Chapter 1579

"Mm."

"Thanks… then I have nothing else to say. If there's a chance we could cooperate — I've already asked Su Qin, and your group's combat power has already exceeded ten thousand. Our group now has over seven thousand as well, so later we could team up to raid higher-difficulty beast lairs."

"Mm, sure. You can just coordinate with Su Qin, but I don't often take part in these things."

"Oh… is that so…"

Wei Li seemed to have a lot more she wanted to say, but didn't know how to say it.

In the end, she mumbled, "Then… I'll head back first."

"Alright."

Wei Li took one more deep look at Zhao Chi, turned around and returned to the Phantom Squad's position, sitting two rows behind Shangguan Ting, on the inside.

Shangguan Ting was still staring fixedly at Zhao Chi.

Zhao Chi regretted not bringing a mask.

Shangguan Ting stared at him for a while, then turned and left.

She went straight to the front row.

Li Ruanyu was also there.

Based on the team's seating arrangement, the two of them should have been sitting next to each other, but right now there were five people between them.

Soon, it was ten o'clock.

Fu Yi rushed in, panting for breath.

Geng Zhan laughed heartily: "You're late, hahahaha."

Fu Yi dropped into a seat and sighed: "Can't be helped, spirit-energy cars and horse carriages can't get in, I could only run over."

Xiang Yuan said: "Jiao Ya Town is so small, even running over wouldn't take that long — you must have left late."

Fu Yi nodded: "Sigh, true, but I used to make it with plenty of time to spare. The population has multiplied several times now, everything's packed."

Su Qin said: "It's fine, as long as Captain Gu hasn't taken the stage, you don't count as late."

Just as she was speaking, Gu Zhan walked up onto the stage.

It seemed the host this time was still him.

Gu Zhan walked to the center of the stage, full of presence.

Even more imposing than when Zhao Chi had met him privately yesterday.

His steady voice reached everyone's ears.

"Alright, it's already ten o'clock. Please close the main gate, no more latecomers allowed in. Each team and group, take attendance, and hand me the list of today's latecomers."

Immediately, quite a few people began looking around.

Some were captains or group leaders, some were simply watching the commotion.

Zhao Chi was one of those watching the commotion.

Su Qin's group had all arrived; Lu Yi was wiping her sweat, panting — she had also just made it.

Yang Xiong was sprinting over from the main gate.

Scattered empty seats remained elsewhere.

After a while, Gu Zhan said: "Alright, everyone keep quiet."

Everyone fell silent, all looking forward.

"This commendation ceremony is meant to honor our operation assisting the nobles of District 9. However, before that, as always, we must first observe a moment of silence for our comrades who fell in this battle. Everyone, stand!"

Instantly, the noise around them grew louder.

It was all the sound of chairs scraping against the floor.

Everyone stood up.

At the last commendation ceremony, they had also started with a moment of silence — it seemed to be a tradition of this broken-world army.

The surroundings were very quiet.

Only the breathing of those who had just arrived could be heard.

After one minute, the silence ended.

Everyone sat back down with a clatter.

Gu Zhan said:

"Originally, the first segment was General Yan Ling's speech, but he had something important come up at the last moment and couldn't attend our meeting. He asked me to convey his apologies to everyone.

"This time, our assistance to the nobles of District 9 achieved a tremendous victory — and this victory is not merely a tactical one, but a strategic one.

"The nobles of District 9 successfully held out through the werewolf encirclement, and immediately came to the aid of the nobles of District 1, jointly repelling the werewolf army.

"Just yesterday, the nobles of Districts 1 and 9 launched a simultaneous attack and recaptured District 8. With this, the nobles now control three central districts.

"We are not here to cheer the nobles on — everyone should know that a half-dead noble is a good noble.

"We absolutely cannot let them truly be wiped out. If that really happened, the wolves' next target would be us resistance forces.

"Moreover, the nobles possess an enormous amount of supplies and wealth — those can be called treasure vaults, and absolutely must not fall into the wolves' hands.

"We don't have the ability to contest for those right now, so we'd rather let both sides wear each other down than let either side possess them entirely.

"Of course, we also can't let the nobles fully recover, since nobles aren't good folk either — they're our enemies too.

"Right now they're fighting each other, and we take the chance to develop — that is what's best for us.

"These are old, oft-repeated truths; I imagine everyone's ears have calluses from hearing them.

"But these words must be spoken, and spoken repeatedly, because not everyone understands this point at every moment.

"Alright, I won't say more. Let's proceed with the commendations.

"First item — the Intelligence Award!"

Just like last time, the first commendation was still for intelligence.

After all, intelligence has always been an extremely important thing since ancient times.

The first commendation going to intelligence personnel also shows a sense of importance being placed on it.

After intelligence comes logistics.

Still the same as last time.

It seems the World-Breaking Army's commendation ceremony always follows a fixed procedure.

A little over an hour later.

Several dozen contributing lords or representatives went up on stage to receive awards and give speeches of thanks.

"Now please invite the leaders of the Devotion Squad, Clear Bamboo Squad, Righteous Unity Squad, Glazed Squad, and Strategy Squad to the stage!" Gu Zhan said with a smile.

Su Qin's whole body trembled when she heard the words "Clear Bamboo Squad."

"Our squad again?"

She stared in astonishment at Xiang Yuan and the others.

Xiang Yuan and the others were also overjoyed.

Geng Zhan laughed heartily: "Holy crap, that's awesome, us again? Su Qin, get up there quick!"

Fu Yi was somewhat puzzled: "How is our squad in it again? Did we really fight this well this time?"

Xiang Yuan snorted: "Fu Yi, what's with you? Just now you were the one almost late, and now you're talking sour grapes? Of course we fought well — otherwise how would our squad be here?"

Su Qin also had her doubts.

This battle was indeed fought quite well, but it hadn't reached the level of deserving commendation, had it?

So…

Could it still be because of Zhao Chi?

If calculated by team, the results Zhao Chi achieved would naturally count as Clear Bamboo Squad's results, and in turn Clear Bamboo Squad's results would also be the Jade Squad's results.

The two werewolf lords Zhao Chi defeated had a combined combat power of 15,000 — within the entire Jade Squad that was of course nothing, but at the squad-level team scale, it could of course boost the results by a large chunk.

Their entire squad had been pulled up by Zhao Chi.

Just like last time, Su Qin was still a little nervous.

She sighed: "Last time I didn't put on makeup, this time I also didn't put on makeup — next time remember to remind me."

Zhao Chi laughed: "You don't need makeup to outshine everyone else — hurry up and go, the other four have already gone."

Su Qin didn't dare say more and immediately walked up to the stage.

All five squads were reserve squads.

And Zhao Chi knew the leader of every single squad.

The Devotion Squad was made up of newcomers within the World-Breaking Army; its leader was Zhang Bai, whose strength was a notch above Su Qin and the others.

By all rights their strength was fully sufficient for a regular squad — it was unclear why they were still a reserve squad.