In Zhang Han and his group, the atmosphere was quite lively.
“Madam Zhang.”
“Why don’t you call me Lady Boss as the others do? I don’t like you call me that,” Zi Yan said in resignation.
Hearing Zi Yan’s words, Ah Hu and the others looked at one another and smiled.
Now Zi Yan had allowed Li Mu to call her Lady Boss, it meant she had seen Li Mu as one of them.
“Okay. Haha, Lady Boss, isn’t my previous performance up to standard?”
Li Mu came over and said, “I did my best in that battle!
“I killed thousands of enemies.
“Well… About the scene when I fled, can we edit it out?”
Hearing this, Zhou Fei immediately said, “Why would we do that? It provides a surprising and ironic twist. How can we remove it? No, it’ll stay in the movie.”
“Come on, let’s discuss this.”
Li Mu resorted to coaxing and pestering.
However, he had picked the wrong target. Negotiating might work if he were dealing with Instructor Liu, Ah Hu, and other men. But the women here didn’t think he was dignified at all, so they wouldn’t listen to him.
Looking at Zhang Guangyou, Zhang Mu, and the others, Zhang Han inquired, “How did you feel when you were on the battlefield?”
“It was like a volcanic eruption or a huge torrent.” Zhang Guangyou thought for a moment and said, “It reminded me of the first time I surfed. Those enemies swooped down like huge waves, making me nervous.”
“Yes. I’ve never had such an intense battle before,” Zhang Mu nodded and said.
“Young Lord, the treasures you gave us were truly life-saving,” Dong Chen said with a lingering fear. “I really didn’t expect that someone in the opposing force would also have such a strange skill. He seemed to be invisible, who then appeared in front of me out of nowhere. When he stabbed his sword at me, I thought I was about to die. I had no time to react, for he was too fast. However, while the priest climbs a foot, the devil climbs ten. He didn’t expect that I had a sixth-tier supreme defensive treasure. Hahaha.”
Dong Chen’s words seemed to have brought in a new topic, and many people present echoed him.
“Yes, if it weren’t for Boss’s treasure, I would have lost my right arm.”
“I was almost hit by a strike as well. But at the critical moment, Boss’s defensive pearl blocked the attack.”
Hearing these people’s words, Zhang Han shook his head slightly and said, “In fact, you could have all survived without activating the treasures. If the full scores for your performance are 100 points, I will give you 80 points for your overall performance. In fact, based on your strength, you can only get 60 points, so you merely scraped a pass. But given that this is the first time you have participated in such a battle, your performance is quite good. The most praiseworthy one is Leng Yue. She did a fantastic job. Leng Yue, you have found your own way of battling. Keep up the good job. I will teach you a few more secret skills later.”
“Thank you, Boss!” Leng Yue finally showed a happy smile.
She was quite excited to be praised by her boss.
Mu Xue’s eyes lit up. She leaned forward and asked, “Master, Master, what about me? How many points will you give me?”
The others also looked over.
“Aunty Xue can get… perhaps 60 points? The passing scores?” Mengmeng teased with a smirk on her face.
“No way.” Mu Xue rolled her eyes.
But before she finished speaking, Zhang Han replied, “Yes, your scores are truly 60 points.”
“Huh?”
Mu Xue was dumbfounded. She immediately pouted and said with great dissatisfaction, “Master, you can’t give me low grades just because Mengmeng told you to.”
“I’m not joking.”
Zhang Han put on a serious face and looked at Li Mu, who was eager to show off. Then, he said, “I found out that when someone took the lead in the battle, the others would all follow suit, right? I won’t comment on Li Mu. He… hmm, is the protagonist, so he was supposed to have his moment. But you people near him also made some fancy moves, which were flashy but not useless.”
Speaking of this, Zhang Han furrowed his brows slightly and looked stern.
Slowly, he remarked, “This is war, not something to joke about. Don’t think that you are absolutely safe with Elder Yue and me here! The two of us were on the spaceship. Even if we wanted to help you, we couldn’t do that in time. Without the spirit treasures I gave you, how many of you could you make it back?”
There was a hint of reprimand in his words.
In an instant, the whole scene quieted down.
No one dared to speak, not even Yi Hou, Mo Wen, and Nina.
Yue Wuwei stroked his beard and nodded.
“Indeed, this is the only problem you have. I think Zhang Han is right to give you only 60 points. Except for Leng Yue and a few others who performed very well, the rest of you still haven’t comprehended your moves well enough. You still lack fighting skills. The secret skills your learned are all high-end. But you only displayed 60 percent of their power. This shows that your comprehension is still shallow. Sometimes a battle is not just a battle, but also a trial. Those who can gain insights from it will make rapid progress. But to those who can’t, it’s just a battle.”
