Half an hour later, Ian Song led his squad to a secret military base in the western suburbs.
In the base hall, he saw the other eight War God Squad teams. Back when all seventy-two War Gods entered the Secret Realm, only sixty-five returned.
But now, the hall still had seventy-two people. Seven of them were new faces—clearly fresh picks for the 'War God' role, but oddly, they weren't the ones eliminated last time.
"Long time no see, Brother Song." Ethan Ye and Tanya Tang walked over together, smiling as they greeted Ian.
"Hey Ethan, hey Tanya!" Ian replied with a smile. Suddenly, he glanced between the two, then gave a meaningful grin: "So, when am I invited to your wedding banquet?"
Ethan was stunned for a moment, then laughed openly, "Nice eye, Brother Song! You can even tell that." He looked affectionately at Tanya beside him. "But when we have the wedding depends on when Sister Tang is willing to marry me."
Tanya rolled her eyes at him. "Dream on! No way am I marrying you."
"If you don't marry me, who else could you marry?" Ethan said smugly.
Seeing Ethan so full of himself, Tanya suddenly grabbed Ian's arm. "Brother Song wouldn't be a bad choice."
"Tanya, please spare me! If you don't let go, Ethan will challenge me to a duel!" Ian said with a wry smile.
After some playful banter, the three got down to business.
Ethan looked at Ian and asked, "Brother Song, do you know why General Han has called us together this time?"
Ian shook his head. "No clue yet."
Just then, Oscar Liao came over and gave Ian a hug.
Back in the Secret Realm, their squads had worked together several times, and Oscar had benefited a lot from Ian, so he was always grateful to him.
The four exchanged information, but none of them knew why General Han had called everyone together this time.
While chatting with Tanya and the others, Ian also noticed Kyle “Madman” Lee.
That kid’s cultivation had also broken through to Innate Seventh Layer. Clearly, the Lee family had invested a lot in him lately.
But the Lee family probably didn’t know that Kyle was already Ian’s puppet. All their effort to help Kyle advance only benefited their enemy.
Ten minutes later, General Harold Han, the War God Squad commander, arrived with four deputy commanders.
Weren’t the three deputy commanders—Jingang, Jay Zhou, and Charles Wang—stationed at the Secret Realm base? Why are they here too?
Seeing the three show up, most people sensed something unusual.
But soon, everyone started greeting them: "Hello, General Han. Hello, deputy commanders."
General Han smiled and raised his hand, and the noisy hall quickly quieted down. "No need to be so formal, everyone."
Back then, Ian couldn’t see through General Han’s cultivation, but now that he’d advanced to Foundation Establishment, he could tell at a glance—General Han was at peak Innate Ninth Layer, a true super expert.
General Han said calmly, "Today, I’ve called you all here for a new mission. But this mission is extremely dangerous—even more dangerous than entering the Secret Realm before. So this time, we won’t force anyone to participate. If you don’t want to accept the mission, you can leave the hall now."
Anyone who made it into the War God Squad is mentally tough—no one would be scared off by danger. So not a single person wavered; everyone stayed.
“I’m very pleased,” General Han said, smiling as he saw no one leave. “This mission could start at any time. Until then, stay here and focus on cultivation. We’ll provide plenty of pills and medicinal pellets!”
Hearing the last part, most people felt lucky—if they’d quit, they’d have missed a chance to level up, since the pills and pellets General Han mentioned were things money couldn’t buy.
Of course, there was one exception—Ian.
He’d already reached Foundation Establishment, so ordinary pills were basically useless to him.
Soon, General Han hurried off, leaving Logan Long and the four deputy commanders in charge.
Under the deputy commanders’ arrangements, everyone was assigned their own courtyard.
Each courtyard had three rooms and a bathroom.
The three rooms were a bedroom, a cultivation room, and a multi-purpose entertainment room.
Soon, two soldiers brought Ian a password-locked briefcase. After receiving it, he got a text message with the password and a warning—the wrong code would make the case explode.
“Seriously?” Ian cursed, but entered the password and opened the case.
Inside was a green jade bottle and a red porcelain bottle. The jade bottle held ten qi-enhancing pills; the porcelain bottle held ten bone-tempering pellets.
Both were great resources—at least for Innate Seventh Layer martial artists.
But for Ian, they were basically useless.
He casually tossed both bottles into his Storage Ring, then went to the entertainment room and turned on the TV to watch a movie.
Cultivation is like rowing upstream—you either advance or fall behind. But Ian had already reached Foundation Establishment, so even without training, his body would absorb spiritual energy from the world to strengthen itself. Still, the spiritual energy in the real world was so thin that a year’s cultivation here couldn’t compare to a day with a top-grade spirit crystal.
He was watching an American blockbuster called "Carbots 4."
The movie was a huge hit—already on its fourth installment. The plot was garbage, the special effects amazing to ordinary people but just so-so to Ian.
Still, it was good for killing time.
But in the final battle, when the robot leader fought the big boss and the male lead hid behind a ruined wall to snipe, Ian couldn’t help complaining.
That broken wall stuck out like a sore thumb—the whole area was rubble, but that one wall was fine. Just because the protagonist was hiding behind it?
Given the robots’ power—at least Innate Ninth Layer level—any flying debris in their fight should have smashed that wall and killed the hero a dozen times over.
Guess it’s just protagonist halo.
After the movie, Ian played video games late into the night—living the ultimate leisurely life. The others were all grinding away at cultivation to prepare for the next mission. If they saw Ian like this, who knows what they’d think?
He played until dawn, stretched, washed up, and went to bed—sleeping straight through till morning.
He played until dawn, stretched, washed up, and went to bed—sleeping straight through till morning.