The Oriole Lurks Behind

The Golden Spear Squad was hiding in an abandoned residential building. Xu Kui was slumped against a corner wall, fast asleep.

Captain Qin Feng stood by the living room window, using the curtains for cover as he observed the situation outside.

After the initial chaos among the monsters, the restless monster pack on the streets had gradually calmed down and returned to their respective territories under their leaders' guidance.

After Xia Zhi left, Xu Kui needed time to recover from his injuries. While hiding in this residential building, they had been attacked by monsters twice. Left with no choice, the group changed to another abandoned room as their hideout.

"Captain, are you still worried about Xia Zhi?"

Liu Yan walked over and said, "His strength as a Mind Controller is even greater than yours. Xia Zhi is cautious by nature—he'll definitely be safe."

"It's been so long already. There were monster roars from the north earlier, but there hasn't been any movement for nearly an hour. I am a little worried."

"Director Zhuge arranged for him to join our squad because he wanted us to look after his growth. If something really happened..."

"He'll be fine. You haven't rested in so long—go get some sleep. I'll stand watch here. Didn't you already send him the coordinates? By the time you've rested for a while, Xia Zhi will be back," Liu Yan urged.

Qin Feng raised his wrist and glanced at his Combat watch. "I wonder if Xia Zhi saw the coordinate message."

Just then, a call request appeared on the Combat watch. The name displayed was Xia Zhi.

Qin Feng accepted the call, and Xia Zhi's excited voice came through the Combat watch.

"Captain, Captain! It's Xia Zhi. Hurry and come support me at these coordinates—I've got a huge haul!"

"What happened? Xia Zhi, are you hurt?" Qin Feng pressed.

"It's hard to explain in just a sentence or two. I'm heading there now, so hurry up too. Throw away anything useless in your backpacks."

Xia Zhi answered, then ended the call. A set of Location coordinates was transmitted over.

Qin Feng saw that the coordinates were at the border between the Main urban area and the Suburbs. It had once been an Industrial park, filled with Factory workshops. Since there were few monsters there, martial artists rarely chose it as a hunting ground.

When Qin Feng and the others had previously ventured into City No. 012's Main urban area, they had hidden there to recover from their injuries for some time, so they were familiar with the place.

"Captain, what do we do?" Liu Yan, who had also heard the conversation, asked Qin Feng.

"Looks like Xia Zhi made a huge haul this time. Wake Shi Tou up—we need to go support him immediately. After that, we'll head straight back to the Military rest point," Qin Feng decided.

The three members of the Golden Spear Squad quickly packed up, then left their hiding place and carefully rushed toward the coordinates Xia Zhi had sent.

In a concealed alley between the buildings of the Main urban area, more than ten monster corpses lay scattered across the ground, every one of their heads pierced straight through in an instant kill.

Xia Zhi took a deep breath. The faint chill in the evening air slightly invigorated his exhausted mind.

He had slaughtered no fewer than three hundred monsters along the way, not to mention his frantic escape from the pursuit of dozens of General level monsters under the Earth Bear Lord.

At the stadium, he had gathered everything at the scene as quickly as possible, yet he had still been discovered by the Bloodthirsty Tank pack under the Shadow Moon Demon Wolf, along with the General level monsters that had rushed in to protect the Bear Lord.

He had wanted to use Mental Power to fly directly away from above the stadium, but against the supersonic speed of the General level monsters, Xia Zhi had needed to kill more than twenty General level monsters before finally escaping.

He had taken concealed routes all the way, but because he was carrying too much, he could not hide himself properly. Monsters kept discovering and attacking him. Now, overwhelming fatigue washed over him. More than anything, Xia Zhi wanted to lie down and sleep properly.

"My Mental Power is nearly exhausted. Fortunately, I'm not far from the coordinates I sent the captain for the rendezvous."

He walked to the alley entrance and checked the situation outside. After confirming his position once more, he darted rapidly in one direction.

Behind him, above his bulging backpack, floated a bundle nearly four meters tall, like a small mountain wrapped in black Monster hide. From afar, it looked as though it were strapped to his back, but it was actually suspended and controlled by Mental Power, following close behind him to maximize his movement speed.

Inside an abandoned factory building in the Industrial park, Qin Feng and the others had already arrived. After clearing out the scattered monsters nearby, they stood guard and waited for Xia Zhi.

About ten minutes later, Qin Feng saw a four-meter-tall black shadow appear ahead. He hurriedly whispered to Liu Yan and Xu Kui, "Careful, something's coming. It might be a monster."

As it drew closer, Qin Feng finally made out Xia Zhi's figure beneath the enormous bundle in the dim light.

The group hurried over. When Xia Zhi saw his squadmates arriving, the tension in his heart finally eased.

Boom!

The enormous bundle behind him lost the Mental Power holding it aloft and crashed to the ground.

"Captain, Sister Yan, Brother Xu."

Xia Zhi said wearily, "I finally found you."

"Xia Zhi, what on earth did you get? Did you rob the Bear Lord's nest?"

