The First Order

After the Wang Consortium’s special forces came ashore, they were in no hurry to leave yet. In the dark of the night, they calmly loaded the corpses of the patrolling guards into their equipment boxes.

Then they sank them to the bottom of East Lake along with all their diving gear.

If nothing unexpected happened, it would probably be a long time before anyone realized what had happened at East Lake tonight.

Actually, even the Zhou Consortium had been caught up in the chaos and was unaware that a huge monster had been raised at the bottom of East Lake in Stronghold 73 due to the events of the cave-in.

The superhumans’ bodies and blood that were buried at the bottom of the lake were the cause of it all, and the effects were far-reaching.

The special forces got back into their vehicles and set off again. However, they did not continue heading south to the front line as planned. Instead, they returned north with the highest level of clearance documents. No one stopped them, nor did anyone notice anything unusual about them.

“Nanosoldier” was a very strange term in the Central Plains. In many people’s minds, nanomachines had become the exclusive technology of the Qing Consortium.

However, only a few people knew that ever since the secret research base in the Southwest was destroyed, the Qing Consortium’s authority over access to nanotech had been seized.

Now that the Qing Consortium had completely stopped producing nanomachines, Qing Zhen started mysteriously concealing his movements.

At the same time, a group of elite troops suddenly set off from the Central Plains. They crossed the southwestern forest and arrived near the Jing Mountains in the Southwest.

Along the way, they passed through Mt. Meihua, the Jigong Range, and Mt. Xuanhan. Throughout the journey, they never took the main roads and traveled only along the mountain paths.

Just like the special forces that had appeared at East Lake, they were carrying the best weapons, gear, and detection equipment with them in metallic boxes.

Unlike the special forces, this group of soldiers were carrying even more man-portable heavy weapons.

If normal troops were transporting such heavy equipment manually, they would probably have died from exhaustion in the wilderness. But when these elite troops arrived at the Jing Mountains, they did not look particularly tired at all. It was as though they were all supernatural beings.

There used to be roads in the Jing Mountains, or at the very least, when Ren Xiaosu led Yang Xiaojin and the others into these mountains, there were still traces of vehicular tracks on the mountain paths.

Even earlier than that, there used to be trade caravans passing through the Jing Mountains.

But the Jing Mountains had long been abandoned. There were only dense weeds and vegetation left on the ground, and all traces of human activity had been mercilessly overrun by nature.

Even now, a huge crack could still be seen in the Jing Mountains. A canyon had formed.

During the earthquake that struck the Jing Mountains, the tectonic plates were compressed and pushed up within an hour. The huge crack and gully had cut through Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 like a hot knife through butter.

Now that the elite troops had arrived, they could easily imagine the devastating effects on the surrounding areas during the Jing Mountains earthquake.

When regular troops marched, they would always make small talk with each other. It was only when the commander ordered them to observe noise discipline would everyone shut their mouths.

It was not that normal troops were undisciplined, but that this was human nature. Before carrying out high-intensity missions, the soldiers would need to talk to ease their tension.

However, it was different for this group of soldiers. No one said a word throughout, as though there was no need to communicate at all.

When they were about to reach the entrance of the Jing Mountains, the slot canyon¹ there was still the same as before. However, there was more gravel piled up on the narrow path.

The elite troops stood there quietly. Everyone looked at the words carved into the stone wall and did not move for a long time: “Stop here, ye who live.”

Ten minutes later, two soldiers put down the boxes they were carrying and took out ten black steel bottles. They unscrewed the seal on them and poured the silvery liquid metal onto the ground.

The silvery liquid metal started flowing like a river before quickly splitting into dozens of streams and spreading up along the smooth stone walls.

A dense squeaking sound could be heard as the silvery liquid metal seemingly alarmed the face bugs that lived in the cliff walls.

Back then, the face bugs had left the Jing Mountains due to the earthquake and started hunting indiscriminately in Stronghold 113. But by the time the Qing Consortium’s troops returned to the stronghold to investigate, the bugs had disappeared. No one knew where they had gone.

Surprisingly, the face bugs actually went back to the Jing Mountains and returned to their lair.

The face bugs were extremely ferocious. However, they instinctively started avoiding the silvery liquid metal that was rapidly approaching them.

But before they could figure out what it was, the silvery liquid metal started scattering outwards and seeping into the bodies of the face bugs.

In just half an hour, all of the face bugs in the entire slot canyon stilled.

At this moment, the elite troops carried their equipment and continued heading deeper into the Jing Mountains.

Ren Xiaosu and the others nearly died when they made their way across this canyon entrance, with more than half of the private troops perishing.

This time, the face bugs did not attack the humans at all. They almost seemed as docile as pets.

When the elite troops passed through the slot canyon, they could still see the skeletal remains of humans who had died here. However, they did not stop and continued advancing expressionlessly.

In the recesses of the Jing Mountains, the ruins of the city the Qing Consortium had searched through had completely collapsed in the earthquake. The signs of some shops from before The Cataclysm that could originally be seen here were utterly torn up now.

The ruins of the city became a huge tomb that buried the former human civilization.

The commander of the elite troops retrieved his military binoculars and looked toward the huge volcanic crater in the distance. The soldiers around him who were carrying dozens of boxes started marching quickly towards the volcano.

When they were about a kilometer away from the crater, they started setting up the detection equipment and connected it to a tactical military laptop. Every soldier’s movements were conducted with machine precision as they systematically carried out their duties.

Of the 500-strong troops, 30 soldiers were in charge of overseeing the equipment. The rest of the soldiers, who were all armed, carried the remaining unopened boxes and quickly scattered outwards.

A soldier carried a conical-shaped detector and aimed it at the volcanic mountainside. This time, they did not have to wait long as the pattern on the computer screen quickly entered a state of intense turbulence.

“We’ve discovered it. The intel was wrong. There’s more than one unknown lifeform in the crater.”

“Probe it again.”

“We have confirmation. The number of unknown lifeforms is two.”

“Prepare for battle.”

“Alpha One and Alpha Two, enter combat ready status and activate the nanomachines.”

“Prepare the nanomachines in the tranquilizing device.”

“Bravo One and Bravo Two, enter tight security status and prohibit outsiders from entering the battlefield.”

“Standby.”

“Ready the mortars. Lure them out.”