873 Lan Daier

Needless to say, Grai had mastered all three Circuits and could even help advise the others. As for Napier, he improved by leaps and bounds after mastering the Soul Power Circuits. This time, he not only broke through to the peak of the Heroic Soul Stage, but his control over the three Soul Power Circuits was already on par with Grai's. The only thing he was lacking was that he was still a little slow. Not to mention activating the Soul Circuits at will like Wang Zhong did, even if he was to activate them intermittently, the success rate of activating a Circuit in real combat would still be relatively low, but it would be unreasonable to expect so much from someone who had only begun to learn this 10 days ago. With sufficient time and experience, he would be able to do so eventually. It had to be noted that Grai could already reach the combat power of 20,000 Grassos with the Power Circuit. In other exploration teams, that would be sufficient to become a team captain! Who would believe that he was a rookie who hadn't even reached the peak of the Heroic Soul Stage 10 days ago?

Everyone felt that this guy's improvement was unbelievably fast. Recently, there were many people in the Exploration Team Department talking about how the Wanderlust Team picked up someone else's kill. In the past, the Wanderlust Team was truly very weak, so they could only swallow the insults, but now, they really couldn't take it lying down. All of them were looking forward to going on a major mission to prove themselves. At this time, everyone had also started to propose to Wang Zhong that he should start to consider accepting missions for the team. However, Wang Zhong was not ready to rush into it. Everyone's improvements were calculated based on how they performed during training, but only in actual combat could they know their true abilities. Moreover, even in terms of practice, everyone was still far from mastering the Circuits, and they also had too little knowledge about the limits of the Soul Circuits.

Currently, the Soul Power Circuits could only be considered a cultivation theory. They still had to be tried and tested in actual combat, to see if there were any side effects or sequelae, etc. His own personal success did not mean that this system was suitable for everyone.

As such, he would start accepting missions, but the team still had to lay low for the time being. Currently, the Wanderlust Team was already the center of attention, and it made everyone a little too complacent. If they were to fail, the aftermath would be overwhelmingly negative. The Holy Battle had just begun. As long as they waited till the cultivation system was fully mature, there would be many opportunities for the Wanderlust Team to make a name for itself, so they didn't have to worry about it now.

Wang Zhong arranged accommodation for Mu Zi, and Scarlet had to report back to her teacher. Great Teacher Sophia had allocated Scarlet several important duties. After her 10-day leave-of-absence, there was definitely a lot of accumulated work to handle; thus, she would probably have to work like a dog for the next few days. When Scarlet had to leave, both of them were extremely reluctant to part from each other, and the entire Wanderlust Team had to witness the process of them parting unwillingly.

Although both of them had established a relationship before going to Earth, they did not openly show their affection for each other in such a nauseating way, unlike now. It was so much so that Napier began to complain about not having a girlfriend and that he needed to find one quickly. Even Grai couldn't help but sigh with emotion. The series of setbacks after the CHF failed to change Senior Wang Zhong but love could, and it happened within a short span of 10 days.

"Love…" Grai's eyes revealed that he was also looking forward to experiencing this.

Among the envious stares, there was a very unhappy stare.

It was actually a coincidence. Ella had been doing regular spot checks on the health of the soldiers in the Exploration Team Department in the past two days to ensure that each soldier was in their best possible physical condition at all times. This was the responsibility of the gourmets from the logistics department. Naturally, she heard many things about Wang Zhong and the Wanderlust Team.

Frankly speaking, Ella had always felt that Wang Zhong was not worthy of Lan Daier. Nevertheless, since Lan Daier liked him and was willing to accept him, as her disciple and good friend, Ella would unconditionally support her decision till the end. She could only say that Wang Zhong was a lucky dog. Otherwise, based on his strength, he didn't deserve to be with Teacher Lan Daier. However, she didn't expect that this dude would achieve such outstanding feats at the start of the Holy Battle. He actually killed a Sword Saint. No matter how he did it, the fact that he did it was sufficient to prove his worth.

At the moment when she heard this news, Ella was really happy for Lan Daier and Wang Zhong for a while. This dude was finally making progress. He actually killed a Sword Saint! With this achievement, Teacher Lan Daier should be able to make do with him. Unexpectedly, the news of Wang Zhong and Scarlet getting together began to spread.

Actually, this was not really news. Both of them didn't even try to hide since before they returned to Earth. The Exploration Team Department wasn't that big as well. The news of the luckiest newcomer and the disciple of the best teacher getting together was definitely very eye-catching. At first, Ella took it with a grain of salt as she did secretly sound Wang Zhong out for her teacher before. Although it was rumored that Wang Zhong had already gotten together with Scarlet, Ella felt that Wang Zhong preferred Lan Daier over Scarlet, so she assumed that this was merely hearsay. She reckoned that it might be because they were in the same exploration team, so others easily misunderstood their relationship.

Since she had to work in the Exploration Team Department these days, she took the chance to spy on the Wanderlust Team. To her surprise, she caught sight of Wang Zhong holding Scarlet's hands and releasing them reluctantly. Before she left, they even kissed each other, and Scarlet looked back at him with every three steps she took…

Ella was definitely exploding with anger! Two days ago, when she heard of it, she did not intend to tell her teacher about this kind of unreliable news, but now, she couldn't stand it anymore!

