Emperor Weapon (235)

"Crawl in!" Snow Empress pushed A Yao into the crevice. "Quick!"

A Yao squeezed through the gap, followed by Old Dao. The short, stocky man crawled slowly and was kicked from behind by the Vein Guardian before he could get through. Team Leader Fang and Snow Empress were the last to crawl through. More and more gravel fell, and the crack in the top of the passage turned from one to three or four, with soil and gravel pouring down.

After squeezing through the crevice, there was a straight passage, and the light from the cave entrance could be seen ahead. The five people scrambled out, but they had only run a few steps out of the cave when a muffled thud sounded behind them. Half of the cave entrance had collapsed, and rubble blocked the exit, leaving only a tiny opening the size of a dog hole.

Everyone collapsed on the riverbank, panting. Old Dao lay on the ground, spitting out two mouthfuls of muddy saliva, while the short, stocky man lay beside him groaning. Snow Empress propped herself up on her knees, glanced back at the collapsed entrance, and said, "Node 04... is it buried inside?"

A Yao sat on the ground, still clutching the three keys numbered 04 tightly in her arms. "The node is in the cave. The entrance has collapsed, but the cave itself might not have completely collapsed. If the crack in the skylight is still there, it won't be completely suffocating inside. But we can't go in; we have to go around through another entrance."

The Vein Guardian stood up and looked up at the cliff. "The cave complex has seven or eight interconnected entrances. If this one collapses, there are others. But I remember the other entrances are very narrow, requiring you to crawl in, and there are many branching paths inside, making it easy for someone unfamiliar with the area to get lost."

"Then let's not go in yet." Snow Empress dusted herself off. "Node 04 is temporarily unusable, but we've already captured Old Dao. He doesn't have any other node information, right?"

All eyes turned to Old Dao. Old Dao lay on the riverbank, raised a hand and waved it. "That's it. Only four. 01, 02, and 03 are the keys buried last year, and 04 is the information I just found this year. That's all."

Where did you get this information?

"Found it in a junkyard. There was a system hard drive containing a map of Blind Zone Node, but only those from 01 to 04. The information after 04 was encrypted on the hard drive, and I couldn't decrypt it."

Snow Empress and A Yao exchanged a glance. A Yao asked, "Where's the hard drive?"

"It's hidden under the bed in the house I rent in town."

"Alright." Snow Empress picked Old Dao up from the ground. "Go back and hand over the hard drive. If the technicians at the Spirit Vein Bureau can decrypt it, we'll have all the remaining node information."

Old Dao hung his head and remained silent. The Vein Guardian beside him gave him a push. "Come on, don't dawdle. The guys you hired are still waiting up ahead."

The group walked back along the old forest path. The rumbling sound of the landslide gradually faded into the distance, and the mountains returned to silence, with only the sound of pine trees and birdsong. Old Dao walked in front, flanked by Team Leader Fang and the short, stocky man on either side. Snow Empress and A Yao walked behind.

A Yao walked, she checked the three No. 04 keys. "The keys aren't damaged. They'll still work once the Node 04 interface is repaired."

How long will it take to repair the interface?

"It's hard to say. The burned-out chip needs to be replaced, and there definitely aren't any in town. The bureau will have to get one from their warehouse. It could take three to five days at the fastest, or a week at the slowest."

Snow Empress calculated the time. "One week. After Old Dao hands over the hard drive, the technician will need a few more days to decrypt it. In total, it will take half a month. If we can figure out the remaining nodes, this trip won't be a waste."

The Vein Guardian walked at the front, then suddenly turned around and called out, "Hey, look!"

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed. In the pine forest on both sides of the old forest road, under the withered grass on the ground, patches of green shoots were sprouting. They were tender and fresh, exactly the same as those at the bottom of the radar station cliff.

"The area affected by the restoration of the spiritual veins is expanding." A Yao crouched down and touched the green shoots. "The spiritual veins covered by nodes 01 to 03 are spreading to the surrounding areas. Once node 04 is online, this mountain to the south will also come back to life."

Old Dao turned his head and glanced at the green shoots, his expression somewhat complicated. The Vein Guardian walked over to him and nudged him with his shoulder. "Old Dao, you said you wanted to activate the nodes for the people to farm and herd sheep. Look, you didn't need to do it secretly; the Spirit Vein Bureau could have done it. If you had registered earlier, you might still be able to get a subsidy now."

Old Dao snorted, but didn't refute.

It was already the next morning when they returned to town. Old Dao and the short, stocky man were handed over to the town police station, where the joint defense team sent people to watch over them. Old Dao cooperated, allowing the police to search under the bed in his rented house and find the hard drive, a dark, unremarkable lump of metal with a system-specific interface.

Old Zhou examined the hard drive for a long time, turning it over and over. "This needs to be sent to the bureau's technical department for decryption. I'll have someone send it away this afternoon."

"The interface for Node 04 also needs fixing," A Yao explained about the burned chip issue. "We need to get a spare interface module from the warehouse."

Old Zhou jotted something down in his notebook. "Report it all together. By the way, the inspection team said that nodes 01 to 03 are operating normally, and the coverage rate has increased to 58%. The well water levels in several surrounding villages have risen a little, and the villagers are wondering about it."

The Vein Guardian squatted in the corner of the courtyard, smoking the cigarette Old Zhou had given him. He finally started smoking and suddenly interjected, "The entrance to the cave at Node 04 has collapsed, but the other entrances are still accessible. Once the interface is repaired, I'll lead the way, and we'll climb in through the narrow entrance on the west side. I know the inside well."

Snow Empress glanced at him. "When did you become so familiar with things? Didn't you say yesterday that it's easy to get lost if you haven't been there before?"

"That was just to scare Old Dao," the Vein Guardian chuckled. "When I was young, I was hunting a badger and spent most of the day navigating through the caves. I've explored all the main passages there."

A Yao couldn't help but laugh, "You're the kind of person who hides things in your pockets and in your head."

"To make a living in Blind Zone, you have to be prepared for everything." The Vein Guardian stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, and patted his backside. "Alright, this trip wasn't a waste. 01 to 03 are online, we got the key to 04, and we caught Old Dao. The next step is to fix the interface, decrypt the hard drive, and activate 04. Let's take it slow."

Snow Empress drew the knife from her waist and examined the blade; it had chipped two small chips from the past two days of hiking and cave exploration. She handed the knife to Old Zhou: "Does anyone in the bureau know how to sharpen knives?"

Old Zhou took it and looked at it. "It's from Old Liu at the repair shop. He used to work at a meat processing plant when he was young."

"Then I'll go find him to sharpen the knife this afternoon. A Yao, keep key number 04 safe, don't lose it. Vein Guardian, go back and get some sleep. You've been watching the scrap yard for three days and then running around on Heavenly Mountain; your eye bags are practically drooping down to your cheeks."

The Vein Guardian yawned, waved, and walked out of the courtyard. "I'm going back now. See you tomorrow."

A Yao packed her things to leave. As she reached the courtyard gate, she suddenly turned back. "Hey, Snow Empress."

"Um?"

"Those three new shoots, the few at the bottom of the radar station cliff, I glanced at them yesterday when I passed by, they've grown an inch taller. The spiritual vein is alive, so the land is alive. Do you think we can grow crops in the Blind Zone from now on?"

Snow Empress thought for a moment and said, "Yes, but we need to keep people like Old Dao who are secretly doing this in check first. The spiritual vein belongs to everyone; we can't let him monopolize it."