hotmtlnovel Chapter 172 The Unsuccessful Reconnaissance
Chapter 172 The Unsuccessful Reconnaissance
Once everyone had arrived, Elder Xuan appeared at the school gate, swaying as he carried his wine gourd and chicken leg. After introducing Zhang Lexuan to everyone, Elder Xuan disappeared, and the group began their journey.
However, the team did not use their flying soul tools at the school gate. They ran for about an hour and got away from Shrek Academy before the inner court's main team took out their flying soul tools.
(The outer academy's reserve team was wearing soul-guided powered armor from the beginning, or they were using soul-guided powered mechs to travel, so there was no situation where they needed to equip themselves with flight soul guides before takeoff.)
Incidentally, after the flight began, the naturally flying Big White stayed peacefully in its luxurious sphere, but Bai Muyang, who couldn't fly, started clamoring to come out and fly on his own.
When it was designed, Long You deliberately made sure that the deluxe sphere did not have the ability to isolate mental communication. Now, in order to prevent Bai Muyang from continuing to harass him, Long You set the soul-guided power mecha to autopilot follow mode, and then crawled into Bai Muyang's deluxe sphere to put the flying soul-guided device on this old man.
Five minutes later, a satisfied Bai Muyang controlled the flying soul tool to wander around Long You's soul-guided power mech.
It must be said that the idiom "like a tiger with wings" truly deserves its praise. Leaving aside how much the tiger's fighting power would increase after adding wings, the sight of a winged tiger flying in the sky is enough to be a feast for the eyes.
Because of the energy stored in the baby bottle, the seven members of the outer academy reserve team, including Huo Yuhao and Song He, two great soul masters, did not slow down the progress of the main team due to the lack of soul power reserves.
During the midday break, the main team, as usual, went into the bushes to cut down trees in preparation for building a camp, but the reserve team stopped them. He Caitou took out a large, deluxe sphere-like soul tool, and after securing and concealing it, the reserve team led the way and crawled into the sphere.
Previously, when the reserve team traveled and stayed in the wild, they used temporary prefabricated houses and built temporary bases using semi-finished base soul tools. But now that they have luxurious spheres where they can live comfortably, why bother building temporary bases anymore?
Hiding a luxurious sphere slightly larger than a fist is much more convenient than setting up a temporary base, isn't it? As long as it's properly secured and concealed, the security is instantly enhanced.
Without the reserve team slowing down the journey, this time everyone didn't enjoy Elder Xuan's high-speed treatment, but they also didn't lose face in the Star Luo Empire's border military camp.
Even before they arrived, the reserve team had learned about the additional objective of the participating teams. So once they entered the military camp, everyone consciously went to rest and adjust their condition as quickly as possible.
Long You didn't know how detailed the information about that evil soul master sent by the Star Luo Army in the original story was, but now Long You was certain that things had changed. The information sent by the Star Luo Army was piled up a meter high on the table.
“Take a good look for yourselves. Originally, the target this time was just a Soul King-level evil Soul Master, plus a few hundred low-level bandits. However, our Shrek Academy's intelligence system received information that this Soul King-level evil Soul Master has now received support from the Holy Spirit Cult, an evil Soul Master organization rooted in the Sun Moon Empire.”
The Holy Spirit Cult has sent a powerful support force this time. The Star Luo Empire has put in a lot of effort, but still hasn't obtained any very accurate information. All the information on this table consists of indirect information; you need to judge the useful points yourself.
Our time is limited. If the Soul Guidance Department has any other reconnaissance methods available, we'll use them. We can only stay here for a maximum of four days. Based on past experience, we only have this morning at most to process the information.
The elusive Elder Xuan only met with Duke White Tiger last night before disappearing. Now, after suddenly appearing and giving some instructions, he has vanished again.
"Everyone has heard what Elder Xuan said. The Holy Spirit Cult's information was already given to you last semester, so I don't need to go into further detail."
