Chapter 166: Return

"Baby, isn't it about time you transmigrate back?" Li Yinuo whispered to Nan Gengchen.

While the others had their attention somewhere else, Nan Gengchen took the chance to secretly glance at the countdown on his arm. There was still half an hour left. "Yes, soon."

"You haven't slept well these few days, so you should have a good rest once you return to the Outer World." Li Yinuo caringly advised him, "I don't know how long we have to stay here for, so remember to pee as much as you can before coming back here, we don't have anymore sealed pouches to use..."

Nan Gengchen fell speechless for a moment, thinking that this advice was way too detailed. It was fortunate that nobody else heard this.

Ever since Qing Huai triggered the rules and ran away, the Autumn Hunting team, the two people from the Kamidai Family, and the Platoon 7 soldiers all stayed in their respective spots without daring to move.

Right at this moment, the rapid sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the north.

Everyone turned to look in that direction and saw a cluster of flashlights quickly approaching them. Those lights were so bright they all spontaneously raised their hands to shield their eyes.

At this point, the members of the Autumn Hunting team were so high-strung that some of them subconsciously moved to run upon seeing this.

But when they turned around, a group of soldiers had already raided the area behind them before they knew it, stoically forming a blockade around them.

Everyone began to stand up one after another, the sudden development leaving them at a loss.

Among the hundreds of federal soldiers who had come to surround them, a middle-aged man slowly made his way to the front.

Without even acknowledging Li Yinuo or Kamidai Josuke, he questioned the soldiers from Platoon 7, "Why are you here? What about Qing Huai!"

Wang Bingxu took a step forward, wanting to ask these soldiers to escort Li Yinuo out of the Forbidden Land before any further problems arose.

However, Li Yinuo stopped him because she also wanted to know what Qing Huai and his soldiers had gone through.

To be more precise, she wanted to know how exactly did Qing Chen single-handedly wipe out Qing Huai's army.

None of the soldiers from Platoon 7 opened their mouths. The man once again asked, "Where is Qing Huai?"

"A few hours ago, Sir Qing Huai broke the rules and immediately rushed north without telling us anything else. He probably wants to leave this place before the rules could kill him," the platoon leader called Ning Shun replied.

Without wasting any time, the middle-aged man turned to the adjutant and commanded, "Go north and search every nook and cranny for Qing Huai. Dead or alive, you must find him!"

His scalp was starting to throb. How was he supposed to explain this to Qing Huai's mother when he returned to the Federation?

This was someone the Fourth Branch had chosen to be their successor!

He stared at the leader of Platoon 7. There had to be a story behind this matter.

"You said Qing Huai broke the rules?" If this was truly the case, he thought it didn't make sense that these soldiers were still alive. Qing Huai definitely knew more rules than they did.

Ning Shun explained, "One of the soldiers attacked Sir Qing Huai out of the blue. It was as if he was possessed. Sir Qing Huai wanted to repel his attack with a dagger, but that soldier actually launched himself onto the dagger, killing himself and causing Sir Qing Huai to break the rules."

Everyone who had witnessed that scene shivered as they recalled it.

They didn't know about Forbidden Item ACE-019, so they felt that Wang Qiang's abnormal behavior and the bone-chilling smile he did right before he died truly made it seem like he had been possessed.

The man noticed their reactions and coldly rebuked, "What utter nonsense, this was clearly done by someone who knows about the rules! He must have either controlled or bought that soldier!"

"The reason you retreated ahead of time and appeared here — tell me everything you know!" ordered him.

Ning Shun hesitantly replied, "Sir, I might unknowingly break the rules if I do that..."

The man sneered, "If you won't speak, then you can die now."

Left with no other choice, Ning Shun steeled his heart. "When we were marching to the hinterland, an unknown boy made use of the rules to take out two of our platoons in one fell swoop. At first, Sir Qing Huai decided to use our troops to hunt him down, but that boy almost wiped us all out, so we had to give up on the mission and retreat immediately."

Because he was afraid of triggering the rules, Ning Shun didn't elaborate on the process.

After hearing him, an officer beside the middle-aged man cursed in shock, "One hundred soldiers can't even take on a single person, why are you so fucking useless?"

Rules: no swearing.

One officer, down.

