22: Chapter 22 Burying the Trump Card

"We must publicly project the main altar."

The main voice fell silent, the entire preparatory area went quiet for a moment, and immediately following, the scrolling comments in the sky exploded like crazy.

"Now there is no way to hide."

"The burrowing style fears the light most; this rule is aimed right at him."

"I would like to see what that Sacrificial Fire, which is touted as miraculous, actually looks like."

"What else could it look like? A pile of dead rat bones."

People outside the light curtain were laughing, but the wind in the preparatory area had turned cold.

A few Ambush Rats dragging oil bladders instinctively shrank their necks, their tails even straightening. Grey Pupil looked up at the rule light patterns in the sky, his grey eyes shrinking to a point, his claws lightly scraping across the ground, kicking up a string of sparks.

"There is more text at the back."

He read it very slowly, word by word.

"Projection verification... only recognizes the currently displayed main altar."

"Divine Domain core sacrificial vessels... are not in the scope of disclosure."

As the words fell, the black fire in Lu Jin's eyes sank slightly.

Displayed main altar.

Not the furnace.

Not the furnace core.

Just the shell meant for others to see.

Grey Pupil also realized this and looked up abruptly.

"They want to see the altar, not the fire."

Lu Jin raised his hand and kicked the fake sacrificial point he had just set up, shattering half of it; the black stone rings rolled everywhere, and the tattered flag cloth and lamp bones scattered even further.

"Then let them see it."

"Bury the true fire underground."

Once these words fell, all the rat groups raised their heads.

The Digging Squad pushed with their front claws, the Transport Team bit onto the bone ropes, and even the few Ambush Rats in the fire room who were staring blankly at the oil bladders moved in unison, as if whipped.

Lu Jin stood in the center of the preparatory area, his gaze sweeping over the drainage channel, the old cable channel, the empty altar, and the hardened old ore crust at the lowest layer, his voice fast and steady.

"Digging Squad, open another layer beneath the echo layer, and dig me a Return Fire Well."

"Transport Team, the black stone rings, the remnants of the incubation pool map, the crystal core, and the main basin of the fire room, sink them all down."

"Ambush Squad, keep thirty on the surface to leave traces, and transfer the rest to the bottom layer."

"Trailer Team, transport the lamp bones and chain cables first, do not transport the fire."

Grey Pupil added.

"The Breeding Cave sinks down as well."

"The White-Bellied Mother Rat, the pups, and the fungus nuclei, all go to the deepest layer."

After saying this, he had already dashed towards the drainage channel first.

That place already had an echo layer; once the soil was lifted, there was a section of hollow old mine tunnel underneath. Grey Pupil made three marks along the tunnel wall, and the Digging Squad immediately split into two groups, one digging the well downwards and the other cutting horizontally along the well wall, specifically to create turning paths and hidden chambers.

The soil was turned over layer by layer.

The top floating dust was as loose as dregs; half a zhang down, the soil color turned black, and hard shells began to appear. The Tunneling Rats' claws knocked against the old ore crust, sparks bursting in strings. They did not chisel hard, but followed the cracks; the front row opened seams, the back row stuffed them with wet ash, and the third row used tawan iron sand to stabilize the edges. What they dug out was not a hole, but like throats swallowing people underground.

The Transport Team was even busier.

Five bone-wheel trailers were all deployed, transporting black stone rings, lamp bones, military gear plates, the fire room's main basin, tattered ignition flags, and spirit-stabilizing potions down, one cart after another. The White-Bellied Mother Rat was individually nudged onto the middle cart, with a litter of new pups pressed under her belly, and next to her were three grey fire fungus nuclei and that incubation crystal core. She did not cry out, just kept her head down, protecting her belly all the way, her tail tightly circling the little pups.

Lu Jin took a look, then turned his head and pointed out three locations on the ground.

"Here, here, and here."

"Dig storage chambers."

Grey Pupil's ears twitched: "Oil storage chambers?"

"Yes."

Lu Jin's fingertips drew three lines on the soil, perfectly blocking the three attack routes most likely to be mistaken for the main tunnel.

"Bury one chamber next to the surface sacrificial point."

"Bury another chamber next to the drainage channel."

"At the old cable channel entrance, make the third chamber for me."

"Leave thin fuses between the chambers, press wet ash on the surface, and lay waste bones and tattered flag cloth on the top layer."

Grey Pupil stared at the three lines, his eyes lighting up inch by inch.

He saw it.

This is not defense.

This is choosing a way to die for others.

