The boy named Xiaotu was so dirty that his clothes were unrecognizable, as if he’d just rolled around in a mud pit.
His face was also dirty, obscuring his features.
Two strong men escorted Xiaotu forward.
Gao Hu suddenly said, “Stop.”
“Have you searched this boy?” Gao Long looked coldly at him, “Keep him away from the bonfire. I’ve said it many times, strangers must stay at least 30 meters away. Gao Cheng, how do you command my personal guard camp? You can’t even remember such a small matter?”
Gao Cheng mumbled, “I’ve searched him, no weapons.”
Gao Long is 42 this year. He had his first son at the age of 16 in the wilderness, and now has nine sons, four of whom died of illness.
The mortality rate in the wilderness is high, even the children of major family leaders are not spared, let alone others.
Now, he has five remaining sons. One manages the so-called personal guard camp, while the other four manage the annexed Wei, Zhou, Tuoba, and Liu families.
Although these four families are still ruled by their clan leaders, the Gao family is above all. Gao Long’s sons are military supervisors, and their power is higher than the four clan leaders.This small family in the wilderness even has a personal guard camp and military supervisors. The Gao Long and Gao Hu brothers clearly rely on their perceived divine mandate to establish their own large forces in this place that the Federation doesn’t even bother to govern.
The boy Xiaotu was taken 30 meters away by the strong men. Gao Long observed coldly, confirming that there was no disappointment in the other party's expression, before he felt slightly relieved. “Which production base are you from?”
“Production base 1129,” Xiaotu said.
“What does your production base grow?” Gao Long asked coldly, “Don’t try to fool us. Wildlanders interact most with you farmers. We know exactly what each base produces.”
“We planted over 20,000 mu of rice and raised ducks and fish in the paddy fields,” Xiaotu answered honestly, “There are more than 600 people in the production base, but the Chen Family army wants to take away more than 200 people. My parents were afraid that I would be taken away, so they asked me to hide for a while before going back.”
Gao Long pondered, this all checked out. It seemed to be true.
He turned and whispered to Gao Hu, “Our team is expanding. In a few months, we might have a shortage of food. Let’s keep this boy. When we plunder the production base later, he can lead the way. He knows the defenses of 1129. Otherwise, those bunkers and Metal Storms in the production bases will be hard to handle. If we can control this boy and make him one of us, we can then send him back to production base 1129 to help us shut down those Metal Storms.”
The adults in the production base are all militiamen. Such a mechanized production base having so many people is precisely to defend against Wildlanders.
Gao Hu pondered for a moment, “Big brother, you decide.”
Gao Long thought again, “But we can’t trust strangers too easily. What if he’s a Federation spy?”
“The Federation is at war. Who has time to care about us?” Gao Hu said, “Those Conglomerates are too busy to take care of themselves.”
“Still, we must be cautious,” Gao Long said, “The reason my brother and I are still alive is because of this.”
Then, Gao Long said to the leader of the Liu family, “Liu Kun, I’ll leave this child to you. Turn him into one of us within three months. He’ll be very useful when we plunder the Federation production base three months from now.”
The old man named Liu Kun nodded, “Understood. I’ll take care of him personally. If he doesn’t behave, I’ll beat him until he does.”
Gao Long shook his head, “How you manage him is your business; just make sure he obeys. Everyone rest here. Send scouts to investigate that settlement and monitor their movements. If you encounter their scouts, don’t engage in direct combat. Those people are quite powerful. I don’t know where those few hundred people came from; their tactics are even more skillful than the Federation’s army.”
Gao Long was referring to Qing Ling, Li Cheng, and others. These intelligence personnel were once the elite of the elite. It’s normal for Wildlanders to be unable to defeat them.
At this time, Gao Hu said, “Brother, when are we going to Fire Pit?”
“After we take over this settlement and integrate everything,” Gao Long smiled, “I know you’re eyeing that God Woman in Fire Pit, but Fire Pit is too mysterious, and they have many hidden treasures. We need to be cautious. Once we incorporate the troops from the settlement, we can take a concubine for you. Even if Fire Pit objects, they won’t be able to do anything about it. Alright, the meeting is over. Take your shot and see what the effect is today.”
Gao Hu nodded and took out a revolver, pointing it at his temple and firing.
Xiaotu was shocked when he saw this from the corner of his eye!
The next moment, a gunshot rang out, and fireworks bloomed in the sky.
It was morning, but the fireworks were as dazzling as at night.
Xiaotu was stunned, Forbidden Artifact ACE055!
