Li Wei didn't answer. He simply took out one of the mutant cabbage leaves. Liang Yuzhi imdiately pounced on it like she'd found a treasure, eyes shining as she felt and sniffed it. Li Yue remained unmoved — probably because she knew this wasn't her area of expertise.
"I can brew it into a magical potion. Li Wei — want to try? I won't charge you for the crafting. Honestly, with this potion, I think we could deal with the Fla Duke in the near future. Of course, I'll need two days."
"What kind of potion?"
"A Life Potion, of course. Starting at Two-Star, possibly Three-Star. With this amount of material, I should be able to brew five doses. Each dose instantly restores 100 Life points and cumulatively restores 200 Stamina over 10 minutes. Very solid."
"Deal. Brew it." Li Wei was quietly pleased. He knew that for Liang Yuzhi, brewing magical potions was also important experience toward rolling the Rare Scholar Card — and she'd probably get other benefits out of it too.
But so what? That was exactly how aligned interests worked. Without a common stake, why would anyone be on your side?
"In that case, taking down the Fla Duke is our shared goal. But we can't be careless. We need to scout in advance — understand the terrain, and most importantly, figure out how many life cores the Fla Duke has. So Li Wei, you need to leave imdiately and scout ahead. Once you have information, send Adai back with a ssage."
"Liang Yuzhi and I will stay at camp for now."
Li Yue spoke up.
But Li Wei felt uncertain. He held the Fla Duke in the highest regard.
"What if you ca with ? We scout together first, then have Liang Yuzhi bring the others over in two days for the group fight?"
"That won't work. My Scout Card is gone and my Scout Destiny Grid is nearly wiped. With an existence like the Fla Duke, anyone like us who gets within a kiloter will be detected. But you're different. Unless I'm wrong — you've already rolled a One-Star Rare Scout Card?"
"How did you know?" Li Wei blinked.
Li Yue smiled with quiet significance. "I guessed. Liang Yuzhi and I may be universally disliked, notorious, one ruthless and one eccentric — but we do have so ability. The point is: you should understand that the two of us agreeing to cooperate with you isn't just because we were forced into it. Part of it is also us offering goodwill — hoping to do you a favor."
"Simply put: Liang Yuzhi and I currently have no territories. But in the future, we might need your help."
With that, Li Yue produced a cloak. "This is equipnt I used before. Paired with a Scout Card, it's excellent for infiltration and reconnaissance. Consider it a gift."
"Exactly my thinking. This is my last potion — it'll also help with your infiltration. Take it. I'm going broke today, honestly."
Liang Yuzhi produced a potion with a pained expression, then both won left without another word.
They'd really bled for this one.
Li Wei's mind stirred. The information on the cloak and potion surfaced before him.
["Na: Scout Cloak"]
["Quality: Three-Star"]
["Description: A cloak woven from special magical materials. It suppresses your body heat, heartbeat, scent, and breath to the greatest possible degree. Especially when you are completely still, this cloak provides maximum concealnt."]
["Special Property: In dark nights and dim environnts, dramatically enhances your stealth."]
["When worn: Encumbrance 10. Cannot move quickly — if you do, nothing can save you."]
—
["Na: Disguise Potion"]
["Quality: Three-Star"]
["Brewed by: Yang Widow"]
["Description: You can read the na and still not figure out what it does? Are you a pig?"]
["Duration: Three hours."]
—
Genuinely excellent gear and potion for infiltration.
Li Wei didn't hesitate any longer. He dressed fully, packed food and water, called Adai, and set off without waiting for the two new arrivals — all under the watchful eyes of Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi.
As a Scout, going ahead to reconnoiter was the right call.
Against a terrifying, near-final-boss-level existence like the Fla Duke, charging in blind without any intelligence would be reckless.
By dawn the next day, Li Wei was already a hundred kiloters out. He could see the county town in the distance — the elevated highway beyond its edge, and the survivor camp in the northern suburbs.
He chose a concealed position and settled in. He didn't put on the Scout Cloak yet — he was still outside the city, and he had enough confidence in that.
The survivor camp appeared to have been built on the site of a mid-sized factory. The original buildings had been leveled and replaced with sturdier concrete structures. A periter wall roughly three kiloters in circumference had been built around it.
Just a wall — nowhere near the standard of a proper city wall. Less than thirty centiters thick, about three ters tall, topped with a ter of wire netting. Many sections showed damage.
Behind the wall stood four reinforced concrete watchtowers, but no one appeared to be on patrol.
