It seemed the people of Cliffside Camp had long since discovered the existence of the white fuzz. Otherwise, they never would have deliberately allied with their former enemies to fight the powerful camp across White Strait.
Li Ban highly suspected they had also allied with other camps across White Strait, planning to carve up Red Fruit Camp to secure territory for themselves after they relocated.
This plan had likely been in motion for some time. Red Fruit Camp had probably come seeking corrosive fluid precisely because they were already under attack from those other camps across White Strait.
However, they never expected that the very people they sought help from had long since joined forces with their enemies.
Therefore, Red Fruit Camp sending Shu Yu to acquire the fluid was doomed to be a one-way trip—an operation destined to fail.
By the time Li Ban stepped out of Camp Leader Gu Sa's office, he had already demanded some White Seeds for Zhu Yao.
Before leaving, Li Ban told Gu Sa that he would depart within a month.
Gu Sa showed no surprise, even standing up to see him out.
By unspoken agreement, neither of them brought up Zhu Yao.
Even the most heavily injured among them, Chu Ke, was sitting against the wall wrapped in damp bandages.
"Come in."
Li Ban let them into the room. Zhu Yao was in no rush to speak with him; instead, she walked quietly to the innermost crate and sat down.
"Vice Captain," Xie Xiaowu said, offering a deep bow. "Thank you for saving my life today."
Li Ban accepted her gesture and raised a hand. "You're still my squad members. Naturally, I wasn't going to just watch you die."
"Still?" Xie Xiaowu straightened, looking at him in surprise.
"Yes. I am still a temporary resident of Cliffside Camp, but barring any accidents, I'll be leaving within a month."
He looked over the squad.
He had originally planned to stay longer, but he had no intention of getting dragged into the conflicts between the camps. Leaving sooner meant less trouble.
He had always had only one goal: leaving the Recycling Station.
"I'm heading across White Strait, but my ultimate destination is the Continental Center."
Though he didn't specifically mention the rift at the Continental Center, anyone who had spent even two months in the Recycling Station knew what was there.
Xie Xiaowu and Liu Yi were visibly at a loss. Chu Ke's eyes lit up. Ming Kai remained completely indifferent, as if none of this concerned him, yet he insisted on standing there with the rest.
Li Ban clearly took in everyone's reactions. After waiting a moment, he asked, "Zhu Yao and Ed are coming with me. What about you? Does anyone want to go see the Continental Center?"
The room fell quiet again. Li Ban gave them time to think. "You don't need to answer me right now. You have until I leave to make up your minds."
The squad members had originally intended to use this opportunity to thank their vice captain and draw closer to him, hoping to maintain their seamless cooperation on future missions.
Instead, Li Ban had dropped such a massive bombshell that their original intentions instantly lost all meaning.
For ordinary members who had spent so many years on the continent's border, traveling to the Continental Center was a truly explosive prospect.
"He gave this to you," Li Ban said, turning around and tossing a small cloth bag to Zhu Yao.
Zhu Yao caught it and peeked inside. "There are more here than I expected."
"Consider it compensation for all these years."
Because Li Ban now stood behind Zhu Yao, Gu Sa could no longer control her as he once had.
Since his plan had failed, the person he could once afford to offend now required an apology—just to ensure she would leave quietly instead of wreaking havoc on her way out.
Zhu Yao calmly put the bag away. She seemed to have figured something out, but her years of experience allowed her to treat such matters with total tranquility.
She looked up, a sudden thought bringing a wry smile to her face as she looked at Li Ban. "If I could leave the Recycling Station right now, I might just be able to advance to a Solar Priest."
The world of the Recycling Station was indeed despair-inducing, but if one could endure it, their state of mind would experience tremendous growth, saving endless hours of spiritual cultivation.
Zhu Yao had already given up, yet following Li Ban had somehow rekindled her hope.
Perhaps it was because she had never seen a trace of confusion in Li Ban's eyes.
From defiance, to fierce struggle, to perseverance, to surrender, to confusion, to sinking, to compromise, and finally, to numbness.
Zhu Yao felt as though she had died more than once in the Recycling Station.
There was a time when she felt she was nothing but a walking corpse here.
Every day she worked just to maintain that corpse, and every night she returned to a coffin-like room, holding absolutely no expectations of opening her eyes the next day.
Everyone here said Ed was dragging her down, that with her skills, she would still be a formidable warrior even without spiritual rhinoceros.
