The First Order

The atmosphere in the hollow reached freezing. Everyone felt glum and downtrodden after two of their teammates disappeared in the night without any explanation. And now, to everyone’s surprise, another internal conflict happened between those who were left?

The four of Xu Xianchu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei roughly knew that the soldiers had planned on attacking Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. However, that was handled by the two of them in an instant.

The duration of this fight was so quick that it was unimaginable, and the conflict also made Xu Xianchu seriously reassess these two people standing in front of him.

He sighed and said, “They probably got what they deserved.”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. After thinking about it, he understood that Xu Xianchu had no motive to cause this assault.

If it were for the guns, Xu Xianchu still had his rifle and pistol on him. If it were to possess Luo Xinyu, Xu Xianchu got the opportunity long ago. After all, Luo Xinyu had even thrown herself at him, yet he never reacted positively to her advances. If it were for the water, Xu Xianchu had already collected a bottle in the evening. He didn’t have any reason to set his sights on Ren Xiaosu’s two bottles of water.

Ren Xiaosu was worried that Xu Xianchu would take action to maintain order in the team, but as it turned out, he did not want to get involved in this conflict at all.

Xu Xianchu’s overarching objective was to explore the mystery of the Jing Mountains and the evolution of the creatures that lived there. He was not concerned about getting the others out of this place alive.

“But surely Sun Junzheng’s crime should not amount to his death, right?” Xu Xianchu sighed again. “Forget it, no one can truly be faulted out in this wilderness.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that Xu Xianchu already understood the principles of wilderness survival. There was no right or wrong. Survival was the only gospel truth.

He also did not want to say that Yang Xiaojin was right to do so, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with ridding themselves of any threats!

Ren Xiaosu carried the three corpses and threw them outside the hollow. Then he said to Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin, “I could never figure out how Xu Xia’s corpse disappeared, so why don’t we closely observe what happens this time?”

He told Yang Xiaojin, “Shout me awake if anything strange happens.” He then sat down against the stone wall and went back to sleep.

The others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. Why could he go straight back to sleep like nothing had happened when he obviously just killed someone? Were you not the one who killed that person just now?

In reality, Ren Xiaosu was not asleep. He was just taking a mental look at the palace because a black shadow clone had appeared in it. This made Ren Xiaosu lose his sleepiness as his interest was piqued!

Crucially, he had been very envious of Xu Xianchu and was even a little envious of Zhang Baogen’s power of blowing the explosive saliva bubbles.

Although the saliva bubbles looked very weak, Ren Xiaosu suspected there was still room for improvement in its power.

Did the supernatural beings have any room for improvement? He felt that there certainly must be.

As for him, even though he had a palace that looked quite intimidating, the problem was that he had mostly been raising his Strength and Dexterity attributes thus far. It made him feel like he was not really a supernatural being. After all, some people could also reach his current state of strength after a long period of training.

As such, before he learned the Shadow Clone power he copied from Xu Xianchu, he could not be truly regarded as a supernatural being. At the very least, he could not be considered as one in terms of combat strength.

Ren Xiaosu had long coveted Xu Xianchu’s Shadow Cone that was capable of blocking bullets. In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, weapons such as firearms and explosives were terrifying. The initial velocity at which a bullet was fired at could reach Mach speed or several times Mach. Normal people would have no chance of fighting back against weapons like firearms.

Therefore, to Ren Xiaosu, the qualifier that separated a normal person from a supernatural being would be the fear of firearms and explosives.

Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also not fearless of firearms and explosives. He would still die if someone carried out a sneak attack on him with those weapons.

At this moment, the black shadow clone stood quietly and motionlessly beside the brass typewriter in the palace. Ren Xiaosu scrutinized it and saw that the silhouette of the shadow clone was clearly his own. It looked just like a blurred version of him.

Why was Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone gray in color while his was black? He had clearly copied the power straight from him, so could there be other differences?

Ren Xiaosu started to nimbly manipulate the shadow clone by moving it around within the palace. Then he realized that… the strength of the shadow clone seemed to be closely related to that of his own strength. Even without any testing, Ren Xiaosu knew that this was a kind of connection on the mental level. It seemed like the shadow clone was formed straight from his mental willpower.

The strength, speed, and even “density” of this shadow clone were twice of what Ren Xiaosu had. It was no wonder it could even block bullets. A normal person could also block bullets, but they would die, while the shadow clone wouldn’t.

Through Ren Xiaosu’s personal experimentation, he found the usage of the shadow clone was determined by the willpower he had. As long as he was full of vigor, he could continue using it.

But Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about how something as vague as willpower could be calculated.

He tried asking the palace, “What’s the level of my willpower?”

The voice from the palace answered, “Unauthorized to answer.”

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Since his master-level Wilderness Survival Proficiency could be determined, and his Strength and Dexterity attributes could also be determined, then why couldn’t the palace determine the level of his willpower?

Was there no criterion for determining one’s willpower or was there some other reason for it?

Since he could not get an answer for the time being, Ren Xiaosu did not dwell any further on it and went to sleep!

But Ren Xiaosu had sort of figured out why Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was gray while his was black. His own body was stronger than Xu Xianchu’s, so his shadow clone was denser!

…

When the sunshine shone on Ren Xiaosu’s face in the morning, the first thing he did when he woke up was to look at the spot where he dumped the corpses. It surprised him that nothing had occurred with the three corpses. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin did not wake him up in the middle of the night to say something. So it turned out that nothing unusual had happened.

It was good that nothing had happened. He couldn’t constantly hope that something dangerous would happen to them, right?

Then he turned his gaze back into the hollow and happened to meet Liu Bu’s eyes. However, Liu Bu did not wear the arrogance he had from long ago when he first came out of the stronghold. He was starting to avoid looking at Ren Xiaosu.

Liu Bu did not rest well last night. He was someone who only knew how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When he learned that Ren Xiaosu was actually powerful, he started to panic a little.

He could not help but feel anxious. He, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were all shocked to discover that even with so few people left on the team, everyone else were monsters, unlike the three of them.

Xu Xianchu was already standing outside the hollow. He was thinking about something as he looked at the forest before him.

When Ren Xiaosu walked beside Wang Lei, who was lying on the stretcher, Wang Lei flinched away from him. But how could he be faster than Ren Xiaosu?

Ren Xiaosu lifted up his shirt and took a look at Wang Lei’s stab wound created by Xu Xianchu. He said, “Alright, you can get up now and walk on your own. The wound’s already healed.”

All of a sudden, Wang Lei realized that his wound did not hurt anymore. Could Ren Xiaosu’s black medicine really be that effective?!