<h4>Chapter 586: Stronger</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The six-fingered red-tailed beast was wary of the stronghold. It studied the stronghold from afar. After about half a minute, it turned back to leave.


    Ye Chong was curious about where the red-tailed beast came from. Killing a red-tailed beast had no practical value for them now; it would be far more useful to find out where the red-tailed beast originated from. However, the animal seemed intelligent. Perhaps he should just kill it? If the leader of a "pack" of red-tailed beast was intelligent, then killing off the "pack" would be many times more difficult. Ye Chong was confident that he could kill the animal right now. His strength had mostly recovered. He could kill a six-fingered red-tailed beast using just Han Jia, much less Celest. Besides, he had also be stronger.


    However, killing it would mean that he could not investigate where it came from!


    After considering his dilemma for a few seconds, Ye Chong came to a decision.


    Ye Chong gave his order without emotion. "Send a hundred students who scored 95 and above in mech piloting to follow the red-tailed beast. Report all observations back to base."


    "Yes sir." Appilok immediately went to organize the mission. He knew the students well, and would know who were the best to send for this mission.


    The mechs were already on standby. They took off from the stronghold and followed closely behind the red-tailed beast. A pursuit required good piloting skills. The pilot must have good spatial awareness and be able to predict the target''s next move.


    After making the arrangements, Ye Chong turned to his new arrivals.


    "How did you get here?" Ye Chong looked at Rui Bing.


    Rui Bing looked calm. She replied softly, "It was Aried. He was doing spatial experiments when an ident happened."


    "Is everyone else alright? Did they find Mu and Shang?"


    Rui Bing nodded, and then shook her head. "The Sang Tribe is alright. Yi Ju is developing quickly. They are all very busy. Did you and Mu and Shang get separated? Before I left, they still do not have news of Mu and Shang."


    "We got separated in Gray Valley." Ye Chong exined.


    Sang Kan could not help but interrupt them. "So you were in Gray Valley! No wonder we couldn''t find you. Everyone was looking for you. We searched the entire He Yue Gxy but could not find you. The red-tailed beasts have taken the Gateway to Gray Valley, so we did not go there."


    Ye Chong nodded. He turned to Aried. "You are Aried? A spatial scientist?"


    "That is correct, sir." Aried had heard of this man, so he knew immediately to be respectful. After all, the authorities in Yi Ju were his only sponsors.


    "What experiment were you conducting?" Ye Chong was curious. What kind of experiment would sent them safely to Darkniss?


    "We were doing an experiment on spatial windows. I discovered that we could use high energies to create spatial windows. My goal was to create faster and more convenient ways of travelling. The theories behind my experiment are…"


    Aried turned lively once he began to talk about his experiments. Ye Chong did not stop him, but listened patiently instead and interrupted with the asional question. This made Aried even happier.


    "What caused the ident?" Ye Chong asked.


    Aried shrugged. "I didn''t know that Lady Rui Bing had a dimension keystone on her."


    "Dimension keystones can affect spatial windows?" Ye Chong realized there was something to it. He recalled the circumstances in which he was sent from the base on Spectre to Dual Forest. There was also his first time entering Darkniss, when Xuan Ning told him that his dimension keystone had a strong effect on the entrance to Darkniss, which was also a spatial window.


    Ye Chong decided then to let Aried continue with his research. Perhaps he could help them find their way home. He also decided to let Sha Ya assist him. After Sha Ya reached Level 9, she was able to detect very minute changes in spatial windows. This would be of tremendous help to the spatial scientist.


    "Where did you get the teardrop mineralite?" Ye Chong took out the thumbnail sized mineral. It was veryrgepared to all the teardrop mineralites in his hands. Darkniss had no natural reserves of energy crystals. He was sure of that. In his effort to reduce their dependence on external supplies of energy crystals, he had allocated a lot of time and manpower into searching for energy crystals in Darkniss, but the results were disappointing. So far, he had found nothing.


    It was simply incredible to see a teardrop mineralite here in Darkniss. The teardrop mineralite had attracted so many wild animals. Even the snowshade leopards and red-tailed beast had showed up. It was odd and surprising.


    He recalled the time when he obtained his teardrop mineralite. There was the dark spatial window, and the eight-fingered red-tailed beast. Teardrop mineralite… Spatial window… Red-tailed beast… How were these three rted?


    Mei Wu answered him with reverence. "A few days ago, I was returning from one of my expeditions when I noticed numerous animal bodies along the way. I was curious, so I followed the trail of bodies until I reached ake. There, I saw two slitherlizards fighting each other for that thing. I thought that was strange, so I took it from them. I didn''t think much of it since I did not recognize it. Later on, animals began to chase after me. I was lucky that thisdy and her friends hade to my aid."


    She could see that Rui Bing and Ye Chong were more than simplerades in arms, so she treated Rui Bing with equal respect. The strongestmanded respect. This was an unspoken rule, and especially pronounced among shooters. High level shooters and low level shooters were different in status, and in other respects as well.


    Mei Wu thought Ye Chong''s physical prowess was beyond what she had ever imagined. She had saw how he killed a snowshade leopard, and then held out against three snowshade leopards for 20 minutes. She was shaken by the experience. Everything in the stronghold was challenging her imagination, and the creator of them all was this cold, young man in front of her.


