138: Chapter 138 A Full Purple Crystal Storage, Sweeping Across the Flight Path

Gao Jianping waved his hand.

"Take this group of armed thugs who gathered to rob away! Process them to the maximum extent of the law!"

Dozens of special police officers dragged the thugs, who had gone limp like mud, and shoved them into the riot control vehicles. Yan Laosan was dragged away by his collar, a large wet stain seeping through his crotch.

The clearing process took only ten minutes.

The olive-green helicopters and riot control vehicles pulled away with the detainees, leaving behind a dozen patrol cars flashing red and blue lights to cordon off the perimeter.

Four o'clock in the morning.

The temperature in Heishui County had dropped to freezing.

Rows of xenon headlights lit up on the distant horizon.

The rumbling sound of tracks crushing the ground was continuous. Eighty heavy-duty military-grade excavators, mobilized overnight by Great Wall Motors, along with fifty hundred-ton mining dump trucks, marched imposingly into the abandoned mining area.

Powerful searchlights illuminated the entire No. 3 mining pit as if it were broad daylight.

Zhao Tiezhu, wearing a hard hat, jumped out of the lead vehicle.

"Brother Da Biao, where is the coordinate Lu Chen gave us?" Zhao Tiezhu's voice was completely hoarse. He had been speeding while escorting the convoy, running over a dozen red lights, but the traffic police behind them had let them pass every time they saw the special approval documents.

Da Biao pulled out the satellite receiver and pointed to a spot in the very center of the pit floor, pinned down by an abandoned concrete block.

"Right there. Dig down."

"Get to work!" Zhao Tiezhu roared into the walkie-talkie. "All one hundred machines, get them in there! We must find the real thing before dawn!"

Eighty heavy-duty excavators emitted a low roar in unison.

Giant mechanical arms rose and slammed down heavily. The alloy buckets bit fiercely into the dry, hard Gobi terrain. Yellow dust filled the sky. The dump trucks lined up one by one to receive the soil.

The underground structure of the Great Northwest was extremely hard.

Digging to twenty meters, they hit a layer of shale.

Digging to forty meters, the machines' temperature alarms went off, and the tracks began to slip.

Seven o'clock in the morning. The sky was just beginning to brighten.

They had dug nearly fifty meters deep. The massive mining pit looked like an overturned funnel.

Suddenly.

In the very center of the pit floor, when the bucket of excavator No. 36 cut downward, it erupted with an extremely piercing sound of metal grinding.

Screech—

Sparks flew everywhere. The operator in the control cabin was jolted upward by the vibration.

"Stop, stop, stop!" The safety officer's roar came over the loudspeaker.

All the machines shut down instantly.

The entire deep pit was deathly silent, save for the sound of diesel engine cooling fans.

Zhao Tiezhu grabbed a high-powered flashlight and, along with two blasting experts, scrambled down the makeshift iron ladder to the bottom of the fifty-meter-deep pit.

The soil layer there had been scraped away halfway, revealing an extremely hard black rock surface.

The blasting expert knelt on one knee. He pulled out a tactical chisel and an engineering hammer.

"Director Zhao, this isn't ordinary basalt. There's something inside that got the bucket stuck." The expert gripped the hammer.

Da Biao also jumped down. He was holding a half-length police baton in his hand.

"Break it open," Da Biao said.

Clang.

The engineering hammer smashed heavily onto the end of the chisel.

A tiny crack appeared in the black rock surface. The expert changed angles and exerted force suddenly.

Crack.

A basin-sized piece of rock shell peeled off in response, crashing into the mud.

Zhao Tiezhu shone the beam of the high-powered flashlight directly into the gap.

Everyone's breathing stopped completely at that moment.

At the fault line hidden fifty meters underground, there was not a speck of dust. A mesmerizing, extremely pure deep purple glow erupted brilliantly under the stimulation of the white flashlight beam.

It was an entire wall of crystals embedded in the rock face. The crystal lattice, free of any impurities, was arranged perfectly.

The blinding purple light pierced into everyone's retinas like an awl.

The blasting expert's hand began to tremble violently. The hammer dropped to the ground with a clatter.

"Good heavens..." the expert's lips trembled, "Purity of over ninety-nine percent... associated fluorite crystal diamonds. This isn't just a vein down here, damn it, this is a crystal warehouse..."

Da Biao stared at that trace of purple light.

He slowly pulled out the satellite phone and dialed Lu Chen's number.

"Brother," Da Biao's voice echoed in the cold, deep pit of the Great Northwest.

"We've got the goods."

The Great Northwest.

Heishui No. 3 Coal Mine, pit bottom.

Da Biao gripped the satellite phone in his hand.

The speakerphone was on.

Lu Chen was on the other end.

