Chapter 204: Return to the Stronghold
At the military stronghold ten kilometers away from the Panlong Mountain Range, shrill alarm sirens suddenly rang out, and the soldiers on duty immediately became busy.
“Foreign races have left the Panlong Mountain Range and are pursuing our cleanup squad.”
“Prepare the missiles and intercept them for me.”
As various orders rang out, several missiles rose into the air at the fastest speed, their blazing tail flames extremely dazzling.
At this moment, Yan Hong’s squad, which had not ventured deep into the Panlong Mountain Range to begin with, relied on the little gadgets Zhou Ming had made to buy time and escape from the Panlong Mountain Range.
However, the giant-led hunting squad did not give up, because they were only several hundred meters away from their target.
Yet the thunderous roar appearing in the sky caused the Giant Race’s hunting squad to suddenly halt in place, as they sensed the aura of death descending upon them.
“Blue Star humans’ technological creations.”
The awkward words were shouted by the leading giant, who immediately led his subordinates back into the Panlong Mountain Range.
Just as the giants’ hunting squad fled the area, several ear-splitting explosions resounded in all directions.
“Damn it, luckily we had support from the Alliance military.”
Fang looked at the distant flames and also felt a trace of relief.
Although his Tusked Battle Boar had extremely fast short-distance charge speed, it was difficult to maintain high-speed charging for long periods, especially in the complex terrain of the wilderness.
Therefore, aside from Zhou Ming, his speed was considered the slowest.
After letting out a sigh, Fang turned his gaze toward Zhou Ming beside him, secretly thinking to himself.
At least someone in the squad was at the bottom now.
There was an ancient saying that suited the wilderness perfectly: when facing beasts that could not be resisted, one only needed to run faster than one’s companions.
However, Fang did not know that the truly slowest person in the squad was actually him.
One could only hope he would never learn this truth.
Because by the time he did, death would not be far away.
“Alright, it’s safe for now.”
“In the future, if we encounter foreign race powerhouses we can’t resist, our only hope will be to escape the Panlong Mountain Range covered by the No-Fly Domain.”
“Because based on past experience, our Blue Star humans and foreign race transcendent powerhouses will enter a stalemate. Don’t expect any transcendent expert to come save us.”
“Rest for two days. Two days later, we must re-enter the Panlong Mountain Range. During these two days, you may act freely, but after two days, you must appear at the stronghold. Otherwise, it will be treated as an automatic forfeiture of Alliance citizen status.”
After that, Yan Hong, as the captain, did not say anything further and directly rode his Shadow Leopard toward the military stronghold.
Seeing this, the others did not continue chatting either, each riding their Phantasmal Beasts to follow Yan Hong.
After a short while, the towering perimeter wall standing within the mountain valley appeared before Zhou Ming and the others.
Upon entering the stronghold, more than half of the tents from several days ago had already been dismantled. Various modularly constructed buildings appeared on both sides of the valley.
In addition, large engineering machines were excavating the rock walls, seemingly preparing to construct a solid, permanent fortress.
After entering the stronghold, everyone dispersed on their own. Zhou Ming did not immediately return to his room, but instead went to the temporary office area of the Hunter Guild to exchange his contribution points for a set of simple experimental equipment.
Perhaps the Hunter Guild had anticipated this long ago, because all the equipment Zhou Ming needed was prepared. Apparently, there were also Professional Beast Tamers who enjoyed research.
Especially the military’s Shepherds—aside from their protective force fields, they basically had no other special methods, at most mastering a few secret techniques.
Their primary focus was cultivating their own Phantasmal Beasts.
It could be said that among the many Beast Taming profession systems, Shepherds were all experts in ferocious beasts and possessed considerable experience in nurturing Phantasmal Beasts.
After obtaining the equipment he needed, Zhou Ming returned to his independent living room.
The room was not large, but it had all the basic furniture, as well as a separate bathroom.
After a simple wash, Zhou Ming took a Werejackal corpse out of his spatial ring.
“What a pity, I only got the corpse of a Werejackal warrior.”
The stench emitted by the Werejackal corpse, along with various other unpleasant odors, did not bother Zhou Ming at all.
Instead, he somewhat regretted not acting in time to seize the corpse of the Werejackal apprentice priest.
However, the Panlong Mountain Range currently lacked nothing in terms of foreign races. After a brief sigh, Zhou Ming shifted his gaze back to the Werejackal corpse.
Using the wooden table in the room as a dissection platform, he took out a scalpel that gleamed with cold light.
The first step was to strip off the armor worn by the Werejackal warrior.
“It should weigh about fifty jin.”
Relying on the feel, he roughly estimated the armor’s weight.
With such weight, it would be extremely difficult for an ordinary person to move freely while wearing it.
“Bang.”
After a brief assessment, Zhou Ming lifted the armor stained with various filth in his left hand, then clenched his right hand into a fist and smashed it forward.
A violent impact sound echoed in the room.
Fortunately, this room was provided for conscripted Professional Beast Tamers, and its soundproofing and privacy protection were quite good, so it did not attract the attention of others.
After that punch, a sunken fist imprint immediately appeared on the armor.
“Pretty good toughness, and it also has some energy-absorbing effect. I wonder what material it’s made of.”
Given the limited conditions, Zhou Ming did not investigate further. After rinsing it in the bathroom, he put it back into the spatial ring, planning to test its detailed data once he had professional instruments.
Afterward, Zhou Ming began dissecting the Werejackal corpse, while also familiarizing himself with the Werejackal’s bodily structure.
For a time, the room originally meant for living was turned into a slaughterhouse by Zhou Ming, with a thick, lingering stench of blood.
When Zhou Ming and the others returned to the stronghold, it was already afternoon. The dissection work continued until the next day before it finally ended.
At this moment, the room was truly scattered with pieces here and there, yet all the organs were neatly arranged, just like a butcher’s stall at a marketplace.
“The physical strength is slightly inferior to that of a ferocious beast, but internally there are clear traces of enhancement by energy element particles. It should be that the effects of buff spells haven’t completely dissipated.”
“If there were no armor or weapons assisting, a Werejackal warrior would at most be evenly matched with a Jungle Wolf.”
“The heart contains a special bloodline power, very similar to the heart of a Violent Lion. This should be the reason for the Werejackals’ bloodthirsty nature.”
……
In the barely standable space of the room, Zhou Ming took off his gloves and was recording the various data he had discovered.
However, if he wanted more detailed data, he would need to dissect more Werejackal corpses. It would be even better if he had live Werejackals as experimental subjects.
After finishing his records, Zhou Ming finally surveyed the state of his room. After a moment of silence, he decided to leave the cleanup work to the stronghold staff.
Because there were conscripted Professional Beast Tamers, the military provided some soldiers to act as service personnel.
Zhou Ming went to the bathroom for a simple wash, changed into a fresh set of clothes, then found the stronghold service staff and requested a room change.
As for those scattered chunks of flesh and blood, he left them for the stronghold service personnel to deal with.
Afterward, quite a few soldier service staff looked at Zhou Ming with a trace of indescribable expression in their eyes.