Chapter 253: Shattered Granite

The deafening roar of falling stone echoed through the water-logged canyon like continuous thunder.

High above the riverbed, the granite cliff face—already destabilized by the spring thaw and cracked by Resonance’s sonic shockwaves—sheared completely off the mountain wall.

Tons of razor-sharp boulders, frozen mud, and uprooted pine trees rained down in a violent cascade, threatening to bury the truck and the squad under fifty feet of solid rock.

Inside the transport, the side doors slammed open with a crash.

Song Yan leaped out, his pale face set in an expression of intense, absolute focus. He didn’t hesitate for a single second. Reaching out with both arms, he slammed his open palms flat against the wet, muddy side panel of the truck, pouring every remaining drop of his gravitational core power into the air above them.

HUMMMMMM!

A shimmering, distortive dome of inverted gravitational force erupted outward, expanding like an invisible protective shield directly over the transport and the surrounding riverbed.

The first wave of massive, multi-ton granite boulders slammed into the upper boundary of Song Yan’s gravitational field.

Instead of crushing the truck, the rocks were instantly deflected sideways, their trajectories altered as they bounced violently off the invisible force field and crashed harmlessly into the riverbed on either side. A thick shower of pulverized stone dust, melting ice, and shattered pine needles sprayed across the water, blinding the view.

Song Yan’s teeth ground together so hard his jaw throbbed, cold sweat dripping down his pale forehead as he held the immense weight of the mountain at bay. "I can’t hold this field forever!" he shouted over the deafening roar of the avalanche.

"Finish them!"

Through the thick curtain of falling rock and white dust, Resonance stumbled backward, his face twisted in disbelieving rage. Seeing his trap thwarted by Song Yan’s gravitational dome, the sonic enforcer raised his hands, preparing to channel another point-blank shockwave directly into the transport’s exposed engine block.

"Not today, scar-face!"

A shadow burst straight through the curtain of falling gravel. Ah Hua charged through the slush like a runaway freight train, his mechanical right arm drawn back like a loaded siege engine. The dark metal plating of his prosthetic glinted fiercely through the mud and dust, its internal hydraulic pumps whining at maximum pressure.

Resonance tried to cross his arms to project a defensive sonic barrier, but Ah Hua was far too fast.

CRACK-BOOM!

Ah Hua’s fist drove straight through Resonance’s hastily formed sonic field, slamming with terrifying, bone-crushing force directly into the center of the enforcer’s chest plate.

The impact shattered the reinforced white armor into flying fragments, completely destroying the silver coils embedded along Resonance’s forearms.

The sheer force lifted the enforcer off his feet, launching him twenty feet backward through the air. Resonance slammed hard against a boulder and slid down, unconscious and completely neutralized.

"That’s one down!" Ah Hua bellowed, wiping a smear of dark mud from his face with his sleeve.

Ten feet away, the second enforcer, Vector, was already scrambling up from the mud where Han Zheng’s previous yellow-tier shot had blasted him.

Though his battle armor was scorched, cracked, and smoking from the energy blast, Vector’s eyes flared with desperation.

He ignited his single remaining kinetic blade, the crackling golden energy arc spitting sparks into the damp air. With a low, guttural roar, Vector lunged toward Han Zheng, driving the point of the energy blade straight for Han Zheng’s throat in a final, suicidal strike.

Han Zheng didn’t flinch. His eyes remained sharp, and unreadable.

As the crackling blade thrust toward his neck, Han Zheng sidestepped. His left hand shot out like an iron vise, clamping hard around Vector’s armored wrist and stopping the blade just inches from his collarbone.

Vector gasped as Han Zheng’s grip tightened, the sheer physical force of Han Zheng’s core-enhanced strength cracking the white wrist armor like eggshells.

"Your mission ends here," Han Zheng said quietly.

With a swift, ruthless twist of his arm, Han Zheng disarmed the enforcer, shattering the blade unit against his knee. Before Vector could even react, Han Zheng brought the stock of his rifle up in a devastating arc, slamming it straight into Vector’s visor. The glass shattered, and Vector collapsed limply into the water-logged clay, motionless.

"Clear!" Lu Feng shouted from the top of the transport, sweeping his Rifle across the misty canyon to ensure no other Apex trackers were lurking in the rocks. "The enforcers are down!"

Song Yan let out a long, ragged gasp, finally releasing his gravitational dome. He collapsed against the side of the truck, his knees shaking with exhaustion as the last of the falling rockslide settled into a massive, smoking heap around them.

The immediate threat of the attackers was eliminated, but their path home remained completely severed.

Directly ahead of the truck’s front bumper, the combined rockslides had piled tons of solid granite boulders, thick mud, and timber into a massive, impassable wall that reached twenty feet high, completely sealing off the narrow canyon exit leading back toward the Research Center.

Inside the driver’s cab, Zhou Ming leaned out the window, looking at the towering pile of rock with wide, panicked eyes. "Commander! The road is completely blocked! The engine can’t push through that much solid stone!"

