Rumors

Bzzzt~

The savage bolt tore a Spirit Beast boar to pieces, plunging straight into the trunk of a Giant Brown Iron Tree until only the tail remained.

Pure kinetic energy had produced an explosive effect.

The power of the Star Crossbow X-6 was utter overkill against a Spirit Beast that had not even reached the Awakened Rank.

Digging the bolt back out took longer than the hunt itself.

But through the test, Su Shijie also discovered that if an ordinary bolt struck a Brown Iron Tree, it could be used at most twice.

The violent impact caused structural damage to the bolt itself.

Although ordinary X-6 bolts cost only 30 Credit Points each, there was still a limit to how many he could carry.

No wonder special bolts were recommended.

"Ah, after getting used to that feast last time, these little things really feel like scraps now."

Su Shijie casually thrust his Soul Tendrils into the remaining half of the boar's head, sounding somewhat sentimental.

"Small gains add up. You're already progressing fast enough, so quit showing off."

Su Ren went over to help Su Shijie dig out the bolt that had only been used once, unable to resist snapping at his son.

Su Ren raised his hand to check the time on his Personal Terminal before continuing.

"That's enough practice for today. The place we're staying tonight is up ahead."

They had set out at noon, and by evening, they had only covered sixty kilometers through this jungle terrain.

Between Shelter P-314 and Prosperous Sky City lay Shelter P-319 and Shelter P-316.

However, both were roughly a hundred kilometers away, so at their current pace, they could not make it to a shelter to rest.

"There's a forest camp up ahead. We can stay there for the night."

Su Ren was quite familiar with this stretch of road, and the route had all been planned out.

"The kind of forest camp with black market merchants?"

Su Shijie spoke mysteriously. He had heard rumors about black market merchants in the Advanced Class.

"Black market merchants, my ass. It's just a camp built by a few fairly capable general merchants reselling supplies."

Su Ren clearly did not think much of Su Shijie's description.

Meanwhile, Su Shijie controlled the Star Crossbow flying alongside them to automatically dismantle itself and return to his backpack.

The three spherical cameras, however, were not retrieved. They continued floating in the air, monitoring the surroundings.

Before long, Su Shijie was the first to spot the "general merchant" camp Su Ren had mentioned through the cameras.

The camp was not large. It was a small encampment enclosed by wooden fences, with five Giant Brown Iron Trees serving as its anchor points.

A bare tree stump in the center of the camp, large enough to serve as a platform, showed that they had likely gone to great lengths to cut down an entire Giant Brown Iron Tree and used the materials on site to build the fence.

Sharp wooden spears slanted outward from the fence, with barbed wire wrapped around them. The five giant trees serving as its foundations were also fitted with light firing platforms equipped with cameras.

On the inside, much of the five trees had been hollowed out and turned into rooms and storage spaces.

While these defenses could not compare with those of shelters and residential districts, they still provided a fair sense of security for a wilderness camp.

Quite a few people had already gathered inside the camp, along with pack beasts. Many of them were probably travelers who did not want to travel at night and had come here to rest.

"Yo, Instructor Su."

Su Shijie put away the cameras in advance and followed Su Ren to the camp entrance. A burly man with a face full of flesh stood guard there with an automatic rifle in hand, squeezing out a somewhat ferocious-looking smile.

"If you can't smile, don't. You'll scare the kids."

Su Ren tossed him a cigarette and mocked him.

"Heh? Is this your third kid? Has he reached the Awakened Rank and come out to see the world?"

The burly man casually took the cigarette and tucked it behind his ear. He smiled at Su Shijie. He probably knew Li Meier and Li Wei, so he could naturally make a rough guess at Su Shijie's identity.

But this also showed that Dad really had quite a reputation around these parts.

Earlier, when Su Shijie had surveyed the area from high above through the cameras, he had seen others paying to enter and rest here, though he did not know how much.

But since Su Ren had brought him here, the fee was clearly waived.

It was only a small amount of money, but it was enough to show how well-connected Dad was.

After leading Su Shijie into the camp, Su Ren briefly explained the situation to him.

"They used to be a bunch of desperadoes. After deciding to settle down, they built this camp. They're living pretty comfortably now."

"Instructor Su, I don't like hearing that. What do you mean, desperadoes?"

Just then, a boisterous voice came from nearby.

Su Shijie then saw a one-eyed man walking toward them.

Aside from being blind in one eye, the man actually looked rather refined.

"You lot, of course. You all used to run in that circle, so don't put on airs in front of me."

Su Ren ignored the man's protest and replied irritably.

But as he spoke, a trace of nostalgia flashed through Su Ren's eyes.

Perhaps influenced by Su Ren's mood, the one-eyed man, who had approached while laughing and cursing, also sighed.

"That's true. Honestly, what happened to you, Brother Su, hit us hard. Now we've realized that a quiet, stable life really is comfortable."

Since it involved Dad's past, Su Shijie had always been curious, but he would not take the initiative to ask.

His mother, the biological parents of his older sister and second brother, and the biological parents of his younger sister and younger brother were all dead. It should have been a painful memory.

"Enough of that. Nothing unusual lately, right?"

Su Ren held a cigarette between his lips and asked casually.

"The most unusual thing would probably be that Contamination Source on your side. I heard the Spirit Wind Knights dealt with it. Other than that, it's the Deer Herd Migration. It happens every year, nothing that needs special attention."

Han Wenlong answered casually.

"Oh, right. Apparently, a Cloud Tribe tour group will be coming to Prosperous City sometime in the next month. But it's probably nothing major. They're just big whales, not like we haven't seen them before."

That last remark made Su Shijie glance over.

The Cloud Tribe was the alien civilization that had bought Venus and Mercury, though the Earth Federation had specifically begged them to buy the planets in order to balance the Sand Tribe and Beast Tribe.

Not only was the Cloud Tribe among the strongest vassal civilizations under the Skyfeather Civilization, they were also gaseous lifeforms with no real conflict of interest with humanity.

Venus, with its atmospheric pressure nearly a hundred times that of Earth, was exactly the kind of environment they liked. Mercury had been sold to them as a mining planet as part of the deal.

The four gaseous planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, along with their moons, had long since been sold to other civilizations. It was convenient to borrow the Cloud Tribe's name for protection.

And apparently, they had only been sold to one of the Cloud Tribe's corporations.

Through the Cloud Tribe, the Earth Federation had imported quite a lot of technology.

Han Wenlong called them big whales because the Cloud Tribe's normal form somewhat resembled giant kun, their bodies swelling to enormous sizes.

But due to the characteristics of gaseous lifeforms, those at Transformation Tier and above could regulate their internal and external air pressure, compress their bodies, and move around in humanoid forms. Anyone willing to leave an environment suited to them and visit Earth's "harsh environment" as tourists had to be at least Transformation Tier.

Given the Cloud Tribe's special status, it was only natural for Han Wenlong to mention them separately...