lpffa Chapter 940 799: Out of Contact
Chapter 940 799: Out of Contact
"Let Feng Yin stop the pursuit."
Staring at the mirror image, Commander Niu Qian of the Western Bull urgently called for a halt. He also pulled out a jade scroll again to check, repeatedly confirming and comparing the geographical features in the mirror image.
His close aide, Huang Xiu, hurriedly carried out his orders and came over. Before he could speak, Niu Qian had already tossed the jade scroll to him for a look, "The location where Chang Shifei went down matches the entrance path location on the jade scroll we received, this is definitely no coincidence."
Huang Xiu quickly conducted a comparison and then had someone magnify the cursor on the Mountain River Map to examine it. After viewing, he reported back, "The token cursor in Chang Shifei's hand is indeed not far from the batch of token cursors in Shi Chun's hand. Could it be that the Beiju Team also has a map of Shi Chun's hiding spots, or did they try to collaborate with us earlier and then go to our rivals for cooperation?"
Niu Qian pressed his lips and said, "In any case, I don't believe in such a series of coincidences. There must be someone up to mischief."
As for what specific mischief, he couldn't figure out at the moment.
Regardless of whether he could figure it out or not, he couldn't just sit by and watch. Just because Chang Shifei entered the Extreme Abyss doesn't mean they're scared off; people were still sent down to investigate the situation...
Not far from the cliffs of the Extreme Abyss, a group of figures swiftly descended and landed beside Luo Que, who was hiding there. They were the group of Nanshan personnel acting as her helpers.
Someone asked in surprise, "Miss Luo, why have you stopped?"
Luo Que maintained a tense face and said, "The commander ordered the stop, said Chang Shifei had sneaked into the Extreme Abyss, and instructed me not to reveal my position for now."
The person only just murmured an "oh", then paused, turned his hand to take out the Mother-child Talisman to check it, and his face turned incredibly grim after doing so.
Luo Que noticed something was amiss and asked, "What's wrong?"
The person grimly replied, "The commander ordered me to lead ten people into the Extreme Abyss to track Chang Shifei's whereabouts."
Luo Que was slightly taken aback, knowing the Extreme Abyss environment was perilous and this journey's safety couldn't be guaranteed in a single word. However, she couldn't say much either; someone had to do the pathfinding, and the commander likely wanted to deploy nearby personnel for investigation promptly. They couldn't just wait for distant people to come before taking action.
Disobedience wasn't an option, or the consequences would be on their own head.
Under such pressure, the person could only cup his fists toward Luo Que, and then, with a wave, took a group of grim-faced people and left.
To conceal their tracks, they penetrated the Extreme Abyss from a nearby point, traversing at a shallow depth before reaching the designated spot and then descending deeper.
They cautiously searched all the way, but no caution was enough against the sudden onset of space devouring cracks.
"Ah..."
With a scream echoing and a silhouette abruptly vanishing, the group immediately retreated, returning sullenly to Luo Que's side to report back, using a life to account to the higher-ups. They couldn't claim they hadn't tried their best, could they?
In the Nanshan Central, after receiving the report, Ming Chaofeng took a deep breath and ordered in a heavy voice, "Create a copy of the so-called path map of Shi Chun's hiding spot and have it sent over immediately."
"Understood." Pu Gong accepted the order and proceeded accordingly.
Inside the Extreme Abyss, Chang Shifei, using the jade scroll to compare the terrain while winding down to the left and right, finally stopped midway.
Simply because he didn't dare to fully trust the path map of unknown origin, it was too suspicious to follow blindly to the end.
He turned to Duan Jie, who was accompanying him, and said, "Okay, let's hide in this cave wall nook."
Saying so, he first slipped into an indentation on the wall and sat down, finally letting out a sigh of relief and releasing the mana sealing his body.
He had no choice, fearing that someone with special abilities might track his scent, so upon entering the Extreme Abyss, he cast a spell to lock his body scent to prevent it from leaking.
