Xie Shilei accepted the welcoming gifts with sincerity and joy, earning the affection of the entire Li family.
They only stayed in Kushan for two days before leaving in a hurry, as a groundbreaking ceremony for a new project was scheduled in a couple of days.
Lin Hua'er naturally didn't get to see Xie Shilei, as they didn't even have time to visit the Hot Spring Valley scenic area.
However, it didn't matter; the Li family was quite fond of Xie Shilei.
Chen An's objective was for his family to meet Xie Shilei and then arrange the wedding date as soon as possible.
No matter how eager he was, he had to follow the normal procedures and wait for his family to propose to the Xie family and discuss the wedding arrangements, so he could only wait.
…
A few days later, Zeng Jingrong called Tian Jing, telling her to hurry to the specialty team.
Tian Jing's heart leaped. Had something happened?
Before reaching the specialty team, Tian Jing heard the buzzing sound of a helicopter overhead.
Seeing the helicopter land in the open space at the entrance of the specialty team, Tian Jing donned her superpower shield to block the wind and quickly ran towards the landing helicopter.
As the cabin door opened, Zeng Jingrong and several team members dragged out Han Lushou, Li Weixin, and Li Weiyan, who were bound and gagged.
The three men's faces were stiff, their eyes staring blankly ahead, not looking anywhere in particular.
Their mouths were stuffed with towels.
Seeing Tian Jing, Zeng Jingrong urged, "Tiantian, come quickly and take a look. They are acting very strangely."
Did this even need looking at?
Tian Jing waved her hand, throwing out three superpower shields to cover the three men. "Let go, I'll take them to the dungeon first."
Zeng Jingrong called the other team members to follow. "Tian Jing, they were all bitten and scratched by Han Lushou and the other two. They've all taken the antidote, but I'm still worried because Han Lushou and the others also took the antidote and are still like this."
Tian Jing replied without looking back, "Then have them all sit in the dungeon. I'll re-formulate the antidote."
Saying this, she extremely rapidly ran towards the dungeon with the three superpower shields.
Unstable energy erupted from the three people within the superpower shields.
Zeng Jingrong urged the team members to hurry and follow.
Tian Jing directly threw the three people into a dungeon cell. After the superpower shields dissipated, the energy emanating from them stabilized.
Zeng Jingrong escorted the team members with him into an adjacent dungeon cell before coming over to talk to Tian Jing.
Han Lushou and Li Weixin had accepted a super-S-level mission. This mission involved investigating missing persons cases abroad.
The disappearance location was a desert known locally as the Devil's Salt Flats on a plateau continent. This desert was not only high in salt content but also rich in iron ore. When the air was relatively humid, the sand would turn blood-red through oxidation, creating a beautiful contrast with the gray-white salt flats and the blue sky.
The more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it is. This desert not only prohibited walking barefoot but also frequently saw tourist disappearances, including Chinese tourists.
China, with the assistance of foreign police, investigated but not only failed to find the tourists, but the investigators also disappeared.
The matter escalated, and eventually, the specialty team was assigned the case.
After reviewing the case files of the disappearances, Zeng Jingrong classified it as a super-S-level mission because, based on the locations of the experimental bases of various countries' supernatural associations investigated by the specialty team, there was likely a major experimental base of the US Supernatural Association within this desert.
He suspected the disappeared individuals were connected to the experimental base.
Han Lushou took Li Weiyan and an A-level martial arts team member, while Li Weixin brought two newly-level-five supernaturals. Together, they accepted this mission.
They were gone for a month. Three days ago, Zeng Jingrong received a call from Han Lushou asking him to send reinforcements and bring antidotes.
Due to it being a cross-border operation, it was naturally impossible to act overtly, so they could only have a few team members disguise themselves and travel by international flight from a southern city.
He anxiously waited at the airport for the rescue team's return.
The next day, the rescue team returned, bringing back only Han Lushou and the other two.
Not long after boarding the helicopter, the three suddenly went berserk and attacked the teammates beside them.
The teammates reacted quickly but were still caught and bitten.
Zeng Jingrong had them take the antidote immediately. However, the three had already taken the antidote brought with them when they were rescued two days prior. Furthermore, since they were asking for an antidote, they must have consumed the ones they took with them, so he was worried about the few team members of the rescue team.
Tian Jing's gaze fell on the three unconscious people in the dungeon. The specialty team's antidotes were also diluted, being twice as pure as the one given to Zeng Jingchu.
Han Lushou and the others had brought antidotes, and they must have taken them repeatedly when they felt something was wrong. Since it hadn't cured them yet, the toxin must be very potent. They would need to wake up to understand what they had experienced.
