Chapter 1 Comprehend

"Understood."

Following behind Mr. Luo, a woman with neatly cropped short hair replied crisply.

Luo Yunshan and the others were very efficient. When they left the hospital, a team was already assembled outside, ready to go. Seeing them come out, several men in camouflage uniforms took down a few backpacks from the car and handed them to Jiang Cheng and the others.

"Take them, they contain all the equipment you'll need this time," Luo Yunshan instructed.

Then, the group got into the cars. There were four cars in total, all off-road vehicles, indicating that there was still quite a distance to the so-called Mount Xixie Ming.

The matter of Wu lingered in Jiang Cheng's mind, casting a shadow over this mountain trip. The others lowered their heads and opened their backpacks. The backpacks were heavy, and the contents made Jiang Cheng frown slightly. Most of it was food, enough for one person for three days. In addition, there was a portable gas mask and other miscellaneous items.

In short, it felt as if they were going to be in the mountains for a long time.

Compared to the others' backpacks, their load was obviously much lighter. Jiang Cheng even saw a burly man with jungle camouflage painted on his face carrying something that looked like a tent. "Mr. Luo, with such complete equipment, are we… staying in the mountains tonight?"

After all, in the story Luo Yunshan had previously told, spending the night in the mountains was a very dangerous thing. And it was true, as he said, the previous exploration team and Lin Wan'er's team had both disappeared. Jiang Cheng was not yet prepared to deal with the dangers in the mountains.

"No, it's just that the climate in the mountains has been strange recently, so we have to be prepared. If we get soaked by a heavy rain in the mountains, the body will lose a lot of heat, which can be very dangerous. There's also miasma, so we have to prepare gas masks."

Luo Yunshan's answer was very natural, indicating that he already had a preliminary understanding of the situation in the mountains, but judging from his uneasy expression, the complexity of the situation in the mountains was far more than that.

The journey was farther than they had imagined. Mount Xixie Ming was much more remote than Mount Dong. At the foot of the mountain, there was only one inconspicuous road, winding and twisting into the mountains. Mount Xi was steep and rugged, with dense forests. Perhaps it was a preconceived notion, but the entire mountain stood before them, giving people an indescribable sense of oppression.

Perhaps it had rained not long ago, and the mountain road was a bit muddy. After Jiang Cheng and the others organized their equipment, a group of more than ten people embarked on this mountain road, truly entering the mountain.

The traps inside were waiting for them, Jiang Cheng and the others knew this very well, but he had to go now. After all, in addition to Lin Wan'er, there was also Wu. Wu was also in the mountains, and he had to bring them all out.

After walking for a while, Jiang Cheng stopped and stared at the road under his feet. There were messy footprints on the ground, which was muddy and mixed with fallen leaves. The footprints were very fresh.

Seeing this, Luo Yunshan stopped to explain, "Don't worry, I arranged it. Another team entered the mountain at dawn. They are responsible for scouting the way. If all goes well, they will wait for us in that abandoned village."

After speaking, Luo Yunshan turned to look at a man wearing headphones. The man nodded slightly to them, with a businesslike expression, "We have already made contact with the first team that entered the mountain in advance. They are heading towards the target location and have not found anything abnormal yet."

After receiving the reply, the group quickened their pace. From time to time, they could see signposts and other markers along the way, which seemed to have been left by the teams that had entered the mountain before.

The deeper they went into the mountains, the stronger the ominous premonition in Jiang Cheng's heart became. He turned his head to glance at Fatty and found that Fatty's expression was similar to his.

Thanks to everyone's physical strength, they finally arrived at their destination, the eerie village, after two hours.

They had made contact with the first team responsible for the reception a mile away. Two men guided them to the village. Standing outside the village, everything in front of them was somewhat beyond their imagination.

The village was not large, completely different from the magnificent and domineering bandit villages in movies and TV dramas. The gate of the village was relatively hidden. After entering, there was an open space with several old houses. The houses had many bullet holes, indicating that there had been fighting.

Jiang Cheng and the others walked around and found many traces left by the previous teams. Judging from the dug-out stove, the initial exploration team obviously had plans to station there for a long time. Near the stove, there were also things covered with rainproof cloth. After uncovering them, there were boxes of neatly arranged canned goods.

