Chapter 147: 10th Air Division Base

Chapter 147: Base of the Tenth Armored Division

The Mechanic Cult's mobilization took over twenty hours, yet their retreat consumed less than six.

They did not carry away their comrades' corpses; instead, they gathered all the bodies together, performed a simple rite, then doused them with gasoline perhaps refined from plastic bottles and set them ablaze.

After they departed, black smoke mingled with the stench of burning flesh drifted through the air, and the horrors drawn by the scent, upon seeing the roaring flames, slunk away in disappointment.

The entirety of the Anqing ruins fell quiet once more, and after night fell again, Chen Jian finally led his concealed squad into action.

".Everything's taken care of, fell quiet once more, and after night fell again, Chen Jian finally led his concealed squad into action.

".Everything's taken care of, right?"

"All taken care of."

Lei Jie nodded and said:

"The Ring Trade Guild has already responded, sending personnel this afternoon to rush to nearby settlements such as Susong and Wangjiang, organizing villagers to evacuate."

"By now, the nearer settlements should have completed evacuation; the guild's merchants will escort them to Wuhu, then distribute them there."

"Those willing to go to Huangshi may do so; those unwilling shall make their own arrangements."

"In short, these scattered horrors should not greatly affect nearby civilians."

"Most of them will, by instinct, attack the largest human settlement nearby, just as the Blood Skulls of the Han River once did."

"And without a leader to command them, Anqing's defensive forces can easily hold the line."

"Then that's good."

Chen Jian let out a breath, then said:

"At least the Ring Trade Guild will finally do something human; if we helped them with such a big favor and they refuse to do even this small thing, we ought to seriously reconsider our cooperation with them."

"Indeed."

Beside him, Shen Yue tightened the hydraulic fittings of his exoskeleton, slipped a fully charged battery into its compartment, rose to his feet, and said:

"But now a problem arises—just as we suspected, the Ring Trade Guild surely knows what's happening here."

"That also means they anticipated our ability to wipe out the horrors."

"Given that, I want to ask: what exactly do they intend to do?"

"They are no benevolent do-gooders; they are merchants who value profit above all else."

"There must be something here that can only be obtained after all the horrors are cleared—so what do you think they're after?"

"Perhaps some underground facility?"

He Shuo interjected:

"Judging by the Ring Trade Guild's nature, what interests them is nothing more than tradable equipment or pre-war technological artifacts."

"And such things are most likely to be found only in underground facilities."

"Perhaps they obtained the coordinates of such a facility through some means, just like 7025?"

The words had barely fallen when, before Chen Jian could answer, Ji Xing beside him shook his head and said:

"Impossible."

"The Anqing ruins have already been scavenged more than once; the 'underground facility' you speak of, if it refers to a pre-Catastrophe underground depot, has likely already been excavated."

"The Mechanic Cult didn't build Anqing city in a day; as I said, the city's foundations are the Anqing ruins, and everything inside should have long since been hauled out."

"What use could the remaining worthless stone and rotting steel have?"

"That makes no sense."

Chen Jian frowned and said:

"If there's truly nothing inside, where did those horrors get their new weapons and gear? Could it all have come from Huadu?"

"Quite possible."

Shen Yue pondered briefly, then analyzed calmly:

"We initially misjudged the horror strength in the Anqing ruins, and also misjudged the number of Huadu personnel."

"At first we thought it was at most a thousand-strong camp, meaning Huadu personnel numbered only a few dozen."

"But now it appears their numbers are in the hundreds."

"Given that, a large influx of equipment into the horror camp is perfectly reasonable."

"If that's truly the case, then we're in trouble."

Chen Jian sighed, then said:

"I truly can't guess what they're after—but that actually doesn't matter."

"They won't tell us, and we have no way to infer."

"Since that's the case, let's just follow our own plan and search them one by one."

"Where shall we start first? Factory 4822, or the Tenth Armored Division base?"

"Factory 4822 is no longer worth inspecting."

Lei Jie shook his head and said:

"The site of Factory 4822 largely overlaps the horror camp's central zone; even if it didn't, its warehouses are above-ground facilities, leaving nothing behind."

"On the other hand, the Tenth Armored Division base might still yield something."

