Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded.

Chapter 351 The Mysterious Old Man, Pursuit and Betting

The old man's left arm was empty as he walked alone across the boundless wilderness.

Originally, he was just hanging around behind the Hunter's Guild.

They followed a large number of deserters, looking for an opportunity to approach the location of the target they sensed.

But after Lin Feng and Bai Ye completed their transaction, the former's team immediately went full speed ahead and sped off into the depths of the wilderness.

The Salvation Army's convoys, which remained behind, gradually merged with the Wilderness Hunter Guild, forming a large, medium-sized settlement.

This is not good news for the elderly.

He traveled from the ancient city of Zhengzhou in the north, enduring a grueling battle that drained the rest of his life, and then, with his last breath, traveled thousands of miles to Oasis Town...

After finally managing to blend into the convoy that had left early, they ended up falling further behind their target.

So he decisively broke away from the main group and headed southwest alone.

That was the route Lin Feng and his group took, returning to Oasis Avenue in the shortest possible way.

The Salvation Army chose to head towards the ancient city of Zhengzhou in the northwest. From there, they could travel north to reach the chaotic borderlands of the north and quickly move away from the Oasis Avenue, thus avoiding encounters with the support forces from the Holy City Diocese.

From this moment on, the two sides have gradually drifted apart.

The old man's figure naturally stood out conspicuously.

Although his withered, thin body, draped in a yellowish-brown linen robe, almost blended into the desolate terrain around him, his moving figure could still be detected at close range.

Soon after, several level nine hunters arrived in single-person electric vehicles to give chase.

They are employed by the Wilderness Hunter Guild and have become the guild's guard team. Of course, their main responsibility is not guarding, but assisting the guild to ensure that the entire team maintains order and stability and does not fall apart.

The old man's behavior would obviously attract the attention and vigilance of the hunters.

It is true that some of the permanent residents and villagers of the oasis were willing to leave Oasis Town because they valued the strength of the Linfeng Motorcade.

Now that the two sides have officially separated, the hunters who have been incorporated into the Hunter Guild will naturally follow the guild closely.

Fortunately, not many people left the group, and there were only five or six vehicles, most of which were old cars owned by local residents.

Its performance is mediocre, and it can't even keep up with the Lin Feng team.

If it weren't for the convergence of the Salvation Army and the Wilderness Hunter Guild, which required a slower pace of integration, the old vehicles without enough energy storage batteries simply wouldn't have been able to break through.

Soon, the hunters persuaded these vehicles to return by driving their war chariots.

Only twenty or thirty villagers remained, but they still persisted in running towards the departing Lin Feng convoy.

The fastest runner among them was naturally the elderly man who was determined to reach the Lin Feng team.

It was also the High Priest of the Sun who led the remaining forces of the Sun God Cult to intercept and severely damage the Templar Knights.

However, at this moment, he only had one last breath left.

In order to ensure the continuation of the legacy he carried, he did not even repair the injury to his severed left arm, instead channeling the last wisp of his life force into his heart to maintain his physical strength.

He had already traveled nearly 200 kilometers from the ancient city of Zhengzhou to Oasis Town, and now, from Oasis Town onwards, he didn't have much time left.

If it were any other human being, enduring the scorching heat of the sun and temperatures of fifty or sixty degrees Celsius on the ground, being able to walk for over a hundred kilometers would already be the limit for an evolved being.

Even a physically strong second-tier evolved being would find it difficult to complete this long journey of more than two hundred kilometers without sufficient water and food.

But the High Priest himself was a follower of the blazing sun.

What others would avoid at all costs, he sees as a source of nourishment, capable of promoting the repair of injuries within his body after absorption.

The only deficiency is insufficient remaining vitality. The more intense solar energy it absorbs, the greater the burden it bears, which will accelerate the depletion of its last bit of life.

Therefore, as the high priest watched the departing convoy, his anxiety naturally grew.

Just then, the hunters arrived from behind and blocked their way.

The convoy ahead was already two or three kilometers away from the group. The front of the convoy gradually disappeared around the corner, leaving only the last few dozen cars and the dust they were kicking up.

Seeing this, the high priest narrowed his eyes and quickly quickened his pace.

Although he only had one breath left, it was still the last breath of a peak second-tier expert, plus his body evolved to level twenty-nine, far surpassing that of an ordinary hunter.

