The plunder of the heavens begins with the Spirit Cage.

Chapter 242 The Mist 2

The Mist was the first movie Lu Qianwei ever watched when he was a child, and the ending of the story in the small town left him feeling particularly emotional.

Looking at the fog that was now spreading throughout the city, Lu Qianwei was basically convinced that this was the plot of another movie, or rather, the future of that story...

Bridgeton Town

"There really is such a place." By hacking into the system through the quantum terminal, Lu Qianwei confirmed that the appearance of the mist was indeed related to that plot.

The plot isn't really important; Lu Qianwei is mainly interested in the alternate dimension that the military discovered—the world where the mist monsters appear.

Just as I saved the coordinates into the navigation, the ground beneath my feet suddenly began to shake without warning.

A dense, ear-piercing whistling sound came from the depths of the mist, even more jarring than the swarm of stinging beetles from before.

Lu Qianwei calmly turned around and slowly drew his sword.

The next second, a flash of cold light appeared, and more than a dozen monsters never seen before emerged from the gray mist.

Its torso resembles a giant wasp magnified ten times, covered with a hard, dark brown shell speckled with black spots.

A foot-long, cone-shaped poisonous stinger trailed from its abdomen, and the dripping venom fell to the ground, instantly corroding the cement tiles into small, smoking pits.

The strangest thing was that they had several tufts of fine human hair on their chests and backs, and their heads even showed a vague human outline. When they flapped their wings, they emitted a sharp screech like a woman's wail, and they swooped straight at Lu Qianwei.

Lu Qianwei's figure blurred, his entire body moving so fast that he was just a black shadow. He easily dodged the three poisonous thorns that rushed towards him from the front. Tang Hengdao's blade flashed with a cold light, instantly splitting the monster in front of him in two. Green acidic blood sprayed out, but he dodged to the side, not a drop of it touching his body.

The remaining monsters surrounded them from all sides, their poisonous thorns piercing the air, filling the mist with the whooshing sound of wind being cut through...

However, this didn't even touch Lu Qianwei's clothes; every time he slashed, he precisely struck the softest part of the monster's neck.

In just one minute, more than a dozen monsters fell to the ground. The once smooth road surface was corroded by the acid, leaving it pitted and filled with a pungent, burnt smell.

Lu Qianwei gently shook the blade to remove the remaining blood droplets, then deftly sheathed the sword.

Just then, the quantum terminal on my wrist emitted a soft beep: "Coordinate calibration complete!"

He took a step back and took out a small, silver-gray combat airship, four meters long, from his spatial storage.

The anti-gravity engine at the bottom rotates silently, causing only slight ripples in the thick fog around it, without any unnecessary noise, thus preventing further attacks from monsters.

Lu Qianwei leaped into the driver's seat, tapped the navigation screen lightly with his fingertip, and the airship slowly rose, flying higher and higher.

As you pass through layers of churning gray fog, the view above the city is quite different; it's the same moonlight you see in the past.

The fog descends to a maximum height of only a few hundred meters; it does not spread indefinitely.

"Ultimately, it still comes down to gravity, doesn't it?" Lu Qianwei chuckled and shook his head, then sped away based on the coordinates provided by the satellite.

In less than half an hour, the distance reading on the screen jumped to within five kilometers. Lu Qianwei moved the control stick, and the airship began to slowly descend.

Perhaps because we were getting closer to the passage, the fog here had spread to a height of nearly 600 meters.

The airship descended to 700 meters and entered the edge of the fog layer. Visibility gradually decreased. Lu Qianwei activated the terminal's thermal imaging scan, and the outline of the town shrouded in fog quickly appeared on the screen.

Consistent with the encrypted records before they were erased by the military, this small town, which was completely abandoned more than a decade ago, has long been deserted.

Most of the houses in the area were swallowed up by the wildly growing trees and vines, many wooden roofs had long since collapsed into piles of rotten wood, and the entire town was covered by wild vegetation.

Just as Lu Qianwei was preparing to descend another 200 meters to find an open space to land the airship, a dark wave suddenly burst open from the fog below.

A purplish-gray tentacle, as thick as a bucket and carrying a foul stench, suddenly lashed out at the airship's hull, slamming into the silver-gray armor with a loud thud, causing the entire airship to shake.

