Chapter 922: with translation of chapter title

「Lord Lin An! Come this way! 」

Inside Heiyu, Yuan Feng, who was closely following behind Lin An, seeing Lin An swiftly flying backward, as if thinking of something, hurriedly shouted:

「If we go forward two zones from this area, we can get out of the black mist! But if we go backward, we need four! 」

Standing in place, he felt a bit nervous.

Although he didn't know all the inside information, from the conversation between Lin An and the corpse he also guessed that Lin An's sudden departure was likely to return to defend Long'an Base.

Hmm?

As his figure stopped, Lin An abruptly turned his head to look at Yuan Feng, suspicion arising in his eyes.

Continuing forward, isn't that another gathering place?

If Long An is fine, he naturally also needs to make a trip, for the spiritual energy crop seeds are still in the other party's hands.

One could say, this operation is entirely for the sake of those seeds.

But now the situation is urgent; he must immediately return to Long An, yet in Yuan Feng's eyes, unaware that he possesses teleportation ability, the only way back is to leave from the Yingshan direction.

After all, the gathering place at the exit above Heiyu is surrounded by black mist and also has third-level mutants.

It's just like a jar, making advance and retreat both difficult.

Therefore, Yuan Feng's suggestion is somewhat too strange.

Seeing Lin An's suspicion, Yuan Feng also knew his suggestion sounded abnormal.

He took a deep breath, as if making up his mind, and simply hardened his heart, laying his cards on the table:

「Lord Lin An, are you here for that gathering place? 」

「The one with the spiritual energy seeds!? 」

As soon as his words fell, Yuan Feng felt tense.

Before, he wasn't sure why Lin An came to Yingshan, but after hearing that shocking news just now, he couldn't help but imagine many "stories."

Yingshan is so poor; with Lin An's strength, he probably wouldn't even look at it.

Moreover, it's unlikely he'd make a trip just to mess with me...

Then, combining Lin An's hidden identity... the truth is only one!

Lin An came to "save" everyone, wanting to bring the seeds back! He's doing what he ought to do!

And that group of mutant species is there to stop him!

Baseless speculation.

In Lin An's unawareness, Yuan Feng, who was wildly fantasizing, had already silently slapped a bunch of glorious and righteous labels on Lin An, as well as a series of grand and tumultuous behind-the-scenes dramas of struggle against dark forces.

As soon as his words fell, Lin An slightly furrowed his brows, not knowing why the other party suddenly brought this up.

He nodded. Then he heard Yuan Feng suddenly, as if letting out a breath, continue speaking:

「That's right! I actually had designs on that gathering place too; you know, how precious food that can be grown in the apocalypse is! 」

「I previously sneaked into the black mist to go there, and by chance discovered a two-way teleportation array... from one side of the black mist you can directly teleport to the other side! 」

「As long as we get there, we can instantly teleport back to the entrance of Yingshan! 」

「Your fighter jets and such should be near Yingshan, right? 」

As soon as his words fell, it was Lin An's turn to be momentarily surprised.

「There's a teleportation channel there? Then why didn't you bring the seeds out? 」

「Why haven't the people inside come out? 」

Others also having designs on the seeds, he isn't surprised.

What is surprising is, according to Yuan Feng, that place is actually not, as the outside world thinks, trapped inside.

Then... what's the deal with the so-called distress call?

By this point in the conversation, Yuan Feng also guessed what Lin An was thinking.

His expression suddenly became a bit embarrassed, fearing Lin An wouldn't trust him, he simply laid everything out:

「No... the people inside don't know about the teleportation channel; only I discovered it. 」

「When I discovered it, my strength was only at the second level. 」

「I originally thought of sneaking the seeds out myself... cough cough... but considering my strength back then was too weak, even if I brought them out, I might not be able to keep the seeds. 」

「So I simply shut down the teleportation channel, thinking I'd wait until my strength grew stronger to go get them... 」

Being straightforward, Yuan Feng gave an embarrassed laugh; speaking to this extent, he had nothing left to hide.

He became one of Yingshan's leaders solely because he rose from the trial.

One could say, he never cared about Yingshan's Safe Zone at all; whether survivors starved was none of his business.

Before Lin An appeared, he had always treated this information as his own secret stash, even as capital for his future expansion of forces.

Even as a second-level, even if he rescued people, he couldn't guard the seeds; it would be better to wait until his position was solidified before bringing the seeds out.