The officer's complexion abruptly turned black. Undoubtedly, he had been stung to death by an unknown poisonous insect.

The man glared at his corpse, "You've already been told... Get this trash's body away from me!"

Ning Shun bitterly said, "Sir, that boy always used the rules to kill our soldiers, before we even knew it, we kept falling into his traps."

"Wait, where's Cao Wei?" He suddenly remembered this name and asked, "Why don't I see him?"

Ning Shun answered, "Sir Cao Wei moved alone to chase after that boy, but he never came back. Sir Qing Huai said that... he must've already died."

The man raised his voice, "What nonsense are you talking about, Cao Wei is a C-level master!"

He had a clear understanding of Cao Wei's capability — because his current position originally belonged to Cao Wei.

At one point in time, Cao Wei had been one of the most outstanding figures in the army!

He thought he could ask Cao Wei to tell him what was going on, but now they actually said that the man was dead?!

Ning Shun vouched, "Sir, you can go ahead and interrogate us separately. If you find that I'm lying, you can send me to the military court."

Nan Gengchen kept a straight face, looking as though he was in a daze, but in fact, he was scoffing on the inside: With Brother Chen's IQ, it's not strange that he can toy with your lives.

The Autumn Hunting team and the Kamidai Family members who had been kept in the dark at last discovered the truth.

Prior to this, Qing Huai told them they were returning in advance because he had already completed his mission.

Although they were a little skeptical of his claim, they would've never guessed that he had been forced to retreat due to a single person.

The reality was way too shocking — an entire field operations company versus one boy, the sheer difference in numbers was simply astonishing!

Everyone looked at each other. Just when did such an amazing figure appear?

The man furrowed his brows, "Tell me the specific details!"

"That boy led us to a strange shrubbery. He was able to pass through it completely unscathed, but when our soldiers followed him, they were all slashed apart."

"We then forced him into a minefield, but he didn't step on a single mine. He accurately avoided everything as if he had a metal scanner..."

"After that, he sang a song and dwindled our troops down to a single platoon..." Ning Shun said.

The man was taken aback, "He killed your soldiers by singing a song?"

"Yes," Ning Shun nodded. He spoke very sparingly for fear of triggering the rules.

The man frowned. He had never heard of such a rule. "What song did he sing? Can you say it?"

Ning Shun hurriedly replied, "Yes, Sir. Singing itself won't get you killed, it's just that..."

"Then sing it to me," cut the man.

Ning Shun sang, "Under the bridge, in front of the gate, a flock of ducks are swimming by..."

"I also know this song," someone from the Autumn Hunting team amusedly sang the next line, "Hurry, hurry, come and count, two four six seven eight..."

One consortium wastrel, down.

Everyone looked on in shock. They had basically figured out the rule, but nobody dared to say anything.

Li Yinuo internally hissed, this interrogation was dangerous!

She spoke to the man, "Dismiss the rest of the people. Let's keep this between the few of us."

He nodded. "Miss Yinuo, Mr. Kamidai Josuke and his daughter, please stay. Everyone else, disperse right now! Adjutant Wang, you stay as well. Ning Shun, you keep talking!"

Nan Gengchen was about to leave, but Li Yinuo held him back. She told the middle-aged man, "This is my person, he doesn't need to leave."

He hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Alright."

Ning Shun continued, "Sir, that boy is very unusual. He has mastered the rules of Forbidden Land No. 002, and he also knows the terrain like the back of his hands. We tried to hunt him down, but he could always find a way to elude us. He moved through the ups and downs of the mountain as if he was running across an unobstructed field."

"Is he from the wilderness?" asked the man.

Ning Shun paused and truthfully answered, "We had no way to confirm it, but his clothes... don't look like those of a federal citizen."

"Wait a second, does he have mechanical limbs?"

"No," Ning Shun replied.

Hearing this, he felt that the probability of this boy being from the wilderness was high.

At this moment, Li Yinuo offhandedly interjected, "Now that you mention it, I suddenly remembered something. We entered the Forbidden Land because we were pursued by a group of wilderness men. We couldn't go against them because they had people from the Firepit in the mix."

"Firepit!?" The man froze for a moment.

The Federal Army didn't need to fear the Firepit; they had more than enough equipment to handle them. But what perturbed him was the fact that those people were here when they should not have been anywhere near this place.

