Chapter 211: Close-in Reconnaissance

Chapter 211 – Close‑Range Reconnaissance

The next morning, inside Xu He’s dwelling.

Chen Jian had already donned his full gear, while opposite him Xu He still wore a bleary‑eyed stare, the blood still fresh where the neural‑interface had been pierced on his back.

Chen Jian laid out the plan bluntly, and after hearing it, Xu He kept waving his hands in refusal.

“What? You want me to go to Huadu with you?”

“I thought I could just sit here and wait—war isn’t your strongest suit, is it?”

“I’m not going. Those Huadu folk are lunatics; if they spot us, I might as well die there myself.”

“Right, their palace isn’t easy to breach!”

“It’s a fortress perched on a mountain. No one gets in—neither the Mechanist Cult nor the Holy Blood.”

“Ah, the fortress!”

“I’ve heard a saying: fortresses are taken from within!”

“So we should start from the inside—bribe some Huadu people.”

“Speaking of bribery—”

“That’ll do.”

Chen Jian raised his hand, cutting Xu He off, then said:

“From now on, you say nothing; just point the way.”

“If I ask you something, answer only with a nod or a shake, alright?”

Xu He exaggeratedly nodded, and Chen Jian finally exhaled.

“You’ve been to the Huadu palace, haven’t you?”

Xu He nodded again.

“Do you know roughly how the interior is laid out? Especially the sealed chambers.”

“Know.”

Mid‑sentence, Xu He fell silent, then snapped his head up with a vigorous nod.

“That’s enough. Come with us!”

With a sweeping gesture, Chen Jian had Xu He grab the packed crate containing the neural device and fall in step behind him.

Ji Xing, Xie Liu, and Li Shi formed a tight triangle around him, never straying, ever ready for a surprise attack.

Yet it was clear he harbored no such intention.

His thoughts seemed wholly commandeered by that neural implant, maddened and obstinate.

Now his eyes held a single purpose.

To breach Huadu again and uncover more of the device’s secrets.

So why does that neural contraption draw him in?

Perhaps it is a means of escaping reality?

Chen Jian didn’t linger on philosophy; once he secured Xu He’s cooperation, he led the party onward.

From Zhuolu City to Quancheng—what they called Huadu—spanned 260 kilometres. By plan they would reach Qianfeng City, 50 kilometres from Quancheng, before nightfall, regroup at the outskirts of the Qianfeng ruins, then under cover of darkness close on Quancheng for close‑range reconnaissance and draft the final assault plan.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

Along the way Chen Jian ceased hunting monsters, ordering everyone to rest whenever possible.

After all, though the mission was a single‑strike infiltration, no covert operation is ever foolproof.

If discovered, the extraction would still require the squad’s support.

The convoy pushed north, skirting two monsters estimated to be above grade three, and arrived safely at the Qianfeng ruins, where they camped in a concealed spot and set up a forward command post.

Without pause, Chen Jian cleared a makeshift runway, launched a Sky‑Dome‑S long‑range UAV, and entered the ruins, intent on scaling Mount Tai to erect a wide‑area signal beacon.

“Fuxi, handle aerial UAV reconnaissance; Li Shi and Ji Xing, keep an eye on Xu He; Xie Liu, Lei Jie, follow me.”

Chen Jian’s orders dispatched the three at once, heading toward Mount Tai.

The UAV buzzed overhead, its flight path quickly charted.

To avoid unnecessary clashes, the route skirted every place monsters might lurk, while Chen Jian and Lei Jie activated their mech’s electro‑chromic camouflage.

Infiltration never truly begins at the moment of “stealth.”

From the instant the reconnaissance is launched, the theme of infiltration permeates every step.

“How high is Mount Tai again?”

As they cut through dense jungle, Lei Jie asked.

“Over fifteen hundred meters. What, you’ve never climbed?”

Chen Jian replied offhandedly.

“Never climbed. I’d planned to once, but the place is always swarming with people.”

“You know I dislike crowds.”

“Now it’s quiet; you can finally make a proper ascent.”

Chen Jian teased.

“That’s not what I meant—detected a suspicious signal at 800, we’ll bypass.”

