It had been a full day and night since the battle with the Orcs. Gandalf had indeed arrived at dawn with over two thousand elite cavalry, but what met their eyes was not the expected horde of Orcs covering the landscape, but a battlefield already being cleared. While Helm's Deep fortress bore countless wounds, the Orc corpses strewn about were far more striking—these were not the remains one expected on a battlefield; they looked more like the butchered scraps of livestock at a slaughterhouse.

The human army, victorious unexpectedly due to Zheng Zha’s terrifying display, retired to rest within the walls of Helm's Deep after securing the area. Gandalf and the other plot characters conferred and decided that they would march toward Isengard at the next dawn, determined to eliminate the White Wizard Saruman while he was at his weakest.

Around nine o'clock that night, Zheng Zha awoke from his unconsciousness. As soon as he opened his eyes, the other four members of the Central Continent team rushed to his side. They sat there in silence; even the usually garrulous Cheng Xiao was speechless.

Lying before them was Chu Xuan’s corpse. At this moment, all they could do was look toward Zheng Zha. With Chu Xuan dead, he was their only pillar of support.

Of the two vital members of the Central Continent team, Zheng Zha was its anchor—the one who held together disparate individuals with varying personalities, values, and philosophies of survival, thereby forming the Central Continent team itself. Without him, the team would never have existed.

Chu Xuan, conversely, was the team's brain. As long as he was present, everyone on the team believed they could safely navigate any crisis, no matter how severe. This was a trust born not of fondness but necessity; since Chu Xuan’s calculations targeted not only enemies, earning his trust was incredibly difficult. Yet, even so, his meticulous schemes commanded absolute respect. Thus, as long as they were allied with him, no one feared an unsolvable predicament—unless even Chu Xuan fell.

This was precisely the situation the group now faced. Although they knew they would inevitably encounter the God Squad in this Lord of the Rings world, and that the Eastern Continent team was superior to their own, they hadn't been overly concerned because they had Chu Xuan. As long as he lived, as long as his plots were unfolding, the Central Continent team would never be completely wiped out.

But before they had even faced an attack from the other two teams, their greatest intellectual reliance had vanished. While their martial prowess had advanced, they were uncertain if it was enough to contend with the other teams, especially if their opponents possessed overwhelming combat strength too. The atmosphere in the room remained heavy with silence until Cheng Xiao finally broke it. “Chu Xuan sent Hao Tian and the others away earlier; did he know he was going to die back then? If so, perhaps Hao Tian has a plan left behind by Chu Xuan?”

“Damn it!” Zheng Zha roared, hauling Cheng Xiao to his feet. “A plan? To hell with a plan! Chu Xuan is dead! He was our comrade who fought alongside us. Even though I always said he schemed against me, and even though I always demanded to know what his plans were, I sincerely considered him my partner! The kind of partner you could truly show your back to! What do you think he was? Just a tool to make the Central Continent team stronger or keep it alive? Believe me, I’ll tear you apart!”

Cheng Xiao refused to back down, meeting Zheng Zha’s glare head-on. He was slightly taller than Zheng Zha, lending his stare a certain intensity. He bellowed back, “No matter what kind of partner he was, what was Chu Xuan’s ultimate goal? He always wanted the team to survive and grow stronger! And if you had used that Fourth Stage of the gene lock from the start, Chu Xuan might not have died! If you have the guts, kill me! Otherwise, just shut the hell up!”

Hearing this, Zheng Zha slowly calmed down. He released Cheng Xiao’s collar and slumped back into his chair, utterly dejected. Cheng Xiao, having won this brief confrontation, also collected himself. He took several deep breaths. “We must do what needs to be done; the rest of us still have to live. Didn’t you all manage to live on when Chu Xuan died before? Damn it, these kinds of useless pronouncements are supposed to come from you, the captain!”

Zheng Zha offered a bitter smile. “You’re right; you cursed me correctly. It wasn’t that I didn't use that power; it’s that I didn't dare. Don’t let my frenzy against the Orcs fool you. If you had been standing next to me, I would have slaughtered you with the same madness. At that moment, I had no control; I was compelled to destroy every living thing near me, or my state of unlocked Fourth Stage gene lock would collapse. The power was immense; at that level, those Orcs—even the Balrog—would have been torn apart by me. But…” He trailed off, ignoring their expressions, and continued, “Since things have reached this point, we must proceed with what must be done. That’s settled. Tomorrow morning, we march with Gandalf and the others to Isengard. Since Chu Xuan anticipated his own death so early, and since he previously named Hao Tian his designated successor, we must trust Chu Xuan’s judgment. From now on, Hao Tian will take Chu Xuan’s position. According to their prior plans, Hao Tian and the newcomers should have already captured Isengard. We go meet them now.”

(A captain’s responsibility, and taking everyone along to survive... But, Chu Xuan, are you truly dead?) Zheng Zha placed a hand over his carotid artery; it was already ice cold, not a single pulse of blood remaining. (Can Hao Tian really be as strong as you?)

Meanwhile, far from Helm's Deep, in a forest not far from Isengard, Hao Tian and the others had not yet launched their sneak attack on the White Wizard Saruman. This was because a large contingent of Stalkers was on the verge of waking up; they had created over three hundred of these beings in total, and these Stalkers were significantly more formidable than the ones enhanced by the human methods.

At this moment, Ling Dian stood alone deep within a thicket. He pulled a metal plate from his inner pocket and opened it down the middle. After a long pause, a sound finally emanated from the plate.

“Ling Dian, what’s the status? Tell me in detail everything that happened at that time and everything since.”

A man’s voice resonated directly into Ling Dian’s consciousness from the plate.

Ling Dian immediately let out a sigh of relief. This was an item Chu Xuan had given him when he left the main group, supposedly capable of thought-to-thought communication—a convenient, new-model communication device.

“Nothing strange happened at that time. We all heard the notification of a one-point deduction. Since none of us had died, we knew for certain that one person among those six on the other side must have perished. However, afterward, Hao Tian did not lead us to assassinate the White Wizard Saruman as previously agreed. Instead, he began aggressively capturing Orcs and subsequently transforming them into Stalkers. To this day, he still hasn’t mentioned anything about sniping Saruman.”

Ling Dian communicated mentally.

“Is that so? Understood,” the voice continued. “What is your assessment of Hao Tian’s strength level?”

“Very strong,” Ling Dian replied without hesitation. “Extremely strong. I never expected a newcomer from the real world to be this powerful. That telekinesis is truly a formidable force. Within twenty meters of him, it is basically impossible to injure him—though that’s only for minor injuries. If one intended to kill him, he definitely couldn't block a Gauss rifle round. Wang Xia’s explosives, Luo Gandao’s robots, and Ba Wang’s cannon also wouldn't work. But all of that requires us to maintain distance and have time to deploy our weapons. In close-quarters combat, we would definitely be the ones to lose.”

“Oh, so what you’ve been doing is…” the voice calmly pressed on. “Besides completing the previous assignment with Ba Wang, Wang Xia, and Luo Gandao, you must also find an opportunity to leave the team and travel to the capital of Gantze. There, you will witness a confrontation between Zheng Zha and another individual. Your task will be—”

“That covers the basic situation. I will not contact you proactively, and according to the Elven Queen’s instructions, I still have twenty days left to live. Resolve the God Squad within those twenty days.” The voice gradually faded, and the voice was unmistakably that of the deceased Chu Xuan. Once the sound completely vanished, Ling Dian carefully closed the metal plate and tucked it close to his body, then turned and walked out of the thicket. Outside, Hao Tian was currently training the three hundred-plus Stalkers alongside members of the Central Continent team.