Xiong Wenhui chased after Lü Quan with great strides. Xiong Wenhui could barely muster the strength of an eighth-level, but her speed was another matter entirely.

Lü Quan cursed his luck. His plan had been to freeze Xiong Wenhui, kite her, have Wu Tao hold her off, and with the help of his subordinates, stall for time until Xiong Wenhui's transformation period was over and then kill her.

Now Wu Tao was dead, and morale had collapsed.

Chen Luo's members scattered, attempting to intercept Lü Quan.

Lü Quan hardened his expression. "Scatter! I'm a seventh-level! Your lives are your own!"

He wanted to scare Chen Luo's people into automatically scattering.

But he was met with the members' cold, indifferent faces.

In truth, they were also afraid. No one was unafraid of death, but the ironclad rules made them know that giving way was also death.

They would be executed after everything was over.

Chen Luo didn't have this concept of banishment from the base. If things were serious enough, he would execute them directly to avoid resentment and retaliation against the base.

Chen Luo had been clear about this.

Desertion in the face of battle would absolutely be met with death.

Looking at the few people blocking his path, with no sign of giving way, Lü Quan was stunned. Weren't they afraid of death?

He was a seventh-level expert!

The members instead charged towards Lü Quan.

Lü Quan casually launched two ice spears, but the members were prepared. One used a pre-prepared earth shield combined with a fire shield, and the two of them together blocked Lü Quan's casual attack.

Lü Quan punched a member away, but was immediately dogpiled by several others.

The gap between the sixth and seventh levels was indeed large, but a dozen or so sixth-level fighters, working well together, could definitely defeat a seventh-level expert.

Even Chen Luo, with Ning Shuang and Hai Ji, two king-level experts, was wary of Poseidon's dozen or so ninth and tenth-level subordinates.

Lü Quan struggled violently, but couldn't shake them off. He was held tightly. If he shook off one, there were others.

Xiong Wenhui arrived, a grin on her face, grabbed Lü Quan, held him up to her chest, and exerted force with both hands.

Lü Quan begged for mercy in terror.

A few seconds later, with a tearing sound, Lü Quan was torn in two.

Blood stained the ground.

The savage Xiong Wenhui.

Chen Luo watched, quite satisfied. There was no way Mi Ling wouldn't reward these members.

If it were Chen Luo, he would give each of them at least a hundred points and publicly commend them.

Wu Tao and Lü Quan had planned to plot and obtain Xiong Wenhui's crystal, but they had left their own crystals here.

How ridiculous.

But of the two thousand or so people they had brought, about half were dead, and the other half had scattered and fled in all directions.

The members who were chasing them didn't manage to kill them all.

Chen Luo wouldn't have been able to guarantee that either.

Chen Luo hadn't intervened.

Chen Luo looked at his watch. Had Mi Fan's prediction been wrong?

No, it was only 10:30 in the morning. It was still far from Mi Fan's predicted time of 5:00 in the afternoon.

Chen Luo pondered. Unless Mi Ling had angered the masses, causing her to be in mortal danger, or, perhaps, there was a high-level mutant?

No, he shouldn't underestimate the other ability users. It might be them.

What Chen Luo didn't expect was that Mi Ling and Xiong Wenhui would split the two seventh-level crystals, one for each.

These kinds of crystals didn't need to be handed over to Chen Luo. Don't ask why. Even a dog wouldn't want them.

Mi Ling absorbed Wu Tao's flesh-type crystal and actually reached the eighth level.

Well, Mi Ling had been at the seventh level for three months. Although she hadn't absorbed any good crystals, like ninth or tenth-level ones, she had absorbed a seventh-level fire-type crystal.

During this time, she had also continuously absorbed fifth and sixth-level crystals. If she didn't advance now, it wouldn't make sense.

Listening to Mi Ling's muffled groans in the room, Chen Luo really wanted to go down and comfort his sister-in-law.

She had advanced, but was still in danger?

Chen Luo didn't believe that Mi Fan's prediction would be wrong.

He would bide his time and watch from the sidelines.

...

The mastermind behind the scenes, Mi Ling, had been exposed, and the strength of the Dawn sub-base had also been revealed.

Wu Tao and Lü Quan had led two thousand people to cause trouble, but they had been left behind, while the Dawn City's own casualties were negligible.

The seventh-level flesh-type expert Wu Tao had been instantly killed.

This immediately caused a sensation.

Even more sensational was that, according to the survivors, the person controlling Dawn City behind the scenes was an absolutely stunning beauty.

Any base with a bit of brains would pay attention to collecting information.

This explosive news quickly spread nearby, and by tomorrow night at the latest, it would spread throughout the entire region.

Mi Ling hadn't wanted to be exposed, but there was no way around it.

...

"Handsome, I have something to report to you."

In a gloomy little forest, a short, lecherous-looking man was sitting on the ground, studying something in his hands, a skull.

Beside him, a two-meter-tall, iron-tower-like man stood guard, never leaving his side.

This iron-tower-like man's eyes were hollow, without any spirit, not like a living person, nor with the blood-red eyes of a zombie.

This lecherous man was called Ma Shuai, and he liked his subordinates and others to call him Handsome.

Ma Shuai grunted. "Speak."

The subordinate recounted what had happened to Mi Ling, and said flatteringly, "I even had the survivors make a portrait of that woman."

Ma Shuai became interested, took the sketch, and was shocked.

"Mi Ling, my goddess."

The subordinate was surprised. "Handsome, do you know her?"

Ma Shuai slapped him, and said viciously, "What 'her'? Call her Goddess!"

The subordinate touched his face, and said with a smile, "Yes, yes, Goddess."

Ma Shuai slapped him again. "My Goddess is not someone you deserve to call! Jiang Chen, tear him apart!"

The iron-tower-like man responded in a hoarse voice, his figure flashed, and he appeared next to the subordinate, ignoring his terrified pleas for mercy, and really tore him apart.

Ma Shuai was unmoved, staring dreamily at the sketch of Mi Ling.

"My Goddess, I've finally seen you again. I never thought it would be at this time. It's been five years since we parted in high school."

"Five years. Do you know how I've lived?"

"I think of you day and night."

"The former me wasn't even qualified to be your simp. I should be now, right?"

"Oh, I'm going to turn you into my puppet, and you'll never betray or leave me, just like Jiang Chen."

Ma Shuai stood up his skinny body, with barely any flesh on him, his cheeks and eyes sunken, looking like a ghoul.

And very lecherous.

Ma Shuai murmured, "It's been three months. I haven't left the base or taken action in three months. I've been busy refining Jiang Chen. The current me will definitely surprise Mi Ling."

"I heard you have a younger sister, Mi Ling. I wonder if she's become a zombie. It's best if she hasn't. It would be wonderful to refine them both into my puppets."

"Just thinking about it excites me."

"The undead army is setting out."

Ma Shuai hated sunlight and rarely went outside. Since he had turned into this ghostly appearance, he had lost interest in domination, power, and food.

But his former infatuation with Mi Ling had been etched in his heart.

One by one, puppets with gaunt bodies similar to Ma Shuai's crawled out of the ground.

A full four hundred or so.

Puppets wasn't quite accurate. They should be called undead.

Unlike dark-type summons, these undead were permanently existing.

Ma Shuai specialized in dark-type undead abilities, and his fighting style was a swarm tactic.