Emperor Weapon (234)

"Three miles, and he walked that distance in a day?" Team Leader Fang frowned.

"He needs to find the entrance," the Vein Guardian said. "The cave system has seven or eight entrances, all interconnected. Someone unfamiliar with it has to try them one by one. He might still be wandering around inside."

Snow Empress handed the prisoners over to the two team members led by Team Leader Fang for safekeeping. She, the Vein Guardian, Team Leader Fang, A Yao continued their pursuit into the ravine. After walking for about half an hour, the bottom of the ravine indeed ended. In front of them was a two-zhang-high stone cliff. There were seven or eight cave entrances, some large and some small, and some of them had rotten wooden frames built over them.

"A group of caves." The Vein Guardian pointed to one of the largest cave entrances. "The grass outside that cave has been trampled flat; Old Dao must have gone into this one."

The four of them crept into the large cave entrance. It was very dark inside. Snow Empress turned on her flashlight, and the beam of light shone out, revealing traces of human carving on the cave walls, signs of where mountain people had lived before. After walking a few dozen steps deeper, the cave split into two paths, one to the left and one to the right. There were fresh footprints on the gravel at the fork in the path, trampled haphazardly, on both sides.

"He hesitated here." Snow Empress squatted down to examine the footprints. "The left footprints are lighter, the right ones are darker. He walked on the right first, then came back, and then walked on the left."

"Then let's go to the left too," A Yao said.

The four people walked to the left. After walking about a hundred steps, the cave forked again, this time into three paths. The footprints were still messy, but at the entrance of the middle path, there was a drop of wax, dripped by someone carrying a candle.

"In the middle." The Vein Guardian took the lead.

After walking a few dozen more steps, a faint light appeared ahead. Snow Empress turned off her flashlight, and the four of them continued forward in the dark. The light grew brighter and brighter until they could finally see clearly that ahead was a large, naturally formed cave, with sunlight filtering through cracks in the ceiling. In the center of the cave was a cement platform with a control panel embedded in it, smaller than those at the previous three nodes, but identical in style. The control panel's screen was lit, illuminating two figures beside the platform. A tall man was squatting in front of the control panel, fiddling with something, while a short, stocky man held a flashlight to illuminate his path.

Old Dao.

Snow Empress made a gesture: Team Leader Fang Vein Guardian to the right, A Yao to block the cave entrance, and she herself to go forward. The four of them split up.

Old Dao was prying open the panel on the side of the control console. He wedged the crowbar in and pulled hard, the panel creaking loudly. Suddenly, the short, stocky man heard something, turned his head and glanced towards the cave entrance. "Brother Dao, it looks like someone's over there."

Snow Empress emerged from the cave entrance, twirling her knife in her hand. "Old Dao, stop prying. If you keep prying, it'll really break."

Old Dao whirled around, still clutching the crowbar. He was in his forties, with a dark complexion, short hair, and a scar above his left eyebrow. He looked fierce, but there was a hint of barely concealed panic in his eyes. "The Spirit Vein Bureau? How did you find this place?"

"The people you hired sold you out." Snow Empress took a step forward. "You want to control all four nodes? You've got quite the appetite."

Old Dao held the crowbar horizontally in front of him. "How many of you are there? I advise you to mind your own business. This Blind Zone node is from the old system. The Spirit Vein Bureau has occupied it for so many years without making any progress. I'm putting it into use for the common people to farm and herd sheep. What's wrong with that?"

"If you really wanted to make it available to the public, why didn't you register it with the Spirit Vein Bureau? Why did you hire someone to do it secretly? Why did you install a self-destruct program on Node 01?"

Old Dao was momentarily speechless, then grinned. "Fine, you can't reason with me, huh?" He suddenly threw the crowbar to the ground, reached for his waistband, but Snow Empress's knife was already against his wrist. "Don't move."

Team Leader Fang blocked them from the left, while the Vein Guardian approached from the right, the three knives surrounding Old Dao and the short, stocky man. The short, stocky man was so frightened that he threw his flashlight to the ground, covered his head with his hands, and squatted down. Old Dao's wrist was held by a knife, and he slowly pulled his hand out from behind his waist, clutching three Spirit Vein Key in his hand.

"Key number 04." Old Dao tossed the key onto the control panel. "You're too late. I already tried it; it won't go in. The interface for this node is broken."

A Yao walked over, picked up the key, looked at it, and then squatted down to examine the interface at the bottom of the control panel: "He wasn't lying. The main interface was pried open, the backup interface, huh?"

She lifted the bottom compartment, which was empty, with fresh scratches along its edges. "The spare interface for this node has been removed."

Old Dao was stunned for a moment. "Take it down? It was like this when I came. I thought the Spirit Vein Bureau deliberately broke the interface to prevent people from using it."

"Old Dao." Snow Empress's knife was still resting on his wrist. "Your crowbar has never left your hand. These scratches are new; there are corresponding scratches on the crowbar head. What were you planning to do after disassembling the interface?"

Old Dao's expression changed, and finally he snorted, "Fine, I took it apart. I was thinking of taking the interface apart, making one myself, and copying the key. But when I took it apart, I found a self-destruct chip inside. It burned as soon as I touched it, giving me a blister." He held out the back of his hand, and sure enough, there was a fresh blister on it.

"A self-destructing chip?" A Yao leaned closer to look. "The system node's backup interface has tamper protection; forcibly removing it will burn the chip. You burned the chip, so the node's backup interface is completely useless."

Old Dao cursed.

Snow Empress sheathed her knife, but remained blocking the cave entrance. "Alright. Old Dao, we can talk about your matter back home. The problem now is that the backup interface for Node 04 is disabled, so this node cannot be used."

A Yao stood up and dusted off her hands. "It's only temporarily not working. The chip is burned, but the main interface is just pried askew; the slot inside isn't broken. I can straighten the slot by hand, and it should fit. But I have to go back to town to get the tools; I don't have any thin tweezers in my pouch."

The Vein Guardian, who had remained silent until now, suddenly asked, "Did any of you hear that?"

Everyone fell silent. From the depths of the cave, away from the crack in the sky, came a muffled rumbling sound, growing ever closer.

"What's that sound?" Team Leader Fang gripped his knife tighter.

The Vein Guardian's expression changed. "Above the cave complex is a mountain. This sound... it sounds like something is moving inside the mountain. It's possible that Old Dao loosened something when he pried open the control panel."

Old Dao panicked too. "I only pried it twice!"

The rumbling grew even louder. Suddenly, A Yao pointed to the control panel screen. "Look!"

A line of red text popped up on the screen. "Node structural integrity damaged. Rock displacement detected. Node self-destruct program will start in 300 seconds."

"300 seconds." Snow Empress yanked the Old Dao away from the control panel. "Run to the cave entrance! Now!"

The five men took off running towards the cave entrance. Old Dao and the short, stocky man ran in the middle, with Team Leader Fang bringing up the rear. Rocks began to fall from the cave ceiling, crashing to the ground with a crackling sound. When they reached the first fork in the road, the passage leading to the cave entrance was half blocked by rocks, leaving only a low crack.