154: Chapter 154: Welcome to the Construction Site

The world spun, and everything before his eyes turned into a blur of colors.

In the blink of an eye, his feet touched solid ground.

Zhang Liancheng opened his eyes and subconsciously raised his psionic rifle, scanning the surroundings.

The scene before him made him pause for a moment.

It was a vast and desolate valley.

The sky was bluer than Earth's, an almost frightening shade of blue. The air smelled of damp earth and grass; one breath made his entire body feel refreshed.

On both sides of the valley were pitch-black mountains, covered in bizarrely shaped rocks without a single blade of grass, looking both primitive and bleak.

This place was completely different from Earth.

"All units, on alert! Spread out and form a perimeter!"

Zhang Liancheng's voice reached every soldier through their headsets.

The soldiers moved quickly, rapidly establishing a defensive circle centered around the first two infrastructure puppets to arrive, their muzzles pointing outward.

The light gate flashed several more times, and the remaining personnel along with the other two infrastructure puppets emerged one after another.

Finally, a golden light landed, and Jiang Ning appeared in the middle of the group.

"So this is the Immortal-Mortal Realm..." a raw recruit couldn't help but mutter softly. "It feels like even the air is sweet."

"Shut up! No talking!" Zhang Liancheng scolded in a low voice.

He knew very well that the more comfortable a place looked, the more dangerous it might be.

"Chief Engineer Jiang, we've arrived at Black Stone Valley." Zhang Liancheng walked quickly over to Jiang Ning. "What's the next step?"

"Mm." Jiang Ning nodded, her spiritual sense having already spread out.

Every movement within a hundred-mile radius was mapped out in her mind.

She had specifically chosen this place before she left last time.

It was remote, the spiritual energy was average, and there were no major sects within several hundred miles—just a minor, third-rate cultivation family wandering nearby.

It was the perfect spot to use as their base of operations.

"The spiritual energy concentration is dozens of times higher than Earth's, and the gravity is slightly stronger. The air is fine, non-toxic," Jiang Ning quickly reported a few key pieces of information. "The environment is safe. You can begin work."

"Roger that!" Zhang Liancheng perked up and immediately issued orders.

"infrastructure puppets, start leveling the ground! Squads One and Two, perimeter security! Squads Three and Four, lend a hand! I want the Phase One camp built within two hours!"

"Yes, sir!"

Once the order was given, the entire team moved like a wound-up machine, springing into action immediately.

The four massive infrastructure puppets extended their multi-functional mechanical arms, their front ends transforming into giant buckets and bulldozer blades.

Driven by psionic energy, these behemoths began clearing the wasteland.

Hard rocks were like tofu dregs before them, and the uneven ground was quickly leveled.

Soldiers also unloaded alloy plates from the vehicles, quickly assembling houses and warehouses in coordination with the lifting capabilities of the infrastructure puppets.

The entire valley suddenly became a bustling construction site.

This modern scene looked particularly surreal against the backdrop of the desolate surroundings.

They were working with great enthusiasm.

However, Jiang Ning noticed something.

A few strangers had entered the range of her spiritual sense.

"We have guests," she said casually.

Zhang Liancheng's nerves immediately tensed: "Enemies?"

"Not quite," Jiang Ning smiled, looking a bit like she was watching a show. "At most, they're just a few flies."

...

Outside the valley, a dozen or so people were flying toward them on flying swords.

Leading them was a middle-aged man in brocade robes with an arrogant expression. His name was Wu Dalong, a direct descendant of the Wu Clan near Black Stone Valley, with a cultivation level at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

"Third Brother, are you sure you didn't see wrong? A rainbow pillar of light really fell into this valley just now?" a young man behind him asked.

"Nonsense! I saw it with my own eyes, how could it be fake?" Wu Dalong snorted. "The treasure aura in that light was soaring; most likely some good item has emerged!"

