Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
They couldn’t see the end of the river and there was no bridge too. Besides crossing the river, there was no other way. No one knew what to do.
“Does anyone have a knife?” Someone asked.
The people around him stared at him with judgment in their eyes. It was forbidden to bring any sharp weapons such as a dagger or a knife into a mecha clan. Once they were caught, their weapons would be taken away. Some of them didn’t know this rule and brought along their weapons. Everything was confiscated when they entered the 23rd division.
The person who asked the question realized he had asked a stupid question. He sighed as he looked at the tree around him. It seemed like he can’t use the trees.
Everyone looked at the river in a daze. Besides swimming across, there was no other way. They hoped that their regiment commander didn’t breed any water monsters.
Before stepping into the river, they threw a rock inside. Nothing appeared on the surface.
Guo Rongqi looked at everyone and asked, “Who wants to get down first?”
No one replied to him. Everyone knew that it was dangerous to be the first person to enter the river so they just looked at each other. No one wanted to volunteer themselves. Everyone just cared about their own wellbeing. Guo Rongqi was furious. However, he was only the temporary leader so he didn’t have the right to force anyone. Seems like I have to do it myself.
Just as Guo Rongqi was about to volunteer himself, Chen Yifan said, “Let my brother and I go down first.”
Everyone was elated to hear someone volunteering themselves. They quickly cleared the path for him.
Guo Rongqi was grateful to Chen Yifan. He asked, “Thank you. May I know what is your name?”
Chen Yifan smiled. “I’m Chen Yifan.” He pointed at his younger brother, “Chen Yi’an.”
“The Chen brothers. We will have to rely on you this time.” Guo Rongqi wanted to pat Chen Yifan’s shoulders but Chen Yifan had already pulled his younger brother to the river bed.
Zhou Yu watched the two brothers stepped into the river. He remembered the times when he trained with Chen Yi’an and gritted his teeth. “Brother Yifan, Yi’an, I will come with you two.”
Chen Yifan looked back at Zhou Yu. He nodded his head in agreement. Chen Yi’an even smiled and waved at Zhou Yu.
Chen Yifan took out a few rubber bands from his backpack and asked Chen Yi’an and Zhou Yu to tie up the ends of their sleeves and trousers. Their military uniform looked normal but they were actually waterproof. As long as the water didn’t enter their uniform, their uniforms would not get wet.
When all of them finished tying up their clothes, Chen Yifan asked Chen Yi’an and Zhou Yu to follow behind him as he entered the river.
He Chaoyang smiled as he looked at the image on the screen. “Since we are bored, let’s play a game.”
His words caught everyone’s attention. Yuan Youyun asked curiously, “What game?”
“Let’s guess if Li Yingjie’s team will attack them.” He Chaoyang remembered Li Yingjie’s face when he picked the river as his position. He wanted to laugh. At the start, Li Yingjie was so confident that he would not pick the toughest location. Unfortunately, ever since he became the team leader of Team 10, he had been very unlucky.
“I don’t think so,” Li Shiyu was the first to answer.
“I don’t think so too.” Luo Shaoyun followed.
“No,” Yuan Youyun said firmly.
“Three people is too little for him.” Li Jinghong smiled. He was the third inheritor of the Li family. Yet, he was working harder than him. Li Jinghong knew that Li Yingjie would not be satisfied with just taking down three recruits.
“Li Yingjie would pretend that there is no ambush and let the three of them pass. As for the rest, I’m not sure whether he will attack them,” Lin Zhong-qing replied. There was an even larger group of people behind this group so he wasn’t sure who Li Yingjie wanted to ambush.
“You all think that he won’t. That’s not fun. Seems like this question is too easy.” He Chaoyang was sad. He felt that Li Yingjie would not attack them too.
Ling Lan glanced at them and smiled. “You should instead ask them why they think that Chen Yifan wanted to enter the river first.”
Lin Zhong-qing thought about it for a moment and replied instantly, “He knew that they would be fine.”
“Be it a test or an ambush, the other party would definitely want to get the most out of their ambush. Hence, the first person to enter the river would be the safest.” Ling Lan sat on her fancy chair and placed her hand on her chin. She looked at Chen Yifan with satisfaction. He was a smart and strong person. If his character was good, she would train him personally.
“Seems like he understands what we are thinking.”Lin Zhong-qing was unhappy. He didn’t like a contestant who knew what the examiner was thinking.
“It’s fine. After most of the recruits get taken down, it will be their turn, Also…” Ling Lan smiled. “Qi Long only looks at how strong his opponent is. He doesn’t care about the result.”
Everyone smiled. After two more ambushes, they would reach the place where Qi Long was at. If Chen Yifan still had this mentality, he would be in danger.
Very soon, Chen Yifan and the other two reached the other side of the river safely. The other people felt relieved when they saw that nothing happened to them. They jumped into the river with a light heart. At the same time, the second group of people who managed to escape from Xie Yi arrived at the river too. They also saw Chen Yifan and the other two crossed the river safely and, they jumped in without any hesitation too.
They wanted to take advantage of this time and outrun the first group. The first group didn’t want to lose out too so they started jumping into the river. In an instant, there were almost 100 people in the river.
Suddenly, an accident happened. One of the recruits who was swimming was knocked unconscious. He floated on the surface of the river. His military uniform prevented him from sinking into the river.
“There’s someone!” Guo Rongqi didn’t jump in like the others so he saw the black shadows under the surface of the water.
