Qin Shilei explained, "Although An Qian and I are both group leaders, these are just idle teams nominally under our command due to military pressure."
"These teams lack any real cohesion. If any significant danger arises, they could scatter at any moment."
"It's time for us to establish our own Rock Solid Battle Group."
In truth, he harbored another idea: to establish their main base in the space where he had discovered the lightning spirit stone.
However, that location was too close to the rift to the other world, making it excessively dangerous.
He would need to be able to alter the entrance and exit of that space before he could safely set up their base there.
"We really should form our own team," Zhang Qiang agreed.
He Kaige and the others also nodded repeatedly in affirmation.
"Then should we publicly recruit outsiders, or recruit directly from the current 007 and 018 Legions?" An Qian asked.
"Let's start by recruiting from the legions. After all, we have some understanding of them," Qin Shilei had already considered this question.
"Then I'll gather the legion members tomorrow," Zhang Qiang stated.
The group then proceeded to discuss specific recruitment criteria, battle group regulations, and development plans.
Unbeknownst to them, it was already midnight when they finally ceased their discussions and retired to their respective rooms.
Not long after, Qin Shilei tiptoed over and knocked softly on An Qian's door.
"Do you have another treasure chest to open?" An Qian asked, her eyes lighting up as she opened the door to find Qin Shilei.
"Heh heh." Qin Shilei chuckled lightly, slipped into the room, and then locked the door.
"Not opening a treasure chest? Then I'm going to sleep. You should leave now."
Seeing the smile on Qin Shilei's lips, An Qian suddenly seemed to understand his intentions. Her face flushed, and she tried to push him out of the room.
"An Qian, I almost thought I would never see you again today." Qin Shilei stretched out his hands and embraced An Qian's slender waist.
"Me neither. At that moment, I felt like my soul had left my body." An Qian also wrapped her arms around Qin Shilei, resting her head against his solid chest.
"Lift your head, let me look at you properly again," Qin Shilei said softly, inhaling the scent of An Qian's hair.
An Qian looked up at Qin Shilei, only to be suddenly kissed by him.
Inexperienced, An Qian quickly lost herself in Qin Shilei's passionate kiss.
Unknowingly, their clothes slipped away, and the room became filled with a springlike atmosphere.
...
"Wake up, or others will laugh at us." Qin Shilei flicked An Qian's nose, while his other hand moved restlessly beneath the covers.
"Stop it, it still hurts." Seeing that feigning sleep was impossible, An Qian could only cry out for him to stop his restless left hand.
After a pause, she added, "You go out first, I'll be down in a bit."
"Heh heh." Qin Shilei chuckled lightly. "I see it's inconvenient for you. Shall I help you get dressed?"
"Stop fooling around and get out, or I won't speak to you anymore."
In broad daylight, the blushing An Qian continuously urged Qin Shilei to leave quickly.
Qin Shilei had no choice but to abandon his morning exercise thoughts and leave the room first.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Zhang Xiaoli emerging from the room next door.
"Good morning!" Qin Shilei greeted her nonchalantly.
"Mm." Zhang Xiaoli cast a resentful glance at Qin Shilei before preparing to head downstairs.
Qin Shilei quickly stepped forward, intending to give her a deep kiss.
"Go, go, go." Zhang Xiaoli pretended to be disgusted and said, "You haven't even brushed your teeth, and you want to kiss me."
Qin Shilei broke out in a cold sweat.
This was indeed not very respectful of her.
He intended to let her go and return to his room to wash up.
However, Qin Shilei found that Zhang Xiaoli's hands, which were wrapped around his lower back, showed no signs of letting go.
"I don't have bad breath. Just a little kiss," Qin Shilei lowered his head and kissed her forehead.
Next, he kissed her nose. Her hands still hadn't released him.
He had no choice but to kiss her tempting red lips.
Qin Shilei gave a light kiss, then released her, leaning close to her ear and whispering, "Remember to open the door for me tonight."
Zhang Xiaoli's face instantly flushed red, and she pouted, "Hmph, your mind is full of wicked thoughts. Don't dream about it."
With that, she released Qin Shilei and hurried downstairs.
After breakfast with everyone, Qin Shilei rode Xiao Qiang alone towards the cave.
Zhang Qiang and the others went to assemble the legion members so that Qin Shilei could form the Rock Solid Battle Group upon his return.
Qin Shilei dismounted from Xiao Qiang into the valley below, but he sensed something was amiss.
Suddenly, the sound of something breaking through the air came from behind him.
Qin Shilei dodged to the right with a flash and turned around to see a scythe mantis lunging past where he had been moments before.
Not far away, a scythe mantis had just poked its head out from the cave leading to the other world.
"These scythe mantises have come over again."
Qin Shilei frowned, drew Blood Soul, and charged forward, swiftly killing the two scythe mantises.
Immediately afterward, four more scythe mantises emerged from the cave.
Qin Shilei spent some effort,斩杀ing them all one by one.
Just as he thought this might be a large-scale invasion by scythe mantises, no more emerged from the cave.
Qin Shilei mounted Xiao Qiang and rode back to the city, circling around to collect dozens of sturdy cars with his Qiankun Ring.
He then climbed back down the rope to the very bottom of the cave and discovered that the mountainside where he had placed the cars last time had been hollowed out.
The scythe mantises had bypassed the cars through this hole and escaped.
This time, with ample materials, Qin Shilei sealed the surroundings tightly. Then, as he climbed upwards, he continued to block the entire cave with cars.
Half an hour later, Qin Shilei had finally blocked the hundred-meter-long cave with cars.
"It won't be so easy for them to come through now, will it?"
The best solution would actually be to pour concrete into the entire cave, but that was not possible at the moment, so he could only deal with it this way for now.
With this task completed, Qin Shilei turned and walked towards the cave not far away.
Reaching the deepest part of the cave, Qin Shilei took out the lightning spirit stone and opened the portal of light.
Relying on his connection with the lightning spirit stone, Qin Shilei attempted to move the portal.
After much effort, there was no effect whatsoever.
Qin Shilei then passed through the portal of light and entered the independent space within.
This time, he reappeared randomly in the bamboo forest. He took out the lightning dragon stone again and tried to open the portal, but it also had no reaction.
Qin Shilei had no choice but to climb to the mountaintop and take out the lightning spirit stone again. This time, the portal of light opened successfully.
He tried to control the portal of light here, but again, there was no effect.
He wasn't sure if he hadn't mastered the method yet, or if this portal of light could only be opened in this particular location.
He passed through the light and reappeared inside the cave.
[Perform attribute refresh?]
[Refresh.]
Invisibility (Green): The portal of light becomes ethereal and invisible, existing beyond visual detection.
Shrink (Green): The portal of light shrinks by half.
Move (Red): The portal of light can be moved ten meters daily at will.
Qin Shilei's eyes lit up. This meant he could move the portal of light to a safer location.
However, ten meters per day was too little to be of much practical use.
Qin Shilei fixed the "Move" attribute and proceeded to refresh again.
This time, the attributes that appeared were Shrink, Etherealization, and Defensive Halo.
For now, he would leave it at that. He would refresh more in the future and research the lightning spirit bead further.
He would strive to truly gain control of this independent space as soon as possible.