Chapter 90: Ready to Strike!

After learning about the general situation of the Dawn Gathering Place from Gu Jun and the others, Chen Chong ordered Gu Jun to interrogate the eight scavengers from the Dawn Gathering Place who were imprisoned by Blood General. He obtained more information about their leader, Long Ying.

Leader Long Ying seemed to hold an extremely high position in the hearts of these scavengers. Although resources were also centrally distributed, unlike Blood General, who ruled as a brutal dictator relying solely on personal force, Long Ying had established order in the Dawn Gathering Place with an iron fist, setting rules that strictly forbade killing among themselves, making the law of the jungle seem less nakedly brutal.

However, beyond that, because their status and position did not grant them access, these eight scavengers knew nothing about Long Ying’s strength, providing no valuable information whatsoever.

After learning all this, aside from daily patrols of the factory plantation and checking the abandoned service area for any messages left by Qiao Jun, Chen Chong spent all his remaining time in frenzied cultivation .

Regardless of when the Dawn Gathering Place decided to strike, strength was the foundation for surviving better in this wasteland world. For Chen Chong, time could not be wasted carelessly.

During this period, over a hundred jin of Spiritual Fruits were consumed at an astonishing speed. Chen Chong had to eat at least seventy to eighty Spiritual Fruits a day, all dedicated to the cultivation of the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art.

With such a lavish supply of Spiritual Fruits, the progress of his Body Tempering Iron Body cultivation rapidly accelerated. As time passed, whenever Chen Chong circulated his energy and activated the Body Tempering Iron Body, his muscles grew tougher, and the color of his skin became increasingly dark and cyan, representing the growing strength of his bones, muscles, and surface defense. His entire physique grew taller once more, increasing by almost one centimeter every single day!

Besides that, the cultivation of the first form of the Qi Blast Cannon Fist proceeded simultaneously. Because the method of channeling strength for the first form was relatively simple, Chen Chong roughly understood how to mobilize True Qi. However, mastering it proficiently and integrating it into actual combat still required extensive practice and time.

And whenever night fell, Chen Chong began using the Electrotherapy method for cultivation, restoring the physical and mental energy spent during the day.

Even though he now had large quantities of Spiritual Fruits and ample food to replenish nutrition, and the effects of Refining Essence into Qi were good, the improvement brought by Electrotherapy was still ten times stronger than Chen Chong’s conventional step-by-step cultivation. The effect was astonishing!

His cultivation level in the Current Push realm also rapidly advanced from the baseline of ten thousand volts towards a higher level.

Just like that, Chen Chong mostly stayed indoors, never stepping out, with even his meals and drinks delivered to the cultivation chamber by servants. He cultivated like a mad demon, preparing.

…

Splash, splash, splash…

Slippery moss covered the cliff face. An underground river gushed out from the cave exit, its sound of water endless. The air was unusually damp, presenting a scene of serene stillness.

However, several figures suddenly appearing on a cliff wall nearly twenty meters high shattered this tranquility.

“Lin Kun, this is where you escaped from prison and fled to freedom?”

The leading man had a dignified bearing and a tall, large frame, faintly exuding a dangerous aura like that of an apex predator. His eyes were as sharp and intimidating as a hawk’s, fixed directly on the pitch-black entrance of the cave. His voice was low and deep: “Following this cave in, is it where the base is?”

“This is the place!”

Lin Kun stepped forward, coldly staring down at the river valley below: “Leader, following this underground river channel for about two kilometers leads directly into the base. Those White-skinned Ghosts probably never imagined we could survive walking out of the Wilderness. Attacking from here will definitely catch them off guard!”

The group appearing at the cliff’s edge was precisely the advance route-scouting unit led by the Dawn Gathering Place’s leader, Long Ying!

There were ten people present in total. Besides Lin Kun and Leader Long Ying, the other eight were all Awakeners of considerable strength. Led by the powerful Transcendent, Leader Long Ying, after two days of exploration, they had roughly determined a route that allowed vehicle passage while being relatively low in danger. Now they had come for field reconnaissance to formulate a battle plan.

Hearing Lin Kun’s answer, Long Ying narrowed his eyes, seeming to ponder something. Then he shifted his gaze downwards to the other side, towards the large expanse of Mist that was no more than twenty to thirty meters from the cave entrance and sealed off both banks of the river: “Is this the danger zone marked on the base map?”

Hmm?

Following Long Ying’s gaze, Lin Kun was slightly startled. He felt this Mist seemed much thinner than he remembered. However, he didn’t think much of it. A trace of reminiscence appeared on his face as he sighed: “That’s right. It was precisely because of the blockade by this Mist that we had no choice but to climb the cliff wall. Speaking of which, if not for that fellow prisoner named Chen Chong, I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet the Leader. It’s just a pity he sacrificed himself righteously. To buy us time, he actually attracted Johnson’s attention and charged into the Mist on his own…”

Listening to Lin Kun’s description, the expressions of both Leader Long Ying and the other Awakeners could not help but be moved, seemingly never expecting that such a self-sacrificing person still existed in this world.