Seeing Xia Zhi in such a bedraggled state, Liu Yan hurriedly asked.

His body was covered in blood and grime. His eyes were dull, his sweat-soaked hair plastered against his forehead, and several wounds torn open by monster claws marked the arms exposed beyond his combat vest. He looked utterly miserable.

Hearing Liu Yan say that, Xia Zhi grinned. "Sister Yan, you really are amazing. I did rob the Bear Lord's nest. Take a look at what I got this time."

As he spoke, he stepped forward and used his battle saber to cut the nylon rope binding the Monster hide bundle. When he lifted the hide, the Monster materials within were immediately exposed before everyone's eyes.

"This is..."

Liu Yan stared wide-eyed at the Monster materials before her.

"These bear paws... could they be?" Xu Kui looked at the pair of bear paws before him, each as large as a small door, and asked in disbelief.

Qin Feng turned to stare into Xia Zhi's eyes and solemnly asked, "Xia Zhi, is this really...?"

"That's right." Xia Zhi smiled. "They're the Earth Bear Lord's bear paws. There are also materials from the corpses of the Ice Crystal White Tiger, Crimson Flame Giant Lizard, and Shadow Moon Demon Wolf. I brought out all the most valuable things. The hide wrapping these materials is the Shadow Moon Demon Wolf's pelt."

"And look." Xia Zhi opened the backpack behind him. A Young bear cub lay inside, sleeping soundly.

"This is the young bear cub born by the Earth Bear Lord. It's still alive!" Xia Zhi said excitedly.

Huff! Huff! Huff!

Heavy breathing came from Qin Feng, Liu Yan, and Xu Kui.

The materials before them, worth tens of billions or even more, left all three of them momentarily blank-minded.

After a long while, Qin Feng finally said, "Xia Zhi, according to our martial artist squad's rules, as long as we leave the Wilderness Zone together, even if you obtained it yourself, you still have to give twenty percent to the rest of the squad."

The moment the words left his mouth, Qin Feng himself was startled by how hoarse his voice sounded.

After calming himself somewhat, he continued, "Although that is the rule, but..."

Xia Zhi interrupted him. "Captain, if there are rules, then we follow the rules. You don't need to say anything else."

Liu Yan had also recovered by then and added, "But, Xia Zhi..."

"Enough, everyone, stop talking. This time, I seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Since the amount is so huge, we won't split it."

"What about when you have a great opportunity in the future, Captain?"

Xu Kui silently nodded beside them without saying a word.

These Monster materials were worth nearly ten billion. After Li Wei died in the original story, his father Li Yao went mad and offered a hundred billion as a reward, driving countless War God level martial artists into a frenzy.

Since Xia Zhi understood how the story would unfold, he would definitely enter the universe and venture into that vast starry sky. To someone determined to stand at the pinnacle of the universe, Earth's money was not something he cared much about.

Besides, he had confidence in himself. With one more dark gold sphere than Luo Feng in his Sea of consciousness, and even greater potential as a Mind Controller, earning money would be far too easy if he truly wanted it.

But people's hearts were hidden behind their ribs. Faced with a fortune of tens of billions, even if Xia Zhi was willing to give everyone twenty percent, what if someone wanted to keep it all for themselves?

Could the members of the Golden Spear Squad resist such temptation? He had to be on guard. Though he appeared utterly exhausted, his Mental Power had remained enough to sustain a battle.

In truth, after seeing that the others' eyes held only envy and no greed or jealousy once their shock faded, the tension Xia Zhi had been holding inside eased by more than half.

He smiled and said, "Without all of you, I wouldn't have come here alone. I couldn't carry all this stuff away by myself either. You wouldn't just abandon me, would you?"

"Captain, Sister Yan, Brother Xu." Xia Zhi looked at them and declared firmly, "We are one squad. We risk our lives together and fight together. No matter how great the haul, everyone gets a share."

Seeing Xia Zhi like this, Qin Feng was moved as well. "All right. Let's first figure out how to get this back, then we can discuss distribution."

"Right, right, hahaha. Xia Zhi, you probably made more this time than we could earn in a lifetime. You have to treat us when we get back to the Base city."

Liu Yan's laughter broke the somewhat heavy atmosphere.

"That's right, you definitely have to treat us. We need to fleece this super-rich guy," Xu Kui quickly agreed.

"Of course I'll treat you. Once we sell everything and split the money, won't Sister Yan and Brother Xu be rich too? You'll have to treat me as well!" Xia Zhi chuckled.

The entire Golden Spear Squad began discussing how to divide and pack the materials for transport back to the Base city. From time to time, bursts of ecstatic laughter rang out through the abandoned factory building.

Early the next morning, the Golden Spear Squad quietly left City No. 012 and traveled along the dilapidated highway toward the Military rest point.

First chapter today. Thanks to Ice Fire Dance for yesterday's reward! It was my first time receiving one, and I'm immensely grateful! This is a new author's new book, so please support it if you enjoy it! My sincere thanks!