Chapter 302: Approaching, Searching, At a Loss

48th Year of Longyou, June 23rd, first half of the night

"Army, stop advancing!"

Two kilometers northwest of the Hive encampment, the three thousand Longyou troops, who had been marching through the wind and snow for three hours, finally stopped after Li Ying Xuan Yan's order.

"Twenty-seven kilometers, it only took a little over three hours. Walking along the tunnel, it actually turned out to be so much faster than walking on the snowfield."

In the Cold-Resistant Realm expert team at the front, Li Yuankai couldn't help but sigh in a low voice.

Song Ning on the side immediately said: "This tunnel of Great Xia was paved along flat ground to begin with, and at the beginning of construction, they must have spent effort to clear the debris and gullies on both sides, so it's very normal that we didn't encounter any obstacles or blocks during our march, and the speed was doubled."

"Walking along the tunnel can double the speed, then if we walked directly in the tunnel, wouldn't the speed be even faster?"

"Not just a little. I heard Father say that Great Xia should have installed a large number of coal stoves and torches in the tunnel before. The temperature in the tunnel is much higher than outside. Marching inside not only doesn't have to worry about terrain problems but also doesn't have to brave the wind, snow, and severe cold. The speed could be at least seven or eight times faster."

"Then why don't we walk directly in the tunnel, and instead spend so much effort marching three hours over from Wu Shuang."

"I heard it's because the Leader is worried that Great Xia has tampered with something in the tunnel."

"So that's it, I just said..."

"Shut up, a great battle is imminent, don't chatter anymore, we are about to go underground."

After being scolded by Song Kang, the two turned their heads and realized that hundreds of Longyou soldiers, under the leadership of a group of Cold-Resistant Realm experts, had quickly dispersed to the snowfield three to five kilometers to the east, and then took out their spears, poking and sweeping on the ground, clearly looking for something.

"Found it."

Half an hour later, a soldier on the north side of the snowfield exclaimed, immediately attracting many people to walk over.

Li Ying Xuan Ling also immediately led a group of Cold-Resistant Realm experts to rush over.

Seeing the Leader and others coming, the soldiers immediately made way for a path.

"This entrance has been filled in."

Li Ying Xuan Ling and the others had not yet approached, but hearing the voices of the soldiers inside, their faces immediately became much uglier.

After walking close and seeing the hole on the ground, Li Ying Xuan Ling, including the rest of the Cold-Resistant Realm experts, had their expressions sink much lower.

The accumulated snow above the hole had already been cleared out by the soldiers. Below was a circular pit with a diameter of two meters. Unlike the pitch-black ground next to it, the color of the soil in this circular pit was clearly much fresher. One could tell at a glance that it was filled in recently.

Meng Ying walked near the hole and drew his longsword to stab directly into the ground.

The Frozen Abyss has accumulated snow all year round, and the ground is extremely hard. Even the sharpest weapon has to spend some effort to pierce through.

But here it was different. Meng Ying's longsword, like piercing tofu, pierced directly through the ground, with only the hilt exposed outside.

Clearly, this circular pit was the entrance to the Hive's underground encampment before, and it was filled in just now. Judging from the moisture and density of the soil, the filling time was only a matter of a day or two.

"There are a total of nine ground entrances to the Hive. The other six were confirmed to have been filled last night. Only these three entrances in this area remain. Could Great Xia have blocked all the passages connecting to the ground?"

Hearing Meng Ying's words, the crowd shook their heads repeatedly.

The Hive encampment is at a depth of a hundred meters underground. Not to mention the main area space underground, the engineering volume of the twenty-nine passages combined is extremely vast and complex. Even if ten thousand Earth-Digging Realm experts worked at the same time, it would take at least several years to complete. Great Xia has only occupied the Hive for a total of two months; how could it be possible?

"Impossible. They at most blocked the entrance part. Notify the others to confirm the locations of all nine entrances, and then you all group in fives and use brute force to destroy the ground nearby. You will definitely be able to find the passage down."

"Subordinate obeys!"

