Chapter 162: Fortification 095

Chapter 162 – Project 095

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Jinling Ruins.

The bitter north wind that Chen Jian had long awaited finally arrived, and within a few hours the temperature plunged five degrees.

It was the dead of winter, and by midnight the mercury near Jinling had fallen to minus three degrees.

Moreover, given the current trend, the cold could dip even further.

Standing in the shivering gale, Shen Yue exhaled a plume of breath and spoke:

“​It seems I’ve caught a rare cold snap; in my memory Jinling hasn’t been this frigid in ages.”

“​Perhaps in a few days the first snow will blanket Jinling.”

“​Honestly, have any of you ever seen snow?”

“​I mean that deep, feather‑light snowfall you get in the Northeast?”

“​I haven’t.”

Lei Jie shook his head and said:

“​But I don’t want to see it either; just the thought makes me shiver. Southern folk can’t endure it.”

“​When this job is done, if we can, let’s pull back to Huangshi City.”

“​At least its latitude is lower, so the temperature will be milder.”

“​That’s not a decision we can make on our own.”

Chen Jian sighed, then continued:

“​If the Jinling Ruins truly still house a functioning colossal installation, we’ll have to use that as the foundation for a foothold.”

“​Moving equipment and facilities is far too arduous; we lack the capacity and have no need to gamble with such a risk.”

“​Nevertheless, once that moment arrives, defending the stronghold will be a major challenge.”

“​The terrain of the Jinling Ruins is nowhere near as advantageous as Huangshi City’s; to hold back the Mechanical Cult and the Sanctum of Holy Blood in Jinling, we may have to take the city outright.”

“​Take it outright?”

Ji Xing stared, dumbfounded, and said:

“​…just a few dozen of you to do it?”

“​I’m only saying that; I never intended to actually fight.”

Chen Jian waved his hand, sidestepping the wildly uncertain topic.

Then he spoke:

“​Let’s focus on the present.”

“​First, let’s discuss this reconnaissance plan.”

“​Very well.”

“​No problem.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, everyone gathered around.

Chen Jian opened his PDA, pulled up an offline map, and while marking it, said:

“​Our reconnaissance objective is to reach as close as possible to the core of the Jinling Ruins, namely the area near the Army Engineering University I’ve marked.”

“​Those coordinates are where we previously identified a point of interest, forty‑one kilometres from our current position.”

“​We’ll head north on the G4211 expressway, then turn east at the G2503 junction, following G2503 straight to the vicinity of the target zone.”

“​After that, we’ll continue north on G104—the so‑called Twin Dragon Avenue—toward the final destination.”

“​This route lets us avoid plunging deep into the heart of the Jinling Ruins while still expanding our reconnaissance sweep as much as possible.”

“​Traveling this way, our drones should be able to cover the entire expanse of the ruins.”

“​Even if, for various reasons, we still fail to locate that monster’s lair, a creature of such magnitude ought to leave abundant traces.”

“​Even merely pinpointing its activity zone would be of immense value to us.”

“​During the march, everyone must remain vigilant.”

“​As always, if you encounter a bloated entity, destroy it at once; if you spot a fungal human, eliminate it immediately.”

“​We must do everything we can to block the spread of pheromones, lest we expose ourselves prematurely.”

“​One final note: wear your gas masks—these cheap‑looking things from Tongling City may look shabby, but they work.”

“​Understood.”

“​Understood.”

With Chen Jian’s briefing concluded, everyone nodded in turn to confirm.

He then enlarged the offline map and began detailing the route to the others.

Ji Xing listened attentively beside him, but the more she heard, the more something felt amiss.

While Chen Jian continued describing each evacuation point and turnaround spot, her brows grew ever tighter.

After a moment of hesitation, she could no longer hold back and asked:

“​So why exactly have we designated this so‑called Army Engineering University as the final objective?”

“​Is there something special there? I mean, if we’re merely scouting, shouldn’t we be skirting the perimeter and exploring as much as possible?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Chen Jian froze.

