"Have you been inside?" Snow Empress asked.
"I went in for a quick look. The base of the tower was too thick; I couldn't open it without the tools. So I came back."
The three men walked along the narrow path. Soon, the back wall of the radar station appeared behind the grass, a section of rusty barbed wire, and behind the wire was a concrete wall covered with withered vines. The drainage ditch was at the base of the wall, its opening half-closed, and it was dark inside.
Snow Empress squatted at the canal entrance and listened for a while. "There's no sound inside. They've probably already entered the tower." She turned to A Yao and the Vein Guardian and said, "I'll go first, A Yao, follow me, Vein Guardian, bring up the rear. Don't take the safety off the signal gun, to avoid accidental discharge."
Snow Empress squeezed sideways into the canal opening. The drainage canal wasn't wide, just enough for one person to walk through while bending over. There was a layer of dry mud at the bottom of the canal, which made a crunching sound when stepped on. After walking a dozen or so steps, the canal wall widened, leading into a square vertical shaft with an iron ladder on the shaft wall leading upwards. The iron ladder was badly rusted, but it was still usable.
Snow Empress climbed up first. At the end of the iron ladder was an iron cover with a gap at the edge. She pushed it with her hand, and the cover slid to the side half a foot, revealing a gap. She looked out through the gap and saw a corridor outside, with an emergency light hanging from the ceiling, emitting a dim yellow light. There was no one in the corridor.
She pushed open the cover and climbed up. A Yao and the Vein Guardian followed. The three of them stood in the corridor, their feet on the dusty cement floor. The corridor extended south, ending at a half-open iron door. To the north was a wall with a faded sign that read, "Radar Control Room - Do Not Enter."
"The main control node entrance should be directly below the tower base." A Yao took out the blueprints and checked them. "Go south along this corridor, pass through two doors, and you'll reach the vertical shaft below the tower base."
The three people walked south. The first door was open, with a broken iron chain hanging on the door frame. The second door was half-closed, and there was a fresh footprint on the door panel, the mud still wet.
Snow Empress gestured for A Yao and the Vein Guardian against the wall. She squeezed through the crack in the door, glanced at the space behind it, and then beckoned. A Yao and the Vein Guardian followed her in. Behind the door was a circular hall, about five or six meters in diameter, with a large hole in the ceiling through which the internal framework of the radar tower could be seen. In the center of the hall was a circular cover, with several pieces of broken iron scattered around it, as if they had been pried off.
The cover was pried open halfway, revealing darkness underneath. Snow Empress walked over and took a look. There were also iron ladders on the vertical shaft wall beneath the cover, and a faint blue light emanated from the bottom of the shaft.
"They've already gone down," Snow Empress said softly.
A Yao walked to the edge of the well and probed it with her bamboo cane. The iron hoops at the bottom of the cane struck the iron ladder, making a crisp sound that carried far into the well. She withdrew her hand, but there was no reaction from the bottom of the well.
"It might have already entered the node," A Yao said. "The node has soundproofing."
The Vein Guardian squatted down beside the cover and looked around. "They used a short crowbar to pry it open, the same one I found in the Blind Zone last year. The group with the red ribbons are pretty well-equipped."
Snow Empress tied the rope to the iron ring at the well's opening and went down first. The iron ladder was very steep, creaking loudly as she stepped on it. After descending about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), the well wall suddenly turned into a smooth metal surface, and the iron ladder disappeared. Blue light emanated from the bottom of the well, illuminating a square passageway. The door to the passageway was open, and there were systematic patterns on the door frame.
Xue Emperor's Fall the bottom of the well, looked up, and called out, "Come down. You've reached the bottom."
A Yao and the Vein Guardian came down one after the other. The three of them stood in front of the passageway. The passageway extended for about ten steps, ending at a circular room, from which the blue light emanated. There were muffled voices inside the room, the content of which was unclear.
Snow Empress drew her sword and walked in front. A Yao held her bamboo staff in front of her, Vein Guardian followed behind, clutching a wood-chopping knife. The three of them walked to the end of the passage and peered into the doorway.
Inside the circular room, three people dressed in dark clothing were busy around a control panel. One of them was using a short crowbar to pry open the side panel. The other two were rummaging through canvas bags on the floor, revealing a pile of metal pieces and cables. Several metal boxes were piled in the corner of the room, their lids marked with system logos. The control panel screen displayed the message: "Master Node 01 is not activated. Three Spirit Vein Key required."
"They don't have the key either," A Yao said softly.
Snow Empress nodded. "To fight or not?"
A Yao thought for a moment. "They have crowbars, we have knives. But if we fight, it'll be too loud and might attract more people. Let's try to scare them first."
She extended her bamboo cane from beside the doorframe. Although the bluish light emanating from the cane had dimmed considerably, it was still quite noticeable in the blue-lit room. She slammed the cane down hard on the ground, the iron hoops at the base striking the metal floor with a clang.
" Old Dao's men," she raised her voice, "You're surrounded. Put down your crowbars and crouch against the wall."
The three people in the room whirled around. The one with the crowbar, seeing only three people in the doorway, paused for a moment, then grinned. "Just the three of you? That old bastard, the Vein Guardian, is here too?" He raised the crowbar. " Old Dao said, don't waste words with the Spirit Vein Bureau people. Fight."
As he rushed forward, Snow Empress had already moved. With a flash of light, the crowbar was sliced in two. The man hadn't expected the knife to be so fast; in the time it took to catch his breath, the back of Snow Empress's blade had already struck his shoulder, forcing him to his knees. The other two tried to flank him from the side, but A Yao's bamboo cane swept their knees away. One of them fell face-first into the mud, while the other crashed into the control panel, dropping his canvas bag and scattering metal pieces all over the floor.
The Vein Guardian stood blocking the entrance, his machete held horizontally, cutting off any escape route. "Don't move. I've been in this area for forty years, and I've killed more Resentment Beast than you've ever seen. Don't force me to make a move."
Three prisoners crouched in the corner, their hands bound with rope. Snow Empress picked up the crowbar and tossed it aside, then walked to the control panel. Besides the notification, the screen displayed a countdown. "Node self-destruct program activation countdown: two hours."
"They initiated self-destruction," Snow Empress said in a deep voice.
A Yao walked over and glanced at it. "Two hours. Is that enough time for us to activate it?"
"We need to find the keys first." A Yao squatted down and rummaged through the canvas bag on the ground. Inside, besides the metal pieces and cables, there was a leather-bound notebook. She opened the notebook, and inside were crookedly written words, "The keys are in the cellar of the old warehouse north of the radar station. Old Dao buried them last year. All three together."
"It was buried last year." A Yao closed her notebook. " Old Dao came last year and buried the key in the old warehouse on the north side. He didn't have time to activate the node himself, so he had someone else do it this year."
"How far is the old warehouse to the north from here?" Snow Empress asked the Vein Guardian.
The Vein Guardian thought for a moment. "About half a mile north of the back wall, there's a brick building that's half collapsed. It used to be the radar station's equipment depot."