The Logistics Department, gourmets' camp…

"This Wang Zhong is a heartless jerk! He has no loyalty whatsoever!" said Ella angrily, drinking water at the same time. Just now, she was so angry that she came back directly without completing her work. She had to inform Lan Daier about this kind of news immediately, to let her know what kind of person Wang Zhong was so that she would no longer be deceived by this heartless jerk. Scarlet was also blacklisted by her. "What's so good about that Scarlet girl? She's a far cry from you! You did so much for that jerk, and he doesn't even know about it! Does he really think that those things you did for him could be bought with money? He's not worthy of you!"

As Ella ranted about Wang Zhong and Scarlet indignantly, Lan Daier just smiled.

"Teacher, why are you still smiling?" Ella was so angry that she could no longer think clearly. "You spent so much on this ingrate! If I were you, I would poison him to death! Let his intestines rot, be covered with abscesses, and make foot corns grow on his forehead! "

"Hahaha!" Lan Daier could no longer hold back her laughter; this girl truly had a wicked tongue.

"Am I wrong?" Ella's eyes widened in anger. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't dare to behave like this in front of her teacher, but this time, that heartless jerk had gone too far.

With a smile, Lan Daier said, "Girl, you've got it all wrong."

Ella shook her head many times and replied, "That's impossible. I saw it with my own eyes. How can I be wrong?"

"I wasn't referring to that, but your so-called 'did so much for him'. From the beginning, I didn't expect any returns from him. Also, I think all is well now. Wang Zhong and Scarlet are well-matched for each other," replied Lan Daier.

"But…" Ella was dumbfounded. What did she mean by that?

"There's no 'but'. This was not a transaction. You will understand next time. Now, all is well… This is the way things are supposed to be," said Lan Daier, smiling.

Ella was speechless. It seemed that the observers were more anxious than the person involved. What was Lan Daier thinking… She really couldn't understand!

...…

The situation in the southern battlefield remained stagnant and had yet to improve. As the southern battlefield attracted most of the Mizbudapi people's attention, the advancement of the northern army base gradually accelerated.

The defense line of the base had already advanced to the Black Boulder Energy Caves, and several mainstay battalions had received the orders to station themselves there. This was part of the Holy City's plan to take complete control over the entire zone. It would then serve as an important stronghold to intimidate the Mizobudapi people in the north. They were about to form an attack stance to relieve the pressure on the Holy City Army in the southern battlefield. Additionally, the more land the Holy City Army was able to take over meant that the area of contact with the Mizobudapi people would be larger, and the Holy City Army would then enter more frequent small-scale battles with the Mizobudapi people.

The good days of the big exploration teams were at its end. The difficulty of the missions released by the exploration department was increasing at a rapid pace. The military achievements and Holy Coins that were easily earned some time ago had all become difficult now. For those weaker level-four exploration teams or those with impaired strength, going on missions alone to earn rewards had become a luxury. Most exploration teams had to join forces and carefully mull over the intelligence received for each mission as well as the difficulty, but even so, bad news was frequently heard from the frontlines.

"Have you heard? The Blue Ray Squadron is gone."

"Don't tell me it's that mission again? Many teams have been wiped out already. F*ck, it's definitely a suicide mission! The worst part is that everyone gets killed so fast."

"Obviously, even the Seekers met their end in this mission. Do you think other teams can handle this? The following exploration teams who were killed were too blinded by the mission rewards. Even if the rewards are good, you have to be alive to take it…"

Originally, it was just an ordinary mission. They just had to wipe out the enemies there. Instead, the Seekers were the first to be wiped out, even though they were one of the top-10 exploration teams. The Seekers were considered the 'expert camp' of the dimensional people, and there were countless experts in the team. In the northern base, they were actually comparable to the Phantom Squadron, yet after sending out three mini teams for the mission, none of them managed to come back alive. After that, they sent out a mini team with another to back them up, but they too went missing. As a result, the Seekers lost nearly half of their manpower in this mission and could no longer spare any more manpower to complete the mission. The Exploration Team Department had also released a new mission that involved finding the whereabouts of this group of people as well as information about the situation, with handsome rewards. Initially, most people assumed that it was merely an intelligence mission and that the risk factor was low. Since then, several exploration teams had accepted the mission with the handsome rewards in mind. Although all of them had considerable combat strength, none of them managed to escape the fate of going missing, and the Blue Ray Squadron was the latest team to have disappeared.

"Why won't the higher-ups directly deploy a Great Teacher for this? I feel that this matter is a little beyond us."

"You wish. Great Teachers are not dispatched at random. It is said that they already lost a Great Teacher in the south. The Holy Land is now very cautious about this. The Octopus people are really a force to be reckoned with. This is clearly a trap since they know it's impossible for our army to change our attack direction."

"F*ck, so what if it's a trap? They can't just leave them in the lurch." Some people grew anxious. Although there had always been competition and friction between the different exploration teams, they would inevitably feel sad for the other teams in such situations. What if they themselves were the ones that went missing? What would happen to them if the higher-ups and the Exploration Team Department just abandoned them? "The current missions are already extremely difficult. If they just couldn't care less about us, who the hell would dare to accept the mission?"