“It’s a trap!” The people in the river turned desperate. Some swam forward furiously while others stopped in the middle of the river. Some even tried to climb out of the river.
Chen Yi’an and Zhou Yu saw the situation in the river and felt frightened. They didn’t expect the river they just crossed to be filled with people. They felt fortunate.
“Brother Yifan, what do we do now?” Zhou Yu was didn’t know what to do. They had only finished a quarter of the journey but there were only 3 of them left.
“Don’t worry. Let’s wait for them at the front.” Chen Yifan saw the agile movements of their seniors in the river and knew that they were not normal soldiers. They must be experienced soldiers. With his current capabilities, he would be unable to resist against them if he was attacked by more than two veterans at the same time. He didn’t know whether these people would climb up the river banks so it was dangerous to stay near the river.
Chen Yifan quickly brought the two people away from the river. After running for some distance, he panted and found a place to rest.
Chen Yifan would not let the three of them lead the way for the rest of the recruits. They already met two ambushes after one-quarter of the journey. There would most definitely be more ambushes later in their journey. If they led the way, they might enter the lion’s den. Chen Yifan wanted to walk with the main crowd and find the chance to escape the traps along the way.
As Chen Yifan waited patiently for the people behind them to catch up with him, Guo Rongqi was in a difficult situation. The recruits were in a mess. No matter what he said, they wouldn’t calm down. He knew that the situation was out of his control.
He calmly looked at the river surface and gauged the area and number of opponents there were. Then, he ran for a certain distance to gain some momentum. As the opponents were busy attacking the 100 recruits, he took the opportunity and swam across the river.
Some people followed behind Guo Rongqi and jumped in after running for some distance as well. They used all their energy and quickly swam to the other side of the river. Everyone knew that they only had a small opening for them to swim across the river. Once their opponents finished subduing the 100 recruits, they would have the time to come over and attack them. By then, they could forget about reaching the other side of the river.
No one thought about working together to fight off Li Yingjie’s team. Everyone just wanted to reach the other side of the river before they were targeted. Only those who were already attacked fought with Li Yingjie and his team.
By the time Li Yingjie’s team subduing the recruits, the other recruits had already crossed the river.
“Damn. I stayed in the river for half a day and only manage to catch this much?” One of the mecha operators complained unhappily.
Li Yingjie snorted. “What can we do? We are still not powerful enough. If the regiment commander was here, he could stop everyone with just his Ice Blockade.”
Li Yingjie’s team members were speechless. Leader, can you not compare us with a monster? Are you thinking too highly of us?
Li Yingjie’s team was not satisfied with their results but their mission had already ended. Their boss told them that once the recruits passed the river, they couldn’t chase them anymore. Hence, they could only watch the recruits leave.
“Lin Zhong-qing, go and check for the results of their mission.” Ling Lan saw that the river mission was completed so she gave Lin Zhong-qing an order.
“Yes, regiment commander.” Lin Zhong-qing quickly contacted Li Yingjie. “Regiment commander, they managed to take down 82 recruits.”
“That means that almost 20 recruits escaped. The river hindered the recruits more than their team. This means that the combat ability of Li Yingjie’s team underwater is not high.” Ling Lan was in deep thought.
“The other teams have this problem too.” Lin Zhong-qing didn’t want to see Li Yingjie be scolded again so he spoke up for him.
“My men cannot have such an obvious weakness. From tomorrow onwards, the entire mecha clan will have two additional hours of underwater combat training.” The people in the room all groaned. They looked at Lin Zhong-qing furiously. You spoke up for Li Yingjie but you implicated all of us.
Ling Lan had a heartless and vicious image but she was a fair person too. The mecha operators’ training was scary but the members of Lingtian Battle Team would take part in even more training than them. Hence, if she gave an order to the entire mecha clan, it meant that the Lingtian Battle Team had to follow her order too. This was why the members of the Lingtian Battle Team groaned.
Lin Zhong-qing’s face turned pale. He tried to control his emotions as he accepted Ling Lan’s order. As expected, Li Yingjie only brings me bad luck. If I speak up for him again, I will change my surname to Li.
Guo Rongqi was the first person to reach the place where Chen Yifan was resting. When he saw Chen Yifan, Guo Rongqi finally felt at ease. He collapsed on the ground and couldn’t get up for a while.
“What’s the situation at the back?” Chen Yifan asked.
“Bad. Not many people managed to escape. Luckily, you three are fine.” Guo Rongqi felt that the three of them were really lucky.
“Yes. I feel scared just thinking about it,” Chen Yifan replied calmly to Guo Rongqi.
Chen Yi’an looked at his brother curiously. His forever calm and composed brother would feel scared too?
“However, the second group came and managed to take advantage of us.” Guo Rongqi gritted his teeth angrily. Now, he knew why these people didn’t join them at the start. They were waiting for them to open up the path.
“They didn’t have an easy time too. Did you see how many people were left? Their expression seemed anxious too.” Chen Yifan was an observant person so he noticed the differences in their expressions.
Guo Rongqi recalled what he saw and thought about something. “You mean…”
“There must have been a trap in the forest. However, the people there let us pass and only attacked the second group.” Chen Yifan told him his conclusion.
“Hah. They deserved it.” Guo Rongqi felt better.
His mood went down again. He took so much effort to form a team but most of them were already gone. He said tiredly, “What do we do now?”
