Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 380 - 258: At the Bottom of the Barrel

The star thieves were most worried that an unknown force might have quietly intervened in this siege.

The Blazing Fire Pioneer Team rushed out an elite team, which had already made the star thieves feel a bit uneasy.

And the sudden appearance of new faces this time, even more made the star thieves vigilant.

Just like Gordo guessed, the star thieves were ostensibly targeting Blazing Fire, but the real goal was to take down the Celestial Level team, Black Rain.

Black Rain is hard to deal with, and the difficulty of completely annihilating them is high, but this battle should at least cripple Black Rain.

In the end, although it seems Seven’s combat power isn’t impressive, his existence poses a significant threat and deterrence to the four Celestial Level teams.

Su Dafeng comes and goes like the wind with mysterious tracks, and when he attacks secretly, even A-level warriors might not survive.

With this suppressive factor gone, the four Celestial Level Pioneer Teams can free up their forces to counterattack the star thieves.

Each Celestial Level team has no shortage of precautions, and once all these forces are unleashed, the very thought of it is nerve-wracking.

And the situation on the battlefield has always been about accumulating quantitative changes that eventually lead to qualitative changes.

The death of Seven is likely to become a turning point, and if the situation is allowed to develop, it’s normal for the Pioneer Teams to turn from defense to offense.

In this scenario, it is necessary to cripple one or two Celestial Level teams for the star thieves to regain the initiative.

So far, the star thieves are not afraid of any trouble, even though two more A-levels escaped from the captured spaceship a while ago.

Well, those two A-levels did give the star thieves some pressure, but it was manageable.

The key is which forces have joined this siege, that is the crux of the matter.

Meanwhile, at the interstellar dock on Hope No.3 Star, a light query was heard in a duty room.

"Has the Jidi 067 cargo ship not arrived yet?"

The one who issued the light query was a woman in her thirties, dressed in the ground crew uniform of the airfield, with furrowed brows and a solemn face.

Then she picked up the intercom, "Check on the Jidi 067 cargo ship and see why there’s a delay in the arrival time."

After a moment, a response came through the intercom, "They are on the sub-lightspeed route, which has a possibility of certain delays."

"I know it’s sub-lightspeed," the woman replied with a light query, "ask for the latest possible arrival time."

The opposite side replied, "There is no latest, theoretically the latest would be ten days later."

There wouldn’t be a ’latest’ in interstellar travel, but if no incidents occur, and according to the planned speed, there might be a latest expectation...

Qu Jianlei was not good at interrogating people, but he felt there was no need to learn; being able to judge whether the other party was truthful was enough.

As for the interrogation process, just use Mu Huahua’s methods; who can’t chop off fingers?

The first one he interrogated was the Water Attribute C-level.

This person initially showed a bit of toughness and resolutely refused to answer even after losing two fingers.

Qu Jianlei thought about it and felt he should let the other party understand, I caught more than just you.

The Water Attribute collapsed immediately after seeing the other three unconscious people.

He knew these three were subdued, but seeing all four brought out, now that’s excessive: weren’t the reinforcements doing anything?

He was confident in his own toughness, but others might not be, "Sir, what do you want to ask... will answering keep me alive?"

Qu Jianlei shook his head, "If you don’t lie, I can give you a quick death!"

Then why would I talk? This thought was very uncomfortable to him.

However, feeling the agonizing pain from his fingers, he sighed helplessly, "Sir, ask away."

After that, the interrogation with this person went smoothly.

But the second C-level was truly tough, refusing to answer even after losing five fingers.

Just as Qu Jianlei was about to chop his other hand’s fingers, he suddenly had a clever idea, knocked the person out, and then awakened the B-level warrior.

This time, he directly showcased the other three captives to the individual, and announced the punishing interrogation.

"They all realized that struggling in the prisoner’s dilemma is meaningless."

The B-level warrior looked at the two C-levels, then glanced at the fully intact-fingered Herman.

He didn’t understand the term "prisoner’s dilemma" very well, but this guy... indeed had a soft backbone, confesses without interrogation.

He then looked at the guy with five fingers chopped off, thoughtfully asked, "Did he also talk?"

"What do you think?" Qu Jianlei looked at him flatly, "Why else would I spare his other hand?"

The B-level warrior pondered and asked, "So, honestly answering means living?"

If survival isn’t possible, there is no difference between losing five fingers and ten fingers, right?

"At least I would give you a quick death!" Qu Jianlei casually responded, "You want to experience the feeling of living worse than dying? Fine by me!"

The B-level warrior contemplated and asked, "Could you hand me over to Blazing Fire’s Mu Guoguo? He owes me a favor, might let me go."

Would a Pioneer Team owe a star thief a favor? Qu Jianlei was hearing this for the first time.

However... it’s not strange, star thieves are humans too, not the Fallen.

