854 Domestic Trouble and Foreign Invasion

Take the opportunity to leave? This was not Wang Zhong's aim. He now had the upper hand.

He wanted to heal and recuperate from his injuries? Dream on!

A Heroic Crosswheel Slash came roaring out of the jungle, heading straight for Heinrich's neck.

Although Heinrich noticed it immediately, with his severe injuries and having over-worked himself, he no longer had his invincible Sword Defense. With that Heroic Crosswheel Slash gunning for his neck, he no longer dared to absorb the attack with his body directly. Reluctantly, he stopped trying to regulate his breathing, threw himself down on the ground, and rolled to the left.

"Haha, he looks like a donkey rolling over!" Simba screamed with a sharp voice.

"It's obviously an idiot rolling around," continued Wang Zhong.

They spoke rather loudly, and Heinrich clearly understood the meaning of their words. Almost instantly, his face turned red with anger!

He had already given up on hunting him, but that weakling actually dared to provoke him!

Calm down, calm down… Heinrich tried his best to rein in his anger. After all, he was a Sword Saint. Intelligent creatures would always subconsciously look down on alien races. For the Mizobudapi people, the humans were the aliens. This also explained Heinrich's arrogance. However, he had learned his lesson. When he finally calmed himself down, it became obvious to him that the human had become stronger at an alarming rate within the past two days of being hunted by him. If this continued, it would really be to his disadvantage. It would not just be a matter of whether he could kill the human; he himself would be in danger of being killed.

Having thought it through, he immediately stopped chasing the human resolutely. However, the other party's plan was to be pursued in the jungle. How could he not be harassed when he just openly sat down outside the jungle and began healing himself?

However, he didn't expect that the other party would attack him immediately once he retreated!

The features on the clown's mask twisted wildly, and his big red nose grew bigger and smaller repeatedly to annoy him. "Ooh! The shameless dog is running away!"

"Stupid idiot, you're not a Sword Saint. You're a whore!"

Simba's speed of throwing insults was truly extremely fast; even Wang Zhong couldn't match up to him. Other than that, with the ever-changing features of the clown mask, Wang Zhong felt that if he was the enemy, he would definitely be mad.

The muscles on Heinrich's face were shaking constantly. He wanted to swallow the insult. He knew that he should, but…

"You sissy, why are you still sitting around? You're definitely not a man!"

"Human beings revealed their mighty power, and the sissy Sword Saint fled from the scene!" Simba began to chant.

"F*ck you! Shut up!" At this moment, Heinrich surprisingly grasped and understood the essence of how human cursing worked. He was definitely blinded by anger, and he shouted, "I'll kill you!"

For a moment, Heinrich wished that he couldn't understand human language, but now, he was truly angered and was about to lose his temper.

He no longer cared about his severe injuries or any repercussions anymore. With a stretch of his legs, golden light flashed, and he charged at Wang Zhong.

It had to be admitted that a Sword Saint fueled by rage was extremely terrifying. The sudden blast of Sword Qi gave Wang Zhong a shock as it seemed more powerful than before. Fortunately, he managed to dodge it in time.

As the Sword Saint charged towards him, he retreated. There was no longer any need for petty tricks, and it was clear that Wang Zhong's plan was to tire him to death. Wang Zhong didn't bother to conserve energy and fully activated his Speed Circuit, retreating at an even faster pace than the Sword Saint.

"Good job!" Wang Zhong did not forget to praise Simba despite his 'busy schedule'. This guy's forte was using his mouth, and this time, it had truly proven useful. If it was up to Wang Zhong to throw insults at the Sword Saint, he wouldn't be able to do it so well.

"Of course, it's me!" Simba's ego had definitely been boosted to the maximum. "He's no match for me!"

The chase ensued. One charged forward and the other retreated.

Heinrich's rage caused a slight boost in his power for a short while, but the condition of his body was unable to support his actions. On the other hand, Wang Zhong carefully controlled the distance between them and remained at a position where the Sword Saint could never reach him. Anyway, his Phoenix and Heroic Crosswheel Slash were long-range attacks.

Wang Zhong was like a piece of chewing gum. Heinrich could not kill him or get rid of him. Whenever he tried to attack, Wang Zhong would run, but when he stopped, Wang Zhong would attack. Additionally, every time Heinrich tried to calm himself down, an annoying phoenix or crosswheel slash would come flying straight at him, making it impossible for him to remain calm.

He also thought of retreating back to camp, but the Black Boulder Energy Mining Camp had been destroyed along with the collapse of the mountain, and who knew if there were any survivors. As for other camps, it was a little too far from this place, and he wouldn't be able to travel over such a long distance in his current state. But the thing that infuriated him the most was that horrible, stinking mouth!

