Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 375 - 86 Gu Pan: What Lies Beyond the Sea... (Seeking Monthly Pass)

Chapter 375: Chapter 86 Gu Pan: What Lies Beyond the Sea... (Seeking Monthly Pass)

"The supply point (19,19) is just ahead, everyone be careful, and slow down a bit more."

Standing atop a bale of hay, Tang Rou, with a fiery figure but icy eyes, took down her binoculars and directed towards a patch of forest to the east that was barely visible.

Entering forests and crossing waters is the basic rule for travelers.

If a team leader lacks even this basic discernment, then the team they lead is certain not to meet with good fortune.

Obviously, unlike someone like Gu Yue Ming, who only seemed like a Second Rank Transcendent but hadn’t experienced a life-or-death battle and was a mere decorative vase.

Tang Rou was a tough character truly forged through blood and fire.

Along this journey, they had encountered numerous attacks by fish monsters, which had weighed heavily on her mood.

Over twenty incidents.

For a mere distance of less than five kilometers, encountering so many creatures was simply unimaginable in the Wasteland.

Luckily, these fish monsters weren’t particularly strong; the most formidable was only around First Rank, level 14.

Moreover, they didn’t appear all at once, but attacked wave by wave, sometimes two to three at a time, and sometimes just a lone one charging over.

For a team like theirs, with three Second Rank and eleven First Rank Transcendents, such attacks were not difficult to handle.

But at the same time, the sharp-minded Tang Rou also noticed that the closer they got to (19,19), the stronger the enemies became, their numbers and levels both showing an upward trend as they progressed.

It seemed as if someone was lurking behind, trying to stop them from approaching.

This left one with no choice but to suspect that there was some sort of special situation at that supply point.

Ordinary people might be able to take a detour, but not them. They were out on a mission from the Supervision Bureau to investigate a recent surge of extraordinary species monsters beyond the border.

Besides, on another note, there was the intent to temper themselves.

Such enemies were of the highest quality whetstones.

The only thing that seemed amiss to Tang Rou was the sudden failure of her rascal-gifted ability "Bloodthirst," which could be used to ascertain enemy movements in advance.

The failure was indeed sudden, but Tang Rou didn’t find it too hard to accept.

It seemed there was some sort of special magnetic field here, affecting her judgment.

That’s what the books had claimed, at least.

In any case, this was the Wasteland; how could any enemy, no matter how strong, possibly threaten a team with their level of prowess?

They just needed to be careful.

After pondering for a moment, she issued the command, "Set up camp here, form into groups of three, and advance in a ’swastika formation’."

The swastika formation, a military tactic from ancient texts, was commonly used for scouting forests and mountains, with the primary goal of ensuring that one’s rear was secured while maintaining full awareness in all directions, preventing a state of being surrounded and attacked from both sides.

A simple method, but simplicity often equaled effectiveness.

Immediately, the hunting team organized into trios as instructed, spread out on all sides with twelve people advancing and two remaining behind to offer support.

The Gu Family sent four people on this hunting expedition; aside from Gu Pan and Gu Yue Ming, another group consisted of a Sword Master named Gu Zhou and a Sword Servant Gu Zheng, both under twenty years old and peers who graduated in the same year as Gu Pan.

Because of their special family circumstances, the main and servant pair couldn’t be separated, so they each were teamed with someone from the Tang Family and the Song Family to observe the situations to the rear left and right, respectively.

Assigned to the group with Gu Pan and Gu Yue Ming was a young man from the Tang Family, a "Scout" whose moniker among the Transcendents was "Bomb Man," skilled in using various powerful firearms. This person was no exception, his waist and back were bulging, seemingly concealing who knew how many guns and bombs.

He introduced himself with a familiar smile, "Hello, everyone, let’s work together from now on, please take good care of me, haha. My name is Tang Yuming. As a Scout, I particularly excel in observing enemy movements around us, you know what I mean, haha."

"Okay."

Both Gu Pan and Gu Yue Ming responded with a nod, more out of courtesy than anything else.

At that moment, Gu Pan did not look very pleased.

"Strange, the location is correct, the geographical environment is also right, so why are the creatures we’re encountering different from those in my memory?"

She frowned, continuously scanning her surroundings while muttering to herself.

In the more than a hundred "repeated histories" she experienced before, she clearly remembered that after they entered the supply point at the northeast corner of the border, various bizarre events occurred.

Whether it was the corpse-wrapped carrion containing their own bodies, the bloated-bellied strange snakes, or the giant octopus monster with tentacles over ten meters long at the end, all the powerful enemies appeared at a definite time point—after entering the supply point lighthouse.

But now, everything had changed.

First were the monsters encountered along the way, some with the heads of fish and bodies of humans, some with the heads of humans and bodies of fish, their distinct appearances were all new developments, never seen in previous history.

Next, there was the 14th level "Extraordinary Species Path" little octopus monster she remembered slaying with a few sword strikes in her memories, which did not reappear this time.

"Strange, where did the little octopus monster go? Could someone have made it disappear? What does it want to do? Where is it lurking and watching us? Could it be..." As people dispersed, Gu Pan’s voice grew slightly louder, mumbling to herself as if she was onto something, a spark of insight on the verge of leaping from her mind.