<h4>Chapter 1610: The Festered Land</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It was simple to deal with the aftermath. The purpose was to make it look as if the crew in thending unit had died, and the entire thing was logically damaged in the crash. It was a ruse to cover up the real purpose of thending unit and the essential part of Operation Best Actor.


    It was not difficult to fake the death of the crew. Hao Ren and his buddies had never appeared before the festered monsters, who could never know who was behind the drone cluster. Before this, there were only drones and autonomous robots on the surface of Naqdal fortress; had the festered observed it earlier, all they saw were only a bunch of lifeless machines.


    So, all Hao Ren had to do was to leave a bunch of empty shells of the autonomous robots in themand station.


    Before this, Hao Ren and Nn had produced arge number of autonomous robots and prototype drones but without the chips. They ced them in various locations of themand station to make the illusion that these machines were the ones controlling thending unit.


    Meanwhile, Hao Ren had also erased all signs that could trace to human control from the central control chamber: the ergonomic seats and handles, and manually operated consoles, which all had self-destruct setting.


    It was a carefully crafted n from the beginning. In the understanding of the festered, there were only drones, autonomous robots, and the guardian giants. The human controllers like Hao Ren were the phantoms that never existed. Never in those monsters’ mind, that a group of infiltrators had alreadynded on their-ss battleship. What they were going to find in themand station would only further reinforce this false impression.


    After putting in the disguise personnel, Hao Ren ordered the shutting down of all powers in themand station, and the starting of the self-destruct countdown. The explosion would destroy the entiremand and wipe out any clues that suggested the inertial suppressor had protected the core area.


    The team finally stepped foot on thend of Amantir.


    Considering the dangers and theplicated situation on the, Hao Ren had left Lil Pea onboard the Petrachelys. It was a total mobilization of only the ‘professionals’ who could deal with any situation. Under the cover of the fissure and raised earth around the impact crater, the team first left the crash site and then found a higher ground where they could have a better view of thend.


    Thend on Amantir exuded a dark-red luster that felt disturbing as if it was soaked in blood. Gullies and canyons were everywhere, and steam and plume columns spewed out from the cracks continually, making the entire area covered in a nket of haze and mist.


    Hao Ren peered through the toxic fog and looked into the distance. There were silhouettes of things erected on the horizon; these were the anti-air artillery pointing up into space, and the minaret of the temples used for battle. The power of the Mad Lord had transformed these once sacred things and the chaotic energy in which had destroyed thousands of drones and guardian battleships earlier. A small number of these silhouettes still emitted shes from time to time; apparently, they were still in pursuit of the retreating drones and guardian battleships in space.


    Meanwhile, in the other direction, the terrain was depressed with a bright red light rising at the end of the horizon as if the sun is about to rise from there. ck spots appeared to be like mosquitoes when looking from here fluttered in and around the red light in the background. It was where the equatorial rift was when looking from space. The ck spots that looked like mosquitoes were the army of festered giants and cyborg monsters.


    The surface of Amantir was not entirely barren. It had an extremely thriving ecosystem, but the power of the Mad Lord had distorted all lives into hideous forms. On the dark-red earth, the twisted giant nts that looked like some swollen limbs grew out of the ground, they trembled and squirmed in the poisonous wind. There were also many strange things like mushrooms that grew between the rocks and gravel. Their huge umbre could almost cover an entire house. Amantir once had the same surface ecology as the other twoary fortresses, but after the spread of the power of the Mad Lord, these surviving nts had acquired this twisted and weird-looking appearance.


    But these nts were not as useless as they seemed; at least, they could be a good cover.


    “It is so disgusting.” Lily covered her nose while looking at a wriggling bandy nt. It had broad leaves and thick stems, but the leaves were full of blood vein-like bulges, and the whole nt squirmed on the ground like some animal. This sanity-level testing thing had goosebumps rising on the skin of the husky maiden. Even with the life-support cor, the Lily still covered her nose as if a disgusting smell had drifted into her nostrils. “I think I can no longer write Indie stuff after going home.”


