Chapter 978: Absolute Forbidden Zone
Jiangnan's heart clenched tightly, and he instinctively reached for the copper bell at his wrist.
Grabbing Zi Yuan, he teleported directly to Liu Mang's room.
The room was pitch black. After searching for a while without finding anything, he turned on the light and yanked Liu Mang out of bed.
Ai Jiang let out a startled shriek and pulled the blanket over herself tightly.
"Ah~ How annoying!"
Jiangnan's face was full of speechlessness. Why do you have to act out so many dramas every single day?
"Save your romantic entanglements for later. First, help me project something!"
Liu Mang froze. "What's going on? What did Sister Yuan dream about this time?"
Zi Yuan had no time to explain. She directly pressed her hand on top of Liu Mang's head.
A colorful mist materialized, transforming the entire room into the look of a combat command center.
In the projection, Wang Dalei was staring darkly at a holographic sand table.
A bloodshot-eyed Jiangnan suddenly appeared in the scene.
He slammed his hand heavily on the table and asked in a trembling voice, "I'm asking you! Where is Mountain Cat? What I want is a living person!"
"Not a bloodstained team emblem!"
Mountain Cat's Dark Night Medal lay silently on the table, still bearing dried bloodstains.
Wang Dalei's expression was pained. "She fell. When we found the body… sigh…"
"She was cremated on the spot. You wouldn't want to see her corpse."
Jiangnan's eyes were red. He grabbed Wang Dalei by the collar.
"Why didn't you tell me when it happened?"
"Who did it? I'll make everyone pay with their lives! They all have to die! All of them!"
Wang Dalei gripped Jiangnan's hand tightly. "What use would it have been to tell you? Would you have just gotten yourself dragged in too?"
"You must have heard about the situation over there. If you go, how are you going to get out?"
"No solution has been found yet. Once you go in, you can't come out. I've been throwing people into 097!"
"Do you want your name carved on the monument too?"
Jiangnan's fists were clenched so hard they cracked. He roared.
"I don't care about any of that! 097! Fanguo, right? Just wait for me!"
He grabbed the team emblem of Mountain Cat from the table, murderous intent radiating from his eyes.
He turned and headed for the command room door.
Wang Dalei shouted angrily, "You're not allowed to go! Do you want to ruin your own future? Stop right there!"
"You are a soldier! A soldier's duty is to obey orders!"
Jiangnan paused in his step, pulled out his military ID, and slammed it hard on the table.
"I don't care about any future! All I know is that Mountain Cat is dead! I will make them pay in blood!"
"Don't stop me! No one can stop me!"
With that, he teleported and vanished. Wang Dalei shouted, "Don't you dare!"
With a bang, the entire combat command center exploded. Wang Dalei turned into a bolt of lightning and charged straight after Jiangnan.
The scene cut off there.
In the room, Jiangnan's face was as dark as water. The air itself seemed to freeze.
He teleported and disappeared.
Liu Mang's face turned ugly. "Sister Yuan? Did something happen to Mountain Cat? What's the situation on 097?"
He had never seen Southern God with such an ice-cold expression, not even when facing life-and-death crises in the Void Sea.
Zi Yuan panicked. "How should I know? Go call Sister Xue and the others!"
"I'm afraid Jiangnan will completely lose control and charge into 097 by himself! They can talk some sense into him! Hurry!"
Liu Mang didn't dare delay. He immediately ran out of the room. "I'm on it!"
Zi Yuan also rushed out in a hurry to chase after Jiangnan.
In the combat command center, Wang Dalei was looking down at the report that had been sent over.
Jiangnan appeared abruptly, his expression terrifyingly cold.
"What happened on 097? Where is Mountain Cat? Don't hide anything from me!"
Wang Dalei was startled by Jiangnan's sudden appearance. His face showed bitterness.
"Who told you? Don't panic. The situation is very complicated. I…"
Jiangnan's eyes were red. "How can I not panic? In Zi Yuan's dream, Mountain Cat only came back as a team emblem!"
"What the hell is going on? What mission did she go to 097 for?"
Jiangnan was terrified now. He had never been this scared in his life.
Mountain Cat lent me the copper bell that guards peace and safety, but something happened to her?
Right now, Jiangnan's mind was full of the shy expression Mountain Cat had when she stuffed the bell into his hand.
Jiangnan absolutely did not want that to be the last time he ever saw Mountain Cat.
Wang Dalei's heart sank. So it was prophesied in Zi Yuan's dream?
Damn it!
"Calm the hell down! Mountain Cat's team went undercover in the Fanguo No Man's Land three days ago to carry out an investigation mission. They went missing!"
"We've already sent more people to search. It hasn't been confirmed that something really happened yet. We're still waiting for news…"
Jiangnan gritted his teeth. "Give me the intel. I'll go find her. It'll be too late once the results come out."
The scene in Zi Yuan's dream had clearly happened after the search team found something.
What they found was a body. What came back was only a team emblem.
