Chapter 510: Major General Qian Qianwan: The Unknown Existence

Three hours later.

The sunlight is no longer so dazzling and intense, and the temperature has dropped to around 37 °C.

Outside Radiant City, a convoy of no fewer than two hundred off‑road, truck‑sized vehicles, escorted by three atmospheric flight craft, kicked up sand as it headed toward the deep desert in the northwest.

Among this convoy were three "Warty Pig" units belonging to Leon, Lin Hong, and Rum.

At the same time, the convoy was led by the Huo Lateur Gang, one of the three major factions in Radiant City, totaling over four thousand people, with many mixed forces participating.

As for how Leon and his group could join this expedition on short notice and smoothly, besides supplying enough "entry tickets", there was also the fact that Rum served as the guide.

Pull into view.

The three Warty Pig units at the rear of the convoy.

"."

Leon, seated in the co‑driver's seat, not only silently perused the holographic display but also tried to piece together all the information he had gathered.

First, the blood‑red light.

Radiant City began to frequently witness sudden appearances of blood‑red light in the night sky, about six Earth months ago, accompanied by an indescribable eerie howl.

But, similar to the Griffin vessel's scan that reported "all normal", Radiant City deployed various equipment for analysis, even a warship converted from a Precursors‑type engineering ship to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the northwest desert, yet found no anomalies.

Thus the phenomenon instantly spread throughout Radiant City, nearby towns, and then across the whole Srilan.

Afterward, people began spontaneously forming expedition teams, with variously sized groups venturing into the desert over three hundred times.

As a mercenary, Rum had, since six months ago, successively escorted different employers into the desert, and Leon, Lin Hong and others were his seventeenth "assignment" employers.

Moreover, Rum says that over these six months, every expedition has consumed time and effort, wasted huge amounts of money, even needlessly cost lives, yet failed to locate the source of the blood‑red light or the treasure beneath it.

Because of this, countless rumors have arisen; some say the source must harbor an abnormally powerful Spiritual Energy creature, others claim it is a gateway to another space, another dimension, even an entrance to an alternate realm.

But no one has been able to verify these claims; after all, to this day the source of the blood‑red light remains a mystery, so people have linked the phenomena to evil gods and demons.

"Humm~ humm…~!"

Hearing the light humming from behind snapped Leon back to attention; he turned slightly to look back and saw Rum, missing two mouth flaps, lounging against the seat with a contented expression.

This action made another support soldier sitting in the rear seat especially displeased.

Primarily because he is a guide; although the current situation has everyone following the expedition together, needing no guide services, his flippant attitude, without even a hint of concealment, is truly infuriating.

However, Rum's humming tone reminded Leon of that plague doctor who made great contributions to humanity, whose temperament was extremely eccentric and who never revealed his true face.

At the banquet celebrating the Empire's founding, that plague doctor rarely left the lab, but always muttered, "Ah… why do humans always like to use alcohol to numb the central nervous system, causing brain damage? Boring, boring."

Or "Don't offer me a toast! I don't drink! Get lost!"

And also things like, "Hmm, a small sip is acceptable, it does give a different feeling… Oh~! You might like it then," and so on.

Although no one could understand how the plague doctor could drink from a cup while wearing a beak mask, in any case, even the plague doctor couldn't escape the "truly fragrant" law.

Thinking back, their covert advance then led to today's prosperity—how clever, how worthwhile.

He slowed down a bit.

Leon turned, his left hand resting on the seat, and curiously asked Rum, "I see you were once a soldier or support trooper, how did you fall to this state?"

?

Hearing Leon say that, the atmosphere in the vehicle instantly changed, and Rum no longer lounged as before, his face still content.

Immediately, Rum ended his relaxed posture, sat up, and stared directly at Leon, who still wore a smile.

After a few seconds of silence…

"Hahaha~!" Rum then laughed heartily, "I didn't expect Mr. Kennedy to be such a talent at reading people."

"You flatter me," Leon said without modesty, continuing, "So, aren't you interested in sharing your past with us?"