“Copy, bypass.”

Chen Jian’s terse reply sent the trio veering north‑northwest around the obstacle.

Meanwhile, two micro‑UAVs locked onto a hunting monster not far off, feeding live position updates.

“Cleared the danger zone, reached the trailhead.”

“This is the trailhead??”

Chen Jian stared, dumbfounded, at the terrain choked in foliage, unable to reconcile it with the Mount Tai of his memory.

No cable cars, no stairways—gone. Even the broad plaza and parking lot had vanished.

The only hint was that the vegetation before them was shorter and sparser.

“What, you still expect a road that will let you climb?”

Lei Jie asked with a grin.

“I truly thought so.”

Chen Jian nodded solemnly, then said:

“This is Mount Tai, one of the highest peaks within a few hundred kilometres.”

“By nature, humans revere mountains; even in the apocalypse, someone would try to scale one.”

“But it seems this mountain has been utterly forgotten now.”

That, indeed, is quite normal.

Beside them, Xie Liu spoke:

"Climbing holds little meaning for us; it only brings uncontrollable peril."

"Usually, no one wishes to abandon the relative safety of human activity to explore, unless they are hunters on a kill‑mission or Sanctified Blood."

"But, to put it plainly, Commander, is this mountain truly special?"

"Oh, it is most certainly special."

Chen Jian let out a soft sigh and replied:

"The foremost of the Five Sacred Peaks, the site of ancient rites—yet speaking of that now serves no purpose."

"Let's go, ascend."

"Xie Liu, climb the tree and set up the relay station; be sure to unfurl the solar panels above the canopy."

"Understood."

Xie Liu, bearing a miniature base on his back, scrambled up a relatively straight trunk, while Chen Jian, with Lei Jie, pressed onward upward without pause.

Without a trail, the climb's difficulty more than doubled.

Even clad in a Nezha exoskeleton, Chen Jian felt his strength wane dramatically.

After a grueling four hours, the three of them finally reached the summit, and the clock struck midnight.

"Deploy the base, connect to the network."

Chen Jian's order rang out; the trio divided tasks and swiftly completed the base's deployment.

Almost simultaneously, green dots began to flicker across Chen Jian's visor.

"Base activation complete; linked to the core network."

"Signal search finished; Sky‑Dome S has received cellular network signals."

"Image data transmitted." "Route planning complete."

"Signal relay established; coverage complete."

"Commander, the equipment stands ready; shall we commence reconnaissance?"

"Commence reconnaissance! Xie Liu, Lei Jie, we withdraw."

Chen Jian whispered the order; the three retraced their steps down the mountain as a torrent of Fuxi‑analyzed intel streamed back.

First to materialize was a high‑altitude infrared map of Quancheng—also known as Huadu—its size, as the image showed, was modest.

Only two kilometers across, its peripheral industrial and residential complexes were equally diminutive.

Compared with the sprawling metropolis of Jinling, this place resembled nothing more than a humble village.

Yet, starkly at odds with its limited footprint, was an astonishingly high population density.

The dense glow of lights spoke for itself, and the heat signatures pulsing along its streets testified to the city's bustling vigor.

Instinctively, Chen Jian zoomed in, yearning to discern the rhythm of the inhabitants' movements.

He failed to notice that beside him, Xie Liu had already removed his smart visor.

And thus he beheld a scene within the city that could scarcely be described without revulsion.

Countless naked bodies swirled around a massive bonfire, humans unleashing their lusts upon each other like feral beasts.

Some seized burning logs from the fire, brandishing and flogging them with vigor, while those beneath emitted incomprehensible howls.

In this orgy, the notion of gender had long since dissolved into obscurity.

Chen Jian even wondered whether they could still tell if those beside them were even human.

They pursued ultimate pleasure by any means; when the lens zoomed to its limit, Chen Jian glimpsed implements he had never imagined could inhabit such a place.

Yet, merely this could not alone compel Xie Liu to discard his visor.

When the drugs stripped them of their final wits, they also lost any sense of danger.

Many seemed to treat this revelry as the last celebration of their lives.

