Dangerous Level of Determination

A few days later, outside the valley. 

Green trucks stopped at the entrance of the Little Li Village. 

The trucks were filled to the brim with the furniture and electrical appliances of the villagers.

From time to time, some villagers tied up a few working animals as well as some chickens and ducks, then dragged them onto the truck.

The troops that were stationed here after following the Transcendent Squad had also become the main force helping the villagers move their stuff. Everyone was sweating buckets as they rushed around to help the villagers move.

The village, which was usually quiet and peaceful, seemed a little more lively now.

At this time, in an old house in the village, Zheng Guodong unwrapped the thick bandage on his leg and found that the wound had mostly healed.

The spiritual aura possessed by transcendent beings was not only capable of increasing their physical strength, power, and speed, but also gave them healing abilities with extraordinary speed.

Even for some severe injuries, as long as external conditions were good, the victim could be recovered to their normal condition in a short period of time.

However, this also required the transcendents themselves to have extremely high control over spiritual energy. For a top Grade-D transcendent such as Zheng Guodong, it was naturally not a problem for him.

"Amazing," Commander Xu said with a laugh. 

Zheng Guodong shook his head. "If it's that amazing, then the four members wouldn't have..."

"Don't mention that anymore, you're not completely at fault," Commander Xu said, then handed Zheng Guodong a document file with the word 'Confidential' written on it. "Read the order written in this."

Commander Xu then walked out of the house.

Zheng Guodong just glanced at the handwriting on the document file, knowing that the inevitable had arrived.

"Retribution is here," Xu Guodong said with a bitter smile. (TN: We believe that it should be 'Zheng Guodong' instead of 'Xu Guodong' and that it was a typo on the author's part, but we have opted to translate it as is.)

He had never planned to avoid his punishment. In fact, he wanted the punishment to be severe.

The communication signal at the Little Li Village had recently become weaker and weaker, and they could not receive any connection from above at all. It was very dangerous and unsafe to directly use a telephone to issue any orders.

Therefore, the most recent command had been issued through this document composed of secret codes.

Xu Guodong opened the document file, but there was no order of punishment like he had anticipated. Instead, it urged him to go to a certain place as soon as possible.

After the documents were burned and destroyed, Xu Guodong walked out the door and saw the village chief Old Li, who seemed to have aged significantly since the first time Xu Guodong saw him.

"Chief, it's not suitable for us to live here anymore. Those from above have given us from the Little Li Village…"

"I know, I know, Captain Zheng. You don't have to say anymore." Old Li looked up at the valley in the distance and sighed heavily.

The mutant creatures that came from the valley were already at the doors of their houses.

Two nights ago, dozens of thick green caterpillars crawled into Old Wu's house that was situated at the western end of the village, the nearest house to the valley. They killed the sleeping Old Wu and even devoured him down to his bones.

When Captain Zheng heard the scream, he led a team to kill the green caterpillars with knives and guns, but Old Wu could not be saved. The news spread through the village overnight.

They also knew very well that this Little Li Village, despite many generations having lived here for hundreds of years, was no longer habitable. 

The Tang Kingdom had already arranged for them to move to a district that was farther away and safer, so why would they not go?

One day later. 

Zheng Guodong arrived at a huge building in a certain place within the Tang Kingdom.

He stood upright before a hale and hearty old man. 

"Take a seat. Don't stand while talking," the old man said as he pointed at a couch. On the desk in front of him was a thick stack of documents. 

The edge of the paper was rolled up quite a bit, evidence that the old man had read through it several times.

"Elder Zhai, I..."

"Enough. You want to be punished, don't you? Do you think something like that can be given to an elite like you?" the old man said angrily.

"But..."

"No 'but's. If you feel bad about it, then do a good job for me when you go to the next spiritual realm!"

"But those four people, because of me, they…"

"They were necessary sacrifices for our cause. If it wasn't for you, they might have died even earlier," the old man said leisurely, pointing to the report on the desk. "I called you here to talk about this. Don't tell me it's pointless."

Zheng Guodong's mouth fell open, and his heart froze over. 

Elder Zhai did not take the lives of people seriously. Did he really make the right choice when he chose to join the Transcendents Association?

"According to our calculations, the exact value of spiritual aura density in the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve should be around eighteen thousand."

"Is that so... If that's the case, then you alone should have been sufficient to complete the task," Elder Zhai said, squinting.

"But there's something wrong with the spiritual aura density of the mutant creatures. You can see from the report that they..."

"Beasts that are able to injure you would need to have spiritual aura density above Grade-D, but they appeared in a spiritual realm with Grade-E density. That is indeed quite strange." Elder Zhai picked up a document. "The spiritual realm of the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve has been listed as a Danger Orange Zone based on your report." 

Zheng Guodong nodded. 'Danger Orange Zone' meant that the area had a spiritual realm with monsters above Grade-D. Any nearby population needed to be relocated and troops were sent to scout for the degree of detection.

Below this was Nature Green Zones, which meant that the spiritual aura density of the spiritual realm was determined to be Grade-E. They were basically harmless, and ordinary troops were capable of guarding it.

Danger Orange Zone was when the spiritual aura density was determined to be between Grade-D and C, just like the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve.

Above Danger Orange Zone was Critical Red Zone, Grade-B;

Then there was Restricted Purple Zone, Grade-A;

And anything above that would be classified as Annihilation Black Zone. 

In these spiritual realms that were above Danger Orange Zones, each of them could be described as a forbidden area for humans filled with monsters of extremely terrifying power. They were extremely dangerous!

At present, among all of the nearly three hundred thousand spiritual realms in the world, ninety percent were Nature Green Zones, and the rest were mostly Danger Orange, Critical Red, and Restricted Purple Zones.

There was only one Annihilation Black Zone, which was near the Niuliyana Trench not far from the Tang Kingdom. Every sea monster that existed there had reached a 'catastrophic' level. If any of them were to show their faces, they could easily destroy a country!

Fortunately, most of the spiritual realm beasts all over the world rarely left the range of their spiritual realms.

However, as the spiritual aura density continued to increase, the range would gradually expand, and the area of the spiritual realm would gradually become wider.

The living area of humans that was originally dominated by the Blue Star had also been engulfed by the constant expansion of the spiritual realms, and the population gradually began to migrate.

There were nearly two thousand spiritual realms of Danger Orange level in the Tang Kingdom. However, they were mostly in uncharted old-growth forests, so the threat they posed was not too obvious.

However, if the Danger Orange spiritual realms gradually developed toward becoming a Critical Red Zone, then the Tang Kingdom would dispatch a large number of troops without mercy, and they would then smooth the area out using thermal weapons. 

In this era of spiritual aura recovery, anything could happen. One should always be vigilant and never be sloppy.

Zheng Guodong walked out of Elder Zhai's office with a new task. He went to the newly-emerged Shahai Spiritual Realm in Suzhou Province to complete the task.

However, in his heart, he was still brooding over the matter regarding the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve.

"Once I become stronger, I'll completely tear the area down!" he pledged through gritted teeth.