126: Chapter 126 Forming a New Force!

Outside the Ghost Fortress, the reorganization on the Gobi Desert proceeded faster than expected.

Chen Chen stood before the fourth-floor panoramic window, looking down.

Jiang Jiuyou had taken off her military overcoat, wearing only a black high-necked inner lining and tactical pants. Her silver-white low ponytail swayed in the wind.

Three men stood before her; two were shirtless with dragon and tiger tattoos, and one wore tattered leather armor with an engineering box on his back.

Three freelancers.

Judging by the convoy registration order, these three were in the first batch to arrive—even earlier than Iron Wall's military convoy.

They didn't arrive early because they were proactive, but because their vehicles were faster than the military's.

For freelancer vehicles to be faster than the military's, they wouldn't be carrying a small amount of cargo.

Shen Wanbing's voice came through the communicator: "The scanning results for these three's vehicles are out. Two modified pickups with non-standard hidden compartments installed in the chassis. The energy fluctuations from the compartments show—at least four to five high-level deviant materials hidden and not reported."

Chen Chen watched below.

Jiang Jiuyou was flipping through the registration log. When she reached the names of those three, she paused for two seconds.

Then she closed the log and said something to the Dark Division members behind her.

Two men in black stepped forward, flanking and restraining the man with the dragon tattoo.

"What the fuck—" The dragon-tattooed man's voice exploded as his hand reached for his waist.

He found nothing.

His sidearm had already been snatched from behind by a third man in black.

Jiang Jiuyou looked up.

From the fourth floor, Chen Chen couldn't see her expression clearly, but he saw her raise her right hand.

It was a very small movement.

Then the dragon-tattooed man's head was no longer on his neck.

A tactical short blade pierced through the back of his neck and emerged from his Adam's apple.

Blood sprayed two meters high, splashing onto the face of the tiger-tattooed man next to him.

The tiger-tattooed man's mouth hung open, but no sound came out.

The second man in black had already placed a blade against his throat.

The man with the engineering box simply collapsed, his legs giving way as he knelt on the ground.

Jiang Jiuyou walked over, crouched down, and used the corner of the dragon-tattooed man's clothes to wipe the blood spots off her military boots.

Her mouth was moving.

Chen Chen couldn't hear specifically what was said, but judging by the way the engineering box man was nodding frantically and kowtowing—the effect was good.

Three minutes later, the hidden compartments of the two pickups were pried open. Four high-level deviant materials, two cans of military-grade fuel, and a box of ammunition were neatly laid out in front of Shen Wanbing's registration desk.

That head was hung on the highest iron pole at the camp entrance.

The speed of the nearly two hundred people lining up tripled.

Through the communicator, Shen Wanbing's voice was excessively calm: "This Jiang Jiuyou—is even more useful than I estimated."

Chen Chen picked up a piece of jerky from the driver's seat and took a bite.

"She's smart."

"It's not just smarts." The sound of Shen Wanbing's keyboard typing came through the communicator.

"Her Dark Division members have extremely strong execution. From the decapitation to the search to the registration, the whole process didn't exceed four minutes. This group has undergone professional training."

"What about the military's side?"

"Iron Wall didn't say a word. After his people saw the head go up, their handover speed became even faster than the freelancers."

Chen Chen swallowed the jerky.

Outside the panoramic window, the setting sun dyed the Gobi Desert a dark orange.

Under the dual control of Jiang Jiuyou and Shen Wanbing, the two hundred people were quickly organized into three echelons—the military remnants with fifty armored vehicles were formed into the first echelon, responsible for perimeter security and fire support;

The nineteen vehicles and forty talent holders of Jiang Jiuyou's Dark Division were formed into the second echelon, responsible for mobile assaults and intelligence gathering; the remaining freelancer convoy was formed into the third echelon, handling material transport and logistical support.

Shen Wanbing brought a cup of steaming hot thick soup up to the fourth floor.

"Drink. It's brewed from high-level deviant bone marrow, Shen Wanxing just finished it."

Chen Chen took it and had a sip. Fresh.

"What about the faction value?"

Shen Wanbing sat down beside him and pulled up the system panel.

A translucent holographic table floated between the two of them.

[Area 069 comprehensive faction value Assessment (Real-time)]

Faction Leader: Chen Chen

Population: 198 people

Total Vehicles: 45 (including 1 S-rank Ghost Fortress, 2 B-rank vehicles, 42 C-D rank vehicles)

Core Member Average Level: Lv.8.2

Resource Reserve Rating: A+

Territory: None

Current comprehensive faction value Ranking: 1st in Area 069 (Unique)

Chen Chen stared at the "Territory: None" column for two seconds.

