The plunder of the heavens begins with the Spirit Cage.

Drawn by the intense emotions of the convoy, the snake dogs completely ignored the steel barrier in front of them and roared as they launched a desperate charge.

"Fire!" Irina's command was like a sharp blade severing a taut bowstring.

In an instant, the deathly silence was torn apart by the raging storm of metal.

"boom!"

"Da da da da—!"

The vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun fired first, its thick ammunition belts spraying deadly fire, instantly turning the leading snake-dogs into bloody messes, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Then, with the roar of the automatic turret, it was blown to pieces.

A team of Black Fang warriors opened fire, using auxiliary modules to accurately target the surviving targets who had cleverly scattered among the beast horde.

In less than three minutes, the dense barrage of firepower riddled all the snake dogs with holes in the raging torrent of metal, leaving them sprawled on the ground.

But not long after, the fallen corpses began to convulse violently.

The holes in his body quickly began to heal under the flow of pale blue energy.

"Keep firing at them, don't let them revive!" Seeing that they were about to stand up again, the squad commander immediately ordered a follow-up shot.

With so much firepower, how could you possibly stand up? That's a joke.

Therefore, people who lack martial virtue usually keep an eye on one in twos or threes.

If a snake or dog is seen shaking its head and moving, it will be shot several times. If it learns to be smart and stays still for a long time while pretending to be dead, it will also be shot several times to finish it off.

"So, when you're out in the game, you need power and connections," Lu Qianwei said casually, holding the Burning Bone Sword.

The Darkwing thrusters emitted a ghostly blue tail flame, propelling him like an arrow straight towards the pack of snake dogs.

Ammunition is limited, and he has no intention of dragging things out; a quick victory is the only way.

A newly recovered snake-dog discovered a shadow blocking the sunlight; it smelled of primal energy and instinctively opened its mouth wide, growling.

A blazing arc of light severed its dog head; the dimensional system could absorb life within a three-meter radius that offered no resistance.

With soldiers providing cover fire from behind, he was spared the trouble of slashing with his sword one by one.

The absorption of energy is passive. As soon as Lu Qianwei entered the pack of snake dogs, the corpses of snake dogs within a three-meter radius began to glow with a blue fluorescence and flow into his body.

Upon waking, the Burning Bone Sword slashed through the wound with a single blow, the extreme heat instantly carbonizing it before blood could even splatter.

The snake-dog's body was directly carbonized into fossils, showing no signs of resurrection.

The remaining snake-dogs witnessed their companions being completely wiped out by their prey, and for the first time, fear appeared in their eyes!

They struggled to retreat, but it was too late; a tight encirclement had already been formed.

All around were cold gun barrels and spitting flames.

Chapter 10 Camp Survivors

On a desolate plain, a bald man stands on a high slope, turning his mechanical prosthetic eyes back and forth.

"Safety!"

"According to the reconnaissance of the unmanned whistlebird, no trace of the Devouring Beast has been found within a radius of 20 kilometers."

The man covered in cybernetic armor withdrew his gaze, turned to the man behind him wearing police power armor, and said, "Boss, we can go now."

The man referred to as 'the leader' remained silent, his metal mask reflecting the dust of the wasteland for a moment.

Only then did he turn around, gripping the heavy machine gun, and walk with heavy steps toward the temporary camp at the bottom of the slope.

The temporary camp was filled with the smells of engine oil, cheap nutritional paste, and some kind of incompletely burned chemical.

Several makeshift stoves welded from scrap metal sheets were making crackling sounds.

The furnace was burning high-energy fuel rods salvaged from small energy weapons.

The eerie blue flames licked at the blackened iron can above, heating the viscous paste inside.

The strange smell of compressed biscuits and some kind of canned meat residue was faintly visible.

Even so, it inadvertently whetted the taste buds of the soldiers.

Their clear, rumbling bowel sounds rose and fell.

Some people unconsciously licked their chapped lips, their gaze drifting uncontrollably to the steaming metal cans, but they forced their weary minds to look away and became alert to the environment outside the camp.

Just a few days ago, their 'Muxiu Town' was still relying on the city walls to resist the siege of the Devouring Beasts.

Their claws are sharp, but they can't tear through the thick city walls.

However, after two days and two nights of perseverance, disaster struck without warning.

Suddenly, the sky lit up with a blinding blue-white light, and dozens of blazing hot spherical plasmas slammed into the city wall.

The sturdy alloy and concrete were instantly melted through as if made of paper, creating a huge gap.

Before the soldiers on the city wall could react, the Devouring Beasts from the outer perimeter surged in.

In an instant, screams, gunshots, and animal roars clashed together in a frenzy.

Even more despairingly, the ground suddenly cracked open amidst the tremors, and a beast resembling a giant scorpion burst forth from the earth.

