Discovery

Liu Shiheng hesitated for a moment, then reached out his hand. The old man's eyes lit up with joy at the gesture. Young Master Shiheng grabbed a handful of the unknown roasted grains, stuffed them into his mouth, and chewed slowly. The fragrant aroma of roasted food spread through his mouth, awakening his taste buds. At the same time, his starving stomach was awakened as well. Offering an awkward smile, Liu Shiheng quickly grabbed another handful. Along with it, he picked up a strip of dried meat, shoved it between his teeth, bit down hard, and tore off a piece. He ate rather hurriedly, chewing with fierce determination. The children formed a semicircle around him, tilting their heads back to gaze up at him with eager, happy eyes. The food and warm smiles shifted Liu Shiheng's mood. He casually asked, "By the way, that piano... which of you does it belong to?" "Me! Um, it's my piano." The little wispy-haired girl raised her hand as if in a classroom, declaring it was hers. "Oh, and what's your name?" Liu Shiheng mumbled around his food. "Jiayina," the girl answered crisply. Liu Shiheng stuffed another handful of roasted mixed grains into his mouth... With his cheeks bulging, making speech difficult, he smiled and nodded. "Uncle Soldier, are you going to take us out of here in a little bit?" As the one who had become most familiar with Uncle Soldier, Jiayina blinked her wide eyes and asked out of the blue. Liu Shiheng froze, lifting his head with a blank look as his chewing ground to a halt. *Take them out? The elderly, children, well over a dozen people... How is that possible?! Damn my cursed luck, I'm not even sure I have what it takes to get out alive myself.* Without a second thought, he forced himself to swallow the unchewed grain. "I'm sorry, kiddo, but Uncle has a mission. I have to leave right away, so I can't take you with me... Yeah, it's a very dangerous mission. I have to go fight monsters—the kind you saw." Having said his piece, he lowered his head and prepared to turn away. Suddenly feeling a tight pang of guilt in his chest, Liu Shiheng thought it over, looked back up, and added, "Just wait here. Someone will find you and bring you out." The children looked up at him, a trace of disappointment in their eyes, yet they still showed fortitude and obedience, nodding slowly one after another. Why was that? Perhaps it was because, through all the hardships this nation had faced over the years, the people held an unparalleled faith in soldiers. Still... this location was so remote and well-hidden. Would an Azure squad really find them?! If they were going to be found, shouldn't it have happened long ago? Liu Shiheng pondered for a moment, then added, "Actually, you could send a few people to lie low behind the hillside. If you see dozens of people—say, forty of them—passing by dressed like me, then call out... But if there are only a few, don't make a sound. Understand? Remember: if it's only a few people, under no circumstances should you make a sound." "We remember, Uncle Soldier," the children answered obediently, like students replying in unison to their teacher in class. The elderly and women standing nearby didn't understand the language and wore blank expressions. *It's really not that I don't want to help. Even if I wanted to lead them out, I simply lack the ability. If we ran into a Great Spike or the Cleansing Faction, I'd end up getting them killed.* Liu Shiheng told himself in his head. Once more, he glanced around at the people surrounding him in the room, averting his gaze from their eyes. "I'm sorry... Uncle really has to go." Liu Shiheng turned on his heel and walked toward the doorway without saying goodbye. Yet— "Goodbye, Uncle Soldier." "You can do it, Uncle Soldier!" The children waved behind him as they spoke. They were remarkably polite. Even in a situation like this, they still did their best to express a courtesy that felt almost poignantly out of place. Perhaps it was something they had been taught in school. "Yeah... make sure you stay hidden." Still not saying goodbye, Liu Shiheng didn't look back. Having said those words, he stepped out of the house and vanished into the darkness. ... Roughly half an hour later. "Uncle Soldier?" Jiayina stood up once more from the pile of clutter in the corner, looking at Liu Shiheng in the beam of the flashlight. The children and adults quickly emerged as well. "Mm," Liu Shiheng said in a subdued voice. "Here's the plan. Don't go outside to look around yourselves. Just stay hidden like this. After Uncle leaves, I'll find other comrades and tell them to come get you and lead you out." "Okay." The children looked puzzled, but they nodded. "Only come out if