Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded.

Chapter 295 A Second Move and Clones, Conditions for Advancing to the Later Stages

After hearing the bishop's words, Li Hao was taken aback at first, then sneered and said:

"Wolf packs in the wasteland..."

"They didn't stay in the Valley of Fallen Wolves, staying with the Wolf King's Tomb until their deaths, so why would they attack as a whole clan?"

"This joke has gone a bit too far. If you're trying to trick me into surrendering, you'd better come up with a more suitable excuse!"

The bishop frowned slightly, then replied:
"Do I look like the kind of person who would joke with his own life? Since I chose to leave the Oasis warship this time, I never thought I could come back alive."

"Either take you with me, or cripple the wolf pack as much as possible, to give the tens of thousands of survivors in Oasis Town a chance to live..."

"This is your final choice."

"Will you perish together with me, leading to the destruction of the Li family, or will you, in the end, perform a glorious and heroic sacrifice for your descendants..."

From Bishop Zhang Hui's serious tone, Li Hao gradually realized the seriousness of the matter.

The other party is right. If they wanted to kill me, during that perfect moment of ambush, if they had used the Thunder Slash of the Armor-Piercing Wolf Spear, they would have only needed to shift the blade a dozen degrees to the side of my neck, and I would have been cut in two or my body separated from my body.

There is absolutely no chance of survival.

With Father Suan unharmed, there was no need for the bishop to spare his life.

After all, Father Suan alone, along with the other second-tier evolved beings of the church, was enough to suppress the leaders of the early-stage second-tier rock horse warriors in the other two villages and control the situation in the entire Oasis Town.

The only possibility is that he wants to remain as a witness, to uncover the Life Farm behind it, and to prove that they interfered in the Oasis affair and attempted to seize the Oasis Town from the church.

Besides that, the only other reason left is the one given by the bishop: Oasis Town has been targeted by the Wasteland Wolves and is about to suffer a town-wide beast calamity.

Thinking of this, Li Hao suddenly realized that this matter was likely related to the church sending people to the Mount Tai ruins, so he asked:
"I remember Lin Feng, that kid. A week ago, you sent him to the Mount Tai Ruins to collect the source essence and biological materials of the Wasteland Wolves. Did he discover something there?"

The bishop narrowed his eyes slightly. This was indeed the cause of everything, and the truth behind it was probably only known to Lin Feng himself.

But now that things have come to this, discussing the origin of the problem is no longer very meaningful, because you can't drive away the tens of thousands of evolved wolves that have surrounded Oasis Town with words. Only fists and cannons can make them back down.

"The Salvation Army forces among the Wanderers have been eyeing the Li family and your rockhorse breeding business for decades. Their leader, Bai Ye, learned about the situation and problems in the oasis through spies and plans to seize the opportunity of a conflict between us to launch a raid on the Li family..."

"Prior to this, White Night had already attacked the pilgrimage convoy and found a batch of heavy weapons inside the Mount Tai ruins."

His Excellency the bishop slowly began to speak, revealing part of the reason.

Upon hearing this, Li Hao immediately realized what was going on.

He had heard of Bai Ye's reputation before, after all, he had wandered around the area when the City of Salvation was destroyed, hoping to find some bargains.

Later, Bai Ye became the leader of the remnants of the Salvation Army. He gained fame for his rare spatial ability and extremely high evolutionary talent. He launched many raids on small and medium-sized settlements and had a group of late-stage first-tier followers under his command.

Especially in the last six months, as Bai Ye evolved to the late stage of the second tier and entered the level 29 limit realm, he attracted the attention of the Hunter Wilderness Guild and is now poised to challenge the top ten of the Heavenly Ladder Ranking.

Among individual evolvers in the wasteland without the backing of a large power, he is the most likely to break through the second-tier limit and reach the third-tier king level.

Even so, the Salvation Army, unable to establish a fixed settlement and with only a convoy of about a hundred men under its command, would find it difficult to support more Tier 2 subordinates, even if its leader had advanced to level 29.

Therefore, even top-tier wandering factions like these still appear weak and isolated when facing medium to large settlements.

At most, they might bully small settlements of a few thousand or tens of thousands of people, plundering their already meager resources.

Once faced with an existence like Oasis Town, with more than ten second-tier beings, including at least four or five mid-to-late stage second-tier powerhouses, it would be impossible to contend with them.

Even if Oasis Town falls into internal strife, it will be difficult to gain any advantage in the chaos.

After all, second-tier evolved beings are only one aspect, and in the chaotic battle between forces, weapons and equipment are obviously more important.