Although the academy hadn't received any particularly specific information, the Holy Spirit Cult members who came to provide support were at least Soul Saint-level evil spirit masters. It was precisely because there were evil spirit masters of at least this level that the academy made me the instructor leading this team.
"Don't worry, Senior Sister, we won't underestimate our enemy."
Even the proud Ma Xiaotao showed great respect to Zhang Lexuan, the senior disciple of the inner court. After all, not everyone can survive an attack from a 100,000-year-old soul beast, let alone digest a 100,000-year-old red soul ring at the seventh soul ring level.
Along the way, Long You also found an opportunity to talk to Zhang Lexuan. The benefits of absorbing a 100,000-year soul ring were obviously beyond imagination. This senior sister of the inner court was now actually an eight-ring Soul Douluo.
"Xiao You, come here." After giving instructions to the main force of this operation, namely the inner court's selected participating team, Zhang Lexuan called out Long You's name separately.
The Shrek Academy group was currently in a military camp tent. In addition to the table piled with information, there was a map with a fairly detailed topographical description hanging on the back wall of the tent.
Zhang Lexuan then summoned Long You to this map.
"Xiao You, look, the academy previously used communication satellites to explore this mountainous area. We were able to confirm that the Holy Spirit Cult members entered this area, but we cannot pinpoint the exact location of the evil soul masters' headquarters."
That forest is too dense. Considering the strength of our opponents, if we try to search for clues by traversing the dense forest, we are very likely to encounter unexpected dangers.
"What I want to know now is, do you have the ability to pinpoint the exact headquarters of that group of evil soul masters using a soul tool?"
"It depends on luck. I'm 80% confident that I won't be detected during the reconnaissance, but judging from the terrain shown on this map, it's really hard to say whether we can find any clues through aerial reconnaissance."
"Then let's give it a try. Do you need me to come with you?"
"Of course, I don't mind at all. Although I'm 80% sure I won't be discovered, if I am, with Senior Sister here, I won't have to run away. Maybe I can even attack their lair directly."
Although Zhang Lexuan was one of the first students in the inner academy to have extensive contact with and understanding of soul tools, she had not yet been able to obtain her own soul-guided power mecha because she spent most of the previous academic year in seclusion in order to break through to the Soul Douluo level.
After donning the area simulation soul guide to achieve optical invisibility, Long You and Zhang Lexuan began flying towards the mountain range indicated on the map.
Without communication satellites overhead to act as signal relays, even large stealthy soul-guided reconnaissance drones cannot directly transmit signals from that mountain range to the Star Luo Empire's military camp.
However, the reason why things are so complicated now is actually because of the intelligent machine crisis reform that Long You, who was always prepared for the worst, brought about some time ago.
Originally, the large stealth soul-guided reconnaissance drone was equipped with combat assistance intelligence. With combat assistance intelligence, Long You only needed to give orders (except in situations where there are enemies everywhere and you would be captured as soon as you take off). The large stealth soul-guided reconnaissance drone would return on its own after completing the scheduled reconnaissance mission.
However, without combat-aid intelligence, the large stealthy, soul-guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft becomes a remote-controlled plane. Once the command signal is lost, crashing will be the only outcome.
When they were about five kilometers away from the designated mountain location, Long You and Zhang Lexuan found a secluded spot and landed.
"Let's stop here. Even for a detailed search, we don't need to get any closer. We just need to launch a drone with signal relay capabilities."
Five minutes later, a luxury sphere was concealed under the rocks, and five soul-guided drones took off. One of them hovered above the luxury sphere after becoming invisible, while the other four flew away five kilometers away invisibly.
About five minutes later, the scenery of the target mountain range began to appear on the soul guidance display screen set up inside the luxury sphere.
"What a beautiful sight! If it weren't for those inhuman evil spirit masters, the spruce trees in this forest could support many of the poor people living on the border."
"Evil Soul Masters are nothing but slaves controlled by power. If it weren't for someone deliberately organizing the power of Evil Soul Masters, they wouldn't be so rampant on the continent."
