Chapter 145: Establishing a Stronghold

When Pi Yuanhong awoke, Su Chen was not there anymore. Jiang Hanfeng was sitting there, staring at a vial in his hand intently. He seemed to be tracing some kind of pattern with a needle.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Pi Yuanhong forced out.

Jiang Hanfeng was startled badly. His hand instinctively trembled.

Pu!

The tip of the needle pierced down.

Jiang Hanfeng pouted. “Eighth Senior Brother, don’t scare me like that.”

He carefully pulled out the needle and massaged the wound as he glanced at Pi Yuanhong. He laughed, “Eighth Senior Brother, you look much better now.”

“Mhm. That guy, Su Chen, is pretty good at medicine even though he isn’t that strong.”

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Isn’t that strong?

Jiang Hanfeng smiled bitterly as he thought to himself, that’s because you haven’t seen the two Ferocious Race corpses in his research lab.

Pi Yuanhong asked, “Right, where did Su Chen go?”

Jiang Hanfeng replied, “Since you looked like you were getting better, he went to the forest to hunt a few Vicious Beasts.”

“He’s still interested in hunting at this point?”

“Yes, he said that you needed nutrients and that he needed to gather more medicinal herbs to concoct medicine.”

“Oh.” Pi Yuanhong slowly got to his feet and took a few steps. He still felt weak, but he was at least able to sit upright and walk without any issues.

Jiang Hanfeng glanced at him. He sat in thought for a moment and then laughed, “Eighth Senior Brother, you must feel a bit stuffy after being in here for two days, right? Why not take a walk with me outside? I’ll show you around a bit.”

“Good.” Pi Yuanhong began to walk outside.

Jiang Hanfeng led Pi Yuanhong around the mountain for a bit, then brought Pi Yuanhong to a nearby cave and said, “This is Third Senior Brother’s research lab. Don’t you want to go in and take a look?”

“What could there be worth seeing in there?” Pi Yuanhong replied carelessly.

“Just go in and take a look. There are some pretty impressive things in there,” Jiang Hanfeng chuckled a bit strangely.

Pi Yuanhong noticed his strange laughter and muttered to himself, “What are you on about?”

He walked inside.

Suddenly, his figure visibly froze.

Two dissected Ferocious Race youth corpses hung on the wall, their expressions contorted in pain. Pi Yuanhong suddenly felt the sting of what he had said earlier.

Pi Yuanhong turned around to stare at Jiang Hanfeng. “He did this?”

“Mhm.” Jiang Hanfeng pretended to casually shrug his shoulders.

————————————

Su Chen returned two hours later, but not on his own.

Two more people returned with him.

When Jiang Hanfeng saw them, he excitedly ran out and said, “Second Senior Sister, Sixth Senior Brother, you guys are here too!”

It was the second-ranked student, Qi Weiyan, and the sixth-ranked student, Zhu Anyi. They were some of the strongest students here, and they were all in their final year at the Institute.

Upon seeing Jiang Hanfeng, Qi Weiyan laughed, “Zhao Xin told us that Su Chen was here, so we came to take a look. In the end, we ran into him while we were still on our way over.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hanfeng sighed. “I was worried that you had all been injured.”

“Don’t jinx us!” Zhu Anyi smacked the back of Jiang Hanfeng’s head fondly.

Qi Weiyan laughed and hugged Jiang Hanfeng. “It’s so good to see you all. Old Pi, it seems like you’re feeling much better now.”

“Hm,” Pi Yuanhong harrumphed.

Qi Weiyan was a bit stymied by his agitated expression. “What’s wrong?”

Su Chen laughed. “He said that next time he would rather die than have me save him...... To save him, I almost had to disassemble him.”

“......”

Everyone began to laugh.

After joking around with each other for a while, the four of them sat down.

Qi Weiyan asked Su Chen, “What do you think we should do next?”

Su Chen shook his head. “Before we find Ji Ruoyu, I think it’s still too early to make any plans. Our current mission should still be to find everyone and straighten things out.”

Qi Weiyan nodded. “I think so too. But if that’s the case, we will still probably have to move individually.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. The ruins are too large, and it would be inconvenient to gather together anyways,” Zhu Anyi said.

Everyone knew that they were stronger as a group, but if everyone was to gather together simultaneously, their ability to search the ruins would be greatly limited. If that was the case, then there wouldn’t be much point in defeating the Ferocious Race youths.

The main goal of searching the ruins wasn’t to battle but to obtain resources. Killing a few more or a few less Ferocious Race youths wasn’t that important. In other words, the only reason to battle was to reduce the number of future conflicts and complications that might occur.

Of course, the Ferocious Race youths might not think the same way that they did.

“Su Chen has chosen a pretty good location.” Qi Weiyan pulled out a map that Zhao Xin had constructed, though this one was much larger and more complete. Qi Weiyan pointed at a corner of the map and said, “Zhao Xin has already discovered what seems to be the extremes of the ruin. From the map, we are at this stone mountain currently, which is probably near the middle of ruins. I think we should make this location a rendezvous point.”

Pi Yuanhong rubbed his chin and muttered, “We can make this a headquarters of some sort, where people can be treated, and people can come and leave as they want. They can rest in safety here. But if that’s the case, it might create too much commotion and attract the attention of the Ferocious Race youths, and they will begin to target this location. If the Ferocious Race youths gather in numbers and unleash an attack......”

Zhu Anyi said, “Even though the Ferocious Race youths are powerful, they are impulsive, and acting only after coming up with a plan is unlike them, to say the very least. If they discover that this is our gathering point, they will more likely attack directly instead of waiting for reinforcements and ganging up on us.”

Su Chen said, “You might say that, but those who are participating in the search of the ruins are all elites. We humans are able to produce a few extremely powerful individuals from time to time, and the Ferocious Race might be able to produce a few people with some intelligence. When faced with such opponents, it is hard to say what will happen.”

“So what you mean is that we shouldn’t have a rendezvous point?” Zhu Anyi asked.

Su Chen shook his head. “It’s still a good idea to have a rendezvous point. We can use this a stable headquarters, but we also need to take precautions against any preparations our opponents might make. This might include concealment or defensive-type formations.”

“We should also have a plan of retreat, an alert system, and a way to rapidly communicate with each other. Once our defenses are complete enough, there shouldn’t be any problems,” Qi Weiyan said.

Everyone continued to throw in ideas, planning out various aspects of the headquarters.

Very quickly, a complete set of plans for the headquarters had been drafted and refined.

The plan was not very complicated; after all, without Ji Ruoyu, no one knew how long the void would stay up for. This was still the initial stage, and things still needed to stay flexible.

After they drafted up the plan, they began to carry it out.

Neither Qi Weiyan nor Zhu Anyi wasinjured. They could instantly move out and search for their other comrades, as well as notify them of the headquarters’ location.

At first, only Zhao Xin was notifying others, so it was not surprising that his success rate was low. With Qi Weiyan and Zhu Anyi’s help, they were much more likely to succeed.

Not long after, more and more people began to arrive.

After they understood the plan, they would also pitch in, beginning to snowball their effectiveness until everyone had gathered and was moving in unison.

This was one of the human race’s greatest advantages, and this was a situation in which they could really use it to their own benefit.