Chapter 170: Bigger is better

Inside the labyrinth of underground tunnels, six people gathered together taking a break from their mana cultivation. Besides these six people, there was also one cat and one wolf. 

While everyone continued talking about something serious, the wolf was absent-mindedly rolling the tabby cat on the floor, playing with her as if she was a ball.

She didn't seem to be concerned in the least about the conversation that was going on.

Lu Chen noticed this and he chuckled lightly at the irony of the situation. Here he was arguing for her, but her highness was paying no attention.

"Little white, come with me for a minute." He called for the black savage-looking wolf and the man and the wolf duo casually walked over to another cave.

"Where is brother Lu Chen going?" Xu Meilin curiously asked.

"Where else? Both of them are going to talk about some secrets. Hmph." Alex frowned. Would it kill them to include her also in the conversation?

Xu Meilin smiled awkwardly and patted her. She didn't care too much about it, at least not as much as Alex did. "Do you think brother Lu Chen will agree to this?"

"Who knows? I think at the end of the day… it is not him or me that makes the decision…" She glanced one more time at the wolf and walked away as well, wearing a concerned look on her face.

Fang Yuan had suggested that they all come back with him and approach the General about joining the military camp as allies. 

They wouldn't be completely dependent like other civilians and be restricted by the rules and regulations of the camp. Instead, they would be co-existing allies. 

So if one group was ever in danger, then the other group could help out and vice-versa. This help could be either urgent need of supplies or other medical or health professionals or even extra manpower.

This way one group did not need to fully submit to the other group and could just help each other when required.

However, this was easier said than done. 

Asking strong awakened fighters like Lu Chen, and Guan Ye to take a step back when they did not necessarily have to, especially waving a white flag did not seem feasible at all.

Instead of trying to talk sense into the enemy and going round about using this cumbersome peaceful method, it would be simpler if they directly put down a few men and took over the group by force.

But doing this would inevitably result in loss of life and reduce the total strength of the group on the whole. Considering that their group size would now increase by a thousand, it was akin to shooting oneself in the foot.

Therefore, the easiest and the simplest method would be to completely ignore these thousand civilians and just keep on moving forward and growing stronger as they had been doing all this time.

Their total group size would be less than thirty which was a lot fewer mouths to feed and a lot fewer people to take care of. 

Not to mention every single one of them had by now grown somewhat stronger and was more than capable of holding their own when it came to battling both zombies and mutated beasts.

So really there was no need to go out of their way to help someone else. And this was what worried Alex. 

Were they really going to ignore a thousand human lives? They were all someone's mothers, fathers, daughters, or sons. Was it really alright to discount human lives like this? 

It seemed very cruel to do something like that.

Maybe if Xu Meilin helped her along, she might have the confidence to convince Lu Chen, but what about the beast?

That dog or the wolf or whatever it was seemed extremely loyal to Lu Chen and Su Yan but only to them. She wasn't blind to not notice how the beast didn't flinch back when a gun was pointed at her head. 

They had spent so much time together and fought alongside and yet she herself was not that significant to the beast. Why would it care about other human lives?

Just thinking about everything gave Alex a headache. She could that there was going to be some friction and unnecessary trouble no matter what.

While she grumbled and paced back and forth nervously, Lu Chen stared at the dog who was nonchalantly dragging the cat along on the ground.

"Is something wrong?" He asked her. She seemed to be in deep thought and unusually silent ever since the ghost vanished. Also, the ghost woman had spoken some weird words before disappearing.

Growl. Qin Hua shook her head. She did have something on her mind but it was not necessarily a bad thing.

She flipped open her inventory space and once again eyed the object that had mysteriously appeared in her inventory after the ghost vanished.

It looked like a chunk of diamond or some other black-colored gemstone that shone brilliantly.

<Ding. Trial Grounds Core. One use only>

She had asked the system about it and it spouted out that this was related to her soldier rank. So Qin Hua had been mulling over this ever since. 

She was itching to try it out and see if it would upgrade her power even further but the small adage that it was one-time use only forced her to be more cautious.

More than anything, she wanted to know if this training ground would enable her to catch a glimpse of the other realm that she keeps coming across.

"Alright, if nothing is wrong, then I am glad." Lu Chen's words snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up, finally paying attention to what was happening around her.

"So what do you think we should do?" He asked her.

Qin Hua looked confused and scribbled on the floor. "About what?"

"About becoming allies with the military group." Lu Chen coughed awkwardly. It seemed that he was right. She hadn't been paying attention at all.

He wanted to give her some time to think about it, but the very next second her answer was quickly scribbled. "Whatever you want. I don't care."

Lu Chen wryly chuckled. He had already somewhat expected this answer. This girl didn't care about the burdens on her at all, probably because she had the strength to back it up.

He silently thought through things for a while and then made his decision. 

Before leaving, he raised his hand out of habit and patted her and then abruptly stopped realizing that she probably wouldn't like it. However, the beast looked like she was enjoying it.

Lu Chen was caught off guard. What am I doing… He quickly walked out of the cave opening. He wanted to settle things as soon as possible and get back to training.

He could almost feel the mana coalescing together inside his body. It was almost as if he was just a step away from breaking through a barrier. 

With this, his strength and power could definitely increase several folds. He clenched his fists and walked briskly back to the others.

"You are back." Alex sulked. "What did you two talk about?"

"Hmmm? What are you talking about?" Lu Chen looked at her in confusion. "Let's go. I don't want to waste any time. I am ready to do this from my end. Don't blame me if the other party doesn't agree."

Alex opened her mouth wide, almost unable to believe his decision. "May I ask what made you change your mind?"

"Do you really want to know?" Lu Chen smiled and his calm smile had her very nervous. "What does a huge mass of population attract?"

"Beasts…?" Alex answered.

"Exactly. What better way to grind than using a thousand people as bait?" He didn't wait for her to respond and quickly climbed out to the ground on the top. 

"Using a thousand people as bait…?" Alex and Xu Meilin look at each other dumbfoundedly. This guy… was he joking or was he being serious? Wasn't this going a bit too far?

"Well, whatever. At least he agreed." Alex bitterly smiled. She could already feel a headache coming on. She then followed him and climbed out, Guan Ye joining them as well.

Fang Yuan and Geming were still standing out there and kicking small rocks. They looked up to see the trio walking towards them. 

They were also surprised after seeing Lu Chen return. Was he smiling? They agreed so easily?

"Did you guys already make a decision?" Fang Yuan restlessly asked.

"Let's go. You two better be prepared to convince your General. I am agreeing to this for now, but if it becomes too troublesome, I cannot make any promises." Lu Chen hummed and started walking.

"Only you three are coming with us? Aren't you worried that there might be some unexpected dangers at the camp?" Since he wanted a good collaboration, he decided to be upfront about everything.

"Don't worry. This is more than enough to guarantee our safety." Lu Chen smiled in response. 

Of course, he didn't mention the fact that there was also another figure right beside them, prowling in the dark.