Just then, Zi Yuan, Zhong Yingxue, and the others rushed into the command center in a panic.
The first thing they saw was Jiangnan with bloodshot eyes. Their faces were full of worry.
They stepped forward and tightly pulled Jiangnan's arm.
Wu Liang was sweating from anxiety. "What happened to Miao Miao and the rest?"
Because Iron Ox had gone on that mission too.
Wang Dalei took a deep breath. "None of you can go to 097. If you go, you won't come back!"
"The situation over there is spiraling out of control!"
Jiangnan's heart lifted. He had heard that something had gone wrong on 097 before going to the Void Sea.
But he never expected the situation to develop to this extent.
"What the hell is going on with 097? Why can't we go?"
Wang Dalei stood up and pulled up a satellite map of the entire Dike No Man's Land on the holographic map.
Everyone stared intently. They saw that the 097 outpost and a large surrounding area were covered by thick, dark gray rain clouds.
And the entire No Man's Land bordering the Fanguo side of the outpost was almost completely obscured by the cloud vortex.
Jiangnan frowned deeply. "What is this black cloud?"
Wang Dalei's expression was grave. "This is the reason. You should know about the Mist Swamp Blood Vine, right?"
Zhong Yingxue nodded. "It's a rare plant-type spirit beast, one of the Four Calamities. What does the blood vine have to do with this black cloud?"
Wang Dalei pointed at the rain clouds. "Inside all areas covered by these rain clouds, the atmospheric structure has been altered. It operates independently."
"There's no oxygen inside. Mostly chlorine gas. For humans, chlorine gas is a deadly poison."
"And the culprit behind all this is the Mist Swamp Blood Vine."
Jiangnan was stunned. "Altering the atmospheric structure? Over such a large area? Are you kidding me?"
"With no oxygen and all chlorine, how could anyone survive inside there? Wouldn't they all be poisoned to death?"
Wang Dalei grinned wryly. "Wrong. Not only did they not die, but they also mutated. The problem is extremely tricky. Follow me."
Under Wang Dalei's lead, everyone went directly to the forward base's laboratory.
There, many people were wearing sealed biochemical suits.
And inside a reinforced glass chamber deep in the lab, Jiangnan saw a huge vine-like plant.
It was a dark green color, faintly glowing with a blood-red light.
The thick vines were covered in barbed thorns, like brambles, now freely stretching their branches.
Some purple flowers had even bloomed on the vine, beautiful and vibrant.
Soon, the purple flowers withered and sprayed out yellow dust spores, falling rustlingly.
Zhong Yingxue covered her mouth. "Is this the Mist Swamp Blood Vine? Why does it look different from the one I saw in books?"
A delicate girl with braces, thick glasses, two braids, and freckles covering her pretty face walked over.
She wore a white lab coat and carried a stack of documents.
"This is a mutated Mist Swamp Blood Vine, a sample brought back from 097."
"Normal Mist Swamp Blood Vines photosynthesize like ordinary plants."
"But this mutated kind can absorb all components of the atmosphere and release chlorine, hydrogen, and so on."
"One vine might not matter, but if they're everywhere, it becomes terrifying."
Wang Dalei rubbed his brow. "Little Cheng, tell Jiangnan about the situation over there."
Yang Cheng turned to Jiangnan and smiled sweetly. "Hello, Southern God!"
But Jiangnan was burning with anxiety. "So what if it's all chlorine? Can't I just bring oxygen tanks?"
Yang Cheng shook her head. "The problem isn't there."
"Normal atmospheric composition is 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and some rare gases."
"After being altered by the Mist Swamp Blood Vine, the composition becomes 49% chlorine, 17% hydrogen, argon, nitrogen, etc. Oxygen content is almost zero."
Jiangnan listened with a blank look. Why are you analyzing atmospheric composition for me?
"So why can't I go in with oxygen tanks?"
Yang Cheng shook her head again. "Under normal circumstances, humans would be dead for sure in this kind of atmosphere. They simply couldn't survive."
"But the problem is that the Dragon Abyss Dark Night soldiers inside the rain clouds have also mutated. Wearing protective suits is useless."
"After mutation, they can still survive even in this highly toxic atmosphere."
"The hemoglobin in their bodies, which normally transports oxygen molecules, has mutated into a special protein that transports chlorine gas."
Jiangnan's eyes widened. "People… people have mutated too?"
Wang Dalei sighed. "Now you know why I won't let you in?"
"Anyone who enters the range of the rain clouds will also mutate, becoming primarily adapted to breathing chlorine."
"The rampant blood vines seem to have formed a special Mist Swamp force field."
Yang Cheng nodded. "Once the body mutates, if you return to normal atmosphere, you'll suffocate to death."
"Because after mutation, oxygen becomes poison to you."
"Your range of activity is limited to within the rain clouds, where the Mist Swamp Blood Vines exist."
"As of now, no solution has been found."
Jiangnan's face turned ugly. How could something like this exist?