    “I didn’t know that you have ever written any Indie stuff?” Vivian also found the environment on Amantir pretty offensive, but she did not want to look weak in front of the husky. “I know you only write dog food reviews and the boys’ love genre.”


    Lily red at her. “Who said that I only wrote these? I have written reviews for Max Factor and the wuxia of the Republic!”


    Vivian sighed with her arm crossed. “Oh, please! Can you not talk about anything around 1930?”


    Hao Ren looked at the quarrelsome duo helplessly. He then looked at the silhouettes in the distance. “ording to the information supplied by Sman, the control center of Amantir is right there, next to the equatorial rift. There is an army of festered monsters stationed there, and the Amantir crystal there in the underground.”


    Lily scratched her head. “An army of festered monsters? How do we get in?”


    Nangong Sanba looked at Lily with mouth agape. “Did you not listen during the discussion?”


    “I could not help it; I fell asleep halfway,” Lily said with an innocent look.


    Hao Ren sighed. “There are several underground passages, which are venttion ducts. To the giants, these venttion ducts could no way be deemed as the passageways. So, the festered monsters do not really guard the ces. We can sneak in via one of these ducts.”


    “Those are pretty big loopholes. The monsters are not so smart, after all.”


    “It is not about smart or not, but the monsters have a long-established mindset that their opponents are only the guardian giants. It is a mind trap they always easily overlook,” Hao Ren said. “It is like when you y hide and seek with people, you will not think of looking for people in the shoe box.”


    Lily nodded. “I do. Lil Pea always hides in the shoe box. But my sharp nose can always find her.”


    Hao Ren was struck dumb and smacked himself on the forehead. “Why am I exining so much to a husky?”


    While speaking, the group still kept going.


    Hao Ren had carefully calcted and nned thending spot. It was not far from the target, which was the Amantir crystal in the control center, and there were no festered monsters along the way. It might sound cool to drop thending unit there and smash those buildings into pieces, but he had to scrap the idea to avoid getting surrounded by the monsters afternding.


    From thending spot to the Amantir control center, it was an open hilly area with nothing in between for cover. If the monsters flew a reconnaissance team above, Hao Ren and his team would have no way to hide. But luck was on their side, they crossed the area without a hitch.


    It was because the festered monsters’ attention was still on the battlefield in space.


    The drones and guardians had retreated and pretended to have suffered huge losses. But they did not go far. Instead, they had built a massive space bunker and weapon tform, seemingly preparing for a protracted battle. The festered monsters had been getting the upper hand for the past thousands of years, and there had never been an instant where the opponents could set up bunker right at their doorstep. But the drone fleet patrolling on the edge of the battlefield became a deterrent to themander of the festered army. So, this had diverted the attention of the Amantir forces.


    It inevitably affected the defense and surveince on Amantir.


    But this diversion would notst long. Hao Ren always reminded himself that Amantir was aary battleship, and battleship could fly.


    If the suprememander of the festered army realized that they could never defeat the guardians and the drones and decided to give up attacking the Heart, the Amantir could turn around and flee into deep space, and no one would be able to stop it.


    But during the discussion, Sman believed that even if the Amantir chose to flee, it would not happen right away. The festered army had invested so much energy and time trying to destroy the sacrednd, they would not give up just like that unless it is absolutely necessary.


    The magnificent temples stood in the distance, where there were different types of distorted monsters flying in the air patrolling the area.


    The festered monsters might have directed a lot of energy and attention to the battlefield in space, but guarding themand center was of paramount importance. So, here it was—the limit of their operation on the surface.


    Behind a pile of strange stones, the group stopped. Hao Ren crouched as he pointed to a metal gate protruded out of the ground not far away. “That is one of the air duct inlets.”


    The MDT floated in the air. “I can sense the steady airflow, the air duct is working and unblocked.”


    Hao Ren nodded. “We will go in here.”