Han Zheng stepped up to the front of the vehicle, inspecting the massive boulder mound.

He looked over at Lu Feng, who dropped down from the roof hatch and landed beside him in the mud.

"Lu Feng, switch to Tier Two," Han Zheng commanded, his voice steady and resolute. "We’re going to clear our own path."

"Understood," Lu Feng replied, instantly clicking his selector switch past the red notch until the humming gold indicator lit up along his barrel housing.

Both men stepped up to the base of the boulder pile, aiming their Power Core Rifles directly at the center fault line of the granite structure where the largest stones wedged together.

"On my mark," Han Zheng said, his eyes narrowing as he locked his sights onto the target. "Three... two... one... Fire!"

BOOM-CRACK! BOOM-CRACK!

Two blinding, sun-yellow beams of concentrated, high-frequency energy erupted simultaneously from their rifle barrels. The twin golden bolts streaked through the damp air, slamming directly into the core of the granite barrier with explosive power.

The raw force of the energy blasts didn’t just crack the stone—it superheated the moisture trapped inside the granite, causing the massive boulders to violently detonate from the inside out. A blinding flash of yellow light illuminated the entire canyon, followed by a roaring shockwave that pulverized the multi-ton barrier into a spraying fountain of fine gravel, dust, and white-hot stone fragments.

When the thick dust cloud cleared a few seconds later, a wide, gaping hole was carved completely through the center of the rockslide, revealing the clear, muddy trail on the other side.

"Zhou Ming! Drive!" Han Zheng roared, gesturing toward the opening.

"Get in! Move, move!" Ah Hua shouted, helping a thoroughly exhausted Song Yan climb back into the side compartment before scrambling inside himself.

Han Zheng and Lu Feng hauled themselves through the side hatch, slamming the door shut and locking the manual deadbolts.

Up in the cab, Zhou Ming slammed his foot onto the accelerator. The transport’s tires churned through the deep slush, the diesel engine screaming as the armored vehicle plowed through the smoking gap in the rockslide, breaking free into the open mountain pass beyond.

Behind them, secondary rockfalls groaned and collapsed, sealing the flooded ravine shut for good, burying the remnants of the Apex vehicles and the defeated enforcers beneath a mountain of stone.

The journey back up the mountain pass was quiet, marked only by the heavy rumble of the truck’s engine and the soft, rhythmic hum of the heater vents inside the cabin.

Twenty minutes later, the blast gates of the Research Center came into view through the light mist. With a grinding, mechanical groan, the primary blast doors slid open, allowing the truck to roll safely into the warm, illuminated staging bay.

The moment the vehicle came to a complete stop, the bay doors hissed shut behind them, locking out the cold world outside.

Lin Qing, Old Wang, Sun Hao, and Dr. Zhou were already waiting on the lower platform, their weapons at the ready. The moment the transport’s side hatch opened, Lin Qing stepped forward, her eyes instantly scanning the interior until they landed on Han Zheng.

Relief washed across her face, though her voice remained focused and sharp. "Status report! Did you run into Apex pursuit units?"

"We ran into two of their elite power-holders," Han Zheng said, stepping down onto the concrete floor and handing his spent rifle to Sun Hao. "They were using modified bikes and high-grade core abilities. But the squad handled it. Everyone made it back."

Ah Hua and Song Yan carefully helped Ye Lin step down from the truck, while Lu Feng carried Ye Lin’s frail, shivering mother in his arms.

Dr. Zhou immediately rushed over with two guards carrying a warm gurney. "Get her straight to the primary medical bay!" Dr. Zhou ordered efficiently, checking the elderly woman’s pale face and weak pulse. "She’s severely dehydrated and suffering from stage-two hypothermia, but her vitals are steady. We’ll get her warmed up and hooked to an IV right away."

Ye Lin walked alongside the gurney, his hand tightly holding his mother’s cold fingers until they reached the medical wing doors.

Once she was safely inside the clean room, Ye Lin let out a long, shuddering breath, the immense tension that had held his body rigid for days finally melting away.

He turned back to face the squad gathered in the staging bay. His face was smeared with mud, dark grease, and dried blood, but his eyes burned with absolute clarity and deep, unwavering gratitude.

Ye Lin reached into his torn tactical vest, pulling out the small, sealed, waterproof data drive he had protected with his life throughout the harrowing chase.

He stepped up to Han Zheng and Lin Qing, holding out the drive.

"This is what I promised," Ye Lin said, his voice raspy but clear in the quiet bay. "It contains Commander Lu’s primary logistics grid, troop deployment schedules, and the master architectural blueprints for their central research hub."

Lin Qing took the metal drive into her hands, looking at Han Zheng.

"With this data," Han Zheng said, his deep voice carrying an authority that echoed off the concrete walls, "we finally have the map we need. We’re done waiting in this pass."

Lin Qing nodded firmly, her eyes reflecting the soft lights of the staging bay. "Let’s get to the Command Hub and decrypt it."