He understood Ji Xing’s point, yet he could not grasp why she raised the question.

So, puzzled, he asked:

“​Isn’t it normal to set the final objective as the direction of a reconnaissance mission? We’re heading there, so we must take the route that brings us as close as possible, right?”

“​Wait.”

Ji Xing waved her hand, bewildered, then asked:

“​What do you mean ‘we’re already going there’? Isn’t your goal to seize the treasure of the Jinling Ruins?”

“​Yes—hold on a moment.”

Chen Jian suddenly realized.

He suddenly recalled that ever since Ji Xing had joined his squad, he had never actually asked her what she meant by the core of the Jinling Ruins.

He possessed a set of coordinates, and had taken it for granted that those were what everyone was after.

But was that truly the case??

It might not be.

He stared at Ji Xing in astonishment, then asked:

“​Do you mean the place you intended to go isn’t the same as the place we’re ultimately heading to?”

“​No.”

Season Xing shook her head, and before Chen Jiansong could catch his breath, she pressed on:

“It's not that the place I must go and the place you intend to go are at different coordinates; in the consensus of all intelligence, the core of the Jinling Ruins lies elsewhere from where you’re headed!”

“We all agree that the Jinling Ruins are right here.”

As she spoke, Season Xing mimicked Chen’s gestures, swiping the PDA screen until the view settled on a swath of green cloaked in vegetation.

Chen and his companions turned their eyes to the display, then froze in perfect unison.

“This—what the—”

Lei Jie exclaimed in disbelief:

“Isn’t that Zhongshan?”

“The core of the Jinling Ruins is Zhongshan? What lies there?”

“There’s the Ming Xiaoling, Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum—plus the Purple Mountain Observatory.”

He Shuo answered languidly, then added:

“I feel this outcome makes more sense. If the Jinling Ruins truly harbor something extraordinary, it shouldn’t share a coordinate with 7025, for they are of entirely different orders.”

“Most likely we’ve been misled from the start.”

“The coordinates of the Army Engineering University have nothing to do with what we chase—no Fuxi project, no fusion reactor, no key to unlock the mountain city.”

“It’s merely a mundane disaster‑relief installation, overseen by other departments and systems.”

“Zhongshan, however, is the genuine heart of the Fuxi project.”

“Reasonable.”

Chen Jiansong exhaled deeply, then said:

“But now a new question arises—how did you know this area is the core?”

As he spoke, Chen glanced at Season Xing, who answered without hesitation:

“From the intelligence gathered during several forays by the Mechanical Cult and the Holy Blood Hall.”

“They discovered a Tier‑2 monster there, and a battle unfolded at that spot.”

“I lack clearance to access deeper data on that creature, but such basic intel should be reliable.”

“Understood.”

Chen nodded again, a faint smile curving his lips.

“Then we’re truly in luck.”

“The Zhongshan zone lies a full fifteen kilometres from the Army Engineering University we aim for—nearly half a danger zone away.”

“We may even bypass the monster entirely and still activate the installation.”

“If the monster guards the scarce equipment we need, it’s nothing more than a convenient obstacle.”

“Let’s move. Depart now!”

“I can’t wait any longer!”

Having finally untangled that seemingly trivial yet decisively pivotal piece of intelligence, Chen’s eight‑person squad surged with morale.

Against the biting wind, they sped their cat‑vehicle along G4211 toward a target over forty kilometres distant.

In under thirty minutes they had covered ten kilometres, arriving at the site where the fungal carpet was first spotted.

As Shen Yue had predicted, the carpet, battered by cold wind and low temperatures, had lost much of its vigor.

The once‑plump bulges now showed hints of withering shrinkage—though not yet dead, it was clear they no longer possessed the keen perception they enjoyed under daytime warmth.

Nevertheless, erring on the side of caution, Chen ordered Zeng Yi and his men to destroy any bulge they encountered at once.

After all, fungal flora lack true intelligence; they are merely switches—once broken, the carpet and its symbiotic organisms across the area gradually lose activity.

This, too, would pave the way for any future withdrawal.