At Li Ying Xuan Ling's order, the Cold-Resistant Realm experts immediately bowed and accepted the order, each taking a portion of the soldiers to start confirming all the entrances nearby.

Li Xuandu on the side didn't move. His brow furrowed tightly as he said in a low voice: "We went to look at the Mirror Valley side last night and confirmed that there was no one. There were indeed traces of Earth-Digging Realm experts escorting a large batch of supplies from the tunnel to the Hive. A rough estimate should be over five thousand. Plus the four thousand people from Wu Shuang, Great Xia should have gathered over nine thousand, or even ten thousand people in the underground Hive right now."

Li Ying Xuan Ling nodded lightly. Last night, she personally led Third Brother Li Xuandu, Meng Ying, and Cheng Guang to scout the situation at the Hive together.

Although the four of them failed to successfully enter the Hive's underground encampment, they could infer quite a few things from the many traces of emergency clearing around the Hive encampment and the fact that Mirror Valley was empty.

Especially on the return trip from Mirror Valley, they unexpectedly discovered another snow-covered tunnel from Mirror Valley to the Hive. The residual heat in the tunnel, including the deep tire marks on the ground, all indicated that Great Xia had just transferred a large batch of Earth-Digging Realm experts and supplies to this side.

They had looked around the Hive, and there were no traces of large-scale crowd movement. It could basically be determined that that batch of people had all entered the underground Hive encampment, which is why Li Xuandu said these words at this moment.

Li Xuandu wasn't finished after saying this. He pondered for a moment and continued:

"Filling the entrance and shrinking underground—Xia Hong intends to continue avoiding battle. Even if they have prepared a large amount of supplies below, they can at most hold on for a few months. After a few months, won't they still be doomed?"

Hearing this, Li Ying Xuan Ling's brow furrowed.

The harsh environment of the Frozen Abyss has already determined that the reserve supplies of most encampments cannot be too many. This has nothing to do with being strong or weak. Strong encampments have many people, and many people with high cultivation, so the supplies consumed are naturally more. Weak encampments have few people, and their ability to obtain resources is not good, so it is even more impossible to have too many reserve supplies.

Even as strong as Longshan, if they don't go out to collect and hunt for a long time, they can at most hold on for half a year. Li Xuandu's judgment that Great Xia can hold on for a few months underground is already thinking toward the worst-case scenario.

From Great Xia's behavior of shrinking into the Hive underground, and the empty Mirror Valley discovered last night, it can basically be judged that there will be no more reinforcements from Seeing Hong Mu Ridge for Great Xia. That is to say, the nine thousand Earth-Digging Realm experts underground right now are the strongest force Great Xia can bring to Longyou.

1,000 Cloud Dragon troops plus 8,000 ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts are naturally no match for the 3,000 Longyou troops. Clearly, Great Xia is also very clear about this, which is why they took people to shrink into the Hive underground space and chose to avoid battle.

The problem is, can they avoid it for a while, but can they avoid it for a lifetime?

Longshan only needs to guard the surface of the Hive and wait for a few months. They will naturally surrender because their supplies are exhausted. In the end, isn't it still a dead end?

Xia Hong, such a smart person, couldn't possibly not think of this point.

This proves that his taking people to shrink underground is still a delaying tactic.

The real intention is to drag them, these three thousand Longyou troops.

Li Xuandu suddenly tightened his brow, looked up and met Li Ying Xuan Ling's gaze, realizing that the other party was thinking the same as him, and both of them had flashes of shock in their pupils.

"That's not right. What necessity does he have to drag us? Great Xia's living strength is almost all here. If there were reinforcements in Xia City, Mirror Valley couldn't possibly have no one. It couldn't be that he is shrinking underground for a few months, waiting for these nine thousand people to break through in cultivation, right?"

Li Xuandu shook his head himself after saying this.

Waiting for nine thousand people to break through in cultivation is even more unrealistic.

But he truly couldn't think of what necessity Xia Hong had to drag them.

"Could it be that he is trying to lure us to attack Xia City?"

