64: Chapter 64 is missing?

The plaza outside the Command Center.

Three squads had finished assembling.

Lei Hu was the captain of the Eighth Battalion. Standing at the front of the queue, he glanced at Zhou Han beside him, whose face was livid, and then at Li Zhengyang.

Lei Hu approached Zhou Han and lowered his voice.

“Old Zhou, are we really going? The Secondary Reconnaissance Protocol says it's just scouting, but if we run into a Demon-kin tribe, we're just throwing our lives away.”

Zhou Han said nothing.

Lei Hu continued to complain, “Every mission to kill Demon-kin results in heavy casualties. How many of our branch's top experts have we lost in the past two years? If we keep wasting away like this, how many people will be left in our branch in another two years?”

“The order was given by Venerable Lei.”

Zhou Han tossed out those words.

Lei Hu curled his lip and looked at Li Zhengyang.

This newcomer's strength was indeed impressive, but he still felt uneasy.

No matter how good a single person was at fighting, charging into a Demon-kin nest would still cost them a layer of skin.

Zhao Yi clapped his hands. “Everyone's here. Let's move out. Target: Sector C7. Form the Three Talents formation, with the Seventh Squad in the center, and the Sixth and Eighth on the left and right.”

Li Zhengyang didn't return to his squad, instead carrying his abyssal meteor dragon spear straight to the very front.

The gates opened, and the team marched out of the wall.

After entering thirty kilometers into the Wasteland, the spiritual energy began to grow chaotic.

Zhou Han drew his battle blade and gestured behind him, and the team immediately slowed down.

A slight tremor came from the ground ahead.

“Three o'clock direction, sixth-grade Earth-Splitting Armored Bull. Prepare for battle.”

Zhou Han's voice was low.

Some had only just placed their hands on their weapons.

A dark shadow had already darted out.

Li Zhengyang didn't even use the Startling Cloud Step.

Relying solely on the pure physical burst of a third-grade Martial Emperor, he shattered the rock beneath his feet and arrived fifty meters away.

The Earth-Splitting Armored Bull hadn't even raised its head.

The abyssal meteor dragon spear crashed down.

The moment the spear tip made contact with the thick rock armor on the bull's back, the SS-grade weapon's special property triggered.

80% armor penetration, 100% critical hit.

Pfft.

The spear tip pierced straight through.

A muffled thud echoed from the bull's massive body as its internal organs were shredded.

The immense force pinned its entire body into the ground.

He pulled out the spear.

With a backhand sweep, Li Zhengyang swung the spear.

The shaft slammed into the flank of a second bull, sending internal organs and blood spraying out.

For the remaining few, the spear tip pierced through their skulls one after another.

The last one turned and fled wildly.

Li Zhengyang held the spear in one hand and hurled it.

The long spear turned into a black streak, piercing through the bull's spine.

Li Zhengyang strode over and pulled out the spear.

Nimbly, he pried open the skulls and collected the demon cores.

The other team members were still frozen in their blade-drawing stances.

Lei Hu's mouth hung open.

He watched Li Zhengyang rummaging through the carcasses, his own blade remaining half-drawn for a long time.

“This...”

Lei Hu turned to look at Zhou Han.

Zhou Han sheathed his blade, his face darkening even further.

“Move.”

The team continued to advance.

The journey was far from peaceful, as various sixth-grade demonic beasts frequently appeared.

A pack of Four-Winged Wind Wolves.

As soon as they came into view, Li Zhengyang vanished; with a flurry of spear thrusts, the wolf carcasses hit the ground.

A nest of Iron-Armored Lizards.

Li Zhengyang's spear plowed through them from front to back, wiping out the lizards and pocketing their demon cores.

A seventh-grade Shadow Leopard.

Just as Lei Hu was about to shout for his team to form a formation, Li Zhengyang charged straight ahead. Unleashing three consecutive Collapse Techniques with his abyssal meteor dragon spear, he pierced the Shadow Leopard's throat before it could even deploy its Protective Qi.

Lei Hu stared, completely dumbfounded.

The members under his command were even more dumbstruck.

“Captain, are we here on a mission, or did we come to watch him stock up on goods?” a team member whispered in Lei Hu's ear.

“Shut up,” Lei Hu said, wiping his forehead.

Zhao Yi led the Seventh Squad in the middle, already accustomed to this.

Looking at Li Zhengyang's back as he harvested the demonic beasts, the doubt in the ponytail girl's eyes had already turned into dread.

