Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
What’s the natural cemetery? Many denizens of Earth may not know, but the denizens of Saturn had no choice in knowing.
It was a very large mystical forest. Only God knew whether the land there was particularly nutritious or had something particular in the soil, but a young sapling that had just broken the ground would grow into an over five-meter tall towering tree overnight. The trees that had been growing there for a few years had already grown into giant trees with heights of ten meters, fifteen meters, or even twenty meters.
But it didn’t mean that the timber quality of these fast-growing trees decreased because of their short period of growth. On the contrary, the timber quality of these big trees was even better than sapwood. People could not help but marvel at the mysticalness of Saturn.
But instead of marveling at the mystical trees on Saturn like ordinary people, the scientists of various planets instead were actively analyzing, exploring, and speculating.
Science had always been a field full of debates, discussions, and numerous contradictions. However, in regards to the rapid growth of trees on Saturn and Jupiter, nearly every scientist agreed on the current point of view, something they rarely did in the past. They stood on the same line and expressed almost the same view.
“The sudden transformation of these two gas planets into solid planets must be related to epoch-making new energy! This new energy can even stimulate rapid growth in trees!”
With scientists from all over the world throwing in the same opinion, more and more mercenary exploration teams began to gather on Saturn and Jupiter. What would finding new energy entail? As long as one didn’t have an IQ below seventy, he or she was aware of the significant changes obtaining the new energy would bring to their future.
Is there really a new type of energy on these two planets? Already hundreds of thousands of mercenaries were exploring these two planets but no one had found any new energy whatsoever. Most of the time, everyone caught some strange creatures or things that had never been seen before. They brought them back and sold them before replenishing themselves again, like the American gold rush back then. They entered the natural cemetery that gave everyone the jitters at first glance.
The thick foliage was blocking almost all the sunlight. The ground of the forest was extremely wet. The fallen leaves didn’t dry up immediately. Owing to the wet ground, they began to rot bit by bit, forming a thick layer of rotten leaves. When one stepped on them one could often hear squishy noises.
A Jungle Ranger dedicated to jungle operations traversed through the forest at an extremely fast pace like a wild cat that had lived in the forest for many years. Occasionally, it would slash suddenly with the electromagnetic knife in its hand, cutting the hidden mutant creatures that jumped out from God knows where into two, electrocuting them into coke. They gave them no chance to pose any threat.
“Qin Fen is really fast.” Caesar, piloting the Jungle Ranger that had most of its electronic system malfunctioning, complained from time to time. This ghastly place was more troublesome than the intel he had read. Not only did electronic positioning device malfunction here, even the life detector was malfunctioning as well, making it impossible to scan for biological signs in the radius of a hundred meters.
What Caesar found hardest to bear was that the tracking and exploration electronic system was completely useless in this natural cemetery. Had it not for Du Peng, who wasn’t skilled enough to cover his traces, and the two people who attacked quickly, Caesar suspected that he might have already fallen behind.
With various electronic systems malfunctioning, Caesar simply gave up on the Jungle Ranger’s auto-pilot system and piloted the mobile armor manually.
Another Acid Spitting Snake! Caesar raised his hand and fired an electric arc, turning the mutant creature that could spit strong acid into a jet-black dead snake.
Caesar didn’t even bother to take a glance at this little thing near his feet afterward. But when this little thing was first discovered, God knows how many powerful martial artists it had killed.
“Signs of fighting!?”
After having tracked Qin Fen and Du Peng for ten or so kilometers, Caesar found messy traces of fighting around the ground, along with mottled bloodstains that had not been covered by the leaves completely. But there were no signs of any human in the vicinity.
The entire area was cluttered with signs of fighting. Traces of cuts and stabs from sword-like weapons could be found everywhere along with the marks of shooting at a close range. Judging by the marks, a frigid battle had taken place but he couldn’t find any sign of anyone at all! It could only mean that the corpses may have been dragged by the mutant creatures that had been here not too long ago.
“Attacked by beasts or…?” Caesar remembered a saying from the introduction of the natural cemetery that was left by a mercenary who had entered the natural cemetery many times:
“The most dangerous enemies in the natural cemetery are never those brutal mutant creatures with strange abilities. Humans, who also entered the natural cemetery with the dreams of getting rich, are the most dangerous!”
