Sunlight streamed down from the sky, yet Ge Tian felt no warmth at all, only a sensation of plummeting into an ice cave. A bad premonition stirred in his heart, and he managed to say with difficulty, "That’s all I know, I truly wasn’t lying to you."

"Good," Ye Chen nodded slightly, his body suddenly moving as he unleashed a punch, striking Ge Tian's head and causing it to explode. Given the speed of the latter's neural response, he only managed a subconscious slight backward tilt, yet he could not evade the blow.

Splat!

Another headless corpse tumbled backward.

Instantly slaying the Battalion Commander!

A wave of stunned silence rippled through the onlookers. They stared blankly at the corpse on the ground.

Two high-ranking Battalion Commanders had been killed just like that, without even the chance to fight back. This was too bloody, too brutal!

Ye Chen had to kill Ge Tian. Otherwise, once Ge Tian returned, he would secretly sway these ordinary soldiers to lead an accusation that Ye Chen had murdered his comrades. Even without evidence, a unified denunciation from everyone would force the higher-ups to suspend him for investigation, creating unnecessary trouble.

"Let's go!"

Ye Chen’s gaze swept coldly over the remaining five Regimental Commanders before he turned toward a large truck. The soldiers flanking him quickly parted ways, regarding him as if he were a bloodthirsty demon, daring not to approach. Xu Tianguo and the other one were shocked by Ye Chen's decisive and ruthless execution.

After Ye Chen boarded the truck, he glanced down at the resting soldiers and stated calmly, "Everyone must remember, the two Battalion Commanders today both perished in battle!"

A naked threat!

Everyone could only offer wry smiles. Since even the Battalion Commanders had been killed, how could they dare plot against Ye Chen? Besides, they lacked any evidence.

"Vroom..." The sound of exhaust pipes roared as twenty-odd trucks started up, driving along the street into the distance. Along the way, they occasionally encountered zombies and low-level monsters, all of which were promptly dispatched.

...

At Tiger Tooth Mountain, the slopes were precipitous, the rocks jagged, and a deep ravine cut across the landscape, flanked by towering stone walls.

Ye Chen and his group arrived at the foot of the mountain. Looking up, they saw the massif rising steeply, piercing the heavens. Illuminated by the sun behind the clouds, the mountain was utterly still, as if all life had been extinguished.

"Tiger Tooth Mountain covers about 128 square kilometers. According to the records, most of the monsters inside are Blood Ants, with a smaller presence of Green Armored Snakes, White Crocodile Lizards, and other creatures."

Ye Chen stared up at Tiger Tooth Mountain, falling silent for a long moment before instructing, "Everyone proceed along the main road toward the summit. Prepare the explosives, sugar water, wooden poles, and other necessary items." The wider the road, the fewer monsters there were; powerful ones were usually hidden near the small paths.

"Yes," a Regimental Commander quickly responded before turning to relay the order. All the soldiers jumped down from the trucks, retrieving the sugar water, wooden poles, and explosive charges from the cargo bays.

The sugar water was contained in heavily sealed iron drums, ensuring that the liquid would not spill even if the container was damaged.

Drum after drum of sugar water was shouldered by the soldiers, who proceeded up the mountain in single file. Ye Chen felt a twinge of sentimentality. In the early days, Earth still possessed many resources for people to utilize—for example, the Production Departments in the Base Cities could continuously cultivate crops and expand territory, ensuring ample food supplies. But after the Ice Age, when the entire globe was frozen, these resource production chains were severed, and food became the primary resource fought over by humans and monsters!

Furthermore, in the later stages, as power increased, coupled with the rapid reproduction and evolution of monsters, the Earth simply could not accommodate these powerful creatures. However, by that time, many ancient civilization ruins had been excavated, and both humans and monsters migrated into alternate-dimensional life spaces, employing ancient spatial barrier technology to cover their respective territories on Earth!

Within those established civilizations, planting crops was impossible!

