Chapter 542: Primary Excellent Resources

Out of the corner of their eyes, the Raccoon Cat and Penelope clearly saw the former command room collapse with a deafening crash, plunging into endless darkness.

The continuous sound of collapsing echoed like surging tides, chasing right behind them. The thick walls of the metal corridor shattered, falling downward. The bottomless darkness was filled by pouring rocks, and countless blood-red eyes were buried and vanished at the last moment.

One second, ten seconds, a hundred seconds…

With solemn expressions, the group fled frantically, speeding away under Lu Chao’s lead as he cleared the path. Falling rocks along the way were forcefully smashed and knocked away. The THUD THUD THUD of rapid footsteps continued without pause.

Everything behind them was rapidly collapsing, plummeting into the deeper rock layers. Finally, when they at last rushed out of the corridor and arrived at the initial sinkhole entrance…

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

The rock walls collapsed, and the ground caved in. The outside world was already shrouded in the veil of night, billowing with dust and fog like a scene from the apocalypse. Countless giant rocks plummeted and smashed into the ground. Cracks appeared in the solid surface rock layers, which then caved in and plummeted downward.

The Superpower Members were anxious and despairing; even Superpower Level experts like Yue Zhenhong felt powerless.

At the critical moment, a loud WHIR WHIR WHIR echoed through the sky. The roar of helicopter propellers resounded, and several thick searchlight beams pierced the darkness from above.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!!”

“Inspector Chen! Team Leader Yue!!”

The commotion of the sinkhole’s collapse had long alerted Yan Zhengfeng and the others standing guard outside. Before the group had even reached the exit, they had mobilized helicopters and hovering aero-cars to the airspace above the sinkhole for a search and rescue operation.

Noticing their emergence, beams of light swept over to illuminate them, and rescue ladders were lowered, dropping right in front of the group.

“Let’s go!” Lu Chao shouted loudly. Finding hope, the crowd leaped up one after another, grabbing the ladders and climbing upward.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!

The earth beneath their feet completely collapsed, and deafening sounds continuously echoed. Lu Chao and the others clung tightly to the ladders, ascending along with the helicopters and hovering aero-cars to escape the sinkhole.

Subconsciously, someone looked down. The sinkhole seemed to plummet weightlessly, continuously sinking into boundless darkness. The earth on both sides collapsed in succession, and the solid rock layers turned into quicksand, falling downward as if to fill the void. Layer upon layer of dust was swept up, transforming into a billowing fog of sand.

In the end, when everyone completely escaped the sinkhole and reached a safe area, they saw that the sinkhole had completely vanished, leveled by quicksand. The land in their line of sight was left with only monstrous sandstorms and flying dust, as if to prove that everything that had just happened was not an illusion.

HUFF… HUFF… HUFF…

For a moment, the dozen or so Superpower Members who had escaped with their lives gasped for air, feeling the relief of surviving a disaster. Even Yue Zhenhong, the Superpower Team leader, turned pale, feeling a wave of shock while hanging onto the ladder.

In contrast, Lu Chao gripped the ladder with one hand and watched the scene, numerous speculations surfacing in his mind. He murmured, “Has it vanished…?”

This sinkhole expedition had been far too mysterious. Whether it was the Magic Alchemy Puppets guarding the place or the burial by the earth they were witnessing now, it all felt as though someone was deliberately hiding fragments of the past.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked up at the night sky again, staring at the millions of stars. He wondered, “Who could it be?”

Several days later.

The Fortress Base returned to its usual order.

The security cordon outside the barbed wire had been extended outward by another perimeter. Soldiers in the watchtowers kept lookout day and night, with searchlights and detection devices sweeping the surroundings from time to time. The engines of armored vehicles and tanks roared from morning until night. Transport trucks came and went endlessly, delivering batches of supplies from the rear to the front lines.

The collapse of the sinkhole was classified as “geological activity,” and the few who knew the truth were made to sign non-disclosure agreements.

The wilderness had always been vast and full of wonders. Whether it was bases from the old era or certain treasure ruins, they were legendary occurrences that had long appeared in the past. Therefore, although some people were surprised by the sinkhole incident, they didn’t dwell on it too much.

In fact, if one looked into the distance from the Fortress Base’s watchtower, they would see that the location of the sinkhole was now nothing but flat, sandy soil. Even those non-human monsters from before had been buried deep beneath the earth along with it, leaving absolutely no trace.

“Truly bizarre,” Yue Zhenhong said in a deep voice as he flew past in a hovering aero-car with a squad of men.

He had intended to continue surveying to see if the sinkhole could be found again, but he hadn’t expected that there wouldn’t be a single trace within a radius of several kilometers. It was as if that sinkhole ruin had never existed.

“Team Leader, should we keep investigating? We’ve already used sonar detection, and we haven’t found anything in the underground rock layers within a ten-kilometer radius…”

“Let’s try again.” Yue Zhenhong remained insistent, planning to give it another try.

The team members didn’t argue, simply resuming their patrol and detection.

This scene fell into the eyes of many. In a window at the Fortress Base, a pair of ruby-like beastly eyes flickered slightly.

Ghost Element had been lying by the window the entire time, watching the hovering aero-car disappear from sight. Swishing its tail, it seemed to be pondering something.

Immediately after, with a leap, it returned into the room, walking with elegant steps to a corner. The box there was half-open. It took the opportunity to push it open completely, looking at the contents inside with full curiosity.

Three head-sized, diamond-shaped Crystal Stones were piled together, emitting a faint, sky-blue glow. Ghost Element laid at the edge of the box, its beastly eyes staring at the Crystal Stones. It reached out a paw to gently bat at them, producing a faint CLINK CLINK sound.

“These Elemental Magic Crystal Stones are quite rare. Don’t break them.” Lu Chao’s voice drifted over from afar; he had clearly noticed it.

Ghost Element’s movements paused slightly, and it let out a low purr of dissatisfaction, but in the end, it stopped making a mess.