Twenty minutes later.
Noel, commander of the engineering regiment, arrived at the temporary command post and handed Wu Heng the survey report.
Wu Heng picked up the report and looked it over. It said that demolishing and clearing all the buildings would take an estimated twenty hours.
He frowned. This story world would last only seven days, and nearly one day had already passed. Just leveling the surface buildings would take far too long.
"If we demolish only one side, cutting a direct path to the stone well in the back courtyard, and move all the debris to a spot about a hundred meters away, how long would it take? Give me a plan."
"Yes, sir."
Noel hurried off and returned five minutes later with a revised report.
"Seven hours. Good. Follow this plan, and demolish in shifts so everyone can rest."
Wu Heng could accept that timeframe. By dawn, they should have cleared the obstruction completely.
Once the plan was finalized, the roar of engines echoed through Tumbbad Village.
The fortress-like gate wall in front of the "Hastur" temple was demolished with a precision directional blast. The shock wave didn't damage anything nearby.
Stone crushers smashed the rocks, while loaders and dump trucks carried the debris to a hollow about a hundred meters to the east.
Larger rocks were blasted apart with explosives, and wisps of gunpowder smoke drifted through the air.
Wu Heng watched the workers in action, pleased with what he saw. After giving an order, he returned to the mobile command vehicle to get some rest.
He could have stayed awake, but there was no need.
Exactly seven hours passed.
The constant rain left Tumbbad's mornings shrouded in gray. The village had never seen the sunrise.
This land, never blessed by sunlight, was steeped in sorrow.
The rain fell harder, as though the Goddess of Prosperity were mourning the collapse of the "Hastur" temple.
"Report: all obstructing buildings have been cleared according to plan."
The sky had begun to brighten to a hazy gray. Noel switched off the miner's lamp on his helmet, entered the command room, and reported their progress.
Wu Heng sat in his chair. His eyes snapped open, clear and alert, without the slightest trace of sleepiness.
He got out of the vehicle and looked toward the temple. It resembled a cake with a piece cut out of it.
A passage wide enough for twenty trucks to enter at once now led straight to the stone well in the back courtyard.
"Noel, assemble everyone. I have something to say."
"Yes, sir."
Noel hurried toward the temple, blowing his whistle and shouting, "Fall in!"
The battalion and company commanders echoed his call, shouting it from one to the next.
Whistles and calls to assemble rang throughout the temple grounds.
The soldiers quickly rolled down their sleeves, which they had pushed up while working, and set down their bowls. Those who had been resting scrambled to their feet and ran toward the assembly point.
Four minutes later, all the soldiers stood in neat formation.
Noel jogged out of the ranks, saluted, and reported:
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief: the engineering regiment has a strength of 1,078, and all 1,078 are present. Awaiting your orders!"
"Fall in."
"Yes, sir."
Wu Heng had a truck parked nearby. He climbed onto its roof, picked up a megaphone, and pressed the button.
"Soldiers, you did a fine job last night!"
"You didn't come here in the middle of the night to demolish this damn temple and build some garden villa."
"You came here for honor, and to protect the people of our territory."
"We've received word that beneath this temple lies a secret biological research facility left behind by the Chariot Nation."
"It may have been used for horrific human experiments. So don't think your task is insignificant. Every one of you is an essential link in a long chain."
"In a moment, you'll follow your officers' orders to the letter."
"A true soldier carries out his duty wholeheartedly. Only when every link does its job and fulfills its responsibility can the whole chain become unbreakable."
After speaking, Wu Heng jumped down from the truck. Under the soldiers' resolute gazes, he began assigning tasks to Noel, the engineering regiment commander, the three battalion commanders, and the nine company commanders.
"Do you see that well? There's an underground space six meters below it. First, dig a sloping pit. Don't damage the small well inside the underground chamber."
Wu Heng directed the work on-site. After two hours, the underground space beneath the square well had been excavated into a pit sloping at thirty-five degrees.
The Well of God had finally been uncovered, revealed at the center of the pit.
Wu Heng summoned the engineering regiment's thirteen company-level officers and above once more.
"Beneath this metal cover is a ball of flesh about twenty meters in diameter. It's the product of the Chariot Nation's biological experiments."
"You're to carefully dig it out along the edges. Be careful not to damage it."
The thirteen officers nodded, indicating that they understood.
"One more thing. Have you ever made a Chinese pancake?"
Wu Heng gestured with both hands to outline a large circle.
"I have."
"No, but I know what it is."
"I've eaten one."
They answered in unison.
"It doesn't matter if you've never made one, as long as you've seen one."
"As you dig out this experimental organism, you must coat every newly exposed part with flour paste, then cover it with several layers of cloth and plastic. Wrap it up like a pancake."
"Put the most quick-witted soldiers in charge of this. There's no room for carelessness."
"Yes, sir!" they answered together.
Once the order was given, the soldiers had to dig by hand, bit by bit, since they couldn't use explosives. Only after confirming that they hadn't touched the ball of flesh did they let the excavator scrape away the surrounding soil.
They peeled away the earth layer by layer, like peeling a coconut, working from the outside in to find the edges of the Goddess Womb.
About half an hour later:
"Stop! We've uncovered something!"
"What is that?"
"Is it some kind of medicinal fungus? It looks huge."
"This must be the experimental subject the Commander ordered us to dig up."
A chunk of hard, black soil fell away, revealing a section of dark red, fleshy wall about one square meter in size.
The soldiers stopped to stare at the strange thing.
"Quick! Where's Seventh Company? What are you standing around for? Get over there, cover it with flour paste, and keep digging!"
Regiment commander Noel was the first to snap out of it. He shouted the order.
A squad rushed over and smeared the dark red flesh with a mixture of flour and glue, then covered it layer by layer with cloth, flour paste, and plastic, reinforcing it as they went.
When the soldiers saw that nothing unexpected had happened, they threw themselves back into the work.
The whole process took six hours, and they had only uncovered half of it. Wu Heng watched from nearby the entire time.
The outer layer of the Hastur Nest was wrinkled, crisscrossed with blood vessels and membranes. It wasn't smooth at all.
It looked a little like a freshly unearthed peanut, with dozens of blackened tendrils twitching faintly across its surface.
The tendrils were hollow like tubes, more like severed blood vessels. They anchored the entire nest firmly in the soil.
The exposed half measured precisely 618.4 square meters. It had been covered with flour paste, then tightly wrapped in layer after layer of cloth and plastic.
As more and more of it was uncovered, the surrounding soil could no longer hold it in place. It slowly sagged, like a dried-out sea cucumber.
Whenever the flour coating cracked slightly along a sunken edge, soldiers standing by immediately filled the gap.
Wu Heng estimated that it would take another seven or eight hours to finish the whole process.
But at this critical moment, he didn't dare turn away again. He stood on the roof of the vehicle, supervising every detail.
He stood there like a towering statue, staring down at the work site and watching every change. He stayed there until the afternoon.
Under his watch, the engineers carried out their duties faithfully. Even as the nest continued to twitch faintly, the troops remained calm, and no major panic broke out.
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