A month had passed since he left that small forest.
Supply Base, second floor of Villa 203, inside the bedroom.
Chu He had just taken a hot bath and relaxed thoroughly. Now he was lying on the bed, thinking, Where should I go next?
Over the past month, Chu He had explored nearly every small forest near this Supply Base.
He couldn't tell whether his luck was bad or whether something was wrong with the Feng Shui of the Changbai Mountain Range. Over the past month, his Spirit Machine had searched nearly a thousand things, and he had completed several different Red Blood Wine recipes, but the Spirit Machine Materials he wanted most—the ones related to the mind or energy—were extremely rare.
"Fortunately, I've gathered all the materials for a higher-grade Red Blood Wine, and the White Jade Wine Pot has started brewing it on its own."
Looking at the Frost Shadow Deer heart slowly breaking down in the White Jade Wine Pot under the effects of the Dissolving Spirit Liquid, Chu He felt somewhat comforted.
"At this rate, in about six or seven days, the Intermediate War General Level Red Blood Wine made with this Frost Shadow Deer heart as its main ingredient should be ready."
"Should I just head home now? I can wait a few days there. After drinking this wine, my strength as a Warrior should be enough to reach Intermediate War General Level."
"At this pace, reaching War God Level within a year will be easy."
Thinking this over, Chu He decided to leave.
Suddenly,
"Chu He! Chu He!"
A loud, rough voice rang out from outside the villa.
"Hey, are you sure that kid Chu He is in Villa 203?" the owner of the rough voice seemed to ask someone beside him.
"That's right, Supervisor Zhou," a staff member from the base replied.
Chu He recognized the voice. It belonged to the staff member who had handed him the villa keys, and who had bought more of his monster materials than anyone else over the past month.
Since the man was older than him, Chu He usually called him Brother Liu.
What's going on? Did that guy surnamed Liu really just hand over my personal information? And who is this Supervisor Zhou?
Questions exploded through Chu He's mind.
He had never imagined something like this could happen at a Supply Base. After all, this Warrior Supply Base was inside a military zone!
Before Chu He could think it through, the staff member surnamed Liu called out, "Chu He! Open the door. We have an honored guest!"
"This is Supervisor Zhou from the Thunder Martial Arts Gym in Northeast Base City. He heard about your situation and wants to take you to the Thunder Martial Arts Gym's Elite Training Camp!"
The staff member's voice was full of envy.
At the same time, the many Warriors nearby who heard him all reacted in surprise.
"Who? Chu He? The guy who spent a month alone in the Wilderness Zone?"
"That's right, him! Over a month out there, and he's only an Advanced Warrior... He's practically not human!"
"So what if he spent a month out there? Couldn't he just find a place to hide? What's there to be so surprised about?" asked a new Warrior who didn't know the full story.
"You think he was just hiding the whole time? Every seven or eight days, he'd bring back the body materials of one or two hundred Beast Soldier Rank monsters. Quite a few were even Elementary War General Level!"
"Wow! He's that strong?" Hearing this, the new Warrior couldn't help admiring Chu He.
The body materials of Beast Soldier Rank monsters weren't worth much individually, but a sufficient quantity could easily make up for their inferior quality.
Everyone knew that the body materials from a hundred Advanced Beast Soldiers were worth roughly as much as those from a single Junior Beast General.
But killing a hundred Advanced Beast Soldiers in a row was far more difficult than simply killing one Junior Beast General!
And now, Chu He was bringing back the body materials of one or two hundred Advanced Beast Soldiers every seven or eight days...
Not to mention, quite a few of them were Junior Beast Generals.
Setting everything else aside, he must have been making ten or twenty million a week, right?
Most impressive of all, Chu He had kept it up for over a month.
What they didn't know was that Chu He hadn't brought back all the body materials from the Advanced Beast Soldiers he'd killed.
After all, his main task was to search for and analyze Spirit Machines.
In the living room of Villa 203, Chu He sat facing Supervisor Zhou of the Thunder Martial Arts Gym in Northeast Base City.
As for the staff member surnamed Liu, the moment Chu He opened the door, he had tactfully withdrawn.
Facing Supervisor Zhou, who sat on the sofa without saying a word and simply studied him in silence, now and then showing a mysterious smile, Chu He finally couldn't take it any longer and asked,
"Supervisor Zhou, I think... you must have heard about my attitude toward the Elite Training Camp from Supervisor Zhao of the Extreme Martial Arts Gym, right?"
