People Arrive from Qimen City

After the damaged satellite communications equipment was brought back to the base, the entire research institute was in an uproar. All the researchers specializing in machinery and communications gathered, eager to repair the equipment as quickly as possible and learn how its various functions worked.

After all, at this stage, the base could only produce the simplest walkie-talkies, which stopped working once they were more than a kilometer apart.

However, while repairing the equipment, the researchers discovered that its most essential component had been damaged. The modulator in the signal transmitter, which adjusted outgoing messages to the frequency band of the corresponding satellite, was broken. That meant that even if they repaired everything else, without knowing the correct frequencies, they had no idea which satellite's signal they might send or receive.

But when God closes one door, he often opens another.

Just as everyone was losing interest, good news arrived only three weeks later.

A team of unfamiliar Martial Artists had reached a village near the base. An Exploration Team out scouting for the base spotted them, and, naturally, the Martial Artists spotted the Exploration Team as well.

Both sides were wary and didn't dare approach rashly.

The Martial Artist team had two Advanced Battle Generals, two Intermediate Battle Generals, three Primary Battle Generals, and one Advanced Warrior. Since they hadn't yet gauged the Exploration Team's strength, they stayed on guard while questioning them.

The Exploration Team was naturally no match for them; it had only one Intermediate Battle General. So its captain, Xu Jiaqi, decided to send one member back to the base to report. The rest would remain hidden inside the house and exchange information with the Martial Artist team, keeping them occupied until the people sent by the base arrived.

During their conversation, Xu Jiaqi learned that the team had come from the neighboring city. Their mission was to find a suitable retreat route so that the residents of their settlement could evacuate.

However, they had been attacked while passing through a nearby town, so they wanted Xu Jiaqi's group to identify themselves.

Xu Jiaqi didn't hide much about their group. He told them that the area was already within Xingyan Base's territory and asked them to wait there for a while.

They readily agreed.

Nearly an hour later, the base's people finally arrived. The team was led by Ma Tianxing, who had now reached the Advanced Battle General Level. He had Lin Chenxing's training plan to thank for it. After accepting challenges from many other Intermediate Battle Generals, Ma Tianxing had finally overcome the obstacle that had proved so difficult for him.

Besides Ma Tianxing, the new team included Li Xu, another recently promoted Advanced Battle General, as well as six Intermediate Battle Generals.

The Martial Artist team was taken aback by this lineup. A base capable of sending out such a team was clearly no small settlement. It likely even had a War God-level powerhouse.

The team members quickly grew more reserved and began speaking with Ma Tianxing as equals, if not with a touch of respect.

It turned out that several Lord Monsters had appeared around their settlement, and some seemed ready to make a move. They had sent Beast Tides to attack the settlement several times.

Their settlement was a small base with nearly ninety thousand people, and it had no War God-level powerhouse. Although it had close to a hundred Advanced Battle Generals, the nearest official base with a War God-level powerhouse was more than three hundred kilometers away. That base was also threatened by several Lord Monsters and couldn't spare any help.

Their team had been sent out to find an escape route, hoping to locate a path to another settlement that was farther away but still holding out. Xingyan Base happened to lie along their route.

The news filled Ma Tianxing with excitement, because it meant that from that moment on, they could officially make contact with the outside world.

So, at Ma Tianxing's warm invitation, the Martial Artist team headed to Xingyan Base.

At that time, Lin Chenxing was the only person in the entire base to have reached the War God Level. Gao Zheng, He Qishun, and Peng Tianwen remained at the Advanced Battle General Level, though they were among the strongest at that level. There were more than ten other Advanced Battle Generals and over thirty Intermediate Battle Generals. By this stage, everyone's rate of improvement had slowed noticeably.

It was clear that everyone had nearly exhausted the potential they'd built up before the catastrophe.

When the Martial Artist team reached the base, everyone entitled to attend the Base High-Level Meeting came to the reception. The people entering the hall could immediately see Lin Chenxing, Gao Zheng, and He Qishun standing at its center, waiting for the team. They were the central figures of the base.

After introductions, they learned that the Martial Artist team was called Sky Blade. Its captain, Zhang Tiemin, was a Martial Artist from the official settlement in neighboring Qimen City. After dozens of Beast Tide attacks, its population had fallen from more than two hundred thousand at its peak to just over ninety thousand. It now had only close to ten thousand Martial Artists.

As the surrounding monster population continued to grow, their resistance became more and more difficult. Then, in the latest attack, another Lord Monster appeared alongside seven or eight monsters at the peak of the Advanced Beast General level, destroying their confidence in holding their ground.

It was highly likely that those Advanced Beast General-level monsters would break through and become new Lords soon.

So the evacuation plan was officially launched. They had sent out five teams in total, each with two Advanced Battle Generals. Their task was to clear a safe path for the teams that would follow.

After learning that Xingyan had a War God-level powerhouse, they promptly abandoned their original destination and decided to make contact first, then return to their settlement with a report.

During their conversation, they also mentioned the attack they had suffered earlier. The town where it happened was more than seventy kilometers from here. They had decided to find a safe house in town and rest for a while when a group of masked people appeared and attacked them without a word of explanation. They had no choice but to flee in a hurry.

The description gave everyone at the base a strong sense of déjà vu, and they immediately asked what the attackers' masks had looked like.

When they heard that the masks were black and white, everyone realized that the attackers were very likely—no, certainly—the Black and White Clown team. Since they'd attacked without even offering an explanation, the base members formed a theory: could the Black and White Clown's hideout be near that town?

This was actually pretty good news for them at the moment. It meant they could prepare specifically for the threat and even join forces with the Qimen City settlement to wipe out the organization.

Lin Chenxing now understood why the Black and White Clown organization had never appeared in the novel he'd read in his previous life. After they attacked an official team, how could the authorities possibly leave such a cancer untouched?

Most likely, once this Martial Artist team found a route to safety, they joined forces with a War God from the settlement they'd found and wiped out the organization.