Heinrich really couldn't imagine how someone could ever utter such vicious words!

Indeed, language was a type of weapon. However, to the Mizobudapi people, the use of language was a diplomatic method to resolve issues. They had a completely different outlook on language than the vulgar and low-class humans who cursed like nobody's business.

All kinds of nasty swear words and false accusations could be heard. Heinrich never thought that he, a powerful figure who was destined to leave a huge mark in the Mizobudapi civilization in the future, would be called a "small-footed wife".

He understood the meaning of the word 'wife', but what did 'small-footed' even mean? Heinrich's understanding of human language had not yet reached a level where he could understand it, but it definitely sounded like something that was absolutely weak and low-class.

He was successfully provoked, and his energy consumption grew for no good reason. He began to force himself to calm down until he couldn't; then he finally decided to plug his ears.

Heinrich understood that the other party's battle tactic was to tire him out. How dare this lowly creature try to take him out? Under normal circumstances, the mere thought of this would be enough to anger Heinrich as this was blatant rudeness and provocation, and he would never have tolerated it. However, now, he had learned to partially control his emotions as well as tolerate Simba's words. Now, there was nothing in this world that could make him lose his temper anymore.

He was also determined to pay attention to his defense and remain unaffected by Simba. It had to be admitted that when a Sword Saint made up his mind to do something, Wang Zhong also couldn't do anything about it. He continued to harass the Sword Saint, but it was no longer possible to increase the other party's energy consumption. At most, he could only prevent the other party from healing and make it difficult for him to retreat.

This was clearly the best that Wang Zhong could do, and the originally clear battle situation soon became unclear again.

The other party was unable to heal and unable to leave this area, but Wang Zhong also couldn't take a rest. Although he had recovered a lot as compared to the other party who was already on the verge of running out of energy, this was still a Sword Saint after all. A dead camel was still bigger than a horse. If this went on, Wang Zhong also wasn't sure who could last longer.

Neither of them could find a suitable breakthrough point, and they seemed to have ended up at an impasse. Both figures continued to travel and chase each other within the ruins of this mountain range, the jungle next to it, and the swamp on the other side. No one could gain the upper hand on the other.

...…

Mizobudapi World. The northern battlefield base…

It had been almost a month since the war began.

It was said that the higher-ups had obtained general information about the enemies within a thousand square kilometers around the base. Several large attack points had already been decided upon, but the mainstay forces of the base would not be mobilized for attacks till the order was given by the commanders.

However, during this period, the exploration teams were rather active. In addition to the engineers responsible for the surrounding infrastructure and sentries, the people entering and leaving the base these days were mostly the exploration teams. Due to the increase in the scope of exploration and the need to gather further intelligence, there was a considerable amount of work to do for the teams.

Other jobs included cleaning up mining areas, wiping out some small nearby Mizobudapi villages, establishing Skylink signal points, and even collecting some special materials which were unique to the Mizobudapi World.

These missions were actually not difficult. The Mizobudapi people had yet to launch a large-scale counterattack against these active exploration teams. They seemed to be observing the humans and did not care about this mere thousand square kilometers of land. However, in the eyes of the exploration teams, they assumed that the Mizobudapi people had been cowed by them during the landing battle. Coupled with the easiness of the missions and the generous rewards, almost all the exploration teams which received missions or completed them were filled with joy, as though there was gold on the floors, ripe for their picking. Many exploration teams had indeed made a lot of money, increasing their team's combat power greatly.

However, if there were successes, there would inevitably be failures. Among these failures, the worst was probably the Wanderlust Team. Wait, no! At least, they still had a few members left. The worst was probably KD Squadron, the team that went on a mission with them. There were zero survivors from that team.

When the news first came out, it really caused an uproar among the exploration teams. Most of the other teams' missions had been very smooth, and even if some teams were to fail their mission occasionally, they would not suffer many losses. But what about these people? One team was wiped out, while the other team reported back to base with severe injuries and a missing team member.

They met a Sword Saint? That guy named Grai was injured by a Sword Saint?

When the Wanderlust Team brought back this news, everyone's immediate reaction was to laugh at them. How could a mere Heroic Soul newcomer claim to have survived an attack from a Sword Saint? During the landing battle, everyone had witnessed how powerful a Sword Saint could be. It was not only because those involved in the landing battle had all been very powerful nor was it that their way of cultivation was better than that of humans. It was because Mizobudapi Sword Saints or Warlock Saints did not have a buffer period, unlike humans who had just entered the Heavenly Soul Stage. Once they advanced to the level of a Sword Saint, they would at least have the power of a 3-star Great Teacher. How could a Heroic Soul even hold a candle to a Sword Saint? Even for those expert Dimensional Devourers who were said to be evenly matched with Heavenly Souls, this was only a comparison with 1-star Great Teachers.