Yue Wuwei’s words made all the people present fall silent, including Zhang Mu, Deep Flame, and other elders. They all began to mull over these words.
“So, your overall scores in the first battle are 80 points.” Zhang Han clapped his hands and said, “Generally speaking, you’ve done pretty well. In terms of battling alone, you’re already very good. If you ask me how I did in my first battle, I can only give myself a little more than 20 points.”
Zhang Han was, indeed, the backbone of the group.
His simple remark made many of them laugh.
“Master, you only scored 20 points in your first battle?” Mu Xue asked, her face revealing excitement.
“Really? Daddy, you fell the test?” Mengmeng also laughed.
“Yes. I’m quite embarrassed to talk about this. At that time, I was chicken-hearted.” Zhang Han also laughed. He then continued, “But one can get braver by practice. I fought many battles later and gradually got used to it. With your comprehension ability, you don’t need me to lecture more. I believe that you will also make progress very quickly. Maybe it won’t be long before you can overawe the world. By the world, I mean the Sea Dragon Star Area.”
“Of course, we will!” Jiang Yanlan said, her eyes lit with fighting spirit.
The others also reacted the same way.
All of a sudden, a grumpy voice said, “Brat, not only did you reproach your daddy, but you also reproached your grandfather.”
It was Zhang Guangyou who spoke.
Zhang Han was bereft of speechless.
“I wouldn’t dare. That was just a thought.”
Zhang Han smiled awkwardly.
He really didn’t have the nerve to scold his seniors.
Furthermore, he had only talked about the truth earnestly. When had he reproached them? He was truly wronged.
“Next time, we’ll earn 100 points. You wait and see.” Zhang Guangyou snorted.
“Okay.”
The spaceship flew forward as they chatted. This time, the destination was not far away. The flight would only take three hours.
After exchanging a few more words, everyone returned to the training rooms to adjust themselves.
Thanks to the medicinal pellets Zhang Han gave them, they all recovered very quickly.
Still, they were shocked by how incredibly intense the war was.
The battles going on on the Second Battlefield were already this fierce.
Then how would the Principal Battlefield that consisted of only 60 planets be like?
The intensity of the battles there was staggering.
Both sides had dispatched the most manpower and spaceships onto the Principal Battlefield.
Zhang Han and the others were merely on the Second Battlefield.
But some people ran to the Principal Battlefield.
In one of the transport spaceships.
Shi Fenghou was looking at a very large planet ahead. In his eyes, it was at least a hundred times larger than Earth.
The flames of war had covered half of the planet.
“How staggering!”
Transport spaceships were bearing down on the planet like a swarm of hornets flying out from their endangered nest. This scene was simply blood-curdling.
Up ahead, there were also numerous transport spaceships.
The two parties kept sending manpower onto this planet.
“Did I come to the wrong place?”
Shi Fenghou was confused.
He raised his head and looked at the cosmic void above.
He was supposed to be able to see the sun or other stars.
However, he looked up only to see the skies were ablaze, where the two sides’ hundreds of spaceships, tens of thousands of aircraft, and all kinds of corvettes were firing relentlessly.
The fierceness of the battle almost suffocated Shi Fenghou.
When had he ever seen such a battle?
He felt that those aircraft were shooting about like bullets. They collided with others and burst into flames, becoming part of the sea of fire.
“This… This is too unbelievable.”
Shi Fenghou gawked at the scene in silence.
He felt as if he had fallen into a deep pit.
In a transport spaceship not far from Shi Fenghou, Ye Longyuan was also a little nervous. He said in a dry voice, “What should we do? Older Martial Brother Yan, we seem to be in big trouble.”
“I don’t know either.” Yan Chen was in a daze. It was not until he heard this question that he snapped to reality. He took a deep breath and said, “Now that things have come to this point, we have no choice but to go down there with the main force.”
“It seems that we can’t fight a battle this intense, can we?”
Although Ye Longyuan was arrogant, he was not a fool. After he saw the battlefield, he knew that he was not good enough for this yet.
“We can’t? I know that, of course!”
Yan Chen said helplessly, “We can’t beat the other party. What’s more, our lives will be in danger. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have come to the Principal Battlefield.”
“Alas, we’ve underestimated the war in the Sea Dragon Star Area.” Su Beimu’s voice came from behind.
“Are you here too?” Yan Chen turned around and asked.
“Yes, what a coincidence! I also regret coming here, but there is no going back,” Su Beimu replied.
“We can only face reality.”
Ye Longyuan thought for a moment. Then, he put on a fierce look and said, “Let’s give it a shot.”
“How?” Yan Chen frowned slightly.
He was also thinking about how to deal with the situation, but it seemed that there was no good solution.