He’d come to the right place!
Return Countdown 40:03:09.
The boy Xiaotu was taken away by the Liu clan members. They arrived at a forest where hundreds of brown horses were tethered to trees.
A Liu clan member ordered imperiously, “Go cut hay for the horses. If you don’t feed them before sunset, you’ll get a beating.”
Xiaotu nodded, saying honestly, “Yes, I work hard. As long as I have something to eat.”
The Liu clan members burst into laughter, “Damn, he’s so obedient! Alright, do it this way. We won’t let you starve. When we conquer the settlement to the west, we might even let you have a woman.”
Xiaotu went to cut grass with a sickle, just like a real farmer.
The Liu clan leader, Liu Kun, observed for a while. He stood outside the forest and asked, “He really looks like a farmer working. Federation spies can’t learn this. By the way, did this boy have any weapons on him?”
“No!” said a Liu clan member, “This boy only has a string of Buddhist beads on his wrist, saying it’s a relic given to him by someone who died, a token of life-and-death friendship.”
“Buddhist beads?” Liu Kun was suspicious. He walked towards Xiaotu and said, “Let me see those Buddhist beads.”
Xiaotu responded with an “Ai” and handed over the Buddhist beads.
Liu Kun looked at them, “They’re just ordinary chicken wing wood, nothing rare. Boy, in this wilderness, gods and Buddhas can’t protect you. Want to live? Be obedient. Understand?”
Liu Kun threw the Buddhist beads back.
Xiaotu chuckled, “Yes, I will be obedient.”
These Liu clan members didn’t know they had just escaped death. The last time these beads were taken off Xiaotu’s hand, the city 20 Garrison Troops were routed.
How scary!
Xiaotu was Qing Chen. There were still more than half a month until the best time for him to enter the snow mountain.
Originally, he just wanted to come to the wilderness settlement to see how hard life was there, and how Masonic Lodge, Qing Ling, and Yang Yang were doing. However, he encountered scouts from this large wilderness family on the way, carefully spying on the settlement.
He secretly followed this wilderness family for two days, only to find that they were not in a hurry to attack, and the settlement was also very wary of them.
Qing Chen knew the strength of the settlement. The fact that even the settlement was wary of them meant that this wilderness family had something up their sleeve.
So, he came.
At first, Qing Chen’s plan was to snipe the two brothers from a distance. However, after searching for a position for a long time, he found that the two brothers were extremely cautious. They always stayed near complex terrain, using the environment to block sniper vision. There were a large number of Wildlanders guarding within a 1500-meter range, and beyond 1500 meters, he couldn’t find the brothers.
Originally, Qing Chen wanted to infiltrate and control the two brothers using a Marionette, making things easier. He could also gain a large wilderness force.
But Gao Long was extremely cautious, preventing him from getting close.
The infiltration failed.
Should he just take off the Buddhist beads and attack?
No, Qing Chen felt that this wilderness family was strange. He decided to wait and see.
At this moment, a voice came from outside the camp: “We caught two more refugees. They both said they escaped from production base 1129. The Chen Family is arresting people there to explore the Forbidden Zone.”
Hearing this sentence, Xiaotu thought that these two refugees corroborated his story, making his identity safer.
Gao Long stood up from the bonfire. Qing Chen restrained his urge to observe Gao Long to avoid triggering his sixth sense.
Gao Long said, “Strange. What exactly is the Chen Family doing? They’re not participating in the war at the front, but suddenly start exploring the Forbidden Zone on a large scale. Did some treasure appear in the nearby Forbidden Zone? Bring those two people to me!”
Xiaotu curiously looked towards the outside of the camp, but immediately lowered his head.
Damn!
The two people being escorted in were none other than Zard and Huan Yu!
They were thinking alike—they both wanted to assassinate Gao Long and Gao Hu. After all, once they were killed, the newly merged families would naturally collapse!
The next moment, Gao Long looked at Xiaotu, “Hey, you also escaped from the production base. Do you know them?”
Xiaotu quickly shook his head, “No!”
Huan Yu and Zard looked at him, and everyone fell silent.
Production base 1129 was the closest, so everyone said they escaped from there. As a result, they didn’t recognize each other.
These two didn’t recognize Xiaotu either, only feeling embarrassed that their lies were exposed.
It wasn’t that Xiaotu intentionally exposed them. It’s just that the two didn’t disguise themselves well as farmers or refugees.
Especially Huan Yu, it was as if he came to give the Wildlanders a meal.
