64: Class A fog area

A reinforced commercial vehicle drove on the winding concrete road, its wheels rolling over potholes without any jolt.

Outside the car window, the scenery was desolate.

As far as the eye could see, there were no other vehicles or pedestrians on the entire road, only the mournful sound of wind passing through the trees.

Not far ahead, an endless expanse of thick fog slowly rolled, like a pot of boiling gray soup, continuously eroding the surrounding clear areas, engulfing everything into that chaos.

Nan Mingde sat in the co-pilot's seat, his gaze fixed on the mist outside the window, and slowly spoke, "As I just said, it's still not too late to leave now."

He turned sideways to look at the people in the back row, his tone serious, "Satellite photos show that Jinfo Mountain, where the coordinates are located, was covered by thick fog a day ago."

"Preliminary estimates indicate the fog's area has reached hundreds of square kilometers, which is definitely the scale of an A-Class Fog Zone."

"The three military drones we sent earlier lost contact as soon as they entered the fog, with all signals and images interrupted."

Dragon Xuexue, sitting next to Su Chen, shrugged at the words, her tone somewhat nonchalant, "It's just a fog zone. If the Ruiners dare to go, what do we have to be afraid of?"

She paused, pointing to the mission brief, "Besides, the mission description mentioned potentially trapped civilians; we can't just stand by and do nothing."

She scanned the people in the car, a confident arc forming at the corner of her mouth, "It's just an A-Class Fog Zone. With our current setup, it shouldn't be a big problem."

There was indeed no absolute standard for the strength classification of monsters corresponding to A-Class Fog Zones, but the most mainstream view was that the hidden threats were at least above the Spirit Sea Realm, but had not yet reached the Nascent Soul Realm level.

Dragon Xuexue knew very well that this team was luxurious.

There were three cultivators at the peak of the Spirit Sea Realm: Su Chen, Nan Mingde, and Meng Cang, the President of the Dao Hall Alliance.

In addition, there were elites drawn from various major organizations, including Chu Jinghong from the Nine Tripods Consortium and others.

Especially Su Chen, his combat power could not be measured by the standards of ordinary Spirit Sea Realm peak cultivators.

She looked at Su Chen, her tone a little more relaxed, "Su Chen, what do you say? Whether we can get the 100,000 points rewarded for this mission depends on you."

Su Chen didn't immediately respond, his gaze falling on the rolling mist outside the window, his eyes narrowing slightly as he fell into a memory.

In his previous life, when Jiang City was finally destroyed, the Ruiners had publicly claimed responsibility for it.

And not long after that, news spread that the Ruiners had acquired an Emperor-level potential demon beast as their protector.

Many clues pointed to the same place—Jinfo Mountain.

The answer was obvious: that Emperor-level potential demon beast was very likely captured by the Ruiners from here.

He hadn't expected that in this life, he would have the opportunity to come here in advance and get a head start.

Even if he was wrong, this trip wouldn't be a loss.

He didn't care much about the Security Department's point rewards, but the demon beasts hidden in the fog zone, as well as the potentially rescued civilians, could bring him a large amount of merit points, which was the real gain.

"Keep driving," Su Chen uttered three words indifferently.

The driver nodded, without the slightest hesitation, and pressed the accelerator to the floor.

"Swish!"

The commercial vehicle, like an arrow shot from a bow, plunged directly into the dense fog without any pause.

The moment they entered the fog, the surrounding light suddenly dimmed, and visibility rapidly decreased to less than five meters. A damp, fishy smell permeated the air, carrying a faint chill when inhaled.

The vehicle drove slowly, the engine sound particularly clear in the silent fog.

A few minutes later, Nan Mingde took out his phone; the map on the screen had lost signal, only showing the previously cached route. He estimated based on the mileage, "There's no signal here, but according to the distance traveled, we should be at the edge of Jujube Village."

Just then, a palm-sized detector carried by Dragon Xuexue suddenly emitted a rapid "beep-beep" sound.

"Unknown demon beast aura detected nearby, strength initially judged to be early Spirit Sea Realm," the detector's electronic voice rang out in the quiet car.

Dragon Xuexue's eyes narrowed; she put away the detector and said in a deep voice, "I'll go scout ahead first."

With that, she took out a palm-sized white paper figure from her backpack, then took out a cinnabar brush and quickly drew a simple rune on the paper figure's forehead.

She whispered a few obscure incantations, then lightly touched the paper figure with her fingertip. The paper figure seemed to be instantly infused with spirituality, its body swayed slightly, then it floated lightly out of the car window, drifting with the wind towards the village.

At the same time, Dragon Xuexue took out a small red candle from her bag and lit it with a lighter. Strangely, above the candlelight, the scene inside the car was not reflected, but a blurry image appeared—it was the scene that the paper figure was "seeing."

In the image, the entire Jujube Town was eerily silent. The streets were empty, most of the doors and windows of the houses on both sides were open, and in some homes, the TV was still on, its screen full of static, emitting a "hissing" noise, which seemed particularly eerie in the silent environment.

Suddenly, a series of dog barks came from deep within the image, breaking the town's deadly silence.

The barks were not like ordinary dog barks, carrying an indescribable strangeness and madness.

The paper figure drifted with the wind, finally landing on an old Sophora japonica tree, from which angle the activity square in the center of the village could be clearly seen.

The open space, usually bustling with villagers dancing in the square and fitness enthusiasts, was now gathered with a group of "people."

They were called people because they had human forms; but their behavior was entirely like dogs—all of them were on all fours, crawling on the ground, moving forward.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Even more bizarrely, as they crawled, each of them emitted dog-like sounds, rising and falling, converging into a chilling wave of sound.