Apocalyptic Disaster: I Hoard Billions in Supplies and Kill the Saint

203: Chapter 203 The Entire Group DescendsYe Nanxing stood on a high rock, her gaze calmly fixed on that opening billowing with mist.

Flames condensed in her palm into a probe as thin as a thread, gently reaching toward the valley entrance.

Space synchronization feedback:

[Psionic Disturbance: Mild Anomaly]

[Rock Mass Respiration Rate: +8%/min]

[Biological Source Signal: Non-natural Wavelength; Interference Frequency Present]

Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and she spoke slowly:

”It has awakened.”

The mist rose suddenly, as if some force at the bottom of the valley had sensed their presence.

Along the edge of the entire Rift Valley Nest, faint light-trace patterns began to appear—asymmetric jagged lines, crisscrossing like a schematic of a ruined circuit, flickering in and out of view amidst the lava-like ground.

And every single line was slowly pulsing with red light.

It was as if the ”wake-up sequence” of some control system was rebooting.

And at this moment, everyone, without exception, held their breath.

They realized:

This was not just an ”entrance opening.”

This was ”some kind of will” opening its own eyes.

At 5:00 AM, on the outskirts of the Rift Valley Nest, the air was filled with a pungent smell, a mixture of scorched earth and decaying vegetation.

The entire edge of the fault collapsed inward in a funnel shape; the rock walls were exposed, and scorching humidity churned continuously from the bottom of the valley.

At this moment, on the mountain pass that had been torn open like a wound, the United Human Team was doing their utmost to build a lifeline ”probe into the Old World.”

Zhao Chenwu wore a heavy welding suit, carrying three alloy anchor pillars on his shoulders, his feet barely treading on the steaming rock crust.

”Number eight rebar in position!” he roared, slamming the last anchor pillar firmly into a crevice in the rock layer.

”Give me the tension-limiting pressure spikes! Bite in another inch, another inch!”

His team members moved with clean, efficient actions, sweating profusely as they installed the overpressure expansion spikes, securing the steel cables into the circular hook grooves, and then suspended the anti-corrosion metal rack out into the air—

It was like building a ladder to hell.

Meanwhile, the Tianlang Mountain Space Team coordinated with the engineering team to initiate ”material deployment” mode.

The Space Anchor Point rotated gently in the air, and pieces of special lightweight guardrails ”automatically unfolded” from the air, embedding themselves with puzzle-like precision into the steel cables rigged by the Beiling anchor point.

Shen Qingyan directed data synchronization while wielding a tool gun to apply fiberglass coating for seam sealing: ”Flame Born’s preset thermal bonding is still there; don’t break the edge seal, not even by a centimeter!”

Lin Xiao climbed to the very front, stepping onto the suspended guardrail bridge to test its stability, then turned back and shouted: ”The structure is stable! It doesn’t sway with two people; we can start building the next section!”

On the side, a poorly equipped team was also working desperately:

Three people, their faces covered in scars from acid rain, clothes tattered, carrying only an old-fashioned communication repeater on their backs that was still sparking.

”Unit Two connected!”

”Fiber optic link stable... hurry, get the final relay beam into the control room!”

”Even if the signal is only thirty meters, we have to pull you back from down there!”

Their hands were red and raw, but not a single person complained.

They were not experts, nor were they warriors; they were just people in the Apocalypse—those who had died once and stood back up.

Ten minutes later.

A simple probe passage, about 1.5 meters wide, sloping downward at forty-five degrees, and constructed of metal and glass guardrails, was officially formed.

It extended toward the bottom of the rift valley, like a ”steel artery” connecting the fault lines of civilization.

Zhao Chenwu wiped the grease and bloodstains from his face and grinned, cursing:

”Who among you still wants to wait for an earthquake?”

”If this mountain is going to collapse, we’ll stand right on top of it and watch it collapse!”

”Whatever is down there—I’m going to rip it out today!”

Ye Nanxing stood at the start of the passage, the wind blowing her gray coat.

She narrowed her eyes, gazing at the deep valley still spitting fire and mist, her voice low:

”Confirm the stability of all passages.”

”In ten minutes—the whole team descends.”

The air on the outskirts of the Rift Valley Nest was deathly silent, save for the gray mist slowly churning in the fault below, constantly surging upward like the faint breathing of a sleeping giant beast.

The Hanlin team’s sampler clicked on at the cliff’s edge, and fine gases were drawn into the analysis canister. Seconds later, the alarm light on the instrument flashed on abruptly, blinking three times in succession, emitting a rapid electronic buzz.

”Warning—Nitrogen-Oxygen ratio imbalance!”

”High concentration of compressed nitrogen and isomeric oxygen molecules detected!”

The sampler’s voice rose almost to a shriek: ”This isn’t a natural exhaust layer; it’s—an artificial pressure-sealing release structure!”

”It’s still actively ’releasing pressure’!”

Shen Qingyan immediately rushed forward to check the data, glanced at the instrument graph, and her expression darkened instantly:

”It’s not a collapse! It’s controlled cyclic venting!”

”This means the system below—at least a part of the core—is still operating!”

Everyone’s expression changed abruptly.

Zhao Chenwu dropped his anchor spike on the spot and cursed: ”Is there a nuclear reactor buried in this grave?!”

”And what if it’s unstable? If it blows, we’ll all turn into mist!”

By the Tianlang Mountain passage, Ye Nanxing slowly looked up, her eyes cold.

She gazed into the deep valley.

Amidst the rising mist, she saw a glimmer of light pulsing slowly below like a heartbeat.

It was not daylight.

It was ”residual energy fire.”

She gently raised her right hand, and psionic flames appeared in her palm, beating like a heartbeat.

Her tone was calm, yet it sounded like an order:

”Flame Born.”

”Light it up.”

The next instant—

From the flame core in her palm, a wisp of golden flame drifted out, spiraling down as if it had a mind of its own, passing through the mist layer like a ”soul meteor” carrying warmth.

Everyone in the distance looked up involuntarily.

The firelight pierced the mist, like a line of lumens, straight into the heart of the abyss.

Below, it instantly lit up.

The entire bottom of the rift valley was illuminated by a layer of pale golden light—

Revealing a strange and shocking scene:

A massive structure of metal ribs snaked into the rock layers, with unextinguished runic circuits still flickering on parts of the surface.

Rows of long-defunct energy pipelines were embedded in the earth’s core, but among them, three were still in a state of shimmering flow, with colors of—

One blue, one green, one red.

It was as if—

The heart still had a pulse.

The whole team fell silent in an instant.

Zhou Cheng’s voice trembled over the communicator:

”I... holy crap.”

”It’s not a legend.”

”This really was once... humanity’s deepest energy control base.”

”We... are standing on top of the Old World’s final trump card.”

At the edge of the deep valley, the mist churned.

Ye Nanxing crossed her arms in front of her chest, her side projection panel flickering constantly, layers of data rapidly parsing in her eyes—

[Target Area: Rift Valley Nest Main Fault Zone]

[Current Stability Index: 37% (may collapse at any time)]

[Mission Level: Extremely High · Super A-Class]

[Environmental Risk: Uncontrollable · Contains Unknown Heat Source/Possibility of Artificial Facility Reactivation]

[Technical Potential: Core Fragments Detected x3 · Core Energy Level Fluctuation Unknown]

[Strategic Value: Space Access · Energy Reconstruction · Key Point for Alliance Technology Restart]

She looked toward the virtual core of the ”Flame Born” spark in the space, the flame core beating gently.

It was not just fire.

It was—another ”answer that humanity was trying to reach.”

Her eyes turned cold, and she finally looked up.