Not far away, there were also military tents covered with camouflage nets. A dozen small tents were connected together, like stars surrounding the moon, surrounding the largest tent in the middle.

Walking into the large tent, the first thing he saw was a folding table with a map spread on it. There was a red circle marked on the map, and a question mark was marked next to it in red pen. After careful observation, Jiang Cheng confirmed that the location marked by the red circle was the village they were standing on.

Most importantly, Jiang Cheng was familiar with the various marks on this map. It was Lin Wan'er's handwriting, no mistake. This was that woman's habit.

Jiang Cheng could even imagine Lin Wan'er standing in front of the map, frowning.

Also serving as proof was a hammock in the tent, with a women's trench coat draped over it.

Looking around, Jiang Cheng didn't find anything unusual. Everything here was calm and unhurried. There was also a half-cup of coffee on the table that had long since cooled, as if the owner of this place had left in a very natural state.

No, that's not right. It should be more like what Mr. Luo said, the owners of this place suddenly disappeared at some point without any warning.

A collective disappearance.

"This tent is Commissioner Lin's campsite," Luo Yunshan said in a low voice, with an undisguised unease in his expression, "Nothing here has been touched. Everything has been kept as it was."

Luo Yunshan left these people to search, and he went out, seemingly having other things to do.

Picking up the trench coat that belonged to Lin Wan'er, Jiang Cheng caught sight of a folded piece of paper on the hammock. Opening the paper, the contents inside attracted Jiang Cheng's attention.

This seemed to be a simple floor plan of the village, hand-drawn, also by Lin Wan'er. She also made various marks on it.

Jiang Cheng quickly found a strange place on it. It was in the rear of the village. Judging from the composition, there was a square block representing a room there. Jiang Cheng recalled that he did see that room after entering the village. The area inside was considered relatively large in the village. The bandits were superstitious, and that room was specially used to worship the Mountain God.

What he really couldn't understand was that behind this room, there was another room, and the area was even larger than the room outside for worship. The strangest thing was… this room behind was drawn with dashed lines.

But Jiang Cheng clearly remembered that the room outside was built against the mountain, and behind it was a rather steep hillside. There were no other rooms at all.

But in the drawing left by Lin Wan'er, this room not only existed, but it seemed that there were also some things inside, some rectangles that Jiang Cheng couldn't understand, neatly arranged inside. The center of this non-existent room was even marked with a number code 1 by Lin Wan'er.

Room 1.

The only number, which was unique on the entire drawing.

Lin Wan'er would not do meaningless things. There must be something there, and even the disappearance of Lin Wan'er and the others was very likely related to the so-called Room 1.

Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng immediately told everyone about his discovery and quickly walked towards the room for worshiping the Mountain God. After pushing the door open, there was a screen near the wall, blocking the wall. There were also two people guarding in front of the screen.

Looking unfamiliar, they should be the team that entered the mountain in advance.

Seeing Jiang Cheng and the others coming, the two people's expressions changed slightly. One of them stepped forward to stop them, "Without orders from above, you cannot approach here, you must..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly started waving his hands and feet. His serious and terrified face was in stark contrast to his comical dance. The other person's aura changed suddenly. Obviously, these two were not ordinary people either. They were both disciples.

But how could they be a match for 2? The other person persisted for two seconds before also starting to wave his hands and feet, "Stop, stop it, this is an order!"

The current situation was already very clear. These people were guarding here, preventing people from approaching the secrets behind. Behind this screen, the secret of Lin Wan'er and the others' disappearance was hidden!

But before Jiang Cheng could push down the screen, a figure walked out from behind the screen. It was actually Luo Yunshan who had left not long ago. At this time, Luo Yunshan was staring at everyone, not exactly embarrassed, but with a somewhat conflicted expression on his face.

"Mr. Luo, you need to give us an explanation," 2 said aggressively. The other party obviously knew a lot of inside information, but had no intention of sharing it with them.

"Things are not what you think. This is an extremely secret operation. I only found out about it recently and originally planned to tell you later. Since you've discovered it, come in and take a look."