    12 hourster, the students who were trailing the red-tailed beast returned to the stronghold. Based on their report, there was a very narrow crack in the Sea of Threads. The red-tailed beast had disappeared into the crack. The students marked the location of the crack so that they could find their way back to itter.


    Ye Chong went to inspect the crack himself. It was well hidden, and right smack in the middle of the Sea of Threads. Ye Chong did not enter it since he could not see what was inside. However, he had decided to bring a squad with him into the crack when the time was right. He suspected that the snowshade leopards and the Gold Dragons hade from the same ce as well.


    Rui Bing and the other two new arrivals were strong additions to Ye Chong''s army. They had also produced a very subtle change in the stronghold. Ye Chong could only sense this change minutely, but he could not quite describe it. In the end, Ye Chong gave up trying to figure out this highly difficult and almost impossible problem for him, and proceeded with his grand n of development.


    All of his students did not have dimension keystones for their mechs, but this was quickly solved since Aried was here. For an aplished and knowledgeable spatial scientist, it was not a difficult problem to solve. Ye Chong passed all the information on spatial science in the three chips he got from Kui to Aried. The scientist appreciated it very much, and dived straight into them.


    Sha Ya was ordered by Ye Chong to assist Aried. Despite having nothing to do for now, she remainedposed and at ease. Compared to when she was Level 8, she now had an improved state of mind.


    Work on the starship was still in progress. The construction was not interrupted because of the incident. Resources continued to pour in from Northern Lands, so Ye Chong did not have to worry about supplies.


    Training for the few hundred shooters from the trade was going smoothly. Shooting exercises were easy peasy for them. There was less physical training, but more practice on usingplicated weapons and group strategies.


    Ye Chong did not n to have them pilot mechs. Their jobs would be to man the warship.


    Rui Bing followed Ye Chong around like his shadow. Wherever Ye Chong was, she would be there as well. She rarely spoke, and always looked serene. She looked charismatic in her white training garb. Everyone in the stronghold knew of her close rtionship with Ye Chong.


    Rui Bing was no longer wearing the white training garb that she had on when she first arrived in this new world. Jin Weidong had brought her presents when he visited the stronghold. When Rui Bing saw the new sets of clothing he had brought her, her calm expression brightened up. The other subordinates in the stronghold were jealous and impressed by Jin Weidong''s initiative.


    Ye Chong ordered for Jin Weidong to bring a few more sets of training garb. Rui Bing''s expression revealed nothing, but Jin Weidong could see that she was quietly overjoyed.


    Sang Kan continued to work under Aried, but spent most of his free time with Duan Qian. Duan Qian was always beaten to a pulp by him, but the former was a resilient and strong character who refused to give up. Sang Kan was impressed by him, and offered guidance freely to the young man. Duan Qian improved by leaps and bounds.


    Mei Wu obtained the Spider promised to her by Ye Chong, and saw the Shu sisters in the stronghold. However, she maintained her distance with her two former students, and left them after a few words of greeting. She was a Level 9 shooter, and she would not bow down to another master other than herself. However, she did think that it was good for her former students to find such a strong character as their master.


    Shu Mo''er and Shu Man''er had changed a lot. They were now just like any other student. Despite having many admirers, they never reciprocated. Even Shu Man''er was no longer as cheerful as she once was. She responded coldly to any attention from her admirers.


    The warship was still under construction. The massive operation would take a long time. It was fortunate that Darkniss was rich with metals, or the operation would have taken forever. Even so, it would be a long while before the ship was ready.


    Besides the warship, the stronghold was also being reinforced for the second time. All the students were using the first batch of Harmony of the Winter Aria. These mechs were made of normal metal alloys due to the avability of materials back then.


    Now that Ye Chong had discovered a few more mineral reserves, he had enough to spare despite building the warship to upgrade the mechs with better metal alloys. Ye Chong even found some rare metals to upgrade Guardian''s specs.


    All these engineering works were proceeding in organized fashion. The weaponsmiths under Xi Yan''s lead were no longer inexperienced newbies. After so many huge projects, they were improving fast.


    Eastern Cloud and Western Frost were still in the thick of war, and that was good news for Ye Chong. Now, he no longer had to behave under Sun Sieha''s watch. Ye Chong was not ambitious, but that did not mean he would bow down to power.


    The students trained hard. Having seen the strong wild animals such as the red-tailed beast, they realized that they were stillcking in strength. In the pursuit of the red-tailed beastst time, a few students had nearly died under the arrowhead tail of the creature. They were no threat to the strong animal at all, and this made them frustrated.


    From theirbat experience, they begin to devise better group strategies in battle.


    Troop leaders like Appilok had to conduct more simultaneous shooting practices, while the other students had to practice shooting like crazy.


    As a result, the shooting scoreboard in the stronghold was refreshed much more frequently. The leading score went higher and higher. The students who trained harder than others in shooting wouldter be the infamous "sniper division" of the army. Circumstances forced all the students to improve as a whole very quickly.


    They were slowly bing stronger! Ye Chong could sense it.