The comments in the sky were still scrolling.

"He moved! He is transferring resources!"

"Is digging the ground useful now? Once the projection opens, the holes will all be revealed."

"Look at those trailers of his, don't they look like he is fleeing and moving house?"

Laughter, mocking sounds, and betting sounds all pressed down from the light curtain.

Lu Jin did not even lift his head.

He just squatted by the Return Fire Well that was taking shape and pressed his palm into the black soil at the lowest layer. The black fragments burned hot against his chest, the wanji ember furnace in his Sea of Consciousness shuddered slightly, and a wisp of extremely thin dark fire drilled down along his finger bones.

The black soil at the bottom of the well lit up silently.

It was not an explosive light.

It was a dark red light retracting in circles, as if a furnace pattern had originally grown underground and was awakened by his touch.

Grey Pupil's pupils shrank.

"It is done."

When the Return Fire Well truly came to life, the Transport Team happened to drag down the last piece of the black stone ring. Lu Jin raised his hand and pressed down, and all the rat groups prostrated on the ground simultaneously.

"Watch."

The black stone rings were embedded into the well wall one by one, the lamp bones were inverted on the outermost edge, the remnants of the incubation pool map were pressed into the deepest groove, and the incubation crystal core was placed in the center of the well bottom. The grey-red fire paste in the fire room's main basin was scooped out by Grey Pupil and carefully introduced into the surrounding guide grooves.

Hum.

The entire Return Fire Well shuddered slightly.

There was no big fire, no black smoke, only that little bit of dark red at the bottom of the well sinking slowly, sinking deeper and deeper, as if it had swallowed the ground fire of the entire preparatory area into its belly.

The wind changed instantly.

The heat that had originally been venting out from the fire room was all sucked away by this well. Several shallow holes that were still venting air turned cold simultaneously, and even the most sensitive Ambush Rats were stunned for a moment, lowering their heads to sniff around, as if looking for that ball of fire that had suddenly disappeared.

Lu Jin looked down at them, his voice not loud.

"The ones on the ground are all for others to see."

"This one underground is the real life."

"Whoever lets the life leak out, I will bury them first."

The rat groups all lowered their heads in unison.

Even the White-Bellied Mother Rat let out a low cry, circling her pups tighter under her belly.

The line of faith sank.

Lu Jin could clearly feel that after this moment, the reverence the rats in the Dead Ash Mine had for the "true fire underground" had completely overwhelmed everything on the surface. The sacrificial points on the ground could be lost, the flag positions could be lost, the trailers could be lost, and even the corpses of their own kind could be lost.

Only this well could not be exposed.

This was what he wanted.

Once the Return Fire Well sank down, the fake sacrificial points on the surface were set up even faster.

The black stone rings were no longer sent down, but directly surrounded half a broken platform on the side of the empty altar. Three tattered flag cloths were inserted, two lamp bones were nailed crookedly, and even the military gear plates were intentionally left half-exposed, looking like a temporary main altar pieced together in a rush. To make it look more real, Grey Pupil even smeared a few lumps of grey fire fungus paste into the black stone seams, letting them flicker with fire edges.

Looking from a distance, it was gloomy, tattered, and very poor.

But it was exactly the kind of thing Lu Jin would build.

Even the three black-robed inspection envoys took a few extra looks.

The leader stood outside the line and spoke indifferently: "The main sacrificial projection only verifies the displayed altar, not the underground cavities."

The academy teacher beside him frowned.

"Are you reminding him?"

The black-robed person's expression did not change.

"I am reminding everyone."

"Who can understand it depends on their own ability."

Lu Jin heard it, but did not turn his head, only inserting the last piece of the ignition flag pole into the center of the fake altar.

Once the flag pole was erected, the entire fake sacrificial point immediately had a bit more decent ferocity.

Grey Pupil walked to his side and lowered his voice.

"It can be seen from the outside now."

"It is not chaotic enough inside."

Lu Jin gave a grunt, turned, and looked at the seven shallow holes that had already taken shape.

"Continue digging."

"One true path, six fake paths."

"Bury bone spikes, cavities, and fire fuses in the fake paths."

"Leave a fragile layer that can collapse but hasn't yet between every two fake paths."

The Digging Squad dispersed.

This time they did not seek depth, only chaos. A shallow path next to the drainage channel was deliberately dug very wide, looking like a main transport route; the one at the old cable channel entrance was dug narrow and straight, looking like a life-saving path that a hero unit would take; the area directly below the empty altar was even more direct, hollowing out a whole honeycomb-like cavity, while only a thin layer of old ore crust was pressed on top.