But none of them knew that back in the Sea of Monsters, just as she was giving up, Ed had blocked a fatal blow for her.
The monster's razor-sharp foreleg had slashed down into his skull, nearly cleaving his head in two.
Right before passing out, Ed had said only one thing: "I don't want to die."
It was that single sentence that gave Zhu Yao, who had already resigned herself to fate, the push she needed to move again.
Ignoring the danger, she dragged the unconscious Ed and fought her way out of the Sea of Monsters.
Even knowing she no longer had any chance of leaving the Recycling Station, for the sake of saving Ed, she permitted herself to give up first, permitted herself to retreat first, permitted the rest of her life to hold no other meaning.
Her life's motivation seemed reduced to a single thing.
Keeping Ed alive for as long as he breathed.
Therefore, she couldn't die just yet either.
But this kind of life only kept her body alive.
Her soul remained numb, slowly rotting away inside her flesh, waiting for the day it would turn to dust.
That was until a certain guy appeared—a man missing both legs, who had to be carried everywhere, who was told exactly what kind of hopeless place he had arrived in. Even after learning there was no possibility of leaving, his eyes remained bright and burning. In him, Zhu Yao felt as though she had seen a flame that had never existed in the Recycling Station.
The dust of her soul began to stir, and she finally started putting effort into doing things again.
Perhaps she hadn't completely escaped her walking-corpse state, but she could once again feel the warmth of life.
So, upon receiving the White Seeds, Zhu Yao's first thought wasn't about the feeling of spiritual rhinoceros filling her body, but about the growth of her state of mind.
Li Ban threw up his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "That puts you two whole realms above me. Maybe I should just call you Master."
If Li Ban were asked to call Zhu Yao "Master" right now, he wouldn't feel the slightest bit awkward or dissatisfied.
Over these past few days, Zhu Yao had imparted practically everything she knew about the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, all the spells she had learned, and all her insights into spiritual cultivation to Li Ban.
The only thing she had held back was her life experience within the Recycling Station.
But Li Ban believed that as long as they left the Recycling Station, Zhu Yao's past here would become nothing more than conquered hardships, something they could look back on and laugh about.
The two chatted relaxedly, their voices the only sound in the room.
The others stood quietly by the door, feeling somewhat awkward.
Li Ban made zero effort to persuade anyone else in the room to follow him.
A life-altering choice was a major event.
If they left with him, they might die halfway there, they might die in the Sea of Monsters, or they might turn into monsters themselves.
If they stayed at Cliffside Camp, they might live on for decades or even centuries, or they might perish in some other mission or conflict.
Li Ban wouldn't—and couldn't—make choices for them at the crossroads of their lives.
The desire to leave the Recycling Station was a deeply subjective matter. People who had to be pushed forward could never accomplish something so hopelessly difficult.
"I'll go with you!"
Just as Li Ban was about to dismiss everyone to think it over in their own time, a voice suddenly rang out.
Surprisingly, it was Ming Kai, who rarely spoke.
He lifted his head, every ounce of hesitation vanishing from his eyes.
Seeing no difficulty, wavering, or apprehension on his face, Li Ban nodded. "Alright. When it's time to leave, I'll call for you. Make sure you stock up on basic supplies."
Ming Kai nodded.
But aside from Ming Kai, no one else could make an immediate decision.
Even the most honest and straightforward, Liu Yi, looked terribly awkward, clearly showing he had zero intention of leaving.
Li Ban waved his hand, dismissing everyone.
Only when the room was left to just the two of them did he tell Zhu Yao about his previous conversation with Gu Sa.
Zhu Yao had also been to the border, though she hadn't paid it much attention after learning there was no hope of leaving from there.
"Before I head to the central rift, I plan to visit the border."
Even though others had already checked it out, Li Ban still wanted to see it for himself.
Without seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't form his own judgment.
While he knew going there would most likely yield nothing, traveling to Wanghai Cliff would probably take three years anyway. Spending two weeks checking out the border was nothing in comparison.
"That works. It'll give me a chance to see just what exactly that white fuzz is, too."
"Yeah, we can run a few tests then. Although the white fuzz has only appeared at the continent's border, we need to be prepared for the possibility of it showing up elsewhere and becoming an obstacle to our departure."
Right as the two were discussing their plans, someone knocked on Li Ban's door again.