It could be seen that these were all polite words. Luo Yunshan should have understood that he couldn't stop them, so he simply did them a favor.

After removing the screen, a black hole was exposed on the wall behind. Saying it was a hole, it was only 1.5 meters high, requiring a person to bend over to pass through. More importantly, cold air was constantly seeping out of the hole, as if it were a large ice cave inside.

Following Luo Yunshan, everyone entered one by one. It was pitch-black inside, and the cold was even worse, making people shiver. He didn't know where Luo Yunshan flipped a switch, but the inside suddenly lit up. The next moment, the scene that appeared in front of them stunned everyone.

This was a huge space, hundreds of square meters in size, with an unknown height, because the range of the lights was limited, and only a piece of darkness could be seen above.

Judging from the scale, this should be a cave that the bandits accidentally discovered. After a simple renovation, the entire village was built outside the cave, and this place became the bandits' secret base. As long as the outside was arranged properly, it would be difficult to be discovered.

Some huge ice blocks were piled up in the cave, as well as some unknown black machines. In the center, there was also a chair placed, which was very abrupt.

These were obviously unrelated to the bandits, nor could they be brought in by Lin Wan'er's group, who had rushed into the mountain in a hurry. The transportation of these things must have been extremely time-consuming and laborious. It was an arduous project, done by the so-called geological exploration team.

And this so-called geological exploration team, which could alarm Lin Wan'er to personally lead a rescue team, was just a guise. Jiang Cheng was sure that these were all people from the state, carrying out a top-secret mission.

After entering here, Luo Yunshan didn't say a word. Jiang Cheng understood that he also had his difficulties. According to the confidentiality rules, the confidentiality level here was very high, and Luo Yunshan also had no right to disclose it.

As the observation deepened, Jiang Cheng compared it with the drawing left by Lin Wan'er and quickly discovered the abnormality. There were grooves left between these huge ice blocks, about every 3 meters apart, very evenly spaced, as if they were used to place large items.

The position of the grooves coincided with the position of the rectangles on the drawing. Jiang Cheng roughly counted them. There were dozens of grooves.

In fact, at this time, a guess had emerged in Jiang Cheng's mind. He bent down and carefully observed between the grooves. Soon, it was as if he had discovered something, and he almost stuck his entire face into the groove.

That's right, it was just as he thought. In an instant, many doubts had answers at this moment. No wonder… no wonder this matter would alarm Lin Wan'er, no wonder there were no traces of fighting on the bus...

Jiang Cheng found hair at the end of a groove, neatly short hair, almost frozen in the ice. These grooves previously held corpses!

To be precise, those high-level disciples who were frozen and about to be completely eroded!

According to the original plan, these people would be transported to the bus in a strange way under the guidance of the Great River Goddess, to impact the old president's domain.

This place was the location selected by the higher-ups to implement the plan!

But obviously, something went wrong with the plan. An inexplicable force attacked here, and the so-called geological exploration team disappeared completely, and Lin Wan'er, who had rushed to the scene after hearing the news, was also tricked.

Looking at the empty grooves one by one, a cold chill rose in Jiang Cheng's heart. These were all high-level disciples, and they were only one step away from being eroded. If… if these people rioted at the same time, then the trouble would be great. The power to impact the old president's domain was not a joke.

If dozens of high-level paranormal events occurred at the same time, then the surrounding dozens of cities, as well as a large population, would all be involved, and the losses caused would be immeasurable.

And the most terrifying thing was that they did not have the power to solve these paranormal events at all. This was like a fuse, which would soon spread the crisis, coupled with the Night Watchman who was eyeing them, Jiang Cheng dared not think any further.

Perhaps seeing that he couldn't hide it anymore, Luo Yunshan also told what he knew. It was similar to Jiang Cheng's speculation. Luo Yunshan himself did not know the specific situation of this operation at the beginning. These were top secrets, and only a few people knew, and the specific time and place of the mission were even more top-secret.

"Damn it!" 13 stared at the chair in the middle, gritting his teeth, "I know why this room was marked as Room 1, because… because 1's ability is the most important part of it, that chair is left for him to sit on!"

"1 has not betrayed us, the Crimson has no traitors!"