"After the second map opens, how will territory be calculated?"

Shen Wanbing pushed up her glasses.

"According to the information in the intelligence tablet from the Proprietress, there are capturable fixed strongholds in the second map. First come, first served; after capture, they continuously produce resources and have a population attraction effect."

"Then we must beat the Bishop of Ashes to it."

"Mhm."

Shen Wanbing's finger swiped twice on the panel, switching to another page of data.

"There's one more thing—during the reorganization just now, I found three interesting talent holders among the third echelon freelancers. One B-rank healer, one B-rank construction enhancer, and one A-rank—"

She paused.

"A-rank Mental Defense."

Chen Chen put down the soup bowl.

Mental Defense.

The thing Zhijin warned about—the seed network of the Lord of Flesh in the second map is best at mental pollution.

"Where is the person?"

"I've already had Jiang Jiuyou place them under separate supervision."

Chen Chen nodded and finished the soup.

Night fell.

Scattered firelight lit up the camp on the Gobi Desert, and patrol teams rotated their watch according to the organization chart.

The mental shielding device covered a fifty-meter radius around the Ghost Fortress, its purple force field almost invisible in the night.

The usual rhythm returned inside the vehicle.

Shen Wanxing was heating nutrition bars in the kitchen module, Su Xiaoqi was crouching on the floor rummaging through storage boxes for snacks, Jiang Yanxue lay on the sofa with her blade across her, Qin Hongye was cleaning her gun on the second floor, and Shen Wanbing was processing data at the command console.

Chen Chen glanced at the system time.

23:41.

He walked upstairs.

"Go to the second floor to rest; there's a tough battle tomorrow."

As he reached the staircase, his peripheral vision caught the corner of the sofa.

Blood Rose wasn't there.

...

Second-floor levitation capsule.

Chen Chen pushed open the capsule door, his footsteps pausing for half a beat.

Blood Rose was sitting on the edge of the c-rank mental soothing bed.

She had changed her clothes.

A black deep-V tight leather outfit, with the zipper only pulled up to three inches below her navel, commando.

The fabric above was stretched nearly to the point of bursting, and large patches of snowy-white skin were almost blinding in the blue halo.

The high-slit leather skirt opened directly to the base of her thigh. Those 1.82-meter long legs were crossed, her bare feet resting on the edge of the bed, toes painted with dark red polish.

Wine-red wavy curls were scattered between her bare shoulders and collarbones, and her dark brown pupils were stimulated by the aphrodisiac exotic fragrance into a layer of faint red light.

The entire second-floor levitation capsule was filled with a scent so thick it was cloying.

"Master."

Blood Rose slid off the bed and rubbed against him like a cat.

Her finger rested on Chen Chen's chest, tracing down the contours of his pectoral muscles.

"I've recovered."

Her breath hit Chen Chen's collarbone.

"Last time was too fast. This time... let me repay you properly."

Chen Chen looked down at her.

The 1.82-meter tall woman pressed against him, the contents within the deep-V neckline almost overflowing, and the concentration of the aphrodisiac exotic fragrance had doubled compared to last time at the tavern.

Full power output of the SS-rank Succubus Poison Body.

For any normal man, their brain would have short-circuited long ago.

But Chen Chen's constitution was 127.

He had already calculated at 23:59—once midnight passed and the Physical Overlimit settled, his constitution would increase by another 10, and agility by 5.

By then, it would be 137.

"What is your charm value?" Chen Chen suddenly asked.

Blood Rose was stunned for a moment: "One hundred and twenty-three..."

Fifty-seven points lower than him; the feedback wouldn't trigger.

But the constitution gap was large enough that one-way transmission was no problem.

Moreover—Blood Rose's bond progress was still at Lv.2, quite a distance from Lv.4.

dual cultivation could accelerate the bond building.

Chen Chen gripped her lower back.

Blood Rose's breathing suddenly roughened by half a beat.

"Since you've recovered—"

He grasped the zipper head of the leather outfit with one hand and pulled down.

*Click—*

The sound of the zipper bursting open was exceptionally clear in the quiet levitation capsule.

A large expanse of snowy-white sprang out the moment it lost its restraint, the curves exaggerated to the point of absurdity.

Blood Rose tilted her neck back, her wine-red curls cascading over her snowy-white back, as she was pressed into the c-rank mental soothing bed.

The memory foam sank deeply.