Who are you calling a stable boy?!

Zheng Jing patted Anna's head casually, feeling that this girl had really had a tough time.

They look like they're only middle school students, yet they've come to a place like Terra. It's fortunate that they were picked up by Rhodes Island somewhere, otherwise, even if they were in a projection form and wouldn't have died, it's hard to say whether they would have suffered any serious psychological trauma.

It wasn't easy...

As Zheng Jing sighed inwardly, he then calculated what troubles remained to be dealt with in the core city.

With Black Serpent gone and Talulah down, the remnants of Reunion will surely crumble, and most of the Sarkaz mercenaries will likely run away as well.

The only remaining trouble in the core city is probably the Ursus soldiers who have infiltrated.

Old Wendigo would never tolerate them.

"Brother Zheng!"

At this moment, someone called out to Zheng Jing.

Hearing someone call Zheng Jing's name, Anna obediently let go of him.

Zheng Jing turned his head and saw that it was the Yeti Squad.

“Brother Zheng, where is your eldest sister? I heard from the old man that she went to the command tower with you.”

As they spoke, the older Yeti peeked out from under their noses.

"--Oh!"

Zheng Jing jumped up.

"Oh no! I forgot about Yelena!"

-

In the ruined city, the Black-Cloaked Shadow Guards watched the figures disappear into the distance.

The sharpest blade in the hands of the Ursus Emperor—if possible, they still wouldn't want to fight these troublesome fellows.

The best outcome would be for these guys to give up on their own.

With the Emperor's own blades intervening, even the most frenzied war machines of Ursus had to halt their advance.

Otherwise, if news were to spread that three divisions of the Ursus army had been crushed by behemoth avatars near Lungmen, regardless of how Ursus would react, the country would certainly send a special envoy to Lungmen.

The biggest fear at that time is that Longmen will be left with no way to defend himself.

Rhodes Island...sigh.

The leading old shadow guard sighed.

"Were all the images preserved intact?"

He turned his head and asked his old friend.

"It's so clear, so clear that my hands are shaking a little when I hold it."

My old friend made a rare joke.

...It's possible that it's not a joke.

The old shadow guard shook his head.

He just hoped that the people from the Dali Temple hadn't noticed anything amiss yet.

"Walk."

Chapter 285: Teaching a Man to Fish

Forty hours after the core city of Chernobog was shut down, a joint investigation team composed of the Yan and Ursus nations landed on the city lying in the wilderness.

The subsequent report from the joint investigation team indicated that there was no evidence to suggest that either of the two countries was involved in the planning and execution of the disaster.

That's right.

Those Ursus Third Army soldiers who had been lurking in the core city had long been wiped out by the guerrillas led by Bozokastie.

These Ursus soldiers, even in battle to the last man, chose to die in silence.

Therefore, no one can prove that they are Ursus soldiers.

As for the three Ursus divisions in the wilderness, they also used the pretext of joint military exercises to distance themselves from the stagnant core city long ago.

Ultimately, the Chernobog incident was classified as a major man-made disaster caused by infected individuals.

For Rhodes Island, this cannot be considered a bad thing.

After all, this means that Rhodes Island can openly extricate itself from the Chernobog incident and no longer have to worry about pressure from the two major powers.

The tug-of-war between the two behemoths gave Rhodes Island some room to maneuver in the cracks.

It also gave Talulah an opportunity to await trial.

"I'm so glad to see you again."

In the isolation room, Talulah sat on the bed, looking at Zheng Jing through the reinforced glass, and smiled.

Zheng Jing was unaware that at that moment, Kroos and several intelligence agents in the monitoring room were exclaiming things like, "She really spoke!" and "She can laugh?"

"Um......"

Zheng Jing reached out and looked at the reinforced glass in front of him, then turned his head to look at the monitor: "Turn this thing on. I, Old Zheng, am not here to visit someone in prison. What kind of business is this?"

"Um... wait a minute."

Kroos's voice came through the communication system attached to the surveillance camera. After waiting for a moment, Zheng Jing heard a few beeps, and then the reinforced glass in front of him slowly rose up.

Zheng Jing ducked down and crouched low, squeezing through the gap below before the reinforced glass could fully rise.

Can I drink alcohol?

Zheng Jing sat cross-legged in front of Talulah and took out the gourd from his waist.

"Winter in the northern plains of Ursus is hard to endure without strong liquor."

Talulah also got out of bed and sat on the floor.

"That's true."

Zheng Jing took a bowl out of his backpack, opened the gourd lid, poured wine into the bowl, and handed the full bowl of monkey wine to Talulah.