He briefly quickened his pace, displaying a speed of thirty to forty kilometers per hour, just like an ordinary person taking a walk.

This quickly attracted the attention of the hunters.

After all, it would be difficult for ordinary level nine enhanced people to achieve such speed; at least one must be a top-tier level nine enhancer or a first-order evolver.

After all, this is not a flat oasis road, but a rugged Gobi desert. Coupled with the scorching heat of 40 to 50 degrees Celsius on the ground, even if you are far away from the forbidden zone of the blazing sun, without any protection, even a little strenuous exercise will cause you to sweat profusely, leading to dehydration and fainting.

Upon seeing this, several hunter leaders immediately drove their only war chariot to give chase.

After all, such outstanding individuals, whether they are first-tier evolvers or enhanced beings, are individuals with great potential. Persuading them to return to the guild would definitely be a great achievement.

As the engines of the tanks roared to life, the remaining members drove the other single-person electric vehicles, escorting the remaining permanent residents and wasteland dwellers back along the same route, and notifying the evolved individuals in the team to come and provide support.

The two then parted ways.

The hunters who came to pursue him finally saw the face under the hood when they reached their target.

An elderly man with a full head of white hair and deep wrinkles.

The latter merely glanced at the crowd indifferently...

A strange chill and fear instantly surged from behind the hunters to the top of their heads.

The next moment, the four people in the car seemed to see a setting sun casting its last rays.

The mere touch was enough to set them on a frenzy.

Boiling in a physical sense.

From the accelerated blood circulation to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy source inside cells, everything is stimulated to an incredible degree by the sun's intense light.

Then, the four of them fell off the car with pained expressions, rolling around on the ground.

Their entire bodies felt as if they were being torn apart by countless insects and ants. The intense pain from the inside out caused their faces to contort and their bodies to convulse. Some even stood upright on the ground like shrimp with their tendons pulled out.

However, the high priest did not kill them immediately.

Although for him, wiping out the lives of these level-nine enhanced humans was as simple as crushing a few ants...

But in his current state, he needs to absorb nutrients and use them as containers to guide and expel the increasingly uncontrollable blazing sun energy within his body.

The high priest then stopped and walked toward the four.

At this moment, the four people were in so much pain that they lost consciousness, their legs were on the ground, and their upper bodies were upside down.

It was lying upside down on the ground in a very bizarre posture.

It was as if they were making the most devout worship to the blazing sun behind them.

The high priest walked slowly, raised his withered right arm from beneath his robe, and covered one person's face.

The next moment, the controlled hunter spontaneously combusted from its feet, eventually turning into a carbonized skeleton and countless ashes.

The high priest, having been replenished and released, showed some improvement in his gaunt and withered appearance. Having dealt with four hunters in succession, his physical condition had improved slightly, but it was still far from enough.

To return to normal, at least tens of thousands of humans or a dozen or so second-tier beings would need to be sacrificed.

Only in this way can the High Priest be forced to extend his life for a few more years after exhausting all his resources.

This is one of the reasons why the Holy See is so determined to exterminate the Sun God Cult. If an extremely wicked person with no bottom line grows up in the cult, they will inevitably stop at nothing to achieve their own interests.

However, the High Priest is clearly not included in this category.

His obsession had been resolved; apart from wanting to find a successor in the final moments of his life to continue his life's learning and the religious tradition, he had no other thoughts.

Killing the four people at this moment was merely a convenient action. Besides preventing them from hindering his progress, the more important purpose was to use the tools to reduce the wear and tear of walking.

After dealing with the four, the high priest waved his arm, and the four skeletons on the ground instantly collapsed into fragments, which were then blown up by the heat and scattered in the air.

The high priest took the driver's seat of the chariot, started the engine, and continued forward.

However, they hadn't gone far when two first-tier evolved beings caught up with them.

The two are from the Salvation Army and the Wilderness Hunter Guild, respectively.

After the returning hunters reported back, members from both patrol teams prepared to bring the escaped talent back to their ranks.

When the two arrived, the four hunters who remained had already turned to ashes, leaving only a lone chariot moving forward.

The two evolved beings immediately realized that something was wrong.

To be able to take down four level-nine hunters in a few minutes, one must be at least a first-tier early-stage being, just like them.

Gripping their large-caliber rifles tightly, pulling the bolts, and loading bullets, the two men were ready for battle.

Even if we can't persuade the other side to turn back, we must still recapture this tank to reduce the losses of the convoy.