Yet suddenly, he sensed a hint of unusual emotion from the other person.

After a pause, he asked quietly, "Blazing Fire’s Mu Guoguo... that’s the team leader, right?"

The B-level warrior raised his eyebrows, speaking in surprise, "You aren’t familiar with Blazing Fire?"

Still trying to get information out of me at this time? Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment, then raised his hand and dislocated the opponent’s jaw.

His movements were like lightning, the B-level Warrior couldn’t react at all.

He tapped the opponent’s teeth, and sure enough, one tooth was different from the others.

He reached out and forcefully pulled out the tooth.

He inspected it a couple of times, then used an instrument to examine it, and began to laugh.

"I knew it, you could only move your mouth and yet you still tried to gather information, it was just as I thought."

"This pressure-triggered communication device is quite exquisite, but it’s still not enough to con me."

The intricacy of this device surprised him, especially because it only activated under pressure, which he hadn’t even perceived.

Then Qu Jianlei raised his hand and closed the opponent’s jaw.

He grinned, "You didn’t activate this thing, were you trying to pick the right moment to gather people to ambush me?"

The B-level Warrior was shocked for a moment, finally resigned, "What I was thinking was whether I could reach your communication point."

Qu Jianlei asked with interest, "If you crushed the tooth, how many A-level and B-level would come?"

"Hard to say for the A-level, but for B-level, maybe five or six," replied the person honestly, "The key is that there would be quite a few mechas."

Mechas... now that is a big problem! In Qu Jianlei’s mind, everything was crystal clear.

If three or four A-levels came, he really wasn’t afraid. If he couldn’t win, he could escape, or even possibly divide and conquer them.

But mechas are different, just the sheer numbers could overwhelm him.

If not for those high-tech weapons, he wouldn’t have needed to flee from the dock in the first place.

Then he raised his hand and chopped off the opponent’s right little finger, followed by the ring finger...

"Master!" The B-level Warrior couldn’t take it anymore, gasping as he spoke, "I am willing to cooperate, willing to answer."

Qu Jianlei completely ignored him, cutting off all five fingers on the right hand, then five more on the left, before speaking leisurely.

"Daring to trick me, you must be slightly punished. Are you sure you want to answer my questions?"

"I’m sure," the Warrior replied, sweating profusely from the pain, "I know quite a bit of information."

Many boast about enduring harsh torture, but in fact, most people simply cannot.

Those who endure either have strong faith or a fierce nature.

This person was no exception; he spilled everything he knew completely.

Interrogating these four took Qu Jianlei the better part of the night, and by the time it was over, dawn was breaking.

He mercilessly disposed of the four, even though the B-level Warrior had some ties to Mu Guoguo.

In fact, the interaction with Captain Mu was relatively gentle, also in consideration of the overall strategy of the Star Thieves.

If the Cyan Cloud Corps can be recruited, why can’t the Blazing Fire Team?

But Qu Jianlei wouldn’t consider Mu Guoguo’s factors; he was in enemy territory and had to act expediently, and he believed Captain Mu would understand.

After some thought, he still decided to put the tooth into his Storage Ring. Since the main battlefield isn’t here, why provoke unnecessary hatred?

Besides, having set off one trap at night, doing it again would surely alert the opponent.

After burying the four bodies, he explored around and basically figured out the surroundings after two days.

At night, he came again to Sullivan’s place.

This time Sullivan hadn’t drunk, waiting all along for his arrival, handing over a bag as soon as they met.

"Everything is inside, sir, was the Herman family incident your doing?"

Qu Jianlei answered without a change in expression, "I know who did it. Why, do you have any thoughts?"

Sullivan nodded, "Indeed, I have some thoughts. Do you know what that person’s cultivation level is?"

"I can’t reach him," Qu Jianlei decisively refused, then seriously said, "Cultivation Level doesn’t represent true strength, understand?"

"Of course, I understand," Sullivan nodded, "but sometimes, cultivation is an indicator."

Hearing his words, Qu Jianlei sensed something was up, so he asked, "Why are you in a hurry to find him, what’s the matter?"

Sullivan shook his head and spoke earnestly, "Sorry, it’s inconvenient to tell you."

Whatever you say, Qu Jianlei was too lazy to ask further. For him, it was important to ensure his multiple identities remained undisclosed.

How important can information a Woodworker gathers be?

The most crucial thing is... he is far from the main battlefield, so why overshadow the others?

He opened the bag and casually flipped through the materials inside, surprisingly finding the information to be incredibly precise.

At least it was far superior to what Herman had provided.

Regrettably, there was still no information on other Pioneer Teams’ forces.

Qu Jianlei nodded, "Quite good, by the way... do you have any information about Pan Yifu?"

Intentionally not mentioning Pan Yifu’s identity, he wanted to use this opportunity to probe the other side’s depth.

Just how well-connected can a Woodworker be?

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