This speed and lethality—let alone fighting those of the same rank—was an absolute stomp even when fighting above his rank.

An hour later, the team arrived at the core area of Sector C7.

The surrounding terrain had turned into a massive basin, with the rocks showing a corroded, dark red hue.

Zhao Yi stopped in his tracks.

“Spread out. Conduct a grid search. Be sure to conceal your auras and look for any traces of Demon-kin activity.”

The three battalions split into several small groups and began searching through this basin, which spanned dozens of square kilometers.

Two hours passed.

Lei Hu walked back to the gathering point and shook his head.

“Nothing to the east.”

Zhou Han sheathed his long blade and walked over.

“I went all the way to the western edge. Aside from a few piles of ordinary demonic beast droppings, I found no traces of Demon-kin.”

Zhao Yi looked at the map on his terminal; Sector C7 had been completely mapped out.

There was indeed no Demon-kin tribe.

“Was Venerable Lei being too cautious?”

Zhou Han looked at Zhao Yi. “I'd bet eighty percent that it was just a rogue Demon-kin wandering over from somewhere else. It probably separated from its tribe, happened to wander into Sector C7, and just happened to run into Li Zhengyang.”

Lei Hu let out a long breath. “Old Zhou is right. Rogue wanderers outside the wall are very common. Staying in this godforsaken place too long is asking for trouble. Let's withdraw.”

Zhao Yi pondered for a moment, then nodded.

No one wanted to stay in this area for too long.

Once night fell, the activity level of demonic beasts would double, making it extremely dangerous.

“Assemble, everyone. We withdraw along our original route,” Zhao Yi ordered.

The team members' expressions relaxed. They sheathed their weapons one after another and turned to leave.

Li Zhengyang stood at the outermost edge of the group.

He didn't budge.

With his abyssal meteor dragon spear propped on the ground, his gaze was not fixed on the direction of the city, but rather on the rock walls surrounding the basin.

Having just cleared out all the surrounding demonic beasts, he had earned about twenty million.

But he wasn't happy at all.

Within the sensory net of a third-grade Martial Emperor, a trace of abnormality had appeared.

The surroundings were too quiet.

Strangely quiet, in fact.

Li Zhengyang gripped the shaft of his spear tightly, the vital energy and blood within his body beginning to circulate through his meridians.

The golden glow of the Indestructible Golden Body faintly flickered beneath his skin.

“Don't move,”

Li Zhengyang said.

Zhao Yi paused mid-step and turned to look at him. “Did you find something?”

Zhou Han frowned.

“Rookie, the mission is over. Stop overreacting. There are no more demonic beasts here.”

Li Zhengyang didn't look at Zhou Han.

He raised his long spear, its tip pointing straight ahead.

“They're here.”

Everyone was startled.

As Li Zhengyang's words fell, an extra patch of gray mist appeared.

A cold, eerie aura began to seep in from all directions.

Lei Hu's expression changed dramatically in an instant.

“Movement on the right!” a member of the Eighth Squad shouted.

The gray mist dispersed.

A dark gray figure stepped out from behind the rocks.

A figure with a row of bone spikes protruding from its back and keratinous scales on its face was staring at them coldly.

It was a Demon-kin.

Lei Hu drew his long blade and swallowed hard. “Just one. Kill it and let's get out of here.”

“Just one?” Li Zhengyang looked ahead.

The Demon-kin didn't attack; instead, it split its mouth into a grin.

It let out a whistle.

In the next second,

a dense crowd of more Demon-kin surged out from all around.

Every single one of them exuded a powerful aura of the sixth grade or higher, with a few seventh-grade pressures mixed in.

There were nearly a hundred of them.

Lei Hu's hand holding the blade began to tremble.

Zhou Han's face was deathly pale. Back-to-back with Zhao Yi, his muscles were tense.

This was an organized Demon-kin army.

They were surrounded.

At the very moment they let their guard down to withdraw, this pack of monsters had completed their encirclement.

“Prepare to fight to the death,”

Zhao Yi said through gritted teeth, the terminal on his wrist emitting a piercing distress signal.

But the signal was intermittent, seemingly hindered by something.

The encirclement began to shrink.

Nearly a hundred pairs of vertical slits gleamed with bloodthirsty light.

Li Zhengyang held his abyssal meteor dragon spear in one hand.

As he looked at this crowd of Demon-kin, the killing intent in his eyes turned into pure fanaticism.

“Today,”

Li Zhengyang rotated his wrist, and the long spear let out a low hum.

“I am going to make a fortune.”

...