"A rare treasure has emerged?" Hearing this, the eyes of the Wu Clan disciples behind him lit up, and their breathing grew heavy.

In this desolate Eastern Wasteland, any random dharma treasure or spiritual herb was enough to make people from these small families fight to the death.

"Everyone, stay sharp!" Wu Dalong said with a greedy face. "This Black Stone Valley is our Wu Clan's territory! Any treasure that appears here naturally belongs to our Wu Clan! If anyone else comes to snatch it later, don't be polite!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone answered in unison.

Before long, they flew to the entrance of the valley.

But when they saw the scene inside the valley, everyone was stunned.

The imagined scene of a glowing treasure was nowhere to be found.

Instead, there was... a construction site they couldn't understand at all?

In the middle of the valley, several giant steel monsters were making loud noises, frantically digging the ground.

And there were hundreds of strangely dressed... mortals?

Together with those steel monsters, they were rapidly assembling some oddly shaped sheet-metal houses.

"This... what is going on?"

The group of cultivators from the Wu Clan was completely bewildered.

"Where's the treasure? Where's the promised treasure?"

"What are these people doing? Why are mortals running around here?"

"And what are those iron lumps? Mechanical puppets?"

Wu Dalong also frowned, feeling that things were not quite what he had imagined.

He waved his hand and led his people to slowly land at the valley entrance.

"Hey! You mortals! What are you doing?" a young Wu Clan disciple couldn't hold back and shouted toward the valley.

That tone carried the inherent superiority that cultivators naturally felt toward mortals.

The soldiers busy on the construction site heard the shout and stopped their work, turning their heads to look at them as if they were fools.

Jiang Ning's instruction came through Zhang Liancheng's headset: "Let them in."

He straightened his uniform and, leading two soldiers, strode forward to meet them.

"We are the Xia Country 'Pioneer Group'," Zhang Liancheng said neither humbly nor arrogantly as he stood before Wu Dalong. "This place has now been requisitioned by us. Please leave immediately."

"Xia Country? Pioneer Group?" Wu Dalong's frown deepened as he heard these unfamiliar terms. "What a load of nonsense! I don't care what group you are, this is Black Stone Valley, and it's our Wu Clan's territory! You mortals break in and mess around, and you dare to be so arrogant?"

He looked Zhang Liancheng up and down, his eyes full of contempt.

A mortal with not a single shred of spiritual energy on him dared to challenge a Foundation Establishment Immortal Master like him?

"I will say it one more time," Zhang Liancheng's face turned cold. "This is now our territory. Please, leave, immediately!"

"Territory? Hahaha!" Wu Dalong laughed exaggeratedly, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

The people behind him also joined in with jeering laughter.

"A mortal actually talking about territory with us Immortal Masters? How hilarious!"

"Third Brother, don't waste your breath on them! I think they're acting suspicious; they must have hidden the treasure!"

"Right! Capture them and interrogate them properly; I'm sure they'll talk!"

Wu Dalong stopped laughing, and his face suddenly darkened.

He extended a finger, pointing at Zhang Liancheng, and said in a patronizing tone, "Since you are mortals and don't know the rules, I'll give you a way out."

"Hand over everything valuable on you and those iron lumps. Then, you people will stay and serve as slaves to mine for our Wu Clan."

"As for your women..." His gaze moved past Zhang Liancheng and fixed lustfully on Jiang Ning standing in the distance. "That girl looks pretty good; give her to me as a concubine."

"Do this, and I'll spare your lives. Otherwise..."

He hadn't even finished speaking.

The sound of bullets being chambered was very crisp.

Zhang Liancheng and the two soldiers behind him had already raised their psionic rifles expressionlessly, the dark muzzles aimed right at Wu Dalong's head.

"Warning."

Zhang Liancheng's voice was as cold as ice.

"You have violated the laws of Xia Country and threatened the safety of our citizens. Now, I order you to immediately drop your weapons and kneel in surrender. Otherwise, we have the right to shoot you on the spot!"