Red emergency strobe lights swept across the subterranean cavern, painting the damp granite walls in rhythmic, blood-colored flashes.
On the central command screen, twenty pulsating crimson dots moved rapidly through the jagged mountain contours of Sector Zero-One.
Shen Qiaoqiao stood at the tactical terminal, her fingers dancing across the mechanical keyboard with blistering speed.
“Satellite telemetry confirmed!” Shen Qiaoqiao shouted over the wailing siren. “The twenty infiltrators are high-tier Dark-Cultivators and foreign Onmyoji sorcerers! They slipped past the civilian border radars thirty minutes ago using Nether-Concealment Talismans and synthetic corpse-oil cloaks!”
Commander Long Zhan leaned over the tactical holographic projection, his scarred jaw set like concrete.
On the screen, high-resolution satellite thermal imaging magnified the enemy vanguard. Twenty cloaked figures were scaling the frozen cliffs of Sector Zero-One with supernatural agility. They carried dark skull lanterns that burned with sickly purple corpse-fire, driving thick iron stakes carved with demonic blood runes into the frozen granite.
Beside Long Zhan, Old General Qin tapped a gnarled finger against the map with a grim expression.
“Sector Zero-One sits directly above the ancient northern dragon-vein node,” General Qin explained, his voice heavy with historical gravity. “That node was anchored sixty years ago by the founding grandmasters of the republic. It channels the natural earthly spiritual pulse that powers the capital’s grand defensive dome. If that subterranean spirit artery is severed by demolition runes, the entire supernatural shield protecting thirty million citizens will collapse within minutes.”
