webnovelvip Chapter 629 Fist
Chapter 629 Fist
Chapter 629 Fist
The icebreaker rolled over the last section of the ramp covered with frozen soil and discarded parts. The heavy tracks screeched against the reinforced steel gate. The massive body of Ash Fortress, made up of countless welded steel plates and concrete blocks, slowly emerged against the leaden sky, like a steel behemoth lurking in the wasteland.
The gate slowly rose amidst the hissing of hydraulic pressure, revealing a dark, oily, and metallic passageway.
As the car drove in, it was immediately enveloped by an even stronger sense of fortress-like atmosphere: sparks flying from welding, the clanging of heavy machinery, the muffled whirring of ventilation ducts, and the suppressed conversations and coughs of the crowd.
Some wasteland residents, dressed in heavy work clothes and with radiation spots or scars on their faces, stopped and looked curiously at the icebreaker that Zhang Wei and Xiao Yue had driven out themselves.
Their eyes scanned the frost-covered and muddy car windows, trying to make out who was sitting inside.
Who could be this important figure who could have these two powerful figures from the Dragon Group personally come to pick him up, and have Boss Fang Xin waiting at headquarters? Could it be an envoy from another major power? Or a legendary traveling tycoon? And what's covered under the canvas—urgently needed medicine? Or a new type of weapon?
For these newcomers, the identities of Tang Zijun and the others were undoubtedly unknown, and only the agents of the Demon Surveillance Bureau and Fang Xin's old associates knew.
The vehicle eventually stopped in front of a heavily guarded elevator platform deep inside the fortress. The heavy blast door slid open silently, revealing a deep underground passage.
Unlike the hustle and bustle of the upper floors, the air here is cold and dry, with an almost sterile metallic smell. The lights are a stark white, illuminating the cold alloy walls and the dense network of pipes.
The elevator descended and eventually came to a stop.
The door opened, revealing a brightly lit, technologically advanced space—the Dragon Group's core tactical room. A massive holographic sand table occupied the center, displaying real-time dynamics of various wasteland areas, the distribution of power, and red dots representing threats. The walls were covered with densely packed surveillance cameras and data stream screens. The air was filled with the faint hum of high-intensity computation.
A figure was already waiting there, with his back to the door, staring at the red light flashing in the Forgotten Canyon area on the sand table.
He wasn't tall, but he stood upright like a pine tree, wearing a faded but neatly ironed old-fashioned military-style jacket.
Hearing the noise, he turned around abruptly.
It is Fang Xin.
On that young face, etched with the marks of time and weariness, an uncontrollable surge of excitement erupted the moment he saw Tang Zijun, as if he had seen a long-lost guiding star in the endless darkness.
He strode forward, his hands instinctively rising as if to salute or shake hands, but in the end he just clenched them into fists, his knuckles turning white from the force.
"Leaders, you've arrived." Fang Xin's voice trembled slightly, and his gaze immediately fell on the burly man behind Tang Zijun, who exuded an invisible sense of oppression.
Upon seeing this person, his gaze instantly became more solemn and dignified. Although he had never seen him in person, he knew who this person was from the information from the highest authority within the Dragon Group and from Xiao Yue and the others' descriptions—Chang Lei, the deputy director of the Demon Supervision Bureau, a high-ranking and powerful figure who, in a sense, was also his superior.
Fang Xin straightened his back and gave Chang Lei a perfectly standard wasteland-world nod. "Deputy Director Chang, Head of the Dragon Group, Fang Xin, welcome to Ash Fortress."
His tone was respectful and restrained, but the excitement he felt upon seeing Tang Zijun had not completely faded from the depths of his eyes.
Chang Lei just chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "Good, good, not bad. I personally oversaw your plans here. Although we haven't actually been in contact, I've been keeping an eye on your progress."
Tang Zijun nodded slightly. He could feel the young man's taut muscles and the heavy pressure on his shoulders.
"Thank you for your hard work, Fang Xin. Xiao Yue and the others gave us a general overview of the situation on the way. Now, tell us what you know about that place." He pointed to the red dot on the sand table. "And all the details from the surveillance video."