The anti-gravity engine automatically stabilized the balance. Lu Qianwei looked down and saw a soft, gelatinous monster, about half the size of a football field, emerging from the abandoned reservoir at the entrance of the town.

Dozens of tentacles, each over ten meters long, thrashed wildly. Each tentacle was covered with a dense array of barbed suckers at its end, instantly corroding the tree trunks it touched into charcoal.

"Tentacle Monster~"

Lu Qianwei clicked his tongue, drew his sword, and leaped out of the airship. His toes touched the tip of a sweeping tentacle, and his body lurched forward with the momentum. Tang Hengdao flashed with cold light and cut the tentacle off at the root.

Thick, black blood spurted out, splashing half the water's surface. The monster, in pain, let out a shriek that shook the misty waves.

The entire body emerged from the water, and dozens of tentacles spread out densely, smashing half of the forest at the entrance of the town into pieces of wood.

Lu Qianwei moved with incredible speed, weaving through the gaps between the countless tentacles. In just over ten seconds, he reached the core of the monster and plunged his blade in.

They also slipped a miniature bomb inside and detonated it.

With a loud bang, the tentacle monster died instantly, its massive body sinking back into the reservoir, leaving only a layer of black oil on the surface.

Lu Qianwei returned to the airship, wiped the blood off his knife, and continued flying towards the town center.

Just as we flew over the abandoned commercial district at the town's entrance, a dark shadow, more than ten meters long, suddenly darted out from a half-collapsed department store building by the roadside.

Its carapace gleamed with a dark blue metallic sheen; it was indeed a giant centipede with bone armor, over twenty meters long, each segment of its carapace harder than a tank's armor.

Its pair of mandibles can easily bite through cement utility poles. When it smells the scent of living people, it stands up and bites at the airship, spraying out corrosive toxic mist that instantly turns half the trees on the street into withered bones.

Lu Qianwei didn't disembark this time. He couldn't kill them all anyway, so he decided to be simple and decisive. He activated the fighter jet's weapon system, pressed a button, and counted until the red laser mercilessly pierced through!

Modern human weapons can cripple these creatures, but when faced with lasers, the giant centipede didn't even have a chance to struggle and was instantly turned into charcoal.

Having dealt with two top predators that had been entrenched in the town for years, the remaining scattered small monsters were too terrified by the smell of blood and the sounds of fighting to even show their faces.

The airship maintained an altitude of 100 meters, activated a full-area scan, and scanned the entire abandoned town.

Many strange creatures were scanned on the screen, some of which had even begun to build nests in abandoned areas.

No metallic reaction was found in the man-made structures, and the entire town was indeed a dead city swallowed up by wild plants.

Lu Qianwei turned the control stick, and the airship changed course, heading first towards the deep mountains west of the town.

The film didn't explain the exact location of that secret military base, so he can only figure it out slowly now.

However, he was clear about one thing: he should fly towards the area with the thickest fog.

The deeper you fly into the forest, the canopies of trees that are thousands of years old block out the sun, pressing the fog almost to the ground, and a damp, stuffy feeling mixed with decaying leaves and the stench of monsters hits you.

The quantum terminal's imaging was quickly interfered with by the dense foliage, and it could only detect objects within a few hundred meters in front of it.

Lu Qianwei simply lowered the airship to a height of fifty meters and started scanning the underground energy while flying slowly.

During this time, some reckless creatures emerged to attack, but they all ended up as dead beneath the ship.

Flying from west to east, we searched for nearly several hours, but found absolutely nothing; we did not see any trace of human military activity.

Lu Qianwei was about to deploy a batch of drones to expand the search area when a loud explosion suddenly erupted in the valley ahead.

That wasn't the sound of a pistol or rifle, but the booming sound of a large-caliber tank cannon firing.

Then came the rumbling sound of tracks crushing tree trunks, intermittent machine gun fire mixed with the monster's deep roar, all clearly audible even through the thick fog.

Lu Qianwei raised an eyebrow, surprised that there were still military personnel alive in such a dangerous area. It seemed they had found the right direction.

With its engines at full power, the airship broke through the fog and headed towards the direction of the firefight.

