After saying what needed to be said, Ying and Aoki fell into silence again.
Under Ying's signal, Aoki picked up the teacup and slowly took a sip.
In fact, Aoki liked tea and coffee very much.
It was bitter at first, but then the bitterness gradually faded away, and a faint sweetness appeared in his mouth.
The contrast between the sweetness and bitterness highlighted the true taste of the tea.
Aoki didn't care about tea leaves or coffee. He just liked the aftertaste after drinking it. He was different from people like Ying who paid attention to the tea ceremony.
Aoki drank the tea in the cup in one gulp, and the bitterness in his mouth became even stronger.
Ying shook his head and poured another cup for Aoki.
It was rare for Aoki to be able to make a Heavenly King Stage powerhouse pour tea for him.
"It's a bit of a waste for you to drink such good tea." Ying said lightly. He sighed a little, but more than that, he sighed.
The hand that was holding the teacup paused for a moment. Aoki smiled and said, "To me, tea leaves and tea ceremony are not important. What's important is that the more bitter the tea, the stronger the aftertaste."
Ying, who was tasting tea, was stunned. Aoki's words didn't sound like something a man of his age would say. Even though he had experienced more than his peers, it didn't sound like something a man of his age would say. …
The two didn't have to wait for long before the ship set sail.
Originally, Ying was waiting for Aoki's arrival. Now that Aoki had arrived, although their boatswain had been sent for emergency treatment due to excessive blood loss, the boatswain wasn't that important, right?
Someone else could do it.
The Rocket Team's cargo ship was still ordinary. It followed a special route and headed towards the trial island. The ship was filled with all kinds of supplies.
...
In a luxurious room, a thin middle-aged man was looking at a video call on the wall. He supported his head with one hand and listened to his subordinate's report.
If Aoki was here, he might be able to recognize that the person on the video call was the captain who had appeared on the cargo ship before.
He respectfully recounted everything that had happened without missing a single word.
After listening to the report, the thin middle-aged man smiled and said, "So, one of your captains and one of your captains couldn't find out anything about that kid, and one of you was crippled for nothing?"
There was a smile on his face as he spoke, but no one would think that he was smiling happily.
Immediately, large amounts of sweat appeared on the captain's face.
Then, he told Lin Mengya exactly what Ying had told him.
"Oh? I heard that his last mission failed and his strength was severely damaged.
If it was in the past, I would have respected him, but now … I'll only know after we fight. "
According to the strength of the Heavenly King Stage powerhouses, Shadow was much stronger than him. However, the previous time, Shadow's strength had been greatly reduced, and no one knew how strong she was now.
"Forget it, there's no point. Go and tell that brat that if he doesn't get the results I want in this trial, then he can scram to the Death Warriors. The next time we fight with the Alliance, let him be the first to charge."
"Yes!" The captain hurriedly wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.
Now, it was a matter of whether he died or not.
The video call was turned off, and the thin middle-aged man's expression darkened. "The Shadow Group, do you still think it's the same Shadow Group as before?"
...
Two days later.
The Rocket Team's cargo ship had successfully arrived at the trial island.
In these two days, besides the time when Aoki and Ying were drinking tea together, Aoki had been in his room fiddling with some things that might be useful on the trial island.
First, it was to prepare for the subordinates that Aoki had recruited on the trial island.
He had been gone for so long, and he didn't know how many people were still following him.
Or rather, how many people were truly following him, Aoki didn't know, and he didn't want to find out.
However, after leaving the trial island, those who chose to follow him, no matter what their plans were, had to choose to be loyal to him in the future. This was the standard that Aoki had set for these people.
The things he was fiddling with in his room were also related to this goal.
He hadn't seen Ying for two days, and when Aoki got off the ship, he didn't see him either.
Perhaps, after Aoki got on the ship, Ying had already left.
Would a Heavenly King Stage powerhouse need to stay on a ship?
Not necessarily.
He didn't care about Ying's disappearance.
Aoki stepped on the muddy ground that was filled with blood, and a mixture of fishy and muddy smell wafted over.
This was the trial island.
If one looked at it from the outside, they wouldn't be able to see the full picture of the trial island. Rather than an island, it was more like a small continent. This was because Takeshi Aoki still didn't know how deep the trial island was.
However, to be able to carve out such an unknown place on the sea, one had to admit that the Rocket Team's strength was amazing.
It was also possible that only by riding the Rocket Team's ship could one reach this place.
This was because when Aoki came from the ship, there were no windows, and after entering the sea, Aoki was told that he wasn't allowed to leave his room. He could only leave his room when he was about to reach the destination.
As such, Aoki didn't know how he came to this place, and he only had a rough idea of how to leave.
The Rocket Team's protection of this place was very tight.
The sailors were busy moving the goods, and no one paid any attention to Aoki.
Just like this, Aoki silently returned to the trial island. There was only one day left before the three month trial ended.
The Dark Crow stood on Aoki's shoulder, walking on the familiar ground, slowly heading towards the Rocket Team's base.
There wasn't a single person on the way.
The base originally had three hundred people, but now there weren't even a hundred people left.
In his previous life, Aoki didn't temporarily leave the island, so he experienced the cruelty of the trial island. He also knew that the later stages of the trial island, the bloodier it would be.
After walking through the familiar long path, he once again entered the plaza of the base.
In the middle of the plaza, there was still a pitch-black trial stone. It was no longer shiny, and was instead stained with blood, but no one cleaned it.
The temporary battleground that Qing Mu and Gu Jia had created during their battle was still there. However, dried bloodstains could be seen everywhere on it.
From this, one could imagine how cruel the trial island would be in the later stages of the trial.
Aoki only glanced at it, and didn't care about the smell of blood. He slowly walked towards the temporary building that Guja and his subordinates had built.
After entering the base, he still didn't see a single person, and this made Aoki a little surprised.
No matter how many people died, it couldn't be that there weren't many people left in the Rocket Team's base, right?
Didn't Viper care about him?
Slowly, Aoki understood that it wasn't that there weren't any people left, but because the final trial would begin tomorrow, these people didn't have the heart to scheme against each other, and returned to their own forces to fight for the last chance to survive.
Those who could pass were conserving their strength, and those who couldn't, were frantically looking for someone who could help them survive.
— — —
I've finally returned to the Beginner Village!
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