Whether they were resisters or fugitives, they were easily overwhelmed and stripped of their essence in terror, turning into fleshy clay statues.

Unlike the fortress, Muxiu Town doesn't possess a powerful military force; it was simply a place where survivors banded together for mutual support during the apocalypse.

The townspeople are mostly former workers, merchants, and police officers...

The few old-fashioned police power armors they possess are among their few heavy weapons, and they have to consider the issue of energy replenishment every time they use them.

After the town fell, it was still the city's defense army's captain, Link, who acted decisively, forming a flesh-and-blood defense with some soldiers to protect some civilians as they broke out of the hell.

This is also thanks to the fact that the number of Devouring Beasts is relatively small compared to that of humans, and their devouring of source matter sometimes pauses briefly.

The food was distributed, and the soldiers chewed silently, the sound of swallowing particularly clear in the deathly still air.

The sunlight was dazzling, but it couldn't dispel the heavy gloom and confusion in everyone's hearts.

Some sat motionless, staring blankly at the scorched earth in the distance; others hugged their knees, burying their faces in their hands and weeping, their suppressed sobs coming in broken, intermittent bursts…

Link twitched his ears after quickly finishing his food, and frowned as he looked around the camp.

He said coldly to the bald man with the mechanical body, "Charlie, tell them they'd better control their emotions if they don't want to die!"

"If they can't be controlled, inject them with sedatives!"

"Understood!" Charliek stood up and carried out the order.

When Link returned to his side, the weeping and wailing in the camp had completely ceased.

"Boss, where do we go next?" Charlie asked calmly, his prosthetic heart helping him to regulate his emotions.

Link pulled out a topographical map drawn after the cataclysm, and pointed his thick metal index finger at a high mountain. "Let's go to the bunker!"

"They discovered that the Devouring Beasts could sense humans through emotions, so they must have a way to deal with them."

In the early stages of the disaster, many of the precautions and handling methods related to the Mana ecosystem were also broadcast from the bunker.

This has inadvertently made the bunker a sacred place and a source of hope for many.

As a policeman from the old era, Link originally responded to the call of the Dark Fortress.

As a result of the reconstruction of Muxiu Town and the addition of survivors, he decided to stay in the town.

It wasn't until the disaster a few days ago took his wife that he showed remorse and lamented, "Power is a captivating poison!"

Thinking of his only remaining daughter, Link quickly regained his composure.

Charlize's mechanical fingers were pressed against his own location—the outer perimeter of the Tarim Basin.

Thanks to the basin's solid foundation, the frequent seismic activity caused by geological disasters directly raised the land's elevation.

At the same time, due to the fragility of the basin's edge, it fractured and uplifted under intense tectonic compression, forming countless steep, jagged, and sharp peaks.

These rugged peaks act like natural barriers, greatly hindering passage.

Muxiu Town is located on the edge of this newly uplifted basin, guarding a transportation route connecting the east and west.

It is precisely because of this unique geographical location that it has become the only vital passage connecting the 'Longdi Fault Zone' and the hinterland of 'Xizhou', and is also the remaining part of the Hexi Corridor.

Its unique geographical location makes Muxiu Town an unavoidable transit point for those traveling from the 'Anxi Wasteland' to the Dark Fortress.

With countless groups seeking asylum passing through, Muxiu Town quickly became a trading post for rest and trade.

They naturally benefited from it, and the large population of several thousand deterred any potential crooked schemes.

But now only a few hundred people have escaped with Link.

Charlie swiped the map to the location of the bunker and couldn't help but voice his concern: "It's too far!"

"Even if we have a car, it will take at least five days to get to the Dark Fortress while avoiding the roaming Devouring Beasts."

"This is the situation when we encountered the Devouring Beasts. If we use humans as bait... it might take less than three days." Charliek stated his plan without any emotion.

Link remained silent for a long time, then shook his head. "The Dark Fortress won't want someone like that."

Don't forget how many people and camps were affected by the internal war in the bunker a few years ago.

"Besides, we don't necessarily need to go to the bunker."

Following the route on the map, Link made a slight turn, and his finger finally landed on a marker on the map called 'Rockspring Valley'.

Due to the violent uplift of the earth's crust tearing apart the rock layers, a stable underground river unexpectedly emerged here.

The survivors of Rock Spring Valley quickly transformed the area into a small oasis using natural technology.

The profits from animal husbandry and agriculture are even more enviable than those from their own Muxiu Town.

But those who had ulterior motives were blocked by the steep, newly formed cliffs surrounding the valley.

It is a hidden place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, accessible only through a narrow crack.

"All we need to do is get here. With the help of the Rockspring Valley base station, we'll be able to contact the bunker soon!"

"But will they take us in?" Charlie asked.

"Yes!" Thinking of the plasma-spitting Devourer and the footage the drone captured during their escape...

Link said confidently, "We have the intelligence they need!"