Gradually, another month passed. Gao Zheng and He Qishun, who had suffered mental injuries, still hadn't woken up, so Lin Chenxing had no choice but to keep shouldering the heavy burden of developing Xingyan's base.
After the first month of the training program, the Martial Artists at the base had all undergone tremendous changes in strength.
After repeated attempts, the first Martial Artist to kill a monster above his level emerged. It was none other than Gao Mingyuan, Lin Chenxing's former classmate. Back then, he had been a student with a somewhat sturdy build, though his hearing was particularly sharp. Now, he had become an Advanced Warrior, and his physique was completely different, as if he were a new person. Muscles bulged all over his body, as though his strength could explode at any moment. He had also grown another four or five centimeters taller.
He had managed to kill a monster above his level thanks to his exceptional hearing. He discovered that he could predict a monster's attacks by listening to the sounds caused by the airflow. This allowed him to dodge every attack as though he could see the future, conserving plenty of strength for the attacks that followed.
At first, he had fought the monster until he was exhausted. Later, he managed to fight it and then kill it. It had taken him only three attempts to succeed.
In addition, while trying out the Mental Power Training Method Lin Chenxing had given him, Peng Tianwen finally managed to make four Bamboo Leaves unleash the strength of an Advanced Battle General all at once. As for flexibility and precision, he could now control five threads at once, threading each through the eye of a different needle.
Lin Chenxing's clone bamboo, which he had decided to transplant right away, had now grown all around the base, just as he had envisioned. It had formed a Bamboo Forest nearly six meters wide, slightly exceeding his expectations.
This was all thanks to the Martial Artist training program. As everyone brought back more monster corpses, the Bamboo Forest received more nutrients to grow. After absorbing enough, it had not only grown wider, but the quality of each stalk had also improved slightly. Some of the Bamboo Leaves had begun to take on a metallic sheen. Of course, this was also Lin Chenxing's attempt to use his Directed Evolution ability on the bamboo.
After his experiment succeeded, Lin Chenxing was also repaid with a boost to the Bamboo Forest's strength. The bottleneck between Advanced Battle General and Primary War God had been broken through directly, and Lin Chenxing had finally become a War God, as he had hoped, in just over a year.
Another half month passed. Lin Chenxing's strength continued to grow steadily, but good news arrived: Gao Zheng and He Qishun had finally awakened. They showed no signs of sorrow or grief. Instead, after exchanging a look, they burst out laughing, leaving everyone around them bewildered.
They explained that throughout their month-long slumber, they had felt as though they were trapped in a bottomless abyss, falling endlessly. They had been completely unaware of the passage of time, only feeling that it had been very, very long—so long that they had grown accustomed to the sensation of falling. That was why their expressions had eventually softened.
Once they had grown used to it, they began trying again and again to escape the abyss that had trapped them, but they never found a way.
In the end, the solution had been something no one could have imagined: letting go of everything, seeing themselves as part of the abyss, and merging with it. Astonishingly, though they had been unable to contact each other, the two of them had made this decision at almost exactly the same time. At that moment, the abyss could no longer hold them, and they finally saw the light.
After that, good news seemed to come one after another.
Less than a month later, under the leadership of Lin Chenxing and Peng Tianwen, the base's team finally fought their way into the county seat of Hehe County.
Everything in Hehe County was finally laid bare before the people from the base.
After Zhang Xiaoyang and the others who had escaped from Hehe County's safe zone explained what had happened, Xi Qing looked at the ruins of what had once been the safe zone. Her last shred of hope and resolve crumbled, because this meant she would never see her mother again. Tears began streaming from the corners of her eyes, but she never made a sound. That was the last of her stubborn pride.
Lin Chenxing stood in the middle of the team, watching Xi Qing stand before the collapsed building at the very center of the safe zone, where the command center had once been. She said nothing, keeping her back to everyone. He could feel the sorrow radiating from her, but he didn't know how to comfort her. He could only quicken his pace, walk over to her, gently pat her shoulder, then continue forward in silence.
Xi Qing glanced at Lin Chenxing after he patted her shoulder. She had wondered if he would say something, but he had done no more than that. She said nothing either, just secretly wiped away her tears and carried on as if she hadn't been crying.
Looking at the devastation in Hehe County, Lin Chenxing felt an inexplicable fury rising in his heart toward the monsters still rampaging through the county seat. Every time one appeared before him, he thrust his spear through it, piercing it from head to tail.
The Martial Artists following him watched his actions helplessly, unsure why he had suddenly started doing this, as if he had some personal grudge against the monsters.
At last, the anger in Lin Chenxing's heart subsided, and he realized that his actions had been inappropriate. The monsters were supposed to be practice for the other team members, while his role was to protect them and intervene only when things became truly dangerous.
He stopped at once and said apologetically, "Sorry for the trouble, everyone. Seeing this devastation got me a little worked up. From now on, we'll stick to the original plan: you'll fight and kill the monsters, and I'll make sure you're all safe."
Everyone said they understood how Lin Chenxing felt. They added that if they'd had the chance to act, they would have wanted to do the same thing.
And so, everything returned to normal.
In Hehe County, they found extremely detailed records about the monsters. They also discovered a satellite device with only a few damaged components. According to records in the documents scattered nearby, this was the device currently used by different regions to communicate with one another.
This piece of good news sent everyone cheering. They nearly forgot that they were still in monster territory.
Fortunately, most of the monsters nearby had already been killed. The ones farther away couldn't tell that the sounds came from humans, mistaking them for the roars of other monsters in the area.
Once they realized their mistake, everyone immediately decided to withdraw from Hehe County and hurry back to the base to repair the satellite communications device. That way, the base, which had been cut off from the outside world, would be able to communicate with it again.
But would it really be that easy to find the missing and damaged components?
Before you continue