81: Chapter 81 The Move of Tianyuan

The airplane landed smoothly.

The cabin door opened, and a biting mountain wind rushed in, carrying the unique scent of vegetation and rock from the depths of the Qinling Mountains.

The sun was already setting in the west, and the golden afterglow coated the continuous mountain ridges with a magnificent border.

This was once a winding mountain road built for tourism development, later closed and abandoned for environmental protection.

But at this moment, this forgotten road was bustling with activity.

Beside the road, a mountain-top viewing platform parking lot with an open vista had turned into a temporary frontline command post.

Hundreds of personnel in various work uniforms were busy, and countless thick cables crisscrossed like a spiderweb from various precision instruments.

In the air, apart from the sound of the wind, there was only the low hum of instruments operating and the sound of personnel exchanging quiet and rapid instructions.

As Chen You and his group got off the plane, a middle-aged man with a hard hat and dark skin quickly walked up to greet them.

"Director Li, esteemed experts, everything is ready."

His name was Zhou Jianguo, the overall supervisor for this ground operation.

Director Li Guoan nodded, his gaze sweeping over the busy yet orderly site, finally landing on Chen You.

"Little Chen, where is the item?"

Chen You's mind stirred, and he took out the [civilization pedestal · Immortal].

"Buzz—"

With a slight muffled sound, a dark gold stone base, nearly one meter square and covered in ancient, mysterious patterns, appeared out of thin air on the open ground before everyone, kicking up a visible circle of dust.

The scene instantly fell silent.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to this sight that defied common physical sense, and to the pedestal exuding a deep sense of history.

"Good heavens!"

Chief Engineer Zhou Jianguo couldn't help but exclaim in awe.

He hurried forward, his gloved hand carefully touching the edge of the pedestal; the texture was cold and hard.

He tried to push it, but the pedestal didn't budge.

"This weight... I estimate it's at least several hundred jin!"

Brilliance erupted in Zhou Jianguo's eyes as he turned to look at Chen You, as if looking at a monster.

He immediately picked up his walkie-talkie, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

"All units, pay attention! The 'Tianyuan' placement object has arrived. Repeat, the 'Tianyuan' placement object has arrived! Rigging team, prepare!"

"Received!"

"Received!"

Responses came one after another from the walkie-talkie.

Not far away, the boom of a heavy tracked crane began to slowly rotate.

"Tianyuan" was the code name the expert team gave to the location where this civilization pedestal would be placed.

Taken from the game of Go, it meant the center of the board.

"No need for such trouble."

Chen You spoke.

He looked at Zhou Jianguo, then at the cumbersome crane in the distance, "I'll just deliver it myself. It'll be faster and safer."

Zhou Jianguo was stunned.

Wang Qiuzi and Academician Liu Sicheng exchanged a look, a faint smile playing on their lips.

The viewing platform offered an excellent view, overlooking a large valley basin below.

Zhou Jianguo raised his arm and pointed to a circle marked in white lime in the exact center of the valley in the distance.

This distance might not be clearly visible to ordinary people, but Chen You could see it clearly.

"The designated position for 'Tianyuan' is right there, about five thousand meters in a straight line. The mountain road detour takes nearly forty minutes."

"Understood."

Chen You nodded.

Under the gaze of hundreds of uncertain and astonished eyes on the site, he walked to the pedestal and placed one hand on it.

The next second, the pedestal vanished, having been retrieved back into his backpack.

Immediately after, Chen You walked to the railing of the viewing platform and took a deep breath.

"What is he going to do?" a young engineer couldn't help but whisper.

Before the words faded.

Chen You slightly bent his legs, and his whole body shot up like a cannonball fired from a barrel, instantly soaring over the railing and leaping directly off the hundred-meter-high cliff!

"Ah—!"

A wave of uncontrollable gasps erupted from the scene!

Everyone rushed to the railing, their hearts in their throats, gazing down in terror.

However, the scene of bloody mess they anticipated did not occur.

They saw Chen You's figure trace an unbelievable arc in the air, and the momentum of his descent suddenly slowed mid-air.

His feet lightly touched the steep rock face, and his body, like a weightless feather, drifted horizontally for several tens of meters again.

Every time he landed, he stepped precisely on a protruding rock or tree trunk, his figure graceful and agile, as if walking on flat ground.

In just a moment, he had crossed several thousand meters and landed lightly inside the white circle.

On the viewing platform, there was a dead silence.

The wind howled, blowing at everyone's clothes, but it could not blow away the blank shock on their faces.

Zhou Jianguo stood with his mouth agape, muttering to himself, "Is this... is this filming a movie...?"

Academician Liu Sicheng adjusted his glasses, his eyes beneath the lenses shining with an unprecedented light.

He clenched his fists tightly and said quietly to Director Li Guoan beside him:

"This is... transcendent power?! Seeing it firsthand is far more shocking than any data!"

Director Li Guoan did not speak, but in his steady eyes, the flame named 'Hope' was also burning.

At the bottom of the valley.

Chen You stabilized himself, took out the pedestal again, and placed it steadily in the exact center of 'Tianyuan'.

He took a deep breath and then took out the [shattered world stone].

The stone was not large, only palm-sized, and shaped like an irregular concave hexagon.

Chen You aligned it with the peculiar groove in the center of the pedestal and slowly placed it down.

Click.

A light sound.

The shattered world stone perfectly fitted into the Immortal Pedestal.

Instantly, an invisible energy ripple spread outward from the pedestal!

Whoosh—!

The air in the entire valley seemed to tremble.

On the viewing platform, the alarms on all instruments went off wildly at the same time, piercingly sharp, echoing through the clouds!

"Report! High-intensity unknown energy field detected! Rising exponentially!"

"Magnetic field anomaly! Spatial parameters are distorting!"

Zhou Jianguo snatched up the walkie-talkie and roared with all his might:

"Highest directive! All personnel within a fifteen-kilometer radius of 'Tianyuan' must evacuate immediately!"

"Repeat! All personnel, evacuate immediately!"

The order was given, and everyone acted.

The personnel did not run in panic, only the sound of fast but orderly footsteps.

They moved in small teams, quickly unplugging cables, locking core data hard drives into explosion-proof cases, and then orderly boarding the military transport vehicles whose engines were already running.

The convoy, like a long dragon, sped away along the mountain road.

Not a single person looked back.

Discipline was ingrained in the very core of this team.

In less than ten minutes, the viewing platform, which had been incredibly busy not long ago, was deserted, leaving only the whistling mountain wind and abandoned empty tents.

Outside the fifteen-kilometer cordon centered on Tianyuan, however, was a completely different scene.

Cold and grim.

The earth was shaking slightly, not because of the energy anomaly in the valley, but because of the roar of steel tracks crushing the ground.

One after another, 99Z main battle tanks painted dark green emerged from under camouflage nets, their thick barrels slowly raising, pointing toward the valley.

Behind the turrets, the infrared countermeasures systems and millimeter-wave radars rotated silently, constructing a forbidden zone of death.

On the distant ridgeline, rows of vehicle-mounted rocket launchers uncovered their covers, their dense launch tubes resembling a steel jungle, flashing with cold light.

With just one command, tens of thousands of steel rain could plow the entire valley clean.

A low roar came from the clouds.

Fighter jets, in a diamond formation, circled at an altitude of ten thousand meters, their underbelly air-to-air missiles and medium-range missiles already having their launch permissions unlocked.

Below them, swarms of attack helicopters flew close to the treetops, the fierce wind whipped up by their rotors flattening large swathes of forest.

Inside the cabins, fully armed special forces soldiers silently checked their weapons.