Meng Ying suddenly spoke at this time. He was also one of the four people who came to scout the situation last night. Seeing Li Ying Xuan Ling and Li Xuandu staring at himself, he hurriedly continued:

"They have transferred a large batch of Earth-Digging Realm experts to the Hive. Logically speaking, Xia City must be empty right now. Could Xia Hong be thinking that as long as he holds the Hive to the death, after we fail to attack for a long time, we will walk Mirror Valley south to attack Xia City directly, and then he can lead this batch of people from the Hive to come out and launch a surprise attack from the rear while we are frustrated in attacking the city?"

…………

Listening to this paragraph from Meng Ying, Li Ying Xuan Ling and Li Xuandu were stunned for a moment, then pondered it carefully, and their expressions gradually became strange.

Don't even mention it, this paragraph from Meng Ying is truly possible.

"It's really hard to say. Judging from the news brought back by Second Uncle, Great Xia's city defense is unusually sturdy and extremely difficult to break. Xia Hong deliberately leaving no one in Mirror Valley truly could be to attract us to attack Xia City. He only needs to leave a portion of Earth-Digging Realm experts in Xia City to rely on the sturdy city defense to resist us for a while. Even if we break in, the casualties will likely not be few. If he leads this batch of people from the Hive to launch a surprise attack from the rear at this time, then I'm afraid..."

Having said this, Li Xuandu paused and continued to Li Ying Xuan Ling: "This seems to be the only way Great Xia has a chance of winning against us."

Three thousand Longyou troops, even facing ten times their own number of ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts, are not afraid at all. Great Xia's number of Earth-Digging Realm experts cannot be thirty thousand. Wanting to defeat Longshan in a fair and square way is absolutely impossible.

But if it is truly as Meng Ying and Li Xuandu deduced, then the result is really hard to say. Even if they don't win, I'm afraid Longshan will also suffer a major injury.

Li Ying Xuan Ling's brow furrowed, and she asked the two: "If it is truly as you deduced, that is to say, Xia Hong has full certainty that we will absolutely not be able to take the Hive in a short time, right?"

Li Xuandu and Meng Ying were silent for a moment, then nodded at the same time.

"Then Xia Hong is too naive. We know the situation of all the underground passages of the Hive like the back of our hand. As long as one is located, we can immediately sort them all out and find the entrance to the main area. Nine thousand people want to hold us off—dream on!"

"Leader, found it. One entrance in the southeast direction was not filled in thoroughly. The shallow tunnel nearby was collapsed by my brute force, and I can see the passage down."

Li Ying Xuan Ling's side had just finished speaking when Li Xuanping's voice came over.

Hearing this, her face was delighted, and she immediately led Li Xuandu and Meng Ying to rush over, not forgetting to notify all the other Cold-Resistant Realm experts, including the Longyou troops, to gather here.

"The Leader is here."

"Make way, the Leader is here."

…………

At a spot on the ground about two kilometers to the southeast, hundreds of people were surrounding it. Seeing Li Ying Xuan Ling leading people over, the crowd immediately made way for a path.

Li Ying Xuan Ling led the crowd into the middle and saw an entrance to a long and narrow passage at the very end of the collapsed part of the ground. Her expression immediately stirred.

"Third Brother, you take twenty people down to scout the situation of this passage, sort out the passage number, identify the orientation of the No. 1 passage, and confirm the location of the Hive encampment's main gate."

Just confirming the location of the entrance, they knew nothing about the specific situation underground and what traps Great Xia had set. In such a situation, Li Ying Xuan Ling naturally wouldn't rashly lead the army down, but first ordered Third Brother Li Xuandu to take people down to scout.

The situation of the eleven encampments in Longyou is clearly known to Longshan, and Li Xuandu is the one who has been organizing these intelligence pieces for years. He knows the twenty-nine passages of the Hive and the location information best, so the candidate for scouting naturally had to be him.

"Should be no problem, I'll go down now!"

The twenty people Li Xuandu took were not ordinary Longyou soldiers but solid Cold-Resistant Realm experts of Longshan. With so many Cold-Resistant Realm experts going down together, let alone traps, even if all the Great Xia people were hiding in the passage, they wouldn't be afraid at all.