Blood, suffocation, torment

When the negative sensations of injury were muted, every act tinged with “pleasure” became their ultimate indulgence.

Even if it led them to death.

Chen Jian saw corpses strewn upon the ground.

Yet the residents looked on with indifferent eyes.

No.

They, too, could see.

Some even harbored a particular fascination for the dead bodies.

"Dammit."

Chen Jian lifted the camera.

The tableau provoked a visceral revulsion in him, making him reluctant to linger another glance.

"Are these people like this every day?"

Hearing him, Xie Liu shook his head with effort and replied:

"Not every day."

"They have a fixed ‘Festival Day’; we happened to arrive on it."

"Very well."

Chen Jian exhaled slowly and continued:

"That's good news for us; if the whole city is in revelry, our infiltration should be considerably easier."

"Not necessarily."

Lei Jie shook his head and said:

"I see the palace."

"Its condition differs entirely from that within Huadu."

"Feed me the footage."

Chen Jian gave a brief command; the palace image instantly filled his visor.

It was a structure perched atop the mountain.

Its scale was modest, far from the ornate, solemn palaces of stereotype.

On the contrary, it was a blocky, gray‑white complex of square buildings.

No light spilled forth; had the thermal imager not caught the Huadu guards patrolling within, it might have been mistaken for a pre‑cataclysm concrete ruin.

Yet, unlike the revelry below in Huadu, everyone here maintained a strikingly sober demeanor.

In the camera's view, Chen Jian saw several guard squad members conducting a shift handover, and from their deft movements it was clear this squad had been performing this routine for more than a day or two.

“That’s really impressive—drug dealers who don’t even use their own product, huh?”

Lei Jie sneered and spat, while Chen Jian replied calmly:

“It’s the same everywhere.”

“Fuxi, deploy the Hummingbird drones and begin reconnaissance of the interior organization of the building.”

“Copy that, drones deployed, now under Zhanlu’s control.”

“Zhanlu in control.”

The cold chime of the Zhanlu system sounded, and then the image in Chen Jian’s visor split into three, the feeds from the two Hummingbird drones appearing side by side before his eyes.

As the altitude dropped, the view gradually tightened.

Five minutes later, Zhanlu completed a full 3D model of every structure inside the palace, yet four of those edifices were completely sealed; even a micro‑drone like a Hummingbird could find no entrance.

At that moment, Xu He’s usefulness became evident.

Where the Hummingbirds could not go, he could.

With Xie Liu’s assistance, he marked on the screen the true “Palace”—the place where the so‑called Flower City queen conducted her daily business.

The spot he indicated coincided exactly with the two buildings the Hummingbirds could not penetrate.

The target was confirmed, and when Chen Jian’s team turned back, the clock had just struck three.

“What do you say?”

Lei Jie asked.

“Do we set out right now, or wait until tomorrow?”

Chen Jian hesitated slightly.

Tonight was the Flower City’s carnival day; if they left at once, the squad would face far less external resistance during infiltration.

But the problem was that it was already late.

At three o’clock, they would not reach Flower City until at least half past four.

Entering the palace would be around five o’clock.

That timing was terribly awkward.

Their window for action was too narrow; even if they slipped past the guards, the palace’s anomalies would inevitably be discovered at dawn.

A dilemma.

Chen Jian was still weighing his options when Ji Xing suddenly spoke up:

“From the intel, the palace guard force shouldn’t exceed a hundred men.”

“We have only six operatives available for the mission.”

“That means, on average, each of us would need to eliminate at most .16 targets.”

“If we move fast enough, we have a real chance to wipe out all those guards without alerting the other armed factions in Flower City.”

“Then we’ll have plenty of time on our hands.”

“Makes sense.”

Chen Jian nodded slowly.

“Lei Jie, did you bring your QCQ201?”

“I did. I told you this was a decapitation strike—how could I forget? I’ve also got your 06.”

“Then we’re all set.”

Chen Jian let out a long breath, then ordered:

“Zhanlu, plot an ingress route and monitor enemy movements.”

“Xie Liu, Li Shi, Ji Xing, take Xu He with you, we. full‑speed charge!”

(End of chapter)