Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 384 - 262: Farewell, Youyou

Technological advancement is undoubtedly good; however, as long as there is intelligent life, there is bound to be some laziness.

Qu Jianlei was unaware that the surveillance center had indeed triggered an alarm, but he had no time to consider such things.

He swiftly darted back and forth for about five minutes, finally hiding behind a large tree near a small lake.

This tree was as thick as two people embracing it, perhaps even existing before the Pioneer Team reached this planet.

The trees on Zarif Planet often have mild toxicity and sometimes harbor poisonous insects.

Qu Jianlei deeply felt this since the first day he escaped the docks.

Thus, whether Pioneer Team members or Star Thieves, they always apply insect repellent when in the wild.

The Ultimate Warriors can release some Inner Breath to form an Elemental Protective Membrane, but it’s very exhausting.

Additionally, energy fluctuations during concealment can alert adversaries.

However, most insect repellents release some scent, exposing them to warriors with strong Perception.

But Qu Jianlei was willing to gamble that within the core area, Star Thieves wouldn’t tolerate poisonous insects affecting their quality of life.

Now, it seems his gamble paid off; he wasn’t disturbed by insects next to the tree.

Next, he would repeat his previous operations, using the tree’s cover to dig a hideout.

To him, this was a simple task, employing multiple Attribute Techniques easily and silently.

Then he entered the underground hideout to prevent verification if the surveillance room triggered an alarm.

It wasn’t his first time doing this; he just hoped not to encounter such scenes again.

Once Qu Jianlei calmed down, he was very patient, quietly spending half the night before enduring another day.

His caution was indeed correct; during the day, a patrol team of Star Thieves conducted a thorough search.

This was somewhat related to the previous night’s "Night Owl," but the impending battle made internal cleansing necessary.

Qu Jianlei didn’t waste the day; while the patrol teams came and went, his Spiritual Power extended and retracted alongside them.

With these people’s mental fluctuations as cover, his brain waves were hard to detect.

Twice there were minor alerts, but they found it was their own people’s intense emotional fluctuations, rather awkward.

Anyway, the alert sensitivity couldn’t be lowered, so the leader just reprimanded his men, criticizing them for overreacting.

Through these two alerts, Qu Jianlei roughly gauged the sensitivity of their equipment to brain waves.

Once night fell again, he quietly exited the underground hideout and backfilled it.

Then, like a ghost, he began wandering around, perceiving whatever he could.

After wandering for half the night, he finally discovered the location of hostages and the prisoner camp.

Interestingly, Youyou had become a small leader in the prisoner camp.

She didn’t join the Star Thieves but became a prisoner managing other prisoners for them.

Youyou’s injuries hadn’t healed, but she was capable of moving alone, even advocating for prisoners’ rights.

For instance, suggesting breaks during hard labor and ensuring food portions weren’t too little.

However, these efforts were mostly in vain; the Star Thieves, owing to the Fourth Master’s connections, were too lazy to argue.

A few night-watch Star Thieves discussed, feeling she was meddlesome.

Some prisoners didn’t appreciate her help, suspecting she was trying to win favor — things got worse after her suggestions.

After hearing this, Qu Jianlei contemplated and decided not to rescue Youyou for the time being.

Although not free, she was relatively safe and could recover easily.

Taking someone with him would be challenging, especially since the prisoner camp was heavily guarded.

Moreover, the entire core area was tightly secured, with numerous weapons.

Unlike the Gorge or Central City, this wasn’t a city but a genuine military camp—or fortress.

If exposed, Qu Jianlei wasn’t confident about escaping unharmed, let alone taking Youyou.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to rescue her, but the current environment was better for her, better than braving the wild with him.

Qu Jianlei temporarily set aside his worry for Youyou and continued wandering.

Having reached the Star Thieves’ base camp, he couldn’t leave without fully understanding the situation, right?

The night unknowingly passed, with dawn approaching, Qu Jianlei made another underground hideout.

This hideout was better than the previous one, not only hidden but convenient to access; he chose the spot after observing all night.

He didn’t intend to stay in the core area long, but that barrier was effective, making entry and exit challenging.

Qu Jianlei didn’t want anyone to know he had been in and out, so he didn’t rush to leave the next day.

After enduring another day and wandering for half the night, he quietly climbed over the barrier.

Reaching the core area’s periphery, the surveillance and alarms were child’s play, and he easily left.

The identity of the Flagpole, he didn’t plan on using it anymore. The possibility of exposure was one thing, even if it wasn’t exposed, it would still tie him down.

So the grain he owed to that middle-aged woman couldn’t be repaid. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Qu Jianlei felt no remorse about breaking the agreement. Information as a commodity was inherently difficult to value.

