The Last 299 Days of Humanity

“Qiongshan is a place that attracts trouble,” Yu Qing said thoughtfully, his voice much lower. “Make it clear, Dong. I need to know all the details.”

Donghao quickly brought up the data panel, where light and shadow intertwined in the air to form a holographic geological structure map of the Qiongshan area.

"This is it, an unnamed mountain about 15 kilometers to the side of Qiongshan's main peak. Satellites detected a violent release of crustal energy 47 minutes ago, roughly equivalent to a small volcanic eruption. The crater has formed, and magma activity is still ongoing, but... it's extremely unusual."

"Donghao, where's the anomaly?" Yu Qing's gaze was fixed on the location on the map that was flashing a dangerous red light.

“First is the ‘steepness’ of energy release.” Her finger quickly swept across the energy curve. “Look here, the energy spiked from the background value to the peak in a very short time, with almost no energy accumulation process that is usually expected before a volcanic eruption.”

She paused for a moment, then continued, "It's like...like a fuse that's suddenly lit, rather than the result of a slow upwelling of mantle material."

Chang Sheng crossed his arms, his brow furrowed: "The geological structure of the Qiongshan area is mainly limestone caves, lacking sufficient primary magma chamber activity. Theoretically, it does not have the conditions for spontaneous volcanic eruption."

This eruption was as if it had forcefully blasted through the rock layers with external energy, connecting to some unknown heat source deep within the Earth's crust.

“Detonate…” Yu Qing muttered to himself, all the previous clues instantly connecting in his mind. “Those people… they stole the rubbings to prevent the secret of the Guliye script from being revealed, but this has nothing to do with information about the underground structure of Qiongshan. They attacked there…”

He looked up abruptly, a sharp glint in his eyes. "They suspect my 'ultimate office' is right under Qiongshan Mountain! They want to use an 'accidental' volcanic eruption to completely destroy it and prevent me from going there!"

This deduction silenced the command center instantly. Preventing Yu Qing from going to Qiongshan? What did that mean?
"Where's the evidence?" Yu Qing pressed. "An abnormal energy release pattern alone is not enough to determine that it was man-made."

“This is the second point of doubt.” Dong Hao magnified the microscopic scanning image of the eruption vent. “Our synthetic aperture radar detected extremely small amounts of unnatural ultra-high temperature alloy particles and traces of energy focusing materials in the eruption residue.”

These materials were rapidly engulfed and altered by the magma, but the residual characteristic signals closely matched those of a theoretical 'geodetic pulse weapon' in the database. This weapon could inject enormous amounts of thermal energy deep into the Earth's crust, triggering a runaway chain reaction at specific geological structural points.

“Third,” Dong Hao added, “we reviewed the electromagnetic and gravitational field data of the region 72 hours before the eruption.”

About an hour before the eruption, there was an extremely weak but peculiar energy pulse lasting approximately 3.7 seconds, originating from an altitude of about 1 meters above the ground, which then rapidly decayed and disappeared. It was unlike any known natural phenomenon or conventional aircraft signal.

“A brief energy injection from the air…” Yu Qing slowly sat down, his fingers unconsciously tapping the control panel, “enough to activate the buried ley line weapon… a perfectly timed explosion.”

It seems that while we were investigating the paleographer 'Luan' and the forest base, they had already preemptively launched an attack on our potential weak points.

"How did they know that Qiongshan might have an 'ultimate office'?" Chang Sheng asked, puzzled.

“Just speculation.” Yu Qing calmed down. “Based on the information leaked by Guliyewen, which may have disrupted their plans, they want to speed up their actions. But this also proves that they are extremely afraid that I will stop the launch of Operation Lutai. Qiongshan… is indeed crucial.”

However, although the other party's actions were swift and ruthless, they also left behind new clues.

"That energy pulse!" Ya Shi suddenly exclaimed excitedly. "Researchers say that although it is weak and peculiar, it must have a powerful source and transmission path in order to penetrate the strata."

We cannot track its whereabouts after it disappears, but we can try to deduce the possible range of its emission source location!

