Chapter 82: The Hive Underground Base

Cold, shivering!

What met the eye was a large group of fully armed mercenaries, among whom a woman in a red dress with a gorgeous appearance was looking around with a face full of anxiety.

"Hmm, it would be perfect if I could add a line right now: 'Very good, you are the most outstanding one among this batch of newcomers.'"

Zhang Xuan poked fun at himself, and facing the nervous and uneasy Alice, a smile appeared on his face.

A silent and soundless power permeated the area around his body, while in his mind, the spiritual power of the Ancestral Aperture of the Brow pulsed, covering the surrounding area.

Even though he was a living person who had appeared in the vicinity, and had appeared suddenly near the mercenary squad, not a single person discovered his presence.

The slight hypnotic, hallucinatory energy inherent in his powerful spiritual strength was enough to perfectly keep Zhang Xuan invisible here, with no one able to perceive him.

Alice, however, was not shielded, and at this moment, she was looking at Zhang Xuan with a face full of surprise.

"Shh!"

Zhang Xuan extended a finger and placed it by his lips, signaling Alice to be a little quieter.

Alice fell silent accordingly and did not say much.

Zhang Xuan closed his eyes slightly, carefully sensing the power between this heaven and earth.

"There is suppression from the laws of heaven and earth, but it is not that tyrannical; I imagine this world can accommodate powerhouses at the Tier 4 level."

The relevant levels set by the Chat Group were not arrived at randomly, nor did they rely entirely on Zhang Xuan.

Rather, there is a fixed set of relevant procedures.

Tier 1 is considered a completely ordinary human, without any special abilities; from ordinary people to top-tier athletes, all are in this stage.

Once reaching Tier 2, one already possesses power that exceeds that of ordinary people; whether it is Internal Energy, True Qi, or psychokinesis, all can be considered Tier 2.

But the gap in strength within Tier 2 is also very large.

A person who has just acquired Internal Energy counts as Tier 2, and Zhang Sanfeng, who was able to dominate an era, also counts as Tier 2.

It is just like how Usain Bolt and an ordinary person are both human, both Tier 1; Bolt can run in 9.58 seconds, and even if you searched the entire Earth, you could not find anyone else who could reach that level—everyone else can only see his back.

By Tier 3, Internal Energy, True Qi, or psychokinesis can leave the body and transform into formless Sword Qi that breaks through the body; by this analogy, these are roughly the top-tier figures of the Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils era.

Duan Yu, who mastered the Six Meridian Divine Sword and possessed quite formidable Internal Energy, counts as this level.

Of course, the strength span at this level is also quite large; for example, Zhang Sanfeng, who opened all Nine Apertures, opened the Bridge of Heaven and Earth, and achieved the Outer Scene, is also Tier 3, but he could easily kill a whole bunch of Duan Yus.

Even at the same level, the gap between each other is terrifyingly large.

As for Tier 4, by Zhang Xuan's own estimation, it should be the ability to destroy a small continent, or rather, the ability to destroy a city-level area.

A nuclear bomb can destroy a city, which counts as Tier 4, and Zhang Xuan reached the Outer Scene level and also practiced the Indestructible Heavenly Art to reach the Life Spring Realm, which is why he touched the edge of Tier 4.

To put it simply, Tiers 1 to 3 are still in the human stage, while the level of Tiers 4 to 6 is roughly the stage from half-god/half-immortal to the true, immortal, and deathless Immortal God.

At this stage, the gap between those of the same level will further widen to a terrifying degree.

Don't look at how Zhang Xuan cultivated to Tier 4 in a very short time; wanting to reach Tier 7 and catch up to the footsteps of Qingdi might require an extremely long period, and it is even possible that he might spend hundreds or thousands of years and still not catch up.

Zhang Xuan did not feel discouraged; on the contrary, he felt a sense of excitement.

Looking at normal cultivation, even if he spent hundreds or thousands, or even tens of thousands of years, Zhang Xuan might not necessarily be able to compare to Qingdi.

After all, Qingdi was an Undying Divine Medicine that gained sentience.

The Undying Divine Medicines of those years were basically at the level of True Immortals when they fell; their own strength, realm, and foundation were unimaginably strong, plus Qingdi had once taken root on a fragment of the Bronze Immortal Cauldron in his early years.

In terms of talent, foundation, and disposition, the only ones in the entire Zhetian Universe who could compare to Qingdi are perhaps the Undying Emperor and Wushi Dadi.

If not for the fact that Qingdi later took the wrong path, with Qingdi's talent and intelligence, he should have been able to achieve the status of a Red Dust Immortal.

Zhang Xuan has a clear understanding of himself; by following the normal path, he will basically never be able to catch up to the paths of these people.

Even Ye Fan, who seems the most ordinary among the Zhetian trio, is a Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, and the corresponding good fortune and opportunities truly poured onto him step by step.

"I am currently walking in front of them, but I cannot be proud; I still need to maintain this."

Zhang Xuan still has a strong sense of urgency and crisis in his heart.

This is also the reason why he chose to come to the Shengxia Crisis World without hesitation when facing a potential nuclear attack.

It is rare to have an opportunity to transcend the ordinary and enter the sacred; he must firmly grasp it and absolutely cannot miss it.

