Cave Refuge

Since the serious discussion had been concluded and dinner wasn't ready yet, Master Ye invited Mr. Thompson to play chess. To avoid disturbing the two of them, Zachary and his two companions left the study and returned to the living room to chat.

With no elders present, the three of them casually settled onto the sofas in the living room.

"Madeline, I've been away from here for so long. Aside from the expansion, has there been anything interesting happening at the base? Also, how many of those enhancement scrolls do you have in stock? Toss a few my way, I want to see if they're really as universally effective as people outside say."

When Zachary unabashedly asked for the enhancement scrolls, Madeline didn't react much, similarly casual in his reply, "How would I still have any enhancement scrolls now? The ones I initially got my hands on were all handed over during that time. I bet there are fewer than ten people or forces within the base that still have them."

Watching Madeline's face grow more excited as he spoke, Zachary could only helplessly play the straight man, "Including you, right?"

Upon hearing Zachary's words, Madeline didn't beat around the bush and straightforwardly admitted, "Of course."

Seeing Madeline's smug expression, Zachary spoke irritably, "Alright, enough showing off. Get me a few, and I'll see if they're any good."

"Fine, fine, I've already set some aside for you." After saying this, Madeline took out a wooden box from his storage space, which was filled with enhancement scrolls.

Zachary didn't hesitate to accept the wooden box Madeline handed over, putting it directly into his own storage space.

The reason Madeline had so many enhancement scrolls was actually tied to his early evolution of his companion spiritual treasure. After selecting the bearing branch, he had obtained a storage space.

After all, during that earlier upheaval, those teenagers could only scrounge around for enhancement scrolls hidden in rooms. They were powerless against martial artists like Madeline who possessed storage spaces.

Storage equipment being highly private, under normal circumstances, any attempt at forced investigation of one's storage equipment could be seen as a declaration of enmity, justifying a fight to the death.

Thus, during that turmoil, those with storage spaces indeed managed to keep quite a few valuable items. However, those capable of evolving their companion spiritual treasures weren't as numerous then as they are now, counting only a handful of individuals.

Most of those individuals held high positions, residing in floors even higher than the one occupied by the Thompson family, hence they hadn't been affected by that ordeal at all.

"Zachary, you haven't been here in a long time. Can you share a bit about the situation outside? If it's classified, just pretend I didn't ask."

At Robinson William's inquiry, Zachary took a moment to reflect on his experiences, confirming there was nothing that needed to be hidden, then he began to narrate his recent journey.

Amid Zachary's storytelling, the living room, which initially only had Robinson William and Madeline, gradually filled with everyone congregating there.

Zachary had just stood up, intending to grab some water, when he found everyone had taken a seat at the dining table, becoming his audience.

Seeing Zachary get up, Robinson William called out, "Babe, grab a few bottles of cold drinks for me."

Then he eagerly turned to Zachary and asked, "Eagle Sauce's side, can they really utilize giant creatures to mass-produce those so-called Giant God Soldiers now?"

"Yeah, from what I've observed, their technology for building Giant God Soldiers is now mature. However, those Giant God Soldiers aren't as powerful as you might think. The weakness of Giant God Soldiers is too glaring. Just by destroying the cockpit located behind the neck of a Giant God Soldier, you can completely paralyze it."

Though that's what Zachary had said, Robinson William only pondered a bit to realize that things were not as simple as Zachary described. Firstly, the size of Giant God Soldiers was immensely huge. The small ones might only be hundreds of meters tall, but the truly colossal ones were probably several hundreds of meters in height.

Such a large size might make it difficult to attack a martial artist, after all, even the most robust and ferocious martial artist would seem no more than a flea standing before the immense Giant God Soldier.

The primary function of these Giant God Soldiers was not to combat martial artists but rather to besiege and conquer territories. It was known that even martial artists at the Path Entry Realm would find it nearly impossible to destroy a water base.

Yet, a Giant God Soldier, easily destroyed by a Path Entry Realm martial artist, could, in turn, easily inflict severe damage upon a water base.

Therefore, with his acute sense of warfare, Robinson William quickly surmised the actual purpose of the Giant God Soldiers upon learning of their existence.

Considering that cultivators like Dong Tianyu aside, other martial artists or cultivators would find it nearly impossible to destroy a medium-sized vessel without the aid of technological equipment.

Operating a Giant God Soldier was another story though; even the smallest of these colossal machines could pose a significant threat to medium-sized vessels.

So when he heard Dong Tianyu describe Eagle Sauce's construction of the Giant God Soldiers, it didn't take him long to guess their intentions.

Even now, many people possessed their own Companion Spiritual Treasures, and some had taken their treasures further down the path of evolutionary branches.

However, the evolution of these Companion Spiritual Treasures did not ensure they were immune to damage.

The emergence of the Giant God Soldiers was most likely aimed at various vessels, after all, no matter how high the cultivation level or strength of a martial artist.

Destroying their water-based footholds would significantly weaken even the most powerful martial artists after an extended stay underwater.

Although Dong Tianyu hadn't divulged further information about the Giant God Soldiers, Robinson William deduced the Life Foundation's intentions from their sheer size alone.

Though most men were naturally interested in machinery, only a rare few entertained the idea of replacing their body with mechanical parts, so most present were not particularly intrigued by the Mechanical Eternity branch of the Life Foundation.

However, in contrast to Robinson William's singular focus on the Giant God Soldiers was the Pioneer Evolvers, another branch of the Life Foundation which drew the attention of everyone else present.

After all, regardless of gender or age, everyone had fantasized about awakening a unique superpower and living a life full of thrilling deeds empowered by that superpower.

So, when Dong Tianyu mentioned that the Life Foundation possessed a potion capable of awakening super abilities, everyone's attention was immediately captured by his revelation.

Before Dong Tianyu could continue, Madeline couldn't help but interject, "Zachary, have you managed to get your hands on that Awakened Potion?"

Hearing Madeline's question, a look of longing appeared in everyone's eyes.

"No, I didn't. After I gathered this information, I was in a hurry to get back, so I didn't continue the investigation."

Upon hearing Dong Tianyu's response, everyone showed a disappointed expression.

"Zachary, could you possibly..."

Before Madeline could finish, Dong Tianyu cut her off firmly, "All I know is that they should be active near the western part of the Arctic Circle. I'm not sure about the specifics.

But it's not like before when they could hide their laboratories underground, so it's not difficult to find them now.

Monitor those large and very large vessels moving westward. After all, studying Evolution Elixirs would definitely require a vast laboratory space; medium and small-sized vessels wouldn't have enough space to accommodate a lab of that caliber."

Upon hearing Dong Tianyu's words, Madeline had an epiphany; larger vessels would be easier for them to identify and screen.