The computing power was concentrated once again. Combining pulse characteristics, atmospheric conditions, and records of possible aircraft or hovering platform activities in the airspace at that time, the system began to perform massive reverse simulation calculations.

Meanwhile, ongoing monitoring of the Qiongshan eruption site has yielded a startling discovery. Hidden within the toxic gases and dust clouds emitted by the volcano are some nearly completely destroyed, rice-grain-sized pieces of mechanical debris.

They are not components of ley line weapons, but rather... part of some kind of environmental monitoring or beacon device, seemingly originally buried deep within the blasted rock strata.

“These things…” Dong Hao carefully analyzed the molecular structure of the remains. “The technology is very old, at least from the last century, but the materials science is extremely advanced, with strong resistance to pressure and high temperatures.”

Their design style...is not quite like the styles popular in the West, but rather similar to some concepts in the East, yet different.

As Yu Qing looked at the images of the wreckage, a thought became clearer and clearer: "If... I mean if, there really is something under Qiongshan Mountain, then its history may be very long."

These monitoring devices may have been left behind by earlier 'guardians' to monitor the condition of that place. And this volcanic eruption wasn't just to stop me; it was probably a premeditated operation, only a little earlier than planned.

The other party's purpose became increasingly profound and unfathomable. They were not only trying to stop Yu Qing's current actions, but also seemed to be hiding a secret that had been going on for much longer.

Hours later, the people of Yashi calculated a vague but crucial result: the energy pulse that triggered the ley line weapon was likely emitted from a vast desert about 1,200 kilometers to the northwest.

“That desert is mostly uninhabited, but it has one thing in common,” Ya Shi said, pulling up a map, “its underground is one of the areas with a dense distribution of abandoned, large-scale intercontinental fiber optic cable trunk lines from the old era. Many of those cables have long been abandoned, but their conduit systems…”

"This is an excellent, unnoticed, concealed passage and energy transmission path!" the analyst remarked.
"They don't need to hover weapon launch platforms there for extended periods; they can simply pre-install energy repeaters or the weapons themselves using existing underground pipes and networks, activating them remotely when needed. Even their headquarters... might be hidden beneath the desert using these abandoned networks!"

The clues finally began to point to a much larger behind-the-scenes system.

"What's the plan?" Chang Sheng looked at Yu Qing. "The volcano is still erupting, and we can't get close to Qiongshan. The base in the forest has probably raised its guard as well."

Yu Qing pondered for a moment, a calculating glint in his eyes: "They have their clever plans, but we have our countermeasures." "First, regarding Qiongshan, since they want to destroy our ultimate office, we'll help them solidify this 'accident.' Now we'll start inquiring about interstellar migration prices and make moves to sell off Earth assets."

In short, we need to make them feel that we are no longer capable of stopping Operation Lutai, that their objective has been achieved, and that our ultimate office is finished. This will lull them into a false sense of security. We should at least let them feel a little smug and lower their guard.

"Secondly, regarding the clues in the desert, we can't send people out for a large-scale search directly, lest we alert the enemy. Do we have the capability to approach them silently, even though it's inconspicuous..."

Chang Sheng said, "Yes, we can send out a 'mole cricket' squad."

"Mole crickets?" Yu Qing was taken aback. It seemed that Chang Sheng possessed a number of powers that he was unaware of.

Chang Sheng said, "Yes, that is a biomimetic underground exploration unit secretly developed by Shengtian. It is shaped like a spindle and can silently drill into the ground, along abandoned pipelines or excavate on its own, to conduct reconnaissance and deployment."

We can send three teams of mole crickets to infiltrate the underground fiber optic network in that desert from different directions. Their mission isn't to directly locate headquarters, but to listen and map. To look for unusual energy flows, encrypted signal transmissions, or… vibrational echoes from large underground spaces.”

“Third, and most importantly,” Yu Qing’s gaze fell on the mysterious forest on the screen, “we can’t stop monitoring that research institute base, but we need to change our methods. They’re using electronic smog and low-frequency interference, aren’t they? Let’s give them a little ‘gift’.”

"A gift?" Ya asked, puzzled.

Ignoring Ya Shi's curiosity, Yu Qing continued to ask Chang Sheng, "Does our company have any special 'fireflies' or anything like that?"

