Chapter 960: The Pursuer

Chapter 960: The Pursuer

Situ Xin spoke up for Zhang Yi and offered a few polite words for show.

Li Tianyang actually had no real way to control Zhang Yi.

Everyone would act on their own once they landed on the island — that was an unspoken rule everyone understood.

After all, every person had their own agenda and wanted to claim the Divine Source. Who would obediently follow Li Tianyang, the nominal commander? He was just using the moment to rile Zhang Yi on purpose.

Li Tianyang pointed at Zhang Yi with a hand, frowning as he said sternly, “If you act like this, you’ll only waste our strength! So from now on, you must take more proactive measures.”

Zhang Yi smiled faintly and nodded, “Alright, I will do that.”

Zhang Yi’s cooperative tone displeased Li Tianyang; his plan to provoke Zhang Yi hadn’t worked.

Zhang Yi left with the quartermaster to collect a large cache of weapons, ammunition, food, and fresh water.

Beyond the standard allowance, he spent all his points and claimed even more supplies.

Although he had only eliminated two squads and split the credit for taking down Elias’s team with Deng Shentong, the materials he secured filled several shipping containers.

The rule had been to collect supplies after the battle — who took them on the spot like Zhang Yi did? The quartermaster’s staff were dumbfounded watching him.

Zhang Yi ignored them. He didn’t need these things, but if they were free, why not take them? Since he’d come all this way, he wouldn’t leave empty-handed; he was used to that.

But thinking of Li Tianyang’s attitude chilled the smile in Zhang Yi’s eyes.

“This guy is probably afraid I’ll compete with them for the Divine Source. He’ll likely keep targeting me next.”

“Doesn’t matter. Until I reach my goal, I won’t come back.”

If it weren’t for escorting Deng Shentong, he wouldn’t have needed to return here at all. He hadn’t expected to be put through Li Tianyang’s nonsense on his return. So after collecting the supplies, he planned to leave immediately and head back into the island’s interior.

Situ Xin came over.

“Captain Chaos, your performance here was very good. I’ve reported the situation to Regional Headquarters — Zhu Shuai is very satisfied with you.”

Zhang Yi looked at Situ Xin’s ever-smiling face and returned the smile, “Tell Zhu Shuai I’ll keep working hard. I’ll try to bring the Divine Source back to the Jiangnan Region!”

Situ Xin nodded with a smile. “I will pass it on.”

Zhang Yi left Xuanwu, taking Hua Hua and Lele with him, and returned to the island to continue his hunt. Li Tianyang watched Zhang Yi depart, his expression growing darker and more overcast.

“Will he really become a variable?” Li Tianyang murmured.

Standing beside him were officers from the East Sea Region. Xuanwu held a handheld game console and wore headphones, speaking absentmindedly:

“Not necessarily a good thing. Someone with Epsilon potential doesn’t always become Epsilon.”

“The closer you get to the boundary, the harder it is to advance.”

Everyone looked at Xuanwu, puzzled. Xuanwu raised his eyelids. “What they call ability points are just artificial divisions — they’re essentially optional.”

“But the barrier between Delta and Epsilon is very real.”

“The further you go, the stronger the origin you need to absorb to breakthrough. Once you break the barrier, the sky’s the limit — but the difficulty lies in breaking that layer.”

He smiled with meaning and said, “If he reaches over 9,900 points, he’d probably need to kill at least two other superhumans of the same level before a breakthrough becomes possible.”

“That’s not easy!” Li Tianyang said, suddenly recalling some legends about Xuanwu, and his expression relaxed a bit.

“True. If Epsilon were that easy to reach, the East Sea Region wouldn’t have only you at that level.”

...

Zhang Yi returned to the island and moved deeper inland along the route he’d been following earlier. Elias’s death had finally stirred the Colombian Navy into action.

“Two superhuman squads sent by Malai were wiped out in a single day!” Huo En’s expression was grim. “This is no accident. Someone is deliberately hunting them. But to what end?”

Those forces were allies of the Colombian Navy, though allies are united by interest. Their loss wasn’t a major blow to the navy. If they could secure the Divine Source, the death of several allied teams didn’t matter — a single Epsilon-level superhuman was worth more than all the island’s superhuman units combined.

His subordinate, Lieutenant Colonel Keludi, pondered for a moment then said as if struck by an idea, “Is there another possibility? Maybe the enemy’s target was those high-level superhumans themselves?”

Huo En glanced at him. “What do you mean by that?”

Keludi replied, “There’s only one Divine Source; not everyone can get it. Of course our navy wants it, but even if our allies obtained it, they wouldn’t dare hide it secretly.”

“So can’t we say most of the island’s superhumans actually had no chance at the Divine Source?”

“Some clever ones would give up competing for the Divine Source and instead hunt other superhumans to obtain origin energy!”

Huo En nodded. “If that’s true, then such people pose less of a threat to our mission.”

“But we can’t let them continue killing. Any unexpected variable must be eliminated!”

Keludi said, “Hermit Boon has already gone after him. He won’t survive long.”

...

Zhang Yi, with Hua Hua and Lele, returned to the island. He revisited what Deng Shentong had said earlier and, after thinking it through, had clarified the sequence of events in his mind.

“The encounter between him and Savendra wasn’t accidental.”

“The strange creature he mentioned was probably the catalyst. Both sides likely discovered it at the same time and then clashed over it.”

“Otherwise, they wouldn’t be fighting to the death.”

Zhang Yi stood near the battlefield from before and stroked Lele’s head. The dog’s nose was extremely useful.

“Deng Shentong hid something from me. Sniff around here and see if you catch any suspicious scent.”

Lele lowered its head. Zhang Yi flared his own nostrils and breathed in hard. Soon Lele lifted its head and said to Zhang Yi, “This place was too badly damaged. I do smell a faint, unusual scent in the air, but it’s too weak to pinpoint.”

Zhang Yi gauged his current position. He should be deep within Golden Phoenix City or on the edge of Bato City. From the map, either way, it was still far from Mist Valley.

“That thing is interesting, but might not be the Divine Source.”

“However, if we have time, we can track it down.”

Zhang Yi said calmly. But they didn’t rush into action. They’d already been busy for the whole day; Zhang Yi planned to find a place to rest well first, then act later.

Author's Note