261: Chapter 261 Rift Valley Cleanup

Chen Rong tucked the Yao Beast core into his pocket, stood up, and patted the blood off his hands.

The Silver-maned Beast's blood was dark purple and thicker than human blood. It felt sticky on his hands, carrying a mix of rust and fishy odors.

He glanced south. Toward the valley entrance, a hundred mechs were lining up and walking into the valley. Every step brought a rumbling vibration transmitted from the gravel beach, making the soles of his feet tremble.

Drones buzzed overhead, scanning every corner of the valley floor.

The Horned Wolves that had been scared off earlier didn't run far; they huddled together at a bend in the northern section of the rift valley, forming a dark, packed mass.

Some poked their heads out from cave entrances, while others lay behind rocks with only their two ears exposed.

Zhang Dabiao's S-01 walked at the very front. The heavenly meteor warblade had already been unhooked from its back, held horizontally in its right hand with the blade pointing down, almost dragging against the ground.

"All squads pay attention. The Horned Wolves are gathered two kilometers away in the northern section, numbering between seven and eight hundred."

Tao Zhe's voice came through the communication channel. "These are all first- and second-tier small fry. They're not worth wasting ammunition on. Clear them out with close combat."

Zhang Dabiao acknowledged and quickened his pace.

The mechs couldn't move freely in the rift valley.

The widest place at the valley floor was only about a hundred meters, and the narrowest spot was only forty to fifty meters. One hundred mechs formed a single-file column, stretching nearly three kilometers from front to back.

Zhang Dabiao frowned slightly.

With a three-kilometer column, by the time the front started fighting, the people in the back wouldn't even be able to see what the enemy looked like.

He issued a few commands in the channel to shorten the formation.

The three front squads squeezed forward into two columns, and the two rear squads closed the distance to follow, shrinking the entire formation from three kilometers to less than one.

It was a bit cramped, but at least they could look out for each other when the fighting started.

As soon as the formation was adjusted, the vanguard could already see the Horned Wolves.

Seven or eight hundred Horned Wolves were crowded onto a gravel beach, their gray fur standing on end, their low growls merging into one.

The momentum of scattering in all directions from being frightened by the mechs was gone.

Running here to find a dead end ahead blocked by stone walls, unable to turn around, they stopped running instead.

Dozens of Horned Wolves in the front row lowered their bodies, pushed their hind legs against the gravel, pointed their curved horns forward, and struck a charging pose.

The leading one at the very front was a circle larger than the rest, with a shoulder height close to three meters, and dried blood scabs hanging on its curved horns.

Zhang Dabiao had no intention of stopping, piloting the S-01 mech to step directly onto them.

The first step crushed a half-person-high stone, and the second step landed in the stream, splashing water against the mech's calf armor.

The leading Horned Wolf howled, and seven or eight hundred Horned Wolves charged out simultaneously.

A gray tide surged from the gravel beach. The front-row Horned Wolves lowered their heads to ram with their curved horns, while the back-row ones leveraged the stone walls to jump onto the mechs. Several leaped directly onto the shoulder armor of the front-row mechs, their claws gouging white marks on the armor plates.

Zhang Dabiao swept his blade horizontally.

The heavenly meteor warblade carved an arc, its blade wind carrying gravel. Over a dozen Horned Wolves in the front row were batted away by the flat of the blade, and three were directly sliced in two by the edge, dark red blood seeping across the gravel beach.

The mechs behind caught up.

Sixty units crowded into the valley floor in two columns, hacking with blades, stomping with feet, and smashing with fists with crude movements. But the size of the Horned Wolves was like wild rabbits in front of the mechs, clearing an open space as they stomped.

While hacking, Zhang Dabiao kept his eyes on the team's coordination, his brows furrowing tighter the more he looked.

After the expansion of mech production, the threshold for pilots had dropped lower and lower.

The early batch was selected from special forces, but some in the current batch hadn't even driven an armored vehicle before being pulled out three weeks after sitting in the cockpit.

The results were visible—two mechs squeezed together and almost collided, and another missed its footing and slipped into a stream ditch, scrambling frantically for a few seconds before climbing out.

These flaws wouldn't kill anyone against Horned Wolves, but it was hard to say in front of a Fourth-Order Monster Beast.