Chang Sheng understood and said, "Yes. There are even fewer targets than fireflies. They are forest mosquitoes, which can carry ultra-miniature, superconducting magnetometer arrays. We can disperse them in large numbers around the base."

If any energy activity within the base exceeds a certain threshold—especially an energy pulse like the one before they activate their ley line weapons—these magnetometers can detect extremely subtle changes in the magnetic field, which are difficult to completely isolate even with shielding.

"Do we need to predict their next attack?" Donghao asked.

“Not entirely.” Yu Qing shook his head. “More importantly, by analyzing the characteristics and intensity of this magnetic field change, we might be able to deduce the core frequency and mode of the technology they are using, and even… find ways to interfere with or counter it.”

This also tells us where their next target might be.

"Fourth," Yu Qing added finally, his tone grave, "regarding the tracking of those 180 suspects, Ya Shi, you will be in charge personally. Follow my strategy and focus on investigating those who have had contact with Yu Guiyi."

I need to know if the people behind Yu Guiyi and those currently controlling the ley lines weapons are the same group, or what their relationship is. This is crucial to understanding what kind of enemy we are facing.

The order was issued swiftly, and the massive Shengtian machine began operating efficiently once again.

However, Yu Qing became somewhat worried. Chang Sheng's gaze had been strange just now. Clearly, he had guessed that Qiongshan didn't have a final office; otherwise, Yu Qing should have reacted. Yet Yu Qing's nonchalant demeanor clearly told him that there was nothing important there.

This could further deepen Chang Sheng's suspicions that he has been hiding more secrets from him. This would have a negative impact on their future cooperation.

In fact, Chang Sheng was keeping many things from her. Today, he inadvertently revealed quite a few secret projects that she was unaware of.

Without external enemies, he didn't know if his cooperation with Chang Sheng could have been this smooth. But for now, he still had to trust the other party to the greatest extent possible.

In the following days, prices for travel to planets around the world skyrocketed several times over, and vacation homes on planets relatively close to Earth, such as Mercury and Saturn, were snapped up. Of course, this was all Aya and her friends' doing, designed to create the illusion of escaping Earth.

Meanwhile, Shengtian was also making a big show of "disaster relief" in Qiongshan, which was of course also a gesture of assessing the damage to the "ultimate office" while searching for "key" equipment. To make the act more realistic, they secretly packed several large boxes of broken stones and transported them to Changjin.

Meanwhile, three silent "mole cricket" squads infiltrated underground from their secret locations, silently advancing towards the distant desert. Thousands upon thousands of "forest mosquitoes," shimmering with a faint metallic sheen, were released into the night surrounding the forest base, quietly blending into the environment.

Yu Qing stood alone in front of the massive display wall, his expression sorrowful. He didn't want to get involved in this endless human conflict, but he was already caught up in the ways of the world and had no choice but to follow his own path.

Now he doesn't dare mention the Fifth Paradise or the Seventh Paradise at all. If those people find out he still has his eye on those places, they'll wipe them out effortlessly in a fit of rage.

In the holographic image, the volcano of Qiongshan was billowing thick smoke, as if there was a huge scar in his heart. The enemy was more cunning and decisive than he had imagined, and also possessed more astonishing technology and resources. He could neither provoke them nor avoid them.

But they had already revealed too much. Every operation, whether it was stealing rubbings, defending the forest base, or detonating a volcano, was like a flash in the darkness, allowing Yu Qing to glimpse their vast outline.

“You want to stop me? I will do it anyway…” Yu Qing muttered to himself, as if he were talking to an unseen adversary. “But it tells me exactly what I should do, and… the moment of life and death is not far off.”

He knew the next round of the contest would begin soon. And next time, he would have to catch the hand behind the scenes.

Stopping them is not just about reversing the "Lutai Operation" initiated by his ancestors, which aimed to destroy everything.

Furthermore, it is necessary to prevent this group from using the devastating consequences of "Operation Lutai" to achieve their deeper, more terrifying goal—perhaps to completely reshape or even end the world.

Their goals seem to extend far beyond wealth or power, pointing to the very foundation of Earth's existence. (End of Chapter)