Local families, having developed for hundreds of years, have accumulated a wealth of resources. Even in the weak Fifth Village, the Hunter Guild still possesses hundreds of large cannons, capable of easily destroying more than a dozen vehicles.

Therefore, the Salvation Army's attempt to attack Oasis Town, even if the target was only Farm Village, was still insufficient; their combat strength was far from enough to suppress the Li family's counterattack.

The best solution would be to persuade the wasteland wolf clan in the Fallen Wolf Valley within the Mount Tai ruins to join in the raid on the farm village.

Coincidentally, both the rock horned horses raised in the farm village and the rock horse warriors that make up the village are among the most beloved foods of the wasteland wolf clan.

Thinking of this, Li Hao already believed seven-tenths of the bishop's words.

Given the current state of Oasis Town, it might be able to deal with a small Salvation Army, but if it were surrounded by tens of thousands of evolved wild wolves, all of the town's tens of thousands of residents would likely perish in the wolves' jaws, with no chance of survival.

Considering the current situation, Li Hao immediately realized that the bishop intended to use him, a mid-stage second-tier rock horse warrior, as bait to lure the wasteland wolf clan into attacking.

This allowed the battle to break out on the more advantageous wasteland of Oasis Town, where the endless flat ground allowed human artillery fire to precisely target and eliminate the wolf pack.

If they continue forward from Oasis Town and cross the mountainous area ahead, they are likely to be ambushed by wolves and forced to engage in close combat with the evolved wild wolves.

At that time, not only will the five major villages be difficult to protect, but even the Oasis warships will be at risk of being stopped and anchored due to close-range attacks from second-tier wild wolf behemoths.

Therefore, the bishop's words were not alarmist or deceptive; rather, the current arena duel was the best opportunity for Oasis Town to respond.

While Li Hao was pondering, the bishop, seeing that the other party was hesitant to respond, added:

"Right now, Wolf Ao, the leader of the Wasteland Wolf Clan, could launch an attack at any moment. You'd better cooperate with us to hold him off and create an opportunity for the heavy artillery behind us to lock on."

"As long as we can severely injure this giant wolf, the other evolved wild wolves are no threat under the current firepower of Oasis Town. At the very least, we can suppress the wolf pack's offensive under Lin Feng's leadership."

"After you die a heroic death, I will instruct Father Su An not to pursue your and the Li family's responsibility, nor will I report this matter to the Holy City."

"In this way, we can remove the Life Farm from the picture, and your backup plan that you have been laying out in the Holy City for many years will no longer be affected by this incident."

"So even if the Li family in Oasis Town is eventually wiped out, the Li family in Holy City will still be able to continue..."

As soon as the bishop finished speaking, Li Hao was filled with deep surprise and doubt.

In reality, the backup plan he arranged in the Holy City was not his own descendants. As a second-tier evolver, especially a powerful individual who was determined to complete their evolution and advance further, they were never affected by the bloodline of their offspring.

In Li Hao's view, he himself is the most perfect being, and the mixed genes mixed into his offspring will only affect their evolutionary talent, just like artificially bred rock breeds, each generation is worse than the last.

Therefore, the backup plan that Li Hao set up in the Holy City was actually a secret cooperative project with the Life Farm.

When Li Hao was less than two hundred years old, he entrusted the few remaining pluripotent stem cells in his body to the Life Farm for research.

Ultimately, they will be able to cultivate a more perfect clone to replace Li Hao and continue to live.

These clones of elite rock horse warriors also serve as experimental vehicles for the Tier 3 Horse King research project.

If Li Hao loses his evolutionary potential in the future, the younger clone will replace him and continue the evolutionary path to the late second stage or even the third stage.

For this reason, Li Hao has been transporting the resources accumulated by his family in Oasis Town to the Holy City via pilgrimage caravans for the past two or three hundred years.

Leave enough resources for your future clones to advance to the mid-stage of the second tier of evolution and complete the unfinished work of your original self.

This was also a fallback plan that Li Hao had prepared in advance, a fallback that wasn't really a way out.

Now that His Excellency the Bishop has learned of this, he can completely use the Holy City Diocese to order the Life Farm to destroy all research projects, data, and materials.

So, after weighing his options for just over ten seconds, Li Hao made a decision.

He immediately opened the head armor, releasing the high-temperature steam rising from inside, and exposed his face.

Doing so is tantamount to exposing one's weakest point, which means that Li Hao has decided to compromise.

Then he took out two sealed test tubes, each as thick as an arm, from the back of his armor and said to the bishop:

"Don't worry, I know that giant wolf that has lived for thousands of years better than any of you. Even if you kill me right now, it won't attack rashly."

