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Chapter 202: Chapter 202: The Menacing Approach
After a full night of rest, the group at the foot of the mountain finally set off on their ascent.
Climbing boots, trekking poles, compass, moisture-proof mats... they had prepared all the necessary climbing gear, but the mountain path was still difficult to traverse. The vegetation was too dense; in addition to mutated towering trees, there were also dense patches of thorns, and the air around them was so muggy that it was hard to bear.
Yan Xiao had initially tried to burn a path through, but after a while, he felt it was too wasteful of his Ability. After all, they were going to be trekking in the mountain for at least two days, and no matter how powerful his Ability was, he couldn’t afford to waste it like that. He needed to conserve his strength for battle.
Fortunately, they were already nearing their destination, so nobody was in a hurry.
Considering the abundance of vegetation here, there were bound to be many Mutant Plants, so Han Yi deliberately chose routes frequented by Mutant Beasts, in order to avoid the Mutant Plants.
In this way, they climbed the mountain while fighting Mutant Beasts, and time seemed to pass quickly. Unknowingly, everyone had accumulated quite a few Crystal Cores from the beasts.
Han Yi probably thought these Crystal Cores were too small to be of use, so he didn’t take any and let everyone else divide them up, even awarding a few to Hao Boming, calling them travel labor fees.
Han Jiaojiao got the most Crystal Cores because she wasn’t fighting alone... she also had four dogs, and all the Crystal Cores obtained by the Space-Time Beasts were given to her.
Seeing her smile with her eyes almost disappearing, Yan Xiao couldn’t help but tease, "Stop smiling, your eyes are almost invisible."
Tian Xinyue looked on with envy, "They are so well-behaved..." Despite their strange appearance, their obedience somehow made them seem less disgusting...
Yan Xiao approached with a mischievous grin and said, "If you ever get the chance, you must watch the scene of Jiaojiao brushing their teeth."
Tian Xinyue was taken aback, "Ah?... They, they have teeth? Where are they?
Xiao Jian cut through the obstructing branches in front of him and passed by Tian Xinyue, his voice neither loud nor soft, "You’re better off not knowing if you don’t want to lose your appetite for lunch later."
Blushing slightly, Tian Xinyue murmured an "Oh" after a while, bowed her head, and hurried to catch up with the group. But after just a few steps, her feet were tripped up by roots growing across the path, and she fell onto Xiao Jian’s back!
Fortunately, Xiao Jian’s reflexes were extremely fast, and he immediately steadied her. Otherwise, both of them could have taken a nasty fall. It would have been a minor issue to just fall, but since they were on a slope, a fall could easily lead to rolling downhill... which would have been quite bad.
After being helped up by Xiao Jian, Tian Xinyue’s face turned even redder.
Yan Xiao, walking ahead, made faces and gestured to Hao Boming beside him, who contorted his features to mirror the expression back to him.
Xiao Jian immediately shot them a glare and continued up the mountain with an icy face.
"Hey! Xiao Jian? You’re just going to help her up and leave it at that?" Yan Xiao called out to Xiao Jian in a strange voice.
Han Jiaojiao, leading in front, turned around when she heard the noise and saw Tian Xinyue standing below with a flushed face, unmoving. She asked, "Xinyue, are you okay?"
Tian Xinyue stood frozen for a while before snapping back to reality. She then raised her head and shouted in Han Jiaojiao’s direction, "I... I think I heard the sound of cars."
Everyone stopped.
——The sound of cars?
"They’re coming from the direction of where we camped yesterday," said Tian Xinyue, her face slightly pale, "so many... so many cars, they sound like large military trucks, at least twenty!"
Xiao Jian frowned upon hearing and walked over to Han Yi, saying, "Brother Han, if half of the military trucks are filled with soldiers, that would amount to at least five hundred people."
Han Yi’s brow furrowed slightly as he released his spiritual power.
After a moment of silent contemplation, he lifted his head and said, "Two jeeps, twenty-six military trucks, around five hundred people, but there are only about sixty Superpower Users."
"It looks like Han Rui finally couldn’t restrain himself and sold the armory to that old guy," Yan Xiao sneered, "He really has some thick skin, huh? Even with his and his dad’s shares combined, they only have fifteen percent, right? He really thinks he can call the shots. Heh."
It was at this moment that Yang Qi, Zhou Xiaoliang, Hao Boming, and Tian Xinyue realized that their destination for this trip was actually the armory! How many weapons were in an armory? How much ammunition? The production value was counted in billions!
They couldn’t quite express what they were feeling at the moment... excitement, thrill, tension, fear—it all made their blood race!
Han Yi’s expression was calm as he said indifferently, "Let’s keep moving. They’ll need to rest and scout the area after reaching the foot of the mountain, and they probably won’t start making their way into the mountains until after lunch."
The group continued onward, their pace quickening unconsciously.
In the evening, Han Yi led them to a natural crevice formed between two cliffs, with their location beneath the overhanging cliffs. Looking up at the sky, they were treated to the amazing sight of a sliver of heaven above.
Beneath the cliffs, the air was fresh, cool, and comfortable, and the area was surprisingly clean and flat, free from poisonous insects and mosquitoes, as well as from a clutter of plants. Tonight, they would spend the night in this crevasse between the sheer cliffs.
The natural crack in the stone wall was too narrow to accommodate metal mobile houses, so everyone set up tents, lit kerosene stoves, and actually found a bit of a wild charm in it.
Yan Xiao fiddled with the communicator for a long time but was unable to contact Lu Changyuan. Their current location deep within the belly of the mountain was surrounded by towering cliffs, naturally weakening the communication signals.
After a day of trekking through the mountains, everyone’s physical strength was at its limit. As night fell, they all went to sleep and didn’t wake until dawn.
As the sun just started to rise, they left the narrow passage and climbed high to look around. Everywhere they looked were endless overlapping peaks and valleys, with a light mist wafting through the wild, barely revealing cascading waterfalls and tranquil streams in the distance—a picturesque scenery that seemed like a fairyland.
"It’s so beautiful. No wonder ancient people often chose to live in seclusion. Given the choice, I would love to live in such a place too," Han Jiaojiao said, standing on the slope and sighing. Despite knowing that the entire mountainscape was full of dangers, with countless mutant beasts and plants everywhere, the beauty she saw made her yearn for it nonetheless.
Tian Xinyue couldn’t help exclaiming as well, "It really is gorgeous. It makes you feel so calm..."
"Ah, women are so sentimental," Yan Xiao wiped the sweat from his face and said, "You’ve sighed over it more than a dozen times this morning alone."
Han Jiaojiao hummed and moved closer to her brother. Alright, she admitted she hadn’t seen much of the world. Even when she went out traveling as a child, her mother would take her to zoos, aquariums, or large amusement parks. She had never been to such an untouched mountain range before.
Xiao Jian took a look through the binoculars and pointed in a direction to Han Yi, saying, "Brother Han, it’s over there."
Han Yi nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
Although Han Yi was in charge of the arms company, the armory didn’t require the CEO’s personal management; there were subordinates to take care of it. Therefore, Han Yi seldom came here—less than ten times—and each time he visited the armory for inspection, there was a special train. Now with the tracks destroyed, they were essentially forging a new path, needing to check their direction from time to time.
Han Jiaojiao pulled on Han Yi’s arm and asked, "Brother, are we almost there?"
"Yes," Han Yi pointed toward the distance, his voice low and gentle, "Do you see that waterfall over there? That’s the Goddess Peak Waterfall, and below it is the Great Canyon."
...