Breaking through the dense canopy blocking his path, Lu Qianwei quickly spotted an M1 main battle tank with its tracks blown off, wedged diagonally at the only entrance to the canyon.

The vehicle was covered with scratches of varying depths. Seven camouflage soldiers, covered in blood, huddled behind the tank wreckage. Empty magazines were scattered all over the ground, and the blond officer in charge was gritting his teeth as he loaded the last armor-piercing round.

Surrounding the tank were more than a dozen hyenas, each over two meters tall.

Its grayish-brown fur is as stiff as quenched steel; ordinary rifle bullets can only scrape off a few flakes.

Their backs and shoulders are covered with glowing black spots, and their sharp teeth can easily gnaw through the side armor of tanks; the hull has already been bitten with three or four deep holes.

The two wounded men who had been blocking the way were now lying lifeless in pools of blood. The hyena pack was advancing step by step, and it looked like they were about to break through the last line of defense.

Having grasped the general situation, Lu Qianwei didn't have time to tap the weapon panel with his fingertip.

The two high-precision electromagnetic heavy machine guns on the sides of the airship immediately spewed out flames, accurately blasting each hyena into a bloody mist.

In less than ten seconds, more than a dozen hyenas turned into blood flowers, with only the last one reacting the fastest, braving the hail of bullets to rush to the tank.

However, the army was not to be underestimated. They focused their fire on one creature and quickly killed it.

When Lu Qianwei descended in his airship, the officers and the remaining soldiers were stunned, initially thinking that a higher race had emerged from the civilization over there.

The soldiers only relaxed slightly after Lu Qianwei emerged in his human form.

"Who are you?" The officer asked Lu Qianwei, who was less than five meters away from them, with a wary look on his face.

"This is my military officer's ID!"

In order not to arouse the suspicion of these people, he quickly forged an officer's identity for himself through the internet and printing equipment while the spaceship was slowly descending.

Even though the captain was very skeptical about why an Asian could become a high-ranking official, he eventually confirmed that the documents were correct.

His military skills prompted him to quickly gather his equipment, step forward, salute, and express his gratitude!

Lu Qianwei nodded slightly and, without beating around the bush, asked directly, "I'm looking for the entrance to the passage connecting to another dimension. Do you have any guards at this base?"

A hint of hesitation flashed across the captain's face. He glanced at the silver-gray airship hovering behind Lu Qianwei, and finally sighed, "Yes, sir."

We are the perimeter guard platoon of the base. The passage collapsed due to an energy outburst half a month ago, which triggered this catastrophe.

A large number of monsters suddenly appeared, and many of our troops perished inside...

Now only the seven of us are left, trapped at the intersection.

Where is that entrance?

"The entrance is located thirteen kilometers ahead in the depths of the canyon."

Lu Qianwei nodded and raised his hand to the captain: "Take me there, I want to see it with my own eyes."

"Yes, sir!" The captain stood at attention and saluted.

They have the chance to leave on an airship, but they'd rather die than stay.

The seven wounded soldiers helped each other board the airship. After finding a good spot and securing themselves, Lu Qianwei turned the control stick, and the airship sped into the depths of the canyon, skimming the treetops.

The further you go into the heart of the valley, the more traces of the fierce battle become visible among the trees on both sides of the canyon.

The mine-resistant vehicle, overturned in the trench, had large holes gnawed into its side armor; the main battle tank, its turret blown off, lay askew in the ravine; and the tail of the attack helicopter, half-buried in decaying leaves, had long been torn off by the monsters…

Empty magazines and deformed ammunition belts were scattered everywhere. The tree trunks were covered with claw marks half a foot deep, and much of the bark had long since been melted into charcoal by the monster's acid spray...

In the crevices of the rocks in the forest, you can still see the remains of bones with tattered cloth hanging on them, but there are no corpses to be seen. They have obviously been eaten up by those alien creatures of unknown origin.

The captain leaned against the bulkhead and added in a hoarse voice, "Sir, when the main force withdrew, we fought a three-day and three-night blocking battle here."

We blew up everything we could, but it still didn't stop the monsters from rushing out.

After traveling for less than fifteen minutes, the airship rounded a bend, and the entire hollowed-out mountain wall at the end of the canyon suddenly appeared before their eyes.

This is the main entrance to the Bridgeton underground military base.