"In this world, there are only two things that can move the greedy Wolf Ao..."

"One is the flesh and blood of a third-tier wolf king, and the other is the flesh and blood of a second-tier late-stage rock horned horse. In short, both of these are for extending its life."

"The former can maintain its cellular activity and ensure its immortality for thousands of years, but the latter is more important because the flesh and blood of a late-stage second-tier rock horse behemoth can stimulate the proliferation and division of its cells..."

"It's equivalent to increasing Wolf Ao's strength and lifespan limit, allowing him to contain more of the Wolf King's power. At the same time, the more evolutionary cells he has, the longer he can survive after leaving the Valley of Fallen Wolves."

"According to your logic..."

"Since the Wasteland Wolf Clan intends to attack Oasis Town with the entire clan, it means that there is a problem with the seal of the Mount Tai Ruins. They intend to break the agreement made back then in advance and are eager to expand and become stronger so as to inherit the legacy of the Wolf King's third-tier body."

"Therefore, Wolf Ao's next goal will be far more than just the settlement of Oasis Town. He will fight his way through the area until he has cultivated enough successors to become the Wolf King."

"To better achieve this goal, its need for late-stage second-tier rock horse behemoths will be more urgent than ever before..."

"If it were just a mid-stage Tier 2 Rock Horse Warrior corpse, there would be no need for it to risk being bombarded by giant cannons and come down to snatch it prematurely."

As he spoke, Li Hao directly opened the chest armor of the Rock Horse Armor, revealing his torso, which was glowing red from being steamed.

The congested blood vessels, like intertwined tree roots, swell on the red skin, stimulating every muscle to become highly tense.

The two reagents in his hand were ready to be injected at any time.

The bishop standing before him had a solemn expression. At such close range, he could already sense that one of the potions in the other's hand smelled very similar to the scent of the deceased Li Mingquan.

That was a special drug from the Life Farm that could stimulate rock horse cells. After injection, both rock horse warriors and rock horse armor would enter a berserk state and unleash explosive power that they shouldn't have.

As for the thick white substance in the other test tube, it was even more exaggerated, because the aura it emitted was the same as the Holy Spring power in the bishop's body, both being late-stage second-tier power.

Moreover, it is full of vitality.

This also means that Li Hao has a late-stage Tier 2 Rockhorse Evolution Agent!

It could help him break through that bottleneck that had been stuck for hundreds of years, and become the first late-stage second-tier rock horse warrior in the history of the wasteland.

Therefore, this is the trump card that Li Hao has carefully prepared.

At this moment, the bishop stared intently at the two vials of medicine in Li Hao's hand, contemplating whether to return the severed left arm that had been propelled by the spearhead to the other party.

A late-stage Tier 2 Rock Horse Warrior has never truly been born yet, and no one knows how strong it will be.

However, as long as Li Hao's Rock Horse Armor remains at the mid-stage of the second tier, the opponent will have no chance of defeating the bishop wielding the Armor-Piercing Wolf Spear.

While the bishop was pondering, Li Hao spoke up directly, introducing himself:

"Don't worry, the late stage of the second tier in the Rockhorn evolution path is not so easy to advance to."

"In the wasteland, the late stage of the second tier is the limit of the natural evolution of the Rockhorn, but to become a late-stage behemoth, one must defeat all the other second-tier males during the Rockhorn gathering's breeding season and survive to the end in order to become a late-stage Rockhorn behemoth..."

As he spoke, Li Hao slowly picked up one of the cigarettes:
"This potion is called the Sublimation Potion, but it is actually a concentrated extract of reproductive hormones, hormones, and androgens extracted from the body of the Rock Horse Giant..."

"After injection, the rock hornbill cells can directly enter a state of extreme excitement during reproduction, thereby unleashing the maximum power of that stage."

“In nature, early wildebeests in the early years of the year also rely on this to defeat stronger, older males.”

"And it is also the key to advancing to the late stage of the second tier."

At this moment, Li Hao inserted the sublimation potion into the aorta in the center of his chest and slowly said:

"This technology is not yet mature. Of the mid-stage rock horse warriors who have used it, nine out of ten died or were injured. The last one did not achieve advancement but lost his mind and became a mad beast due to excessive assimilation."

"But at least for a period of time after the injection, it can bring unparalleled power to the test subject, allowing them to undergo a final, ultimate sublimation at the end of their life's evolution, experiencing an unattainable late-stage realm..."

After saying that, Li Hao threw away the sublimation potion and then inserted the late-stage second-tier rock horse evolution agent into his heart.

(End of this chapter)