Before he could even walk over, Ed's booming voice rang out from the hallway.
"Li Ban, open up! The person you're waiting for has been waiting all day! Are you and Zhu Yao finished in there?"
"Cough, cough, cough—" Li Ban quickly rushed to the door, violently coughing as he threw it open.
It was a very strange sensation: your throat clearly didn't want to cough, but your brain forcefully compelled it to.
"My squad members literally just left. You're right across the hall—did you really not see them?" Even knowing Ed was missing a few screws, Li Ban couldn't help but complain.
He then looked up and saw Tail standing behind Ed, wearing a look of total indifference.
Despite sharing the same identity and appearance as Cat Girl, their different life experiences made them entirely different people when facing Li Ban.
Li Ban smiled, the awkwardness in his heart suddenly vanishing.
"Please, come in."
Tail followed Ed inside and pursed her lips. "I only got a ten-day temporary residence permit. I don't want to rent a room here, and I don't want to work here. So if you're leaving, you'd better do it within ten days, or I guess we'll just have to rely on fate to meet again!"
"Within ten days? That's fine." Li Ban didn't try to get Tail to extend her timeline. Ten days was well within a month anyway.
Right now, there were only two things left for him to do in the camp:
One, tour the rye plantations.
Two, wait for his squad members to make their choices.
Li Ban believed that if someone truly wanted to make a choice, a single night was more than enough.
Deliberating beyond that was just self-torture; the outcome wouldn't change.
That was, of course, assuming there was no external interference.
Tail looked left and right, tilting her chin up. "Where am I sleeping tonight?"
Zhu Yao was about to suggest that Ed and Li Ban room together while she shared with Tail. However, she remembered that Ed had cleaned his own room, which meant it was undoubtedly a complete disaster.
Would Tail be willing to stay in that?
Should she move over here and let Li Ban take her room?
Or would Li Ban and Tail share a room...
Remembering that Li Ban also knew the Tail from the outside world, Zhu Yao's lips moved, but in the end, she offered no suggestions.
"You can stay here. I have things to do outside tonight," Li Ban said directly, unaware of the myriad possibilities Zhu Yao had just cycled through. "You can take the bedroom inside. I've never actually slept in it."
In the barely one month he had spent at Cliffside Camp, Li Ban hadn't properly lain down to sleep once. He was either out at night or sitting cross-legged on a large crate in the living room, cultivating with his eyes closed.
Now possessing a massive amount of waste elements, he no longer needed to save portions for experiments; he could raise his strength to his heart's content.
His spiritual rhinoceros reserves were already failing to keep up with his actual combat strength. He needed to seize this opportunity to catch up as quickly as possible.
He actually didn't have anything going on tonight, but to accommodate Tail, who wasn't familiar with him, he decided to go check on his hand-picked squad members to see how many might actually leave with him.
At the same time, he could guard against any other little schemes Cliffside Camp might try to pull.
Zhu Yao took the initiative to fetch some supplies for Tail from her own room. Tail thanked her earnestly, then paid her a single stalk of rye.
"No need. It's just a small gesture from a companion," Zhu Yao said, declining with a soft chuckle.
But Tail stubbornly shoved the rye into Zhu Yao's hands anyway. "We're not companions," she whispered.
Zhu Yao blanked for a moment, entirely unsure of what exactly Li Ban and Tail had discussed.
She glanced at Li Ban, and seeing him nod, she accepted Tail's rye.
Seeing that Tail was settled in, Li Ban left the room.
As he walked down the corridor, the occasional passersby began nodding and greeting him.
Clearly, in the eyes of the uninformed, his participation in the camp's secret operation had invisibly elevated his status.
Li Ban turned a few corners, expertly exiting the cliffside and stepping into the open area outside the camp, which was enclosed by a stone wall.
Outside the camp, a battle with monsters was underway.
As usual, only those on guard duty were launching defensive counterattacks.
They fought with everything they had, knowing full well that no one would come to their aid unless they suffered catastrophic casualties.
Right in front of these people, Li Ban vaulted over the wall. Any monsters that tried to get near him had their heads chopped off with a single swing of his sword.
However, Li Ban completely ignored the monsters that didn't approach him.
The defending guards breathed a sigh of relief, but seeing Li Ban walk further away with no intention of clearing out the rest of the horde, they steeled themselves and resumed the fight.