Soon, Li Xuandu led twenty people and walked down from the entrance together.

Time passed slowly. After waiting for a full half-hour, Li Xuandu and the others still hadn't come up. Li Ying Xuan Ling's face gradually rose with a trace of impatience. She looked up at the sky, her expression tightening slightly.

The Frozen Abyss night has a total of ten hours. The army marching from Wu Shuang last night took over three hours, and finding the entrance later took over an hour. By now, a total of over six hours have passed.

Until dawn, there are only the last three hours left!

If they drag on, it definitely won't be able to fight tonight.

Another half-hour passed. Just as Li Ying Xuan Ling was somewhat unable to resist sending more people down, Li Xuandu's excited voice finally came from the passage entrance.

"Found it, found it, No. 1 passage location, already confirmed."

After Li Xuandu came out, forty Cold-Resistant Realm experts also followed him out. Everyone's expressions were very excited, clearly having discovered something.

"Take me down, Big Brother, Second Brother, you all follow too."

Li Ying Xuan Ling directly ordered Li Xuandu to lead the way and called Li Ying Xuan Yan and Li Xuantian to follow, the three of them following Li Xuandu into the hole.

"There is less than an hour until dawn, is the army still not setting up camp?"

"The Leader just said, set up camp underground."

"Set up camp underground, what does that mean?"

"I don't know either!"

The group of Cold-Resistant Realm experts who just came up, seeing that the Longyou troops on the ground had not yet started to set up camp, immediately started asking for the reason. Hearing Meng Ying's explanation, they were also stunned and revealed puzzled expressions.

But soon, they knew the reason.

Bang…………

A heaven-shaking loud noise came from two kilometers to the west.

All the Cold-Resistant Realm experts had their expressions shocked and hurriedly ran toward the explosion sound.

At the center of the explosion was a giant hole with a diameter of seven or eight meters. The area around the hole was full of dust and snow, clearly blasted out from underground.

"Notify the army to approach this side. We will blast out a few more deep holes, let the soldiers slide down along the holes, and set up camp underground tonight."

Everyone thought it was some kind of cold beast drilling out from underground. Unexpectedly, at this time, Li Xuandu's voice came from below.

Bang... bang... bang...

Another six or seven loud noises came out, the same as just now. Everyone saw the holes blasted open on the ground and felt the violent tremors coming from under their feet. Only then did they suddenly realize that these holes were blasted out by Li Ying Xuan Ling and her four siblings with their fists from underground.

"Isn't it said that the Hive encampment is over a hundred meters underground?"

"The Leader's strength, is it that strong?"

"Such a big pit, it was blasted out by fists, this…………"

"Normal ground shouldn't be like this. The Hive has built too many underground passages over the years, and the ground around it has long been hollowed out. These passages usually have to vent smoke and gas. The ground above the passages is probably no longer that sturdy."

"Alright, stop talking nonsense, notify the soldiers, prepare to go down."

……………………

"This is the middle section of the No. 1 passage, only seventy meters from the ground. The part leading to the main area was filled by Great Xia. It's in this position, look."

In a long passage underground, Li Xuandu led the three Li Ying Xuan Ling to the end of the passage, arriving near an area filled with fresh soil.

"The end of the No. 1 passage is the entrance to the Hive main area space. That is to say, as long as we blast open these mud and soil, we can see the main area gate?"

After Li Ying Xuan Yan finished asking, he immediately turned to look at Li Xuandu. After getting his nod of affirmation, he directly held his breath and concentrated, rushing toward that area fiercely.

Bang…………

He was like a human cannonball, directly crashing into that piece of fresh soil, forcibly rushing forward for more than ten meters, making the ground tremble incessantly, blasting open the filled area, and directly crashing out a passage more than ten meters long.

Thud!

It was just that next, he seemed to have encountered some obstacle.

A thud sound, clearly the sound of flesh colliding with iron, was both dull and long underground.

"This part was poured with molten iron, and the temperature is not low. It should have been poured recently. This should not be far from the main area entrance."

