because they lacked people who knew how to operate the machines; even if they did somehow drag all the vehicles back to Clear Wind Camp, they still wouldn’t be able to use many of them.