Caesar looked about and found no signs of mobile armor battles. Thereby, he concluded that the battle that took place here recently was not fought by Qin Fen and Du Peng but by another team.
“The same direction?” Caesar could not help but look around again. He discovered that the trail was following Qin Fen and Du Peng.
The area of the natural cemetery was several times larger than the Amazon Forest, the largest forest on Earth. Even if a large number of mercenaries entered this forest, it would be very hard to bump into each other.
Caesar didn’t believe that fate in life would really be like that in a novel, that a few explorers just happened to bump into each other in this huge forest.
“Sometimes, many seemingly coincidental things actually have certain and perhaps secret relationships.” Caesar raised his head. “Since the direction is the same in such a large forest, they don’t happen to have the same goal, do they? How is Qin Fen doing now?”
…
“It’s another trap!” Qin Fen, piloting the Jungle Ranger, dismantled two Type 72 metal-shell anti-tank mines once again. This weird thing had a diameter of 279mm, a height of 93 mm, and a total weight of eight kilograms. It contained three kilograms of TNT and three kilograms of RDX. It had considerable explosive power. After all, it used to the most powerful mine once.
During the travel of a hundred kilometer, Qin Fen had dismantled five high-explosive mines of different types but with great power.
Before coming here, Qin Fen had also read the information about this place. He knew that there may be traps installed by the previous mercenaries anywhere in the natural cemetery but he hadn’t expected them to be this much.
“All of these were installed today.” Qin Fen, dismantling the detonating fuse of the mine, carefully observed the surroundings. The installation level of these mines was very high. Just from one glance, it was quite evident that the installers of these mines were experts in jungle operations. As such, a precautionary and careful observation was necessary to see whether there were any machinations installed in the surroundings.
The sound of an explosion would be very sensational and could travel to very far distances. Qin Fen didn’t want to attract more explorers because of mine explosions.
In the natural cemetery, a loud explosion could usually draw other mercenaries quite easily.
In this world, there was a wealth called dead man’s treasure. A huge and loud explosion could easily lead to a large number of casualties. In this jungle, there was no law; the only law that existed here was the survival of the fittest. Most of the mercenaries would not mind resorting to killing in order to grab the wealth upon seeing easy money.
Qin Fen wasn’t afraid of drawing people but he didn’t want to draw a group and turn it into a forest massacre.
After checking the direction slightly, Qin Fen gestured to Du Peng. Their mobile armors issued a low roar as the powerful propulsion pushed the two out of the mine at an astonishing speed.
Faster, faster, faster…
Qin Fen skillfully drove the Jungle Ranger, advancing rapidly without the slightest delay. Just from the fact that the highest commanding officer on Saturn Military Region was a member of Inferno, the security of the entire military region could be imagined. No one could guarantee that the message about the new energy wasn’t intercepted. As such, only reaching the speculated location at the fast speed would guarantee safety.
New energy!? Qin Fen didn’t care about it too much. It was just something that could make the spacecraft fly faster and last longer in space, or improve the power of modern weapons. For martial artists, there wasn’t a great need to study it.
New metal! As far as the army was concerned, it could be used to make better drive furnaces and thrusters. As for martial artists, it could be used to forge sharper weapons.
Suddenly, a bright flash appeared in the depths of the jungle. Qin Fen, without looking at the origin of the flash, raised his hand as he fired the small wrist-type M134 directly. A few dozen bullets swished through the gap between the trees and struck the missile with a red trail of fire, triggering an explosion immediately.
Ambush! Qin Fen’s Jungle Ranger leaped repeatedly, dodging an armor-piercing round fired from the distance. Immediately after, an electric blade flew straight out of his hand, nailing the sniper hiding on the tree to the trunk.
“So fast!”
The attacker’s pupils, seeing Du Peng’s mobile jump before him after blasting two missiles with bullets in a row, constricted as he cried in his heart, surprised. Where did this mobile armor pilot come from? Military badge!? Is this the mobile armor of Saturn’s army!?
The particle knife that was spewing blue electric light was on the attacker’s throat so that the attacker didn’t dare to make any movement. A question in low voice rang from under the thin armor of the Jungle Ranger in the next moment, “Who are you? Why did you attack us?”
