Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Chen Yifan saw the forest and frowned. This kind of place was the most suitable place to lay out a trap. He wondered if the veterans in 250 Mecha Clan would do something here.
Guo Rongqi was a careful person. He immediately stopped everyone when he saw the forest.
“What happened?” Someone asked.
“This forest is dense. The lighting inside is not good. If the seniors want to test us, they might ambush us inside there.” Guo Rongqi told everyone his opinion.
“We just reach one-eighth of the journey. Even if they want to test us, they will not lay out a trap so quickly.” Someone gave a different opinion.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t they wait until we are out of energy before testing us?” They were tired but they still had a lot of energy left in them. If their seniors wanted to test them, this was not a good time.
Most of the people didn’t support Guo Rongqi’s opinion. Guo Rongqi started to waver too. He wondered if he was being too cautious.
Chen Yifan stood at the back and didn’t say anything. He felt that what these people said made sense but his instincts told him that the forest was dangerous. However, no one would believe him. Instinct was not a good reason to convince other people.
No one wanted to waste time in this forest. The time they spent to cover one-eight of the journey proved that what Guo Rongqi said was true. They needed to march rapidly in order to reach their destination within two hours. Hence, they treasured their time and were afraid that they would waste too much time contemplating over this.
Then, a recruit told everyone his opinion. Most people agreed with him. The recruit felt that this was an illusion created by their seniors. They wanted them to think that there was an ambush inside the forest to slow down their speed. That way, they might be unable to reach their destination due to the lack of time and all their efforts would be wasted.
Only Chen Yifan didn’t agree with this idea. He trusted his own intuition. His intuition had allowed him to escape from several dangerous situations before. However, he didn’t object to the general consensus. They were just his temporary teammates, he could just let them explore the path first. He believed that if there was really an ambush, he would be able to escape with his little brother safely with his abilities.
Thus, Chen Yifan and his brother, Chen Yi’an, followed behind the main group as they entered the forest.
The forest was quiet. Besides the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, they could only hear their own footsteps. Chen Yifan looked as though he was relaxed but he was on his guard. If anything happened around him, he would be able to react immediately.
Xie Yi stood among the leaves and swayed along. He seemed to have become one with the tree. His team members were hiding on the other trees. They were waiting for his command.
“!, 2, 3… 47, 48… huh?” Xie Yi saw Chen Yifan and was stunned.
“Wait, this person seems familiar. Let me think. Where have I seen him before…” Xie Yi tapped his forehead with his fingers as he tried to remember where he saw this person before.
“The Grand Mecha Tournament early this year. He was our opponent, the ace mecha master from the Third Men’s Military Academy, Chen Yifan. Why the hell is this person here?” Xie Yi looked at Chen Yifan in surprise. He didn’t understand why this person appeared as a logistician of the 250 Mecha Clan.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. He is a private now? That is interesting.” Xie Yi gave an evil smile. However, he frowned quickly. “With him around, it would be hard for me to get rid of these people quietly. I might alarm those people behind them…”
Xie Yi thought for a while and decided to not act this time. He let the 50 people off. There were still other traps behind. His friends would be interested in Chen Yifan too.
Xie Yi didn’t want to admit that he let Chen Yifan pass because he wanted his friends to experience the same shock he felt just now.
The 50 people walked through the forest safely. The soldier who suggested that everything was just an illusion felt proud of himself. The atmosphere in the team changed. Some people who used to respect Guo Rongqi started to question his ability. Some people felt that he was cautious but not decisive enough. He would not make a good leader. The group started to get divided.
Chen Yifan looked back at the quiet forest. He was puzzled. He felt someone staring at him when he was walking through the forest just now. He thought that they would be ambushed but they came out of the forest unscathed. Why did their opponents let them off?
Was it because there were too few people? Were their opponents targeting the 200 people behind them? If that was the case, they made the right decision to walk faster. This was the only reason Chen Yifan could come up with.
Chen Yifan never expected that his old rivals, the people from the First Men’s Military Academy, were in the 250 Mecha Clan. Hence, the moment he entered the mecha clan, his identity was exposed. The people hiding in the forest wanted to make the most out of their ambush so they let them off. The 50 people managed to leave safely all because of him.
Unfortunately, Chen Yifan didn’t know this. He continued on his path.
Ten minutes after Chen Yifan and his group left the forest, the 200 people had arrived at the foot of the forest. These people saw the group in front of them leaving the forest safely so they entered without much thought.
By now, they understood that time was not on their side so they hastened their pace. Their slow speed at the start already wasted some of their time, so if they don’t hurry up, they would definitely not reach their destination in time.
They looked down as they rushed forward. They didn’t pay much attention to their surroundings. Xie Yi waited until they reached the place where his team members were hiding in and gave an order to attack. His team members were already a little impatient so they immediately jumped down and attacked the recruits.
The recruits were frightened by the sudden attack. They couldn’t think properly. Even when they had the numbers advantage and there was only one opponent, they didn’t think about combining forces. They panicked and screamed as they ran around. Hence, although the recruits outnumbered Xie Yi and his team, Xie Yi still managed to subdued close to 70 people. Each of his team members subdued three recruits on average.
There were some recruits that retaliated. A small group of people calmed down quickly after they were attacked and fought together to resist against the veterans for three minutes. After the veterans felt satisfied, they left after three minutes. The recruits were confused. They didn’t know what the aim of this ambush was.
After a huge mess, most of the recruits managed to escape from Xie Yi’s attack.
At that moment, the last batch of recruits reached the forest too. They heard the screams of fear coming from within the forest and knew that there was a trap inside.
The recruits thought for a while and decided to make a detour around the forest. Xie Yi felt that they were seeking death.
This batch of recruits was already much slower than their comrades. If they continued to make a detour, they would waste even more time. Unless they walked through the shortcut which was marked as a danger zone on the map, they would be unable to reach their destination in time.
Shortcut? Xie Yi felt his teeth hurting. That danger zone was the experiment testing area for Chang Xinyuan and Li Shiyu. No one knew when they would step on an experimental product if they walked through the place. The feeling of stepping on an experimental product was an unforgettable experience. Also, Luo Lang brought his team over there. He explained that he didn’t like logisticians so he didn’t want to waste time on them. He would rather bring his men to the danger zone and challenged the place again.
Now, there were two things that the mecha operators in 250 Mecha Clan were most afraid of. One was the hellish month training by their boss and the other was the danger zone which they had to challenge once every month.
In order to increase the difficulty of the challenge, Chang Xinyuan and Li Shiyu put in a lot of effort to invent frightening agents and mechanical weapons. Sometimes, they would cooperate with each other and come up with a frightening invention. This made the area a forbidden zone in the 250 Mecha Clan. No one would willingly go there and get tortured.
“Fine. Let’s wish them good luck.” Xie Yi looked that recruits who took the detour and prayed for them. Then, he left with his team.
At the same time, a river appeared in front of Chen Yifan’s group. It was not a huge river. It was only 10 meters wide. For someone who reached refinement, this was an easy distance for them. They could jump over the river after a short run. People who reached Qi-Jin were able to bring someone across. Chen Yifan reached Qi-Jin so he was able to bring Chen Yi’an safely across the river if he wanted too.
However, to the normal logisticians who just achieved the foundation of manifestation, this distance was a challenge to them.
Of course, they could choose to swim their way across but no one dared to do it. They were uncertain about what was in the river.
