Inside the shelter, the atmosphere was as heavy as iron.
Shi Lei, covered in dust and grime, returned from the outside. He took off his disguised, mud-stained coat, and slumped to the ground, his face a grim mask.
"That son of a bitch Buck... he's a devil," he squeezed the words through his teeth, his voice hoarse.
Ling Feng, who had been meditating and cultivating, slowly opened his eyes.
After two days of non-stop cultivation, fueled by the luxury of military-grade energy lattices, his spiritual energy was on a completely different level. If before, his spiritual energy was a small stream, now it was a rushing river. His entire demeanor had also become more restrained and profound, as if he had merged with the surrounding darkness.
"Tell me the situation," Ling Feng's voice was calm. This calmness gave the anxious Shi Lei a sliver of stability.
"He's blocked all the channels," Shi Lei wiped his face. "All of them! The seven regular entrances and exits to the civilian district are now heavily guarded by the Iron Fist Gang with newly installed machine gun nests. He's making it clear that not a single grain of rice, not a single energy lattice, will flow into our Rust Belt again."
"What about the black market?"
"The black market is going crazy!" Shi Lei's voice trembled slightly. "The price of the lowest-grade synthetic nutrition bar has increased tenfold! And it's not even available! I saw several scavengers beating each other bloody over half a piece of moldy bread. If this continues, in less than a week, a major famine will break out in the entire Rust Belt. At that time..."
He couldn't continue.
At that time, Buck wouldn't have to do anything. The desperate residents, in order to survive, would, like mad dogs, hunt down the two "culprits" and hand them over to the Iron Fist Gang in exchange for a mouthful of food.
An open conspiracy.
The most vicious and most effective kind.
Buck didn't need to find them. He just had to slowly tighten the noose around the neck of the entire Rust Belt, and all its residents would become his pawns.
"I heard..." Shi Lei's voice dropped. "Some people are already cursing the 'Soul of Rust' in private. They're saying that we're the ones who brought this disaster upon this land."
A suffocating silence fell over the shelter.
This heavy sense of responsibility was far more unbearable than facing Brute Bull's battle-axe.
After a long time, Ling Feng slowly exhaled.
He closed his eyes again.
But this time, he wasn't cultivating.
His spiritual energy, several times stronger than it was two days ago, spread out in all directions like an invisible tide, with unprecedented depth and breadth.
It penetrated the thick walls, delving deep into the earth.
It was no longer just scanning the surface buildings and people. Like the most advanced geological radar, it began to probe the long-forgotten structures deep beneath the city—abandoned subway lines, collapsed sewage networks, ancient military tunnels...
Shi Lei watched the motionless Ling Feng, not daring to disturb him. He knew that Ling Feng must be thinking of a countermeasure.
But in such a desperate situation, was there really a countermeasure to be had?
Time ticked by, second by second.
Ling Feng's face gradually turned pale, and a fine sweat beaded on his forehead. Clearly, this large-scale, deep-level mental probe was a huge burden on him.
Just as Shi Lei was about to speak up and stop him, Ling Feng's eyes shot open!
In the depths of his pupils, a brilliant, stunning light erupted, like that of someone who had just discovered a new continent!
"Shi Lei," Ling Feng's voice trembled slightly with excitement, "did you know that about fifty meters beneath our feet, there's... a completely sealed 'Track Zero'?"
"Track Zero?" Shi Lei was stunned. He had never heard that name before. "What's that?"
"According to the Regulator..." Ling Feng quickly corrected himself, "According to the ancient records I found, this was a top-tier, dedicated maglev express line from the 'pre-civilization era,' used for transporting military supplies and the upper echelons of the wealthy districts! Its route doesn't pass through the civilian district, but runs from beneath our Rust Belt, straight to the 'Industrial Wasteland Zone 7' outside the city!"
Shi Lei's heart leaped!
Industrial Wasteland Zone 7! Although that place was also part of the wasteland, it was outside the Iron Fist Gang's blockade! Moreover, it was a place where many smugglers and black market merchants conducted their secret dealings!
"But... didn't you say it was sealed?" Shi Lei asked eagerly.
"Yes, in an earth crustal shift several decades ago, many parts of the tunnel's structure collapsed and were completely blocked by rocks and debris. That's why it was forgotten by everyone."
A confident smile appeared on Ling Feng's lips.
"But that's for ordinary people."
He stood up, walked to the wall, and placed his hand gently on the cold surface.
In his "mind's eye," the ancient tunnel, buried deep underground, full of obstacles and unknowns, appeared clearly in his mind like a sleeping dragon.
And he, with his unstoppable telekinesis, was... the key to awakening this dragon.
"Buck wants to use a wall to trap us all."
Ling Feng turned and looked at his stunned friend.
"Then we,"
"Right under his feet, for the entire Rust Belt,"
"Will dig a lifeline that no one can ever block!"
As he said this, Ling Feng's spiritual energy keenly detected several extremely faint, but cold and professional energy signals, with a fluctuation frequency completely different from that of ordinary people, appearing on the surface in the distance outside the shelter.
They flickered in and out of existence at key vantage points, like ghosts.
"Cleaners"...?
Ling Feng's gaze became even more profound.
He knew that their time was running out.