"Number 07 of the Third Squad, lean left. Don't crowd together with Number 08," Zhang Dabiao shouted in the channel. "Number 14, watch the terrain under your feet. The stream ditch is three meters to your front left."

...

His mouth never stopped.

Fifteen minutes later, the Horned Wolves were cleared out.

The gravel beach at the valley floor was littered with Horned Wolf corpses, blood and stream water mixed together, flowing into dark red trickles.

A few Iron-backed Pigs cowered in a stone cave in the southern section, too afraid to come out. They were blocked at the cave entrance by the Second Squad following behind and dragged out one by one to be dealt with.

Zhang Dabiao put away his blade and reported in the channel: "Southern section of the rift valley cleared. 763 Horned Wolves killed, 21 Iron-backed Pigs killed. Zero casualties on our side, three mechs with minor scrapes, not affecting combat effectiveness."

After listening inside the command vehicle, Su Mingyuan asked, "Are there any Yao Beast cores?"

Tao Zhe brought up the footage transmitted from the front. Several logistics soldiers were rummaging through the pile of corpses, slicing open the abdominal cavities of the Horned Wolves, reaching their hands in to feel around, shaking their heads, throwing them aside, and moving on to the next one.

"None," Tao Zhe said. "First- and second-tier ones don't produce cores."

Su Mingyuan didn't dwell on this; he hadn't expected any in the first place.

"Classify the corpses. Load the Horned Wolves and Iron-backed Pigs directly onto trucks and ship them back, and send them into the Zombie World tonight. Process the Silver-maned Beast's corpse separately; Tianheng needs to perform anatomical analysis."

"Understood."

The transport team drove up from behind.

Over a hundred heavy trucks bumped forward along the gravel road of the valley floor with open flatbeds, and the logistics mech soldiers began loading the corpses onto the trucks.

Each Horned Wolf weighed seventy or eighty kilograms, and two people carried one, so the efficiency wasn't fast.

A full truckload was about a dozen, and over a hundred trucks running a trip would only transport five or six hundred, requiring a second trip.

Chen Rong stood on a rock at the valley floor, watching the logistics soldiers busy.

He was still wearing the military T-shirt stained with the Silver-maned Beast's blood. The dark purple bloodstains had dried into a patch on his chest, turning rock-hard as the wind blew.

Lin Wan had come down at some point as well, standing five or six meters away from him with both hands shoved into her camouflage trouser pockets, watching the transport trucks drive out.

Chen Rong turned his head to look at her without speaking, then turned back to continue watching the logistics soldiers load the vehicles.

Su Mingyuan jumped down from the command vehicle and walked forward along the gravel road of the valley floor.

He walked over to the Silver-maned Beast's corpse and squatted down to look at it for a while.

This beast's bulk was even larger than he had imagined. Lying on the ground like a small hill, its dark silver fur hadn't faded even in death, reflecting a cold light in the morning sun.

That row of bone spurs on its spine—some were broken, while others still stood intact, the longest one being as long as his entire arm.

"Take separate samples of the fur and bone spurs," Su Mingyuan stood up and said to Tao Zhe, who was following beside him, "Have Tianheng analyze the Materials properties."

Tao Zhe nodded and noted it down.

Su Mingyuan stood at the valley floor and looked north.

The rift valley extended north for over a dozen kilometers, then the terrain rose, connecting to the southern foothills of Black Wind Ridge.

"Zhang Dabiao."

"Here." Zhang Dabiao's voice came through the channel, slightly out of breath.

"Lead the first echelon to continue pushing north and clear the entire rift valley before dark."

"Understood."

"Stop when you reach the northern entrance of the rift valley. Do not go up Black Wind Ridge."

Zhang Dabiao paused for a moment. "Got it."

Su Mingyuan ignored whatever was in his tone.

Black Wind Ridge wasn't a matter for today.

Taking the rift valley today, building the outpost, and pulling over the logistics line—they would talk about tomorrow later.

He returned to the command vehicle and opened his tablet to write the mission brief.

[Rift Valley Campaign Day 1: 784 enemies eliminated, one Third-Order Yao Beast core acquired. Zero casualties on our side.]