Once someone stepped on this crust, they would not fall down immediately.

They would hear the cracking sound first.

By the time they wanted to retreat, the whole circle around them would collapse together.

The oil storage chambers were also being sealed one by one.

The first chamber was buried three zhang away from the fake sacrificial point, containing twelve fungus-skin oil bladders, mixed with badger marrow and moth sac powder, with two lamp bone ignition grooves stuck to the side. The second chamber was deeper, hidden next to the air return vent in the lower layer of the drainage channel; once caught by the wind, the fire would back-pour along the channel. The third chamber was the most ruthless, with two whole carts of oil bladders pressed into the bottom of the old cable channel, wrapped on the outside with a layer of broken military gear plates and tawan iron sand.

Grey Pupil personally connected the fuses one by one, and finally looked up at Lu Jin.

"Do you want to leave something real on the surface?"

Lu Jin looked at that tattered fake altar, his lips pressing down slightly.

"Leave it."

After saying this, he fastened a piece of chain cable he had just removed to the side of the fake altar, and drove two of the fiercest Ambush Rats onto the surface, letting them walk back and forth around the sacrificial point, deliberately leaving messy claw marks. He also sent two Trailer Teams up, loaded with half a cart of waste bones and empty boxes, and under the watchful eyes of everyone, they circled the sacrificial point, as if they were replenishing the main altar.

The light curtain in the sky was in an uproar.

"I said it, this is his main altar!"

"So tattered? The most shabby one in the first eight miles."

"Shabby or not, there must be a hole hidden underneath."

"What is the use of hiding it? It is all exposed now, just attack this point in the next round."

The odds board moved again.

[Lu Jin: 1 to 40]

More people bet that he would lose.

In Qinglan City, waves of laughter rose one after another.

In the preparatory area, the soil under Lu Jin's feet was no longer the original soil.

The Return Fire Well sucked away all the true heat in the deepest layer, the fake sacrificial point shone on the surface, seven shallow holes were connected to each other, three oil storage chambers were hidden next to the fragile layers and air return vents, the trailer secret path pressed from the echo layer all the way to the back of the flag position, and even the Breeding Cave and the fire room had been stuffed into the true underground layer by him.

What others saw was a broken altar, a few rat holes, and a few shabby trailers.

What was truly buried underground was a whole piece of ground that would bite people.

Grey Pupil stood at the entrance of the echo layer, looked back, and his voice carried a hint of nearly sharp gratification for the first time.

"Now whoever comes to flip the ground, the first thing they will flip open is their own coffin lid."

Lu Jin did not speak.

He just looked up at the lottery wheel slowly turning in the sky.

The wheel lit up.

Eight beams of light fell simultaneously, dragging the names of the top eight participants into mid-air one by one. The crowd at Shenmen Plaza went quiet again, and even the odds around the board paused briefly.

The first round of matchups began the draw.

The first beam of light fell, Ji Mingxiao, against a Wood Spirit seed.

The second, Lu Jingyao, against a Wasteland Beast Rider.

The third...

As the wheel turned, the grey-black beam of light belonging to Lu Jin suddenly lit up.

In an instant, all the monitoring mirrors above the preparatory area were aimed at him.

The crowd held their breath.

The next breath, another earth-yellow beam of light, heavy as a mountain, crashed down, and the name smashed opposite Lu Jin, even the ground seemed to tremble with it.

[Yue Zhenshan]

[Divine System Route: Black Rock Heavy Guard]

[Main Combat Units: Iron-Backed Mountain Rhino, Rock-Hammer Armored Warrior, City Shield Slave]

There was a moment of silence under the light curtain, followed by an almost uncontrollable uproar.

"It is over, he really ran into the one that counters the Burrowing style most!"

"Black Rock Heavy Guard? This team specializes in flipping the ground, sealing holes, and holding the front; even rat teeth cannot gnaw into it!"

"Lu Jin drew this in the first round? Isn't this just pressing him to death?"

Grey Pupil stared at the three unit names, his tail straightening little by little.

Iron-Backed Mountain Rhino, for crashing formations.

Rock-Hammer Armored Warrior, for breaking holes.

City Shield Slave, for sealing exits.

Everything was something that countered the rat groups.

Lu Jin looked up at the earth-yellow name, but his eyes grew cold little by little.

The heavy-armor divine system team that counters the rat groups the most.

It finally came.