The journey was one of non-stop hustle and bustle, and finally, he could relax a bit, so he took out a pill and swallowed it.
After Duan Jie sat down beside him, he tentatively asked again, "Brother Chang, what's going on?"
Chang Shifei chuckled, "I don't know either. Anyway, I've left markers. The commander said if anything happens, people will follow the markers to find us. We've all been exhausted along the way, so let's take turns resting and keeping watch."
He didn't fully disclose the truth; the commander's instructions were crucial and there was no need to leak them out.
Duan Jie, indeed feeling exhausted, also relaxed, nodded, and said, "Alright, Brother Chang, you rest first, I'll keep watch."
Once Chang Shifei entered a meditative state, Duan Jie extinguished the light of the Sandalwood Gold Flame Energy and scanned the surroundings in the dark, took out the Mother-child Talisman in his hand, squeezed it a few times, and then put it away, knowing that at this depth, the Mother-child Talisman had already become ineffective.
The Mountain River Map of the Heavenly Court Team had zoomed in on a location to the extreme.
Someone pointed at the cursor on the Mountain River Map and said to Brother Man, "Commander, the weaker cursor is the token in Shi Chun's hand, the stronger one is in Chang Shifei's group's hand. The straight-line distance between them in the Extreme Abyss should be less than twenty miles, but the specific depth can't be seen. However, it seems the position of Shi Chun's group's tokens is deeper."
Brother Man immediately pulled out the Mother-child Talisman to contact Lan She and questioned: Didn't you promise to hand over the tokens as a gesture of good faith? Why has Chang Shifei stopped moving?
Lan She's reply was simple: Brother Man, I also don't know what's going on. He seems to have been chased into the depths of the Extreme Abyss, and the Mother-child Talisman has lost connection. Brother Man could let Shi Chun go find him.
Indeed, once entering the Extreme Abyss, the excuse of losing contact was prepared long ago, along with a series of excuses.
As for handing over those thousands of tokens, that was impossible.
If you have the ability, let Shi Chun go find him. Even if Shi Chun finds Chang Shifei, the reason is ready-made. With the tokens handed over to you, how can you guarantee you won't go back on your word? Naturally, they should stay in Chang Shifei's hands for now.
If you dare to forcibly take them, Chang Shifei will threaten to throw the tokens away.
If the tokens are thrown into the Extreme Abyss, there's a high chance they'll collide with the devouring void rift along the way down.
That's over a thousand tokens, who can just sit by and watch them disappear?
The idea is to drag it out, to bring in the experts from other teams.
In other words, he'd love for Shi Chun to find Chang Shifei in the Extreme Abyss, so he doesn't really care if the so-called map of Shi Chun's hiding spot is genuine or not, as long as those tokens can lure Shi Chun out.
He thought Manxi could contact Shi Chun at any time.
But the problem is, Manxi also can't contact Shi Chun at any time. His commander can only look at the position of the token's cursor on the Mountain River Map, but there's no map of Shi Chun's specific hiding place.
And this is what's giving Manxi a headache right now. He put down the mother-child talisman and immediately turned to ask, "Still haven't contacted him?"
Someone beside him was holding a mother-child talisman given by Mulan Jin specifically to contact Shi Chun, and Shi Chun, due to the environment in Extreme Abyss, temporarily gave the mother-child talisman to Shen Moming to hold for easy communication.
After all, Shi Chun himself couldn't stay in the shallow part of the Extreme Abyss holding the mother-child talisman waiting for messages all the time; he'd never get anything done.
When faced with the query from the commander, the person shook his head and said, "Still no response. The commander's instructions were just delivered not long ago, and the other party should have returned to the deeper part of Extreme Abyss to pass the message."
This is why Manxi is so annoyed; they just finished delivering orders to all departments, and now there's this ridiculous situation outside Extreme Abyss, making him want to retract orders, but can only irritably say, "Keep trying to contact them, keep trying until you get in touch."
"Yes." The subordinate took the orders and continued using the mother-child talisman to try contacting.