Li Ying Xuan Yan's voice carried a hint of joy.

After Li Ying Xuan Ling led the other two into the passage and saw the imprint left by Li Ying Xuan Yan's collision on the iron wall, she immediately stepped forward to touch it and found that it indeed carried residual heat. Her expression immediately revealed both joy and worry.

What was joyful was that this was poured recently, so it could basically be confirmed that they had found the passage entrance to the Hive main underground area;

The problem was, how were they going to break through this barrier.

"Let me try!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling's brow furrowed. She signaled the other three to move aside, stretched out her right fist, and smashed it fiercely onto the iron wall.

Although she was a woman and her fist wind was not as domineering as a man's, the addition of over twenty manes of strength made the airflow in the entire passage start to become restless. In terms of momentum, it was even more terrifying than the collision Li Ying Xuan Yan had just made with his body.

Thud!

The fist fell, and the iron wall made the exact same sound as just now. The difference was that Li Ying Xuan Yan's collision only left an imprint, while Li Ying Xuan Ling's fist, and even her arm, directly hit inside.

But even so, the iron wall only trembled and remained motionless.

"The thickness is at least over fifteen meters. Brute force cannot break it."

"Two-meter diameter, fifteen-meter-high round iron pillar—to pour this, it must have used tens of millions of jin of iron ore. This Great Xia is truly willing to pay a heavy price!"

Hearing the thickness of fifteen meters, Li Xuandu sighed and shook his head, then pointed to the soil above the iron wall and said: "It's just a pity, it's still a bit stupid. If we can't break the main gate passage, we can go around. Can't we break it from the soil layer above? This Xia Hong is not that smart!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling didn't speak, just furrowed her brow and watched Li Xuandu and Li Xuantian start to destroy the soil layer above the iron wall with brute force.

The soil layer was much easier. The two only used less than ten breaths to crash open the soil layer above and directly opened up a passage of more than ten meters.

"Still an iron wall, how is this possible?"

It was just a pity that Li Xuandu's next voice made Li Ying Xuan Ling's expression sink much lower again.

He hurriedly followed Li Ying Xuan Yan up to the soil layer, and seeing the pitch-black iron wall appearing at the end, his expression immediately sank much lower.

"The temperature here is very low, it's not molten iron poured recently."

"Move aside, let me try."

After Li Ying Xuan Ling called the three to move aside, she tried this iron wall with her fist again.

Bang…………

"A bit thinner than just now, but it's also over ten meters. Brute force is hard to break."

Li Ying Xuan Ling withdrew her fist and, after observing the scene around the iron wall, her expression became increasingly ugly.

"No way, the Hive underground space…………"

Li Xuandu guessed something and hurriedly used his hands to rake the soil layer around the iron wall. He was very fast and raked open a five or six-meter area in a short while.

Behind these soils, there was actually a continuous iron wall.

"The barrier of the Hive main underground area is all poured with molten iron?"

Not only is it all poured with molten iron, but the thickness is also all over ten meters.

This…………

Li Xuandu was instantly dumbfounded.

Looking back, Li Ying Xuan Ling and Li Ying Xuan Yan's expressions were also as uncomfortable as if they had eaten flies;

Only Li Xuantian looked at the iron wall with a calm and composed expression, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Ten-meter-thick iron wall, even if the four of us join forces, destroying it with brute force without sleep or rest, I'm afraid it will take half a day."

"Half a day, is Great Xia going to stand behind and wait for you to break the iron wall? Moreover, just barely breaking open a hole is useless. Three thousand Longyou troops going in one by one is just seeking death."

"Where did the Hive get so much iron ore? Impossible! The barrier of the entire underground space is all ten-meter-thick iron walls. I don't believe it!"

"Find it. Notify all Cold-Resistant Realm experts to explore along the iron wall. Perhaps we can find an area without iron wall obstruction. Even if we can't find it, finding a few weak points will allow us to break it better."

"But this will consume a lot of time."

"What other way is there? Without spending time, are we really going to surround it and wait for Great Xia's supplies to run out and surrender?"

