Wilderness Zone Debut

At dusk, Tang Ping and his fully armed group left the Supply Base and entered the Wilderness Zone.

Along the way, Liu Haifeng continuously briefed them on various precautions for the Wilderness Zone.

"Roar..."

"Awoo..."

From the fields by the roadside and the dilapidated villages, the roars of monsters echoed from time to time, and their figures could even be seen appearing occasionally.

"Hmm, there is an F-level One-Horned Wild Boar ahead. Which one of you wants to give it a try?" Liu Haifeng's voice rang out.

"I'll do it," Jiang Yang said, eager to try.

"Alright, you go first this time. Be careful and don't get careless. Although your raw strength is greater than this beast, the monsters in the Wilderness Zone are far more savage and cunning than those raised in military zones," Liu Haifeng cautioned.

"Shing."

Jiang Yang drew his battle blade, held his shield in his left hand, and smiled slightly. "Brothers, watch me bring back this wild boar's horn."

With that, Jiang Yang quickly closed the distance.

"Huff... huff..."

The One-Horned Wild Boar let out a series of snorts. It had clearly discovered the approaching Jiang Yang, its eyes scanning the surroundings with murderous intent.

"Boom..." The One-Horned Wild Boar suddenly charged, slamming directly toward Jiang Yang.

Jiang Yang smiled faintly, his body shifting slightly to dodge the charge as he swung his blade toward the boar's neck.

A flash of cold light streaked by.

"Pfft!"

With a strike as fast as lightning, he severed the One-Horned Wild Boar's head clean off.

"What! This... War General-level!" Liu Haifeng, who was guarding the flank, watched this scene with a look of shock on his face.

An F-level monster corresponds to an Advanced Fighter-level martial artist. For Jiang Yang to decapitate the One-Horned Wild Boar so cleanly and decisively, he clearly possessed at least War General-level strength.

When Cheng Wei had approached him, he had introduced all five of them as Advanced Fighters. Although he had been delayed for over ten days due to personal matters, surely a martial artist's strength couldn't improve that quickly, could it?

Besides, hadn't they just passed the Martial Artist Combat Assessment this very month?

"Haha... How was that, Uncle Liu? My blade was clean and quick, wasn't it?" After cutting off the only valuable part of the boar—its horn—Jiang Yang strolled back, showing off to Liu Haifeng with a smug look on his face.

"Cough... It was alright, but that was purely due to your overwhelming strength. You wasted too much energy. Martial artists in the Wilderness Zone must cherish every bit of their strength to handle the various accidents that might occur." Although he felt a bit embarrassed by his loss of composure, Liu Haifeng quickly recovered and spoke to Jiang Yang sternly.

"Yes, Uncle Liu, I understand. It won't happen again," Jiang Yang replied seriously, dropping his playful expression.

They encountered monsters several more times along the way, and Tang Ping and the others took turns stepping up to perform.

Naturally, the fact that everyone possessed War General-level strength shocked Liu Haifeng to the core. As for this, Tang Ping and his friends had never intended to hide it.

As for why Cheng Wei didn't know, it was simply because he hadn't asked.

The only things they didn't want to expose to Liu Haifeng yet were the Spirit Reader identities of the little fatty Li Ze and Tang Ping, so they kept those hidden.

With the strength of Tang Ping and his group confirmed, Liu Haifeng's heart was completely at ease, and the team's pace increased significantly.

Soon, the group of six arrived at their destination: County City No. 0176.

"I had originally planned to take you around the outskirts of the county city to teach you some survival experience for hunting in the Wilderness Zone and kill a few monsters before heading back. But now that you have this level of strength, I think we can be a bit bolder and head deep into the city to hunt Beast General-level monsters. What do you think?" Before entering the city, Liu Haifeng asked the group.

"Of course we should go hunt Beast General-level monsters. It's not easy to make it out to the Wilderness Zone; if we go back after only killing a few Beast Soldiers, our group would be too embarrassed to show our faces."

"Exactly. We're a whole team of War Generals, and if we only killed Beast Soldiers on a trip to the Wilderness Zone, people would laugh themselves to death if they found out."

"Agreed. With our team's strength, even if we lack experience, we won't face any major danger in this city."

"I agree too."

"Agreed."

The group quickly reached a consensus to enter the core of the city to hunt Beast General-level monsters.

This was only natural. As they had just said, with their team's strength, in a small county city where there were no Lord-level existences and the highest threats were only Advanced Beast Generals, they could retreat safely unless they encountered a beast tide.

Moreover, the brothers knew something Liu Haifeng didn't: they had two Spirit Readers acting as their trump cards. Even if their luck were abysmal and they did run into a beast tide, they could still escape.

In truth, if it weren't for the fact that this was their first time in the Wilderness Zone, a team consisting entirely of War Generals would never come to such a small county city—the cost-to-benefit ratio was simply too low.

"Alright, then everyone check your equipment. We're heading straight for the central zone."

Seeing that everyone agreed to head to the city center without hesitation, a smile couldn't help but appear on Liu Haifeng's face.

He thought highly of these talented young men, and their personalities throughout the journey had been excellent.

However, without a heart of a warrior that strives forward, even the best talent would struggle to have a bright future (Liu Haifeng, of course, didn't know that there were people called "cheaters" who could grow stronger just by lying down).

Now, seeing that they could choose to head into the city center to hunt monsters of their own level without hesitation on their very first trip to the Wilderness Zone, rather than just bullying weaker Beast Soldiers, Liu Haifeng knew that these young men possessed the heart of a true martial artist.

Liu Haifeng was still very familiar with County City No. 0176, which was why he had chosen it for this trial, even though he hadn't initially planned on entering the central zone.

Leading the group with practiced ease to avoid unnecessary small packs of beasts, they soon arrived at a temporary base Liu Haifeng had selected—the rooftop of a 22-story residential building.

"So, we're just going to sit here and wait?" Tang Ping took out his binoculars, looked down, and spoke up.

"What do you know?" Liu Haifeng laughed. "In this area, this residential building is the best spot. You can see most of the central zone through binoculars. Although the efficiency isn't that high due to building obstructions, it's still far better than other methods. It allows everyone to rest while searching for monsters; it's the best approach."

Tang Ping nodded and continued to search with his binoculars.

They waited like this for about an hour, and the initial enthusiasm of the young men—who were hunting in the Wilderness Zone for the first time—was starting to wear thin.