Beyond Yangde's Team X Returners

The human world.

Outside the Outer Sea area.

The once calm sea surface began to ripple, as if a giant object on the seabed was trying to rise to the surface.

The seawater boiled due to the pressure of the rising object, and a large amount of water shot into the sky.

A huge whale emerged from the water, its ethereal and majestic roar echoing across the calm sea.

The whale's enormous head opened its mouth.

A ship slowly emerged from its mouth.

In front of the ship was a huge door, standing on the sea as if cutting off the ocean.

On the deck of the ship.

Many people are standing here.

After the ship sailed out of the whale's mouth, everyone looked up at the sky and at the enormous gate.

A soldier trembled, his eyes filled with excitement, and tears even streamed down his face as he knelt down on the ground.

"I'm back—I'm back!"

His voice couldn't hide his excitement.

Not only him, but everyone around him showed signs of excitement.

They returned alive from the Dark Continent.

By Beyond stood at the bow of the ship, arms outstretched.

"Hahaha! I 'Beyond!"

The unbridled joy in his voice was palpable to anyone.

The two Twelve Zodiacs, Ox Maitai and Wei Yang Yinda, stood behind, leaning against the metal wall, looking at the huge door in front of them, and remained silent for a moment.

Just then, two people walked over.

One is the formidable Porto, and the other is Piyon.

"How did it go?" Maitai asked, seeing the two people walking over.

Porto didn't speak, while Piyon gripped his phone and casually shrugged.

"It seems that Saiyu is out of danger and is recovering."

Porto looked at the group, as if searching for someone, and asked, "Where's Saccho?"

Maitai pointed behind him.

"How many people are there?"

After these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

They all remained silent, watching the Gate approaching ever closer.

Until Wu Masaqiu came over.

"How many people are left?" Piyon turned and asked.

Saimyu seemed somewhat silent and shook his head.

Two hundred and thirteen people.

Two hundred people—

Maitai muttered something.

There are only two hundred people left.

Keep in mind that when they went to the Dark Continent, there were over two thousand people on board.

Now not even a tenth remains.

The mortality rate this time reached 90%.

Although those who died were special forces soldiers with little to no Nen ability.

However, there are quite a few Nen user among them.

Only those who were originally elite Nen user managed to survive.

But they were injured countless times throughout the entire exploration.

To put it bluntly, if these Twelve Zodiacs hadn't been carrying a lot of the potions provided by Kevin, they would have been in serious trouble.

They now have at least two players absent and two disabled.

Add to that the guy from Saiyu who doesn't even count as one of the Twelve Zodiacs, and it's possible that only one of them will be left this time.

If they're like this, imagine what it's like for ordinary special forces soldiers.

"That damn guy."

Piyon stared at Beyond he stood at the bow of the ship and cursed him without any politeness.

"I can hear you, little girl."

At this moment, Beyond turned around, looked at the Twelve Zodiacs, and said with a smile.

He didn't seem to care about Piyon's curses at all.

He walked over, full of energy.

"These are all necessary costs. That's the Dark Continent. If you want to take something from there without paying anything, it would be far too cheap."

Beyond was completely unconcerned about such an extreme Sacrifice; his previous crushing defeat was far more painful than this.

Having two hundred people left this time is already a victory.

Piyon merely scoffed at Beyond's words.

To this, Beyond laughed heartily for a while.

Suddenly, he shouted loudly at everyone.

"We've returned! We return with glory and hope, we are both powerful and fortunate. Now let us rejoice, and then embrace the Honor we deserve!"

His imposing presence and heroic spirit greatly moved the crowd who were overjoyed and weeping.

They cheered for him.

"Open the door!"

A voice came from above.

Everyone looked over.

She is Angel.

They were a subhuman Demi-human whom they had met briefly when they left.

After taking one look, everyone looked at the massive doorway. At that moment, a crack appeared in the middle of the door, and the Gate slowly opened.

The ocean currents converged as the door opened.

The ship followed the current and headed towards the gate.

At this moment, Maitai suddenly asked a question.

How many Alchemy Plant do you have on hand?

This question is somewhat intrusive, but they were, after all, participants in this operation and assistants appointed by the Hunter Association.

Although they also carried the connotations of surveillance and restriction, they also contributed their efforts during normal explorations.

Therefore, as members of the team, they have the right to know about the results of this trip.

Beyond made no attempt to hide anything and took the skull out of his pocket.

Those were his carefully prepared storage Nen tool.

They opened the skull and glanced inside.

"Six plants, just six more, still as beautiful as when they were picked."

Six plants.

Maitai pondered.

When they reached the desired location, they paid with half their lives, obtaining a total of nine Alchemy Plant.

That was a method that Beyond had already devised long ago, sacrificing their lives in exchange for the hope of obtaining the Alchemy Plant.

Although this behavior is extremely unethical, Maitai has no right to criticize it.

Even in human society, even from the perspective of those major powers, obtaining nine plants of hope by sacrificing only a thousand people is simply too good to be true.

It's important to understand that the scale of this exploration is fundamentally different from the previous Exploration Team formed by individual countries.

The Exploration Team that the Five Great Powers once formed were all led by their respective countries.

They were truly putting their heart and soul into building an elite team, hoping to find their desired outcome while exploring the Dark Continent.

Therefore, the thousand-strong team that was assembled was truly the elite of the entire country.

It is absolutely national wealth.

Even an ordinary member of the crew is a carefully selected talent.

Furthermore, each team will have a large number of Nen user, and these Nen user's abilities must be related to exploration and play an important role.

Nen user are already few in number compared to the total human population, and then there's the need to select those who are talented, capable, and have suitable Nen ability.

