Eastern forces

Organize the supply boxes!

The spider swarm spread into the distance, with the Spider God Guards and ferocious spider beasts moving like the wind through the dense web.

Zhang Xuezhou and others opened the supply boxes, and many people traveled around on two-wheeled and three-wheeled mountain bikes.

These mountain bikes have an extremely simple construction, consisting of nothing but an alloy frame, two tires, a power gear set, and a battery pack; they don't even have brakes or lights.

Extreme simplicity means sacrifice, thereby strengthening other components.

The alloy frame is durable and covered with solar films to assist in charging. The tires are puncture-resistant from rocks. The power gears and battery pack are laboratory products that can generate electricity through kinetic energy recovery. They can be continuously charged on downhill terrain or when there is enough energy to pedal. All these energy collection methods give it a relatively long range.

Montes Badun, whose hands were still bound by nylon ropes, sat next to Zhou Xin, his gaze occasionally sweeping over the ferocious beast treading on the spider webs above him. His face was solemn, but his heart was filled with complex emotions.

"He's different from us," Badun whispered.

"If you're a prisoner, don't open your mouth!"

Zhou Xin cursed under his breath, indicating that this was not the time for Badun to be sentimental.

Every generation is different. Zhou Xin's father needed to fight on horseback, while Zhou Xin, in his youth, would wield a heavy machine gun and fire wildly. His father's generation's ancient martial arts skills were more of a supplementary tool.

This chaotic and mixed style was criticized a lot, but ultimately gained recognition.

Times have changed, and development has progressed differently, so the style of young people will inevitably differ from that of the older generation.

Badun's reflection wasn't on the mountain bikes speeding along, but rather on the different work styles of Zhang Xuezhou and his colleagues.

Everyone who came to Qinmeng was fighting and killing, but Zhang Xuezhou joined forces with ferocious beasts and classified Badun and others as prisoners. Anyone would find this somewhat difficult to adapt to.

"The style of leaders differs in every era!"

Seemingly sensing that Badun was somewhat downcast, Zhou Xin added a comment.

"You approve of him?" Badun asked.

I'm not as good as him!

Zhou Xin gave a simple answer.

The contrast between the two when everyone attacked the ferocious beast was very obvious, and Zhou Xin was quite certain that he was inferior to Zhang Xuezhou.

Although Zhang Xuezhou's offensive performance was somewhat lacking, Zhou Xin believed that Zhang Xuezhou would definitely be able to make up for his shortcomings in the future.

Zhou Xin's principle was simple: if you are inferior to others, you must submit to them.

Zhang Xuezhou gained the approval of three generations—old, middle-aged, and young—and continued the development of the Scarlet Alliance State Gene Sequence. The succession of political power did not lead to any serious incidents, and Zhou Xin could not possibly have acted as an outcast.

I'm genuinely envious of you!

Badun murmured.

The former Scarlet Alliance State unified yet fragmented, seemingly united but actually each acting independently.

The Western Capital City sought to leverage its technological advantages to achieve unification, while the local areas feared annexation and constantly resisted, resulting in a fragmented nation divided into various factions.

Badun felt that the former Scarlet Alliance State was incompetent, even with top geniuses like Zhou Xin and Changkong Luo.

Even the most brilliant people can't cook without rice; they can't magically increase the productivity of Gene Sequence, nor can they make everyone be in a balanced and consistent state.

Badun also faced this dilemma. His approach was to select loyalists to maintain his rule while hoarding advanced genetic resources, which could then be released at a later time to meet the needs of the population.

Through decades of diligent hoarding, coupled with his own frugality and repeated hard work in Qin and Meng, Badun amassed a vast collection.

But before he could find an opportunity to make changes, everything he owned was already in chaos.

Internal strife, the spider tide, medical treatment, and the invitation to martial arts experts to lend their support have gradually exposed his true strengths, making it difficult for him to maintain a leading advantage.

