Inside The Black Mist

The automatic door sluggishly opened halfway before getting stuck. Adam gave an awkward smile, clenched his fist, and gave the door a good thump, finally forcing it open.

"Many facilities in the base are quite old, and this room hasn\'t been occupied for a while, so... you know."

After leaving the Wall of Remembrance, Adam had taken Tianyang on a tour around the base, and they had just returned from the supply warehouse. Now, the Night Walker Captain had found a temporary dormitory for the boy.

However, the room looked like it had been abandoned for some time.

The floor and walls were covered in dust, and it was clear the room hadn’t been ventilated in ages. The air was stuffy.

Adam brushed some dust off a wall and activated a control panel, starting the ventilation system. Soon, a machine in the corner roared to life, and after a moment, a dark gray smoke began to seep out from behind a grille.

Adam looked stunned. After a few seconds, he said, "How about I find you another room?"

Tianyang readily agreed.

The second dormitory was much better. Although it was small and simple, at least it was clean.

Tianyang placed his gear on the table and thanked him. Adam, still feeling bad about the earlier incident, insisted on treating the boy to a good meal that evening to make up for it.

As he was leaving, Adam hesitated for a few seconds, then shyly asked, "Um, Tianyang, you came from the fortress. Do you happen to know my sister?"

Tianyang replied casually, "Who is your sister?"

"Luo Shan," Adam added. "She works at the medical center and sometimes serves as a field medic in the reverse realm."

Luo Shan was his sister!

Immediately, the image of that mature and beautiful figure flashed in the boy\'s mind.

It was hard to imagine that Dr. Luo Shan had a brother and that her brother was the Captain in the Night Walkers!

"Yes, I know her. Dr. Luo Shan has examined me before."

She\'s also my personal doctor… but this wasn\'t something he should tell Adam.

Adam asked eagerly, "Is she doing well?"

"Very well. Every time I see Dr. Luo Shan, she seems very spirited."

"That\'s good." The burly man looked relieved. "I was worried that without me around, she might get bullied."

You must be joking. Who would dare bully a combat medic unless they didn\'t want to be treated? Besides, your sister is an Ascender too, although I still don\'t know her rank.

"By the way," Adam said, grabbing the boy\'s shoulder with a serious expression, "next time you see her, can you pass on a message for me?"

Tianyang quickly nodded. "Sure, what is it?"

"Tell her that I haven\'t embarrassed her and that I\'ve been working hard towards that goal!"

Adam\'s eyes were filled with excitement, and his grip unintentionally tightened, making Tianyang worry about his shoulder.

"No problem. When I get back, I\'ll definitely relay your message."

So, could you let go of me now?

"Thank you so much!"

Instead of letting go, Adam\'s grip tightened even more.

The next morning.

Just as Tianyang finished washing up, there was a knock on the door.

He opened it to find a young soldier in a Night Walker uniform, looking both nervous and excited, who said loudly, "Good morning, sir! The Captain asked me to take you to the dining hall!"

Tianyang smiled and replied, "Thank you."

In the base\'s dining hall, the Sun\'s Spear squad occupied a table. Besides Adam, Tianyang also saw two other members who clearly had Western Continent features.

Judging by their shoulder insignias, they both held the rank of second lieutenant.

"Over here!" Adam waved and called Tianyang over, then introduced him to his team members.

Tianyang greeted each of them and sat down next to Adam, quickly finishing his breakfast.

After eating, the team left the dining hall and headed to their assembly point—the base’s Garage No. 3.

As the soldiers inspected the vehicles and loaded supplies, Tianyang\'s gaze fell on another team not far away.

This team was uniformly dressed in white uniforms, with their armor and tactical gear also in white. The cuffs and collars were adorned with decorative cloud patterns.

Moreover, both their vehicles and equipment were far superior to Adam’s team.

Most importantly, all their gear was brand new.

In contrast, Adam’s team, despite being called the Sun\'s Spear, had old and worn equipment with many scratches and signs of wear, indicating they hadn’t been replaced for years.

Compared to the other team, they looked quite shabby.

"That’s the Cloud Guard, Frost Guard Cloud," Adam said while polishing his standard steel sword. "They’re the only team in this base that gets to replace their equipment every year. Unlike us, our gear hasn’t been replaced for four or five years."

Tianyang observed a bit more and noticed that there were quite a few Ascenders in the Frost Guard. Out of a team of about a dozen, five were Ascenders.

This configuration was comparable to the Sun\'s Spear. It was surprising that a single family could have a private guard force on par with a Night Walker squad.

And this was probably not the only guard force like this.

It was easy to see that the Yun family indeed possessed power unmatched by other families.

"Mr. Tianyang, this… this is such a coincidence. Are you also heading to Gemstone Town?" Yunze’s voice rang out from the garage entrance.

Tianyang looked over and, sure enough, the Yun family scion was striding in with four or five people following him.

Aside from the enigmatic eagle-eyed man, there was an elderly man and three young people.

Oh, and Zhou Wang was at the back, his head still bandaged. When he saw Tianyang, his bloodshot eyes seemed to blaze with anger.

When Tianyang had encountered Yunze the previous day, he had thought that the person Shen Mozhu mentioned, who would be accompanying them today, might be Yunze.

Seeing him today confirmed this guess.

Tianyang felt a bit of a headache because Yunze was… quite enthusiastic.

Sure enough, the Yun family scion had already started introducing the people around him to Tianyang. "This is Teacher Kong Zhang. He is a renowned botanist in our fortress. Thanks to his improved crops, we can now eat rice. Without his work, who knows what we’d be eating."

The elderly man, called Kong Zhang, was wearing protective gear and clumsily waved his hand. "I can’t take all the credit. Without the Yun family’s funding, no matter how hard I worked, I wouldn’t have been able to develop improved crops."

"Teacher Kong, don\'t be so modest. Our Yun family naturally supports endeavors that improve people\'s lives."

Yunze then introduced the others. The three young people behind the elderly man were his students and assistants.

As for the eagle-eyed man, named Wang Liangyi, Yunze didn’t reveal much about him or his rank.

Finally, Yunze warmly invited Tianyang to ride in his car, but Tianyang politely declined, and Yunze didn’t insist. He wasn’t even slightly annoyed at being refused.

Even if he was just pretending, Tianyang couldn’t help but admire Yunze’s composure. This was probably a basic skill for a noble scion.

After all inspections were completed and supplies were ready, Adam checked the time, waved his hand, and the team set off!