In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

The fighter jet landed smoothly on the temporary parking apron behind the S-7 defense line.

Su Ran pushed open the cabin door, her military boots stepping onto the blood-soaked yellow sand.

Outside the protective wall in the distance, the clearing operation was nearing its end.

After the million-strong beast tide collapsed, all that remained was a one-sided massacre.

At the edge of the horizon, heavy bulldozers from the Great Xia Dynasty roared as they pushed mountains of mutated beast corpses into a massive crater.

A group of soldiers wearing special protective suits are moving through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The specially made laser knife in his hand precisely cut open the skull of the mutated beast, the mechanical arm picked up the crystal core and put it into the lead-sealed containment container on his waist.

This is a delicate and dangerous job.

Some mutated beasts are not completely dead; their neural reflexes can cause them to suddenly attack and hurt people when their skulls are cut open.

Beside the recovery team, a fully armed guard stood with guns at the ready, staring intently at each corpse.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out not far away.

Just as a half-dead Tier 2 hound was about to pounce and bite, the guards shot it in the head.

Su Ran glanced at it but didn't stop. This was all too common on the battlefield.

Squads of soldiers, covered in gunpowder smoke, returned in formation. Upon seeing Su Ran, they all stopped and saluted.

Su Ran nodded in return, passed through the supply transfer area, and arrived outside the camp tents.

At the edge of the camp, the eighteen-ton "Cheng Ying" mech was in a kneeling position.

Ye Xiao sat shirtless on a pile of ammunition boxes, holding a towel in his hand, carefully wiping his body.

Seeing Su Ran walk over, Ye Xiao grinned, his smile standing out brightly against his gunpowder-covered face.

"Brother Su, you've made quite a quick trip through Kunlun."

"I'm just going back to deliver something."

Su Ran glanced at Ye Xiao. "Are you injured?"

"It's just a superficial wound; it's already scabbed over."

Ye Xiao sheathed his sword and placed it aside, then casually picked up a coat and put it on.

Su Ran nodded, her gaze fixed on a heavy-duty windproof tent not far away.

Outside the tent, the massive fourth-tier hellhound mother, "Little Grey," was dozing on the sand, her dark bone armor stained with dried blood.

"Are Jingye and Bailu inside?" Su Ran asked.

Ye Xiao's smile faded slightly, and he spoke in a deep voice,

"I'm here. Go in and take a look. Jingye... he's in a pretty bad situation now."

Su Ran frowned slightly and lifted the heavy tent flap.

Bai Lu sat on a cot.

She was still wearing her black combat uniform, and although her face was still pale, she looked much better than she had a few hours earlier.

And on the cot, there was a person.

Zhu Jingye.

Su Ran was stunned for a moment.

A few hours earlier, when he returned to Kunlun, Zhu Jingye was weak, but at least he could sit up by the wheels of the armored vehicle.

He himself awakened the "damage transfer" ability, and his own cell activity and recovery ability are much stronger than Ye Xiao's.

After drinking a bottle of high-grade crystal nucleus extract, he should be lively and energetic by now.

Why are they just lying flat now?

At this moment, Zhu Jingye's eyes were tightly closed, and his breathing was barely perceptible.

If it weren't for the vital signs monitor still beating next to him, Su Ran would have suspected that the kid was already dead.

"What happened?"

Su Ran strode to the bedside, her gaze sharp as a knife.

"So badly injured, were you attacked?"

His voice carried a chilling murderous intent.

It was severely damaged near the end of the battle.

If it's an attack by a high-level mutant, then this mutant beast must possess extremely high intelligence, and may even be proficient in stealth and assassination!

Ever since encountering a strange, intelligent fourth-tier mutated beast.

Su Ran would subconsciously make the connection.

"Could it be that another intelligent mutant beast has appeared?" Su Ran thought to himself.

Bai Lu stood up, a hint of unease flashing in her cool eyes.

She lowered her head slightly, her hands in the pockets of her combat uniform, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the fabric.

"There was no attack."

Bai Lu's voice was very soft, with a rare hint of unease.

She bit her lip, looked up at Su Ran, and said softly, "It's me."

Su Ran was taken aback, and asked suspiciously, "You hit him?"

"What are you thinking? Why would I hit him?"

Bai Lu rolled her eyes at Su Ran, clearly annoyed.

Su Ran also realized instantly that the direction she had thought of was completely wrong.

Bai Lu calmed her thoughts, took a deep breath, and pointed to Zhu Jingye on the bed.

"Jingye...he forcibly transferred all the mental exhaustion I suffered while fighting the fourth-tier red lion onto himself!"

Su Ran's pupils dilated in surprise.

