With the newly acquired metal block tucked against him, Han Qingyu sped on his return journey.
No matter how one looked at today's events, going back now to fight over the remaining craft could hardly be considered overly greedy.
Han Qingyu had always had a clear view of himself: to this day, he was still just struggling to survive in this cruel world, fighting tooth and nail for a few source energy blocks.
Since he wasn't any sort of big shot, he naturally didn't need to consider high-minded notions of the greater picture, let alone magnanimity or humility.
The plain fact was that if he hadn't hoisted away one shuttle craft on the spot and lured two Great Spikes with him, given the utter chaos at the time, who knew how many more people would have died—let alone organizing a coordinated kill so quickly.
The problem was that after he dragged off two Great Spikes, the battlefield's current situation, as one could deduce, had a high probability of turning out just as Wen Jifei had predicted: the two most pitiful Great Spikes in history were about to be created.
In Azure's routine frontline defensive battles, around forty people could typically handle two low-tier black-armored Great Spikes. There were nearly six hundred people over there now, so as long as even a small fraction organized properly, the remaining two Great Spikes shouldn't last very long.
If the prize had already been taken... things would get tricky.
Whenever a situation came down to laying out facts and reasoning to claim one's fair share, it always became awkward, put you in the weaker position, and was difficult to handle.
Pondering this as he ran, Han Qingyu also recalled the scenes he had just witnessed and experienced.
A fixed exploration site was called a fixed exploration site precisely because Great Spikes were guaranteed to arrive within a set cycle and time frame. There didn't seem to be anything suspect about that. As for two craft descending together this time, was it just an accident?
Something similar seemed to have happened back at Reserve Station 700, when Lao Jian had dragged him along by force to help.
And that pyramid-like thing inside the shuttle craft seemed to serve both as its engine during space flight and as the core of what was later modified into a launch or tractor mechanism.
So the reason Azure still hadn't launched source-energy-powered craft into space combat was probably that this "engine" always self-destructed, and humanity had not yet found a way to stop it, leaving no chance to dismantle and study it.
As for the energy source for both functions of the craft, it was undoubtedly the metal block.
How large this thing was when they departed was anyone's guess, but in the end, what they obtained was always in a half-melted state.
The piece on him now seemed rather large—more than a third larger than the one he'd reclaimed from Prince Adubu... and easily more than twice the size of the golden broad bean he had first seen.
Was it because this shuttle craft had dove straight for the exploration site with less wandering, thereby consuming less energy?
Or was it because he had snatched it quickly while the craft was self-destructing, leaving a bit more behind?
He couldn't figure it out.
"Qingzi?!"
The voice came abruptly, giving Han Qingyu a fright.
Looking back, he saw a guy covered in mud and grass, with leaves sticking out of his hair, lying flat in a dirt pit beside the road, looking up at him.
Han Qingyu let out a sigh of relief. "How did you end up here?"
"Running for my life," Wen Jifei said, gesturing for Han Qingyu to lie low with him for a bit. "I was about to ask you! Why are you here? You're not hurt? What about the Great Spikes? The craft?"
"The Great Spikes are dead, the craft self-destructed, and I'm fine."
Han Qingyu quickly realized why Wen Jifei had run all the way here. He felt relieved and pleased by his friend's calm decisiveness, though he couldn't help feeling a tinge of regret. If Plague Chicken weren't a Dice, with his battlefield judgment and execution, he would surely be an incredible teammate.
"Then what are you doing now?" Seeing that Han Qingyu looked anxious, Wen Jifei reined in his curiosity, not pressing for details on how he'd killed the two Great Spikes.
"I'm going to see if there's still a chance to get the other block," Han Qingyu said.
"Mm... stay safe, then. I won't go in with you; I'll stay here and watch how things develop," Wen Jifei said after a moment's thought. "Right, on my way out, I saw several corpses, none of which were within the Great Spikes' attack range. Someone probably struck in the chaos. Be careful."
"Yeah, stay safe yourself. When you see us later, then come out."
With that, Han Qingyu dashed out of the pit.
"Oh, by the way, when I saw the bodies, a thought struck me... Is there still source energy in dead people? What about Great Spikes? By physics and conservation of energy, there should be, right? Can you absorb that?" Wen Jifei called out behind him.
"No, I can't."
Han Qingyu was in a real hurry. Answering over his shoulder, he kept sprinting.
...
Unfortunately, he was still too late.
Running along the latter half of the route, Han Qingyu didn't see the corpses Wen Jifei had mentioned outside the combat zone. He guessed that, just like before, the Alphonse family's people had promptly cleared them away.
