Chapter 16: Deadly Exclusion Zone
As the soldiers ran, the gentle rain kept beating down on them, all over their faces and bodies. The raincoats that they were wearing seemed to be of no help.
In fact, the raincoats were somewhat of a hindrance.
Zheng Guodong and his party had been running through the mud for more than half an hour.
Each of them carried arge backpack almost equal to their height, but their footsteps stayed brisk.
None of them were out of breath or showed even the slightest fatigue.
As transcendent beings, even if they just possessed the strength-type ability, their physical strength, endurance, and power were far beyond those of ordinary people.
However, the degree of control over their own power varied from person to person, leading to a so-called difference in ''actualbat effectiveness''.
Zheng Guodong raised his head, wiped the rain off his face, and came to a stop. "Those at the back, keep up! We''ve arrived!"
Not far off, a vige entrance with visible man-made marks on it appeared could be spotted.
The Little Li Vige was actually not too far from where they had halted, so they wasted no time in running over there.
"Alright, after entering the vige, remember not to disturb the vigers and show off any of your abilities! Now, all of you put what you''re carrying on the side of the road, then enter the vige and meet the vigers first. Do you hear me?!"
"Yes!" His squad members obediently ced their heavy backpacks made of special material on the roadside grass. When they put them down, the weight caused the soil to sink under them.
Zheng Guodong waved his hand, and all the squad members quickly gathered before him. They trudged along the muddy mountain road behind him and entered the Little Li Vige together.
Not long after entering, Zheng Guodong met the vige chief Old Li and his son Li Fei.
After a simple exchange, Zheng Guodong came to know what had happened.
"Sir, you really think that those four people aren''t actually travel buddies? And your nephew hasn''t returned for more than a month after being hired by them?"
"Sigh, isn''t that what it seems like? Captain Zheng, it''s not easy to find your way through the mountain, and it''s not unusual to take a month to explore, but it''s been more than a month. That''s way too long! By the way, those four people are definitely not tourists. They brought shotguns; could it be that they came to poach...? There''s nothing much on this mountain, but there are many white-lipped deer and pandas they could be after" Old Li shook his head in dismay.
Zheng Guodong nodded and looked at Li Fei. "Have you all gone to look for them yourselves?"
"Yes, Captain Zheng. I and two others who are familiar with the mountain roads went to look for them a few days ago, but we didn''t get very far before being forced back by a swarm of insects!" Li Fei gestured as he spoke. "They''re as thick as a human''s arm, have ck fur all over, and are one meter long!"
"Stop spouting nonsense!" Old Li scolded. As he berated his son, he snuck a peek at Zheng Guodong. The abnormal situation in the mountain had been going on for some time, and now that reinforcements finally came they could not afford to scare them away.
"Really? That''s more than worthy of our attention. Also, Chief, you don''t have to worry. We didn''te here empty-handed," Zheng Guodong said, while looking at the vige path leading into the mountain. If this rain did not stop now, there was really no way they could go in right away.
Rainwater could also bring about some unexpected urrences. Moreover, if what the vige chief''s son said about the one-meter-long insects was true, the spiritual aura in this Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve was probably much denser than anything they had encountered before.
Perhaps it would be possible toe across mutated spirit beasts with spiritual energy of 1000 and above.
Possessing that level or more of spiritual energy meant having a defensive power that could withstand attacks from ordinary bullets, and also came with overwhelming destructive power!
Half a month ago, Zheng Guodong had to return from a spiritual realm. Before his team couldplete their mission there, they encountered a mutated bison with a spiritual energy density of 1500.
As only three of his subordinates at the time were transcendents and could not cover for the other twenty ordinary soldiers, the battle had led to numerous sacrifices. In the end, he only managed to escape the spiritual realm with the three transcendents and two remaining soldiers.
Although he finally killed the mutated bison who had been chasing and attacking them viciously, he paid a high price for it.
Because of that, that spiritual realm had be a deadly exclusion zone where living people could not enter!
Now that Zheng Guodong hade to the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve, he did not dare be careless. He had borrowed all avable transcendents from the whole Shu Province to form this squad and maximize the mission''s sess rate.
Rescuing the missing viger was a mission far more important than anything else.
Of course, if the misfortune reached a level beyond even their control, the Little Li Vige would probably not be able to recover from it.
"There was suddenly arge earthquake after midnight yesterday! I''ve spent my whole life here, and I''ve never encountered an earthquake"
Old Li babbled on, retelling information that Li Fei had already provided earlier through the phone.
On the surface, Zheng Guodong did not show any signs of panic that might have been expected in the face of such a situation.
It had been thousands of years since a major earthquake took ce in the Bamboo Sea area. Even if there really was one, it would not only have been noticed by the Little Li Vige.
The information provided by the Earthquake Administration told them that the earthquake was only within a few kilometers of the Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve.
This kind of earthquake was not even an earthquake at all.
If Zheng Guodong had to make assumptions, he could only pinpoint this on the idea of mutated spirit beasts.
However, what kind of mutated beast could cause such a disturbance?
"Don''t worry, Chief. If the earthquakes are not frequent, it''s nothing serious to stress about. There are also nondslides"
"We won''t worry, we won''t worry Captain Zheng, it''s gettingte. This rain will probably go on for some time. You don''t have to sleep in a tent or anything like that. If you don''t mind, we have plenty of space in our vige; let''s not make anyone suffer any more," said Old Li.
He had been analyzing the squad since they entered the vige. Among the fifteen people following Zheng Guodong, quite a few of them looked like students, and some of them seemed like young girls who had never struggled with anything before in their lives.
He was slightly worried about whether this group of people could actually find his nephew Li Ming.
Zheng Guodong did not decline the invitation, and after arranging amodations for everyone, they all settled down in the Little Li Vige.
The rain truly still did not stop, and the remaining troops did note in immediately either. There was no way they could enter the mountain, no matter how anxious they were to start on their mission.
After all, they could not carry the heavy weapons needed to deal with mutated beasts with spiritual aura densities of more than 1000 into the vige. They would be in big trouble if they scared the vigers too much.
If there were mutated beasts with spiritual aura densities of more than 1000, these vigers would probably no longer be able to stay here.
A transcendent was not something ordinary people could identify with the naked eye. Of course, the same went for spirit beasts in the mountain.
Zheng Guodong got up and walked outside. He frowned as he listened to the asional rumblinging from the valley.
What kind of mutated spirit beast kept causing such a great disturbance in the valley?
Were things really taking a turn for the worse?