The overall impression was loose, casual — almost like a prop.
Li Wei observed from several kiloters away for a long ti, cycling through seven or eight different angles. Around eight in the morning, the camp gates opened and a large group of people ca out, scythes in hand — heading out to harvest the crops.
The farmland around this survivor camp was extensive — roughly three hundred and thirty hectares. A sea of gold stretched in every direction. Even from downwind, Li Wei could catch the sweet scent of wheat. He was fairly certain a portion of these fields had produced One-Star quality grain.
But the total quantity couldn't be large — otherwise, mutant bird flocks would have descended on this place long ago.
About a hundred people ca out to harvest, including a dozen or so who appeared to be Ability Users standing guard on the periter. The rest wielded scythes and cut furiously, binding the stalks as they went. Another twenty-odd people erged from the camp pushing hand carts to haul away the bound wheat. The coordination was smooth, practiced — nothing like the low-intelligence behavior he'd expected.
Li Wei observed for a long ti and ultimately decided to keep watching. He couldn't make sense of this survivor camp's operational logic.
The Ability User "little idiots" he'd encountered before were worlds apart from what he was seeing now.
The rest of the day passed without incident. Harvesting, transporting, cooperating — everything normal.
But as the sun began to set, sothing strange happened: everyone rushed back into the camp in a hurry. Even the Ability Users.
At that mont, Li Wei sent Adai airborne. The bird quickly spotted the anomaly.
Right — this apparently casual, ramshackle survivor camp was just a facade. All the survivors and Ability Users lived underground.
Through Adai's eyes, Li Wei clearly saw a solid-looking three-story building slowly slide aside, revealing a three-ter-wide underground passage. Deep inside, lights blazed.
This was no crude, primitive survivor base. This was a fully equipped underground facility — like the underground base they'd found before.
What was going on here?
Li Wei thought for a long ti before recalling Adai.
When night fell, he put on the Scout Cloak and slipped into the county town under cover of darkness. Sothing powerful was definitely lurking here — months ago, Adai had spotted a pair of fla-red eyes.
His best guess was that it was the Fla Duke.
The night was pitch black, the stars dim. In a city full of ruined buildings, an ordinary person could see maybe ten or twenty ters. The old Li Wei could have managed a hundred or so. But now he could see two or three hundred ters without effort — as clear as daylight.
His footsteps were nearly silent — quieter than a mouse. Yet his movents remained agile and precise. Even crossing rubble-strewn ground, he moved with complete stability.
The Scout Cloak was the only drag — it prevented him from moving at full speed.
He wasn't impatient, though. He didn't dare be overconfident.
He didn't equip the Tracker title either, and didn't rush to locate the mutant creature. Instead, he thodically morized the city's layout — the positions of buildings, the specific terrain features — until a three-dinsional map had ford in his mind.
A good habit. And not too difficult, especially with the One-Star Scout Card.
Around midnight, the entire city's layout was fully mapped in his head.
He'd also earned 10 Scouting Experience points.
Interesting — with the Scout Card, even gaining Scouting Experience had beco easier?
That was excellent.
Li Wei still didn't rush. He began moving through buildings one by one, conducting internal reconnaissance and searching for anything useful.
Unsurprisingly, every building had been thoroughly and professionally stripped — not a scrap left behind.
But Li Wei had his own purpose. He was looking for traces of the mutant creature. Building by building he searched, until near dawn, when he imdiately took cover in a ruined building and went completely still.
In daylight, even with the Scout Cloak, his chances of being detected would be too high.
Through the previous night's reconnaissance, he'd already zeroed in on a twenty-story building at the city's center.
Sothing was definitely off about that building.
But he planned to save it for last — better to clear the surrounding area first.
The day passed quickly. Nothing happened.
When night fell again, Li Wei slipped out quietly, released Adai, and sent it back to deliver the ssage. Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi could set out first thing tomorrow morning.
With that done, he continued his search centered on that building, sweeping the surrounding area. He found quite a few suspicious details.
Around three in the morning, Li Wei silently entered the central building.
The structure was solid. He could see signs of later reinforcent on the exterior.
It seed that when the apocalypse first struck, this place had been used as a survivor base — or perhaps a governnt-organized ergency response center.
But the feeling it gave him was different. He caught a faint, faint trace of rot and decay — but alongside it, the fresh sll of blood.
Beyond that, a naless sense of danger settled over him. No question about it — a powerful mutant creature, or an out-of-control Ability User, was here.
And there was a very good chance it was the Fla Duke.
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