Akting was there because he had been notified of the presence of an Iron Tank. Coincidentally, his team was also there and he grew worried, so he wanted to check on them. As it turned out, his team was lucky as the Iron Tank hadn’t attacked them. 

Then he saw the Marsh City’s team coming back, anxious and disheveled. They all looked solemn. He knew that expression all too well. There were only two reasons a soldier would return like this—either the failure of a mission, or a comrade that was severely injured. 

Akting, who didn’t understand the situation, was only there to get a rise out of Lei Zhongyuan and was puzzled by Lei Zhongyuan’s response. 

“What did you mean by that?” 

“Stop it. This is my message to your team from Toro City. Be prepared.” When Lei Zhongyuan saw the doctor leaving the room, he ignored Akting and went to ask about Fang Rou. 

Akting frowned slightly, then returned to his team. His eyes swept across the group. “Did you guys attract the Iron Tank over?” 

“Instructor, what do you mean? We were just escaping from our deaths.” 

“Yeah, we don’t know which kind soul helped attract the Iron Tank away from us either. That was the only reason we could come back unscathed.” 

Akting squinted, eyeing his students, but didn’t say anything in the end. He knew them well. As a fellow Karan tribesman, he knew the pride that was deeply ingrained in their bones. And what about his pride? Yes, he was arrogant before entering the military, but he had been straightened out considerably throughout his career. Now he only poked fun, but never caused harm. He personally knew how much arrogance could affect their lives when they were older. 

He understood the saying, ‘there’s always a higher mountain’. Maybe because of the special training, Charotis had immediately broken through and become a tier four martial artist in the previous round, thus effortlessly destroying the other teams. That was likely what had worsened their prideful attitudes. However, he saw someone who could possibly rival Charotis: Wu Rui. With his aura and combat abilities, even a warrior from their tribe would find it difficult to achieve victory. 

“Mm, not bad for Lei Zhongyuan to have a kid with such potential.” Akting had an idea. But that was why he didn’t mind his students provoking Marsh City’s students. It didn’t matter who became the sharpened knife and the whetstone in the end. Both sides would still greatly benefit. 

......

On Xiang Ning’s side, his calls finally went through. It was already one in the morning. After he was filled in, he smiled. “Not bad, you can already solo kill a tier three, six-star beast? Believe in yourself, believe in our team. We’ll definitely advance to the next round.” 

…

“Haha, I hope Xiaoyu didn’t cause any trouble?” 

…

“Mm, I’m sleeping now. I’ll head over with the teams from other cities tomorrow. Hmm? What’s the matter?” 

There was silence.

“I’m sorry.” 

“Mm, I understand. Is Liu Ruoxue okay?” 

“She’s… fine.”

“Alright, take good care of Little Rou. I’ll go there in the morning. Rest well.” 

After hanging up, Li Zimo looked at the group standing outside the recovery room with a pained expression. 

“Don’t worry, Xiang Ning won’t blame you. It wasn’t your fault anyway, if anyone’s to blame, it's those Karan people!” comforted Lu Shiyu. To be honest, she blamed herself, too. As the person who had made the decision to go, she should have known better to retreat sooner. 

Li Zimo nodded without a word and looked at the girl lying in the recovery capsule. Xiang Ning’s response was a huge comfort to him, but just because of that, he blamed himself even more. If only… if only he was stronger. 

Time passed slowly. 

“What? Fortress One doesn’t need any more reinforcements for the moment? But our teams are there.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

Mu Ronghua, his brows tightly knitted, was about to make further arrangements when Xiang Ning stopped him. “What’s the nearest fortress to Fortress One?” 

“Fortress Three. But I need to tell you that the distance between them is—” 

Before he finished, Xiang Ning interrupted, “Instructor Mu, let’s get on the train to Fortress Three.”

“But… alright.” Mu Ronghua knew it would be useless for them to wait there. Perhaps there would be a train heading to Fortress One tomorrow or the day after, but they couldn’t afford to wait so long. 

Xiang Ning and Mu Ronghua helped Wu Rui’s team member into the train. It was filled with teams from other cities, as well as soldiers being sent to Fortress Three as reinforcements, making a total of two thousand people. 

“Brother, which team are you from? I’ll help you find your seat.” Many people saw the three of them, thinking they had fallen behind their team. 

“Thank you, it’s just the three of us. Are these seats taken?” Xiang Ning politely replied, though his words were puzzling. Why were there only three of them, and one of them was an officer? So there were only two members? 

“Oh. No, take it.” 

“Thanks.” 

Once they were seated, Xiang Ning closed his eyes. Mu Ronghua looked at him, slightly worried. “Don’t worry, once we arrive at Fortress Three, we’ll immediately join the team clearing the path between the fortresses. Then we’ll head to Fortress One.” 

“I understand, Instructor Mu.” Xiang Ning smiled, showing that he was fine. 

It wasn’t a wide carriage. Although Mu Ronghua wasn’t speaking loudly, the people around them heard him. 

A more experienced student said, “Brother, so your team went to Fortress One? Are you guys heading there, too?” 

“Coincidentally, due to arriving a day late, our teams are definitely getting a late start in earning points. However, if we clear up the path, it’ll be extra points for our teams and we’ll catch up. Would you like to form a team together?” 

“Is that so? Sure.” 

“Of course. But there’s too few of you, so the point distribution will….”

“Up to you.” 

“Great, I like your direct answer. We’ll split twenty-eighty! My name is Li Zihao, may I ask…” Before he finished, his teammate pulled him aside. 

“There’s only two of them, so that’s ten percent each?!” 

“Hey, hey, trust me. It’s going to be difficult clearing up the path, and based on our team’s current strength, it’ll be hard, but as long as we get a bit of help, we’ll be fine. If we get another team, won’t we have to split fifty-fifty?” Seeing as his teammate was nearly convinced, he continued, “Then again, do you think any weaklings can make it to Hang City?” 

“Alright! It’s a deal then!” The other four members looked at each other, then agreed. 

“Brother, I still don’t know your name.…” Li Zihao smiled and turned around once again from his seat toward Xiang Ning, his baby face looking slightly mischievous. 

Waiting for MC to get to fortress one to whoop some ass. Ah dang, I've caught up.