"That's personal privacy..."

"Two thousand."

But before Rum could refuse, Leon pulled four dark‑gold 500‑denomination banknotes from his side backpack.

Seeing this, Rum hesitated, but finally took the two thousand notes, skillfully slipped them into his waist pouch, and sighed, "Why bother? Mr. Kennedy, you just want to know my personal history?"

"I'm merely interested in the employee's background," Leon said with a smile.

"Fine, it's not a classified document," Rum shrugged, saying, "UNSC… actually, I originally…"

Rum still did not reveal his surname, but recounted history from nearly a century and a half ago.

In the main universe, the year 2072 marked the war between humanity and the Covenant Empire, as well as the beginning of humanity acquiring the mantle of a managing civilization and gradually becoming the galaxy's hegemon.

At that time, Rum was already a golden‑armored elite (colonel rank); because a prophet (the ostrich) suppressed information, he and his subordinates were unaware that the elite had already chosen to withdraw from the Covenant Empire and forge an alliance with humanity.

Later, he and his troops escorted that prophet to evacuate a colony planet, but before the evacuation could begin, they were blocked by fleets from the 3rd, 4th, and 7th battalions of the Space Wild Wolves.

Orbital control swiftly changed hands.

In the ensuing ground war, their Covenant troops were nothing like Astate, especially against the Space Wild Wolves, who excelled at charging and hand‑to‑hand combat.

Moreover, he engaged in close combat with the commander of the 3rd battalion, a Space Wild Wolf who called himself Brika the Berserker; after barely lasting six rounds, Brika punched through his energy shield and, with full force, knocked him unconscious.

Fortunately, the elite had already allied with humanity, and the three Space Wild Wolf battalions did not annihilate Rum and his men, imprisoning them instead.

After learning the truth from the Space Wild Wolves and accompanying peoples, Rum and his followers were naturally furious and voluntarily joined the campaign against the Covenant Empire and the prophet clan.

After achieving victory, Rum first served for a time as the elite fleet's ground combat commander; once all elite fleets were incorporated into the UNSC, he consequently became a Marine Corps colonel in the UNSC.

Next.

He led his original subordinates to attempt to fight alongside humanity; at first they despised the frail humans, but as joint battles increased, they grew to genuinely respect the brave UNSC soldiers and consequently held great respect for humanity as a whole.

His outstanding combat record, combined with the elite's formidable power, allowed Rum to rise from a mere captive to a UNSC major general in only a few years…

Although across the entire universe there are countless UNSC major generals, it remains a highly honored position.

But the good times were short.

A hundred years ago, an interdimensional storm turned everything to bubbles.

Since Rum's group was the first to encounter the Space Wild Wolves, when they were assigned to the UNSC they naturally were placed in the Oslo Star Region under Space Wild Wolves' jurisdiction.

During the interdimensional storm, the Oslo Star Region suffered the heaviest losses, about 7.2 billion humans (the elite at the time, whose identity was already human) died untimely, including Lu Mu and all his subordinates.

Though holding the rank of major general, Lu Mu found that the demonic army invading the colony planets under his jurisdiction was commanded by a fallen demigod who called himself Anfeiweng; to minimize losses and buy enough time for rescue, Lu Mu resolutely led an elite squad to carry out a decapitation mission against Anfeiweng.

In the end, the elite squad was almost completely wiped out, and Lu Mu's four‑lobed mouth was also cut off by the blue‑winged, hunched figure with writhing, twisted tentacles—Anfeiweng.

Nevertheless, clinging to the belief of a mutual demise, when his injuries were too severe and he was about to lose consciousness, Lu Mu succeeded in cleaving Anfeisi in two with his dual‑blade energy sword.

But when he awoke, he found his body had already been transferred to a UNSC medical ship, and none of his subordinates survived.

The only thing that brought Lu Mu joy was that his and his subordinates' sacrifice was not in vain; at least it bought enough time for the innocent civilians on the colony planet to evacuate and relocate.

