Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Chapter 962 - 830: A Game for the Clever

It must be acknowledged that the influence Rhine has now is not just because of her family and backers.She herself is excellent, not to mention quite clever, and very experienced in her actions.

Realizing the opponent was Rhodiola rosea, she instantly understood the opponent’s desires and difficulties.

As for the "cost" and such, that was clearly just a joke, intended to evoke her memories.

——You already want to target Mist Mansion, would you care about those minor gains?

She can help attempt to solve the opponent’s predicament.

So she turned her head toward Zi Heng Supreme and said, "Master, what if I pinpoint the position and the opponent escapes instantly?"

This is clearly one of Rhodiola rosea’s difficulties—You can point out the location, but the opponent can run.

Especially with Wind Attributes, they run faster than others, and she needs some time to receive information and react.

After that, she has to issue commands, and finally, the guards launch attacks... How much time is wasted in all these steps?

So she directly asked Zi Heng.

Zi Heng’s brain is definitely up to the task. Upon hearing this, his eyes instantly lit up, "This can be easily addressed by targeting the attribute!"

Mist Mansion indeed has such devices, tailored to explore different attributes of Awakened, but there are many restrictions during use.

The specific reasons for restrictions won’t be elaborated on, but overall they are not convenient to use.

One requirement is to predict the area where the opponent will appear in advance!

If there were enough devices, this request could naturally be ignored, but due to factors like management, it’s hard to achieve.

And Rhine stated that she can point out the general direction, solving the military’s biggest shortcoming.

Zi Heng spoke without any hesitation, "Want to activate it now?"

Rhine pondered for a moment before asking, "Does the device have a long start-up time?"

"Just a little," Zi Heng answered sheepishly, "Mist Mansion’s funding... isn’t particularly sufficient."

"What?" This was the first time Rhine had heard that the military guarding Mist Mansion might be short on funds.

Considering the importance of Mist Mansion and the massive production of Superpower Rice in it, it’s a foolproof business.

Moreover, Mist Mansion has other outputs; a small treasury is surely indispensable. There shouldn’t be a shortage here, no matter where else the funding lacks.

She was genuinely curious, "To what extent have you spendthrift yourselves?"

"This absolutely isn’t the case!" Zi Heng nodded vigorously, denying it, "If this gets out, who knows how much trouble it would cause!"

It can’t be true! Rhine intuitively understood, but the opponent’s statement also made her suspect some possibilities.

Hence, she slightly shook her head, "No need to explain... It’s nothing but a load of nonsense. Why would I care to know such things?"

Despite her young age, she has a profound understanding of the dangers of society from constant exposure.

"Actually, internally... even the military isn’t very peaceful," Zi Heng sighed lightly, then asked, "Activate it?"

Rhine thought for a bit and shook her head, "Hold off a bit, I need to prepare."

The key issue now is how to establish contact with Rhodiola rosea.

——The opponent can contact her, but if she wants to relay any information back, the opponent can only guess!

If there were any pre-arranged code words, it would be great, but alas, there are none.

Their previous interactions did not involve mutual cooperation, so naturally, there are no code words.

This really made her uncomfortable since the responsibility lay on her.

After pondering, she glanced again at Zi Heng Supreme, "Master, don’t turn off your alarm device just now."

The opponent nodded slightly with composure, really without any arrogance at this moment.

Then Rhine turned around, got back into the off-road vehicle, raised her hand in a direction, "Drive straight!"

This direction actually carries significance, differing about one hundred and twenty degrees from the direction Rhodiola rosea indicated.

She didn’t want to collide with that wind attribute force, although she vaguely believed Rhodiola rosea’s team could handle them.

Currently, what she wants to determine is the distance between the guards and that force - assuming the opponent hasn’t moved and the direction hasn’t changed.

"Drive a bit slower," Rhine softly commanded, then released her Perception Ability.

Behind her, the alarm started ringing again, but she paid no heed.

Zi Heng touched his chin, feeling a bit helpless: This thing... its sensitivity is indeed high.

But he could guess what Rhine was doing: should be perceiving her opponent, right?

Once the off-road vehicle had driven about a kilometer, Rhine gave the order to stop and retracted her Perception Ability.

After staying for two minutes, the car changed direction, and she released her Perception Ability again.

Continually driving slowly for another kilometer, the car stopped once more, yet the Perception Ability vanished again.

After doing this six times, Rhine believed the opponent had received her signal. As for whether they understand it... that’s up to fate.

Then the off-road vehicle picked up some speed, direction non-controlled, running freely across the wilderness.

