"Go ahead and use it."
Chen Jian decisively ordered, then waved his hand, leading everyone out of the underground facility.
Before leaving, Zeng Yi looked back several times with reluctance.
He couldn’t understand why, after discovering such important equipment, Chen Jian chose not to take any of it.
Even if they didn’t take those "nuclear bombs" that could create a sun, wouldn’t they even take those "fighter jets"?
They indeed couldn’t be used anymore, but since they could even repair the exoskeletons on their bodies, couldn’t they repair a "plane"?
When Lei Jie was deploying explosives to collapse the floating soil above the cave and cover the entrance, Zeng Yi voiced his question.
Chen Jian, half amused, replied:
"Repairing a fighter jet is not a simple matter—besides, the damage to these fighter jets inside is beyond the extent that simple ’repairs’ can restore their functionality."
"To make them operational, we need an entire set of systems. Theoretically, it’s not much easier than building a new one from scratch."
"But... why are you so interested in planes? Do you want to fly?"
As soon as Chen Jian finished speaking, before Zeng Yi could answer, Xie Liu chimed in:
"Actually, I also want to try what it feels like to fly."
As the words fell, Chen Jian instinctively turned to Ji Xing and Li Shi, where one nodded, and the other shook their head.
The one who nodded was Ji Xing, who then explained:
"For us Holy Blood, we’ve all thought about truly flying at some point."
"Because we can... jump very high, but that’s never true flying."
"Honestly, people have tried before; for instance, by mixing certain winged creatures’ blood with Holy Blood, hoping to breed a flying next generation."
"But without exception, all of them failed."
"... They would fail, no surprise. Your direction is completely wrong."
Chen Jian helplessly spread his hands, and at this moment, Lei Jie had already detonated the explosives.
Amidst several muffled explosions, the accumulation of humus above the cave collapsed, sealing the entrance deeply.
From the surface, it’s hard to see the hidden cave path beneath the floating soil.
This, of course, wasn’t the perfect solution, but reaching this point was the team’s limit.
"We’ve collected all the information here, yet our tasks are far from over."
"The Blood Skulls haven’t been cleared, and the equipment they left behind is still valuable."
"It’s time for a thorough sweep."
"We need to strip this relic to the bone!"
In the following days, Chen Jian’s team shuttled back and forth between the Anqing Ruins and Anqing City no less than twenty times.
They combed through the entire Anqing Ruins like ants moving house.
If they encountered a Horror Demon Team, they left none behind; if they saw a Horror Demon Camp, not a trace remained.
The entire team excelled in stripping things to the bone, and the equipment they transported back to Anqing City was bizarre and varied.
Black gunpowder, single-shot rifles, poor-quality bullets, scrap steel, useless electronic devices, cables, batteries, expired food...
Except for the large quantities of jerky made from unknown meats stored in the Horror Demon Camps, which were burned to ashes, they took away almost everything movable.
To transport more efficiently, they even hired a twenty-person logistics team specifically for clearing miscellaneous items and loading.
The representative responsible for handing over with them was from the Ring Chamber of Commerce. After seeing their almost ’greedy’ transport operations, a faint bitter smile finally appeared on the usually stern representative stationed at the storage warehouse.
"... If possible, would you even dismantle every building in the Anqing Ruins and sell them to us?"
Hearing his words, Chen Jian, busily picking out high-value items not intended for sale from the pile, nodded, sincerely saying:
"If we could, we indeed would."
"After all, this is a unique treasure."
"Besides us, no other force near Anqing Ruins has the ability to delve into this still unstable relic at a lesser cost to scour it."
"For them, a stripping operation is inefficient and low value."
"But we’re different; we’re good at this sort of thing."
"Do you know what this is called? It’s called industry barrier."
"... I have learned something."
The representative nodded in agreement, then said:
"But you haven’t realized; the biggest obstacle to you plundering the ruins isn’t those Horror Demons, but Huadu."
"After this conflict, the tension between the Mechanical God Sect, the Holy Blood Temple, and Huadu has reached its peak."
"They’re gearing up every day, preparing for an imminent attack from Huadu."
"They have no time to worry about these trivial gains... what they face is a matter of life and death."
Chen Jian dismissively waved his hand and said:
"Huadu is not a threat to us at all—they are too far away and lack delivery capability."
"Any attack they could organize in the short term would rely on so-called mercenaries, and the combat power of those mercenaries... couldn’t even break through Yellow Stone City’s defenses, let alone threaten us."