Fang Xin took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his turbulent emotions, and his eyes instantly became focused.
He strode to the main control panel, his fingers flying across the cold touchpad.
On the huge holographic sand table, the terrain of the Forgotten Valley was rapidly magnified and refined, revealing rugged and steep mountain walls, bottomless rift valleys, and a pervasive purple mist representing high concentrations of radiation and unknown interference.
"The last reliable sighting of the target was here, at Sigh Pass." Fang Xin pointed to a narrow pass at the entrance to the canyon. His voice regained the calm and orderliness expected of a commander, but he spoke quickly, with a sense of urgency.
"We dispatched three elite reconnaissance teams in succession. The first one, codenamed 'Wandering Gathering,' lost contact after entering the pass three days ago. The last footage they sent back..." He pulled up an extremely blurry video clip filled with static and distorted ripples, in which the outlines of several fast-moving, huge, and twisted black shadows could be vaguely seen, accompanied by the team members' terrified and intermittent communications: (...Not radioactive beasts! Repeat! Not...they...have metal...)
Then the communication abruptly ended.
"The second team, the Rock Squad, attempted to rappel in from the flank cliffs and encountered...this."
The camera switched to the view from the recorder mounted on the team member's helmet.
The camera shook wildly, revealing a bottomless chasm below. Suddenly, several flying monsters with astonishing wingspans and bodies clearly pieced together from flesh and rusted metal, like vultures from hell, silently swooped down from the purple mist. The scene turned pitch black amidst violent impacts and screams.
Fang Xin's voice lowered. "...No one survived. The third group was an intelligence team disguised as scavengers; they didn't even get close to the pass."
The footage shows the situation near the pass in the distance, where several armed vehicles painted with the symbols of different factions, including the Gear and Flame Banner of Anvil City and the Broken Gear Emblem of Holy Relic Fortress, are confronting each other and even exchanging fire.
"There are at least four different factions operating around the pass, their motives are unclear, but conflicts are ongoing, and our people cannot get close safely at all."
He raised his head and looked at Tang Zijun and Chang Lei, his eyes filled with solemnity and a hint of barely perceptible frustration.
"Brother Tang, Director Chang, Forgotten Canyon is now the entrance to a giant meat grinder, filled with things we can't comprehend..."
A terrifying creature, seemingly heavily modified, surrounded by a pack of bloodthirsty jackals—that girl... if she's really inside... is likely in extremely dangerous condition, and we currently lack the capability to force our way in and ensure we find her.
The tactical room was completely silent, with only the faint hum of the equipment running.
Tang Zijun had anticipated that things would become somewhat troublesome, but she never expected them to become this troublesome.
"We investigated the history of Forgotten Canyon before it existed," Fang Xin continued. "For a little girl of unknown origin to go to a place like that, either she's insane, or there's something there that she'd be willing to risk her life for. So I chose to start from that point..."
"There are very few historical records about Forgotten Valley. We have even found clues about the erasure of information by the gods of the era. We have reason to believe that this place must have been a secret base of the gods of the era before, otherwise they would never have deliberately erased everything about this place."
"Without the online records, we can only focus on paper documents. Mr. Leisen and the old chimney's network of contacts have been a great help to us, but we still haven't fully investigated the truth there. It's as if a giant hand has erased the history there out of thin air. No matter how hard we try, we can't figure out those five blank years."
"The biggest problem now is the forces surrounding Forgotten Valley." Fang Xin turned his gaze back to the map. "They are among the largest forces in the Southern Territory right now. We are not their enemies, but we are not on good terms with them either. If we rashly get involved, it is very likely to disrupt this balance."
"Looks like the situation in the wasteland isn't so optimistic either," Chang Lei chuckled, then turned to Tang Zijun. "What do you think of these groups?"
"Just drive them away." Tang Zijun crossed her arms. "Since we're in the wasteland, let's just follow the rules of the wasteland. It'll be a contest of who has the bigger fist."
Chang Lei rolled his eyes. "...That's definitely something you would say."
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