"We've got the goods," Da Biao said.

Lu Chen's voice was steady, revealing no emotion: "What kind of goods?"

Da Biao didn't answer.

He turned his head to look at the blasting expert kneeling and shivering in the mud, raised his military boot, and kicked the expert in the rear.

"Speak. Lu Chen is listening."

The expert scrambled over to the satellite communicator.

His hands were covered in mud, so he didn't dare touch the machine, and could only shout with his neck stiffened: "Lu... Lu Chen! It's associated fluorite crystal diamonds! Purple light! Full purple! No impurities at all. The purity is definitely over ninety-nine percent. Lu Chen, this isn't a mine, this is a natural crystal warehouse!"

On the other end of the line, the sound of a lighter igniting came through.

Click.

"Da Biao," Lu Chen exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Yes," Da Biao stood at attention.

"Stop the excavators. Use manual labor. Pick the cleanest ones, don't let any dust touch them. Dig out one ton." Lu Chen bit on the cigarette filter, his tone as casual as ordering two jin of cabbage. "Find liquid nitrogen constant-temperature boxes to seal them. You personally escort the cargo to Heishui City Airport and wait for orders."

Da Biao didn't ask why: "Understood. When do we fly?"

Lu Chen's voice turned cold: "Before dark. Those thousands of nerds in the workshop are waiting for the rice to get into the pot; I won't let them go hungry."

Click.

The call ended.

Da Biao tucked the phone back into his stab-proof vest.

He turned to stare at Zhao Tiezhu.

"Lu Chen has given the order." Da Biao pointed at the deep purple rock wall at the bottom of the pit with his half-length baton. "Bring out the manual picks. Get one ton."

Cut to Jiangcheng.

The factory manager's office.

Lu Chen threw the phone onto the table.

He tapped the tabletop.

Wu Dong, who was dozing on the sofa nearby, sprang up, his eyes bloodshot.

"Brother."

"Check. Near Heishui City in the Northwest, are there any large planes that can fly? Need cargo ones." Lu Chen pointed at the military-grade tablet in Wu Dong's arms.

Wu Dong's hand trembled as he typed rapidly on the keyboard.

Ten seconds later.

"Brother, I found one." Wu Dong swallowed hard. "There's a Boeing 747 cargo plane grounded at Yinchuan Airport in the neighboring province. It's two hundred kilometers from Heishui City."

Wu Dong looked troubled: "But brother, that's a chartered plane for Shunfeng Airlines, and it has other schedules tonight. Plus, reporting a cross-province route on such short notice... the Civil Aviation Administration usually takes at least three days to process the paperwork. It can't fly."

Lu Chen opened the drawer and slammed the black bank card with the ending number 7890 onto the table.

"Call the boss of Shunfeng." Lu Chen leaned back in his chair, his voice extremely calm. "I'll pay five times the charter fee. If he wants delay compensation, I'll cover his breach of contract fees for this trip too. Tell him to keep that plane empty and fly to Heishui immediately."

Wu Dong picked up the phone, sweat pouring from his palms.

He dialed.

After a few words.

Wu Dong covered the receiver, his face turning pale: "Brother, the other side says this isn't about money. They can't get the special flight route approval without official endorsement; no matter how much money is offered, it can't take off."

Lu Chen stood up.

He reached out and snatched the phone.

"I am Lu Chen of Chenguang Electronics Factory."

The person on the other end paused, their tone immediately becoming polite: "Director Lu? I've heard much about you. But this temporary cross-province route, it really isn't..."

"In two hours, I want that plane to land at Heishui Airport." Lu Chen ignored his excuse, speaking word by word. "As for the flight route, I will clear it for you within ten minutes. You just make sure the fuel is ready. If you can do it, the charter fee is one hundred million, and I'll transfer it to your corporate account right now."

The person on the other end went completely silent.

Only heavy breathing remained.

"Deal."

Lu Chen hung up the phone and reached back to press the dedicated walkie-talkie on his desk.

"Director Li. Are you asleep?"

At this moment.

Inside the police car outside Warehouse No. 1.

Director Li Jianguo was sprawled out in the driver's seat, snoring away.

The walkie-talkie suddenly made a noise, startling him so much he almost drew his gun.

He rubbed his sore neck and grabbed the walkie-talkie: "Director Lu. What is it this time?"

Director Li Jianguo's throat was dry as fire: "I've been guarding the perimeter all morning and just closed my eyes."

"I need a special domestic cargo flight route. From Heishui in the Northwest, straight to Jiangcheng." Lu Chen looked at the sky outside the window. "Within ten minutes, I want the approval documents to land at the Civil Aviation Administration."

The cigarette butt in Director Li Jianguo's hand fell onto his crotch, burning him so badly he jumped up suddenly.