Zhang Shi rubbed his calf; the wound was painful, and it looked like it had reopened. Poor thing, he didn't even have time to recover, as some clueless adversary always seemed to come knocking.

Zhao Feng had already extinguished the fires near the villa. The Molotov cocktails used by the mercenaries were made of alcohol and were not very destructive, causing little damage to the building.

Outside the wall, the mercenaries suffered heavy losses. After weighing the options, One-Eyed Dragon gave the order to retreat.

Zhang Shi used the territory control module to keep a close eye on the outside movements. He knew that the other group was quite capable and had ways to harm him. However, since his leg injury had not yet healed, he was not in a position to engage in prolonged combat, so Zhang Shi allowed them to retreat.

Unlike when they arrived, the one-eyed man and his gang seemed to have teleportation abilities as well, and their retreat was clean and efficient, without any hesitation.

"These people should have the coordinates of a nearby shelter."

Ge Dalong learned that Zhang Shi had been attacked by other survivors again, and guessed that Zhang Shi's neighbor might have been taken over by the Eagle Gang.

“These people are really troublesome. Once we recover from our injuries, we need to go deeper into the forest and find a chance to flatten that shelter so they won’t disturb our peace.”

Zhao Feng angrily punched and cursed, extremely annoyed by the Eagle Regiment's two attacks.

Zhang Shi patted Zhao Feng on the shoulder to comfort him.

"Don't rush. Our most important task right now is to rest and recuperate and heal our injuries. Our opponents are no pushovers. To completely eliminate the Eagle Regiment as a threat, we need to proceed cautiously."

...

The next day at daybreak, Zhang Shi woke Zhao Feng up and showed him the items he had received from signing in that day.

"Look at this thing. With it, we can live in peace for a while."

Zhao Feng took the card from Zhang Shi and examined its effects.

[Sanctuary Barrier (Purple) x1: After use, the sanctuary can be hidden. Outsiders will be affected by illusions and spatial magic circles, making it impossible for them to find the sanctuary's location. The effect lasts for 3 days, with a 3-day cooldown.]

Zhao Feng's eyes lit up.

"This thing is great! With it, I don't have to worry about my house being raided anymore. By the way, where did you get this thing?"

Zhang Shi was momentarily speechless, unsure whether he should reveal the secret of the sign-in system. Zhao Feng, who knew Zhang Shi very well, could tell from his reaction that Zhang Shi was unwilling to say more, so he quickly tried to smooth things over.

"Never mind, that's not important. You should try this stuff and see how it works."

Zhang Shi nodded, and with a thought, he enveloped the shelter with a protective barrier.

Zhao Feng waited for a long time, but nothing unusual happened, so he asked in confusion.

"Are you sure you used it? Why aren't there any cool special effects?"

Zhang Shi smiled helplessly and pushed Zhao Feng out of the shelter's gate.

Zhao Feng had just stepped out the door when he looked back and found that the shelter had abruptly disappeared before his eyes. He tried to walk back, but there was only a patch of grass in front of him. Zhao Feng, like a blind man, stretched out his hands and groped around to confirm that the shelter had indeed disappeared from his sight.

A moment later, Zhang Shi appeared before Zhao Feng, and on a whim, added Zhao Feng to the list of shelter personnel. The entire shelter then suddenly appeared before Zhao Feng, eliciting gasps of amazement from him.

"Wow, things related to illusions and space are really mysterious. They're right in front of me, but I can't see or touch them."

Zhao Feng carefully touched the iron gate to confirm that it was the real thing.

Zhang Shi took the jeep he had seized from the bald man, climbed into the driver's seat, and waved to Zhao Feng.

"Let's go check out the mine. It's too hot; I'm worried the machines won't be able to handle it."

Today is the second day of the extreme heat disaster, and the perceived temperature has already exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. Even survivors like Zhang Shi and Zhao Feng, whose physical attributes are not low, are feeling extremely uncomfortable and have to each swallow a heatstroke prevention pill. Pipi and the leopard, on the other hand, are having a hard time. Their thick fur makes it impossible for them to stay in the scorching sun for long, so Zhang Shi simply left them in the villa, where his two animal friends are happy to enjoy the air conditioning.