"It's okay to be weak, but it's definitely shameless of them to make up such an absurd excuse for the mission failure."

"KD must have been really unlucky to have teamed up with this group of people. It's obvious that they were too scared on the battlefield, so they sold KD out. It's ridiculous that they actually made up this lie to cover their asses."

"Are you sure they even went to the battlefield? I think they probably hid somewhere far away from the battle. Even KD was wiped out. How is it possible that they were able to escape with a team full of rookie members?

"Didn't they say that they split up?"

"Bullshit. You believe their lies? Where's the proof? You might as well believe that they really met a Sword Saint."

"I don't think we should let this matter go so easily. This group of people is horrible. They must be punished!" Some people couldn't take this lying down. On the battlefield, their worst fear was that their comrades-in-arms would backstab them or slack off. That would be equivalent to selling them out to their enemies, and this kind of thing had to be put to an end. It was absolutely necessary to deal with the Wanderlust Team as well as make an example of them!

"That's right! How could their partner team be completely wiped out, while only one of their team members goes missing? I think Wang Zhong is probably holed up somewhere, so that their lies would seem more believable!"

During the first two days of the Wanderlust Team's return to the Dimensional Exploration Team Department, there were all sorts of doubts and insults aimed at them.

Some wanted to see the Wanderlust Team punished, while some demanded a reasonable explanation. Various opinions and different voices began to emerge. In the beginning, there were only some people who expressed their anger towards the team for betraying their teammates, but gradually, more and more people joined in. Humans had always liked to follow trends.

Naturally, the Wanderlust Team was considered a problematic team. In this Holy Battle, it was considered the 'three-extremes' exploration team. It had the weakest strength, the worst luck, and the least number of people. Everyone on the northern battlefield knew about the back-door this team had due to Scarlet being the disciple of a Great Teacher. They could close one eye to such things, but if they had caused a level-four exploration team to be wiped out, no one could turn a blind eye to that. Everyone wanted the truth.

They didn't dare to demand an explanation from a Great Teacher, but they had to hash things out with the Wanderlust Team. At the very least, the Wanderlust Team shouldn't be allowed to sabotage any other teams again.

For the first two days, wherever Oscar and the rest went, all they got from others were eye rolls and cutting remarks. As such, they decided to remain holed up in their rooms to take care of the casualties in their team. It was not just Grai who needed treatment; Small Eyes and Feng had suffered injuries on the return trip. The main reason was that they had attracted several groups of monsters in the swamp as they were in a hurry to get back to headquarters.

Although it was chaotic within the department, the higher-ups remained unfazed. They had accepted the reason given by the Wanderlust Team because Grai's injury was indeed caused by a Sword Saint, based on preliminary analysis. As such, the team was not held responsible and was allowed to go free. However, their story had to be further confirmed by investigators. Of course, as long as there was no clear evidence of their 'betrayal', the Wanderlust Team would not be punished. The higher-ups did not mete out any punishments, but they also never stepped in to help the Wanderlust Team.

Naturally, the Wanderlust Team did not bother to explain themselves to those haters and brushed off the criticism they heard about themselves. Other than explaining the situation to the higher-ups when they submitted their mission report, they had also informed Scarlet of the details. When she heard that Wang Zhong was missing, she was worried sick. To Scarlet, she had to see Wang Zhong again, dead or alive. However, Sophia forbade her from looking for him and used missions to keep her in the base. Even when she came to visit the Wanderlust Team, she had to be accompanied by an assistant who was assigned by Great Teacher Sophia to watch her. Obviously, Sophia was afraid that her disciple would recklessly try to look for Wang Zhong and lose her life in the process. However, Scarlet said that Great Teacher Sophia had already sent out experts to check on the situation. There would probably be news of Wang Zhong soon.

Whether it was the Wanderlust Team or Scarlet, it was clear that they had pinned their last hopes on those who were deployed to collect intelligence. Be it Oscar and the others or Scarlet herself, they had witnessed Wang Zhong perform countless miracles, and they were still holding onto the hope that he was still alive. Sitting around and waiting was undoubtedly the most tormenting experience for them.

Escaping from a Sword Saint, especially on enemy territory, should be impossible. If it was not Wang Zhong who was missing, everyone would have given up hope long ago.