“It’s good that you don’t know them. You’re real, and they are fake. If you say you know them, we’ll lock you up together,” Gao Long looked at Huan Yu and Zard coldly, “Trying to infiltrate my team?”
Zard said, “Where did you get that idea? We’re refugees.”
Gao Long laughed angrily, “What kind of stupid spies are you? Your disguise is terrible! Lock them up in the wooden cages! Send six men. Keep a close watch on these two spies. We’ll interrogate them tonight and see what kind of experts are in the settlement!”
On more than ten pickup trucks next to the camp, Wildlanders had more than ten large wooden cages. Half of the cages contained women captured from somewhere, and the other half contained men with bruises all over.
Xiaotu was a little dumbfounded at this moment. These two’s infiltration operation was too childish! They just infiltrated and were imprisoned?
However, he was curious about when Huan Yu changed his nature and would take action for the civilians in the settlement?
Or, did the other party also know that there was a rare Forbidden Artifact here, so they came to grab it?
In the wooden cage, Zard and Dayu were locked up with two unfamiliar men. Zard politely greeted them, “Hello.”
The other two in the wooden cage were beaten to the point of unconsciousness and didn’t respond.
Zard didn’t give up and greeted the women in the wooden cage on the nearby pickup trucks, “Have you all had breakfast?”
Dayu was irritated, “Can you be quiet? Once we have the chance, we steal the Forbidden Artifact and leave! The two brothers only think of us as ordinary spies, but we are two A-Class, which is our chance. Once they fall asleep, you control the earth element to steal it. Once we have it, we return to the settlement and call for reinforcements. Understand?”
“Oh,” Zard didn’t speak anymore.
At this time, Gao Long sat by the bonfire, looking thoughtfully at Dayu and Zard, “That boy named Xiaotu also came from production base 1129. Arrange him to guard the prisoners. I want to see his reaction, whether he will secretly communicate with the prisoners.”
Liu Kun of the Liu clan took the order and took Xiaotu towards the pickup trucks, explaining as they walked, “All you have to do is watch them. If anyone tries to escape, shout loudly. If anyone makes a small move, shout loudly too.”
Xiaotu nodded, “How do they eat and use the toilet?”
Liu Kun sneered, “Just relieve themselves in the wooden cage. Let them clean it up when they’re near the river. Even as a prisoner, they still dream of going to the toilet in a deserted place.”
“Understood,” Xiaotu said. He felt a gaze always focused on his back, watching his every move.
He understood why Liu Kun asked him to guard the prisoners.
However, the person watching him probably didn’t expect him to be an A-Class, who could sense the gaze.
After all, no normal A-Class would be idle enough to be a spy. There were so few A-Class in the wilderness, and the Gao brothers had been fighting for so long without encountering an A-Class.
As a result, there are now three A-Classes in his camp: two were prisoners, and one was a runner.
Who could have imagined that?
Dayu stared fixedly at the approaching boy, Xiaotu, through the wooden cage. He didn’t recognize him just now. Now that he was closer, he suddenly said, “That person… he looks so familiar.”
“Hmm?” Zard also looked over, his eyes lit up.
Things like smearing dirt on one’s face work on strangers, but not on acquaintances.
Dayu whispered, “Is he like Qing Chen?”
Zard: “He is! He looks like he was raised by Qing Chen. Even the excrement must be the same. I didn’t expect there to be someone so similar to Qing Chen in this world. I have to tell him when we get back.”
Dayu: “This is Qing Chen!”
Liu Kun left, and Xiaotu sat beside the pickup truck nonchalantly.
Dayu said coldly, “How come you’re here? Why didn’t you attack those two?”
Xiaotu ignored him, not even moving his mouth. He knew someone was watching him.
And Dayu’s question was a bit absurd. It was obvious that you knew the strength of the Gao brothers better. The two of you, A-Class, had to infiltrate in disguise, so why should I act rashly? I definitely need to find the right opportunity!
Dayu continued, “Gao Long has the Forbidden Artifact Silhouette, and his brother has the Forbidden Artifact revolver. You should know what that means. Gao Long is equivalent to two A-Classes, and his brother may become a Demi-God at any time. We must attack tonight. The three of us will work together to kill them and leave!”
At this moment, Dayu no longer cared about the friction between them. Only by killing these Wildlanders could he safely take Xiaoyu away.
Dayu continued, “Tonight, Zard and I…”
Before he could finish, Xiaotu suddenly stood up, pointed at the wooden cage and shouted, “Report, they tried to trick me into opening the cage to let them go!”
Dayu: “????