"I need to go to the labyrinth to re-formulate the antidote. You come with me to open the door."
Zeng Jingrong locked the dungeon door and accompanied Tian Jing to the labyrinth. After opening the main gate, he suggested disabling the dual-person switch setting.
Tian Jing agreed; it was indeed inconvenient for her to frequently go into the labyrinth to tinker with ginseng.
After modifying the permissions, Zeng Jingrong returned to the specialty team first, while Tian Jing worked on the so-called antidote alone in the labyrinth.
By the time she returned to the dungeon, Zeng Jingrong had already untied Han Lushou, Li Weixin, and Li Weiyan, who had fully recovered.
It was only when Tian Jing arrived that Zeng Jingrong inquired about the situation from Han Lushou.
Han Lushou, Li Weixin, and Li Weiyan's faces showed expressions of sadness and pain.
They had posed as tourists and entered the Devil's Desert. The only clue to the disappearance cases was that tourists vanished shortly after resupplying at an outpost.
Therefore, their focus was on the outpost. Whenever they passed an outpost, they would not only resupply but also rest for a night.
After more than half a month, the six of them had not encountered any real danger, nor had they found the experimental base. They felt it was probably due to having too many people, so they decided to split into two groups.
Li Weixin was to lead a supernatural and a martial arts team member a quarter of an hour ahead, while Han Lushou and Li Weiyan, with another supernatural, would catch up.
Han Lushou and the three of them chased for more than half an hour without catching up to Li Weixin and the other three. Sensing something was wrong, they turned back to search.
While passing through a patch of withered trees, Han Lushou discovered the distinctive secret sign of the specialty team. The sign pointed underground.
Underground?
In the boundless desert, it was indeed only underground that an experimental base could be built.
Han Lushou and the three followed the sign and found an underground structure. This structure was entirely made of steel, resembling a town.
The city gate was left wide open, unguarded. Han Lushou knew their cover was blown.
They couldn't withdraw now, as Li Weixin and the other three were surely inside the steel town.
He told Li Weiyan and the other two to leave. Li Weiyan disagreed, stating that the enemy's open gate was a clear invitation, and separating would make them even more vulnerable.
As the three entered the city gate, they saw a wide road leading into the town's interior.
On both sides of the road, dozens of equally sized areas were enclosed by thick iron netting, much like a zoo caging wild animals, except here, they were caging monsters.
Monsters that only roared and looked inhuman.
In the middle of the road, Li Weixin and the three were surrounded by hundreds of monsters. They fought and retreated, but as they retreated, the iron netting on the roadside was opened, and more monsters emerged from within.
Han Lushou and the three rushed to block them, urging Li Weixin and the other two to retreat quickly.
Even though the monsters were slow, it was difficult to break out of such a encirclement.
The level-five supernatural with Li Weixin was severely bitten by a monster. Seeing that Han Lushou and the other two were also about to be surrounded, he detonated his power core, creating an open space that allowed Li Weixin and the other two to retreat a short distance.
However, the heavy city gate slowly began to close inwards.
Li Weiyan, with extreme speed, charged towards the large iron gate, but his strength alone was insufficient to push against the closing gate.
He urged Li Weixin and the others to hurry, but how could they break free while still being dragged down by monsters?
The other team member with Han Lushou was a supernatural with less stamina than Han Lushou. Han Lushou leaped forward, sweeping his right leg, knocking over more than ten monsters. He took the opportunity to retreat to the gate and, along with Li Weiyan, pushed against the doors.
However, the large gate was still slowly closing.
Li Weiyan urged the three surrounded individuals to break through quickly.
Li Weiyan threw out dozens of vines, entangling the monsters in front of him, and told the two teammates beside him to run. Then, he swung a vine around the door frame and, with a strong pull, launched himself out of the gate.
Han Lushou and Li Weiyan also exited the gate and pulled on the large iron doors with all their might.
The two teammates, at Li Weixin's urging to run, had turned and were running towards the gate.
Just as they reached the almost-closed large iron gate, two extremely fast monsters leaped onto their backs.
Li Weiyan and Han Lushou held on tightly to the gate, while Li Weixin also threw out vines to pull his teammates out. However, the large iron gate ultimately closed to a mere crack as these two teammates, along with the monsters on their backs, rushed towards it.
Watching the despair in the eyes of the two teammates through the gap in the gate, Han Lushou, Li Weiyan, and Li Weixin pounded on the large iron gate in anguish.
At this moment, a mechanical voice echoed from the top of the gate:
"You may go back. Tell your Captain Tian to come with ten thousand doses of the true antidote to exchange for these two. Remember, only Captain Tian alone is allowed to come."