Translated by: pokka

  Editor: Reckeva

  “Bloody Storm!”


  Blades of blood spun and cut down the magical beasts around. With Wu Chi killing the last wave of magical beasts, the besieged team was now safe.

  “Clean the field and gather at the assembly point!” Wu Chi said like a calm, experienced commander. The people under his command were all students in the third and fourth year, which was impossible during ordinary times, but no one had any objections at this moment as his strength had been fully displayed.

  Bringing the team that was rescued back to the assembly point, Wu Chi immediately reported the situation to Bai Xiaofei.

  “We’re moving. You wait here a little bit for the people who will return later, then bring them to the new assembly point.”


  Bai Xiaofei stood up with Lin Li’s support. For some reason he didn’t understand, his body seemed to have shut down, and his self-repairing ability now couldn’t even compare to that of a normal Martial Master, so he currently could only walk with the help of others. Lin Li had become his full-time bodyguard. The others were all busy with something else while she refused to be a step away from him.

  “Rest assured, Boss, I will complete the mission!” Wu Chi chortled as he sent off Bai Xiaofei and the wounded. Then, he resumed his commanding role. “Wipe up all the traces, don’t leave anything useful for Shadow Death!”
——

  “If we keep advancing, we’ll leave the middle layer and there will be fewer of those who can detect us. It is time we took the next step.” Yun Jingshuang briefed, and quietly waited for Bai Xiaofei’s reply.

  “Still haven’t found Sister Liuyun?” Bai Xiaofei asked with furrowed brows.

  This put Yun Jingshuang into a long silence before he said, “No……”


  Bai Xiaofei felt a sharp pain running through his heart at this answer.

  From the inner circle to the middle, they saved one scattered team after another, but there had been no news on Chu Liuyun. In order to find her, Bai Xiaofei took quite a few reroutes, only to be disappointed again and again.

  “I have asked around. They said they’d seen many people retreating while fighting magical beasts. Maybe she’s returned to the academy vicinity?” Yun Jingshuang tried to be as tactful as possible. This wasn’t a suitable time to say much.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not an idiot. I won’t delay our plan to return to Starnet. We’ll set out once Xian’er comes back!” Bai Xiaofei forced out a smile as his heart was filled with worries. Please be okay!

  If it weren’t for him, Chu Liuyun might have chosen to leave after graduation. In fact, she had never shown any interest in the grand celebration. If anything happened to her now, Bai Xiaofei would never forgive himself.

  “I will continue to search. I will inform you as soon as I have anything on her,” Yun Jingshuang repeated what he had said many times, then went to direct others to start erasing their traces.

  “Big Sister Liuyun will be fine, we will definitely find her,” Lin Li said weakly, her face serious. Seeing Bai Xiaofei obviously worried but still pretending to be fine, she just couldn’t feel any jealousy, only heartache.

  “I think so too.” Bai Xiaofei tightly held Lin Li’s hand in his.

  No matter who, he didn’t want to give up, because he could not. This was Bai Xiaofei’s newest and clearest understanding of himself after all the turns of this grand celebration.

  Before long, Hu Xian’er brought the people she saved back to the last temporary foothold. After everyone gathered, Bai Xiaofei walked slowly before them. Xing and Hong, who had arrived with the message, accompanied him on his two sides as a kind of support.

  The new team had grown bigger. Bai Xiaofei could no longer convince everyone with his own strength as before, but there was no one more suitable to stand at the front and speak other than him. If he wasn’t qualified, then the others were even less so!

  His eyes sweeping through the team, Bai Xiaofei noticed a variety of responses. The continued life-and-death battles consumed not only energy and vitality but also a person’s mind. No one could rid themselves of the fear of death. The only thing that could be controlled was how to face this fear!

  “Classmates, senior brothers and sisters, first of all, I untimely congratulate you. Now we can be said to have shaken off danger. There are two paths ahead of us at the moment.”


  “One is to kill our way back to Starnet. Many may die while doing so, but Starnet is our root. No matter what the situation over there is, as members of Starnet, we have the responsibility and obligation to fight for it with everything we have.”


  “Of course, if any of you don’t want to, you can choose the second path and depart from here. This is already the edge of the middle layer. It is certainly not difficult to make it out alive with your abilities, and I promise that you will not be looked down upon by anyone because it has already not been easy for you to persist until now.”


  Having said that, Bai Xiaofei took a deep breath. The whole group was unexpectedly quiet, but there was hesitation in everyone’s eyes.

  If there was only one option, no one would hesitate, but when faced with the choice of life and death, it was impossible not to hesitate at all.

  “There is not much time. We will go one step before you. I hope everyone will make a decision that they will not regret.” Bai Xiaofei then turned and walked in the direction of Starnet with his girl group and friends. Lan He took the remaining Exquisite Rank puppet masters to follow, and the students who took part in the fog war made up the rear.

  After the first batch set out, others started to follow one after another. In a few minutes, nearly 80% of them made the same choice: Return to Starnet!

  “Didn’t you scaredy-cat just say you’d run if you can? Why are you on this side?”


  “I’m afraid that I’ll regret to death if I run.”


  “Let’s go, let us the hero trio of the 516 room fight with our lives this one last time!”


  “I promise to go shopping with you after we return to Starnet!”


  “Teacher Zhang, wait for me!! Your student is coming to save you!”


  “My good brother, I’m going to avenge you!”


  “.……”


  Everyone had their own seemingly immature reason, and at the same time, they all used it to gather every last bit of their courage.

  Bai Xiaofei didn’t have to tell them for them to know that this path was extremely dangerous, but once they took this step, this group of people had deleted the word ‘regret’ from their dictionary.

  The reason was very simple. As Bai Xiaofei had said, Starnet was their root!