บท 344: No Day and Night in the Mirage Mountain Range

Jingcheng City, the nearest entrance area to the Mirage Mountain Range.

A steel barrier had been made. Every now and then, the ground trembled with the sound of artillery fire.

"There's another beast wave coming in. As expected from the 5 stars extremely dangerous region of the Mirage Mountain Range...."

"But there's a good thing. There's a lot of mutated beasts there and most of them are edible so the price of meat in this city dropped."

When the sound of artillery fire stopped and the steel gates of the staging area reopened, the city guards nimbly handled the corpses outside the city walls. Picking out some of the less damaged and still edible mutated beasts. Some of them were responsible for skinning and cutting the main material, and finally, the remaining corpses were pulled to the nearest landfill and burned.

There was also disinfection personnel to kill the area along the city walls to prevent a virus outbreak.

Facing the back door of the King City shelter, several convoys of hunters wearing uniform and well-equipped equipment came in and stepped out of their vehicles.

The idle hunters at the staging area looked over in consternation.

"That's the people from several major mercenary groups, how come they are together?"

"It's the Li family, the Ye family, and the mercenary corps controlled by the Wu family. It seems that there are elites sent by their families."

"Didn't the Li family lose a mercenary group only a while ago? It was said that the leader 'Undead - Li Jing" is dead without leaving a corpse. I don't know who did it, it is really terrible."

"The Ancestral Dragon Special Warfare Regiment is here too! I wonder which faction it is, or, both?!"

"It feels like something big is about to happen!"

There were many elite hunters who came, and that aura made all the hunters at the transit station look sideways.

The casual hunters and the great hunters were like two distinct parts. The casuals can't afford to mess with the greater powers and can only shrink to the side to rest.

To the surprise of the casual hunter, the elite hunters who were fully equipped and dressed were obviously not going on an outing. They had been recuperating at the staging area for quite some time but did not seem to have any intention of pulling out into the mountains.

…....

At this time, the other side.

The elite hunters, divided into areas according to different forces, were whispering.

Some of them had contemptuous faces.

"Why do we have to wait for people from other shelters? What's the use of those weak chickens!"

"I heard that it's a top team. Anyway, the Mirage Mountain Range is too big. We alone can't do it. Besides, more than ten large shelters are coming this time, and their strength is not weak."

"Oh, but I've heard that some teams have lost half of their men on the way just to get to Jingcheng City, and that little remnant left will only hold us back."

"That weak?"

"What do you think? Our Jingcheng City has the most sophisticated rune equipment, the most powerful hunters, and has developed several secret realms … compared to the other shelters. For example the secret realm we jointly control with the Li family and Ye family. Just by cultivating for a day, there is equivalent to refining a third of the bottle of spirit power container. It's more efficient than hunting demonic beasts..."

The hunter spoke with a sense of superiority.

"Other shelters… even if they're lucky enough to discover a certain secret realm, can they understand the meaning of those words? While our cultivation level is drifting up, those people still can only slowly crawl forward little by little."

…....

Time gradually passed, the caravans arrived one after another. The caravans were rather mixed, in addition to the official forces of the shelter, there were also top mercenary teams from various shelters. There were many personnel, adding up to two or three thousand elite hunters, although this was already the elite that remained after many screenings.

This trip was not only to explore the Mirage Mountain Range. Many shelters took this opportunity to open up the 'road' with Jingcheng City, to facilitate future travel.

The staging area was not large, and the convoys were left outside. The major forces of Jingcheng City, who arrived first, also came out and commented on the major shelter convoys.

….....

This massive joint team from the Tiannan Province did not immediately explore deep into the Mirage Mountain Range.

On the first day, they wandered around the entrance to familiarize themselves with the environment in the mountain range, and also to give the teams some time to bond.

As the day darkened and brightened, by the next morning, nearly three hundred top experts were selected from the first day's joint corps to form the Tiannan Exploration Team.

"Why does our Kuncheng City only have this small quota?"

Kuncheng leader looked at his 'own people' in the exploration team with a dark expression, quite dissatisfied.

Basically, Jingcheng City's number one and two giants have the highest authority, but in reality, even if they were the same official shelter, they each look after their own shelter. Jingcheng City does not have the ability to command the major shelters in Tiannan... The formation of the exploration team was more like a drive for profit.

He wasn't convinced by Jingcheng City's slot allocation!

However, his dissatisfaction didn't resonate with other shelters. Some even snickered.

"How many experts do you have in Kuncheng, can't you see it yourself? Do you have to let the trash follow?"

Kuncheng's leader glared angrily.

"Kuncheng may have come with fewer experts. But their exploration team should at least have Seventh Awakening stage strength, otherwise, it's a drag for themselves. It's also not good for the team..."

Jingcheng City's strength was the strongest, occupying a small number of the half. There are just a few numbers of selected top experts from other shelters.

Kuncheng was an example.

The expedition group was led by Jingcheng City to select the people. But there was nothing fishy about it. The forces were judged by their strength and the performance on their first day of selection. Each shelter was both a partner and a competition. And the competition process had already begun the moment the selection started.

The more people that were selected, the stronger the shelter. And the fewer people are selected, the less strong they were.

Kuncheng leader's expression was dark, he wanted to argue back. But in the end, he didn't dare to break away from the exploration team and split into the Mountain Range Alone. He threw one or two remarks and said nothing more.

....

The expedition group started exploring.

Some of the remaining manpower of other forces also chose to venture into the Mountain Range but didn't dare to go deep and just wander around the periphery.

The expedition group advanced at a moderate pace, and the hunters in front of the group hold ranged weapons, wielding and slashing away weeds, bushes and obstacles. Spiritual, perceptive abilities take turns to release their abilities away to scan the surrounding environment.

Zhou Jianhong was assigned to the flank. He swung his sword to kill the incoming demonic beast.

"Somehow, I'm not too optimistic about this joint operation."

"Then why are you still here?"

"Lindong offers a high price. These days I have been soaked in the Tower of Trials and bought a few pieces of equipment. I spent too much spirit stones, but Tree Shade consumption is so high. If you don't earn money, you can't live. And why are you here?"

"Coincidentally, so am I."

"I find a lot of people didn't come here. They must have mountains of spirit stones at home."

"Forget it. Do we really care if Jingcheng achieved their purpose? As long as we can get paid and cultivate at Tree Shade, it's enough."

"Right, right!"

At the front of the group, the commander of Jingcheng City spoke in a deep voice. "Attention! We are about to go deep into the Mirage Mountain Range. We might encounter the inner layers of the mountains at any time. It's dangerous. Maybe the environment is dangerous, maybe we will encounter an unknown enemy. Be vigilant as the sun is about to disappear."

The voice was controlled cleverly. Enough to be heard by everyone in the group, but won't spread to the distance and attract unwanted attention.

Hearing this, Zhou Jianhong's head was slightly raised and his gaze looked toward the sky.

The sky gradually becomes dim.

The blazing sun hanging high in the sky also disappeared without a trace.

Zhou Jianhong was clear that it wasn't the time of sunset yet. But the sunlight couldn't reach the inner layer of the Mirage Mountain Range.