Since then, Lu Mu lost his pursuit of battle and glory, voluntarily stepped down from the rank of major general, and roamed between different planets and different universes.

Later, Lu Mu even became an interstellar mercenary, taking bounties in the Zero Three Universe for capturing Aida, the Dark Spirit Race, or traveling to a border planet to help the local UNSC and sheriff deal with small‑scale alien worm disaster incidents.

Thus, three months ago Lu Mu arrived at Sili Lan and joined various expedition teams, first venturing deep into the so‑called Bloody Sand Sea.

Speaking of that.

Lu Mu's voice deepened, "The last time, I protected my employer and followed the expedition team into the desert's depths; when night fell, I heard… the howls of ghouls and an indescribable, purgatorial nightmare."

Moreover, this phenomenon didn't happen only to me; it affected the whole expedition team. Immediately after, my employer and the leading guide held a vote and unanimously decided to withdraw from the sand sea overnight."

"."

Hearing this, Leon and the other two fell into a silence.

Especially Lin Hong and the other auxiliary soldier's expressions and demeanor were "spectacular," because not long ago they were quite displeased with Lu Mu, but after hearing his past and the facts, they instantly cast aside their displeasure, replacing it with respect and admiration.

After all, a hundred years ago he held the rank of major general; to auxiliary soldiers, he truly is a senior among seniors, almost on par with Leon.

Thinking that way, the contempt and disdain they had earlier resurfaced as guilt.

It's like being on a bus, you're stepped on the foot by someone, and because you're in a bad mood you can't hold back and shout "Are you blind!?" Only to have the other person reply "Ah… sorry, I really can't see." That kind of guilt.

In contrast, Leon, though slightly surprised by Lu Mu's background, found it basically as he had expected, and what Leon cared more about were the ghouls and the purgatorial dream Lu Mu mentioned.

That situation indeed resembles interdimensional erosion, but everyone, including Lu Mu, had been vaccinated, so there is no reason it was caused by interdimensional ghosts.

Moreover, the galaxy of the Zero Three Universe is already a "black domain" for evil gods and demons; it cannot be observed within interdimensional space, let alone infiltrated or corrupted.

Therefore, Leon speculated that it was most likely a defensive measure of an unknown civilization against its tombs, interfering with biological thoughts, generating fear, and thus achieving a repelling effect.

It should be noted that the Human Empire also possesses corresponding technology and has long employed it widely, capable of an instantaneous "clear‑field" during riot control.

However, this intimidation effect on Sili Lan seems rather negligible; even though most people know that venturing into the desert brings life danger, it still cannot stop expedition activities.

Yet…

There is another possibility, the one Leon least wants to face: that evil gods and demons not only exist in interdimensional space but also in the real universe or other dimensions as similar evil "origins".

Thinking of this possibility, Leon's alertness rose to the utmost.

Although this possibility is slim, after all his direct superior (Sui Bian) never mentioned such beings, the two‑century habit made Leon immediately pull out his dedicated phone, record and report this speculation, and keep the Griffin ship ready at all times, ready to summon nearby sector camps for support if necessary.

If it were merely an unknown civilization's ancient tomb, it would be manageable, but if it were an unknown entity…

That would be hard to deal with.

"What's up, why does the atmosphere suddenly get so heavy?" Lu Mu, returning to his carefree demeanor, broke the silence.

"We were impolite before."

"Didn't expect you to be a war hero."

Lin Hong and the auxiliary soldier were the first to apologize.

"Hey! No need to apologize, if you don't tell me, I wouldn't know what you're thinking, hahaha!" Lu Mu laughed heartily.

"." And Leon remained silent.

At that moment, the massive expedition team began to slow down; those on the vehicle looked forward and could see they had arrived beneath a barren mountain.

Look closely.

The mountain's summit rose about a thousand meters, its rock and cliff covered in yellow sand, appearing gray or black.

Looking at the mountain ahead, Lu Mu said to Leon, Lin Hong and the others, "This should be a new location; at least in all the expedition teams I've joined, none have ever discovered this mountain in the desert."

(End of chapter)