Chapter 138: Release Control, Carrying the Mountain (I)

Chen Chu didn't know if the authorities were gradually loosening their control over information about true martial arts; recently, there had been an increasing amount of online content about cultivation, even quite sensitive topics.

This time, they were also letting Chen Chu and others take the train by themselves, and while the regulations prohibiting force against ordinary people were still in place, they were allowed to carry their weapons out in the open.

Besides Nantian, freshmen from another second-rate high school and five third-rate high schools within the same city were also participating in this mission together.

It wasn't just them; students from high schools in other cities were also flocking from all directions to the towns where the mission points were located.

Chen Chu and Luo Fei had chosen the mission point at Baishan Town, which was over fifty kilometers away from Wujiang, with the winding Changbai Mountain Range just outside its limits.

One hour later, all of the students were gathered in the military's spacious mission hall in Baishan Town, carrying weapons on their backs and standing in groups of twos and threes. Their faces were filled with tension, excitement, anticipation, and more as they all looked up at the large screen on the front wall.

Among these people, there were about twenty figures clad in black and red battle armor, almost all of them elite warriors who had returned from Kyrola.

Among them, Nantian occupied the majority, with the remaining six coming from the adjacent second-rate Nanshan. Not a single person from the five third-rate schools had broken through to the Second Heavenly Realm at that time, and their number of participants in this purge mission was also the smallest.

Two hundred Nantian freshmen had chosen to come to Baishan Town, plus a few students from the neighboring schools, totaling just over three hundred people. Most of these students were in the middle or late stage of the First Heavenly Realm, with nearly a hundred in the Second, and finally eleven like Chen Chu in the Third. Among them, Nantian accounted for nine, while the remaining two came from Nanshan.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Currently, there were over thirty freshmen in Nantian who had broken through to the Third Heavenly Realm, with some of them consolidating their breakthrough after returning from Kyrola.

Among them, An Fuqing, Li Hao, Lin Xue, and about twenty others had already applied in advance to go to the mutated beast battlefield. The remaining people, however, were similar to Chen Chu; they were planning to use this major purge to continue accumulating strength, and would go to the battlefield when they were stronger.

"The mission with the Sawtooth Boar sounds good. It's a level 1, primarily attacks with charges and bites. The forest it's in is only sixteen kilometers away from the town. We can park the truck at the foot of the mountain, and then we'll only need to run ten kilometers."

"Zhang Fei, let's choose the mission with the Blue-eyed Fox. It's not very big, and its threat level is low. It's just a bit more agile..."

Compared to geniuses like Chen Chu who had already experienced the battlefield, these average-strength freshmen needed to be much more cautious. Lacking both defensive battle armor and combat experience, many of them were grouping into teams of three or four, even against level 1 mutated beasts.

Li Wenwen and Lu Haitao had also formed a team. They walked over to Chen Chu and Luo Fei in the middle of the hall, carrying blades on their backs, and couldn't help but express some anticipation.

"Chen Chu, do you want to go together?"

"Nope." Chen Chu shook his head slightly. "Luo Fei and I are targeting level 3s deep in the mountains. The terrain is rough, and you won't be able to keep up with my speed."

Since they were his classmates, Chen Chu's refusal was tactful.

"Level 3s?" Li Wenwen's eyes showed envy, while Lu Haitao's gaze appeared somewhat complicated.

Just one semester had passed, and the classmates who had been evenly matched with him in sparring had already reached the Third Heavenly Realm. Lin Xue had even said they had slain opponents in the Fourth.

He had been desperately trying to catch up, but had only been able to reach the middle stage of the Second Heavenly Realm by now, and even though he was teaming up with Li Wenwen, they only dared to hunt ordinary level 2 mutated beasts. The gap was too significant.

Luo Fei pointed to the middle of the large screen and said softly, "Chen Chu, there are three level 3 missions nearby. Let's take them together."

A high-definition map of the mountain range spanning hundreds of kilometers around Baishan Town was displayed on the screen. There were flickering dots along the edge of the mountains, each representing the location of detected mutated beasts. These dots were divided into three colors, each one representing a different mission level and making it easy to distinguish between them.

Students at the First and Second Heavenly Realms could only take on one mission at a time, while those at the Third Realm could take on two. This was to prevent a handful of people hogging all of the closer missions for themselves, thus slowing down the overall purging process.

Chen Chu and Luo Fei claimed missions separately, allowing them to take on a maximum of four missions at once.

Among the three adjacent missions, one involved two level 3 mutated beasts called Cloud-striped Tigers. They roamed in a forest on the edge of the Changbai Mountains, with a hunting range spanning several dozen kilometers that was already approaching the outskirts. To prevent them from posing a threat to vehicles and pedestrians passing through those outskirts, they had been prioritized as targets for elimination.

In this era, there were no longer laws protecting animals; everything revolved around humans. Any mutated beast that posed even a minor threat would be disposed of.

Chen Chu and Luo Fei quickly drove out of the town, accompanied by the roar of the modified truck's engine. After driving along the national highway for over an hour, they arrived at the nearest entry point into the mountains.

"Let's park the car here," Chen Chu said as he placed a special duty sign on the vehicle.

Click clack!

Luo Fei assembled the two-meter-long rugged sniper rifle and then clipped several magazines loaded with armor-piercing and incendiary rounds to her waist.

"When we get near the target, I'll go ahead, and you watch our surroundings while looking for a vantage point."

The girl nodded confidently. "Don't worry, I'm well prepared this time. Look."

She tapped a band on her left wrist, and four small yellow dots shot out like flying insects, zooming in different directions with a swoosh.

Immediately after, a blue light emitted from the wristband device, forming a three-dimensional projection displaying a clear picture of the surrounding area within a hundred meters.

"This mini monitoring device not only has high-definition cameras but also energy wave and infrared sensors. It will sound an alarm whenever a mutated beast approaches within a hundred meters of me."

Clearly, the attack in Kyria last time had left the girl somewhat shaken, prompting her to be even more vigilant about her surroundings. To this, Chen Chu could only cast an admiring glance and then nod. "As long as you're prepared. Let's go."

The distance between their current location and their destination was over forty kilometers and required them to cross four mountain peaks, only about half an hour's journey for the two of them.

Just like when he had hunted down the Golden-Backed Rampage Ape before, Chen Chu's full-body armor allowed him to disregard the thorny bushes in the forest, traversing mountains and crossing waters effortlessly.

The girl following behind him didn't lag behind either. With her true power in motion, she maintained a speed of dozens of meters per second, fully capable of keeping up with him.

As Chen Chu and Luo Fei carried out their mission, many freshmen dispersed throughout the town, while unmanned helicopters loaded with weapons ascended into the air.

These helicopters would spread out over a radius of two hundred kilometers, ready to rush to the scene in case of any emergencies. The authorities had placed considerable importance on these trials for freshmen, providing each of them with a smartwatch equipped with a function to project maps that would aid them in quickly locating their missions. They could also use it to make emergency calls if they encountered a life-threatening situation beyond their capabilities.

Compared to them, Chen Chu and the others who had gone to Kyria seemed to have been treated unfairly. They had been given nothing but a beginner's package consisting of a gun and nine bombs.

Their batch had been composed of geniuses, whereas these individuals were just ordinary cultivation students. However, the treatment during this trial felt somewhat reversed.

Are geniuses supposed to undergo more trials and tribulations?