On the path leading to the mine, the flowers and plants on both sides were somewhat wilted, and the branches and leaves of the trees were also turning yellow.

"The temperature keeps rising, how do those wild animals hiding in the mountains survive?"

Zhao Feng somehow got hold of a palm-leaf fan and kept waving it, but the more he waved it, the hotter he got.

The shelter in the mine was only a few hundred meters away, and Zhang Shi drove there purely out of curiosity. As soon as they got out of the car, seeing that the previously completely blocked pile of rocks had been cleared away, the two exchanged a glance and immediately sensed something was wrong.

Zhang Shi's first thought was that the gray wolf king had come for revenge again. He immediately took out his weapon, pressed his ear against the mountain wall, and tried to listen to the sounds inside.

The mountain wall, scorched by the blazing sun, was as hot as if it had been roasted. The moment Zhang Shi's face touched it, he cried out in surprise at the heat.

Feeling guilty, Zhang Shi worried that he might alert the creatures inside, so he stopped hesitating and quickly ran into the cave. Seeing this, Zhao Feng also took out his giant axe and followed him.

Upon entering the cave, one can hear the roar of mining machines. It appears that the two machines are still in operation and have not been damaged.

Zhang Shi felt slightly relieved, but his pace did not slow down. He soon arrived at the main hall inside the mine.

Zhang Shi looked closely and was surprised to see a familiar face.

It was the white tiger he had met once before. Right now, the two white tigers, one large and one small, were resting on a flat stone platform. When the large tiger saw Zhang Shi enter, it only looked up at him for a moment before lying down again. The small tiger, on the other hand, was quite excited. It must have remembered Zhang Shi. It ran up to Zhang Shi and rubbed its body against his calves.

Unfortunately, Zhang Shi's leg was still injured, and when Xiao Hu touched it, he shuddered in pain.

Xiao Hu shrank back, thinking he had done something wrong. He circled around Zhang Shi once, then lay down on his feet, looking at Zhang Shi with his big, bright eyes.

Big Tiger ignored everything that was happening and just kept sleeping. Seeing that the other party didn't seem to have any hostility and was just seeking refuge from the heat in this cave, Zhang Shi felt relieved and squatted down to pet Little Tiger.

Zhao Feng was somewhat bewildered by what was happening before him and could only stand there watching the show, but he never let down his guard against Da Hu.

Zhang Shi carefully took out Dingzhen and examined the tiger's attributes. To his surprise, even though Dingzhen had evolved to the refined level, it still couldn't identify the tiger's specific attributes.

Noticing that Zhang Shi was looking at him, Da Hu opened his eyes and glanced at him again. He sniffed lightly, his eyes suddenly turned sharp, and he stood up and walked towards Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi was startled by Da Hu's sudden action and dared not move easily. Lao Duan, who was in his backpack, could be taken out at any time to deal with danger. Zhao Feng, who was beside him, also gripped his axe tightly and moved his feet lightly, slowly approaching Zhang Shi.

Da Hu ignored the two men's behavior. His huge body, which was almost as tall as Zhang Shi's chest, circled around Zhang Shi once and then blew hard at Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi felt as if he were facing a raging hurricane, and he could hardly stand up.

A moment later, the tiger withdrew its hand, and the feeling of being swept by the gale disappeared. Zhang Shi suddenly felt his body lighten, and saw a wisp of dark light being drawn out of his body, landing beside the distant mountain wall, and transforming into a black tiger that was entirely black but had a dim and miniature shape.

Zhang Shi suddenly understood many things, and even in the extremely hot weather, cold sweat seeped out from his back.

The mini black tiger tried to escape, but the white tiger moved like lightning, blocking its path in an instant. Without any unnecessary movements, it smashed the black tiger with a single claw, turning it into wisps of dark light that dissipated into the air.

After doing all this, the white tiger yawned, returned to the stone platform, lay down, and continued to doze off.