"Alright, don't be long-winded. Notify all Cold-Resistant Realm experts to come down and find it, quick!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling's eyes were full of anger, but in the end, she gave the order helplessly.

Because of the two ambushes at Changbai Ditch and Ningyuan Hill, she had developed a very heavy sense of vigilance toward Great Xia, so she didn't rush to march at Wu Shuang last night but chose to investigate the situation of the Hive clearly before coming.

This cautious attitude certainly couldn't be considered a mistake.

Thinking back now, it was this caution that delayed her opportunity for battle.

Who could have imagined that Great Xia intended to shrink into such a fortress.

If they had marched directly last night and not let Xia Hong take people to drill in, it would have been good.

Now, knowing clearly that the other party is inside this turtle shell right before her eyes, yet she is at a loss, this feeling of powerlessness made her feel extremely uncomfortable!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 303 =====

"Still an iron wall? How is that possible?"

Unfortunately, Li Xuandu's next words made Li Ying Xuan Ling's expression sink even further.

He hurriedly followed Li Ying Xuan Yan up to the soil layer, and upon seeing the pitch-black iron wall appearing at the end, his expression immediately turned much gloomier.

"The temperature here is very low; this is not recently poured molten iron."

"Move aside, let me try."

After Li Ying Xuan Ling told the three of them to move aside, he once again tested this iron wall with his fist.

Bang...

"It's a bit thinner than before, but still over ten meters thick. Brute force is hard to break through."

Li Ying Xuan Ling withdrew his fist, and after observing the surrounding scene along the iron wall, his expression became increasingly ugly.

"No way, the underground space of the Hive..."

Li Xuandu guessed something and hurriedly used his hands to scrape away the soil layer around the iron wall. He was very fast, and after a short while, he had cleared a five or six-meter area.

Behind this soil, it was all a continuous iron wall.

"The ramparts of the main underground area of the Hive are all poured with molten iron?"

Not only were they all poured with molten iron, but the thickness was also over ten meters throughout.

This...

Li Xuandu was instantly dumbfounded.

Looking back, Li Ying Xuan Ling and Li Ying Xuan Yan both had expressions as uncomfortable as if they had swallowed flies.

Only Li Xuantian looked at the iron wall with a calm and composed expression, not knowing what he was thinking.

"A ten-meter-thick iron wall—even if the four of us join forces and use brute force to destroy it without sleep or rest, I'm afraid it will take half a day!"

"In half a day, do you think the Great Xia people will just stand behind waiting for you to break the iron wall? Besides, just barely breaking a hole is useless; if the three thousand Longyou Army go in one by one, that's just courting death."

"Where did the Hive get so much iron ore? It's impossible, right? The ramparts of the entire underground space are all ten-meter-thick iron walls. I don't believe it!"

"Search. Notify all Cold-Resistant Realm experts to explore everywhere along the iron wall. Perhaps we can find an area without iron wall obstruction. Even if we can't find one, if we can identify a few weak points, we can break through better."

"But this way, it will consume quite a bit of time."

"What other choice is there? If we don't spend time, are we really just going to surround this place and wait for the Great Xia people to run out of supplies and come out to surrender?"

"Enough, stop nagging. Notify all Cold-Resistant Realm experts to come down and search. Quickly!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling's eyes were full of anger, but in the end, she helplessly gave the order.

Because of the two ambushes at Changbai Gully and Ningyuan Hill, she had developed a heavy sense of vigilance toward Great Xia, so last night at Wu Shuang, she did not rush to advance, choosing instead to investigate the situation of the Hive first.

This cautious attitude certainly wasn't a mistake.

Looking back now, it was this caution that caused her to miss the opportunity for battle.

Who could have imagined that Great Xia intended to turtle up in such a fortress?

If they had advanced directly last night and not let Xia Hong lead people inside, it would have been fine.

Now, knowing full well that the opponent was inside this turtle shell right before her eyes, she was helpless. This feeling of powerlessness made her feel extremely uncomfortable!

(End of chapter)