He looked at Kamidai Ori and Kamidai Josuke, who nodded in confirmation.

Li Yinuo continued, "They wiped out the Kamidai Family's entourage and forced us to escape inside the Forbidden Land. I reckon an elder from the Firepit is leading the team, otherwise, the Kamidai Family's convoy wouldn't have been annihilated so easily."

Kamidai Josuke's face instantly darkened.

Li Yinuo ignored him. "You guys came here after receiving our distress signal, right? I already mentioned about their attack in my message, but the strange thing is that after they cornered us into the Forbidden Land, they inexplicably stopped chasing us and disappeared. I now suspect that they had gone to the hinterland instead!"

The middle-aged man was stunned. He knew that the Qing Family's Main Branch had a secret connection with the Firepit...

The moment these dots were connected, there was a sudden outpour of possibilities.

The Fight for the Shadow, the Main Branch, the Firepit, and the boy who seemed to be a native of the wilderness.

He felt like he was getting close to the truth!

By now, Li Yinuo had stopped talking.

After all, a double agent needed to know where to stop. It wouldn't be good if someone noticed that she was fanning the flames.

Moreover, she had pretty much done her part and got the ball rolling...

The man wondered, "I remember your message for help, but since so many people from the Firepit came, why is that boy the only one making a move?"

At this time, Kamidai Josuke suddenly said, "Do you know about the Firepit's Rite of Horn-Cutting?"

Li Yinuo was startled — this misdirection was so timely to the point it gave her the illusion that Kamidai Josuke was her fellow double agent.

The Rite of Horn-Cutting was a tradition of the Firepit that stipulated the most outstanding youths of the generation to go on a solo hunt and kill a great wild yak upon becoming an adult. After killing the yak, they had to cut off its head and carry it back to the firepit. The yak's huge horns would then be mounted in their house as a symbol of courage.

But that was the tradition from hundreds of years ago. After the emergence of Forbidden Lands and increasing conflicts with the Federation, the Firepit began to include other ferocious beasts and distinguished members of the Federation as targets for the Rite of Horn-Cutting.

Only after completing the rite would one attain the qualification to lead a hunting team on their own and become a real warrior of the Firepit. Those who did not pass the rite could only follow under their lead.

Looking at the current situation, had Qing Huai been targeted by the son of an elder from the Firepit?!

Unwittingly, the blame had now been shifted towards the Firepit. Moreover, with the Fight for the Shadow currently taking place, their connection to the Main Branch had only increased the suspicion.

Perhaps, this would set off an internal strife between the Main Branch and the Fourth Branch...

The man pondered for a long time before casting suspicious looks at Li Yinuo and Kamidai Josuke from the corner of his eye. Could these two have joined forces to stir up internal conflicts within the Qing Family?

But everyone in the corporations knew that Li Yinuo was firmly in the pro-war party. It was impossible for her to cooperate with the Kamidai Family.

Through the communication device, a transmitted voice broke the silence, "Sir, Qing Huai's body has been found!"

The middle-aged man's expression turned grim. The last glimmer of hope had now been shattered.

He ordered the soldier in charge of the mechanical hounds, "Release all the hounds to track the scent, no matter what, you must find the murderer!"

...

At this moment, the person most affected by this news was actually Li Yinuo.

Among all the people present, she was the one who knew best about Qing Chen's strength.

Because she had followed Li Shutong around when she was a child and also dreamed of becoming a Knight, she had a clear understanding of their basic rules.

Before becoming a Knight, a Knight candidate was merely an ordinary person.

After passing the first Life and Death Stage, their strength would be promoted to the peak of Level F.

The Knight's path was different from any other cultivation methods.

With most cultivation methods, one would improve their strength in a gradual and regular way, but each Knight could improve their strength by leaps and bounds after completing each Life and Death Stage.

It was said that in the early years of the new era, when the breathing technique had not yet been invented, a Knight would only reach the peak of Level A even after completing all eight Life and Death Stages.

At that time, the Knights had the advantage of numbers and a reliable cultivation path. As long as they completed all Life and Death Stages, they would become A-Level masters. So they often ganged up on a single enemy.

More than ten people would attack at the same time.