Qin Fen also stopped beside Du Peng at this moment, staring at the attacker with a similar doubt.
Not many battles between humans were fought in the natural cemetery but the majority of them had one side in some kind of trouble. For example, people would be attacked after they had suffered serious losses from the battle with the mutant creatures. Under normal conditions, rarely anyone would launch provocative attacks. Because even if they won, a condition like ‘a mantis stalking the cicada but unaware of the oriole behind’ might appear.
The half-squatting person’s eyes were somewhat in a daze. From the man’s expression, Qin Fen could read that the man seemed to be asking why Du Peng was asking when he clearly knew the answer.
“Heaven!?” Qin Fen noticed a small ‘天’ heaven character on that man’s collar. He immediately knew the background of this man. Much to Qin Fen’s surprise, he was a member of Elysium.
The half-kneeling man, feeling that Qin Fen had seen and understood the character on his collar, puffed his chest slightly. This was the glory of Elysium.
On Saturn, under normal circumstances, except for the members of Inferno, who would kill them at once? The rest of the forces would choose to retreat and not provoke them on seeing the heaven character, including the two military forces that had badges of the Federation Army hanging on their chests.
“I am Elysium’s member.”
The half-squatting middle-aged man on the ground straightened his chest again. Although he was squatting on the ground, a commanding expression had replaced the panic and stunned look in his eyes.
As far as Elysium martial artists were concerned, the thing that they were most afraid of was the other party not realizing their identity. In that kind of situation, they would be killed by others and they would be unable to do anything; they could only put the blame on their bad luck.
As long as their Elysium’s identity was known by the opposite party, Elysium martial artists had a unique advantage. Before any influence killed them, they would think twice about whether they would be pursued by Elysium or not.
Qin Fen gazed down on the Elysium martial artist. “Elysium’s members don’t seem to attack anyone pointlessly.”
The half-squatting middle-aged man wanted to stand up but discover that the sharp blade on his throat would not back away as he stood up slowly. He just made a slight movement but he felt the edge of the blade placed on his throat cutting through his skin. A surprised look appeared in his eyes. These two mobile armor pilots know I am a member of Elysium but they are still treating me like this, without the slightest sign of showing any concession? Are they members of Inferno who had robbed a Jungle Ranger from the army?
Qin Fen looked at the half-squatting middle-aged man; he had a bad premonition in his heart. “Why attack us? This should not be Elysium’s style.”
Looking at Qin Fen, the middle-aged man only sneered, gesturing at the knife on his neck before pointing at the heaven character on his collar, indicating that he wanted Du Peng to remove the blade away from his throat so that he could stand up.
BANG! The huge metal feet of Du Peng’s mobile armor kicked heavily into the middle-aged man’s abdomen, sending him straight into the huge tree on the opposite side. Owing to this, the leaves of the tree shook continuously.
The Elysium’s middle-aged man’s body was bent like a shrimp’s body; his eyes filled with surprise and fear, foam coming from his mouth. He could not believe that the Jungle Ranger pilot would force a confession even after knowing his identity.
Qin Fen slowly pushed the iron face before the middle-aged man and said in a low voice, “Have you heard of the name Qin Fen?”
Elysium’s middle-aged man’s eyes were at a loss first, then he seemed to have thought of something. A smart gleam suddenly flashed in his eyes before his bright eyes were filled with shock and fear, staring straight at the iron face of Qin Fen’s Jungle Ranger. He asked in a broken voice, “Are… are… you Qin Fen…? The Qin Fen of Earth?”
The iron face of the Jungle Ranger moved slowly from up to down a bit. At the sight of this, Elysium’s middle-aged man gulped as his limbs turned cold. A few days ago, Elysium was hit hard in the Golden Triangle on Earth. One of the two gold-medal fighters under Tathagata, Arhat Xianglong was killed by someone with one punch.
This news rose a hubbub inside Elysium over these days. Even the members of lower strata vaguely knew of Qin Fen’s name!
This young man, leading a group of youngsters, suddenly arrived at the Golden Triangle and killed Arhat Xianglong occupying the Golden Triangle. Furthermore, when this young man killed Arhat Xianglong, he seemed to have known that Arhat Xianglong was a member of Elysium!