As for how many people starved to death during that period, to him it was utterly unimportant.

So, this is also why, once Lin An appeared, he feared Lin An would capture him and torture him to extract this secret.

However, now he decided to take a gamble.

After hearing Yuan Feng's explanation, Lin An couldn't help but carefully size up the young man before him.

He also didn't expect the other party to still hold this information.

Somewhat interesting.

If it weren't for my appearance, given his disposition and various arrangements, he might be able to develop Yingshan extremely well.

With third-level strength, freely entering and exiting Heiyu, able to devise another approach to produce spiritual anomalies, and also holding spiritual energy crops...

Under such conditions, becoming a regional hegemon in the apocalypse is practically a sure thing.

I just don't know why, in my past life, I never heard of this guy's name.

He stopped thinking further.

Seeing that Yuan Feng was willing to show his hand to him, even having the intention to curry favor, Lin An decisively changed direction.

As long as he could get out of the Heiyu, that would be enough.

No matter which direction, he only needed to leave the Heiyu, initiate communications, and find out how things were on Long An's side.

Once out of the Heiyu, if the situation turned bad, he planned to have Mo Ling directly teleport him back.

If it weren't for his trust in Chu An, his trust that the Long'an Base could hold out for a while, and the special nature of the Heiyu, would it cause Mo Ling's ability to malfunction?

He even had the thought of teleporting immediately.

Rapid flight.

Under Yuan Feng's guidance, Lin An quickly led the two of them to break through the remaining two areas.

One was a plain littered with white bones; the other was a wasteland area filled with radiation.

With Yuan Feng's experience, nothing unexpected happened along the way.

After breaking through the Heiyu, breathing the fresh outside air, and glancing at the writhing black mist behind him, Lin An immediately opened his message list.

Private messages flickered, with messages from Long An nearly filling the inbox.

The first one was from Zhang Tie and Long An:

"Captain Lin, be careful! A third rank has entered the Heiyu! I'm taking Yun Tian and leaving first!"

"Captain Lin! A large zombie tide is approaching Long An, suspected to have a third‑rank mutant!"

The time was 47 minutes ago; factoring in the chaotic time flow, it was roughly when he had just stepped into the Heiyu, and the pursuers then acted at Long An and Yingshan in succession.

"Our bombers and reconnaissance units have been destroyed! We've confirmed a third rank!"

"The zombie tide is huge; nearly all the zombies in the vicinity of the Three Provinces of the Ring River have been mobilized!"

The timestamp was 27 minutes ago; after that came several consecutive messages from An Jing Tian.

They had already clashed with the zombie tide and dispatched an Awakened Ones squad to scout the situation.

Lin An's eyes flickered; from the latest news, that third‑rank intermediate had not yet acted.

But among the many messages, Lin An unexpectedly discovered that there was no news from Chu An.

He let out a breath of relief and quickly replied with a hint of doubt:

"I'm out already; where's Chu An?"

"All core personnel are staying at the fortress; I'll teleport back right away!"

"The enemy is a third‑rank intermediate! Don't go out!"

Although the enemy's third rank had not yet made a move, Long An appeared unharmed.

But knowing well the strength of this Alien Species group, Lin An clearly understood that Long An, lacking high‑end combat power, would struggle to stop them.

The massive gathering of the zombie tide was obviously engineered by the enemy.

Whether out of self‑interest or to reduce losses, he had to rush back; after sending a quick message to Xiong Hanzi, Lin An turned to Mo Ling, ready to teleport at any moment.

On the other side, inside the command room of Long'an Base.

Looking at the psychic map constructed by psychic Awakened Ones, Gao Tian, Wen Ya and the others in the command room, whose expressions had been worried, suddenly brightened.

"Captain Lin has come out!"

Several people's spirits were lifted; Jing Tian, who had originally been worried about letting AnXia act, let out a great sigh of relief.

A burst of cheers, everyone's faces showed joy.

But seeing the words "third‑rank intermediate" in Lin An's message, everyone felt a surge of dread.

Although it sounded unbelievable, Lin An could not possibly be lying to them.

To them, Lin An was their mainstay.

However, just as they were about to reply to Colonel Chu An, who had not yet emerged from the white mist, the alloy door outside the command room suddenly slid open to both sides.

"Squeak‑squeak"

Footsteps sounded; from behind the door, a slightly frail figure walked in heavily.

The visitor turned out to be Chu An.

"Tell Lin An, he doesn't need to come back."