Soon, however, he ran into crowds of people coming out after concluding the trial.
A large crowd was leaving the trial grounds, which meant the two Great Spikes had likely fallen and the trial was over.
Han Qingyu felt a twinge of gloom. He slowed his pace, but continued walking against the flow of the crowd, heading inward.
He hadn't seen Rusty Sister, Caixin, or He Tangtang yet. *Maybe they're waiting for me.*
By the time Han Qingyu encountered two squads from the Huaxia Front, he had already circled the perimeter of the battlefield. Not many people remained on the scene.
Finally finding people he could ask, Han Qingyu felt a surge of joy and hurried over.
"Give me," one of them teased with a smile.
It seemed word had already spread. Han Qingyu gave an awkward smile.
"Don't worry," the man laughed heartily. "At least our people from the Azure Alliance are quite grateful to you. Thank you for drawing off those two Great Spikes back then and saving so many lives, and thank you for not robbing our people along the way too."
As he spoke, the group broke into laughter again and began asking how the two Great Spikes had been killed; they had already received word that both had been slain.
Han Qingyu had no time for small talk or explanations right now. Anxiously, he asked, "Have you seen my teammates? The fully armored soldier, the blue-eyed girl, and He Tangtang."
"No," they said, exchanging glances and shaking their heads. "Wait, didn't they all run off chasing you? Didn't they catch up?"
"Yeah." Han Qingyu nodded. Panic began creeping into his chest, and his anxiety mounted. "Then I'll look around some more. Maybe they're waiting for me somewhere."
He took a couple of steps up the slope, then turned back. "Right, who took down the remaining two?"
"We don't know yet," the person replied. "There were too many people left here, and it got really messy afterward. Just scrambling to get back to the battlefield caused several clashes. We didn't have enough numbers, so we held back."
"I see." Han Qingyu turned back and raised his head.
An East Asian face stood beneath a tree not far ahead, watching him with an eerie smile while making a gesturing hand of invitation. In his hands... were Yin Caixin's and He Tangtang's backpacks.
Caixin and Tangtang were in their hands?! Han Qingyu's heart tightened. Concentrating, he recalled that this man seemed to be someone beside Yu Fengzi from the day they met. Had Wu Xu made a move?
Then what about Rusty Sister?
"What's wrong, Brother Han? Is something the matter?"
"How about we help you look?"
Down the slope, the two Huaxia Front squads noticed him abruptly freezing in his tracks and called out from below.
Han Qingyu looked at the man across from him. The man was still smiling, calmly watching him.
Han Qingyu could only say, "Nothing. I found them."
"Alright, then see you outside later."
Hearing his reply, the men below said goodbye and went on their way.
...
"Where are you taking me?" Han Qingyu asked.
The man looked at him and pointed to his own mouth, indicating he was mute.
Then he turned and walked ahead.
Han Qingyu had no choice but to follow behind at a safe distance.
Were Yin Caixin and He Tangtang really in their hands? To be honest, Han Qingyu didn't entirely believe it.
He didn't know Yin Caixin all that well yet, but he knew He Tangtang's personality intimately. On one hand, that guy was treacherous and ruthless toward others; on the other hand, he was even more vicious toward himself, someone who on his very first battlefield dared to trade a slash for a slash.
Taking both aspects together, someone like him could hardly ever become a captive. He would always fight for his life, by any means necessary, fighting desperately to the death.
Yet Han Qingyu was still willing to follow and see. For one thing, he was truly worried; for another, he was confident that if he were determined to flee, almost no one here could hold him back—he was faster than a Great Spike.
And if the other side possessed an expert whose rank completely overwhelmed him to the point of being faster... presumably there would be no need to put on this whole act.
Ahead lay a canyon.
Calling it a canyon was perhaps generous; it was so excessively steep and narrow that it looked more like a single mountain split down the middle, two opposing rock walls shutting out most of the sunlight and casting it in deep gloom.
He walked deeper inside.
Han Qingyu spotted several familiar faces.
Adubu, Yu Fengzi, Wu Xu... along with others from the Self-Preservation Faction or of unknown affiliation.
And then, Shen Yixiu, He Tangtang, and Yin Caixin.
Just as Han Qingyu had guessed, his teammates had not allowed themselves to be taken prisoner to be used as leverage against him. They simply... couldn't fight their way out.
They had fought until they were covered in wounds.
They had fought until the ground was soaked red with blood.
Chapter 139