The information she provided didn’t quite match up, and considering it belonged to the Star Thief camp, breaking the agreement seemed fine.

He quickly returned to the place where the Flagpole lived, wanting to move the grain in the house as soon as possible, only to find someone asking about him outside.

After listening for a while, he could tell it was someone sent by the middle-aged woman to collect the grain.

They came so quickly? Qu Jianlei dodged directly and only returned at night to quietly move all the grain from the house.

There wasn’t much space left in the Storage Ring, and the grain stored by the Flagpole wasn’t small; he had to move it four times to finish.

To store the grain, he had to dig another Secret Vault, and he placed some other items there as well.

Why am I like a ground rat? Qu Jianlei, after hiding the grain, felt somewhat speechless.

Since starting in the Hong Character Settlement of the Wasteland, he began digging holes to hide things everywhere, digging all the way to Central City and the Gorge.

Now on Zarif Star, it’s the same situation, as if it’s never-ending.

I hope I won’t have to do this anymore in the future. I’m really getting sick of digging holes.

The following night, he went to find Sullivan, wanting to find out if he had gotten any new information recently.

However, even from a distance from Sullivan’s courtyard, he heard a noisy commotion from that direction.

Releasing his Spiritual Power to sense the situation, Qu Jianlei was stunned: several fierce-looking guys were pushing Sullivan out.

After listening a bit, he understood: someone had reported that the Woodworker was a spy for the Pioneer Team, and the Star Thieves had come to capture him.

Qu Jianlei was really puzzled this time; has a new spy appeared within Blazing Fire?

A few days ago, when he passed the intel to Blazing Fire, Sullivan was still quite safe; only Herman had been taken out by him.

Now that the Woodworker was exposed, he couldn’t figure out any other possibility unless Blazing Fire had a traitor.

The Star Thieves who came to capture had no particularly high Cultivation Levels, just one C-level, two transformations, and four ordinary people.

Should he save him? Qu Jianlei was a bit hesitant.

The Star Thieves were indeed relatively kind to the Indigenous People, but it was said they also had a policy of implicating agents of the Pioneer Team.

Perhaps just watching for now, he believed that Sullivan’s status wouldn’t attract too much attention from the Star Thieves.

So he followed the group from a distance until they reached a Settlement five kilometers away.

This Settlement had not many residents, just over a hundred households, but the Star Thieves had set up a levy management point.

The levy was the collection of materials, and management dealt with the surrounding Settlements.

There was also a Military Station here, with a few small warehouses storing some supplies.

There weren’t many people at the Military Station, only fifty or sixty, but there were four sturdy fortresses not easy to take down in a hurry.

Sullivan was escorted here but did not enter the interior of the Military Station; that’s a strategic place with strict entry restrictions.

Suspected spies like him were enough to interrogate at the external levy management point, also avoiding any unexpected incidents.

After bringing him here, the Star Thieves began interrogation overnight.

The Woodworker showed an exceptionally strong psychological quality, firmly claiming he was just an honest craftsman, not caring about anything else.

He protested indignantly: I work on woodworking at home every day; how could I have time to gather intel?

However, the Star Thieves ignored his defense, beating him with sticks indiscriminately and releasing poisonous insects to bite him.

Moreover, the Star Thieves knew that depriving someone of sleep was a form of torture, so they naturally didn’t allow Sullivan to sleep.

The Star Thieves seemed to have a real addiction to tormenting people; when the shift change came, the ones responsible for the interrogation didn’t want to leave.

The two who came for the shift change saw this and decided, fine, you two keep torturing him, we’ll continue sleeping.

These two continued through the night, and by the wee hours, one couldn’t take it and went to sleep, leaving one still tormenting Sullivan.

This person was also an ordinary person; it was unknown how he developed such a twisted psyche.

Qu Jianlei could sharply sense the changes in this person’s brainwaves: outwardly excited but actually very fragile.

He lightly attacked with Spiritual Power, and sure enough, this person’s body jolted, then slumped onto the table asleep.

Qu Jianlei flickered into the interrogation room, whispering, "Want me to get you out?"

"Is that you?" Sullivan recognized his voice, unable to resist saying, "If you don’t save me, are you just going to watch me die?"

His injuries weren’t too severe, mostly superficial wounds, but the bites from the poisonous insects intensified his pain.

The Star Thieves also had interrogation experts; this was just the first night of questioning, so they couldn’t have been too heavy-handed.

However, Sullivan’s tone wasn’t very good, feeling somewhat resentful.

(Last three hours asking for votes, month-end, additional updates at midnight, securing tickets for next month.)