"cough……"

Zhu Jingye, lying on his sickbed, seemed to hear the noise and struggled to open his eyes.

Upon seeing Su Ran, her voice was weak, "Brother Su...you're back."

"Don't move."

Su Ran pressed down on his shoulder, stopping him from getting up.

Zhu Jingye swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

"Consultant Su, please don't blame Sister Lu. It was my own request."

He took a breath and continued,

"After the Red Lion died, there were still hundreds of thousands of scattered beasts on the outskirts."

Sister Lu is one of the few people in the entire venue who can command respect.

Zhu Jingye's gaze shifted to the massive black shadow outside the tent.

"That fourth-order hellhound mother body also needs to be maintained and controlled by Sister Lu's mental power."

If she can't hold on and the connection is lost, the monster might go out of control.

"At that point, our defensive line will truly be destroyed."

He grinned, his smile revealing an undisguised stubbornness.

"My special ability is useless in battle."

But it's good enough as a blood pack and a cushion.

"Sister Lu needs to be at her peak, it's okay for me to lie down for a while."

Su Ran fell silent.

He looked at the pale-faced young man on the bed, and then at Bai Lu standing to the side, her eyes filled with guilt.

This team, pieced together from piles of corpses, has unknowingly developed a bond that allows them to entrust their lives to each other.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Su Ran patted Zhu Jingye on the shoulder, her palm warm.

Immediately, he flipped his wrist, his consciousness sinking into infinite space, and took out a specially made crystal tube that emitted a lustrous green light.

Su Ran crushed the tube opening and poured the clear green liquid directly into Zhu Jingye's mouth.

"Get some rest, leave the rest to me."

Zhu Jingye closed his eyes in peace and soon fell into a deep sleep.

The exhaustion caused by the mental backlash requires a very long time to process.

This guy doesn't talk much usually, but when it comes to crucial moments, he's really willing to risk his life.

These are the brothers you can entrust your back to on the battlefield.

Su Ran turned around and looked at Bai Lu.

"Bai Lu, you too, don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Su Ran's tone softened.

"Each of us has our own role. Your stage is the battlefield of control, while the dedicated stage is to provide you with the strongest support."

No one owes anyone anything; we only help each other succeed.

Once he wakes up, have the logistics department approve the highest level of nutritional rations for him.

Bai Lu nodded, her tense shoulders finally relaxing.

"Let's go outside and talk." Su Ran lifted the curtain.

The two stepped out of the tent.

The sandstorm outside was still strong, but the smell of gunpowder in the air had faded considerably.

The sandstorm outside was still fierce. Ye Xiao pulled out a few bottles of chilled beer from somewhere and tossed one to Bai Lu and one to Su Ran.

He bit open the bottle cap himself, tilted his head back and gulped down a big mouthful, exclaiming how satisfying it was.

Su Ran took the wine bottle, weighed it in her hand a couple of times, and then casually put it into her infinite space.

"How's the clearing out of the mutated beast hordes outside going?" He looked at Ye Xiao and got to the point.

Ye Xiao put on a clean black training uniform and zipped it up.

"They've almost all been wiped out."

Ye Xiao wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Not long after you left, Brother Su, three more heavy combined arms brigades came up to take over from the rear base."

With the death of that fourth-tier red lion, the beast tide immediately fell apart.

The remaining Tier 3 elite monsters were all intercepted and killed by Bai Lu and me.

Little Grey went berserk, taking down those third-tier mutated beasts with a single slap!

He lowered his voice and whispered to the two of them,

"Brother Su, the main force of the beast tide has been wiped out!"

The crystal core recovery team has only cleared less than a third of the battlefield so far, and it's said that over two hundred third-tier crystal cores have already been stored!

After a thorough cleanup, the number of third-order crystal cores harvested will likely approach one thousand.

This is an astronomical figure.

Su Ran touched her chin and asked the question she cared about most.

"What about casualties?"

Ye Xiao rubbed his face and sighed, "It doesn't look good."

His eyes dimmed, and his voice lowered.

"The three infantry regiments on the outermost layer of the defensive line were all wiped out."

In order to buy time for the heavy firepower to be calibrated, they risked their lives to fill the gap.

It is estimated that over 10,000 ordinary soldiers were killed in action.

"Of the more than 300 people who participated in the battle, 22 were killed in action."

Three of them are promising talents who have already broken through the threshold of the third tier.

Although it was a resounding victory, behind the numbers are countless precious human lives lost.

If the fourth-tier red lion hadn't been beheaded beforehand, causing the beast tide to lose its command and control, the casualty figure would have been at least three times higher.

"Zhao Shanhe will handle the compensation and resettlement of the fallen soldiers."

Su Ran closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the blood-stained air.