"That's right, I have. That old fellow was pretty blunt in his assessment of you." Supervisor Zhou patted the black Combat Suit he was wearing and replied with a grin.
"Then why come here in person?" Seeing that the other man had finally spoken, Chu He got straight to the point. "If you expect me to change my mind and go to the Thunder Martial Arts Gym's Elite Training Camp, you can forget it."
"My attitude hasn't changed. Going there would conflict with my plans."
"Of course, of course." Supervisor Zhou was still grinning. It was a striking contrast with the rough voice he'd had outside the villa.
"Chu He, you must know that there's a huge gap between my Thunder Martial Arts Gym's Elite Training Camp and the one run by the Extreme Martial Arts Gym. Especially since the Extreme Martial Arts Gym has produced a Luo Feng..."
As Supervisor Zhou spoke, he suddenly noticed Chu He's expression turn strange. He quickly stopped and asked, "What's with that look?"
Only then did Chu He remember that Luo Feng wouldn't be confirmed lost in the Ruins of Ancient Civilization No. 9 until three months after September 29.
And even then, the Extreme Martial Arts Gym would temporarily keep it a secret. It wasn't until October 2058, a full year later, that Hong finally relented and announced Luo Feng's "death" on the Extreme Martial Arts Gym's official website.
Thinking of this, Chu He immediately replied offhandedly, "Oh, it's nothing. I just admire Luo Feng a bit, hearing you mention him."
"Fine, then."
Supervisor Zhou might have looked a little rough, but he was very perceptive. He could tell at a glance that Chu He wasn't telling the truth.
But it didn't matter.
Supervisor Zhou moved on from the question and continued, "Because the gap is so big—and keeps getting bigger—some people at my Thunder Martial Arts Gym have started calling for changes to the way our Elite Training Camp operates."
"Changes?" At last, Chu He heard something that interested him.
The original story hadn't said much about the Thunder Martial Arts Gym's Elite Training Camp, so Chu He naturally knew nothing about these proposed changes.
"That's right! Someone named Sago Nehru recently appeared in India. He's a Spirit Reader prodigy, and the proposed changes were made for his sake."
Supervisor Zhou explained casually, but his eyes stayed fixed on Chu He. His expression turned unusually serious. "Chu He, you don't want to join the Elite Training Camp because you have your own cultivation plans."
"What if I could vouch for you? As long as you agree to join the Thunder Martial Arts Gym, you wouldn't have to go to the Elite Training Camp, but you could still receive its cultivation resources."
"Whether it's my Thunder Martial Arts Gym's Jade Marrow or the Extreme Martial Arts Gym's Dragon Blood, you could get them once you met the required standards."
"With that arrangement, would you be willing to join my Thunder Martial Arts Gym?"
To be honest, Chu He was tempted!
He could get the cultivation resources without having to go to the Elite Training Camp... He still had to meet the required standards, but this was undoubtedly an option that suited him extremely well.
"Wouldn't the Thunder Martial Arts Gym be worried about my personality? Didn't you say Supervisor Zhao thought I was..."
"Hahahaha!" Supervisor Zhou burst out laughing at this. "In my opinion, that's no problem at all!"
"Only the mediocre go unenvied!"
"Geniuses should naturally have the pride of geniuses!"
"That old Zhao is just too rigid and stubborn. With an attitude like his, how could he ever recruit a genius?"
Only then did Chu He finally catch a glimpse of Supervisor Zhou's roughness and boldness.
"Of course, if you want to join my Thunder Martial Arts Gym under these new terms, you'll still have to pass an assessment."
"According to the information my Thunder Martial Arts Gym received, there's a lead on a Spirit of Vegetation in County 0316."
"County 0316? A Spirit of Vegetation?"
At this news, Chu He's voice changed.
Wasn't County 0316 the place he'd gone to with the Jackal Squad?
So could this Spirit of Vegetation... be in that fog?
"That's right!" Supervisor Zhou grinned broadly, like a fox that had finally caught a pheasant. "Your assessment is to investigate and confirm whether there's a Spirit of Vegetation in there."
"And, if there is, find out exactly what kind of Spirit of Vegetation it is."
Before you continue