“Right now, we are merely at the peak of the Elixir Realm. If we are not careful, we will die on the battlefield. To avoid being cannon fodder, we’d better find a way to advance to a higher level now. Didn’t the commander on this spaceship say that there are treasure vaults in the cities on this planet? The one in that city holds a lot of spiritual herbs, which are reserved to cure many injured Yuan Ying Realm cultivators. The spiritual herbs must be of high grade. If we get a batch of them, we may be able to make a breakthrough,” Ye Longyuan said slowly.
“Spiritual herbs…” Su Beimu sighed softly and said, “I haven’t attained cultivation resources for a long time.”
“Yeah. Cultivation resources are not infinite. If there are a lot of resources, we may really be able to reach Yuan Ying Realm. It’s just that the city is an important site. We have no way to get in.” Yan Chen shook his head and said, “Forget it. Let’s discuss this later if there is a chance.”
“But I brought some tools with me before I came here.”
Ye Longyuan hesitated for two seconds and suddenly conjured up an item on his right palm. “This is something my livelihood relies on. I made it with great effort.”
“What is it?” Su Beimu’s face stiffened as he saw the item. “An iron spade?”
“Spade? No! This is a Luoyang Shovel!” Ye Longyuan said grumpily.
Su Beimu stared at Ye Longyuan weirdly, as if he had found a new continent. He asked, “How did you get this thing? Don’t tell me you robbed a tomb!”
Yan Chen chuckled and said, “How come I didn’t find that you have this little hobby?”
“I owe Zhang Hanyang money. To pay him back, I had to think of a way to make money.”
Ye Longyuan quickly put it away and said, “This is a fifth-tier Luoyang Shovel. It’s a powerful tool. It can dig a tunnel very fast. Also, this Shielding Cloak can block out soul sense, heat, infrared scanning, and the like.”
He would never tell them that there were many spirit treasures in ancient great tombs.
It was also by chance that Ye Longyuan had learned how fast he could get rich by robbing ancient tombs. He wanted to improve his strength and pay back Zhang Han’s crystal stones, so he came up with this idea. Hen then specially forged the Luoyang Shovel and went to dig up ancient tombs when he had time.
Previously, when he and Yan Chen stood in the army, they overheard others talk about the situation here.
It turned out that the battle here was extremely fierce, so the casualties were very high. This planet was a star rich in resources under the control of the Tiger Talisman Royal Family. In the Silver City occupied by the enemy, there were a large number of spiritual herbs, which were being used to heal the injured Yuan Ying Realm cultivators.
Such high casualties were something they couldn’t afford. Now that they were about to launch a large-scale attack, they had learned everything about what was going on here.
Since Ye Longyuan had learned about the situation, he thought they’d better go to the enemy’s backyard and get some treasures to break through other than fight on the frontline.
Moreover, they didn’t care about whether the Cloud Shadow Sky would win or lose the battle.
Thus, they began to consider the new plan.
“Show me what your Shielding Cloak can do,” Yan Chen suddenly spoke.
This showed that he was also a little tempted.
“Okay.”
Ye Longyuan put on his cloak.
Yan Chen suddenly found that his soul sense really could not detect him anymore.
“Can I sense you when you move?”
“As long as I don’t move too fast or too violently, your soul sense can’t notice me.”
“Let’s have a try.”
Shi Fenghow walked around. As expected, Yan Chen’s soul sense still didn’t detect him.
Yan Chen was bemused now. “Where did you get this treasure?”
“Are you talking about the War God’s Cloak?” Ye Longyuan chuckled and said, “I can’t tell you.”
How could he let them know that he dug it up from a tomb?
“You’re really…”
“Brother Yan, I think this is a good idea,” Su Beimu said. “I didn’t want to go to the frontline either. The battle here is too fierce. The risks are too high if we go there. Now, we are indeed very close to the Yuan Ying Realm. Making a breakthrough is a good way out. Though I came and joined you guys uninvited, I hope you wouldn’t mind.”
“No, we wouldn’t.” Yan Chen shook his head. “Although we haven’t interacted much before, we are all from Earth. We know each other well. In this foreign place, the three of us have to unite together.”
“Good. But there is a problem, that is we don’t know much about the technology here. So, why don’t we try these tools in this spaceship first?” Su Beimu suggested.
Hearing his words, Ye Longyuan and Yan Chen look at each other.
Ten minutes later, the three of them sneaked into the command room wearing the clock. The detectors did not beep. When they removed the cloak, two lights were turned on.
Two people quickly walked out from inside.
“We’re about to set off. What are you doing here?”
“They didn’t notice us when we were in the cloak!
“This may really work!”
Their eyes lit up at once.
“Excuse us, we just want to ask in which part of the city the enemy stores spiritual herbs. Can’t we bombard that place?” Yan Chen asked with a hold fist salute.
“You don’t even know this?”
“We are among those who followed Zhang Hanyang here,” Ye Longyuan whispered.
The expressions on the two’s faces relaxed a lot at once.
