Chapter 20: Reunion
The forest was densely packed with people everywhere.
Actually, people aren't stupid. The Qixiao's body structure isn't suitable for movement in forests - their natural habitat is open plains. So many people held onto the slim hope that the Qixiao wouldn't enter the forest.
After all, no one could say for sure whether even more terrifying creatures existed deeper in the woods. The strange and bizarre plants everywhere had already scared them out of their wits. With no water or food left, going deeper would mean certain death anyway.
As Liu Xiao's group continued deeper, the number of people gradually decreased.
The plains fire wouldn't be extinguished anytime soon, buying humanity valuable time. As for what would happen after the fire died out, Liu Xiao admitted to himself that he didn't know.
After traveling for nearly another hour, they rarely encountered crowds along the way. The thousand-person team arrived at the giant tree where Liu Xiao had previously completed his transformation. The area was open and flat, making it a decent campsite.
"Let's rest here for a while," Liu Xiao said, sitting alone on a protruding tree root.
"This place might not be completely safe, but visibility is limited in the forest, making it relatively secure. Even if those Qixiao enter the woods, they'll likely follow human crowds - unless they're determined to sweep the entire forest."
Everyone sat around Liu Xiao, too exhausted to speak, just nodding in agreement.
Liu Xiao pointed behind him.
"That way, there are creatures even more terrifying than the Qixiao. I'll be heading there later. What you do next is your own decision."
People looked at each other, unsure how to respond.
A man suddenly stood up, about to speak, but Liu Xiao pulled him back down.
"No one near me speaks!"
People nearby: "..."
"Big Bro, we owe our survival to you this time. I want to follow you!"
"Me too!"
"Yeah Big Bro, we might not be much, but we can at least serve as cannon fodder. If we die, we'll just return to Earth anyway!"
The crowd grew excited. In their eyes, Liu Xiao was the ultimate lifeline - why wouldn't they cling to him now?
"Do you really think all of you will return to Earth if you die here?"
Liu Xiao took out some roasted lizardman meat and began eating without restraint. "Qiantang is full of car accidents, fires and all kinds of disasters right now. Everyone's bodies are in a vegetative state without consciousness. You'd better recall where you were and what you were doing before being transported."
Hearing this, everyone began carefully remembering their final moments on Earth. Many faces gradually turned pale.
"Big Bro, how do you know this? Have you been back?" a college student asked suspiciously.
Liu Xiao ignored his question and continued, "No one wants to be cannon fodder. The creatures over there can kill any of you - or even me - with one strike. And your weapons can't even scratch them."
Having said his piece, Liu Xiao stood and walked deeper into the forest.
This time, over two hundred people still followed him.
"In the Origin Point, we're just ants. But even ants should value their lives."
With that, Liu Xiao disappeared into the foliage.
...
The guiding insect proved to be an incredibly useful navigation tool in the Origin Point.
After nearly two more hours of travel, Liu Xiao spotted movement in the distance, though the other party hadn't noticed them yet.
As they drew closer, voices could be heard ahead:
"Someone's coming!"
Several heads popped up, first freezing in surprise, then breaking into smiles upon recognizing Liu Xiao.
"It's Liu Xiao! Liu Xiao brought a whole group with him!"
There were no emotional reunions. After confirming all his acquaintances were present, Liu Xiao had everyone settle down nearby. The two hundred followers combined with the student group's forty brought their total to nearly three hundred - a surprisingly sizable force.
"Let me introduce everyone," Liu Xiao said reluctantly, being the common link between both groups. "These people with me are all skilled fighters who survived battles against monsters together. This group are Qiantang university students - comrades who've fought alongside us."
Both sides nodded greetings, with the students being more reserved.
"Brief summary: of the nearly ten million transported from Qiantang, at least seventy percent are gone. The entire river valley plains have fallen, military forces are wiped out, and survivors have mostly fled into this forest. Our current location should be safe for now."
Liu Xiao delivered this calmly, but the students were stunned. Earlier arrivals had said humans initially won but the situation was uncertain - they hadn't expected total collapse with millions slaughtered.
"Liu Xiao, why do you think we're safe here?" Li Tianjia asked gravely.
"Two reasons: motive and efficiency," Liu Xiao raised two fingers. "These Qixiao are extraterrestrials. I suspect their motives are: first, war rewards; second, Galactic Order merit; third, hunting transformed humans."
His followers looked bewildered though some nodded knowingly.
"No questions now - save them," Liu Xiao cut off raised hands. "In forests, their killing efficiency drops sharply. Unless humans gather in large numbers, they likely won't sweep the whole forest."
Li Tianjia nodded thoughtfully.
"This war disrupted our original plans," Ye Shan said, focused on the future. "After discussion, we've decided everyone will go with you to that place."