Behind the crowd, only one person’s expression showed a moment of unnaturalness, and that was Qiao Jun.

He knew, of course, that Chen Chong was not dead. He also knew that Chen Chong had been captured by Blood General and taken back to his Territory, and that Blood General had likewise learned the news of the base, eyeing it covetously like a tiger watching its prey, intending to play the role of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, after the Dawn Gathering Place made its move.

However, whether it was his comrades who had braved life and death together, or the Bloodline Gu constantly writhing within his chest, everything reminded him that he had no other choice.

Naturally unaware that a traitor had appeared within his own ranks, on the cliff wall, Leader Long Ying narrowed his eyes, staring at the pitch-black cave entrance, and chuckled lowly: “Very good… Since we’ve confirmed the nest of these White-skinned Piglets, their day of death is near!”

…

A few days later. Inside the manor courtyard.

Boom, boom, boom!

Like a thunderclap in a clear sky, the loud bang echoed throughout the entire mansion.

Bare-chested, his entire body rippling with knotted muscles, his skin faintly emitting a dark iron-like luster, Chen Chong stepped forward with his mountain-like frame. When he punched out like a heavy cannon, three consecutive explosive sounds of air buckling under pressure rang out. Simultaneously, a fierce gale swept out in all directions as the air burst, a terrifying display of power.

In the courtyard, the guards and servants standing on either side clearly felt the residual shockwave of the fist wind sweeping over their faces. Their eyelids twitched wildly, feeling that the new leader before them possessed a terrifying strength that was simply inhuman, more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex in human skin!

This was Chen Chong testing the move he had just grasped, the first form of the Qi Blast Cannon Fist, One Cannon, Three Explosions.

“This move is indeed violent enough. If I had learned this move back then, Blood General would probably have been killed in one punch caught off guard!”

Chen Chong stopped his movement, quickly analyzing, feeling exhilarated inside: “It should barely be usable in actual combat now. But the practice time is still a bit short. The truly perfected effect should be the True Qi exploding and propelling three times simultaneously, with the three sounds stacking into one, before it’s considered fully mastered.”

These past few days, Chen Chong alone consumed nearly the food portion of ten people every day, and the over one hundred jin of Spiritual Fruits had been completely depleted by him. With such ample resource supply, plus the Electrotherapy and Chen Chong’s own frenzied cultivation, his True Qi, physique, and strength all skyrocketed!

As the electrical currents within his body grew, his five senses became even sharper. He could feel the explosive power churning continuously within his body, giving rise to an urge he couldn’t wait to vent.

This was also why he came to the courtyard to test the Qi Blast Cannon Fist. If he were in the cultivation chamber, he feared the building would collapse from the tremors after just a few punches and kicks.

Satisfied, he withdrew his technique. Chen Chong took a set of clothes from a servant’s hands.

In his view, the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art was good in every way, except that when his energy surged, ordinary clothes would just burst apart. That style of a muscle-bound man bursting out of his shirt truly made him somewhat helpless.

After putting on his clothes, Chen Chong gave some instructions to the guards. Subsequently, amidst the roar of engines, three off-road vehicles stopped at the manor’s entrance. After Chen Chong boarded, the convoy started and drove towards the Wilderness.

During this time, Chen Chong hadn’t received any messages left by Qiao Jun at the abandoned service area, but he still maintained the habit of going to check every day.

…

Over an hour later, the abandoned service area.

Vehicles dragged long trails of dust as they entered the ruins. Before the vehicles had even stopped completely, over ten guards immediately jumped out and began searching around like vicious hounds: “Search, see if anyone’s here!”

Chen Chong got out of the vehicle and casually patrolled. A moment later, a guard ran over and respectfully said: “Leader, we’ve searched everywhere. No one is here.”

Chen Chong nodded. Under the guards’ vigilance, he went directly to the half-collapsed building Tie Shan had mentioned and climbed to the second floor. After searching the far-right corner of the wall, Chen Chong found the hidden crevice for passing messages that Tie Shan had spoken of.

Chen Chong reached his hand in and immediately felt something.

“Hmm? There’s a message?”

Not expecting to find something, Chen Chong showed a surprised expression. He immediately took out the object from the crevice and examined it. It was a palm-sized piece of leather. Unfolding it, he saw several lines written on it with coal ash.

“Everything is ready. We officially depart tomorrow to attack the base?”

Sweeping his gaze over it, Chen Chong’s eyes immediately lit up. He couldn’t help but twist his neck, and amidst the cracking of his joints, a smile of excitement slowly spread across his face: “Finally going to make a move? I’m almost getting rusty…”