158: Chapter 158 Is Chen Xi born in the Year of the Rabbit?

"They don't hunt fierce beasts; they specialize in snatching the corpses or materials of high-tier fierce beasts that other teams have just hunted. Plus, they come and go without a trace, and no one has ever known where their base is."

Lei Gang looked at Chen Xi, his eyes filled with a trace of lingering fear: "It's truly a miracle that you were able to return alive from an encirclement of that level."

Chen Xi sighed helplessly: "Yeah, I feel baffled by it too. But those 100 military merit points are completely down the drain."

But he didn't dwell on it for too long. Instead, he shifted the topic and brought up the question that had been lingering in his mind: "However, I did keep my guard up."

Chen Xi tapped his fingers lightly on the table and analyzed: "Have you noticed? All the strange phenomena that have appeared recently—whether it's the beast tide that suddenly erupted at the school before, the beast tides appearing in various cities, or the appearance of these mysterious Men in Black, in the end... it all seems to be inseparable from that eerie purple rift."

"The more I look at that kind of rift, the less it seems like it was formed naturally."

Hearing this, Lei Gang nodded and lowered his voice: "Actually, the military has already been secretly investigating this matter."

"I have a few friends in the Intelligence Department who revealed that by analyzing the residual energy fluctuations of the rifts, they discovered that the appearance of these space-time rifts seems to be related to some kind of interfered-with Rule Power."

"In other words..."

Chen Xi raised an eyebrow and voiced that terrifying thought: "After all this time, could this so-called beast disaster actually be something humans created themselves?"

Once these words were spoken, the room fell into a dead silence. Everyone was stunned by this bold hypothesis.

After a long while, Lei Gang gave a bitter smile and spread his hands: "That is not entirely impossible..."

"We humans have been fighting fierce beasts for so many years. We keep killing, and the beasts keep breeding, endless and infinite, as if they can never be killed off."

"Sometimes I wonder, is this really a war for survival, or is it a... game designed by someone?"

The atmosphere became somewhat heavy. Chen Xi sighed and looked out the window at the gray, gloomy sky: "If we want to end all this, we can't just rely on killing."

"Unless... we can find that legendary [Mother Nest Fierce Beast], the origin of all fierce beasts, and kill it completely."

"Mother Nest?"

Lei Gang was stunned for a moment, then waved his hands repeatedly, as if he had heard some fantasy: "Captain Chen, I know you're powerful; you could kill a Tier 3 in your freshman year. But that thing..."

"Legend has it that it's a monster that even several level 100+ Dragon Kingdom national guardian powerhouses couldn't kill when they joined forces back then! They were even almost wiped out!"

"With us... I'm afraid we won't be able to do that in this lifetime, right?"

In Lei Gang's view, they were just small characters struggling for survival; that kind of world-saving stuff was too distant.

Chen Xi did not refute, but a flash of imperceptible brilliance flickered in his eyes as he said calmly: "Who knows?"

"Maybe we couldn't do it before, but that doesn't mean we can't do it in the future. After all... miracles are created by people."

Just then, Wang Shan, who had been burying his head in the corner fiddling with bottles and jars, suddenly stood up excitedly, breaking the gloomy atmosphere.

"Done! I succeeded!"

Wang Shan held up a special glass test tube, which contained a pool of blue liquid that emitted extreme cold and looked like liquid crystal.

He was exhausted, but his eyes were exceptionally bright: "Captain Chen! I have fulfilled the task!"

"Although the luck was average, fortunately, the quantity was sufficient. From the spines of those twenty Frost Giant Pythons, I successfully extracted this—[ss-rank material · ten-thousand-year dark ice marrow]."

Chen Xi was overjoyed and quickly took the cold test tube, feeling the surging ice power inside: "Great! Brother Wang Shan, thanks!"

With this, Su Xiaoxiao's path to advancement had finally taken the most critical step!

The joy of obtaining the advancement material directly shifted Chen Xi's attention.

"Sorry for the disturbance today, you guys rest first, I'm going to submit the mission!"

After speaking, Chen Xi put away the materials, bid farewell to Lei Gang and the others, and walked toward the place outside the Adventurer Camp where missions were submitted.

Although the python skin was gone, the 100 military merit points for the basic mission were still there. Little by little, the goal of 500 points to exchange for the [void spirit stone] was one step closer!

Adventurer Camp, Mission Center. Although it was already evening, it was still bustling with noise.

Chen Xi led his team straight to the mission settlement window.

"Beep—" With the crisp sound of the bracelet colliding with the settlement device, the mission status regarding hunting the Frost Giant Python instantly turned green.

[Mission settlement successful!]

[Basic reward: 100 military merit points (credited)]

[Current team balance: 100 points]

Looking at the jumping numbers in the account, Chen Xi nodded with satisfaction.

Although it was a pity about the pile of python skins that were snatched away, preventing them from getting the double subsidy, the harvest from this trip was still generous.

The most important ss-rank extraction material had already been obtained, and the rest was just to proceed step by step.

"Next, it's time to look for a lightning-type one."

Chen Xi didn't pause at all, turning around to look at the huge electronic mission board again, his eyes scanning the dense list rapidly.

To obtain the [thunder origin core], one needs to hunt high-tier lightning-type fierce beasts above Tier 3 and take their hearts in a charged state.

Chen Xi's fingers slid across the screen, filtering out those low-end E-Rank and D-Rank missions. Soon, a C-Rank Mission flashing with a purple cursor caught his eye.

[C-Rank Mission: Phantom of Thunder Roar Valley]

[Goal: Go to the outskirts of Thunder Roar Valley and clear out the overpopulated "Tier 3 · Thunder Wing Illusion Butterfly".]

[Quantity required: 30.]

[Reward: 120 military merit points.]

[Three-star privilege: Bring back the complete "Illusion Butterfly Thunder Powder" to receive an additional 100% military merit point subsidy.]

"This is it."

Chen Xi decisively accepted the mission.

"Beep! Mission locked."

After doing all this, Chen Xi turned around, looking at the three teammates behind him who looked slightly tired, and didn't rush to set off.

"Everyone worked hard today, killing pythons and chasing thieves; it's not good to keep your nerves too tight."

Chen Xi glanced at the sky and said gently: "Let's go back and rest tonight to recharge. Tomorrow morning, we are going to Thunder Roar Valley."

"Yay! I'm going to take a hot shower!"

Li Murou cheered.

Several of them walked towards their rented camp, chatting and laughing.

...Meanwhile, outside the main gate of the Adventurer Camp.

Two figures, covered in dust and sand, were walking toward the camp entrance, stumbling with every step.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

Xia Qing spat out the sand in his mouth, took off his goggles, revealing a face sunburned red, and complained with a resentful expression: "Brother Ye... this Chen Xi is too good at running, isn't he? Is he a rabbit?"