Manxi asked others, "Have we contacted the other teams?"
His deputy shook his head, "They should all be following the original plan, waiting quietly for Shi Chun to arrive. They can contact us after handing over the tokens and leaving the Extreme Abyss."
Although there's a lot of hope placed on Shi Chun to help secure victory, they don't dare to risk those tokens.
Their best advantage right now is being able to hide safely in Extreme Abyss; so why leave with the tokens? Of course, they want to hide the tokens in Extreme Abyss, ready to advance or retreat as needed.
However, letting each team hide their tokens separately does not sit well with the command center here; who can guarantee there aren't moles from other teams in their own team? There are so many people, it's normal to have some, and strange not to.
Looking at it, Shi Chun's team seems the purest, plus Shi Chun drew the map for each team to hide; Shi Chun knows the routes and can move freely in Extreme Abyss, so the decision was made to hand all tokens over to Shi Chun for safe keeping.
No one had expected the disgraced Chang Shifei to flee near Shi Chun. With over a thousand tokens in Chang Shifei's hands, you can only imagine who would be chasing him.
If Shi Chun then gathers up the two thousand or so tokens from the Heavenly Court Team, bringing nearly four thousand tokens together, what would be the consequence?
There's a total of only fifteen thousand tokens among the Five Great Teams, whoever has more than half the tokens wins.
In other words, as long as a team has more than seven thousand five hundred tokens, they've won.
Suddenly with four thousand tokens gathered, plus the tokens from other teams, what does that mean? It's insane!
Before Chang Shifei appeared near Shi Chun's hiding spot, Manxi wasn't worried; now he's really concerned about why Chang Shifei suddenly appeared there, fearing he might bring some unwanted attention.
He now wants to give Shi Chun a heads-up ahead of time.
The problem is he can't get in touch with Shi Chun right now, and there's no map of Shi Chun's hideout here.
Manxi suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Right, Shi Chun is going to collect tokens from each team, send someone to the hiding spots of other teams, and notify Shi Chun as soon as you see him."
His deputy hesitantly said, "Commander, there's no one to send."
Manxi paused, realizing now the consequence of having all personnel hidden in Extreme Abyss; he's now tasting it for real.
He then said, "There are some people, planted as inside lines in other teams, pull out those who can run errands, let them make a trip."
His deputy looked speechless, realizing this commander seemed a bit out of sorts, reminded again, "The hiding spots for each team were drawn by Shi Chun; after drawing, the maps were hidden at nearby points, and each team's personnel went to get them themselves. We don't have specific route maps. Commander, without route maps, it's useless to send anyone."
Manxi suddenly felt bewildered, realizing a disconnect had occurred between the command center and his team.
You don't know until something happens.
He suddenly turned to look at Mulan Jin, who was listening, wanting to ask if he had any way to make contact.
Mulan Jin glanced at him, shook his head slightly. He didn't make excuses but indeed couldn't do anything.
He was also a bit worried now; this sudden change in the situation could endanger his daughter.
But thinking that Shi Chun can move freely in Extreme Abyss, escaping shouldn't be an issue, giving him some peace of mind.
In the caves of Extreme Abyss, Shen Moming returned and greeted Shi Chun, directly delivering the commander's instructions.
Shi Chun frowned after hearing, "Gather all the tokens from the Heavenly Court Team and leave them all with me? Putting all eggs in one basket, are you crazy?"
Shen Moming said, "The commander didn't say to put all in one basket, only emphasized to carefully place them like you did with Mulan Qingqing."
In Manxi's view, Shi Chun would certainly use the safest way to protect Mulan Jin's daughter.
"..." Shi Chun was directly speechless; how could he carefully place Mulan Qingqing, he planned to send Mulan Qingqing directly to the Netherworld, but with tokens having positioning devices, if the location showed as the Netherworld, that would be quite a joke.
Wu Jinliang beside pulled up his sleeves, chuckled, "Running errands doesn't require Master, I can go. By the way, Chun Tian, I might need to borrow your steed, it's really necessary."