"After all, it's the garrison of the nation's first nuclear strike division."

"Who knows, we might be able to scrounge up even more from there."

Lei Jie didn't finish his thought, but Chen Jian already grasped his meaning.

Without a doubt, aside from Ji Xing, the longing for nuclear weapons has been etched deep into every member of this squad.

"If we could actually get our hands on a new tactical nuke, they wouldn't need anything else."

Thus, Chen Jian nodded decisively and immediately marked the target on the map.

"It's twenty-six kilometers as the crow flies; if we follow the roads we'll pass no fewer than six horror camps and twelve high-value pre-Catastrophe targets."

"My suggestion is to simply sweep through them one by one."

"If there's really nothing, we'll write it off; but if we can snag even one item, we'll count it as a gain!"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

Each answered in turn, and then, under the cover of night, the two-vehicle convoy set off northeastward.

They spent considerable time clearing every horror encampment along the way, then conducted scavenging according to the prearranged plan.

Unfortunately, this round of scavenging yielded hardly anything.

They didn't have the time to gather all the scattered ammunition and weapons; what could be found in the horror camps were mostly standard gear, most of which the Mechanic Cult had taken during their retreat.

The leftover scrap metal and junk were practically worthless to collect.

However, they did indeed find the 'incomprehensible equipment' spoken of by the Ring Trade Guild.

It was a single-shot rifle modified from an aircraft cannon barrel, clearly not the work of the Terror Demons, but rather something some people had dismantled, refitted, and handed over for their use.

In other words, the source of this weaponry had nothing to do with the Anqing ruins; the intelligence previously released by the Ring Commerce Guild was most likely just a smokescreen.

With that thought, Chen Jian gave a decisive order:

"He Shuo, maintain drone surveillance."

"Primarily monitor all passages near Anqing City; if anyone is spotted entering, conduct immediate reconnaissance."

"If we can capture members of the Ring Commerce Guild, we’ll save ourselves a lot of trouble."

"Received."

He Shuo launched the drone, and the group continued advancing toward the base of the Tenth Air Division.

Four hours later, the party arrived at the airfield’s location, but Chen Jian was astonished to find it completely blanketed by dense vegetation. Even concrete of C50 grade or higher appeared frail before the passage of time.

Chen Jian launched another drone, first pinpointing the hangar’s position, then led the squad hacking through thorns, pressing forward with difficulty.

Moments later, the hangar, more than half collapsed, came into view before everyone.

Through the rusted hangar doors, Chen Jian suddenly saw the familiar aircraft parked inside.

The Jian-20.

Once the six-winged angel, it now lay deep buried in dust, its dark gray coating long peeled off, its wings snapped from metal corrosion unable to bear their own weight.

Even so, when the aircraft appeared before them, everyone could still envision its former heroic bearing.

Even the few Holy Blooded who had never seen it before felt the same.

"Is this... a mech?"

Zeng Yi asked hesitantly.

In his understanding, the most powerful weapon forged by the "ancestors" before the Great Cataclysm was precisely the "mech" that Chen Jian and his companions had mentioned more than once.

Thus, whenever he beheld what he considered a mighty armament, his first reaction was: Is this thing a mech?

He had actually raised this question more than once before, but this time Chen Jian’s answer still left him somewhat disappointed.

"Not a mech."

Zeng Yi sighed involuntarily, but Chen Jian continued immediately:

"This is something far stronger than a mech, and vastly more powerful."

"What is it?"

Zeng Yi’s excitement flared again, while Chen Jian spoke slowly:

"It is a fighter jet—an aircraft capable of aerial combat, delivering the aerial bombs we previously detonated onto the ground."

"A fighter jet?"

Zeng Yi gaped.

He had indeed heard legends of combat aircraft, even seen illustrations drawn by artists.

But those depictions bore no resemblance to the object before his eyes.

Yes, this flying machine was enormous enough, yet no matter how you looked at it, it did not seem capable of carrying a sufficiently massive bomb.

With that thought, Zeng Yi asked again:

"Why does this... fighter jet look so small? No, I’m not saying it’s small; I mean, compared to the aerial bombs we previously detonated, it seems genuinely insufficiently large."

"Because it is an air superiority fighter."