Consequently, territory on Earth became extremely precious in that era, serving as the foremost resource contended for by various Base Cities, as well as humans and monsters! Yet, due to the use of spatial barriers, conquering another's territory required invading the opponent's main base in the alternate dimension via an interdimensional passage, destroying their spatial barrier, and then imposing one's own barrier over it.

"After the secrets of the Atlantean civilization are unearthed, we must rapidly increase our strength and find an alternate-dimensional life space to serve as our base. We need to store more food there; otherwise, during the ongoing Ice Age, we will face the dire predicament of food shortages."

Ye Chen calculated internally. Seeing the surrounding soldiers forming neat ranks and heading up Tiger Tooth Mountain, he collected his thoughts and, accompanied by Xu Tianguo and the other man, followed them to the summit.

On Tiger Tooth Mountain, a stone staircase led directly to the peak. Occasionally, they encountered monsters blocking the path, causing minor disturbances, but these were ultimately swept away by the soldiers.

Reaching the top, Ye Chen selected a position on higher ground overlooking a chasm that resembled a narrow slit. He turned and commanded, "Chop down some trees and bring them here. Find some large boulders, blast them apart, and push them over!"

"Yes," a Regimental Commander nodded promptly.

Xu Tianguo glanced down, instantly understanding the plan. "You intend to lure the monsters down there before bombarding them?"

Ye Chen nodded. "It is the simplest and most effective method."

Xu Tianguo looked at him briefly and said no more.

Before long, many boulders were blasted loose, resembling massive spheres, and were pushed into position. Trees from the surrounding area were also felled and stacked into several piles.

Ye Chen pried a small opening in one of the sugar water drums and tossed it down. The iron drum landed on the rocks below, immediately crushing and splitting open, allowing the sugar water to gush out rapidly.

He continued tossing down four or five drums before stopping, leaving two drums on top.

Not long after...

Rustle~~

From the surrounding jungles, rock crevices, and underground, countless blood-red ants, each the size of a football, crawled out, forming a dense tide that surged toward the spilled sugar water.

"Push the stones!" a Regimental Commander urgently called out.

Rumble... A large round boulder was leveraged up by a wooden pole and rolled down the mountain.

Ye Chen snapped his head around, fixing the Regimental Commander with a cold gaze. "Who authorized you to do that?"

The Commander froze, "Weren't we supposed to use stones to crush them?"

Ye Chen didn't bother explaining further. The ants were already out; if the moment was missed, it would be hard to recapture. He commanded, "Light the trees and throw them down! Leave the rocks untouched!"

The Commander startled, quickly turning to grab gasoline and a lighter to ignite the wood. Before the logs were fully engulfed, he tossed them down.

The trees, burning with fierce flames, plummeted down. Thrown from such a height, the impact force was astonishing. Many ants were crushed instantly, and the rest were burned.

"Not good! The ant monsters are climbing the walls toward us," a soldier cried out in alarm.

Ye Chen remained composed. He walked over, opened the remaining two drums of sugar water, and poured some onto the rock face. Instantly, the ants' climbing speed accelerated as they swarmed toward the spilled liquid.

The other soldiers looked on in confusion. Ye Chen picked up an explosive charge, lit the fuse, and waited until just before it was about to detonate before hurling it toward the densest cluster of ants.

Boom!

The charge exploded violently. Several ants were vaporized immediately, and the rest were thrown off the rock face by the shockwave, tumbling down. The blast also peppered the rock face with flying debris.

"The other monsters should be coming up soon, right?" Ye Chen turned to look, and immediately noticed the hillside behind him trembling slightly. The sound of breaking trees echoed, and then, a large wave of monsters appeared in view—including extremely long Green Armored Snakes, and numerous other insectoid creatures.

These monsters were all creatures of darkness and did not attack one another.

All the soldiers gasped in fear.

...

Dizzy and disoriented, gathering his thoughts.