Military Rest Point

Several hundred miles north of Jiangnan Base City stood a military garrison.

The fully enclosed Armed Train slowly came to a stop at the military station.

One fully armed martial artist after another filed out of the carriages, and the dozens of martial artists naturally formed into small teams.

"Xia Zhi, whenever martial artists like us go out to hunt monsters, we usually enter a military district for supplies along the way."

Liu Yan pointed ahead at an iron tower rising fifty or sixty meters into the air. "See that tower? Throughout Huaxia Country, and even the entire world, every military district has a special area designated as a supply base for martial artists, specifically for us to rest in. These supply bases generally build a lighthouse like this. It symbolizes lighting the way home for us martial artists."

Xia Zhi nodded and surveyed his surroundings.

After spotting the beautiful Liu Yan, many martial artists looked her way. Some of the more unruly ones whistled at her, while others boldly struck up a conversation. "Beautiful, the Wilderness Zone is so dangerous. Want big brother to take you there?"

For a moment, the atmosphere at the military drop-off point became lively. Martial artists spent all year fighting monsters in the Wilderness Zone, and there were very few female martial artists to begin with—let alone beautiful ones like Liu Yan, with both looks and figure.

"Sure. If you can take one shot from me without dying, I'll let you take me," Liu Yan fired back boldly.

"His head's too soft. He can't take a shot from you, hahaha."

The surrounding martial artists burst into laughter.

"Enough." Qin Feng suddenly barked. "If you've got nothing better to do, come spar with me."

At 1.85 meters tall, Qin Feng's rugged face was tightly furrowed as he showed clear impatience toward the martial artists flirting around them.

"That's Golden Spear General Qin Feng."

"It's Qin Feng. Stop talking nonsense."

A man's reputation was like a tree's shadow.

The other martial artists who recognized Qin Feng and knew his strength quickly stopped their teammates who still wanted to say more.

"Let's go. We'll head to the rest point in our base first and meet up with Shi Tou." Qin Feng ignored the surrounding martial artists and spoke to the other two.

The martial artist supply base was located within the military district. Its quiet little buildings stood amid a very pleasant environment.

At the entrance of Building No. 9 in Row E, a towering, immensely muscular man nearly two meters tall was already waiting. Upon seeing Xia Zhi and the others, he called out loudly, "Captain! Sister Yanzi!"

"This is Xu Kui, our squad's defensive specialist. Just look at that build—he's like a tank, charging straight through monster packs."

Liu Yan introduced him to Xia Zhi. "He uses an axe, just like Li Kui from Water Margin. We call him Black Whirlwind, haha!"

Hearing Liu Yan's introduction to Xia Zhi, Xu Kui smiled honestly. "I'm not black. My name is Xu Kui, not Li Kui. The captain and the others call me Shi Tou."

Xia Zhi smiled, nodded at him, and said, "Hello, Brother Xu. My name is Xia Zhi."

"Alright, we're all here. Let's talk inside." After they introduced themselves, Captain Qin Feng took the lead into the building.

An ordinary martial artist squad could be called a General squad as long as it had one General-level martial artist.

The Golden Spear Squad, however, had always followed an elite route. Every member of the squad had to be a General-level martial artist.

There had originally been four members. One of them had gotten older and applied to retire and return to the base city, so the Golden Spear Squad had spent a month resting and regrouping while short one member.

That was until Xia Zhi was assigned by Zhuge Tao to join the squad.

At that moment, the squad's four members were seated in the living room of the rest point building. After sweeping his gaze across the others, Captain Qin Feng spoke first. "Ever since Old Liu applied for retirement, our Golden Spear Squad has spent a month resting and regrouping. This time, the martial arts hall recommended Xia Zhi to us."

After pausing and seeing everyone's gaze gather on Xia Zhi, he continued, "Xia Zhi is eighteen years old and signed an A-level contract with the martial arts hall. This year, the Global Headquarters will send someone to assess him for entry into the Elite Training Camp. While waiting for the assessment, he'll join our Golden Spear Squad in hunting monsters."

When Qin Feng mentioned the Elite Training Camp, his eyes lit up with a hint of longing. The way he looked at Xia Zhi was also filled with envy.

"Haha, Xia Zhi, you're an absolute genius. Everyone who gets into the Elite Training Camp is a freakishly talented genius. Don't forget your big sister after you make it big."

Liu Yan teased Xia Zhi in her crisp voice.

Xu Kui smiled honestly from the side, nodding along from time to time at Liu Yan's words.

Xia Zhi said awkwardly, "How could I forget Sister Yan?"

"Enough joking around. Everyone, introduce yourselves. The better squad members understand each other's strengths, the more seamlessly we can work together."

Captain Qin Feng smiled and smoothed things over. "My name is Qin Feng, and I'm thirty this year. I use dual guns and serve as the squad's main attacker. High-level General level."

Liu Yan continued, "You already know my name. I'm twenty-seven this year and serve as the squad's firepower specialist. I specialize in long-range sniping, and my physical strength is at the Advanced Warrior level."

"Don't be fooled by Yanzi only being at the Advanced Warrior level. She has a record of personally sniping a High-level Beast General-level monster," Captain Qin Feng interjected.

Among humans, there were martial artists who lacked exceptional talent, or who used thermal weapons as their primary means of combat for other reasons. Even at their peak, martial artists who used thermal weapons generally reached no higher than the Beginner General level, because firearms and other thermal weapons could usually threaten at most Beginner Beast General-level monsters. Yet Liu Yan had a record of killing High-level Beast General-level monsters with thermal weapons. Clearly, among martial artists who used thermal weapons, her combat power was among the best.

Finally, Xu Kui raised a hand to scratch the back of his head and said in a muffled voice, "My name is Xu Kui. Everyone calls me Shi Tou. I'm twenty-five this year. I use a shield and an axe, and I'm the squad's defensive specialist. Beginner General level."

After Xu Kui finished, Captain Qin Feng added, "Shi Tou cultivates the Mystic Armor Shield, a defensive technique. Combined with his inborn divine strength, even Mid-level Beast General-level monsters find it difficult to break through his defenses."

Seeing that everyone else had finished introducing themselves, Xia Zhi stood up. He first gave everyone a salute, then introduced himself. "My name is Xia Zhi, and I'm eighteen this year. I use a blade and a shield. I'm currently at the Beginner General level."

"Beginner General? Xia Zhi, you reached the General level at eighteen? Freak! You're really a freak!" Liu Yan was the first to react, crying out in disbelief.

Captain Qin Feng also looked at Xia Zhi in surprise. "When Director Zhuge introduced you, he said you were at the Intermediate Warrior level during your assessment. You should be at the Advanced Warrior level by now.

"I never expected that after such a short time, you'd already entered the General level."

Xia Zhi replied, "I only began cultivating Guidance arts these past two weeks, so my strength has improved more rapidly."

After all, he had only just joined the squad, and they were not familiar with one another yet. He still needed to keep some of his secrets hidden.

Captain Qin Feng gave Xia Zhi a long look, then said nothing more. Turning to Liu Yan beside him, he said, "Next, Yanzi, introduce the commission we accepted this time. With Xia Zhi's strength at the General level, we can be even more confident."

Liu Yan looked around at everyone, then suddenly revealed a mischievous smile and said mysteriously, "The client for this commission is a beauty! Gentlemen, your chance has come!"

"A beautiful client?" Xu Kui and Xia Zhi exchanged a glance and said in astonishment.

First chapter today. There'll be another one later.