Gunfire roared in tandem with the cat‑vehicle’s low engine growl; once the vehicle entered the fungal ground, the squad’s pace slackened slightly.

Even so, after three hours on the road, they reached the second crucial waypoint—the junction of G2503 and G104.

They weathered several fungal‑human assaults, but forethought and the absence of toxic gas allowed them to handle each encounter with ease.

Detect, fire, kill, withdraw swiftly.

The fungal‑humans could not keep pace with their retreat; aside from a few face‑to‑face scares, the squad suffered no substantive harm.

Chen had feared that such aggressive tactics might summon the Tier‑2 monster, yet from start to finish it never revealed a trace.

Drones patrolled the skies, and the only “abnormal” sights in their footage were fungal forests interspersed among ordinary leaf‑laden woods and the massive caps that rose above them.

For a fleeting moment Chen doubted whether the so‑called Tier‑2 monster existed at all.

But when a drone detected a dense cluster of lights along the eastern bank of the Yangtze, his fanciful notion vanished.

“About forty kilometres away, a multitude of active light sources.”

“Not the lights of Jinling City—likely a massive marching force.”

“The distance is great; should we employ a dual‑drone relay so one can fly closer for a look?”

He Shuo, eyes fixed on the drone feed, asked, while Chen shook his head:

“No need.”

“It’s obvious those are Mechanical Cult troops.”

“They’re advancing from Jinling City toward the Jinling Ruins—something big must be afoot.”

“The scale of those lights—conservatively, at least two thousand souls, I’d say.”

“They too intend to enter the ruins? Why the sudden haste?”

“Probably because of Huadu.”

Season Xing interjected:

“Huadu’s arrival in Jinling isn’t about the city itself; they covet what lies within the ruins.”

“The Mechanical Cult won’t clash head‑on with them—that would be unprofitable.”

“Instead of squandering force on Huadu, they’d rather seize the ruins first and eliminate that monster.”

“We can see the creature is at its most vulnerable now; they must have intel to that effect.”

“For them, this is indeed the optimal opportunity.”

“Logical, yet illogical.”

Chen frowned:

“When they attacked us they went for total annihilation, yet they shy away from a direct clash with Huadu?”

“It’s not fear, it’s cost‑effectiveness.”

Season Xing pursed her lips:

“I think I know what happened in Huangshi City— I can guarantee that if they understood the price of opposing you, they wouldn’t have acted at the outset.”

This is a survival strategy; upon this land, the overwhelming majority are compelled to abide by it.

Understood.

Chen Jian nodded, then said:

Then we must quicken our pace.

If they dare to come, they must be confident.

This second‑tier beast has become the prize of a hunt, and whoever slays it first will seize the initiative.

We cannot let the Mechanical Cult get ahead of us.

The surroundings are stable; stay vigilant and press forward at full speed!

Got it!

At Chen Jian's command, everyone instantly slipped into a state of heightened tension.

Shen Yue and Lei Jie donned night‑vision goggles, switched off the vehicle lights, and pushed the cat‑car to its limit.

Following the G104, they covered the final eleven kilometers in merely half an hour.

When the two cat‑cars halted before a vast canopy of fungal growth, and Chen Jian glimpsed, beneath the dense mushroom caps, the familiar yet uncollapsed great gate, he realized he had found the right place.

This is it.

Chen Jian drew a deep breath, then issued his orders:

Everyone spread out, keep watch on the spot.

The drone, lower its altitude and hover over the coordinates.

This fungal forest is far richer than the outskirts, likely due to organic deposits beneath the soil.

We must hasten to locate the underground works; otherwise, lingering too long will invite toxic fumes

No need for further trouble.

Before Chen Jian could finish, Lei Jie cut him off.

Then he pointed to the massive granite slab beneath the star‑and‑shield relief not far away, and said:

They have etched the direction.

Chen Jian switched on his tactical flashlight and followed the indicated direction.

Upon that granite, a line of characters was crudely carved deep.

Project 095 lies beyond this point.

(End of Chapter)