Seeing that Zhou Xin accepted the status quo of the Scarlet Alliance State without causing any internal strife, Badun felt extremely envious.

"This world is very unstable; if you're envious, join in!"

Zhou Xin murmured, but didn't speak too definitively, only mentioning that the current order was chaotic and that each faction acting independently was extremely prone to collapse.

Zhou Xin's words were not just empty talk. He had spent several years in Qin and Meng and had even ventured into the dangerous capital of Qin and Meng, thus gaining a great deal of information through his surveillance.

Whether he gained benefits or gained a clearer understanding of the reality and risks of the world, all these situations challenged his original perceptions.

Let's take another look!

Badun gave a wry smile.

Years of preparation have not brought about the same change as a few young geniuses from competing countries, which is truly disheartening.

The expenditure of resources has resulted in some losses for Badun, but not to the point of being crippling. He still has the opportunity to acquire a high-standard team of Sequence Holder, just like the Scarlet Alliance State.

"Just exchange more gene-editing drugs with us then!"

Badun considered the impact sequence drug that Zhang Xuezhou had provided, and pondered the difficulty of the research institute replicating the experiment. He felt that the cost of a trade swap would be lower.

As Zhou Xin said, the world was very unstable, and Badun had very little time, making it difficult to do everything as planned. He even gave up the Grand Council's control over various matters and relied on his Lineage to manipulate and adjust things behind the scenes.

To rise to prominence and lead the times, thus becoming a winner in the competition, he must make sacrifices and give up certain things.

Badun's gaze flickered several times before he made only one request.

Zhou Xin naturally couldn't guarantee such a thing, and their brief exchange turned into silence, with only Zhou Xin continuing to pedal the tricycle forward.

"Snap!"

The distance to the east mentioned by the Spider God Guard is a full 150 li.

Mountain bikes zipped through the forests, and people often carried them across difficult terrain. When they reached a scorched, burning mountain range, a thunderous roar echoed through the mountains, accompanied by billowing black smoke.

The spider swarms still covered the mountains and fields, but the spider webs had become thinner in this area, and even the six ferocious spider beasts commanded and followed by the Spider God Guard were running on the ground.

As the ferocious spider beasts halted, a white dragon soaring in the distance appeared, followed by a white horse with two horns galloping across the sky, its head bobbing as it unleashed streaks of flame downwards.

"It's them?"

Zhang Xuezhou, with his keen eye for distance, had already spotted the members of the eastern forces.

He had seen Bai Jiao before; Bai Jiao was one of Hu Yu's subordinates.

If there might be another white dragon capable of unleashing lightning, it was with a fire-breathing white horse, and Zhang Xuezhou had also seen the ferocious white horse beast at Hu Yu's place.

Unlike what he had seen before, the white horse had shrunk considerably; its heavy body had become petite, and it had gained the ability to traverse the air.

Spitting out bolts of lightning and breathing fire couldn't stop the swarms of spiders covering the mountains and fields; even the most numerous trees would be burned to ashes. But somehow, an underground oil field was discovered in this area.

The jet-black oily substance shot dozens of meters high, flowing further and further into the distance along the river.

The upper reaches of the river are also filled with oil pollution. Clearly, there is more than one underground oil geyser, which has turned the entire river black with oil.

This is a river filled with flames, with occasional electric currents floating on the black, viscous layer, which also serves as a zone to isolate the spider swarm.

As for the upper reaches of the river, they are permafrost areas where ice and snow never melt, so no measures are needed to block the spider colonies.

This long, winding river draws a line here, effectively isolating the area where the most intense spider swarms erupt.

Spider colonies are not perpetual motion machines that can run indefinitely; rather, they have a survival distance and expand their territory by dividing and reproducing after feeding. Here, the spider colonies had to change direction and continue to reproduce southward, even crossing the strait to invade the Aomeijia Alliance.

Giving up a certain area is not unbearable; the real problem is that this oil river can change direction.

If the river were to change course and rush into the Spider God's Cave, it would lead to annihilation.