whoever comes shouts 'Jiayina.'" "Okay." "All right, go hide. Hurry now, be good, everyone hide. Remember: only come out if you hear them call 'Jiayina.'" Watching the adults and children conceal themselves one by one, Liu Shiheng turned, picked up the plastic piano from the table, removed the batteries, and stuffed them together into a gap in the wall for Jiayina. He switched on the flashlight, shone it around, and smoothed over the disturbed dust on the ground. Then, he left once more. Find an Azure squad nearby to come pick them up first. That was Liu Shiheng's final decision, and what he believed to be the only thing within his power to do. Thus, nothing resolute or heroic had transpired over the past half hour. Liu Shiheng had no intention of playing the hero. In truth, this course of action still carried risks. For instance, Captain Lao might have already reported him as a deserter, or Liu Shiheng might run into the Cleansing Faction first. They seemed to be operating continuously in this area. It was past two in the morning. Liu Shiheng returned to the dung heap, stood there for a moment, and cursed under his breath through gritted teeth. *Whoosh.* He dove straight through the pile of dung. It felt as if he had plunged through too quickly, not picking up enough of a coating. So he gave it another go—*whoosh*—and dove right back through from the other side. After that, Young Master Shiheng bent down and yanked handful after handful of grass, plastering it all over himself. Covered like this, wherever he dropped prone on the grasslands or hills, he would be far better concealed than in an Azure combat uniform—especially in the dead of night. Using the cover of darkness, he headed back in the direction he had come from, searching for an Azure squad. Along the way, Liu Shiheng heard the murmur of running water again as he passed a stream. "Damn it, I want to take a bath so bad... But keeping my life is more important." Enduring the stench and itching all over, Liu Shiheng walked past the stream hidden beneath the tall grass, then suddenly froze in his tracks... *Why didn't I just use mud?* *Why the hell did it have to be dung?!* "...Forget it. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I'll have peace of mind, and the sooner I can get out." ... Recording his route with pen and paper along the way, he trekked from the middle of the night until the first light of dawn. Finally, a unit of over twenty people appeared on a ridge not far ahead. Over twenty people made up exactly one standard squad formation; nothing seemed suspicious about them. Liu Shiheng trotted forward a few steps in excitement. Suddenly, faint sounds echoed from the distance, growing steadily fiercer. *Are they fighting a Great Spike? Guess I'll wait till they finish.* He hurriedly threw himself flat into the grass. In his field of vision, two people and a black-armored Great Spike came into view. Two fighters, who looked quite capable, were sprinting in front, with the Great Spike giving chase behind them. *What kind of tactic is this? Luring it back to slaughter it?! Impressive!* Liu Shiheng suddenly remembered the corpse he had stumbled upon yesterday, abandoned in the wilderness grass with a column-sword wound in its back. He also recalled the two men he had overheard searching for a Great Spike in the dark. *Looks like they aren't Cleansing Faction after all. I misunderstood them.* *Wait, no... What on earth is happening now?!* In Liu Shiheng's sight, the two people drew closer with the Great Spike, but they did not steer it toward the twenty-person formation as he had expected, nor did the formation move to assist or provide cover. Instead, the pair kept running, leading the Great Spike off in another direction, seemingly guiding it elsewhere. *Are they really luring it?! Where's the other one? Killed? And what about the craft? No, this makes no sense.* Liu Shiheng's mind spun in confusion. If he could have compared notes with Han Qingyu's group of four right now, the answer would have been crystal clear. Earlier, Han Qingyu and the others had encountered a bewildered black-armored Great Spike standing guard alone by a shuttle craft. Thus, what these people were doing was leading away one of the two Great Spikes—because it was impossible for both Great Spikes to abandon the craft at the same time. Nor had they killed the other one; they didn't even show any interest in the craft itself. *“Hiss-screeech!”