Later on, Qin Sheng invented the breathing technique because the entire ocean had turned into the Forbidden Sea. Unexpectedly, it propelled the Knights into an even greater level. The current Li Shutong had not even passed the eighth Life and Death Stage, yet he had already become a demigod.

Had he been able to complete the eighth stage, what level would he have reached?

Unfortunately, the Forbidden Sea was an impenetrable area for human beings. Li Shutong might never be able to cross that highest threshold in his lifetime.

Now, in this Forbidden Land, a Knight who had just been promoted to peak Level-F had unbelievably wiped out nearly all soldiers of an elite army team. He even managed to trap Qing Huai into breaking the rules, forcing him to escape.

He was able to accomplish everything not by relying on strength, but wisdom.

Li Yinuo had to admit that this was worthy of admiration. She would never be able to do what Qing Chen had done.

Since her uncle already hinted that they could trust each other, would it be possible for them to cooperate later on?

There were a lot of things she wanted to do.

At this moment, Li Yinuo was immersed in the wonderful sensation of being the only enlightened person among a group of blind men. But she still had to pretend like she was equally unaware, making her expression turn a little strange.

However, she failed to notice that the look on her baby's face was even stranger than hers...

...

At the same time, in the hinterland of Forbidden Land No. 002.

Among the group of wilderness men sitting around a bonfire, a middle-aged man with braided hair was resting with his eyes closed. Agate and turquoise stones decorated his braids, and a necklace of phalanxes hung around his neck.

The phalanxes strung on his necklace were taken from the last joint of the little finger, each bone representing a tally of Federation members that he had killed.

These wilderness men had ghastly complexion not only on their faces, but also their whole bodies.

This was not caused by sickness, however. It was because they had put on a strange powder on their skin.

One of them took out a bag made of sheepskin and handed it to the middle-aged man, "Elder, it's time to reapply the pollen."

"Alright." The elder stood up, his necklace swaying and rattling as the bones clacked together.

He grabbed a handful of pollen from the bag and applied it to his face and body.

"Elder, the Fengjuan pollen the Great Elder gave us is about to run out. The longer we stay here, the riskier things will get, and yet there's been no sign of our target at all... If he still doesn't appear after we wait for another day, how about we go back to the snow mountain? Without the Fengjuan pollen, the beasts and plants in the hinterland will start to attack us."

The elder contemplated and spoke, "It's not easy to collect this much pollen from Fengjuan flowers. If we return without success, how will we explain it to God?"

"But we can't gamble with our lives here," the man persuaded, "I heard from the Great Elder that Forbidden Land No. 002 is very ominous and unpredictable."

The elder heaved out a sigh and sat back down. His expression grew unsure as he glanced at the time, date, and temperature displayed on the digital watch he was wearing.

If Qing Chen had seen the bone necklace on his neck and the digital watch on his wrist, he might have thought that the contrast was jarring...

But this was actually the norm in the Firepit.

Collecting their enemies' bones was a show of reverence towards power and god, as well as a symbol of status within the clan.

As for wearing the digital watch, that was simply because they were very convenient to use!

Due to some incidents, the Firepit natives obtained a power from 'god', which led them to worship the totem and the god.

But this did not mean that they rejected technology... After all, the god himself did not reject technology!

Hunting by car was undoubtedly more efficient than hunting on foot!

Every doctrine in this world would eventually turn to pragmatism.

This was an era in which metaphysics and science played their own roles. Despite the differences, both could still coexist and intermingle.

Staring into the distance, the elder heavily said, "Let's wait for two more days. If he still doesn't show up by that time, we'll leave this place before the pollen runs out..."

...

In the far distance, Qing Chen and Li Shutong had already left the Forbidden Land without a hitch.

Once again, he looked back at the dense and dark forest, feeling the intimacy it radiated.

The boy softly said, "I'll come back again."

In this journey to the wilderness, he had seen an abundance of spectacular sights and experienced just as many things.

It was as though an incomparably beautiful melody had been interwoven into his life, changing his fate as it unstoppably played.

At one point, a thought occurred to Qing Chen that the life that was meant for him had only started from the moment he transmigrated.

00:00:00.

Countdown zero.

Time to return!

...

Volume I, The First Chapter of the Night: Sonata.

Over.

Translator: Zee