"The list of Awakened Ones who died in action will be compiled separately. In addition to the list for the military, headquarters will allocate double the resource quota to their families."

"Understood." Ye Xiao nodded.

"Keep a close eye on the compensation matters, don't let the people below feel disheartened. Great Xia will not mistreat any meritorious person who shed blood."

Su Ran took out a flattened cigarette from his pocket, but didn't light it; he just rubbed it between his fingers.

Ye Xiao nodded in agreement, and Su Ran withdrew her gaze and turned to look at Bai Lu, who was spinning a wine bottle.

Bai Lu was staring at the dozing fourth-tier hellhound mother not far away, her thin black combat suit fluttering in the cold wind.

Su Ran walked over and stopped beside her.

"How did the Warcraft Legion's first battle go?"

His gaze swept over the several Tier 3 Hellhounds on the periphery, each licking its own wounds.

These guys were all injured to varying degrees; some were blind in one eye, and some were lame in one leg, but their fierce aura was even stronger than when they came out of the incubation chamber.

Bai Lu turned her head, a hint of helplessness flashing in her cool eyes.

"Seven were broken."

Su Ran raised an eyebrow slightly.

She recited the numbers in a flat tone, but a closer listener could detect a hint of regret.

"Five of them were crushed head-on by the frenzied second-tier bison herd."

The beast tide was so chaotic back then that they rushed too far and were instantly wiped out when they got surrounded.

"What about the other two?" Su Ran continued to ask.

Bai Lu paused, then pouted somewhat dejectedly.

"They charged too fiercely while pursuing the fleeing troops and got mixed up in the densely populated area of ​​wild animals, so they didn't have time to withdraw."

When the Great Xia fighter jets pursued and swept through the area, they were taken away directly…”

Su Ran was speechless.

That's the nature of the Warcraft Legion.

They are mutated beasts by nature. Once they are mixed into a million-strong beast tide to fight, even if they are covered with reflective armor plates, they cannot be distinguished from friend or foe by the radar of fighter jets and pilots thousands of meters in the air.

Indiscriminate firepower inevitably leads to friendly fire incidents.

"The drawbacks are obvious."

Su Ran watched the remaining hellhounds tearing at the corpses of their own kind and feeding on them at the edge of the battlefield in the distance, and a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"But in this meat grinder battlefield, their value far outweighs their losses. As long as the value is demonstrated, that's enough."

Su Ran didn't care about this loss.

He looked again at the surviving hellhounds; the casualty ratio was actually quite remarkable on that kind of meat grinder-like battlefield.

"These seven spots are definitely worth it."

"Just counting those they killed themselves, plus those they caused by creating chaos and triggering stampedes, these thirty-seven hellhounds wiped out at least seven thousand of the enemy's fighting force."

Seven for seven thousand!

This is an extremely alarming exchange ratio.

The Warcraft army's greatest advantage lies in its natural camouflage.

They are mutated beasts, and the biomagnetic field and scent emanating from their bodies can perfectly blend into the beast tide.

Before the advanced mutants issue a clear attack command, the surrounding low-level monsters cannot distinguish friend from foe.

"We need to expand. We must expand significantly!"

Su Ran withdrew her gaze and made the final decision.

"Once the fighting here is over, I will use my highest authority to issue an order to the Jiangcheng Special Observation Room: double the resource allocation for the Mother Nest!"

"Thirty is not enough, I want three hundred, three thousand!"

I'm going to drastically increase their size and create a fully-fledged Great Xia magical beast army!

Bai Lu listened quietly, a glint of light flashing in her eyes.

The stronger the Warcraft army, the greater the role she can play.

This sense of value from being needed is something she finds very rewarding.

After discussing the legion's affairs, Bai Lu turned around and looked at Su Ran, her cool eyes revealing a hint of inquiry.

"And you? Where are you going next? Are you going back to the Kunlun base?"

During this period, Su Ran's whereabouts were very elusive; he was either cooperating with experiments at the Academy of Sciences or wandering around various war zones.

But ultimately, it cannot be separated from the Kunlun base.

Su Ran shook her head.

I won't be replying for now.

Su Ran looked at the distant horizon, her tone cold and hard.

"The fourth stage has already emerged, and the gears of global evolution are turning faster than expected."

Satellite radar had previously detected more than a dozen ultra-high energy reaction points.

"My purpose in coming out this time is to nip this in the bud and wipe out all the high-level mutated beasts that have been identified so far!"

He paused for half a second, his killing intent palpable, like the Grim Reaper announcing a death sentence.

"I want to cut off all possibilities for them to transform into the fourth order."

To eliminate future threats to the Great Xia Dynasty at their root.