Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 733: Chapter 299: Troops at the Gates, Searching, Completely at a Loss (4)

”Found it, found it, the location of Tunnel No. 1 has been confirmed.”

After Li Xuandu walked out, forty Cold Resistance Level also followed, all were excited, clearly they had discovered something.

”Take me down, big brother, second brother, you two come along.”

Li Xuanling directly ordered Li Xuandu to lead the way, and called for Li Xuanyan and Li Xuantiang, the three of them followed Li Xuandu into the cave.

”Less than an hour until dawn, isn’t the army going to set up camp?”

”The leader just said to camp underground.”

”Camp underground, what does that mean?”

”I don’t know either!”

Seeing that the Longyou Army on the surface had not yet started setting up camp, the recently surfaced Cold Resistance Levels immediately began to inquire for reasons, and when they heard Meng Ying’s explanation, they were all puzzled, showing looks of confusion.

But soon, they knew the reason.

Boom......

A massive explosion shook from over two kilometers away to the west.

All the Cold Resistance Levels’ expressions changed, and they quickly ran toward the sound of the explosion.

At the center of the explosion was a vast hole with a diameter of seven or eight meters, surrounded by dust and snow, clearly having been blown upward from underground.

”Notify the army to move closer this way, we’ll punch a few more deep holes and let the soldiers slide down along the openings, tonight we’ll camp underground.”

The crowd initially thought some Cold Beast had emerged from underground, but then Li Xuandu’s voice came from below.

Boom... boom... boom...

Another succession of six or seven massive explosions similar to before rang out, the crowd saw the openings blown in the ground, feeling the violent tremors beneath their feet, and finally realized that the holes were forcibly punched through by the fists of Li Xuanling and her three brothers underground.

”Wasn’t it said the Hive Station is over a hundred meters underground?”

”Is the leader’s power that strong?”

”Such a big hole, made by a fist, this......”

”Ordinary ground wouldn’t hold, the Hive over the years built many underground passages, nearly hollowing out the surrounding subsoil, and these passages need to vent and exhaust gas regularly, the ground above is probably not as firm as before.”

”Alright, cut the chatter, hurry and inform the soldiers to prepare to go down.”

............

”This is the midpoint of Tunnel No. 1, just over seventy meters from the surface, the part leading to the main area was filled by Great Xia, right here, look.”

In an underground passage, Li Xuandu led Li Xuanling and the others to the end of the passage, near an area recently filled with soil.

”The end of Tunnel No. 1 is the entrance to the Hive Main Zone Space, meaning, once we blast this soil away, we’ll see the main area’s gate?”

After Li Xuanyan asked, he immediately looked at Li Xuandu, and upon receiving his nod, he held his breath and charged toward the area.

Boom......

Like a human cannonball, he smashed into the fresh soil, forging ahead ten meters, the ground quaking incessantly, squeezing open the filled area, directly creating a passage over ten meters long.

Thud!

Then, it seemed he encountered an obstacle.

A dull sound of flesh meeting iron echoed underground, heavy and prolonged.

”This part was poured with iron, the temperature is still quite high, must have been poured recently, we should be near the main area entrance.”

Li Xuanyan’s voice carried a hint of joy.

Li Xuanling and the others entered the passage, seeing the mark Li Xuanyan left on the iron wall, and immediately stepped forward to touch it, finding it still warm, a mixed expression appeared on their faces.

Happy because this was recently poured, they had likely found the entrance to the Hive underground main area;

The problem was how to breach this barrier.

”Let me try!”

Li Xuanling furrowed her brow, signaled the other three to stand aside, and struck the iron wall hard with her right fist.

Although a woman, her fist did not carry the same brute force as a man’s, but under the augmentation of over twenty man’s strength, the airflow in the entire tunnel began to agitate, the momentum was even more terrifying than Li Xuanyan’s body collision.

Thud!

Her fist landed, the iron wall emitted the same sound as before, but this time, it wasn’t just her fist, even her arm punched through.

Even so, the iron wall merely trembled, still unyielding.

”At least fifteen meters thick, brute force won’t break it.”

”A two-meter diameter, fifteen-meter-high cylindrical iron column, that took millions of pounds of iron ore to pour, Great Xia really spared no expense!”

Upon hearing it was fifteen meters thick, Li Xuandu shook his head and commented, pointing to the soil above the iron wall: ”It’s a shame, they are still on the dumb side, we can’t break the main entrance, but we can go around, just break through the soil on top, Xia Hong isn’t that smart after all!”

Li Xuanling silently frowned, watching Li Xuandu and Li Xuantiang forcefully destroy the soil layer above the iron wall.

The soil layer was much easier, the two only took less than ten moments to break through, creating a new passage more than ten meters long.

”Still the iron wall, how is this possible?”

Unfortunately, Li Xuandu’s next words deeply unsettled Li Xuanling.

He hurriedly joined Li Xuanyan atop the soil layer, seeing the pitch-black iron wall that appeared at the end, and his expression grew even more dour.

”The temperature here is low, not recent iron pouring.”

”Let me try.”

Li Xuanling told the three to stand aside and struck this iron wall again with a fist.

Boom......

”Thinner than before, but still over ten meters, brute force won’t break it.”

Li Xuanling withdrew her fist, observing the surroundings along the iron wall, her expression growing grimmer.

”It can’t be, the Hive’s underground space......”

Li Xuandu guessed something, quickly shuffled the soil around the iron wall, and soon exposed an area of five or six meters.

Behind the soil were contiguous iron walls.

”The Hive underground main zone’s barriers are all poured with iron?”

Not only all poured with iron, but all over ten meters thick.

This......

Li Xuandu was instantly dumbfounded.

Looking back, Li Xuanling and Li Xuanyan both looked as though they had swallowed flies; only Li Xuantiang, looking at the iron wall, remained calm, lost in thought about something.

”Even if the four of us worked together without resting to destroy this ten-meter thick iron wall using brute force, it would still take at least half a day!”

”Half a day and the Great Xia will stand and watch us break down the iron wall? Moreover, barely opening a small breach is useless, having three thousand Longyou soldiers enter one by one would be suicide.”

”Where did the Hive get so much iron ore, impossible? If the entire underground space’s barrier is all ten-meter-thick iron walls, I don’t believe it!”

”Search, notify all Cold Resistance Levels to follow along the iron wall, search all over, there might be regions without the iron barrier, even if not, finding a few weak points allows us to better breach.”

”But doing so will take a lot of time.”

”What else can we do, time must be spent, are we just going to wait here for Great Xia’s resources to deplete and force them to surrender?”

”Alright, no more talking, notify all Cold Resistance Levels to start searching, quickly!”

Li Xuanling’s eyes were full of anger, yet she had no choice but to issue the command.

Both attacks on Changbai Gully and Ning Yuan Hill had made her very cautious of Great Xia, so at Wushuang last night she refrained from advancing recklessly, choosing to first investigate the Hive’s situation.

Her prudence may have not been entirely wrong.

In hindsight, it was such caution that caused her to miss her opportunity.

Who would have thought Great Xia planned to cower within this fortress.

If only she had advanced straight away last night, not giving Xia Hong the chance to burrow inside.

Now knowing the enemy was within a shell, yet being utterly helpless, was extremely frustrating!