The heavy rain poured down, making the leaves in the mountain forest fall straight down, nodding with each "patter" of the raindrops hitting them.

All three of them were soaked through, their hair sticking wetly to their faces, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Normally, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei would never venture out in the rain.

In this world, it's unknown if doctors are extinct, and medicines are the rarest of items. Falling sick in the rain is not a good thing.

—Despite being Type A Neo-Humans, with incredibly strong physiques, there's still a small chance of getting sick.

They had always tried to avoid this before.

But now, they couldn't wait any longer. Waiting for this rain to pass could wear down their resolve.

So they decided to take action. As they reached halfway up the mountain, Luo Ping pointed diagonally upward and said, "Look, there's a mountain peak over there. Once you cross it, you'll see the deep ravine. Those two people are in the ravine right now."

"Alright."

Lu Xi'an nodded, indicating he understood.

Luo Ping then parted ways with them, heading in another direction along the small path.

Before they separated, Luo Ping gave Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei one last piece of advice: "Be patient for a moment. From what I've observed of Chang's habits, it seems likely he might aim for my head.

"My head is the hardest; it won't break easily."

Under the downpour, the mountain road turned muddy and nearly impassable in some places, with no visible path.

However, this did not deter Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei. They drew out small knives, hacking through the thorny thicket, finding footholds, lightly stepping upward. Only the fronts of their shoes got slightly muddy, not hindering their agility.

Looking back after climbing some way, they saw Luo Ping had already walked off into the distance, disappearing among the trees, likely taking the path down into the valley.

"We should hurry, too, so we don't delay."

Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei.

To avoid the people in the valley hearing them, he spoke in a low voice, which was almost inaudible against the sound of the rain.

Fortunately, Yao Wei's hearing was good enough to understand, and she nodded.

She suddenly shoved something into Lu Xi'an's hand, saying, "Here."

Her slender hand was cool to the touch, and when Lu Xi'an touched it, it felt wet, gripping something slightly damp.

The touch was very familiar—

"Fungus Stone?!"

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised. "You brought this?!"

"Yes."

Yao Wei said, "I grabbed it on a whim; it might be useful."

Lu Xi'an said, "In that case, you should hold onto it. I'll be more at ease if you have it."

Yao Wei replied, "I still have to carry Gou and a gun."

Lu Xi'an said, "Give Gou to me."

However, Yao Wei shook her head firmly. "I want to carry Gou."

She seemed like a stubborn girl, defending her ownership of her beloved pet dog.

Lu Xi'an gave Yao Wei a deep look and said, "Then I'll hold onto it for now. Stay close to me, and if needed, I'll give it to you, and you can give Gou to me."

"Okay."

Yao Wei finally agreed.

They decided on how to use the Fungus Stone, but until now, they didn't know how it could be used in combat, only relying on their sixth sense, vaguely feeling it might be useful.

Over the peak, there were two more peaks before they could reach the summit.

However, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei didn't need to go to the summit. From there, they could see the edge of the ravine ahead.

The ravine's edge was over a hundred meters wide, visible from this side to the other. The cliff face below was embedded with green stone walls, extremely solid, undamaged for decades, without the slightest crack.

This reminded Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei of the communications tower in Mengxin City. When they entered the tower, the materials inside felt similar to this.

Could this have once been a communication tower?

Lu Xi'an speculated in his mind.

He and Yao Wei crept quietly to the edge, parting branches and grass lightly, avoiding stepping on any loose soil that might dislodge and fall.

They leaned down to look, and it indeed resembled a communication tower below. The green stone wall circled the ravine's cliff, stopping at the tunnel entrance.

Looking from this side to the very bottom, the green stone wall's lowest part was lined with doors and windows, all intact, even the eaves protruding above the doors were unblemished.

The materials used to build this place must have been of very high quality. No wonder Luo Ping called it a secret base.

Across the passage seemed to be a warehouse door, tightly closed, with a lock on it, not opened.

Lu Xi'an felt the door lock was out of place with everything inside, as if added later.

They carefully observed, but no Neo-Humans were below, the place was deserted, with only a plot of land near the warehouse door, where young shoots were growing, seemingly corn planted by Shu, but not yet matured.

Lu Xi'an held the short needle made from a bicycle spoke, always ready to strike, while constantly watching below.

"You hide behind this grass. If I don't manage to kill the two Neo-Humans below at once, and they come up, you ambush them from the dark."

Lu Xi'an whispered to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei glanced down and pondered for a moment, saying, "It's so high. Can they jump up here?"