Rhine’s Perception Ability was rarely released now, only occasionally executed briefly.

Zi Heng didn’t quite understand her actions but roughly guessed, still aiming to pinpoint a position, right?

To be honest, he felt a bit ashamed that he, a Supreme, was actually losing to an A-level in this regard?

But that didn’t really matter; the military focused on the objective of the operation, and whether it was achieved by a team or an individual was unimportant.

However, the constant searching without knowing when it would end was really trying his patience.

The good thing was that the alarms were always signaling "abnormal spiritual power fluctuations," without any wind element fluctuations!

This meant that the observer in the shadows likely hadn’t moved.

Rhine’s car had been running through the wilderness for almost half an hour, then returned to the guard post, but she didn’t get out of the car.

As dusk approached, Zi Heng Supreme approached, "Any clues? Do we need to send out search teams?"

The military guarding Mist Mansion had a substantial number of troops, capable of sending out many search teams.

The reason they hadn’t done so before was because of the vast area that needed searching and the need to guard against diversion tactics.

Awakened ones had all sorts of powers, and protecting the threshold of Mist Mansion was the guards’ primary responsibility.

No sooner had he spoken, the alarm sounded again, still concerning spiritual power.

But this time the alert left Zi Heng Supreme a bit embarrassed.

Because he was so close to Rhine and was very sure she hadn’t unleashed her perception ability, all he could do was give an awkward smile, "It really was a false alarm!"

An unusual gleam flashed in Rhine’s eyes, as she surprisingly received that thought at this moment.

The direction still indicated the same position as before, proving the other party truly hadn’t moved.

And the thought repeated continuously, so much that she had to slightly release her perception ability, or else it would be too weird.

While releasing her perception, she silently counted in her mind.

The other side transmitted the message no less than eleven times before retracting the perception.

Rhine believed she understood the message the other party was trying to convey, so she subtly pointed out a direction to Zi Heng.

"It’s in that direction, about eleven kilometers away. You decide the specific operations."

—— I hope it’s not Rhodiola rosea revealing your own position, that would be troublesome.

But someone that smart wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake, right?

Zi Heng Supreme stared at her for five or six seconds before nodding, "Alright, take care of yourselves, don’t wander around."

These students could leave now, even if most of them were Awakened, but the military required coordination.

If a battle broke out, they wouldn’t be much help and might even hinder the military.

But Zi Heng thought that if close combat occurred, these people would have a role to play.

Especially among them, over two hundred Guardians, nearly half being A-level Awakened, were a formidable force in melee.

So it’s best to keep them for now; they could be called upon anytime if needed.

Moreover, he thought if the opponent dared to come, it likely wasn’t just one with the wind attribute.

So it was also necessary to keep Rhine, in case new Awakened needed locating.

And in the event the current positioning wasn’t precise, a second positioning would be necessary.

It wasn’t that Zi Heng didn’t trust Rhine, but the military always operated like this: anticipate defeat before victory!

He then proceeded to make a series of arrangements.

First, he activated the wind attribute sensing lock device, and then assembled eight elite teams.

Each team consisted of five to six various vehicles, which then started and set off for the distance.

The eight teams didn’t head for any known wind attribute hideout, appearing as if casting a net in all directions.

The teams moved at varying speeds, and after about ten minutes, the guards began a wave of artillery strikes.

The artillery strikes were scattered, seemingly random, like aimless probing.

Some shells hit the area Rhine had designated, while some landed not far from Qu Jianlei and others.

"This guy," Paranoid muttered under his breath, "wasn’t there a designated target area?"

The fact is, the military couldn’t possibly do anything meaningless.

While shooting shells in every direction, they effectively concealed the perception ability in the wind attribute area.

The random bombardment lasted for a full half-hour, from sparse to dense, eventually reaching saturation.

Yet the deployed convoys remained safe—the coordination was effective, with shell impacts at least five hundred meters away.

Taking advantage of this cover, the dispatched convoys quietly encircled toward the target area.

Qu Jianlei and others still noticed the movement of the convoys, Bentley nodded slightly, "The objectives and methods of combat are clear and orderly."

"That’s normal," Xiang Xue responded quietly, "They’re stationed here long-term, sure to have multiple contingency plans... and more than one set."

Bentley curled his lip, actions this wasteful with artillery shells would never be seen on a Garbage Star.

Truly deserving of the Imperial title, and of the Imperial military, with abundant resources and wealth!

Yet the next moment, countless tongues of fire suddenly erupted, targeting the area Rhine had specified.

The artillery bombardment officially commenced!

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