In the resource-scarce wasteland, the value of a war machine is even higher than that of an evolved being, especially for forces that have not yet established a mature industrial system.

Losing one of these vehicles can take several years to make up for.

Unlike Oasis Town, it cannot reliably produce goods from the locomotive village.

The two sped up and ran to the side of the chariot. They jumped up and climbed onto the vehicle, grabbing the iron bars welded to the sides of the chariot with one hand and raising their guns with the other, aiming at the mysterious man in the long robe in the driver's seat.

At the same time, they shouted in unison:
"Hands up! Surrender and stop the car!"

But the mysterious man in the long robe did not obey their orders; he simply turned his head slowly and looked at the two of them.

The two evolved beings were instantly horrified when they saw the face under the hood.

Because an old man with gray hair and a desiccated appearance could not possibly have easily killed four level-nine enhanced humans...

But it happened so strangely!
That can only mean one thing: the mysterious old man in front of us is no ordinary person, and may not even be human anymore.

Especially the evolved beings from the Salvation Army, who had been wandering the wasteland with the team for a long time and were well-informed, understood even better what the sight of the other party slowly turning around and looking at the two of them meant...

After a brief eye contact, the Salvation Army's evolved beings immediately retreated, simultaneously pulling the triggers of their rifles and firing wildly without aiming at their targets.

They wanted to use the gunfire to alert the main force behind them to send more combat personnel to deal with the immediate trouble.

But he was ultimately a step too late.

Although the trigger had been pulled, the primer inside the bolt, which should have been ignited by the firing pin, inexplicably got stuck and eventually caused the barrel to explode.

The violent explosion not only overturned the bolt mechanism, but also caused the evolved human holding the gun handle to suffer a fractured hand from the impact.

But this was already the least injury and pain he had ever suffered.

Because at this moment, the mysterious old man had already raised his remaining right arm and aimed it at the Salvation Army's evolved human.

The energy field emanating from the power of the blazing sun had already enveloped and locked it in place.

At the same time, the cursed energy emanating from the forbidden zone of the blazing sun also converged, all of it entering the target's body and causing him to instantly lose control of his body.

The tank came to a stop a few seconds later.

The high priest stepped off the vehicle, sacrificed the two evolved beings, and regained a sliver of his original state.

He then got back into the car and sped away.

The convoy ahead had already disappeared around the corner.

We must speed up our pace to catch up.

We cannot afford to waste any more time dealing with the pursuers behind us.

Meanwhile, with the deaths of two evolved beings, the Salvation Army and the Wilderness Hunter Guild patrol members realized the seriousness of the situation.

The situation was immediately reported to the leaders of both sides.

Meanwhile, Bai Ye, the leader of the Salvation Army, and Xu Wanfeng, the guild master, were in the guild building, discussing in more detail their future cooperation.

Upon learning of the situation reported by his subordinates, Xu Wanfeng immediately ordered his men to investigate.

She worried that they might be remnants of other forces, lurking in the group and preparing to follow Lin Feng and his companions to the Holy City.

Bai Ye walked to the window, opened it, and looked in the direction where the target had disappeared.

After reaching out and groping in the air for a moment, he revealed a meaningful smile, turned around, and said:

"No need to waste manpower..."

"That goal is not something that ordinary evolved beings can solve."

Xu Wanfeng paused, then realized something and immediately asked in return:
"Even second-tier evolved beings aren't allowed?"

Bai Ye's mouth corners slightly raised:

"I'm afraid you'll have a hard time getting the better of him."

Upon hearing this, Xu Wanfeng immediately realized what was going on.

He then halted his men's pursuit mission.

Those who even she couldn't handle must possess at least the strength of the late-stage second tier.

Such a person, following Lin Feng's convoy away, could only hope that he didn't harbor much ill will towards Lin Feng.

After a moment of silence, Xu Wanfeng apologized and left the meeting room. He then called his younger sister, Xu Wanshuang, and briefly explained the situation:
"The plan has changed, and there are dangers, but for you, it presents both risks and opportunities..."

"Have you decided yet?"

Xu Wanshuang took a deep breath and nodded emphatically:

"You can't put your eggs in one basket."

Seeing this, Xu Wanfeng stepped forward, hugged his sister tightly, and then patted her on the shoulder:

"Go ahead, as long as you follow Lin Feng, you won't suffer any losses!"

(End of this chapter)