"The corresponding Heaven and Earth Essence is relatively thin, and the corresponding laws of heaven and earth have extremely strong suppression on breakthroughs; in this world, cultivation will become very difficult, and it will be very hard to reach the Great Completion of the Tier 4 realm."

"However, under the same strength, the corresponding destructive power has also increased."

A wisp of True Qi flowed from Zhang Xuan's fingertips, silently leaving a mark on the rapidly moving train; even hard steel could not block a wisp of True Qi he spat out casually.

His intent flowed with his body, and the Energy Secret Treasury, Vitality Secret Treasury, and Spirit Secret Treasury were opened simultaneously, constituting an Inner Heaven and Earth, and then using this as a foundation, he echoed the Outer Heaven and Earth.

Suddenly, the most subtle level of heaven and earth was revealed before Zhang Xuan.

"Many of the Heaven and Earth Essences are considered mild, but this world already contains a faint, ethereal virus; my spiritual sense is warning me, but this alertness is very low, about the same as a cold, or even lower than a cold."

The feeling fed back to Zhang Xuan by the external heaven and earth was well received; he stood in place and experienced it slightly, discovering that this virus capable of destroying the world could not cause much harm to him.

Before coming here, he had some worries that if he were accidentally infected by this terrifying T-Virus and became some kind of zombie cultivator, that would be the biggest joke in the world.

Now that he knew the corresponding situation, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"For ordinary people, the T-Virus is a terrifying virus that can make people lose their nerves and reason, turning them into a peculiar creature, but for me, whose life level has already evolved several rounds, even if I swallow the T-Virus in large gulps, it won't be enough to infect me."

In the original world, the T-Virus only allowed Alice to undergo a super evolution; other characters would die if infected by the virus.

Therefore, only one brand-new superhuman, Alice, appeared globally.

And for the many characters currently in this world, Zhang Xuan is directly a fully evolved superhuman.

And he is already about to evolve to the true peak of this world.

The Outer Heaven and Earth echoed the Inner Heaven and Earth, and his spiritual power and six senses were simultaneously strengthened to an extremely profound degree; situated within this Hive, Zhang Xuan could feel that faint, ethereal malice coming from all directions.

Facing such malice, he did not feel panicked; instead, he felt a sense of joy, and the corners of his mouth could not help but curl up slightly.

The Indestructible Heavenly Art within his body operated continuously, mobilizing the corresponding power.

The Eight-Nine Profound Art changed and imitated other techniques at will; the Nine Yang Divine Art, which had originally been considered discarded by Zhang Xuan, naturally appeared on him again in its corresponding state.

Internal Energy reached Great Completion, endless and unceasing, forming a protective Qi barrier that isolated the inside from the outside.

Although the corresponding T-virus would not harm Zhang Xuan, nor would it have any effect on him, he still instinctively used the Nine Yang Divine Art to filter the virus-laden air.

After finishing all this, Zhang Xuan then leisurely walked to Alice's side and said in a deep voice, "I am Zhang Xuan, I have accepted your mission; how would you like to arrange things from here? We can discuss it together."

Alice glanced at Zhang Xuan, then could not help but glance at the mercenary squad standing to the side with wary expressions.

Clearly, Zhang Xuan had appeared abruptly in this place and was talking to her openly without any concealment, yet the mercenary squad had no vigilance at all.

Alice did not think this mercenary squad was incompetent; their previous tactical movements were neat and capable, and their progress along the way had been very rhythmic and orderly, clearly making them an elite mercenary squad.

Judging by the status and power of the Umbrella Corporation, the squad they were able to hire was naturally elite.

Among them, there should be many individuals with experience serving in the military, and they would not be an ordinary team.

Yet, such an elite squad just watched Zhang Xuan walk up to them and talk to her.

This did not mean the mercenary squad was incompetent, but rather that Zhang Xuan possessed some kind of power beyond that of ordinary people; thinking of the label given in the Chat Group as Tier 4, Alice felt certain.

"Is this your power? They can't perceive it?"

"Just a few small techniques related to the application of mental power; in the future, if your related power is also activated, perhaps I can teach you some small tricks in this area, it only requires a few points."

Zhang Xuan responded calmly, not being arrogant.

Showing off in front of ordinary people, the feeling was just average.

Alice, however, sensed a kind of powerful self-confidence in Zhang Xuan's calm tone, and this powerful self-confidence was not blind arrogance, but stood upon a foundation of powerful strength.

"My plan is to collect as much information as possible from within The Hive, especially the experimental data related to the T-virus, and also to film the experimental scenes within The Hive."

"If we successfully walk out of this area, we can then publicly expose their crimes on the internet, and at the same time persuade relevant high-level government officials to let them ban such illegal experiments by Umbrella!"

Alice spoke very methodically and had made corresponding plans; Zhang Xuan just shrugged, noncommittal.

He knew that even with the most perfect evidence, the Umbrella Corporation could still deny it.

Moreover, the true high-level government officials might not necessarily stand on Alice's side.

But it did not matter; he did not need to point this out, he just needed to follow along for the time being; in any case, his goal was not this.

(End of this chapter)