Back to Jiangkou

And so they went, fighting as they traveled.

Their comrades kept dying, and new people kept joining their ranks.

In just half a day, the Vanguard Team had already lost four people. The first and second platoons, which had started with more than forty men, were down to fewer than thirty.

"Rest! Take a thirty-minute break right here!"

"Huff, huff..." Everyone, including Wang Ji, breathed a sigh of relief. Li An walked over and plopped down beside him. "How's it going? I heard you're pretty fierce!"

Wang Ji waved a tired hand. "Not bad!"

Just now, I managed to reach the subtle level with my footwork, right? At that level, it feels like everything is under control. It's incredible!

"Whew, finally got a chance to catch my breath..." Li An said, carefully pulling a magazine from inside his shirt.

"Huh? You, a guy with such thick eyebrows and big eyes, read this stuff?" Wang Ji stared in surprise at the scantily clad young woman on the cover. Li An glared at him. "Shh! Keep your voice down! You have no idea how hard it was to find this little piece of spiritual nourishment! We're surrounded by monsters. I nearly died getting this magazine out of the newsstand. Don't worry. Keep up the good work, and I'll lend it to you later."

"Why, thank you!" Wang Ji said, unimpressed.

"Heh! Don't mention it!"

Wang Ji suddenly felt like Li An and Fatty Yu had become one and the same. There was always a dirty magazine in Fatty Yu's desk drawer.

"Xiao Lizi!" the nearby platoon leader, Old Liu, called. "Send me some replacements!"

"Damn it, Old Liu! That's the third time you've asked me for men today! How many this time?" Li An pretended to be furious.

"Fifteen," Old Liu said, looking perfectly sincere.

"You!... Go to hell!" Li An glared. His men were all newly recruited rookies, while Old Liu wanted the best of the third platoon.

Li An turned to Lao Bao with a miserable look and complained, "Lao Bao, look..."

Lao Bao's expression was blank. "Give them to him!"

Li An looked miserable. "Fine, fine! I owe you one! I've got more than sixty men here, and you're taking fifteen of the best. The rest of us will be no better than a rabble. Forget it, forget it!"

Wang Ji chuckled. "Xiao Lizi! Heh! Being called 'platoon leader' sounds pretty friendly!"

"Shut up! You call me that, and I'll come after you!" Li An snapped. "Old Liu can get away with it because I can't beat him!"

Wang Ji gave him a sidelong glance. "Can you beat me?"

"I... We're done! You're not getting any of this magazine!" Xiao Lizi glared.

"Move out! Move out!" the messenger shouted, blowing his bugle.

Jiangkou. It was already afternoon.

"Third Company commander, Bao Changshun!" A soldier with the rank of major called out an order.

"Present, Battalion Commander!" Lao Bao snapped to attention, ignoring his wounds and exhaustion.

"Everyone in Third Company, assemble in the open area north of town!" the major ordered.

"Yes, sir!"

Wang Ji's eyes widened. "Damn, it's him! So this guy is Li Dawei—the Li Dawei who would later become the commander of Jiangnan Base City. I've run into him again!" Wang Ji ground his teeth in hatred. Was he going to recruit people to serve as cannon fodder again? Wang Ji thought of the Black-Backed Apes in the woods beside Jiangkou Town. Damn it, the man was cold-blooded.

The entire Sharp Knife Battalion had assembled.

"We need to select fifteen martial artists for a difficult mission! Anyone willing, step forward!" Li Dawei announced in an even, resonant voice.

"Whoosh!" Almost all the martial artists in the military stepped forward and lined up. Half of the newly recruited martial artists did the same.

Wang Ji couldn't stop him. Xiao Lizi was the first to run out. "Damn it!" Wang Ji glared, then thought for a moment and followed.

Five minutes later, Li Dawei selected fifteen people for the team. Xiao Lizi and Wang Ji were among them.

"The objective is to kill the Black-Backed Ape group that's been harassing our Sharp Knife Battalion! There are five of them, all Beast General-level monsters. We suspect the largest is a super-monster at the Advanced Beast General level! We'll provide ample fire support from the rear. Move out!"

The fifteen charged toward the dense woods.

"Boom!" A boulder the size of a table came hurtling toward them like a cannonball.

This time, Wang Ji immediately shouted, "Shi Tou! The Black-Backed Apes throw rocks! Watch out!"

Then rocks rained down like a shower of flowers. But this time, someone had warned the team, so they dodged in time. Only one person was lightly injured.

"Charge! Get in there!"

"Boom, boom, boom!" The mortars opened fire, clearing a path and giving the team a clear line of sight.

In the blink of an eye, the team was fighting the Black-Backed Apes.

Wang Ji immediately engaged one of the Beast General-level Black-Backed Apes. His subtle-level footwork let him keep the ape tied up without taking a hit.

At the rear, Li Dawei asked in surprise, "Who's that young man? His footwork... That's the subtle level! There are only a handful of people in the entire Jiangnan Military Region whose footwork has reached that level. What an incredible talent!"

"Battalion Commander, I think he's one of the martial artists temporarily recruited into Third Company."

On the battlefield, Wang Ji held the Black-Backed Ape at bay. He seized an opening and barely managed to land a blow, slowing the beast for an instant.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..." Snipers at the rear concentrated their fire on the Black-Backed Ape, killing it instantly.

Without even looking back, Wang Ji engaged the next Black-Backed Ape.

At the rear, Li Dawei exclaimed, "No wonder his footwork has reached the subtle level! That one man is as effective as our captain, Nian Kai. And Nian Kai is a War General! Well done!"

This time, Captain Nian Kai, a War General, Wang Ji, and the rest of the team all scored kills. In an instant, only the Silver-Furred Black-Backed Ape remained. Their success was astonishing—far beyond Li Dawei's expectations.

"Roar!" The Silver-Furred Black-Backed Ape hadn't been too concerned at first. It had been trailing and harassing this army for days, and at least dozens of soldiers had died at its hands. Even more civilians had been killed. Who could have expected its group to be wiped out in an instant this time?

The Black-Backed Ape's eyes turned bloodshot. "Roar!" Its body suddenly swelled as if it had been pumped full of air.

"Careful! It's going berserk!" Wang Ji shouted.

"Bang!" The Black-Backed Ape charged straight at the team! The captain hurried to stop it but was sent flying. Even so, the ape was slowed for the briefest moment.

Wang Ji had been waiting for just such an opening. He had hidden behind the captain, and the instant the captain was knocked away, Wang Ji sprang out from behind him. "Whoosh!" He swung his blade at the Black-Backed Ape's knee.

"Bang!" Though it was a five-series War Blade, Wang Ji was simply too weak. He managed to cut only a little over an inch into the ape's flesh. "Roar!" The Black-Backed Ape flew into a rage and slapped down at him.

The palm came down so fast it was only a blur, bearing down on Wang Ji with the crushing force of a collapsing sky.

Dodge! I can't dodge it! Wang Ji screamed from the depths of his soul, doing everything he could to evade the blow, only to realize that he couldn't get out of the way! An Advanced Beast General-level monster was at least seven or eight times faster than him. No amount of skill could bridge that chasm.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..." A barrage of armor-piercing sniper rounds hammered into the Black-Backed Ape. It dodged at incredible speed, instantly leaping more than ten meters away. Its claw, which had been coming for Wang Ji, pulled back, and the pressure on him vanished.

"Thank goodness! Thank goodness! I'm still alive!" Wang Ji's heart pounded.

The captain returned to the team, coughing up blood. "Form up! Again!"