The quantity is even smaller.

It was precisely because of this carefully selected team's exploration that the devastating defeat caused such profound heartache for all nations.

They didn't even have the idea of organizing a second time.

They had hoped to see if other countries could gain anything, but all Five Great Powers failed.

They've even lost the will to explore.

It was under these circumstances that the Blockade policy at the time was successfully legislated, spearheaded by the Chairman.

This time, Beyond is backed by a new superpower, the Kakin Empire.

They don't care at all.

Essentially, it was a team that Beyond himself had assembled with considerable financial and material resources; the Kakin Empire merely provided a platform.

The people sent into the exploration team can certainly be considered elites, but they are not indispensable talents for the country as a whole.

Through the previous naval Succession War.

It was already clear that the Succession War was the main objective.

The so-called exploration of the Dark Continent is nothing but self-deception, but Beyond needs more than anything else.

Having spent half their lives acquiring nine Alchemy Plant, they immediately began their journey back to the city.

On the way back, Beyond directly sent out three Alchemy Plant to build three other teams.

The remaining team members were divided into four groups.

Each of the other teams retained 150 people.

The remaining men were led by Beyond.

And so, they split into four groups and returned along the original route.

One of the teams was wiped out before it even reached the shore.

No news came, and they showed no intention of going to investigate.

After boarding, the giant ship was already on the shore, having been modified and reorganized into several smaller ships.

They dispersed at sea.

Then all the teams were attacked on the sea.

The two teams used as bait have undoubtedly disappeared.

Their main force was also attacked and infected with the Undying disease, Zobae.

But Beyond had prepared for so long, and had personally experienced the event of the Undying disease.

So he made many preparations for this, and in the end he really solved the problem and found a way to cure the Undying disease Zobae.

A useful and effective drug was obtained.

Of course, this special effect doesn't mean bringing the infected back to life, but rather causing them to die directly, while the immortal virus they carry won't be contagious.

When this deadly and difficult-to-treat virus is no longer contagious, its threat level is greatly reduced.

Unfortunately, they underestimated the allure of Alchemy Plant.

Beyond no longer only had one plant in his hand.

On his first exploration of the Dark Continent, he only had one plant in his hand on his way back, so its appeal was limited.

This time it's different.

Besides the Undying disease, it also attracts all sorts of strange things.

Fortunately, it's not as difficult to solve or understandable as Undying disease.

More often, they are powerful sea monsters and special creatures.

Those who remained from the original team were the most elite members of the entire Exploration Team.

After a desperate resistance and using various means, they finally managed to escape.

Six plants were preserved.

They've returned to human society, just like they have now.

Ships sailing.

They saw the stone platform again, where the Gargoyle statue stood.

But this time, before they could even climb up, the Gargoyle on the platform came to life, opened their eyes, flapped their Bat- like wings, shook off some dust, and flew into the sky, landing directly on their ship.

This sudden action caused everyone to retreat warily, surrounding the other party.

The Gargoyle simply sat on the deck, its jewel-like eyes sweeping over everyone present.

Then it landed on Beyond.

"You've come back alive again."

"Of course, after all, I've been preparing for this for so long." Beyond nodded calmly, speaking with a hint of pride.

He then looked at the Gargoyle and asked in a deep voice, "This time I brought back hope, will you still bring us disaster again?"

He asked this question.

In the course of formal exploration, there have only been five instances of return to the starting point in human society.

Unfortunately, none of these five attempts brought them back with any hope, so as a warning to humanity, the Gargoyle, or rather, the Gatekeeper, inflicted disaster upon them.

Let them know the cost of exploration.

But this time they brought back hope and also found a way to cure Zobae, the Undying disease.

It was a very rewarding experience.

In that case, should we still inflict further disaster upon them?

The Gatekeeper wore a smile.

"Hehe, of course not. You have brought new hope to humanity. The so-called disaster is just something I used to warn you about your behavior."

"Now that you've succeeded, there's no need for warnings, and certainly no need for disasters."

As it spoke, it prepared to flap its wings and fly away.

At this moment, Porto suddenly spoke up and asked a question.

Are we the only ones who came back?

Upon hearing this, everyone around fell silent.

This exploration wasn't just a joint effort by their team; it was simply that their team was the most thoroughly prepared.

However, these members of the Twelve Zodiacs were very clear that, in the Chairman's eyes, Kevin's Exploration Team was far superior to this team.

"That's right, you were the first to return from the team that went on the expedition with us."

Upon hearing this, Maitai paused for a moment before finally asking.

"Can we be sure whether that team is dead or alive? If we can't say, then forget it."

"Heh, little guy, do you think I'm a god?"

After making a sarcastic remark, it flapped its wings and flew away, returning to its stone platform.

The earth behind him cracked open, and a waterway split open in the middle of the island, just as it had when they first arrived.

It was clearly an attempt to urge them to leave quickly.

At this moment, Beyond said instead, "I heard that guy named Kevin survived in the Dark Continent for a year without any preparation due to an accident, and successfully returned."

"With that guy's strength, he won't die so easily on the Dark Continent."

Having said this, Beyond waved his hand, and the ship restarted; this time, they were truly back.

"Why worry so much? The Chairman will know how to get the relevant information eventually. Didn't he mention this before?"

Piyon said nonchalantly at this point.

The Chairman seemed to have mentioned it when they arrived.

As for how they obtained it, they naturally didn't know, but who cared? After all, with Nen ability, anything could happen.

"Let's hope so, after all, they don't have any Sacrifice offerings to make."

"Jin and his group wouldn't stoop to doing that."

Porto added one more thing.