Chen Jian waved his hand, briefly explaining the several types of air force equipment to Zeng Yi; everyone, including Zeng Yi, was utterly stunned by this fresh knowledge.

Ji Xing gazed reverently at the Jian-20, instinctively wondering how he would shoot it down if it were aloft.

Perhaps there would simply be no chance to bring it down?

Then would it not be an invincible existence?

Before she could ponder further, Chen Jian had already led the people out of the hangar, carving a passage through the sparser vegetation.

Following this route, the runway’s surface gradually emerged before them.

When the party saw the colossal looming object at the far end of the runway, everyone halted.

Moonlight like molten steel streamed down the jagged vertical tail of that massive entity.

Once silver-gray fuselage now entwined with the aerial roots of a strangler fig, forming a jade‑green cocoon; only the two rows of KD‑63 cruise missile pylons beneath the belly pierced the foliage, their copper‑oxide wings swaying in the wind, emitting a rust‑tinged chime like wind bells.

The black radome on the nose had cracked into a tortoiseshell pattern, from which clusters of purple‑spotted irises protruded.

The weathered Eight‑One army badge retained only a half‑slice of red paint, beneath which the steel plate bore the claw marks of some colossal beast.

Three‑meter‑long gouges five in number traversed the skin, exposing the tangled internal wiring; the insulated wires, clinging like barnacles to metal fragments, eventually congealed into swellings resembling ganglia.

It was evidently decayed and damaged to the extreme.

Yet even as it sat there motionless, the oppressive presence it exuded remained unmatched.

"This is..."

Zeng Yi stared, mouth agape, while Chen Jian drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly before replying:

"This is... the War God."

"War God."

Zeng Yi murmured, approaching the immense fuselage, yearning to reach out and touch it, yet recoiling with a mix of awe and dread.

If he thought the Jian-20 he had seen earlier was too small, then this aircraft was simply too large.

So large that he was convinced, should the Machine God Sect discover it, they would surely venerate it as some kind of "holy relic."

——

And indeed, the fact was exactly so.

Before he could speak, Ji Xing beside him said in a slightly trembling voice:

"This is the remnant of the Machine God Sect’s holy relic—the Celestial Iron Wing!"

"I had always thought this thing existed only in legend; I never imagined it would still be here!"

"Not only here."

Chen Jian sighed:

"There ought to be many such ‘Iron Wings’ in the world, but their locations mostly do not overlap with human activity zones, so they have largely gone undiscovered."

"That’s a piece of good news. Lei Jie, want to see if anything else is still usable?"

"There’s nothing usable."

Lei Jie shook his head:

"It’s been over three hundred years; this thing has long since weathered into a useless heap of iron scaffolding."

"It should have collapsed under its own weight long ago, were it not for the plants and vines that happened to prop it up."

"Strictly speaking, it is no longer a War God."

“It is merely that war god, a lingering soul left in this world.”

“.Understood.”

Chen Jian nodded slowly, but then added with a hint of teasing:

“Perhaps it wasn’t actually a war god—maybe it’s a H-6Z?”

“Its appearance differs noticeably from the war god; it must be a new model.”

“.That’s downright insane.”

Lei Jie answered with a chuckle, while He Shuo, meanwhile, after crouching to inspect the weapon rack, said:

“This doesn’t look like it’s been tampered with; did the Machine God Cult overlook this place when scavenging the Anqing ruins?”

“This was once the territory of a second‑order colossal beast, at least long ago.”

Ji Xing interjected:

“When Anqing City was founded, they indeed never swept this area, and after the monster departed they did not press further inward.”

“Perhaps they thought the beast hadn’t left, or perhaps there was a more specific reason—but that’s not something I can know.”

“Understood.”

Chen Jian answered offhand, then immediately lowered the drone’s altitude.

After marking a spot on the map, he spoke:

“This should be the entrance to an underground facility.”

“I’m not sure what else lies below besides the underground hangar.”

“But since the surface hasn’t been disturbed, the underground likely hasn’t either.”

“Let’s go.”

“The chance to strike it rich has arrived.”

“If we could field a sturdy ‘Eight‑Grandpa.’ then we’d truly be unstoppable!”

(End of chapter)