“That city is protected by the Heaven-earth Formation and energy cabins, so it’s not easy to attack it. Besides, the enemy’s fleet won’t just sit back and watch us attack it. As for the place where the spiritual herbs are, it should be the highest round building. Since you came here with Senior Zhang, why didn’t you go to the Second Battlefield?” one of them said.
“Uh, we’re lost.”
It was a very flimsy excuse.
Though the two were skeptical, they didn’t say anything else but turned around and went back to the command room.
These two pieces of information were not secrets, so it was okay to let the three know. As for whether they really came with Zhang Hanyang, the two were not interested in confirming it.
They had arrived on the Principal Battlefield and were about to land on the planet. Thus, it was already too late for them to back out.
The fleet would not retreat anyway.
“Seems that this can work.” Ye Longyuan’s eyes were gleaming with hope.
“This cloak is awesome.
“Robbing tombs is a really profitable job.
“I would need to visit great tombs more often in the future.”
Yet, some behaviors could affect people for a whole life.
In the future, perhaps this Devil Incarnate would become the notorious grave robber in the Cultivation World.
Once a person was addicted to a certain thing, he or she would find it hard to kick off the habit.
“Yes.” Yan Chen nodded.
“Well, let’s have a try,” Su Beimu said. “Now, we’ll go to the battlefield below and find an opportunity to cross the war zone from the side to go to that round building.”
“No-no-no, we don’t need to cross the war zone, okay? Look at the battle line below. It’s so long that we can’t see the end of it on both sides. I say we should directly dig a tunnel through it,” Ye Longyuan said.
“Dig a tunnel across the war zone? Is there no scouting equipment under the ground? There should be some. Also, there are the foundations of buildings. Wouldn’t it take a long time to dig the tunnel?” Su Beimu asked doubtfully.
“No, I’m a professional in digging. Just wait and see.”
A pride look appeared on Ye Longyuan’s face.
“The cabin door is about to open.”
“Let’s go!”
“Hurry!”
The three of them perked up.
The crowds in the transport spaceship rushed to the exits at the same time.
When the cabin door slid open, a cold, murderous smell of blood swept their faces.
This place was merely the marginal back of the war zone.
Yet, what they saw was truly terrifying.
The three felt their hearts trembled with horror.
“Whizz, whizz, whizz, whizz!”
One after another, the soldiers flew out of the cabin.
The troops began to assemble.
“Someone is watching us.”
“Let’s go! Put on the cloak!”
Ye Longyuan was startled. He quickly held up his cloak and covered the three of them under it. Yan Chen activated his secret soul skill to make their figures invisible in the void.
To their amazement, the invisibility spell coupled with this cloak worked a miracle.
The surrounding Elixir Realm cultivators couldn’t see them at all. Even the two Yuan Ying Realm captains didn’t notice them either.
“We’re flying too fast. Slow down, or we’ll get caught,” Ye Longyuan whispered.
The three of them slowly descended to the ground.
Moments later, they landed in a forest.
“Where should we start the digging? Let’s go forward a little.” Yan Chen looked around and said, “This place is still far from the battle line. We should get closer before we dig.”
Thus, they traveled for half an hour.
“I think we’re close enough.”
“Let get started.”
A big shovel appeared in Ye Longyuan’s right hand. As it began to rotate in his palm, energy vortexes emerged out of thin air.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”
Then, Ye Longyuan stopped showing off. He held the shovel with both hands and began to dig.
Every time he dug, a small dent with a diameter of two meters and a depth of one meter would be created in the earth.
“Swoosh…”
Ye Longyuan seemed to have become a digging robot. In just one second, the three of them disappeared from the horizon.
The speed at which the pits were formed astonished Yan Chen and Su Beimu.
They never thought Ye Longyuan could dig a pit so fast.
Moreover, there was a wave of energy lingering in the pit, keeping it firm and stable.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”
As Ye Longyuan dug frenetically, the tunnel continued to extend downward.
No sand, rock, or soil could not stop Ye Longyuan.
“How deep is it now? It’s at least 1,000 meters deep. Let’s dig forward,” Yan Chen said.
“Okay.”
Ye Longyuan began to dig a tunnel leading to the city.
He dug for two hours at a very fast speed, but the city was still far away.
The three of them seemed to turn into mice living underground.
“I just saw three Formation Stones. We may be deeply trapped in a formation if we keep digging in this direction. How about we go up to the ground and check the direction before continuing?” Yan Chen said with a frown.
He couldn’t make up his mind.
It was because he had just felt some wisps of energy swirling in the vicinity.
If they were going in the wrong direction, all their effort would go to waste.
“How come my square compass doesn’t work?” Ye Longyuan was holding a wooden square compass as if he were using it to detect a treasure. “We really need to go to the ground to have a look.”