* On the ridge, the Great Spike was not entirely cooperative. Spotting the crowd of people, it suddenly broke away from its pursuers and lunged toward the main group. The crowd remained remarkably calm. A burly foreigner in his forties stepped out from their midst. Casually plucking a standard Azure battleblade from the back of someone beside him, he strode forward to meet the beast, leaped into the air, and swatted with the flat of the blade... The black-armored Great Spike was sent flying through the air, crashing hard against the ground. The man twisted midair, flipped cleanly, and touched down. *An elite... Maybe even stronger than Qingzi.* Though Liu Shiheng's own combat prowess was subpar, having spent so much time around Han Qingyu and the others had given him a keen eye for martial skill. Just that casual swat and midair flip... He hadn't even drawn the knight's longsword slung across his back. *Could he be a super combat power? Did a super come here?* On the slope, the downed black-armored Great Spike scrambled back to its feet. Yet neither the expert who looked capable of easily dispatching it nor anyone else on the ridge made a move to kill it. Instead, they scattered quickly to conceal themselves. In the confusion, the black-armored Great Spike randomly locked onto two of them. Those two then drew it along, continuing to run in the direction the previous two people had been guiding it. Judging by their speed, every last one of them seemed to be an elite. Only when the people and the Great Spike had moved far off into the distance did the remaining group regroup. *This... this is completely wrong! What are they trying to do?!* Liu Shiheng pressed himself deeper into the grass, entirely baffled. His head was a daze, but he was certain of at least one thing: something was terribly wrong with this group. *Could they be trying to lure the Great Spikes and gather them together?* All along, in every battle fought by Azure squads—even squads containing elites like Han Qingyu—one fundamental strategy remained fixed and constant: isolate and separate the Great Spikes. Because when Great Spikes massed together, the difficulty of slaying them and the destructive threat they posed didn't just double—they multiplied exponentially. *Why are they gathering Great Spikes together?!* *Where are they trying to lure them?* Almost at the very instant the questions surfaced, Liu Shiheng's head buzzed, and an answer leaped to mind: *Purang.* Last night, the word he had overheard from those two men: Purang. ... The crowd on the ridge departed. Liu Shiheng remained prone in the grass, paralyzed by fear. He was someone who only wanted to run away... In a state like this, he couldn't piece together a complete, lucid chain of logic in such a brief window of time. Yet his intuition told him, with absolute certainty, that this had everything to do with Squad 1777. *Oh god, if it's really 1777, what am I supposed to do?* *But that suspected super combat power, and all those people... they're so strong. If they wanted to harm 1777, couldn't they just march up and hack them to pieces? Why go through all the trouble of...* Without even actively thinking, the answer sprang into his mind once more. *Qingzi!* *Their target is Qingzi! Wu Xu! Rusty Sister! Even a super wouldn't be confident in killing all three of them at once, especially here on our Azure battleground.* *So Squad 1777 is bait.* *If 1777 gets swarmed by a pack of Great Spikes, Qingzi and the others will... That's a whole swarm of Great Spikes! Add in this group of people, especially that monster of a fighter...* Liu Shiheng began to tremble violently. *Why am I so goddamn unlucky?!* *If only I hadn't seen this. Can't I just pretend I know nothing about it...? Fuck!* *One wrong move... and I'll die.* All along, Liu Shiheng's mindset had been simple: he wanted Qingzi and the others to win and stay safe so that, most importantly, he could successfully avoid fighting Great Spikes, stay alive, and do so without having wronged or betrayed his comrades. Yet in the current situation, even if he did nothing at all, it felt as though he would be failing Qingzi, failing all of them. *Go find Qingzi?!* *No, where the hell would I even look for them?! If I could have found them in the first place, would I have abandoned the squad?* At that thought, his heart sank halfway to freezing. Liu Shiheng looked up toward the distant, now-deserted ridge. The only thing he could do now was find Squad 1777 and tell them to hide immediately. He had an internal squad communicator in his pack. While he couldn't reach the squad from out here, once he got within a certain range—or if combat engineers happened to set up a field station nearby—he would be able to connect. Therefore, he had to head south, toward Purang. It didn't matter that he didn't know which direction Purang lay in. Walking in the direction those two had guided the Great Spike was south—the way to Purang.