"Shall we have a try?"

"May I?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"it is good."

The gourd and the bowl bumped together. Talulah smelled the aroma of the wine, took a sip, and unconsciously blinked.

"Good wine."

"Right? Yelena even asked me for some to make liqueur candies, saying she wanted to give them as a thank you gift to the operators who took care of her and the Yetis."

"...How is Yelena?"

Talulah lowered her head and asked softly.

"She adapted to the Yetis very quickly, and the prison cat still let her lead the Yetis. She just left the ship a couple of days ago, saying she was going to Sherag."

"In the end, the old man and the guerrillas still refused to join Rhodes Island and continued to operate in the northern plains of Ursus. However, he was willing to cooperate with Rhodes Island, and the infected people rescued by the guerrillas would be regularly sent to Rhodes Island for treatment. I reckon that once we can open a Rhodes Island branch in Ursus, the old man will agree to come over."

"I didn't get much information about Lyudmila from the prison cat, except that she didn't die."

"As for W, you don't need to worry too much. I heard from Rabbit that she was lively and energetic when she left the core city that day, and it seems that she also took those Sarkaz mercenaries with her."

"So, whose situation would you like to know about?"

He only asked Yelena one question, but Zheng Jing gave her a long and detailed answer.

Talulah listened quietly and attentively to Zheng Jing's answer, then looked up at him.

"Thank you... I'm sorry that it's only now that I have a chance to offer you this small token of my gratitude."

"Oh, it's alright, it's alright. The thought is what counts. It doesn't matter if it's early or late."

Zheng Jing waved his hand: "By the way, after that, did that old man Black Snake still bother you?"

Talulah shook her head.

"I...I can't feel him anymore, but I don't know if he's really gone..."

She closed her eyes and remained still for a few seconds.

When he opened his eyes again, his eyes, which seemed to be bathed in the sunset, were filled with determination.

"I hope he dies out."

"As I have hoped, I will receive the judgment I deserve."

-

After a while, Zheng Jing left the isolation room.

"You guys have been chatting for so long!"

Kroos, who was waiting for him outside, looked at Zheng Jing with amazement: "From the time she was brought onto the ship until now, she hasn't said a single word. Even when Chen came to find her, he couldn't get her to speak."

"Hey, if she doesn't want to talk about it, then she doesn't have to. Don't worry, she's doing well. Just give her some more time."

"Really? You know psychology? I thought you... uh..."

"What am I?"

Kroos opened her mouth.

She couldn't say for sure, but after hearing the descriptions from the operatives who participated in the core city operation, she once suspected that Zheng Jing was some kind of vicious person with three heads, six arms, and a demonic face.

"Oh! By the way! Kal'tsit asked me to tell you that after you meet with that patient, remember to go to the Doctor's office. She says she has something quite important to discuss with you!"

"Oh? Okay."

After responding, Zheng Jing headed leisurely toward the doctor's office. Along the way, several operatives greeted him with smiles.

Zheng Jing responded to each of them with a smile.

Before long, Zheng Jing, who was already familiar with Rhodes Island, arrived at the Doctor's office.

"Oh? Everyone's here."

As soon as he entered, Zheng Jing saw the Doctor, Kal'tsit, and Amiya.

"Are they just waiting for me, Old Zheng?"

"You could say that."

Kal'tsit nodded.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get down to business."

Zheng Jing asked, "What's going on? This is quite a big commotion."

"Old Zheng, are you really not going to consider joining Rhodes Island?"

The professor spoke first: "The fact that little Anna was able to join us means that your courtyard doesn't really have any restrictions in this regard, right?"

"There are indeed no restrictions on courtyards in this regard."

Zheng Jing grinned.

He assumed that Anna and Amiya had revealed some information about the courtyard, since the courtyard never restricted players in this regard.

"But I, Lao Zheng, still have Qitian Mansion with Lao Lan. Joining Rhodes Island is out of the question, but cooperation is no problem."

"Qitian Prefecture?"

Another unfamiliar name made both the Doctor and Amiya instinctively look at Kal'tsit.

But this time, judging from Kal'tsit's slightly furrowed brows, it was clear that this was the first time she had ever heard of the Qitian Mansion.

"In that case, we hope to formally establish a cooperative relationship with... Qitian Prefecture."

Kal'tsit spoke up: "It mainly concerns the medical aspects of Oripathy. Rhodes Island hopes to cooperate with you on technical matters."

"Oh! That's all? I thought it was something more serious."

Zheng Jing patted his chest.

"Wouldn't it be enough if I, Old Zheng, taught you the method of resurrection?"