"You're sure?" Liu Xiao scanned the students. They noticed he seemed different now - his presence alone was almost oppressive.
"Absolutely," Ye Shan replied firmly.
Liu Xiao's intimidating aura affected people differently - the timid became submissive while strong-willed people like Ye Shan grew more resolute.
"Then we'll rest here before moving out," Liu Xiao decided.
"Liu Xiao, 'moving out' sounds too ominous - can we call it something else?" Zhou Yuk complained.
"Fine, how about 'charging straight into the tiger's den'?" Liu Xiao joked.
"Sounds equally bad..." Zhou Yuk muttered.
Liu Xiao handed his two hundred followers to Li Tianjia and explained the war title system, not wanting to manage so many people himself.
The students began cataloging everyone's names, skills and weapons. These survivors who'd faced the Qixiao head-on were clearly tougher and stronger than average, with better physical stats than Liu Xiao's initial attributes.
The organizational work was completed quickly. Including both the university student group and Liu Xiao himself, they totaled 303 people. Based on their physical attributes and individual characteristics, these 303 people were divided into five categories: polearm users, short weapon users, archers, logistics, and medical.
The polearm unit consisted of people wielding long-handled weapons. Their role was to surround enemies and maintain distance. There were 133 members in this group. The short weapon unit held hunting knives, kitchen knives, fist blades and other close-combat weapons. They would be responsible for protection and assault missions. This group had 57 members. The archers were self-explanatory - the 33 people armed with bows and crossbows would serve as the main damage dealers and reconnaissance units during this stage. The logistics team handled arrow production, temporary camp construction, fire-making and cooking - a sizable group of 70 people. The remaining 10 formed the medical team. Most curiously, among these 10 were three actual doctors - emergency department physicians from Qiantang First Hospital. These three became the core of the medical team, while the other seven were tasked with dragging wounded from battle zones.
Five teams meant five leaders:
Polearm leader: Yang Yunlong. A martial arts school graduate who could whirl his spear with formidable skill. With endurance at 7, strength at 8 and explosive power at 8, he was clearly superhuman.
Short weapon leader: Li Tianjia, who also served as overall commander of all 303 people. One of only two transformed individuals.
Archer leader: Liu Xiao. This required no explanation - no one else would dare claim this position anyway.
Logistics leader: Ye Shan, unanimously recognized for her organizational skills and intelligence.
Medical leader: Zhang Kuan, nicknamed "One-Hand Zhang" for his unparalleled manual hemostasis techniques at Qiantang First Hospital.
With the organizational structure complete, they moved on to substantive matters.
First, Li Tianjia combined information from both his own knowledge and Liu Xiao's to explain the Origin Point's fundamental rules and logic to everyone - including transformation, the Hub, Galactic Order merits, reward missions and more. This helped everyone understand their potential growth paths and proper positioning within the Origin Point's framework.
However, regarding certain sensitive information - particularly about Liu Xiao - he omitted everything. Moreover, following Liu Xiao's instructions, they began referring to him as Ren Pingsheng.
The new team members showed remarkable understanding, displaying more excitement than surprise as they committed every detail to memory. From the moment they chose to follow Liu Xiao, they'd already decided to survive in the Origin Point. This information was far too valuable. The team's cohesion strengthened rapidly with each person's commitment.
After this cultural education session, Li Tianjia dragged out a lizardman corpse that Liu Xiao had prepared beforehand. Now everyone finally understood the terrifying creatures Liu Xiao had described - these things were indeed monstrously powerful.
Li Tianjia proceeded to explain the lizardmen's attack patterns and weaknesses in detail, with Liu Xiao occasionally adding supplementary points.
Following this, each combat unit began training under their respective leaders, with the goal of having one-fifth of members achieve basic proficiency.
Ye Shan immediately threw herself into assigning tasks to the logistics team. The priorities were:
Collecting medicinal plants like broadleaf herbs and shadegrass from nearby areas, finding sturdy branches for arrow production and securing fresh water and food supplies. Though, all these three tasks could be conducted simultaneously.
The medical team led by Zhang Kuan had the most relaxed job. The three emergency physicians conducted impromptu first aid training sessions, hoping their knowledge would prove useful.
Every team member worked with tremendous motivation, and the leaders taught everything they knew without reservation. The only exception was Liu Xiao, who remained perched on his tree root continuously gnawing on roasted meat, reveling in the pleasure brought by his Pearl Containment physique.
He had appointed a reasonably skilled deputy archer leader so he could focus on his feast. Remarkably, everyone accepted this behavior as perfectly normal - of course their "Big Bro" needed to consume more energy given his tremendous expenditures.
The truth was Liu Xiao couldn't possibly eat any more, but this eating spree had already boosted his strength attribute to 12.