After a brief stop, the six of them continued their journey deeper into the mining area.
The entire mining area was vast, with idle engineering equipment scattered throughout C Mining Area.
A slight creaking sound came from the video surveillance.
Baiyu closed one of the darkened screen areas: "A scouting robot has been destroyed and no footage has come back. There’s danger in the southeast direction."
"But the map shows that if we want to enter A Mining Area, we can only go through the southeast." Profound Celestial Pivot wrinkled his brow, gently stroking his long coat: "If we take a detour, it’ll waste more time."
The group was becoming impatient.
Initially, they thought they could directly solve the problem, but it turned out to be unexpectedly troublesome.
Furthermore, the whole mining area seemed to have undergone some bad mutation; a cloud of doom hung over everyone’s hearts.
"Why don’t we divide into groups and advance?"
Jingang slapped his forehead and said boldly: "One group will follow the original plan on the map and head directly to A Mining Area; another group will take the detour. No matter who completes the task first, we’ll split the bounty evenly."
Baiyu was naturally opposed.
Without understanding what’s going on, dividing forces would weaken their power. As a cautious man, he wouldn’t take such risks.
However, his disagreement didn’t change the opinion of the others.
These people are top students from various academies, proud and confident in their abilities.
If they weren’t confident, they wouldn’t have gotten this far.
"You all want to go straight to A Mining Area? I’m planning to take the detour anyway."
Baiyu felt quite helpless.
Song Xu chuckled: "Detours waste too much time. I rarely get a chance ; I plan to do a few bounty missions to make some money. Although we don’t seem short of cash on the surface, we’re actually close to being unable to afford meals."
The others chimed in too.
These people had known each other for a long time; even with Baiyu joining, their mutual relationship was much stronger.
But Baiyu was obviously not one to go with the flow.
If you want to take the shortcut, go ahead.
Once completed, I will get a share of the task’s reward anyway, it just means losing out on the magical item causing the event.
I’ll take a steady detour alone.
After a brief harmonious exchange, the team successfully divided into two groups, agreeing to immediately retreat and notify the other party if either group encountered danger.
Baiyu decided to take the detour, with only Jiang Xi accompanying him.
Baiyu stared surprised at the young girl before him: "Shouldn’t you be with them? Over here, if danger arises at a critical moment..."
"Those few aren’t from Linjiang City; I don’t trust them."
Jiang Xi shook her head: "Besides, your combat prowess is much higher than theirs; you can fool others but not me."
"Are you a worm in my belly?"
Baiyu rolled his eyes apathetically.
Jiang Xi glared at him with irritation, stepped forward, and headed towards B Mining Area.
Baiyu’s route was to go from C Mining Area to B Mining Area and then enter the incident site of A Mining Area.
He’s not planning to give up on this mission.
After all, his pockets are empty now, and Tang Quanming offers personal gratitude after the mission’s completion, allowing him to earn at least 200,000 yuan.
For someone whose cash has run dry, it’s a timely rain.
At the same time, Baiyu contemplated that he should secure a stable economic source; otherwise, even a building can’t withstand the consumption.
Mechanical Science, Spiritual Arts, Ancient Martial Arts.
These practices require a vast amount of money for support.
Not to mention the unbelievably expensive Extraordinary Magic Elixirs; the cost to ascend to Sequence Eight is still unknown.
"I didn’t feel it when collecting rent before, but now I’m indeed dirt poor." Baiyu sighed, closely following Jiang Xi towards B Mining Area.
Upon closer contact with this woman, he gradually discovered something different.
She seemed to have a serious inclination toward violence; wild chickens along the way were directly minced by her.
Her body temperature was somewhat abnormally low; she felt entirely unlike a living person.
Like facing a cold corpse.
There’s something odd.
A strong sense of doubt rose in Baiyu’s heart as he manipulated the exploration robot while staying wary of this woman.
Intermittently, he heard updates on Profound Celestial Pivot’s progress through the headphones.
Neither side encountered any danger.
But the stranger things were, the weirder it felt.
The sun was setting in the west.
Baiyu and Jiang Xi finally emerged from the forest zone into B Mining Area, immediately greeted by a strong stench of blood.
A sight of heaps of dead bodies unfolded.
Miners and animals lay scattered on the ground, many corpses rotting, oozing a thick slurry.
Jiang Xi wrinkled her brow.
Her unusually sensitive sense of smell made her very uncomfortable in this setting.
A sharp, screeching noise sounded.
A horde of red-eyed zombie corpses burst out from amidst piles of loose rocks and mine shafts, rushing at them with great speed.
In Jiang Xi’s pupils, the same red hue appeared. Her right hand shot out like thunder, tearing a zombie corpse in front of her to pieces.
Dark, black blood splattered.
Without a change in her face and without turning back, she said: "If you don’t want to fight, stay away..."
"Don’t worry, I trust you!"
A voice rang out from afar.
When Jiang Xi turned her head, she found Baiyu already perched on a large tree ten meters away.
Blood Qi surged under her cold skin as her right arm’s muscles suddenly bulged.
Only then did Baiyu realize.
This woman was wrapped in white bandages, at this moment the muscle burst shattered the bandages on her right hand, unleashing a punch filled with raging Blood Qi forward.
A fan-shaped force blasted out.
A dozen zombie corpses rushing towards them were instantly destroyed, sand and stones splattered, flesh collapsed.
The ground where her punch landed was riddled with holes, dense scratches crisscrossed.
Should a student have this kind of destructive power?
Baiyu’s pupils slightly contracted.
Jiang Xi was not only sharp in perception but also terrifyingly strong.
These zombie corpses hidden among the bodies were extremely hard to detect. Baiyu only realized through Pupil of Chongming’s reveal, but Jiang Xi seemed to subconsciously sense them as well.
"The zombies are created by someone to guard this place. I’ve seen this method." Jiang Xi began re-wrapping the white bandages on her hands, her expression becoming steely: "This place was deliberately set up by someone. I doubt whether Tang Quanming was involved, but with so many missing miners, he definitely falsified the data."
"He surely knows the sneaky business here, that old guy, trying to trap others?"
Baiyu attempted to contact Profound Celestial Pivot.
Several communicators lost connection at this moment.
"Profound Celestial Pivot also encountered issues on their side. This isn’t a simple B Level task; we should start retreating."
Baiyu quickly made a decision.
A B Level task shouldn’t be this difficult, at most similar to the Dead Dog Tavern incident.
Profound Celestial Pivot’s group losing contact without transmitting the slightest bit of information indicated developments had gone beyond initial expectations.
The two tried contacting the outer world.
As predicted, there was no signal.
"Phones are useless too, signals here are completely blocked; escaping will be difficult." Jiang Xi put her phone in her pocket, furrowing her brow: "Did the previous bounty hunter teams perish the same way?"
"Probably, this place is unusual, who knows what’s going on in A Mining Area, but surely Tang Quanming has something up his sleeve."
Baiyu rummaged left and right in his backpack and finally found something he hadn’t used in a long time.
The satellite phone given by Pang Fei.