Lu Xi'an wasn't sure and said, "If it were just one Type A Neo-Human, they definitely couldn't jump up. But now there's also a Type C."

"Hmm."

Hearing this, Yao Wei agreed and hid in the bushes next to Lu Xi'an. From this position, Lu Xi'an could see her, but from within the recess, even if someone jumped up suddenly, they wouldn't easily notice her.

— Especially since the person would be distracted by Lu Xi'an at that moment.

"Yang Guan! Chang! You sons of bitches, had enough fun on my turf? Come out and meet your grandpa! Grandpa's back!"

Luo Ping's voice suddenly rang out.

That guy seemed afraid the rain might drown out his voice, so while still in the corridor, before even reaching inside, he loudly shouted,

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei followed the sound and saw that the guy had already removed his sunglasses—in this rainy weather, wearing sunglasses was indeed inconvenient—as he strode quickly through the corridor, his hands tightly clenched into fists, full of fried corn kernels, ready to be popped into his mouth at any moment.

"Here they come!"

Lu Xi'an suddenly heard a noise and whispered to Yao Wei.

He and Yao Wei saw someone emerge from the doorway below them on this side of the wall, wearing animal skins that were indiscernible as to which animal they belonged.

It was a man.

Type A Neo-Human Chang.

The woman hadn't appeared, likely still inside the building below.

Lu Xi'an gripped the short needle tightly and didn't act rashly.

At this height and distance, the opponent was also a Type A Neo-Human like himself; attacking from the shadows could potentially injure the man but might also fail.

If he failed, the woman might take action, using pheromones secreted from her sweat to fully enhance the man, making him even ignore pain and become berserk.

In that case, attacking would be futile.

Lu Xi'an preferred to succeed all at once, to kill with one blow, so the best strategy was first to eliminate the woman, a Type C Neo-Human.

The woman's physical condition wasn't as strong as the man's, and the chance of a successful sneak attack was much higher when they were distracted by Luo Ping.

When separating, Luo Ping had specifically reminded Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei that his head was the hardest, unlikely to be easily destroyed, which was his way of advising Lu Xi'an to be patient and wait for the right moment.

So Lu Xi'an still needed to wait and see if the woman would be lured out by Luo Ping.

— As long as Luo Ping wasn't dismembered, there was still hope to save him; it was best for him to endure and wait patiently.

He and Yao Wei continued to observe stealthily, below, Chang appeared with a grin as if he had Luo Ping cornered, saying, "Brother Luo, you finally came!

"You made me wait so painfully! Because of Shu, Yang Guan wouldn't let me have fun, saying we have to wait until you come and deal with you first.

"Where's Shu? Did you encounter him?"

It seemed that Shu had fled during the previous fun, and Yang Guan refused to give Chang pheromones, leaving Chang quite displeased.

Luo Ping chuckled, "Shu? What Shu? Isn't he farming here with you? Has the corn grown? If it has, I want to ask you for an ear to eat."

"Give you to eat? Don't be silly, I'm not that stupid."

Chang sneered coldly, "I beat you like that last time, and you're still bouncing around. You think I can't see what kind of Neo-Human you are? Watch how I handle you this time!

"But seriously, your judgment is really poor, partnering with the two of us and even recruiting Shu, who ran off when trouble came, without even coming to you.

"Look at me and Yang Guan, we're real partners, always inseparable, never abandoning each other."

"Bullshit!"

Luo Ping flew into a rage, ignoring the last sentence, and retorted, "What do you mean your place? This is my territory, damn it!"

Chang replied, "Once I kill you, it'll be mine."

As Chang finished speaking, Luo Ping had already crossed the corridor and stepped over the boundary at the edge.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could see clearly that it should be the trapdoor Luo Ping mentioned earlier, deeply embedded in the ground, difficult to pull out.

Chang wasted no more words, grabbing Luo Ping's arm with one hand, and punched out fiercely, preventing his previous mistake of letting Luo Ping fly away with a chance to escape.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei's hearts tightened, but they still didn't make a move.

"Boom!"

The punch landed heavily on Luo Ping's temple, with such force that a normal person's head would have probably exploded by now.

Yet Luo Ping only had blood trickling from his temple, his head swaying like a pendulum out of control.

After it shook several times, Luo Ping suddenly raised his hand, opened his fist, and pressed it against his mouth.

A handful of fried beans went into his mouth.

"You idiot, search him first, break his arm; he won't die right away, eating will keep him alive!"

A raspy woman's voice came from the canopy of the door below, sounding from inside out into the pouring rain.

She's here!

Lu Xi'an perked up, raising the hand clutching the short needle.

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