Xia Zhao

He was completely filthy now, smeared with wet mud everywhere.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan kept running wildly into the distance with Xia Zhao on his back after getting covered in mud.

The ordeal had also jolted Xia Zhao awake, clearing her head considerably.

After running for nearly half an hour, Li Yuan and Xia Zhao found an abandoned building.

It looked like it had once been Qijia Town's Observation Station.

Seeing this Observation Station meant the two of them had reached the outermost edge of Qijia Town's old district.

Li Yuan's original plan had been to go no more than ten li deeper.

But now, they had probably gone over a hundred li.

Perhaps sensing that she was safe, Xia Zhao sank into "sleep" as soon as Li Yuan set her down.

Li Yuan could not tell whether she was asleep or had passed out.

Meanwhile, Li Yuan began cleaning up the traces they had left behind.

He cleared away all evidence of the two entering the Observation Station, blending it into the surrounding environment.

The Observation Station had two major advantages.

First, it was sturdy. Its construction standards were nothing like those of ordinary residential buildings.

Second, the Observation Station had many convenient vantage points for monitoring the outside.

From those points, martial artists inside could easily observe every direction outside.

After handling all that, Li Yuan checked the blast door again.

Only after confirming there was no problem did he find a place to sit.

There were three chairs inside, and even a wooden bed.

Before this, Li Yuan would not have sat on either.

They were covered in dust, and sitting on them would dirty his clothes.

But now, he did not care. After rolling around in wet mud, what right did he have to complain about someone else's dirty chair?

That fight with the Mutant Hound had given him a profound understanding of how formidable Fierce Beasts were.

The physical strength of those beasts was far beyond anything humans could match.

They had never learned martial techniques or cultivation methods, yet their physical bodies alone allowed them to reach such a level.

If humanity had not discovered the path of martial cultivation back then, they would likely have gone extinct.

For humans, the strength and terror of these Fierce Beasts was only one aspect.

Their greatest threat was their intense aggression.

Many Fierce Beasts seemed especially fond of treating humans as food.

The sky gradually darkened, and night fell.

After martial artists tempered their bodies through cultivation, both their eyesight and hearing improved.

But such improvements were almost impossible to surpass the night vision of Fierce Beasts.

At night, hiding inside was still the most suitable choice.

In the latter half of the night, Xia Zhao woke up.

Neither of them spoke. Li Yuan stayed at a monitoring point, listening and watching the situation outside.

They simply waited as the sky slowly brightened.

At eight in the morning, it was fully light outside.

Trapped in the Observation Station, the two exchanged glances several times, feeling somewhat awkward.

"I'm Xia Zhao..."

"I'm... Wuling Education..."

Li Yuan paused before giving the false name under which he had registered.

It was also to avoid causing trouble for Deputy Director Zeng Chang.

Someone had given him an opportunity to train, and he could not let himself bring trouble to Director Zeng instead.

After exchanging names, they fell silent again.

"Want something to eat?"

Li Yuan asked, taking out a serving of compressed food from his pack and handing it to her.

Xia Zhao still did not look well and remained somewhat weak.

But her spirits had improved. She no longer looked as exhausted as before.

"If we want to escape, we went the wrong way.

There's also a Mutant Beast behind us. We should have taken a detour and circled back north..."

What Xia Zhao said was certainly correct.

The terrain to the north was flatter, making it easier to detour back to Qijia Town.

Once they returned to Qijia Town, their safety would naturally be assured.

The threat to their lives would be resolved.

But things were not that simple. Li Yuan had already noticed something was wrong.

"If we flee north and stay cautious, we might avoid being surrounded by the Mutant Beast.

But there's a major problem.

After encountering that Mutant Beast, all my means of external communication completely failed.

The signal is still extremely poor in the direction of Qijia Town.

No matter how powerful Fierce Beasts are, they should not be capable of blocking communication signals, right?"

At those words, Xia Zhao froze.

The communication signal had been cut off...

She thought of a possibility, an incredibly terrifying and chilling possibility.

The mutation of the Fierce Beasts might not have been an accident.

Some force had intervened behind it!

The threat posed by Mutant Beasts was already deadly enough.

If some organization was involved as well, surviving would only become harder.

If they had truly withdrawn along the route she suggested, they might already be dead.

Another silence followed.

Within that silence, Xia Zhao figured out many things.

She could now make sense of the crises she had encountered before.

These current crises were not simply caused by Fierce Beast mutations.

They were not natural disasters. Instead, they seemed more like man-made calamities.

"So, may I ask about these Mutant Beasts?"

Li Yuan looked at Xia Zhao and asked calmly.

Xia Zhao thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Before, I would have explained it to you.

But now, it may actually be better for you not to know the relevant details."

At thirty, Li Yuan no longer had the curiosity he had in his youth.

Since she did not want to talk, he could not be bothered to press further.

His purpose in coming to Qijia Town had only been to train, improve himself, and achieve a better result in the Youth Martial Tournament.

As for getting involved in other matters, Li Yuan had never been particularly interested.

He had only asked because he wanted to find a way to survive.

To find an opportunity and a method of leaving this place.

"Other than matters concerning the Mutant Beasts, ask whatever you want. I'll answer."

Xia Zhao also knew that Li Yuan had saved her life.

They were now trapped in this predicament, facing the same danger.

With aligned goals and interests, they were steadfast partners.

Only by sharing information could they gain another chance at survival.

"I want to know what level your strength has reached.

Can you recover your strength in a place like this?

And if you do recover it, can we get out safely?"

Li Yuan's questions were very direct.

In this environment, there was no need for meaningless words.

Xia Zhao hesitated slightly, but did not hide anything.

"If conditions permit, give me twelve days. I may not recover to my peak state, but it will be enough to leave here safely.

It's just that I lost my luggage, and I don't even have a single recovery medicine left..."

There was another meaning behind Xia Zhao's words.

As she answered, she was also asking Li Yuan whether he had any recovery medicine.

Hearing that, Li Yuan hesitated slightly.

His backpack was filthy, wrapped in mud.

But everything inside was still there, including the three remaining bottles of B-grade Nutrient Fluid.

"My current martial realm is the Eighth Grade Initial Stage. At my peak, I can briefly rival the Ninth Grade."

Xia Zhao revealed her martial realm, hoping to earn his trust.

Those words startled Li Yuan instead.

"Eighth-Rank Martial Dao? How old are you?"

Asked that question, Xia Zhao was somewhat unwilling, but still answered, "Thirty."

The Eighth-Rank Martial Dao was generally a realm people only had a chance to reach after the age of fifty.

She knew Li Yuan bore no ill intent.

But speaking of her age still made her somewhat uncomfortable.

Li Yuan smiled with a hint of helplessness. "We're both thirty-year-old middle-aged people, yet you're far stronger than me..."

The term middle-aged did not make Xia Zhao uncomfortable.

She simply could not help complaining, "When they want us to do work, they say we're young, still youth.

But when we want youth benefits, people our age get classified as middle-aged..."