"Just like now, if the Holy Spirit Cult hadn't sent reinforcements, I don't believe that arrogant Soul King-level evil Soul Master could have concealed his lair so perfectly."
Still can't find it?
"It's impossible not to find it, it just takes time. Even if we can't find it during the day, we'll definitely find it when this group of people light a fire to keep warm at night."
A bunch of guys who can only hide in the mountains and daydream—the Sun Moon Empire couldn't possibly equip them with high-end life-guiding devices.
"Start a fire? Is it to detect heat?"
"Yes, the firelight that burns at night will be our best guide."
"What if these evil spirit masters were making a fire in the cave?"
"There will be heat dissipation. As long as the large stealth soul-guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is close enough to the ground, any abnormal increase in temperature near the ground can be detected."
"Won't we be found out?"
"It doesn't matter. It only takes one or two minutes to travel five kilometers from here using a flying soul tool. In such a short time, what can those evil soul masters do if they discover the reconnaissance plane? At most, they can destroy it, but they can't escape."
"What did these large stealth soul-guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft do to you? I get the feeling you're basically abandoning them."
"It means we're giving up. The things we installed on these large stealth soul-guided reconnaissance drones have run into problems, and they're also a bit too low-level. I'm going to retire them and replace them with a batch of more effective reconnaissance drones."
"Wouldn't that be too wasteful?"
"No, as long as the materials don't disappear. This is a major upgrade, so it has to be completely reworked."
Thus, the large stealth guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft circled the mountain for two hours, conducting a thorough search at an altitude of almost 100 meters. Unfortunately, the final result was that there were no results.
They found some traces of human life, but did not find the settlement they were looking for.
At this moment, a large stealth soul-guided reconnaissance drone was hovering above a valley, the place where signs of human habitation were most evident. It was almost certain that this was the stronghold of the evil soul masters before the arrival of the Holy Spirit Cult reinforcements.
"There's no sign of life at all. The entire valley is completely devoid of any signs of life. They've definitely moved to a different location."
"Given the current situation, I need to contact the academy. I'm worried that those evil spirit masters are no longer within the mountain range we previously demarcated."
However, since so many people have been moved, I believe the reconnaissance forces the academy has deployed here will definitely be able to find out something.
"Let's go out and make contact; there's still some signal obstruction here. And while we're at it, let's call the people from the military camp over too."
If those evil spirit masters truly transferred without the academy noticing, then the intelligence gathered by the Star Luo Army would be of little use. More seriously, it's entirely possible that the intelligence contained misleading information.
"In that case, we need to raise our vigilance against those evil spirit masters to another level. There's no rush to go out now. Does that drone overhead have reconnaissance capabilities? If not, send out a few of those wasp-shaped reconnaissance drones."
We need to search the entire area we're in to ensure it's safe before we leave.
Long You, relying on some advantage from the plot, always manages to project an image of being wise and resourceful. However, when it comes to actual practice, Long You, with his mediocre intelligence and lack of experience, often reveals his incompetence.
For example, right now, Zhang Lexuan could think that since her enemy had disappeared, every space around her could be a hiding place for him. Therefore, she had to carefully check everything before she could come out of his hiding place.
If it were just Long You alone, he would definitely have come out recklessly. Although it's unlikely that anything bad would happen, there's always a chance, and one shouldn't rely too much on luck.
After many days, the little wasp finally saw the light of day again. Due to its small size, Longyou had already completed the upgrade work for this type of soul-guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft ahead of schedule. Data messages were transmitted back, and the area within a one-kilometer radius was determined to be safe.
An hour later, the Shrek Academy team, shrouded in regional invisibility and silence, arrived silently.
Two hours later, Zhang Lexuan received feedback from the college.
Three hours later, based on the vague intelligence provided by the academy, the large stealth soul-guided unmanned reconnaissance aircraft locked onto a location that deserved close attention.
For the remainder of the day, a large stealthy soul-guided reconnaissance drone continuously observed the targeted location from the sky.